So I painted my curtains...

...just a little bit.

To recap from the previous post:  the bedroom curtains were a dramatic color but a casual length, and had a subtle pattern that was getting lost in the color.

What I did was very simple:  I painted on some little white dots with acrylic paint, to bring out parts of the pattern a little better:

I did actually iron this curtain, before I hemmed it.... Anyway, notice that the dots in one column of circles are brighter than the rest. Those are the ones I painted with a cut-off cotton swab stick; just one line of dots on each curtain panel, off-center to the outside. It took about 15 minutes, and accomplished the following:

1.  The brighter dots give the eye something to latch onto, an entry into perceiving the pattern.

2.  Then the eye, depending on the light and distance, can start to follow the rest of the original pattern, or else the dots will stand alone as a pattern. (Try moving closer to and away from your display to see this.)

3.  With the pattern more visible, the green becomes the background, and becomes visually subordinate to the pattern. Or maybe attentionally is a better word than visually.

4.  Offsetting the column of handpainted dots to one side gives the curtains a much more casual feel, more congruent with their length.

With this one simple change, I like these curtains much better.  In my experience, acrylic paint, once it is dry, will more or less survive machine washing. If not, repainting would be a quick job.

Crazy weekend

I survived the Maker Faire...I think. My husband's project (The GIANT CAMERA!!) was a success. I even made it out to the rummage sale on Friday evening, and while I was there they announced that almost everything would be half price. So I ended up spending $22 altogether, mostly on two director's chairs and a nice dumpy little armchair that needs reupholstering. This brings our total seating to Enough for hosting a large group indoors. Director's chairs are nice because they are comfortable, the fabric can be removed for washing, and the chairs can be folded and put away. I am using one as my desk chair now. (Children, however, tend to pull off the back fabric and use the chair as a play vehicle with flip-down doors.)

I also found two down pillows, for $2 at half price, which I am going to wash and re-cover, re-using the zippers from the original covers. That will put us at Enough for couch/fort pillows.

Then I found a pair of curtains in an interesting modern green print for $1.50, which fit well with elements of my bedroom decor. I spent part of Saturday cutting and hemming them to out-of-baby-reach length, and putting them up. Now that they are up, I am not so sure about them--they are much darker and less airy than the previous curtains, and the dramatic color is not working so well with the casual length. Also, the print is subtle and hard to see from across the room. I am going to have to think about this more, when I have re-centered and re-grounded myself.

In the previous post, I said that what I mostly wanted now was books, but when I was at the sale, I had a curiously difficult time even looking at them. When I tried, I got too antsy and would take off for another section; a holy restlessness, I guess, because I certainly prayed before the sale for wisdom and guidance and moderation. So I only bought a single book: one of the few Madeleine L'Engle books that I haven't yet read.

There was also a fabric remnant that might be large enough to make new pants for me, and an old wool blanket in a nice shade of green. And a short jacket. And, finally,  the Giant Enlarger Motherlode (a heap of advanced photographic equipment), which my husband went back later and bought with his own money.

Enough already

A couple of weeks ago, I had an attack of shopping fever, not surprising after waiting through a few weeks of tight cash flow. So I sat down and made a list of all the things that I wanted to buy. Some of the things on the list were just silly--stuff that we already have, and already have enough of. Some were things that are best left to my Empty Nest List. Some things I will buy when the money is there and the time is right. There were also things which I could just as well make myself. I did some shopping at home and found some materials (such as a box of cedar shingles) that I had completely overlooked before.

With all those things out of the way, what was left on my list was Books. Hence my trip to the library. This library has a used book sale area, with most books for $1 or less.

One of the books I bought was Affluenza, a book from the Nineties based on the PBS series from that time. Another was an older Larry Burkett book, Your Finances in Changing Times. The chief idea that I got from these was that we could decide on a maximum standard of living for ourselves and live within it; this is timely, because we are about there in terms of furnishing and equipping our household. Many of my projects now are actually repairs, maintenance, and replacements of what we currently have. My next sabbatical year will begin next fall, so I am thinking of taking a few months to transition into non-expansionary mode.

Friday follow-through

There's a backlog of projects that I've been working on recently, but haven't written anything about:

Blouse:  I had a thrift store blouse (originally homemade from a pattern, I think) that had worn out beyond minor repair. I deconstructed it, taking measurements and notes on how it was put together, and then used some batik fabric on hand to make a replacement. It turned out well enough; I should have practiced making buttonholes more before making them for real, but with the print and the buttons, they don't stand out. I had only just enough fabric for it, and had to piece together the short sleeves and collar.

T-shirt:  I had a piece of jersey from the art salvage store, again just enough to piece together, and drew up a quick pattern from my current measurements, and sewed it up quickly this morning. (In fact, I am wearing it now.) I made the tops of the sleeves too wide, and just folded the excess into a tuck as I sewed. I might go back and fix that later, or just leave it...I will wear a long-sleeved layer over it in public anyway.

Pumice stone experiment:  Can you refresh a yucky old pumice stone by grinding away the sides until fresh pumice is revealed? Yes! I found that a coarse rasp worked much better than a fine file. I put it in the vise (gently!) to hold it while I worked, otherwise I would have held the rasp steady, and rubbed the stone up and down it. (If you don't have a rasp or file, a coarse stone or even a concrete sidewalk would work for this.)

Maker Faire consulting:  The Minneapolis/St. Paul Mini Maker Faire is coming up on May 14, at the state fairgrounds, and my husband is planning on exhibiting. I have been helping him out with his project, which stands a fair chance of being finished on time this year. The admission to the Faire is a bit pricey, by my miserly standards, but there is also the YMCA garage sale going on nearby in the Merchandise Mart that Saturday...this is where I found a heaping cartload of stuff last spring (for $35). Go in the early afternoon when it is winding down, and they will practically beg you to haul more stuff away. 

Repairs and rearranging:  The quilt got me started thinking about perhaps making some changes in the bedroom. While I was thinking, I also repaired one of the curtain rod brackets that was coming loose (thanks AGAIN, children). This time I put a long screw in, all the way into the wood of the window header. In the end, I decided to put everything back and keep the look eclectic. It's just about time to switch to summer blankets, so I don't want to redo the whole room around my winter quilt. I will buy more twine when I can, to finish the granny hexagon rug that I started for this room.

Nature art project:  We have a tree in the backyard with interesting patterns in its bark, that I would like to take a rubbing of, on the piece of canvas from the art salvage store. I tested using a (new) charcoal briquet on the fabric, and it marks well, but some sort of a fixative will be necessary to keep it there.

The best time to put away laundry...

...is in the morning, right after the caffeine kicks in. I brewed my tea extra strong today, and got the job done in no time.

Patching a quilt

A while back, I bought a utility quilt at a thrift store, for five or ten dollars. The top is made of rectangles of wool and polyester from old suits, in browns and blues grays and blacks, and the back is a plaid flannel sheet. It's a good quilt for winter, but it's not pretty.

Some of the seams on the top were starting to come apart; a little hard to fix when it is the fabric itself that is pulling apart.

One of the pieces of fabric that I recently bought from ArtScraps was a medium-size piece of emerald green wool. Not quite enough fabric to make a garment larger than a hat; it cost about one dollar. So I decided to use it to make some patches for the quilt.

I marked and stitched leaf shapes in the wool, before cutting it:

I used regular (colored) chalk for marking, which comes out easily...sometimes more easily than I would like.

Then I cut out the leaves, just outside the stitching, and hand-sewed them to the quilt top. I should have used button thread, which is much stronger than regular thread, but I don't have any. I plan on re-sewing the leaves on before I wash the quilt again.

The end result is a few organic "pops" of color on a blocky, drab background. I am not actually a fan of pops of color in decorating, but in this case it worked out really well.

Not a full book review: Rustic Elegance, by Ralph Kylloe

I leafed through this book at the library to drool over the pictures, and skipped over the text. It features a number of uber-rustic cabin palaces, all by the same architect. The primary elements of the look are dry-stacked rough stone and tons of rustic wood, paired with elegant and expertly-arranged high-end furnishings. What most of these rooms lack, therefore, is color and light; it is a very cave-like style. Too depressing for full-time occupation without a few modifications.

But there are a few interesting ideas that I took away from it. One is that now I think my basement room needs a boulder or two! It is definitely a cave sort of room. Another is that you can glue chunks of wood to almost anything.