Tuesday, June 09, 2015

Details, Details

Picking out lining and pocket pairings for padfolios
Bloggable progress has been slow to come due to several worthy diversions. And those of you  anxious to see beading will have to wait (I partly blame it on waiting for a strand of beads that missed getting into my original order). I've been moving forward with those padfolios, remembering now why some of them had been set aside for later. Not rejects, but more a matter of what looked good "on paper" as they say, didn't work as well as other designs I worked up once they were printed out. I wouldn't call them "seconds" either, but more like personal disappointments that someone else might think fabulous. So I'm finishing them up and putting them out there for sale.

I must admit I often spend more time digging through my stash for coordinating fabrics to go inside than may be warranted, but I do rather enjoy that part as much as coming up with the cover designs. And even though the lining and pockets are not the stars of the show, they are still seen and worthy of thoughtful choosing. Each "perfect" pairing is a little triumph worthy of a brief happy dance.

Fun batik lining improved perception of cover
This time round, some of what I found to go inside were basically scraps - pieces big enough for something but nothing too big, and because of their size, difficult to store. A couple of these had been lying out, in fact, part of the stash I inherited from my late friend, washed and ironed and puzzled over as to their use. One such quarter cut appeared destined for a journal cover, but it was also wide enough for this. Another piece of batik was the size I needed for coordinating pockets with hardly anything left over. Those two fabrics worked a kind of magic on a cover that was less than exciting to me. 

I can't tell you how satisfying it is to find homes for these smaller chunks of this and that, too beautiful to discard but too small of an amount to consider as the start of a bigger project. I've moved on to the satin stitching of the edges, another detail that sees me carefully considering threads from my stash. Soon these will be done, and I can get back to other things. 

3 comments:

The Inside Stori said...

I got a chuckle out of your mention of spending too much time digging to find appropriate fabrics......I seem to have that problem too.....but am determined from now on to just look at that time as loving my stash!! Your padfolio inventory is growing nicely!

The Idaho Beauty said...

You know, I have much more fun searching my own stash than going on a hunt for something specific in a quilt shop or vendors at a quilt show. I usually end up frustrated at the shops more often than I do in my stash. I just seem to have better luck buying what strikes my fancy (as well as being gifted pieces from people who know my tastes), trusting it will be just the thing when the time comes. Now THAT is loving your stash!

Michele Matucheski said...

Makes me want to get back to making journals! I didn't refill my stock last year because I didn't do the December Craft Show (which was not a bad decision), but this makes me want to get back at it ... I have fabric pairings all set to go ... the pieces are cut ... Just wasn't excited about fusing it all down, I guess.

I can totally see you doing the marbling surface design technique and using that on your padfolios. Now that I have a decent printer, I should try that myself! But then I have to prepare the fabric with the alum and soda ash ... All these crafts are multi-step -- I guess that keeps us busy!