Sunday, January 25, 2009

Studio Chaos


I haven't been updating you on what I've been working on because, well, there's nothing very cohesive to show. I've alluded to my random scrap sewing which has been going on since probably October. I sat down and did a bit more of it the other day because I'd really like to wrap it up and clear up this mess. Actually, this IS a little cleared; prior to the other day, the floor surrounding the drawer was more littered with fabric scraps.


I've quit being quite so random, and some of the little pieces are starting to look like something to me. Still need a lot of work to get them pleasing to my eye, but at least I'm seeing potential now. The one on the right is similar to the piece I used in "Unfinished Business" and it may get a similar treatment - leaving the edges untrimmed and raw but mounted on something different than batting. Haven't quite worked that out yet, but in it, I started to see trees in a forest. Quilting or thread painting could help capitalize on that image.


I finished quilting the triangle piece (Jockeying for Space) and I decided it was time to start auditioning fabric to mount it on. Now it looks like a minor explosion has gone off in my studio. My small bit of clear table now is laden with a basket holding fabric that got pulled as options. If you click on the picture, you should be able to see Jockeying lying on a somewhat bright batik that I am seriously considering...provided it doesn't compete too much. It's rival is a rusty batik that really brings out the triangles of similar color.


That's my basket of batiks in the foreground, resting on my ironing board and rendering it useless. On the chair are some possibilities that were considered but probably aren't the best choice. I forgot to angle the camera up to show what's on the design wall - three other options that are better choices. I started the auditioning on the wall, then when I pulled out the other basket, just worked on the table. Whatever I choose, I will choose it after I've seen how it looks back on that wall.

The rest of what you see in this picture is what happens when your second machine is in the shop. This is where my Viking Sapphire resides, snug in it's Dream World table extension. When it's in for repairs, as it has been for over a month now, the table starts collecting this and that like all the other flat surfaces in this room. That's birch bark, which I must figure out how to store, a quilting sample that is good enough to finish out and hang, a mini-iron I got for Christmas, & probably some other stuff. Clearing this is now a priority, because Viking finally gave up (or gave in?) and sent me a new machine which I picked up yesterday. I didn't expect to miss it as much as I did. Now I can hardly wait to get it hooked up and give it a spin, make sure I don't experience the same problem as I did with the original.

Finally, in the upper left you can see more pairings from my scrap drawer. The bigger one is saying, "portal" to me, as is one in the picture of the design wall. Just when I thought I'd stop and put this all away, it has captured my imagination again and I keep finding more and more strips in that drawer to sew together. Not sure when this will end, but as long as I have two machines again, keeping the old one devoted to this random piecing isn't really a problem. It's kind of a good exercise, is mindless yet makes me work at the same time.

3 comments:

Featheronawire Sally Bramald said...

If you think that's chaos, you have NO imagination. When mine's chaotic, it is truly chaotic!
LOLS

The Idaho Beauty said...

Oh, I know! It didn't look nearly as bad in the pictures as it felt when I was standing in the middle of it. The pictures probably don't give a sense of the narrowness of the room, so when the flat surfaces pile up, it gets very claustrophobic!

It's ever so much better today. I made the final background choice so all the fabric is put away again, the bark is bagged and the replacement machine is slipped into its place ready to go. A definite relief - I want to be in there again as opposed to afraid to open the door. VBG

The WestCountryBuddha said...

I'm with Sally here. It doesn't look bad at all to me! I always seem to take photos of my workspace after a tidy up and I hide the real horror. Things literally fly around the room when I'm on a roll. Funny though, no matter how messy it gets, I seem to know where everything is. It's only when it's tidy I can't find things. (DH would say, Of course things are easy to find, everything is on the floor)