Fish Out Of Water

... sometimes I feel like a fish out of water, but that is not what I am posting about at the moment - lol

It is actually the title of this quilt -



it is one of the small quilts I made and entered in the TASDA exhibition earlier in the year
I found this picture while I was looking for the one of my blue hat (the one I was talking about earlier, that I didn't put in that online exhibition yet because it was going in the TASDA one first)
... I know, I was going to bed ... but ... I decided to check just what I had put in those online exhibition things

talking about those ... they are on a "freeform crochet" site ... and yes I do that too ... or my version of it
... I also do all sorts of other stuff too ... like dying fabric with bits of left over silver nitrate from work - LOL ... and my visual diary cover thingy that I made about this time last year has both of those things and more ...



It was actually a holiday challenge for TASDA that we did this time last year (this year we are doing ATCs)

It started as a bit of calico fabric that we were given (along with the visual diary we were to make a cover for) and I "dyed" mine with the little bit of silver nitrate solution I had (I also tied and stitched a few bits before I dipped it in the silver nitrate, then put it in dappled shade when it was dry - so it went brown unevenly ... then I rinsed it in some sodium thiosulphate (I borrowed a bit of that from work - only needed a teaspoon full - it is what they use in photography to stop the film developing any more ... and is the silver nitrate in the film that makes it develop in the light)

... then once I had the bit of fabric it was too interesting all over to want to hide too much of it inside or cut too much off or whatever - so I came up with an idea that let me still be able to see both sides of the fabric on most of it (kind of a slip on cover that was sort of also half inspired by movies, like the Indiana Jones ones, with dusty old books wrapped up in bits of soft leather).
Once I had come up with how I was going to sew it together I then did a whole heap of stitching on it in gold, eccru and greenish/brown threads - that was fun to do - I want to do more (I did do more actually ... on a couple other things ... but I still want to do more - LOL)

Then I sewed it together and had some more fun doing the free form crochet danglies with beads/tassels/etc on them. I like the danglies, but they keep getting tangled up!

btw - if the picture is too small to see any detail - clicking on it should give you a bigger one ;-)
Actually - this picture, with the visual diary in it's cover (open and already in use ;-), is an even bigger picture so clicking on it should show even better detail of some of the stitching and crochet bits -



then again ... I am not sure it is any bigger but it does show how the visual diary fits in it's cover, and that I actually have USED it ... I should use it more - there are a lot of pages left (and I still seem to be collecting scribbled ideas on bits of paper because they are often closer to hand than my visual diary is - lol)

and this time, I really AM going to go to bed ... LOL

(once the Alice Cooper song I am listening to ends that is ;-)

Goodnight