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user-inactivated  ·  2738 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: September 28, 2016

Decoupaging

The above piece is currently both my best piece and the one I hate the most. It's a little 5x7 board with only two pieces, Ninjak and two skyscrapers in the background. I love it because it looks like they were meant to go together. Seriously, if you told me that was how the panel originally looked, I wouldn't have doubted you for a second. I hate it because with the exception of cutting and the drying time between coats, it took me all of five minutes to put together. It's criminal for something so low effort to come out so well. What's even worse is this would make a really good gift, but I'm the only person in my circle of friends who is a Valiant fan so I guess I'm keeping this one for myself.

As an aside _refugee_, no pressure, but I'm still excited to see your decoupage post. The stuff tacocat and someguyfromcanada have shared have been so cool, it'll be fun to see another person's work.

Quilting

I'm gonna give learning how to quilt a second shot. I'm not gonna put decoupaging on the back burner or anything, as it's more of something I do when the mood strikes me, but I've always loved quilts and like cutting up comics, putting together a quilt could easily be something to do while I'm sitting in front of the television letting my brain rot. Like the last time, I have no idea what I'm doing, but I went to a quilt show over the weekend and was blown away by what I saw. It's weird saying that, because I love folk art, I love quilts, I've been to quilt shows before, but something clicked this time around. Suddenly, trying to learn how to quilt is not just a "maybe it'd be fun" kind of idea, it's now a "I think I really want to to do this idea."

I'm not going to do anything overly ambitious for my first one (I think that was my mistake on my first try around, which is why I didn't get far). Maybe just a 2x2 square with random pieces to learn how the whole process works. I don't have a sewing machine, nor do I want to spend the money on one, so I think keeping things simple will work in my favor. I do have more ambitious ideas, like emulating Charley Harper or Eric Carle in quilt form, but that'd be way down the road. You know, when I actually know what I'm doing.

I think for today, I'm just gonna sketch out random ideas until something sticks and maybe visit a fabric store or two to look at fabrics and books. I don't know any off the top of my head, but there's got to be at least one or two mom and pop fabric stores in this city. I know the supplies for this kind of stuff can add up fast, so if I'm gonna spend the money, I'd like to keep it local.

Update 1: There are a few local shops. Off I go!

Update 2:

My haul. The ladies at the quilt shop were beyond nice. I spent about half an hour there just chatting away with them as they showed me around. When I told them that I was looking to do things by hand, they called me "brave," which means I might be in a bit over my head (which is a good place to be sometimes). They ended up letting me dig through their scrap fabrics where I found some really nice pieces of blues, greens, and browns. When it came time to check out, I saw that they weren't charging me for the fabric, to which I insisted that they do, to which they insisted that they won't. Long story short, they asked me to think about how much I'd be willing to pay for the fabric and donate it to charity. If this quilting thing takes off for me, they just got a loyal customer.