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Novel being creative

I've been creative these last few weekends. There are a lot of reasons--some pharmaceutical, some not.

So I've been crafting. First I made a chatelaine.

Chatelaines were used in the middle ages as a sort of pocket (pockets are a very recent invention). The idea was re-embraced in the Victorian era (of course). Housekeepers would keep them on their belts with useful items. I'd been thinking about making one for a while because of my Steampunk fascination. Then when I found the little scissors pendant I knew I had to.
Mine has scissors, a needle case, a paperclip which is holding a suede envelope with safety pins and straight pins. There's a little metal envelope at the top with a little metal letter in it (I had it and I didn't know what to use it for. Mine can be clipped on or the safety pin can be pinned to the clothes. Mainly I'm keeping it on the end table to sew in front of the tv.
Here's a real one:
http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/grko/exb/Family/Kohrs/grko2522_chatelaine.html


Then I made a bag for my new yoga mat. It has a pocket for a towel and for yoga socks. A water bottle can clip on, but it rattles a bit. I made it just the right size, but I should have made the circumference a little bigger so I could just slip the mat in and out more easily. Live and learn.

I made this out of the left overs from the black and white quilt.













Finally I made a quilt top--I don't have backing for it yet, but I do have binding. It's chaotic but I'm trying to learn to embrace the art of chaos. Of not over planning. I call it "A Riot of Dogs (and some cats)." Originally it was going to be dogs and cats, but this is what it wanted to be. There's a little orange cat on one of the prints, but the rest are all dogs.

Basically, I collected any dog and cat fabric that appealed to me for the last few years--fat quarters, regular remnants and quarters. I also collected paw prints and bones prints because I knew I'd have to break up the patterns somehow. The border I did buy a yard of. It has no animals, just dog accessories (sorry the shot is blurry--normally I'm a better photographer).

I had no pattern in mind. Originally I was going to frame individual dogs but the fabrics were too random. Then I was going to box them. In the last few months I'd been taking them out and playing with them to see if anything came to me. I started to notice that some paired up naturally and some could be made to pair up and that's when I decided on the triangles. I cut the triangles at random, I matched them loosely by color and then laid them out in the pinwheels. And it all worked out. Weird but true. Listen to the fabric and it will tell you what it wants to be.

Now I have to finish it--which I hate. And then decide what to do with all the cat pieces.
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