Make Mine Purple

These two fabrics were 70% off last week when I popped into Fabricland for the fifty dollar zipper. Zippers and milk have things in common. You know how you go to the grocery store for one item - milk - and come home with many - cost fifty dollars. Zippers are like that if not quite fifty dollars. Thankfully, I have a stash of zippers bought at 50% off . Unfortunately, not a 24" separating bright blue one as needed for the jacket I'm working on. Darn. Hello fabric. Make mine purple.




I recently read a comment in an article about Michelle Obama. The writer complimented one of her outfits and said that purple was a hard color for anyone to wear unless they were either extremely dark or very light. They must have been referring to a true purple as opposed to a shade because typically there's a hue in there somewhere that you can wear.

It was an interesting comment that made me think about purple. I've never felt uncomfortable in it but I've also not worn it much until the past couple years. Now, I've acquired several garments and quite a bit of yardage. I think that's because I can. Purple is available.

There is more color in the fabric stores right now just as there is more color in ready to wear. For a person who loves color, that's fabulous. So often, it's the same selection of white, beige, blue, black, and boring. Color is one of the reasons, I stash up on fabric. What I love might not be available next year. If I have it safely tucked away at home, perfect.

Friday's posting generated some thought provoking comments. Thank you Lorrie, K.Line, Lois, and Mardel. Your words made me think about when and why I started acquiring more fabric. There used to be four fabric stores in town. Two focused on quilting and crafts and two focused on fashion sewing. It was easy enough to pop down to one or the other and pick up what was needed. Three of the stores closed within a short time frame.

At that time, I was mainly quilting and writing books, patterns and workshops that required illustrating. Two of the three stores that closed were the quilting ones. To do my job, I had to go out of town to shop. Since I couldn't do that very often, I started buying in larger quantities for several projects at a time. As my worked evolved from traditional quilting to textile art, I started buying possibility fabrics, ones that had creative potential.

When I came back to fashion sewing a year ago, that ability to see creative potential came with me in a different way than when I sewed fashions before. I'm far more experimental and like unusual starting points. Now when I travel, I stop at fabric stores to search out their bargain section for fabrics that could be amazing. It's rare not to find anything. The fabric that I'm working with now is very much like a Lululemon garment a friend has. She paid many, many dollars. I paid $1.50 a meter and bought ten meters. One and a half meters would have done the trick. I bought ten. Why?

That too came from creating textile art. It involves a lot of experimentation and fabric manipulation that doesn't always work out as expected or works out so amazingly that you know you're going to want more. For example, some black cottons bleach out to ugly and some to a fabulous rust color. Ugly means trying again. Fabulous means wanting more of that base. I think that's why when I'm standing in the discount section and ten meters will cost me fifteen dollars, I take ten. I'm buying ten meters of amazing creative potential. But why am I standing there in the first place when I already have a whole lot of potential at home?

Two reasons are forced change and loneliness. I get out of the house to mix with people and do that mixing in environments that stimulate my intellect or creativity like a decor, book, or fabric store. While I'm there, something will catch my eye. I'll be interested in the information or inspired to create. If the desire is strong enough and the price reasonable enough, I'll take the object home. It only happens in the studio. I'm not like that with the rest of my house. Something more to think about - how to live out my creativity with even more intention.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - rain, no smoke, fresh skies

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Personal Growth - Yesterday, my son called from work and needed to go to the hospital. He had pains in his right side. This has happened three times now. The doctor checked him over and had an x-ray taken. While examining him, he asked me if he was otherwise healthy and I said no. I mentioned the other two times the pain had occurred and that Kyle had diabetes with measurements that have been running too high for too long. The doctor made no comment, not even to acknowledge what I had said.

When the x-ray results came back fine, the doctor sent Kyle home even though he was still in pain. I felt that was incompetent, that the doctor hadn't addressed the whole person. Pains like these can be caused by ongoing high measurements. I know this. So should he. A hospital stay could have done Kyle a world of good. Instead, we're back to me finding ways to get a teenager to pay attention to detail. I am so very tired of fighting diabetes in its various forms - the condition, the child, the doctors, the system. The caregiver is so often overloaded with responsibilities over which they have little or no control. It's frustrating. If you know a caregiver, give her a great big HUG. It's one of the hardest jobs on earth no matter how much you love that person.