Fabric Journal - ongoing project

Firstly may I thank you all for leaving comments yesterday.   I wasn't able to get onto the computer until last night, and by the time  I had answered emails, etc, it left me little time to visit all your blogs.  I did spend over an hour before my eyes 'gave out', and later today I will return the compliment and visit all those blogs which I didn't manage to last night.

Now where did Kate go to next? And what did she send back to Lucinda in England for her scrapbook?

Well she did get to have a good time didn't she!  She mixed with the high society and fashionable set of the era - and they certainly knew how to enjoy themselves!

The Moulin Rouge was a new theatre and totally different to anything seen before. 

It was so exciting, and glamorous and full of high society and artisans, and was always packed with the rich and famous - quite an eye opener for an 'innocent' from a country estate in England.

She became in awe of Toulouse-Lautrec, who used to spend hours and hours in the theatre sketching everything that was going on there.  He was only 1.5m tall, after breaking one, then the other leg later in his childhood which stunted their growth.  

His art was very 'new' and 'modern' and totally different to the 'traditional' painters.

Maybe he saw things differently when he sketched, then painted the posters at home in a drunken 'haze' apparently.

I love the simple lines and caricature way of painting his subjects and the colours he used too captured the vibrancy of the theatres don't you think?

Kate loved visiting there - and Lucinda was transfixed when she read of Kate's 'adventures'.

Her scrapbook, although very old, has weathered the years quite well, despite the pages being 'well thumbed' over  years of re-reading it, and stained with age.

So, two more pages in my vintage fabric journal story......

Thirteen more to go - who knows where she will be visiting next?

I don't - but I'll find out in a week or so no doubt.

Thanks for looking

What's on your workdesk Wednesday

Well I am typing this late Tuesday evening and am out early Wednesday - here's a  Mr Linky to WOYWW.

Last week my desk was a disgrace - but in my defence I am moving all my craft stuff from a 16ftx12ft studio in my garden to a tiny room less than half that size, indoors. 

So it is getting rather full in here.

Thank you all so much for your comments on my blog - I do take everything you say 'on board'.

On the last blog entry comments, Rosie mentioned about us having 'our fingers in too many pies'

What  wise lady - it summed up my dilemma perfectly. 

So with that in mind, I have made a commitment to myself to complete all my unfinished projects.'

This is a journal I made on my first online course - it has lots of signatures so I ran out of steam.

So picking up where I left off in the story, my 'heroine' is living it up in Paris, and has been visiting some of the famous dressmakers with a view to having the latest fashions.

In hindsight I am quite pleased that I did not have the time to do more to this, because in the meantime I have dabbled in another couple of courses and have aquired the ability to add more colour to the pages.  (We were shown how to colour huge sheets of water colour paper, by painting with tea, or coffee etc and they did look rather drab

I have now added more colours to the pages as I go, and it looks 10 times better.   I have made cardboard cut outs and decorated them with gorgeous scraps of materials and beads, some, like the red one at the top, have a genuine vintage sample of material of the era - with a real french label attached for it.

Here is a scrap of the letter that went with one of the 'mannequins' to go into the scrapbook, which is now over 100 years old and has aged somewhat.

I was lucky enough to visit Monet's Jardin in Givernay a number of years ago and it was like stepping back in time - the print is from a fern leaf.

And this is the 'spread'

I had to take photos this evening - so under artificial light.

15 more pages to go to complete the book.

Wish me luck!