Daily Notes- May 30 Eleven Weeks

                                                  

Painted fabric.  The lines are because I folded the sides up and over to fit the brown paper grocery bags I set the cloth on to dry- before setting it in the hot sun on the back deck.  This was painted, dried in the Sun, washed in Dawn, rinsed, dried in Sun and pressed with a hot iron and steam in about two hours total time. There was no paint run-off in the first wash and rinse.

Yes, these cloths are very pale but when you see them added to what has already been sewn- you will understand.  Even like this- if I cut the strips just like they are stacked here and sewed them together- it would be a lovely cloth.  Summer.  Just craft acrylic paint-the really inexpensive stuff. I want a soft surface so I add water.

The folding was something unexpected.  It is something I will be doing more often now. I like how the paint deepens in the creases. I may use pleats.  And, also, I went back and mixed a more opaque hue and painted out on the deck- the cloth on the paper bags.  I will do that again. Paint outside in the Sun.  Outside.  Changes everything about the cloth, the paint and the colors.  Hard on these old eyes but if I limit the Time- will be worthy of the Effort.  And the brown paper grocery bags substructure- with paint- very interesting texture if I was doing paper collage.  I may pull the bags out of the recycling box and cut the most interesting sections.

We finally remembered to eat Rhubarb Pie.  And it was not the same as that first pie- I may have done something different.  The second pie was wetter.  But very good- just a different texture.  Could be that the rhubarb had additional time to ripen?  The additional crust was perfection.  I used the two crust recipe and that gave me more edge to crimp.  And perhaps that changed the moisture level as well.  Baking is like a lifelong science experiment. For me, at least.  I may try to make a Strawberry Pie.  I used to make those- just a baked crust and a sweet fruit filling. I think I used to buy some sort of thick strawberry flavored gel and just add berries.  I made it when we had company.  So not in last 30 years here in Maine.  Well, if my brother drives up this year- I'll make one.  He liked it.