Chaotic Utopia

Finally, after months of painting, planning, organizing, and flinging, my home is starting to look like a home. I’m down to the little finishing touches: trim and accessories, windows and doors. Some of these just need to be purchased and installed, so, thankfully, this means I can start getting back to normal... cooking, filing, writing, e-mailing, monitoring comments and even (gasp) blogging!

To avoid burnout, I’m returning to blogging on a gradual basis, starting with some interesting but pointless light blogging. Some of it (like this post) might be related to my remodeling, but I promise, not all! I will at least aim to post something every day, so these decorating posts should be buried quickly.

On that note, check out this video, full of custom-made fabric:

About 1:40 into the video, there’s a piece that might look a little familiar:

Yes, this is the same fractal pattern that I shared in my last post, but in textile form. Thanks to Spoonflower, a new service that allows you to print your own fabric, this pattern will soon become a small curtain to cover the closet door beneath my staircase.

Spoonflower is still in the beta stage; I was honored to be invited to try it out. But, with all the nifty potential patterns, why fractals? Well, of course, I am a little infatuated with them. But this arose from my infatuation with crafting.

Anyone who has ever done some basic sewing is probably familiar with the frustration of matching up patterns on fabric. Most fabric (save solid colors) have a repeating pattern, be it stripes or spots or little duckies. If you have to sew two pieces together, getting the pattern to line up can be annoying. So why repeat the pattern at all? Why not have a pattern that repeats, but never exactly? Well, because, until now, fractals never appeared on fabric. Ok, so, this may not make matching up pieces any easier... and in fact, outside of this little curtain, I have no idea what I’d use fractal fabric for... but you’ve got to admit, it’s a cool idea.