HOW LOW CAN I GO?
I’ve needed some light relief from the daily grind, and so Jo has been providing me/us with some low grade humour, barely out of the gutter humour about quilting. As if anyone needed any more proof I was a heathen quilter. As so often happens when discussing quilting around me, the conversation took a minor detour to the topic of Spotlight. In fact, generally discussion comes round to Spotlight when I talk with Nicole as well. It's a love hate relationship.
For those not initiated in the wonders of Spotlight – large industrial, badly merchandised hall of :: basic sewing necessities : household goods : a large and growing selection of scrapbooking and ‘craft’ items : some fairly hideous yarn selections with questionable names and even more questionable fibre content : and an appallingly bad collection of material of which synthetics, glitter, fake fur and animal prints seem to take a prominent display focus. Fantastic for sewing machine needles, sewing thread, patterns and pillows, but not really somewhere I’d shop for quality material for sewing (although it serves a purpose for cheap cottons and ginghams). I am sure every town, city, country has it’s version.
If you’re a sensitive quilter I suggest you look away now, because I fear I am about to offend a great deal of people. Then again, if I do offend, quite possibly you’ve missed most of the graphic qualities of this blog anyway. I decided to lay down a challenge. For fun. I must emphasise that. Fun. I’ve worked on some pretty heavy duty serious stuff this year, and I needed some relief. Jo was keen. A little too keen – I must one day question her keenness. And then Nicole was keen. And the TACK Challenge was set.
TACK Challenge:: Creating Tack from Crap. Or creating something from crap. Or just letting go of our dread and working with fabrics way outside our comfort zones. Go forth to Spotlight, buy 3 really bad fabrics – bearing in mind this only works amongst people you think will understand your decision about what is, or is not, a bad fabric, because after all one persons bad fabric is another persons goldmine of a find – get a minimum cut, and send to the other 2 people. Then make a log cabin thingymagig somethingorother out of it. The log cabin should hide some of the garish qualities sure to turn up (well, they certainly turned up in what I sent out). Then blog it.
The aim was to try and make something good out of the bad. But given what’s turned up in the mail so far, we may be struggling with that one. What has surprised me so far about the challenge, and we’re only up to the sending out of fabric stage, is how hard it is to actually buy bad fabric. I had some selections that I had to put back because they were really quite awful. Only to see them walking off with someone else to join the cutting queue. Lining up myself, I was quite embarrassed about what I was buying. Until my mother nudged me and notioned to the other people in the queue. Suddenly glitter encrusted balloons didn’t seem so bad.
Anything you need to know about this company, just ask. I worked at Head Office for three god long awful life sucking years. You think the stores are bad...
Posted by: shannon | July 10, 2006 at 12:25 PM
is that some kind of faux denim number in there?!?!?! i can't wait to see the final results, the degree of difficulty is sky high on this project!!! (maybe you could get the finished project displayed behind the craft counter hee hee)
Posted by: sarah | July 10, 2006 at 01:00 PM
so you are going to make a superhero cape, right?? heh heh
Posted by: lisa s | July 10, 2006 at 01:00 PM
Oh, noice! Very Fountain Lakes. Unewshewal. We are truly evil.
Posted by: Jo | July 10, 2006 at 01:44 PM
Do you know about the boycott against Spotlight? Not normally one for the bandwagon, this one really has my support http://soozs.blogspot.com/2006/05/outrage-and-indignation.html
Posted by: sooz | July 10, 2006 at 03:03 PM
lordy, is that cats and wolves? I can't wait to see you all actually USING the finished articles...
Posted by: p | July 10, 2006 at 04:35 PM
Wait, you're apologising for poking fun at Spotlight's fabric range? It's a bloody national tragedy.
Did you get any with dolphins on them? Or angels? OOOH OOH or stars and moons! There you have it: the holy trinity of tacky.
Posted by: jac | July 10, 2006 at 06:25 PM
Is that second from top armadillos or racoons? I think both actually might be useable in small doses...
Otherwise I'd recommend almost any kind of Christmas fabric for your project.
Can't wait to see what you all make!
Posted by: Strikkelise | July 10, 2006 at 06:58 PM
Oh my LORD. Those are impressively horrible. I can't wait to see what comes out of them!!
Posted by: Kitty Jimjams | July 10, 2006 at 06:59 PM
I can SO see a funky purse lining out of that top one.
The rest...well...let's just say I'm very glad you're so talented. Because it's gonna take a miracle...
You're awesome :-)
Posted by: Lee Ann | July 11, 2006 at 12:10 AM
The fake denim is disgusting. I am curious if there is any way to transform that one into something less insulting.
Posted by: Alex | July 11, 2006 at 02:13 AM
Ay! I love it. I can't wait to see what you create.
Posted by: Kelli | July 11, 2006 at 03:30 AM
What Jo said. Noice. Roolly roolly noice.
Am waiting for Jo/Nicole to use the Jesus fabric in a lampshade. "I have seen the light."
Posted by: Suse | July 12, 2006 at 12:36 PM
Its a great idea - but there are other places to buy cruddy material! http://www.rightsatwork.com.au/campaigns/spotlight
Posted by: nomes707 | July 14, 2006 at 08:35 AM