A picture really can say more than a thousand words

I came upon this post just before bed, and now am having trouble getting my ticking brain to sleep. These photos, reportedly the first colour photos ever taken in Ireland, are 99 years old. They represent some of the poorest people and places of that time, some of the furthest from Dublin, and some of those retaining most of the old native Irish way of life. These people were the neighbours of my ancestors; my grandparents' parents. Irish identity is a tricky thing, a nebulous thing. For so long the colonised, the Free State only 89 years old. The records of our recent past burnt in uprisings, the stone monuments of the ancient past strewn about the landscape. And in between only the stories. (This is a good podcast by the way, if you're interested in the old Irish stories.) Then out of the blue (I like to think of the internet as blue) comes these photos.

It struck me, looking at them, how many are doing something, associated with their craft. Which in turn reminds me of the Hands boxset of documentaries from the early 1960's about traditional crafts, with a focus on those dying out due to industrialisation. I come from a people that tell stories and make things. What with the nature of this blog and all, it just kind of resonates. And my, how the world has changed in a hundred years.

Laundry Bag

I made another bag! The last ones were so small I think I've over-compensated and have gone too much the other way. This one is a laundry bag from a project in 'A Bag for All Reasons'. I deviated a little from the instructions. The two-compartment design wasn't going to suit me; most of my clothing is darks and brights, with a handful of whites/pales/delicates. So I doubled up the internal divider to make a small third section in the middle. For the darks section I chose a black and grey striped fabric, and for the brights a nice colourful printed patchwork fabric. Then at the every end I got lazy, and instead of two parallel lines of stitching 5mm apart I used a twin-needle in one pass. It's mostly straight lines and different sizes of rectangles, which makes the cutting out easier (thank the rotary cutter), but makes the actual sewing rather boring (not even any seam finishes). The end product is approximately 50cm x 60cm, and fully lined. It's quite pretty and ultimately functional, good result!

( Pictures! )