I just brought this collection of new jewelry to the Textile Center Shop. New earrings and some new necklaces – a single peyote bead on a silver ball chain. Super simple and (I think) very chic. I am planning some coordinating sets for the holidays – not too matchy-matchy but a necklace and earrings that would work together and could be purchased as a set. $25 for each.
Andy was being super-sneaky and grabbed this shot of me working on the “5 Rules of Sewing” banner. Do you know the 5 rules? We write these on the white board in our sewing classroom every year when summer camp starts.
I used a bunch of kid-dyed fabric to make a portable version of the rules so we can take it on the road. We are working on the “5 rules of Ironing” for next year.
The Artwear Symposium starts for me today with artists arriving and classrooms getting set up and lots of paperwork. So here is my artwear for the day: Space Shuttle Skirt! Andy did the shuttle artwork & made the silk screen; we screened it on to my skirt; then I reverse appliqued the Earth and the moon and made a skirt.
These turned out so gorgeous I had to share! My friend Karen and I just finished up a school residency with 2 kindergarten classes; I designed the class, she taught it. The teachers wanted to do a Native American project so I suggested making these little star quilts and reading the book “Shota and the Star Quilt”. The diamonds are cut and stiffened fabric that the kids glue-sticked to a card stock backing. Each kid made a little quilt and then they made a bigger one all together and had a “quilting bee”.
I had a lovely evening with Kim from trueUp.net last night. She was here for the Quilt Market (national fabric trade show) and spoke at the Textile Center about blogging and the fabric world. After the talk I went to dinner with Kim, Faye, Jen, Caroline and Shaerie, a bunch of cool and crafty ladies. (I hope everyone got a lot of sleep last night, because they were all back at Quilt Market today for another exhausting day!)
Kim had some interesting things to say about blogging. It is nice to hear someone else speak and confirm things that you have been thinking. Some of her tips:
Kim also talked about having a topic for each day on her blog and how that gives her a fall back for what to talk about. I started doing Works in Progress Wednesdays here recently and it is great! Sometimes that’s the only thing I post in a week, but it means I always have something to talk about. Kim also talked about selling advertising space on your blog and ways to be part of the blog community and build audience.
Most interesting for me was listening to the questions that the audience was asking Kim. I am perpetually a teacher and I think I got some great ideas for future “Tech Tuesdays” sessions I can teach. (I already do a series on etsy, digital fabric printing, blogging, and so on.) It is easy to assume that everyone knows about Flickr or Google Reader, but this crowd was really interested and would have liked to hear more.
Kim gave away a bunch of door prizes. I got this cute little fat quarter pack of organic cotton from Clothworks. Since Andy scored a door prize too, I am going to donate mine to the Volunteer Appreciation Party door prizes at the Textile Center next week.
Here’s the beginning of my self portrait for Stitch Yourself. I am thinking about giving myself a knitting project rather than the tote bag. (I will also take some better pictures when it isn’t totally dark and overcast.) I knitted the little sweater while telling Andy about how that little tiny sweater was the very first thing I learned how to knit. Rather than start me out with a scarf or a dishcloth, my friend Berit just jumped in and showed me how to make a hoodie sweater for my tiny teddy bear, using what must have been fingering weight yarn and about size 4 needles.
You can see Andy’s “Mr Reed” here and my friend Donna is sending off her other self to visit London as well.
I found out today about an exhibit that the Science Museum of London is doing. It’s called “Stitch Yourself” and is going to be part of the “Who am I?” exhibit opening at the museum in June 2010. You make a small stitched self portrait and send it off and they will include it in the display. The even cooler part of this is that I will be in London in June 2010 and could go and see my stitched self in person! I gotta participate!
If you send in a self portrait of yourself and let me know, I will try to get a picture of you when we visit the museum.
Vintage tablecloth repurposed. Hemmed with a little yellow bias tape. Happy Spring.
(Andy gives me a hard time about never posting a photo with my face. So here is one.)
Circle frame brooches? Rosette pins? Medallions? I don’t know what to call them, but I am making them. Two above in batik fabric, two from tiny scraps of vintage fabric, one in progress. They are about the size of a 50 cent piece. (Does anyone even know how big that is anymore?) More results of my Native American beadwork research. I realized at some point while looking at all of the techniques and photos that I might possibly be able to do these things. I have tried making rosettes probably a dozen times between the time I was 8 and 18 (and probably once or twice after that). They were always impossibly hard to get everything even and smooth and perfect concentric circles. Then it occurred to me that I should try again. I have a lot more skills now than I did then. So I am learning a new stitch, which has you lay down 4 beads at a time and do a back stitch through half of them to keep them in place. (I will draw you a diagram sometime). I did one pretty darn good rosette, which I would love to show you a photograph of, but I have buried it under some tax receipts somewhere. Maybe next week. Those up above are the same stitch, but just two rows and then a pretty beaded edge.
I love it. Polyester Double Knit, that is. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s genetic (I hear that my Grandma used to make everything out of it.) Most of my sewing friends cringe and make faces, but I think it makes the most amazing skirts. They don’t wrinkle, they are indestructible and hard to stain, they are heavy enough to hang nicely and warm enough I can wear them way more months of the year in Minnesota! (I will grant you, once it gets hot and humid, I will put these skirts away to wait again for fall.) This one is made from Butterick 4686 and a piece of fabric my friend Sheryl found at the thrift store for $2.99. I don’t think she believed me when I said I would wear it. She found another piece for me of bright blue with tiny little anchors. Smile.
