Becka’s Project Journal

I managed to get two yucky colds right in a row (thank you to small children and back-to-school open houses.)  I think I am finally getting better, but I have a whole bunch of projects that are sitting around and getting nowhere.  We had a big gallery fundraiser last weekend.  Great music, but many hours and details to deal with.

I mentioned briefly in another post that I am working on a book.  It’s a how-to with patterns and instructions for 12 different holiday ornaments.  Everything from easy ones you can do with your kids, to more involved beaded and embroidered things.  Nothing is “Christmas-y” – no snowmen, no Santas, no angels.  These are all silly and off-the-wall like the goldfish sneak-peak you can see above.  I adore making ornaments for the Christmas tree, I love the excuse to make something small and beautiful.  I say that the things I would save if my house caught on fire would have to be the dog, the hubby and the ornaments.  (I have a huge collection of almost entirely handmade ornaments.)  My mom started making ornaments with me when I was less than 2 (that one is in the book!) and she made something every year I can remember – clothespin dolls with lace tiaras, paper mache apples, pom pom teddy bears, flowery bonnets.  So I am working on the book.  Slowly, but I am hoping it will be done mid-October, just in time for your holiday crafting.

I think it’s time for another book report.

Evan’s Above by Rhys Bowen.  I have enjoyed some other books by this author. This one was on the light side for me.  Not much mystery, characters a little thin.  Enjoyable, but I read it in about 1/2 an afternoon and just kind of felt like “meh”.  There are more in this series and I think I will pass.

The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer.  Georgette is one of my favorite all time authors.  I am so happy they are currently re-releasing her books.  It is annoying that they are $13 a pop, but I do love an oversize paperback and I know I will read them again and again.  What is an ajax?  According to the prologue, the “unknown ajax” refers to a character from Shakespeare’s Troillus & Cressida, “a dumb horse of a man who could be duped”.  Meet our hero.  A delight as always.

Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris.  I have heard a lot of buzz about this series.  Sometimes I ignore buzz; sometimes I wait until the second Harry Potter book comes out until I see what all the fuss is about and am pleasantly surprised.  I wish I had passed this by.  It is ridiculously similar to the Twilight books.  I announced very loudly at one point that if “this character turns out to be a werewolf, I am throwing this book in the trash!”  I didn’t have to throw the book in the trash but it was a near thing. It was a big yawn for me.  I am done with vampires, thank you.

The September Society by Charles Finch.  And just because we are on a roll with things-that-make-you-go-bleh, this one was also a dud.  I think I counted the use of the word beautiful or beautifully about 6 times on one page.  The language is what killed me.  The word choices were odd, the vocabulary was limited.  The way that our hero describes his lady love made me yell at the book.  The story was somewhat interesting, but I kept getting pulled out of that reality by the word choices.

Queen’s Own Fool by Jane Yolen and Robert Harris.  This one was pretty good.  It follows Queen Mary of Scotland, with the story as told by her “fool”.  Amazon calls this one a YA novel for ages 9-12.  I think that is probably a good category.  I kept thinking I had read the same series of events, just more sophisticated storytelling (I think it was a Jean Plaidy novel).  I enjoyed it, but I recommend the Plaidy even more.

Here are swatches of my latest spoonflower designs.  The first two are called Frances (pink) and Myrtle (yellow).  These were both based off of a couple of patches on a 1930′s quilt.  My fabric is just a little larger scale than the original.  The pink/red one is pretty much the colors of the original fabric (as I envision they were 70+ years ago).  The yellow/orange combo is my invention.

“Fish N Hook” is printed on Spoonflower’s knit fabric.  It is a really nice knit – super heavy and very soft.  It was inspired by a sign that I saw in the background of someone’s vacation photo on Flickr.  I can’t tell you any more than that.  The photo wasn’t very memorable, I think it was Italy, but the fish on the sign at the restaurant stuck in my head.  I am thinking if I can find a pattern for a really cute boat neck t-shirt, I might splurge on a yard and make myself a shirt.

Then we have “Oboe Blues” designed for Andy.  There’s a silhouette of an oboe there – some of the people I showed this one to didn’t see that right away.  This one is printed on the home decor canvas weight fabric.  The base fabric is not my favorite, it seems to have a sort of loose weave.  My swatch has frayed a lot with handling.

There it is!  My felted garden with its ribbons.  Pratt School is about 1/2 a block from the Textile Center, so every class walked over to do their part of the garden with me and Lynn, another Textile Center teacher.    All the pieces in the garden are wet felted and then my fantastic intern Lauren and I stitched them on to the background piece.  It was hung in a sort of odd spot at the fair, but I hope lots of people got to see it in person.

• How is it Tuesday already?  Sheesh.
• Spent the weekend making cute bags in time for gallery “Hot Art” fundraiser at work.  They carry an assortment of things by me in the Textile Center shop.  Did several in sparkly metallic 1960′s brocades.
• I am slowly working on a book.  It will be a how to for handmade holiday ornaments.  No santas, no snowmen, but silly fun offbeat creations to sew.  When I get done with this post, I am making some iced tea and making the sample for “Deer in the Headlights”.  Self publishing.
• My waterlily is blooming again!
• Getting great response to my 1930′s inspired fabric designs.  Thanks for all the nice comments.

I decided to mix this one up with a few more colors.  Added a darker red and orange to the mix and made the green pop a bit.

At work right now we have up a display of quilts from the 1930′s.  Grandmother’s Flower Garden patterns, Dresden Plate and of course very fun fabric prints.  I took some photographs of some of my favorite blocks and have decided to make some fabric designs based on the 1930′s prints in the little 2 inch scraps I can see.  Here is the one I started last night.  I have ordered Spoonflower swatches so we will see what it looks like when it arrives.   I am not trying to make it look exactly like the print, but just using the print as a jumping off point.  I made one swatch in a similar colorway to the original and then did a warm earth tone one as well.