Sneak peak

I have not had a chance to start sewing skirts. I have been side tracked by a project for Quilting Arts magazine to come out later in the year. I won't tell you exactly what I am doing, but it does involve some painting and quilting and... Here's a little teaser.

Sewing?

I can't believe how many beautiful fabrics there are on the market now.

It makes me want to sew *gasp* skirts!

I learned to sew in high school from Ms. Issel the best home-ec teacher ever. In my senior year I spent five of my seven periods a day in either a home-ec class or the art room. I made a lot of my clothes in high school and college and clothes for my kids when they were little. But I lost all desire to make clothes after that. For years the fabrics did not seem terribly interesting and the novelty prints were just dorky. When I starting dyeing and painting fabric I stopped buying printed fabric all together.

It seems like some of the fabric companies are getting wiser bringing in a whole new pool of talent like Heather Bailey, Anna Maria Horner and Denyse Schmidt, to name just a few, who are designing irresistible fabrics. Also we now have great online fabric resources like Sew Mama Sew, Purl Soho and Repro Depot, no longer having to rely on the less than mediocre selections from the big chain fabric stores.

plant study

I have always loved the look of old plant engravings. I was curious to know if that look could be reproduced with thread on fabric. What I realized is that it really can't because you can not get the lovely thick and thin line quality that the old engravings have.

Front

Back

I do like the effect and will probably play with this some more. The quilting is not finished yet. This is aprox. 21 x 30. I am thinking about maybe adding some color to the bug. I will bring a photo up in photoshop and play around with it to see if I like the look before I add any color to the fabric.


This is the engraving that I used as inspiration and my sketch that I transferred to the white fabric. I used a .05 lead pencil to draw the plant lightly on the fabric. I fused the fabric to the batting to act as a stabilizer for the heavy stitching.


My sewing machine decided to gobble up a bunch of thread and wrap it around the gears, preventing me from finishing the quilting until I took apart the machine and my daughter and I went at it with long nosed tweezers. By the time I was done I was too tired to quilt anymore and probably not in the best frame of mind. My old Pfaff is probably in desperate need of a tune up at this point.

Clessidra stockings

I am making the Clessidra stockings that can be found on knitty.com with Knitpicks Bare - Merino Wool/ Silk, fingering weight yarn.
I love these. (It is not easy photographing your own leg.)


I thought it would be awful making knee socks. The ankle socks I have made in the past seem to take an eternity. These have gone relatively fast. Maybe it is because all the patterning has kept it interesting or maybe I knit faster than I used to, hmmm.... thats a thought.

By the way you are looking up at our ceiling in our library in these pictures. We live in a 100 year old building that was once the Nabisco factory. Living so many years in California with earthquakes, looking up at all those clay tiles, brick and cement in the ceiling sometimes makes me a little nervous.

Moo Cards

I got my Moo Cards! These are so cool. They are like miniature business cards. You just upload your photos, as many as you want. Crop them. Choose your type, add up to 5 lines of text and pay $24.99 for 100 cards. It takes about two weeks to get them. They are on nice heavy paper with a satin finish.
This is a moo card on the back of an actual business card to give you an idea of the size.

Cicada invasion

This is the time in the 17 year cicada cycle that the bugs crawl out of the ground. I remember the cicadas in Austin TX fondly, hearing the buzz circling through the trees above. Rarely did I see one of these buzzing creatures. In the city we have barely heard a cicada. I drove out to the suburbs yesterday for the PAQA meeting and was amazed by the sound as soon as I got out of my car. There was that buzzing sound but then there was this other more all encompassing continuous hum that sounded other worldly. Like the sound of an alien invasion in a sci-fi film of the 1950's.

After the meeting I walked through a parking lot with a few trees that were covered with cicadas. As I got close the sound was deafening. The cicadas flew every which way and within seconds I had 5 cicadas on me. I shooed them off before getting in the car and then found another on my shoulder. As I drove away I heard buzzing in the back seat and saw a cicada laying upside down on the seat buzzing away. Then I found another in the door handle and 3 more landed on my leg. I had to stop twice on the way home to get the unlikely hitchikers out of the car. I can not imagine what it would be like living for 6-8 weeks with that continuous sound, I wonder if there is an increase in mental health issues every 17 years.

Quilt entry shattered

I just got a call from Crystal over at IQA that my CD entry for the show shattered. I sent it UPS in a padded envelope in a jewel case. She said they have had a couple that have shattered. Luckily I was able to email my entry to them.

New in Publication

Two of my older quilts are in the July/August issue of Quilters Newsletter hitting the newsstands now. In the top left corner is Saint Michael Overcoming Evil and the lower middle right is Saint Joan of Arc.



Artella has finally sent out the print issue of their magazine with the Body of Art theme. My virtual Cellular quilt is on the left and a quilt article by my sister Deb is on the right.

World Naked Bike Ride?

Last night around 9:30 we heard lots of hoots and hollers, fog horns and whistles. We ran to the window and looked down to see hundreds of cyclists and a few roller bladers going by. Then my husband said "hey, that guys naked" Then we realized they were all in various states of clothes optional attire. Probably 1/3 were completely naked.

Thank goodness the procession was followed by an ambulance. I can imagine taking a spill on the pavement naked would be painful. This morning on Sunday morning they briefly mentioned the World Naked Bike Ride. This was a world wide event!

Arbol de Vida

Quilt has been photographed and the entry has been sent off to International Quilt Festival Houston.

The Golden Compass Trailer

I am so excited to see they are making a film based on The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman. I loved this book when I read it ten years ago, it will be a visual feast now that we have the computer technology to animate this so realistically. This is in the young adult genre of literature. I know this will bother some devout Harry Potter fans to say this, but I liked this book much better than the first HP book.

Just seeing this trailer makes me want to go pull the book off the shelf and read it again.The website for the film is also fun.

Knit graffiti

I love this. Making the world a little more colorful one stitch at a time.
This group based in Stockholm Sweden is adding their knitting to public places to make creative statements. See more on their blog Maquerade.

Abby's got a brand new bag

I saw a guy at the Antiques market last week with a bag like this for his dog. What a perfect bag, made with heavy duck cloth and a quilted lining. It is from Wagwear.

There are days when Abby wants to be held all the time and it is a little hard getting things done holding a dog all day. I have resorted to strapping her to me with a long scarf like a baby. Don't want to go out in public like that though. In winter, she gets cold easily and runs the other way when she sees me pull out one of her sweaters. I have been trying to think of a way to construct something like this for some time. This saves me all the trouble of trial and error bag designing. I love it, Abby does too.

Women in Art

500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art

The Soleil top from Knitty

This is the Soleil top from knitty.com knit with Knitpicks Shine sport. It fits pretty well. Not something I have achieved with all of my sweaters. I think the shoulders could have been knit with some shaping though to rest flatter on the top of the shoulder. I love the bit of lace at the bottom.

Abby's new bed

We were at Target yesterday and found this cat bed. It is a bald little chihuahuas dream.
She tried it out on the way home and settled right in.