Tag Archives: sewing

Five Things (and a rant)

1.  Weather — Today is cold.  Steely sky, breath condensing.  Hat and glove weather.

2.  One thing I did well yesterday — Can’t think of anything.  I’ll have to come back.

3.  One thing I could have done better yesterday — Responded more neutrally when D. said he had a sore throat.

4. and 5.  Two things I’ll commit to doing today that I might not otherwise get done

  1. download H1N1 vaccine forms and fill them out for the boys. 
  2. cut out pictures for SoulCollage® gathering this weekend. 

Back to doing something well.

What DID I do well yesterday?  I made a muslin angel that I ALMOST love — but I loved her better before I sharpied in a face, which on some level feels to me like I ruined her, so THAT doesn’t count.  Overcooked the pork chops, which were still okay, but can’t count that.  Spent hours on the phone finding out about Mass. Health, ECOB, COBRA for my sister… but all of that felt like a big muddle so that even though I came out of it with a couple of appts. and a located birth certificate, I wouldn’t put that on the list.  So, what then?

Can I count NOT being awful as doing something well?!!

Yesterday, I contained my rage waiting for 25 minutes at the post office.  There I was picking up a certified letter (on my sister’s behalf — so there’s THAT) that my postal carrier SHOULD have rung the bell for me to sign and receive at the house.  He had THREE chances to make life easy for me.

There it was, the first ‘real’ business day after Thanksgiving and presumably the beginning of package-mailing-season and my wonderful post office branch had ONE window open (the line was ten deep the entire time I waited).  Furthermore, (does this count as TWO things I did well?)  I did not call the postal carrier a liar when he claimed to have rung the bell and knocked when he delivered the three notices, which I know for a fact, he did not.  I was there when the mail hit the floor every single time and no bell was rung, no door was knocked.

And now, I’ll rant about this guy.

This is a postal carrier that defies the notion of service and veers into some creepy realm of vindictive laziness.  When he was assigned to our street, it was all anyone could talk about for weeks — what stupid, incredulous thing he had done THAT day (e.g., drop envelopes with checks in them onto the curb, not deliver mail because a rug-cleaning hose was threaded through the front door, refuse to bend over and pick anything up on a stoop because of a bad back, act like my dog is a vicious, postman-eating predator).  Many of us reported his errors to his supervisor, he was put ‘on probation’ for awhile, and now he is back to his tricks.

Though it serves no purpose, I spend a fair amount of time wondering, as he strenuously cuts corners and makes life difficult for everyone on the route, whether he is acting out of a generalized incompetence or out of some sort of shrewd and calculating desire to inflict misery on his customers.  I tend to think the latter.

Can’t I come up with ONE THING I DID well yesterday?  Oh, here — I added some machine stitching to my Full Moon in Taurus quilt, and miracle of miracles, located the missing moon, by, again miracle of miracles, cleaning up my work area a little.

Outdoors and Indoors

purple-pillow-doily

It is a beautiful fall day here.  Production for fall shows is in full swing… I am making a LOT of pillows!

snakeroot

But also taking a little time to get outdoors.  Took Jack to Cold Spring Park and was able to photograph him with my phone — I hope he never figures out that it is also a camera.  Last night watching “FlashForward” (I know, I know), he hopped up onto the couch in terror because they were taking pictures ON TV!!

Now, as soon as I learn how to download pix from my phone, I’ll share them!

st-catherine-of-siena

Lastly, here is one side of a new altar block.  This is St. Catherine of Siena, mounted with cloth and paper scraps on a painted block.  I just learned that she was the 25th child of an Italian family in the 14th century who devoted herself to Christ at an extremely early age.

Pin cushions for Etsy Shop

Two-Queen-Pin-cushions

Have spent some time updating my etsy store, ClothCompany.  The two figures above can be pin cushions, or not.  The faces are historical renderings of Catharine of Aragon, transferred onto fabric.  The smaller figure wears a chenille shawl that I made in a class at the Button Box a while back (meaning — I made the chenille).  It feels a little weird to stick pins into a human figure, but I think without any bad intentions, there’s no possible harm (and in this case, it’s hard to be deader than dead).

tea-cup-pin-cushion-all

I have discovered that a pin cushion without ballast is a pain in the ass.  That’s one reason I love tea cup pin cushions.  They don’t move around.  The other reason I love them is that they’re so pretty!

cinderella-pin-cushion

You might think a pin cushion this small is not very useful, but I have discovered otherwise!

blue-plate-special

three-cupcake-pin-cushions

For the cupcake pin cushions, I recycled and felted some sweaters from the thrift store.  This is a project that is easy enough to do with elementary-aged crafters.

All of the pin cushions shown here are available in my store, and I’ll be posting more, probably tomorrow!

Collage Journals — YoYo Brooch

yo-yo-brooch

This page celebrates brown tones and rust colors and reminds me I have been meaning to make some fabric yo-yo’s (i.e. puckered disks of fabric) — above, clustered in a decorative pin on what look like linen overalls!

Here’s a site worth a visit in any case, but if you want to know how to make yo-yo’s, Heather Bailey‘s tutorial is clear and easy to follow.

Workshop — the good, the bad, the ugly?

One of my first Village Quilts

One of my first Village Quilts

This weekend I took a daylong workshop with internationally renowned quilter, Sylvia Einstein.  I have long been a fan.  She has such a good eye and makes wonderfully dynamic, painterly quilts.  This was her “Small Towns” workshop and even though I have been making what I call “Village Quilts” for almost ten years, I decided to take it.

First, the good —

  • Seeing Sylvia’s quilts up close… I had studied them online and they were so much more exquisite in person!
  • Hearing her opening remarks… “I like very active skies” … “don’t try to pick all prints in the same scale — use large leaves, for instance” … “I work slow” ….
  • The invitation to become an avid collector of images. One of the teacher’s favorite sources?  Christmas cards!
  • Getting critiqued by the instructor (plus she gave me a couple of to-die-for scenery fabrics!).
  • Seeing other student’s work.
  • Getting new ideas on how to finish a quilt.  Sylvia uses very bold prints, often, for the edges of her pieces, and then binds them.

Now, the bad —

  • It was crowded.

quilt-draft-on-wall

The ugly —

  • My quilt.  But that just means ‘unfinished’ — right?!

Here’s what I will bring to my next class —

  • 12″ ruler and mini-cutting grid
  • Drawing pad, so that if I’m not in the mood to deal with major space restrictions, I can draw
  • Hand-sewing (for the same reason)

And, here are suggestions that spring to mind from the experience —

  • Experiment with scale.  I am excited, for instance, as someone who’s favored size is 2’x3′ to make a village that is 18″ by 20″.  A lot changes when you do this.
  • Collect images!!  MY challenge will be to put them all in one place.
  • I often use ‘sky’ fabric for buildings and ‘building’ fabrics for sky, so as to really play with what is inside and what is outside… but I’d like to make one quilt where building is building and sky is sky.