A {sorta} Silk Purse

 Quite some time ago, on a trip to Urban Source, I picked up this scrap of t-shirt material out of one of the bulk bins. I was attracted by the texture of the fabric and the lovely print.

When I got home, I tucked it away and forgot about it. I was purging some excess fabric from my stash yesterday and came across it again. I made sure this time I put it on my desk so I would remember to do something with it. As you can see, with a few quick seams, it sewed up nicely into a drawstring bag this evening.

 The hem had these Chinese (?!?) characters and numbers on it and I thought they were too interesting to throw away. I carefully cut the hem off and top stitched it around the centre of the bag.

See what I mean? I'd love to know what it says! There was just enough fabric left over to make the drawstring. Did you know that if you cut a piece of t-shirt (jersey) material in a long strip and then gently pull along the length of it that it will curl into a string? Yes indeedy!

In November, I bought grey jersey fabric and using the same method made personalized drawstring bags to hold the mini journals I made for the 12 Days of Xmas Exchange this year.

And that my friends, is how you make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!

Textiles & Miracles

I've been haunting the local bookstore for the last week looking for the latest edition of Sew Somerset. Why? Well aside from it being one of my favourite magazines at the moment, my sweet friend Pilar emailed me to tell me that she had an article coming out in it, in which I was mentioned. WOW! That was a lovely surprise! (*Love* the colours on the cover, by the way. This issue is fairly brimming with great content!)




Awhile back Pilar sent me a parcel. I can't tell you how deeply touched I was when I opened the package and found a milagro created just for me. Pilar works magic with needle and thread and her textile work is always so enchanting. I guess Stampington thought so too because they asked her to write an article about her latest inspiration.



The milagro she sent me looks much like the ones pictured in the article but each one is unique and mine says "Healing" and has silk flowers on it. It's been carefully tea dyed and infused with love and her good wishes and prayers for my health to improve. It hangs on my inspiration board right above my desk, so I see it each and every day. I smile every time I look at it.



If you're interested in having one of Pilar's gorgeous milagros for yourself, you can find them here in her Etsy store and there are also some here in her Art Fire store. She even has some with hand etched brass icons in the center. They are amazing.



THANK YOU Pilar for the blessing of your friendship and congratulations on your article. You are a gem! xox



*FYI: Pilar is currently offering free shipping within the US and to Canada! Hurry to take advantage of this savings!

Remains of the Games

So it's begun: I've pulled out all the ephemera I collected during the games and have begun working on my ROD journal. It's covering the entire desk at the moment and I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed by the piles.

In the right hand corner, you can peek at the fabric I found for the cover. The outside of the cover will be the stripey green blue and gold fabric and the inside cover will be the blue that's peeking out at the bottom of the fabric pile. The dotted ribbon on top of the pile will become the closure.

I have so much stuff I had to pull out the keyboard tray on the computer desk beside my workspace and plunk some of it there. Of course now that I've pulled everything out, I have to work on this till I'm finished. I don't want to keep putting it away and taking it out. There's just too much stuff!

A sea of ephemera! There's barely enough room for my sewing machine!

Somehow I have to make sense of all this. There's a beautiful Remains of the Day journal full of my memories in there somewhere!

I was collecting things every day during the Games and my teammates thought I was nuts. I picked up a discarded Opening Ceremonies ticket on opening night. It was lying on the ground outside the stadium and I saw it on my walk to Yaletown to catch the Skytrain home. It was soaking wet, but I picked it up anyway, stuck in in my backpack and forgot about it for a few days. It dried out just fine and now it will find a place in my journal.

I was able to also get alot of printed matter that has maps and venue information and all kinds of info pertaining to the Games and the city. I've cut out the bits and pieces I want to use.

I have a basket on the floor full of stuff. Like I said, my desk is overflowing. On the top of the pile here are giant stickers, among other things.

I also have a box next to that that has even more stuff! The shiny stuff in this box is the foil ticker tape that would fall from the ceiling of the stadium after each Victory Ceremony each night. On top are some of the pages I've started to sew.

I haven't printed my photos from the Games yet. I was afraid that might add to the overwhelm and I want to add them after the pages are put together. My plan is to have them printed and then take them and colour copy them so I can size them down to fit. I prefer to use colour copies anyway-it gives you more leeway with what you do to the actual photo.

So..that's what I will be up to in the studio this Easter weekend. I've got a few other things planned, but I'll post about them later, when I have photos to share. Off to put the pedal to the metal!

Journal Love!

I have been very busy in the studio, sewing like a madwoman. I've now completed my first journal in Mary Ann Moss' Remains of the Day class. It's all ready to journal in! I can't tell you how pleased I am. I made a little flip video to share it with you.

I also got the wild hare to sew myself a scarf. I found the easiest pattern online and made not one, but two! I will provide links when I post photos-it's been a busy weekend and I haven't had the chance to take any pictures yet. One is deep rich red and the other navy. The red one goes with my team jacket which is black, cream and red. The navy one will be worn during the Olympics, underneath my turquoise uniform jacket, though now I am wondering if I'm even going to need it-it was a balmy 7C today and the sun was shining!

So far January has been exceptionally productive. It feels good to be inspired and learn something new.

Pedal to the Metal!

I spent the entire day yesterday in my studio! Yes I did! I woke up at 8 a.m., made blueberry pancakes and bacon for brekki, then grabbed my cup of tea and disappeared. *laughs*

I managed to get two book covers completed. I might have made one more, but it took me some time to decide which fabrics I wanted to work with. It's been some time since I've looked at my stash and everything looked good to me!

So the photo above is the front of the smaller cover I made. These fabrics are left over from a messenger bag I made for Kristen Steiner for an exchange I hosted two summers ago. ( I ended up writing an article about the exchange and it was published in Haute Handbags, in April 2007.)

This is the back of the cover. I love this vintage aqua letter fabric. I am really pleased with how it's come out so far, though I've gone through a ton of thread. I think I need to whip down to Fabricana and get some monster spools and a few more bobbins. (How I hate winding bobbins-I need a bobbin faerie!)

This is the larger of the two covers. Again, the fabrics have sentimental value. Some of the Americana ones were purchased on a driving trip I took to North Dakota. Some of the fabrics are left overs from a quilt I made for 9/11 and a subsequent quilt I made for Ken's parents, Anna and Carlos when I went to meet them in NYC in 2004. Ken was lost in the WTC on 9/11.

Here's the back of the cover. I will probably be adding a few more things to this one-I just found a few more scraps from my folk art fabric collection that would work nicely.

I still haven't added closure ties to the covers. I haven't decided what I want to use, so while I am digging through my ephemera piles for the next step, I'm thinking about it.

Speaking of digging through, when I went through the fabric trunk, I found this coverlet in the bottom. 10 or more years ago, I bought a quilt at a garage sale. It was zipped inside this fabric envelope (which I suppose was a sort of duvet) made from what I think is vintage pillow case fabrics and such.

It's pretty hodge podge and loud, but if you look at it with an artist's eye, I am sure you can see the same potential I see for making some wonderful book covers!

I especially like this section of aquas and that hideous mustard gold (which is a magic colour!) and I think there's enough in that section to get TWO covers cut. I just need some muslin to stabilize it...or I have some old flannel sheets in the hall closet that my mother in law gave us for Indy. Waste not, want not! I could just as easily use a strip of that as my base!

Yesterday I was having such a good time sewing that I actually forgot to eat till dinner time. Since it was a holiday, we just had finger foods, which was easy. Clearly though, I did not feed the art-making machine enough though-I was munching on apples and BBQ chips at midnight!

I think the most enjoyable part of this class so far is that there's no wrong way to do it. You just throw things together et voila! I also get to sew with the pedal to the metal, something that in quilting circles got me "the look" every time I did it. (My machine is quite loud when it's running full out.) I just have a super cheapo $100 bare basics Singer, that I abuse the heck out of. It's a workhorse. I've had it for 18 years and I think other than picking the lint out of the bobbin case every now and again, I've had it professionally serviced once. In this studio, you toughen up or die! *laughs*

Okay, it's time for me to make that thread run to Fabricana and then it's back to sewing like a maniac. I am having a blast! What better way to ring in the new year?!?