5 Years Blogging! and Beads for You

After I heard about Lisa Chin's blog anniversary, I thought I would check how long it has been I have had this blog. And I realised that my 5 year 'bloggiversary' was today, the 16th of October. Hard to believe it has been that long!

My friend Helen helped me to set up the blog. I am really glad she did. It has been a big help to keep me productive and on task when I am working on projects. I often wrote things I worked on or made down in a diary before I had the blog. But with the blog I have been more consistent about keeping track. I really enjoy writing about the process of designing and making. It is also useful to record inspirational things I encounter as well.

So, I decided to make some of my fabric beads as a give away. The safety pin bead project for this week was in colours of pink and purple... and I had some prefused purpley-pink fabric from the 'Cloud Puppy'. So, that is the colour I went with.

So I have 3 sets to give away. Leave a comment and you might get a set sent to you! The comments will be open til Sunday when I post this week's beading project. It is actually a double celebration because on Friday it will also be my 1300th post!

Remember the photos are close ups, so these are all fairly tiny.

SET 1 -

and set 1 individual photos











SET 2 -

and set 2 individual photos











SET 3 -

and set 3 individual photos










If you would like to have a chance to get one of these sets, please leave a comment. I will close comments on Sunday the 20th October.

Remember if you have no reply blogger, I won't be able to contact you personally. I don't allow anonymous comments because of the amount of spam I was getting. So, if you click on my profile at the top of the sidebar you can access my email address and send a comment that way. Please make a note that it is a blog comment for the beads so I don't wonder why I am getting a random email from someone!
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This post is now linked to Off the Wall Friday at Nina-Marie's.

sneak peak of a blouse in progress

I may need sunglasses to wear it. The blue is meant to be toning it down. I need breaks from working on it because my eyes start doing optical confusion tricks.

It's in!!

"Menina de Favela e Água" has been accepted into the Contemporary Quilt Exhibition Water, Water!

This was the statement I sent along:
… Vivid memories of Belem, Brazil as a teen; particularly the favelas. A little girl with a leaky water can on her head. Living in a palafita (stilt house)... over water but no drinking water.

We only had 50 words and that was to include techniques and materials!

The Exhibition is to be held at The Old Fire Station Gallery, Henley-on- Thames, Oxon. 14th – 19th Nov 2013.
Lady Sew and Sew will be holding workshops and talks in conjunction with the exhibition.

Mark it on your calendar. It will be worth going to see.

"And the Bead Goes On..." 7-13 Oct

2013 - Week 41 Daily Beads

no.280


no.281


no.282


no.283


no.284


no.285


no.286

Something on Saturday

Beautiful fabric in the post.

A few weeks ago I replied to a question on Lisa Chin's blog about what my favourite kind of dyeing was. She was asking as part of a celebration of 5 years of blogging.

Then I was very surprised to learn my name had been drawn for winning one of her fabulous ice dyed fabrics. (People put ice over the prepared fabric and then squirt thick dyes or sprinkle powder dyes over the ice. It causes some of the dyes to separate and strike at different times due to the delay of the cold ice.) Lisa gets beautiful results. Just see the fabrics she was willing to send off to winners of the draw!

I would have been happy with any of them. The one I loved was the middle one. I had some in a similar colour from Farne Designs at one time, but her methods have changed a bit and she doesn't seem to get the purple/teal combo any more. This wasn't quite like Valeri's but close.


And lo and behold yesterday in the post...

TaDa! It was that one!

Thank You so Much, Lisa!

During the summer I got a bit of a tutorial from my friend Merete who gets wonderful colours when she does dyeing. So, it may be possible that I could start getting some more interesting results myself instead of the disappointing ones I usually end up with.

Finished on Friday

...the thin blue skirt has become a thin blue blouse.

Wow does it ever feel nice on! It has that soft worn feel that cotton can get. And for once I think I got the fit spot on.
 I shall have to remember what I did!

The rest of the story was yesterday showing the skirt I started with.

And here is the result:

With it buttoned right up, it looks rather Asian.

And with a few buttons on the top undone.

I will definitely get on to stitching blouses now with that result.

thin summer skirt to blouse

This skirt keeps making an appearance while I am shifting fabrics and patterns. So I decided it was time to refashion it. I think I picked it up somewhere at some charity shop because I love the colour and print.

You can see how much longer it is than I wear by comparing with the not-yet-hemmed-skirt-from-duvet in progress next to it.

The waistband was very small. Here you can see after I chopped off the waistband how much fabric was gathered into it!

and the cutting mat has the inches side upwards!

So there was plenty fabric to do something with. The fabric is very, very lightweight cotton. I am not sure just how you could wear it for a skirt without wearing a lot under it for decency and without feeling like it would tear getting in and out of cars or catching on briars on a walk.

However, it would make a lovely blouse for a very hot day. And with a cami under it would do for regular just plain hot summer days.

So I used my basic blouse pattern and had plenty of fabric to cut out the blouse, extra button stands, cap sleeves and a mandarin collar. I cut it out and got it mostly sewn together today. It needs button holes and the hems of sleeves and bottom hem sorted and it will be done.

Scraps left piled in the front.

I was going to use the button stand from the button down front of the skirt, but the spacing didn't work with the blouse layout. I will also be using different buttons, since these were a random purple colour. So, I would have had to fuss with the existing buttonholes and trying to match to make extra. It will be easier to create buttonholes that go with whatever colour I select from my stash.

Perhaps that will happen tomorrow.

No it isn't summer, it isn't even warm anymore. But it will be a great blouse for next summer!
Now to sew the other blouses I had cut earlier in the year. I have been enjoying just 'making' without a purpose or deadline for a change.

you can do what you like

So, I decided because of the loose weave of the blue skirt, I really could do with a lining. Well, I wanted one, so there.
Anyway, I got out my box of lining and shiny-could-be-used-as-lining fabrics.

Without digging far, I found I had almost enough for a lining in a greyish silver taffeta and just enough for a bit of lining in a greyishblack. So, as it is my skirt, and no one goes round checking out linings when you are wearing them, and sometimes it feels special to have a bit of a secret going on---or perhaps you could call it a designer look ---I have put the lining together of the two fabrics.

The greysilver taffeta is a bit rustle-y, so I cut the back sections from the other. I have no idea if it will be less rustle-y for sitting down, but that was the idea.

So here is a photo of the lining. It is my skirt and I can do what I like!

back view

 

I went to the ironmongers to see if they had a zip. yes, but 7in and I needed 9in. However, they did have a couple other things I hadn't been able to find in the market previously. So that was a good result.

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update:
no problem getting the blood test. phew.

filling gaps in the wardrobe

The summer got very busy with so many other things that clothing sewing didn't get very far. but while I am still remembering what I need in my summer wardrobe and while I have a bit of a clear space in my head schedule, I thought I would get on with it.

So, a friend was clearing her airing cupboard for some plumbing repairs. Instead of tossing duvets and sheets, she thought 'fabric! - Sandy!' or something similar.

So I as one of the things needed in my wardrobe is neutrals. (Because interesting fabrics for blouses and interesting fabrics for skirts generally mean far too clashing to wear together.)

And so I cut a tan stripe gored skirt with flare from this duvet cover. The tan stripe is 'quiet' and gives a beige look from a distance.

Today I got as far as putting it together. It needs a waist treatment and a hem. I am not doing a waistband, but a faced waist with petersham stay.

I also cut out a replacement skirt for one I had made before which had become too big, (hurrah!) but I got a bit trim happy and now it is too small. hmmm. Anyway, I had enough left for another skirt.
I had thought jacket originally, but it is a bit too loose weave for a jacket and would need all sorts of things done to it to make it work...which is not my idea of a good time. (Okay, I can spend hours stitching beads onto washers or what have you, but I really am not into hours of jacketing.)

So, while I was cutting the duvet cover, I also cut the other skirt. I have it to the together stage but I discovered I haven't got any dark zips. So, that will have to wait till I go to the market at the weekend or perhaps check out the ironmongers in Great Hollands if I want to get this done this year week. It is not a summer skirt, but more of an autumn skirt, but I decided I wanted it in the same pattern, so it is easier to get on with cutting and making the same pattern at the same time.

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That is enough blather I think for today. Not sure what I will manage tomorrow. I have a blood test.

 If she can find any, that would be good. If not, I will probably go back to bed to recover from the trauma!

yes, I know, too much information. I have done my 'drink lots of water the day before' thing. so, here is hoping. It is a regular blood test to keep tabs on levels of things.

My doctor retired last year. I have finally trained the next one...and he has left. Apparently he was a locum. So, now I have to work out which one will be able to understand what things do to you - like fibromyalgia and needing synthetic thyroxin to replace what they took - without having to teach him myself. (insert rolleyes emoticom.)

ALAW - Fun in the Sun letters

The next letters for A Letter A Week - to the end of September

I have begun to stitch round the early letters. Eventually, I want to layer the fused letters with wadding and a backing and stitch round the edge. So the hand stitching is happening at this stage.

However, the variegated crochet cotton I am using is a bit thick and does not stitch through this floppy layer easily. Sort of a job for the rare times I manage to sit in front of the telly.

"And the Bead Goes On..." 1-6 Oct

2013 - Week 40 Daily Beads

A bit of how this month's alternate bead idea developed....

This month I decided to make use of a large pot of safety pins I had. I had also picked up a pack of coloured safety pins at the 'Been There, Done That' Table at TVCT one time. and I had a little collection of brass safety pins.

I also had 5 small bags of bugle beads that remind me of 'barley straws'. (This month sort of has 5 weeks - so each colour can go for a different week.)

So, really it is only the brownish twisted beads that look like barley straws. But oh well. I call them straws anyway!

They are matt as well as being unusual colour blends and quite a bit longer than normal bugles. Which has meant they didn't really work with other projects. So I thought I would see if I could use them with the pins in some way.

At first I tried putting beads onto the open pin part of the 'silver' pins and then thread them onto the coloured pin, which would also have beads on it's open pin part. However, this meant you had to thread the beaded pins onto through the larger opening...and they flopped about. But when I tried to do a sort of stitch round their circle sections connected by a seed bead, it made them rise up a bit. Not a big problem, but if I use them as embellishments on a gown, they would cover the beads on the large pin.

Here is that trial sample.

You can see it would hide the coloured pin almost totally as a sewn on embellishment.

Also, the 'straws' were too big to go on the brass pins, so I used a clear bugle with the same seed beads for that day to use as an accent. You can just see it in the centre.

However, one of the seed beads I had chosen to go with this twisted 'straw' was a bit big. I thought I might change things around. Use mostly accent pins with one 'normal' one. (because I had 1 half size straw. Eventually I had 2 more smaller ones because the ends broke.)
But it was just a bit too different, and I wasn't sure I could replicate it with the other straws for the other weeks. So, it too is just a trial sample.



At last I decided to try to open the round end of the coloured pin a bit using pliers and a small screwdriver. Then I could thread the beaded silver beads onto the side which doesn't open and put beads on the side which does. Close the pin and pinch the swirl back together -being careful not to damage the colour coating.

so here is the first week's beads...using blue twisted 'straws' on 'silver' pins and one beaded brass pin as an accent.

no.274


no.275


no.276


no.277


no.278


no.279

These are much tidier. They move around like a fringe and are not too time consuming to make.

Something on Saturday - clouds at the V+A

This week I made a journey into London for a meeting at the V+A. While there I had to go look at the Dragon Robes...again.

As well as the dragons, I also think the clouds on the robes are wonderful.

And some on a painting of a special gentleman with a tiger (an Ancient?)
I wasn't reading the story so much as looking at the images in the work!

Sorry for the quality of the photos. The lighting was very low and the pieces were behind glass. I found the best way to get much detail at all was set the camera on night scenery. I don't know much about fstops and things like that.

Map no.9 finished

And here we are. The brown binding works to bring it all together.

Map no. 9 (Warning - scroll to the bottom if you just want to see the map)

On Monday after I submitted my piece for Water, Water, and while I was wondering 'what now?' I thought I may as well get on with the next map. It was meant to be for September - it would at least be started in September!

I decided to do a map that was still related to my time at college. The first place I went to was digs in West Springfield...and then later I had a job for a couple years at a Steak House restaurant - also in West Springfield. I had already selected the area I wanted to depict, so next was to consider how to do so.

Most of the other map Journal quilts have had a lot of pre-planning for the design. This time I thought I would just see how things developed.
First I found a random piece of fabric I had used as a sample of some tie and dye techniques. But the dye came out quite pale blue.

And the story...
I started college in January and about 2 or 3 days after I arrived, it was the worst snowstorm the North East of America had had for some time. Some places had to call out the National Guard to clear the roads because the snow had come so quickly that people were stranded on the roads in their cars. and then there was so much snow, the cars were covered. So clearing had to be done by hand. So, the pale blue would work to reference that.

I think if I had been able to get directly stuck into lessons and events at college, I would have been fine. But because it was a small college and because everyone was housebound, there I was in a strange place all on my own. I was studying theology at the college, so I began reading the Psalms. So much of it spoke to my situation...left alone, surrounded by strangers and being fearful about everything. Psalm 27 became my favourite. Time and again in the years to follow as I went through one thing and another - growing and becoming an adult - I connected with the expressions and cries of David the Psalmist.

So, the map. I used the main roads of West Springfield and the street where I first lived.

I traced them onto the fabric using a light box. And then I decided to write out Psalm 27 across the map.

Lately, because I was searching for fabric with script like I used for the first Ramshackle House and for the Horizons piece, a few people have suggested I write on fabric myself. Up to now, I have found it difficult, because many of the fine permanent markers bleed into surrounding areas. So, I decided this was the time to try something out.

I ironed the fabric to freezer paper to support it and keep it from moving around while I wrote on it. Then I used my DR Pilot drawing pen with no.1 tip and wrote out the Psalm. I didn't have a plan, only to make it rather journal like.

The writing worked rather well. Not sure how permanent it will be, but for this it works.

I kept the text to the sides because I thought I might decide to do something different in the centre. I wrote across roads when I came to them but only to the point where you could still work out the words even though some letters were missing.

At this point I decided to write the last verse of the Psalm again larger in the open space I had left.

I have always thought it interesting that David felt it necessary to re-state the waiting bit... how true to life! So many times we have to learn and re-learn a lesson! (Or I do anyway!) It took me quite a few years to get to the point where I was courageous and didn't get in a flap, but rather waited to see what God would do. (Okay, sometimes I still have to learn this again about something else that comes along!)

Then I sandwiched the quilt and set the machine to Free Machine settings and began to 'colour in' the roads and the bits of river which were in that area. So far so good.
Except even though it was sandwiched, it could have done with stabiliser, so it was rather puckery.

Then it was Tuesday and I went to a meeting in London. In the evening, too tired to try anything complicated, I decided just to stitch the top layer to the wadding using thread that would blend in...(while I watched telly.)

This helped to control most of the puckering. I decided to go over the centre verse with black stitching on the machine.

Today between other things and still not having much energy for much else, I did quite a bit more stitching.

And so now I am at the binding stage. As it has shrinkled, I will probably lose some words under the binding, but I think I am okay with that. It is not so much about seeing all the writing as it is about it having a journal look and a main thought to focus on.

I was tempted to do the binding in the same pale blue, but seeing this photo posted, I think it will be brown to visually connect with the roads. By the way, the roads are brown because that was the colour of my uniform at the steakhouse.

And if you got this far, well done! and Thank you. I should be able to get the binding on tomorrow.

"Menina de Favela e Água"

And here she is!
The Little Girl I met in Belem, Brazil 40 years ago.

photo of the slide photo I took all those years ago.

Re-interpreted

"Menina de Favela e Água"
W-55cm x H - 105cm

or "Little Girl of the Slums and Water"

if you must have it in English instead of Portuguese.

And here is a detail

And I have made her big enough for Festival of Quilts. So, already ahead of the game for that for a change! Even though I just made the deadline for Water, Water!
If it gets in, you can see her in person in Henley in November.


Here is the statement I sent with the entry form.

Vivid memories of Belem, Brazil as a teen; particularly the favelas.
A little girl with a leaky water can on her head.
Living in a palafita (stilt house)... over water but no drinking water.

Cotton, linen, rusted and hand dyes overdyed with indigo,
colour catcher, Sharpie® and colour pencil.

I am adding this to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.