January 28, 2009
The winner is....
Jeannie Carlvanhoff!
Congratulations Jeannie! If you would please email me, with your street address, I will mail your fabric off!
I used a random number generator to choose and it chose #15, Jeannie! You are comment #15.
January 19, 2009
Wake up call!!
Time for a give away and to see who is reading!
Today I made this half yard of fabric. It has not been washed, this photo is taken in batch stage. (Shame on me)! But my dyes are new mixed and this should pretty much be what you'll get.
Here is a detail shot, the colors seem accurate.
I originally made this for an article I am supposed to write, but I got too exuberant with the color. Oops! My bad is good for you!
In order to win this piece of fabric I would like to hear from you! Please post a comment telling me of your creative hopes and endeavors for the coming year. I will draw a name from the proverbial hat in one weeks time.
January 17, 2009
Old, made new.
I feel extremely grateful to have been given a spinning wheel:
An Ashford Traditional, probably the 1975 version.
The wheel had some issues, as it had been stored inproperly and dried out some. At first I thought it was something David and I might be able to fix, that perhaps it just needed to be forced back into shape.
Then I started looking for someone with a bit more knowledge.
I found a man, here in town, that agreed to look at the wheel. We went out to his place and I was wowed. He had a two story home and the first floor was a machinist type studio. Two double glass french doors opened into a room with a winch, generators, power tools galore. He restore fire engines for cripes sake!
He is a super sweet man too. He took the wheel apart at the seams, sanded the edges down, put biscuits in and glued the wheel back together. It was square in shape at that point, so he rounded it out. He needed to take 3/8th off the area with the seams just to make it round again. He fixed up the footman, and recreated the flyer to have three speeds. He oiled her too and charged 72$
I think I will spin and knit him a hat.
January 10, 2009
Hey! Wanna come out and play?
Monoprint with Soy Wax Resist
With Melanie Testa
June 13 & 14 9am-4pm
Location: San Diego
Cost: $150 2-day workshop, plus $20 materials fee
Registration: email Jane LaFazio at PlainJaneStudio@gmail.com
You’ll be asked to send a deposit of $75 to secure your space (or full payment) with balance due May 13, 2009.
Monotypes combine the spontaneity of printed dyes and cloth, creating a surface that is unlike any other technique. Each image can only be reproduced once, making your fabric unique and original to you. Combined with the use of Soy Wax, we will explore ideas of scale, motif, texture and depth. We will be using Procion MX dyes on cotton fabric in this two day class.
Materials include 2 yards prepared fabric for dying, fiber reactive dyes and soy wax and tools.
Melanie Testa attended the Fashion Institute of Technology and has a degree in Textile Surface Design. Her work has been featured in Quilting Arts magazine and she is the author of the upcoming book Inspired to Quilt: Creative Experiments in Art Quilt Imagery. http://melanietesta.com/
January 9, 2009
Wildcard!
Alright. Change is here.
We are moving back east. My Man was offered a position at his old place of business that could not be refused. Benefits, the whole nine yards. I am very proud of him, he deserves every penny and I am happy that he is so well respected.
We will be moving to Brooklyn, or that is the plan as yet. It might be said that Brooklyn is (go straight to his journals) a hotbed of creativity.
Believe me, I am sad. I love Flagstaff. But this is life and sometimes you have to roll with the punches.
No comments on this post, it's really just a statement of fact.
January 1, 2009
Happy New Year.
In review, this was one of the best years and one of the worst. I hated living separately of David for so long. It put a strain on us, took too long to recover from but made and is making us stronger.
I won't do that again.
Putting that aside, while he was away, I became even more independent, cared for our home, 90" of snow, a failed septic systems and all. I also had fun reaching out, made new friends and cultivated a long dormant love of microbrewed beer (R&R Stout if you must know), treated myself to Biscuits and Gravy and had some fun too.
I did all this while writing a book; which is a dream come true. I did this with the help of some feirce, enthusiastic people. And I am happy and grateful for it. I look forward to being able to hold the shiny pages in my hands.
I would have linked to some more folks in this paragraph, if I could find thier presence on the web.
I have made some connections as a result, and went to my first trip to Houston.
I got to meet Deborah Boschert and Jane LaFazio in person.
And I am busy beyond belief with some new opportunities, so 2008 has been good.
And I plan for 2009 to be even better. Things continue to be somewhat rocky. And I have been working on being present, simply put. So, my resolution for this year? In as much as this is a resolution:
To be present, willing and ready for life's offerings.
And what better than to have warm mittens to do it with? I taught myself two color knitting two weeks ago and cast one for my second mitten today.
But, um. Is my work table a mess? Presents, wrapping paper. Stuff? My folks bought me some Ravelry swag!!!
It is almost hard to believe that I reconnected and have been sucessful with knitting this year. I have always wanted to knit, taught myself a few years ago but refused to swatch and so had poor results. When I started writing the book, I told myself, you can knit, you cannot design, you can follow patterns but if you get frustrated, no knitting, girlie!
And that was all the threat I needed. I now swatch, rip back and am successful. I do not design and I follow patterns!