Question: What happens when you combine your mom, your sisters and lots of fiber?
Answer: You get fabulous fiber scarves!
Last weekend I spent 9 hours over two days making Pac-Man and Clyde the Ghost costumes for my 13 year old son Parker and his best friend Will. I had no pattern to work from and little idea of how to put the garments together, knowing only that the boys wanted dimensional costumes and that I was to create what they described.
Once the boys explained what they wanted, I found a patio table that was about the right size for the circle shape of Pac-Man and started from there. We designed as we went, discussing different options and the pros and cons of each. We brainstormed about how we could construct the pieces so that Parker and Will would retain the ability to move around in their costumes, at least enough to be able to function at school on Friday. We ironed together for two hours, with me on one iron and the boys, on their hands and knees on the floor, using the other one. We cut out the shapes of the characters and I pinned.
Who would have thought that on a lovely outing with your husband to have dinner at a simply yummy Italian restaurant, Tommasso’s in SF, you would pull your hand away from his in the middle of the cross walk, dash back from whence you came, and run into a shop called Urban Burp? Let me enlighten you that Urban Burp is stuffed to the rafters with rare and vintage fabrics for home decor and upholstery, AND tons…OK maybe 200 bolts…of vintage cotton fabric. The owner, Electra Skilandat, just brought in a huge collection of vintage feedsacks that are amazing.
So check out the website, or better yet, get to the shop and see some of the coolest retro fabric. Not only is this place cool, but as we all know in the current era when fabric manufacturers print a line only one time, this type of resource can be a dream come true. My husband waited for the light to change,then came and found me in the shop. When I was finished looking at everything we left and had a divine dinner of pizza and lasagna.
Part of a series of posts on my recent trip to New York for Book Expo.
As I mentioned earlier, we stayed in the garment district and found a great sample sale that we stumbled upon and had too check out, the clothes were hip and fun and way too pricey. So instead we headed to the button shop and found all sorts of treasures. It was so much fun. I think we were there about an hour and Susanne and I had a really hard time deciding what to get. So here are a few pics of the store and the choices and the final picture is of what I purchased. I plan to make either two bracelets or one really fab necklace, any thoughts?
Part of a series of posts on my recent trip to New York for Book Expo.
I had made it to 3 museum gift shops in two days, my shoulders hurt from carrying bags all over the city, but I found some fun stuff. Starting at the MOMA shop where you can find the most fun stuff, including lots of cool gift items like the hanging mobile that holds anything (I got that for Lisa to hang her artist trading cards) to the ridiculous snow globe rings that Susanne, Sandy and I all had to buy so we had a matching piece of memorabilia from our trip. There were also some inspiring books and really interesting kitchen utensils that looked more like art that kitchenware.
We also went to the AFAM gift shop to see all the cool stuff they were selling in support of Paula’s exhibit, much of it came from C&T including our Kaleidoscope tote bags that zipper closed, notecards that are designs of Paula’s quilts and show how they were pieced on the back of each card, Paula’s book that documents her journey in making the quilts in the exhibit, and the 3D globes that were hanging in the window made from fabric by Benartex. We also went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s gift shop near Rockefeller center and I fell in love with a handmade scarf with Peacocks, but at the not so bargain price of $695. I passed, but still think about it every day. So 3 gift shops in two days and now I have too much stuff to bring home and it won’t all fit in my suitcase.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I finally got to see Paula’s exhibit at the American Folk Art Museum. It was jaw-droppingly gorgeous! I walked through it on my own and was trying to figure out why I couldn’t see where each piece of fabric started and stopped. I tried many angles and was truly puzzled.
Paula came after I had spent about an hour viewing the quilts and the amazing scopes that several of her friends loaned to the museum to be part of the exhibit. The scopes themselves were splendid works of art. Made from stained glass, hand carved wood, and one was a large piece of white glass, they were all spectacular! Paula was there to give a private tour for a group of 35 artists from SAQA. The group leader for this event was another C&T author, Jane Davila.
Paula walked us through the exhibit explaining along the tour her inspiration, how she works and the various ways she creates her kaleidoscope quilts. Paula said, “I often camouflage the seams, because I always think about what I want the audience to see, I want it to look like a kaleidoscope.” She also told us that, “I put lots of stuff in my triangle and let symmetry organize it.” She explained how she creates all of these quilts and is terrible at math, I would have thought she used a complex formula to create these quilts, but no, there is no math involved.
I can’t say enough about how delightful and inspiring I found this exhibit. I met a charming young woman who coordinates donations for the museum, Kristen, and she was kind enough to give me several complimentary tickets to the museum to share with our blog readers. So, blog readers please share with me a comment about where you have found symmetry in your creating and we will give away 8 pairs of tickets for this wonderful exhibit.
I just spent 5 days in NYC for the Book Expo and had the best time. I traveled with Susanne, our Acquisitions Editor, and Sandy, our Sales Manager. We must have walked about 5 miles per day, seen about 25 neighborhoods, we went to Chelsea Market, the east side, the west end, Soho, Fashion Avenue, Time Square…OMG my feet were killing me! I took the subway for the first time and then a bunch more times.
Susanne, our Acquisitions Editor, and me in our BEA booth
So back to the show, we had a great show, exhibiting in our new distributors pavilion and were able to show several new titles to interested book buyers. The most popular titles were Sew with Sara and Cupcakes! The book stores were really excited about these two titles for kids and teens.
It was such a treat to see one of our authors, Anita Grossman Soloman came by the booth to say hello and to see what was new. She took a few pictures of Susanne and I in the booth. I also had a woman come by the booth on the last day and she sang a song to me. When she sang it was sweet and funny, and she had a nice voice. The song is Once in Love with Amy, by Frank Loesser, written in 1948. The funny thing is my Dad had a good friend who was a nightclub singer and played the piano, and I had a major crush on him when I was around 5 so he would sing that song to me whenever I saw him, maybe that was why I had the crush? While we were in NYC we also saw some amazing sites including Paula Nadelstern’s exhibit at the American Folk Art Museum. More on that in another post.
Yesterday at the Quilt Market trade show I had 9 meetings, including a lunch meeting with a delightful buyer from one of our largest distributors. I walked about 3 miles on the floor which is carpet over cement. Not the most comfortable flooring to walk and stand on all day.
Today I got to walk the floor after a morning of meetings with authors, distributors and magazine editors. I saw some amazing new fabrics, great bright florals, some great architectural prints and paintings by Laura Gunn that have been interpreted into fabric by Michael Miller Fabrics. Paula Nadelstern has another terrific new line with Benartex and Moda has some delightful new prints and focus fabrics. There were several new exhibitors with patterns for children’s clothing.
I also saw two new products from Simplicity that are sure to be a big hit with quilters. They are the bias tape maker and the automatic rotary cutter. My favorite is the bias tape maker because it creates bias tape in strips as small as 1/8″ and as larger as 1 ¼”. It folds and presses in one step, and can even make binding! This is too cool!
Tomorrow is another day and I will wear more comfortable shoes and re-walk the floor and the exhibits to make sure I don’t miss a thing.
I am at the Spring 2009 Quilt Market trade show in downtown Pittsburgh, PA. The city is warm and welcoming and the first day of market was a blast. The convention center is a short walk from our hotel and I don’t believe I have ever been in a city (in the US) that has inspired me more.
There are old, beautifully designed and built churches with gorgeous jewel tone glass on almost every block (according to Kathy Miller of Michael Miller Fabrics jewel tones are going to be hot for at least the rest of the year). The church spires rise way up into the air and the huge, carved stone blocks have so much character.
On my walk back after the show I saw this wall insert that stopped me in my tracks. It was made out of copper and had aged wonderfully. The design and pattern are so pleasing to the eye. The last picture I took was of a door portico that had carved stone on either side and above the entry way of two fish and an urn, in a strange way it reminded me of a Baltimore Album Block.
I am going to get up early tomorrow so I can walk before the show and take more pictures of the stunning buildings and other really cool stuff that I see. I am inspired by all that I have seen so far and can’t wait to get home, print out my pictures and put them in my inspiration journal.
So my question to all of you, is what inspires you to create? Do you take pictures? Cut them out of magazines? Sketch the ideas that come into your head?
With Mothers Day fast approaching I wanted to share my family tradition of how we celebrate Mothers Day. For over 10 years, my 3 sisters, my amazing bonus sister-(in-law) and our Mom have gone away for a long weekend to honor our Mom and the wonder of being Moms ourselves. I have 4 siblings and together we have 11 children. Our family gatherings are fun, long and noisy. I often find myself reaching for the Advil after a marathon 7-hour get together. But on our weekends away it is completely different. We relax, listen to music, do yoga, eat really well, watch movies, shop, do facials and for the past 3 years we have crafted.
My sister Jennie is the inspiration for our crafting and brings all the supplies, family photos and a plan for what we will craft each year (Jennie is sort of like Martha Stewart and a wonderful artist and organizer).
