DC inspiration: Textile Museum (part 2)

Ok, if you didn't read yesterday's post about the Textile Museum on the campus of George Washington University then start there. I just had too much to share to fit it all in one post! I am going to continue sharing from the the Stories of Migration exhibit and throw a few more things that I got to see.

Mother Tongue and Foreign Language by Shin-hee Chin
this artist has experienced living half of her life in the United States and half of her life in South Korea so this piece is clearly born out of her personal experience. I especially love the use of a garment, a piece of clothing, something you put onto yourself and show to the world, as the medium for the message. I can only imagine that being at home in more than one culture means choosing who to identify as in any given setting.

Navigating a Broken World by Shea Wilkinson
The level of detail on this map is absolutely astounding. The maps themselves are intricately detailed and she has embroidered tiny red dots to represent people groups and their movements. There is a short video on her website where she talks about the piece. My photo is not the best so you should click over there to see it.

I am going to finish up with a piece that wasn't a part of the Migration exhibit but really caught my eye anyway. These sweet little Birds by Ginny Smith (actually part of a quilted book) are so very playful. I like fabric. I like birds. Why don't I try something like this? I think I have always been such a structured person that I always undertake huge capital-letter P projects when perhaps I should just make something smaller and undefined and more freeing. Something for me to ponder! Please look at the other pieces on Ginny's website – I love them all!

DC inspiration: Textile Museum (part 1)

One of the places I was most excited about visiting in Washington, D.C. is pretty much on no one else's must-see list. It is not a monument and although it is a museum I doubt it is all that famous. It was the Textile Museum on the campus of George Washington University. I have long loved fabric and pattern even before I started sewing and quilting. And now that I am a sewer and quilter, well, my interest is even higher.

I had a day to myself while my husband was working (the actual reason behind the trip!) and a stop here was my first destination of the day. I am just going to put it out there that I used a map and got myself there with very little problem. I was rather proud and if you knew my navigational history you would be proud of me too.

At any rate, when I visited they had two big exhibits. One was titled Stories of Migration: Contemporary Artists Interpret Diaspora. Diaspora is when people groups move, or are forced to move, from their homeland to somewhere else. A fitting theme for modern times but also one with huge historic connections, especially considering the impact of slavery on the formation of the United States. There was a huge range of experiences represented by the artists but of course all used textiles in their work. So very inspiring! I will share a few of my favorites.

Blood Line by Alice Beasley
Alice Beasley uses a train metaphor to explore her family's story and experience with slavery. The final train car incorporates images of her relatives and includes an image of herself, looking back over the history through the lens of her cell phone. The level of detail in the work is astounding. I am very curious about this style of illustrating using thread and fabric and have been following some artists on Instagram who are doing work. Ms. Beasley's website features a video on the creation of this particular piece. You can also see other examples of her beautiful work on her site.

Sky Prayers – Memory of Sky by Melody Money 
This piece was created in honor of the people of Tibet. It is quite sizable but the intricate, small details make it even more impressive. Tiny triangles of fabric, tiny hand-sewn beads, and even the quilting itself. Just breath-taking. Melody's website shows a full portfolio, including a whole series of Sky Prayers.

Implosion 4 by Beth Barron
This mandala is made entirely of found band-aids. The band-aids are a symbol of wounding and healing and the piece is about finding one's home within oneself after being lost. This falls into the category of strange, never-before-seen modern art that I always appreciate. And it certainly stretches my mind in terms of what can be stitched and sewn.

I am going to post part 2 of my Textile Museum experience tomorrow. This has already gotten quite long and there are a few more things I just can't resist sharing with you!

fantastic florals!

If you asked me what my favorite pattern in fabric was I don't know what I would say but I don't think "floral" would have popped to mind. Check out the splurges above and you will see I would have been wrong! I had not own but two gift cards to JoAnn's from my December birthday so I allowed myself to buy fabric with no purpose. Hee.

If it caught my eye I bought it. If I loved it very very much, I got a whole yard. If I liked it a lot, I got half a yard. If it was quirky and I only thought I would use it sparingly in a quilt, then I got a quarter yard. Apparently I also had a thing going for polka dots.

I bought my first washi tape (yep, I am about 5 years behind the trend) and have so far had mixed success hanging things with it. A few things stuck just fine, others have peeled off the wall. You will notice I chose red, teal, and black & white. A few of my favorite colors! I also stocked up on various thread colors and indulged in a sparkly valentine heart for the front door.

So a thank you to the special people who gave me gift cards!

the quilt is done!

Second daughter's quilt was complete on December 29. I told my mama on Christmas Eve that I thought I would have it done before the end of the year and I did! According to the blog that tells no lies, I first got serious about this quilt back in February. Since first daughter's quilt took more like a year and a half I have been speeding things up. And let us not forget the little thing called having a baby that slowed my progress!

I could document all the things that went wrong or at least not quite right but that might not be quite as nice of a blog post. I am just going to say, every project I sew, I learn things and I practice things and lo and behold I get better at things.

Behind this quilt: a board, 2 clamps, 1 husband on a stool

So here's what I love about this quilt:

My kids!
My second daughter and I designed it together when she was 2. And she did have opinions. My first daughter (age 6) helped me design the squares made of four patches.

The quilting!
I did it all on my regular machine because I still don't get what's going on with the dropping the feed dog business and the other special quilting things you can use (and can I on my machine?!). I only have the one very old machine and I made it work. The wonky straight line quilting, which I did fairly dense turned out great. I love the texture. I did matching threads for each band of color: pink thread on the pink, yellow on the yellow, and so on. But then I had each of the colors "leak" into the next section. And for good measure I tossed a few loose and random lines elsewhere in the quilt. Very fun if I do say myself.

The colors!
I love bright saturated colors and that clearly comes through in this quilt. Hee.

The fabric!
Ok, I love fabric anyway but here's what's special about this quilt: I didn't buy any fabric for it! Everything came from what I already had in my stash. So some of it I had bought myself but I also got scraps from my husband's grandma, my mother-in-law, and my sister-in-law. Plus, a lot of my stash is from a dear family friend (her 98th birthday is coming up next month) and has some vintage appeal. And another friend gave me her leftovers and those are incorporated too. So some of it wasn't what I would have bought myself but all put together in one quilt it is beautiful!

I am proposing that this is going to be the year of the quilt for me. I hope to complete 2 or 3 more. Ok, I will say 3. I have a quilt top that is done so that can count. I am off on a tangent right now whipping up a gift but for the most part I am going to be disciplined and work on one project all the way to completion. No more half projects hanging around after this year is through. I have been attempting to structure my morning so that I get some time in the sewing room every morning before the kiddos are up and so far, so good.

library love: Quilt Me!

I have been striking gold at the library lately. First Design Bloggers at Home (read my review here) and now Quilt Me!: Using Inspirational Fabrics to Create Over 20 Beautiful Quilts by Jane Brocket.

Just after I settled my mind on the rule that quilts should be made out of cotton and that is that Jane liberates me and shows me how she's made quilts out of a wide range of unexpected fabrics and even vintage treasures like embroidered tablecloths and needlepoint pieces. She feels it is better to cut into those items (oh horror!) and give them new life rather than have them rot away forgotten in a cupboard. Good point!

She goes quite in depth explaining how different fabrics behave and what to be aware of if you are quilting with, say, velvet. In a lovely conversational tone she chats about her design decisions, her sewing and quilting methods and how each quilt came to be. Other than the step-be-step directions, I read this thing cover to cover. I found it to be very inspiring and I have fresh eyes and motivation for investigating the stacks of antique linens you always see in shops.

Full disclosure: This post contains an Amazon Affiliate link.

estate sale enchantment

Last week I happened to notice an ad in the newspaper for an estate sale right in my neighborhood. Oh, how I dearly love an estate sale! Such a treasure hunt. Since the drive wasn't far I decided to go for it despite the fact I would have a 3-year-old and a baby in tow.

Laugh at my ambition if you will, but my 3-year-old actually has some estate sale experience and knows well my rule "no touching, only look with your eyes." The poor babe just got hauled around in his carrier! Luckily, it was a small house and I managed to be a quick shopper.

So the pieces above are either dresser scarves or kitchen towels. That seems to be the size of them. I kind of think they are too pretty to be towels. Anyway, they each have their own design but they do all feature the color red. Can we say quilt inspiration?!

This one was actually a small curtain. I love the fabric design. The best thing about these vintage pieces is the unique feel they will add to any future project. A bit of old is a good thing in my mind.

And of course I still have visions of making a quilt from vintage sheets (check out this one in simple squares and this one in a more complex design for inspiration!) so I snatch them up when the occasion arises. Especially when they are prices at 50¢ each.

 And last but not least, a pretty pink pillowcase.

fabric find

I don't have any beautiful nature photos to share so today you get to see a piece of fabric I treated myself to the other day. I bought it without a purpose but I am quite sure I will find one. Someday.

a quilt back

Not sewn yet but designed, which might have been the trickier part of it anyway.

There is a lot of struggle in pink fabric (bad folds, crooked strips, husband assistance, straight strips, diamonds cut for another quilt) leading up to having that large piece available. Then I realized the large piece wasn't as large as I thought and I had to get creative with the rest of it.

I don't know why it did not occur to me that designing the back was practically like designing a whole new quilt!

progress on the Tangential quilt

I am so very far behind in my quilt class. This is installment one and as I write this I am days away from reading installment four! Yikes. I keep plugging away though. This is the very top strip of the quilt. I chose to do scraps instead of a solid color for some of the triangles. This took longer when I was doing the cutting but I am very happy with how it looks. I am still really excited about this project!

more on the Cascade quilt

A sneak peek of the fabric I chose for the Cascade quilt for my Angled class. I especially like how the patterned fabric for the quilt back pulls everything together. Which is why we bought enough to use for binding and to make a throw pillow!

more on the Tangential quilt

Here's my fabric vision. I love that I have built a bit of a fabric stash so I can just pull out bits and pieces to use. I have always admired scrappy style quilts!

Here's a reminder of the plan. White areas and striped areas will be filled in with scraps instead of solids.

The Tangential quilt is part of my Angled class by Rachel of the blog Stitched in Color.

I signed up for a quilt class!

And bought fabric for the three quilts that I will start during the class. Yep, pretty crazy but I am so darned excited about it that I don't think it's a mistake. It took me a few years to recover from my senior year of college but after that I get a bit nostalgic every fall for going to class and learning new stuff. And being married to a schoolteacher on top of having a school-age child means I kind of always have school on the brain.

All that to say, I decided to go for it even though it defies logic!

The class is called Angled and it is offered through one of my favorite bloggers, Rachel at Stitched in Color. I like her style and I have an obsession with quilts and quilting these days that just won't stop. I've mastered the squares and rectangles (although my actual sewing skills are still and always improving!) so I am thrilled to dive into the angles – such as triangles.

The class is already started so you can't really read this, share my enthusiasm, and sign up. I would recommend following her blog as she has offered classes in the past and I assume there will be more in her future.

I decided to make her "Starbright" quilt during the class, except instead of a white background I am going to be using black. And then I am going to kind of wing it with scraps for the actual stars. Scrap donations accepted anytime. The brighter the better, of course. This one will be for my own family to enjoy.

I also decided to make the "Cascade" quilt for my mama. We had the best time fabric shopping together! We modified the color choices and repeated some of the colors more often. We are preserving the cascading ripples of dark and light, of course. Here's our plan (colored pencils don't exactly match the fabric but you get the idea). My husband jokes I will give it to her for a particular milestone birthday that falls in 5 years!

Then I re-realized that during the course of the class you build a queen-sized quilt bit by bit. So I went fabric shopping again. This will be a summer quilt for my own bed so it is light and bright like sunshine and flowers. The parts I left white on the plan I think I will be filling in with scraps. I haven't quite decided. The parts that are striped will also be scraps.

in celebration of August anniversaries

Sweet little fabric hearts.

Fabric finds!

While on my anniversary adventure, my husband and I checked out some antique shops which is where I really found my treasures.

At one shop I bought three large pieces of vintage fabric. Two are patterned and one is this really awesome silk screen of a poppy by Alfred Shaheen who apparently made his claim to fame creating classy Hawaiian print shirts. I found this board on Pinterest dedicated to his pieces and this listing on etsy for the exact piece I found. So it seems to be from the 1960s.

I think I am going to sew a simple pocket along the top and some hems on the side and bottom. I'd like to slide a dowel or a piece of driftwood in the top pocket and just hang it up in my sunroom. That leaves me with a whole extra piece of it and I had the thought that it would make an awesome quilt. The giant poppy smack dab in the middle and some cool quilt squares around the border – greens and oranges and other fabrics printed with poppies. Could be really fun! Check back with me in 5 years to see how that project is going!

I had no reason to buy orange fabric with chickens. I just liked it!

I will be using this on my daughter's quilt soon!

quilt progress: the pink stripe

I've got a quarter of a quilt top done! I am loving the mish-mash craziness of having all kinds of random fabrics mixed together.

Fabric with no purpose

Thanks to my sister and my mama, I indulged in some fabric shopping recently. What joy to my heart! I bought fabric by artists and designers I love and I have no plan for it. Only a birthday gift can be so frivolous. Of course, I am sure that someday I will make them into something beautiful. Just give me time.

Here's a tour for those who are fellow fabric fanatics.

The group on the left is from the Garden Party and Drawing Room collections by Anna Maria Horner. I follow her blog here. I bought them from Mountain of the Dragon on etsy.

The four in the center are called Alegria and they are by illustrator Geninne D. Zlatkis. They might look familiar to you because they are the very same birdies I did the sunroom curtains in! I love/adore Genine's blog and highly recommend it and her beautiful peek into her art and her life in Mexico. I bought these from Blije Olifantje on etsy. I should mention that Genine herself has a shop on etsy too. Strange to think I have yet to buy a piece of her artwork!

The one tucked up in the upper right corner of the photo was found by patiently scrolling through page after page of search results for "feather fabric." You know I love feathers and birdies! This fabric is also done by an illustrator: Katherine Codega. She sells her own work on etsy.

Sunroom treasures: curtains & crewel

I finally got the curtains sewed for the sunroom!

I first wrote about my fabric selection way back here in February of 2012. The design is by one of my very favorite artists and bloggers, Geninne Zlatkis. I just adore her sweet little birdies and appreciate our mutual love of nature. When I finally went to buy the fabric it was actually rather difficult to find a continuous piece. There seemed to be plenty of smaller quilt-worthy cuts but it was a trick to find what I needed. The moral of that story is if you see some new fabric line you absolutely must have, well, don't delay in buying it.

Curtains are fairly simple to sew once you've mastered the elusive straight line (I will admit this was actually quite difficult when I was first learning to sew) but I still sought some online guidance. I ended up following these directions posted on Design*Sponge.

I also added these sweet little crewel pictures I bought for a mere $2 each at the Allegan Antiques Market. Of course odd numbers are better when it comes to decorating so I will have to keep my eye out for a third!

The oval shaped one had this inscription on the back. If anyone knows Judy Verslype, please pass along my compliments. Her craft work from long ago is making me smile today!

…and small!

These were for my niece's 1-year-old birthday. Almost all of the fabric came free from a dear family friend in her 90s who has been gifting me with her stash. It has been a very fun thing for me!

And these were for a gift for a co-worker's baby. I knew the nursery was to be black, gray, and yellow and I was worried I didn't have enough of those colors. I shouldn't have feared! There was plenty to choose from among the fabrics I've been given.

Again, the pattern was from Sew What You Love: The Easiest, Prettiest Projects Ever.

stuffed balls big…

I've been on a kick with the stuffed balls lately (as found in Sew What You Love: The Easiest, Prettiest Projects Ever). They are fairly easy to sew – or at least I can say I get better and better sewing curves with each one I do! – and they make lovely gifts. And I really get a kick out of mixing and matching the fabrics.

This giant one uses the fabrics found in a friend's nursery. A lovely use of scraps if I do say so myself.

And of course I had to make another one for my own girlies. It is big enough to use as a footstool!

A note about stuffing these babies: I've read you need to stuff things like this until they are firm. And I've always thought "oh, that isn't soft or squishy enough." Well, I've come around to the camp of stuffing and stuffing and then stuffing a bit more. They keep their shape so much better when they are just bursting through.

on leaf shapes

I've been observing and photographing leaf shapes lately. I have visions of patterns and repeats and overlaps and color combinations for fabric designs.