Multi-Tasking, Thanks for Asking

This is not a pattern. These are shapes.

I am all over the place.  Depending on the outside temperature I find that during the shoulder season I need something to work on in different rooms of the house.  On cool days the upstairs sewing room is best. I'm cutting in to an old, hurt quilt and making a teddy bear.  I had to find a new pattern because while I saved the directions and the pattern envelope from my old (and I do mean old) pattern, the pattern itself went missing. I love a crisp, new pattern. I cut it apart with pinking shears, too dull to use on fabric but perfect for that light tissue that real patterns are printed on.Then I indulged in the ritual 'ironing of the pattern' where you lightly press the fold and crease marks out so when you place it on the fabric it lies perfectly flat. I started sewing the pattern pieces together without consulting the directions. I was using a REAL pattern, and the markings and information on the pattern pieces made that possible.

THIS IS A PATTERN

 Well that, and because I learned how to sew from using real patterns back in the day when Home Ec was mandatory for 7th grade girls.  I still think it should be mandatory - for boys and girls.  Why not learn to sew? Cook a meal? Banking, growing plants, living with a budget. Do a load of laundry without ruining the works. How to paint a wall. How to wield a cutting brush. Life skills, baby, I'm talking about basic. life. skills. Back to the bear -  I started watching an old movie on the VHS in my sewing room (man, I am a dinosaur) and clipped and darted and notched my way thought more than half of the bear before I called it quits for the night. (Okay there is a DVD player in there too, just sayin'.) I love old movies. I love REAL patterns. They are a marvel of engineering. How else would you get such elegant curves and shapes and forms?

NOT BLUE

If it's too hot for the sewing room I work on the main floor in the family room, paper piecing. I'm working on making a new purse and I loved my Japanese big bag so much I'm doing a smaller version, but NOT IN BLUE, MOM (if you're reading this in heaven and you probably are because I hear you yell at me every time I sew over pins.) I went WAY out of my color comfort zone and am doing this in shades of purple, mainly because it's already in my stash and I'm not getting any younger. I am photographing the hexie layout on my ironing board so I can work from the picture when I go downstairs to sew it together. (Easy to consult the iPad and double check the layout.) I'm also using straw needles and YLI silk thread to join them - double thread, because it's a purse. Even with interfacing and future layers, I want it sturdy. I must say, silk thread is the most unbelievably EASY thing to sew with, once you face the fact that properly knotting it is never going to happen. Even a quilters knot slid down the length of it tends to just melt apart. Oh silk, you are so...silky. It's very therapeutic to hand sew in the evening, I find I sleep better when I'm thus tranquilized.  As long as I manage to leave my iPad alone and not read email, Twitter and other assorted addictions (okay ANGRY BIRDS) I have a productive evening with beautiful results.

Sewing used to be my reward.  I work multiple jobs and it involves a LOT of juggling. I say "used to be a reward" because I've realized lately that it is something I MUST do. I'm happier, more aware of color and texture in my personal and professional lives (I work with art groups) and it opens up my head.  When I was commuting to Lowell every day I used to sing in the car.  I'm sure people wondered what the hell I was singing that took so much air and effort (usually something from Handel's Messiah or another choral work...) but it had the same effect. While it did cut down my road rage, I will confess to changing the words to an expletive when someone cut me off or changed lanes in front of me too abruptly.  It also made me laugh hysterically - you need to sing "motherf)($&#(er" in full soprano head voice to get the full effect.  Regardless of the word usage, when you get it really going and flowing it spirals up and creates a kind of harmonic buzz in your head. You get a little bit....high. At least I do. Music and art are the gifts that let us glimpse at the Paradise Lost - the world we were supposed to be living in, and not the one mankind has created.

I love autumn, it's my favorite season. It's good for inner reflection, taking inventory of life and time left. Hand sewing provides the opportunity to think back, remember, and relive wonderful memories. I am more awake - is that possible? I'm conscious of counting my days, wanting them to be full and filled with the glories of creation, the people I love and excellent football. Not every day will be so burnished and successful, but I'm working on it with the hope that it helps me through the days that are.......well, not so much.

What was any art but a mold in which to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself - life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose.

Willa Cather

Getting "IT"

It's never a good sign when I'm playing around with the look of my blog. It is an indicator of  one of two things: brain freeze ( I got nuthin')  or time-out (when I'm stressed, heat stressed, anxiety stressed, etc. and anything I put on the internet would be of the shock and awe variety, and not the "good" shock and awe, either. ) So there you go.  I'm playing with the look of my blog.  (Okay, I'm in time-out.)

In the meantime I have an amazing labor of love to occupy my hands.  A very good friend has one of the wall hangings made by my mother. We used to sell them in our store here in Gloucester and then mail a check back to her where she would cash it in and buy more quilting fabric.  (Mom kicked ass that way.)     Linn  has had this beauty hanging in her home for many years and recently asked me to take it home and give it a wash - she was nervous about doing it herself.  Okey dokey.  Washed. Line dried in the approaching scorching heat.  When I took it down I noticed that the sleeve on the back of the hanging had some places where the threads had just let go.  Age happens.  I found a spool of black thread and a sharp needle and I'm redoing the entire sleeve.  It is a miracle that I'm able to do it without clutching it to my chest, crying, and refusing to let it go.  (Eleven years later I think I'm finally making progress with my  grief.)  I'm actually enjoying the process, loving the chance to work on something my mom made, and grateful for the fact that Linn GETS IT.

There are not a lot of people out there who "get it" when it comes to quilts or, for that matter, anything hand crafted.  Paintings in galleries are found "worthy" but quilts, knit socks, hats or scarves are just KRAFTY with a K and not "worthy" of being looked at as serious creative expressions that require time and talent.  It has been an uphill battle for years.  To show my serious intent I was going to start a quilt guild here in Gloucester and call it "Quilt Bitches" and we'd all get Harley-Davidson tattoos (but the motorcycle would have a quilted seat.)  Cool, right? 'Cept I'd never get a tattoo.

A quilter's quest for street cred is apparently a life-long venture.  This is made more difficult by The Learning Channel's newest program, Craft Wars, hosted by..... TORI SPELLING.  Seriously, TLC?  I personally believe the only time she's had a hot glue gun in her hand was when she was replacing some hair extensions that had fallen out. A Twitter peep of mine remarked that  while she did watch the debut show,  she found "Tori's  clown-like makeup distracting."  TLC needs to learn (oohh, how ironic...) that credibility is an important part of attracting an intelligent and respectful audience who - when given intelligent content from creditable sources - have a way of going out and spending money with the show's sponsors to recreate those ideas in their own home.  It's a concept.

Time to get back to sewing the sleeve on this wall hanging.  Linn was skittish about  washing it herself because she wanted to make sure it was done carefully and properly because she loves this thing as much as I do.  She respects the time, effort, labor and creativity that went in to producing it. She gets it.

Back to the Dorm - 30 Years Later

I am at Bennington College in Vermont helping with a week-long conference on the arts.  There are 140 plus people here, all taking a week-long workshop in their chosen field. I am in the office being the go-to person. 
(Note:  I have never been here in my life and I have no idea what I am doing. I just write things down in my notebook, nod my head sympathetically and then find someone who DOES know what the hell they are doing.) 
It is fantastic being around all of these artists.  The faculty for this year's conference is stellar. The  opening ceremonies last night featured 5 slides by each faculty person and it was WOWZA.  After listening to each instructor present their work I thought, "Ooohh Ohhhh I want to do that." Then the next instructor would present and I'd think, "OH WAAAYY, I want to do THAT!" Every one of them had charisma, every one of them would be great to have as a teacher.  What's not to love? 

The dorm. 
Not so much the dorm itself but the fact that if I need to pee at 3AM I have to get up and put on a robe, go out in hall and shuffle to the loo.  Problem #2 - there is only ONE toilet and ONE shower  that about 6 people must share. That wasn't a problem 30 years ago because my dorm back then had a HUGE ROOM with 10 showers, 10 sinks and 10 toilets. Yay - no waiting! (And FYI  I didn't have to sometimes pee at 3AM when I was 19......)  This is just weird.  These dorms aren't that old - maybe built in the 80's - but they are not up to snuff for a 53 year old woman with a cell phone, iPad, iPod, curling iron, hairdryer, coffee maker (hey, I'm not stupid) all looking for an outlet. I'm in a TWIN ROOM, by myself (TYJ) and I'm splayed out like a bomb exploded. How the hell did I do this at 19? Granted, we had none of the phone or digital gadgets, but geez, really?  
My husband and I live in a 4 bedroom home with 3 1/2 bathrooms and I claimed the master bath for my own years ago.  (Joe is content to shuffle down the hall.)  This is bad training for dorm life. Very bad training.  This is going to be a big character building week for me, "roughing it" like this. 

I brought along some sashiko and a hexagon project I've wanted to start for ages. I'm paper piecing hexagons with fabric from the late 1800's.   I've got vodka and tonic water chilling on the windowsill (again - not stupid) so I plan to have a few evenings to myself to sit, sew, and listen to podcasts or watch quilt lectures downloaded from the IQSC in Lincoln, Nebraska.  
What's not to love! 

Update, Progress and a Smile

My Friday Night Sew-In has become an all day and night event. I'm home today, drinking way too much coffee and getting ready to fire up the sewing room. But first - an update.

It  is looking like 2 pincushions and one small table ornamentationesque thingie with about 8 cathedral window blocks will be the output summary of my cathedral windows experience.  I will post pictures when I have determined how to disguise my issues with intersecting points.   I have learned that people use plain muslin for a reason, that cutting those 10 inch squares requires you to strictly observe the straight of grain rules, and that I just may do this again sometime now that I have learned these and other rules of the cathedral windows road.

For today's smile, here is one of the brilliant re-interpretations of classic art masterpieces from Barbara Brackman. Check out the others (and her wonderful blog)  at Material Culture .