Beautiful Sunday

What a gorgeous day it is in Houston today. When I woke up it was around 50 degrees, now it is about 75 , the sky is clear and the wind is light. A beautiful day all around.

Today I took Alex and the girls to a fund raiser for Dachshund Rescue of Houston. The theme was The Wizard of Oz and many of the dogs and humans came dressed for the theme. The girls and Alex went with fabric ruffs. Kelis's lasted about 10 minutes, Kemora's about an hour while Alex's lasted until we made it back to the car. Paul and his girlfriend came as well and the dogs were ecstatic to have them there. When he's around I might as well not exist! There were about 50 dogs there that ran the gamut of sizes from a sweet seven pounder to a hefty 25 pounds. Two actually got adopted at the party and everyone had a good time playing with the dogs.

It was fun to watch other owners with their dogs. A few would not let them on the ground to play with the other dogs. Where they afraid they would get dirty? The other extreme was Alex and I ... I let him off his leash most of the time and he just loved finding dropped food, chasing a green tennis ball, sniffing rear ends and generally making himself a bit of a pest. Fortunately everyone was very tolerant of his antics. All three crashed in the car, barely moving until we got to within a couple of miles from home.

And before you ask... I FORGOT MY CAMERA... I do not have one picture of all this playfulness. I hope all the other photographers will be posting their photos on the web site so you can see some of the wonderful puppies that were there (Alex and the girls included!).

I hope you had a pleasant weekend. Now I need to get myself in gear to get ready for company during the Quilt Festival. I think it would be nice if my company had a bed to sleep in and a clean bathroom to use. On the other hand, with all the shopping and quilt viewing that we will be doing, beds and bathrooms seem irrelevant. Have a good week!

Fall Swap

I completed a swap I am involved with today and I think it turned out well. It is in the mail but I am not sure if it made it in time for tonight's mail. Here is a photo of the goodies I sent out (a Little bright - sorry!):

I started with making a brown fabric box with copper ribbon trim. Inside the box I added a yard of hand dyed fabric from Just Imagination, a soy tart that smells of pumpkin pie, an orange and brown Craft Leftovers kit for a cocheted dish cloth, 10 yards of various fall type trims, an assortment of copper/brown beads, sequins and adornments, a covered note book, a brown beaded pen and a small watercolor kit. It seemed like every thing I included in this package came from a separte city that I have visited. Not exactly true but there are things from Barcelona, New York City, Washington DC, Washington state, Dallas and Houston. The parameters of this swap were pretty wide open.... essentially to put together a package with Fall as the theme. My partner is a skilled purse maker and said that she loves fabric and trms. I hope she likes this package!

I have another swap that's due out by November 8th that's organized by the Free Paople Clothing blog. The theme they are looking at is 'Dark Fairy' that is based on their recent catalog. I'm not completely sure what I will include in that package but I think I will start with a sewn box as well and go from there. My partner in that swap likes nature related things and I am wondering if the ideas percolating in my skull will come to fruition... only time will tell.

The International Quilt Festival is in Houston next week and I will be there most days I am looking forward to seeing friends I only see at the festival and, of course, all the beautiful quilts. I think I will be taking a lot of pictures and I will post them when I can.

Have a good weekend and keep those cards, letters and comments coming!

Giveaway

Anyone want a free ticket to Stitch Austin on November 10th? Leave a comment and, if I get more than one, I'll randomly give it to someone in a drawing. If only one person comments, then its yours. Comment (by November 2nd) letting me know if you are listening.

Why am I giving away my ticket after waiting almost a whole year for this event? Well....

I just found out today that my Gall Bladder needs to come out... actually I've known this for many years but have just put up with the pain and nausea. My last attack was about a month ago and it really spoiled an otherwise perfect day with the dogs and my son as it lasted almost 20 hours. A couple of weeks ago I had an Ultrasound and it showed quite a few stones. Today I saw the surgeon and she agreed that it needed to come out, preferably as an elective surgery, rather than having it done during an attack. Since I have to go clean out my Dad's Florida apartment in early December, sooner, rather than later, is the mantra today.

The surgery is scheduled for Monday, November 5th and Paul has been volunteered to stay with me the first day or so to make sure everything goes well. I may be in great shape by Saturday the 10th but I just can't ask him to dog sit (again) during the busiest time of year for caterers. He works for the premiere caterer in Houston and is currently working seven days a week and some days are very, very long .. not a good situation for Alex who is very needy for human companionship. My Mom guilt over both Paul and Alex has come to the forefront, again, so my ticket is available if you want it.

Don't know what Stitch Austin is... here is the link to their blog - http://stitchaustin.blogspot.com/

Let me know if you would like my ticket and keep those cards, letters and comments coming.

Hand Embroidery Part Two

Today I had the opportunity to follow-up on the crazy quilting session I had with the Spring Branch neighborhood group back in September. Although only a couple of people completed the challenge from last time (to use the materials I had given them and make something from the bits and pieces) eight people came for the follow-up. This time they were given only a piece of muslin, a piece of 28 count Edinburough linen, a piece of cotton floss, a piece of silk floss and a couple of beads. I provided lots of scissors, embroidery hoops and needles that needed to be returned to me, the rest was for their stash.
We reviewed the prior work (stripping floss, loading needles and samples of my work) then proceeded to practice perfect french knots, easy bead stitching and laying silk threads for satin stitches. We ended up with a few minutes of discussion on how to work with even weave fabrics. I don't know if anyone else had fun but I certainly did! I enjoy passing on knowledge to others even if they only use the skills a few times. I forgot to take pictures of the completed projects from last time but they were very clever in using up most of the materials I had given them.
I will be doing a crazy quilt class for the Kingwood neighborhood group in January and I wonder if I should do the same class I did for Spring Branch or do different sitches. I will probably do the same stuff as it would be easier for me but it would be fun to add some woven stitches or complex knots. Fortunately I have a while to figure that out.

Brain Scanner

Try this one out - http://brainscannr.com/ Not sure what it means but mine came out with a large angry sperm shaped thing surrounded by blank space with shocked and puzzled happy faces around the edges... don't think I like what its saying about me! I also tried it with my first and last name and with my middle name as well and it still came out weirdly. Then again I may be misinterpreting what I am seeing.

Austin Maker Faire

I went to the Austin Maker Faire this weekend. This is the first year it has been in Austin so it was my first opportunity to participate. I had been anticipating this for many months and, like a kid on Christmas morning, I was both pleased and disappointed with the whole event. Here's a run down of what I think was the good, the bad and the ugly of this event.

Location - The Faire was held at the Travs County Fair grounds. This is a large area where Travis County has its annual Fair. There are three large buildings - one is an arena that looks like a space for hockey games, one is a smaller modern exhibit space and one is a large animal show barn. The first two were air conditioned while the latter was not. Most of the electronic, geeky stuff was in the arena. The Make and Craft magazine store was in the second building. The more hands-on crafty stuff was in the barn. The grounds were full of tents for exhibitors of alternative housing, local food providers, a human sized mouse trap game, a watermelon catapault launcher, two music stages and a huge area where the largest kites I have ever seen were flown. The location gets a mixed review. The sales space was great, the arena was crowded and very noisy. The barn was unacceptable. The barn floor was dirt and the walls were open to the elements. As the temperatures were around 90 both days it was truly uncomfortable. Maybe they can find a different space for next year.

Pictures above are of the human sized Mouse trap game, a distant view of the Mentos and Diet Coke fountain and a look at the grounds with a view at the human powered ferris wheel free-wheeling it over the grounds.

Swap-o-rama-rama - This clothing swap and clothing re-design area was in the barn. I brought a couple of shopping bags full of stuff and was surprised that I only saw two pieces on the tables for swapping. One was an old white turtle neck and the other was a light weight wool shirt. The shirt actually ended up on a mannequin of one of the local designers being refashioned into a sleeveless cropped jacket. There was very little sewing going on. The most action was at the tables where the silk screeners were busy adding embellishments to the mounds of t-shirts that people were decorating. The fashon show at the end of the day had nothing to do with the action during the day as the clothing shown was from the designers assisting in the Swap and not from the participants. This was a disappointing experience for me as I was hoping to see a lot of action here. I did find three denim skits for myself that were my size but I did not re-fashion them as they were great just the way they were. Maybe next year the designers will be more pro-active in helping people select and redesign the available clothing. AND the location sucked... an open air barn with a dirt floor is not the best place for this kind of activity.

Other Crafty Exhibitors - I really enjoyed seeing some of the people that I regularly visit on the web. A little hut, from Kingwood of all places, had a nice exhibit of recycled art and did a demo on her work at the store building. I also saw a Roomba vacuum reworked into a random painting tool. And check out the great drawing of classsic horror movie villans on on a dirt covered car.

Geek heaven - The arena area was wild. I made a circuit board that played sounds when connnected correctly, listened to a lecture on catapaults, chatted with a woman who makes robots and who also demoed hand quilting, and enjoyed the robot band that used plastic baby doll heads as a key design element.

The robot and hand quilter booth, the lecture on catapaults with a list of the 10 favorite things to fling including dead bodies, snakes and rejected messengers, and the baby doll head robotic band.

My circuit in action, a fussy vew of the robotic Perry Como and a view of the exhibit floor in the arena.

The Store - Being the most modern building with the nicest bathrooms made this a great location. I did do some shopping and ended up with a new pocket knife specifically for electrical work. The label on it was 'bomb diffuser' and both my son and I decided it is the coolest tool in my collection. The editors of both Craft and Make magazines did a lot of demos in this space. I stopped to rest my feet and ended up watching a demo on making paper beads. The demo only took about 10 minutes with the balance of the time taken up with the Craft editors trying to prove that even a child could make them without much help... they were proven wrong :-).

Overall I enjoyed being at the Maker Faire. The location was not as user friendly as I had expected but I spoke to a lot people that I admire and saw some incredible work. I certainly had a chance to try out things I would never do on my own. I will go again next year but wear more comfortable shoes.

Several people have asked if the American Sewing Guild should participate in such an event. I definately think there is a place for us but this is an event where you can't sit back and wait for people to show an interest. The most successful booths had displays on their back wall with interactive areas on the aisle, inviting people to sit down and participate in some activity. The weavers, spinners and lace makers all had successful booths. The local ASG chapter did participate and were making comfort bags for a local hospital. It was not as successful as some of the other booths but they had some incredible garments on display.

Now I had better go and batten down the hatches as a cold front is coming and the temperatures are expected to drop into the 50's before the end of the day. Yahoo!

Breast Cancer Month Projects

Many of us are always looking for ways to use our skills to help others. Here are two fast and easy projects for those recovering from breast cancer.

The first is a pouch to help someone who has had breast surgery or during radiation treatments, to keep their arm away from their side. Here is the pattern. - http://www.asg.org/files/projects/Anti_Ouch_Pouch.pdf I made four about a month ago and I'd estimate that it took me about 15 mintues for each bag from raw fabric to finished piece. I must admit that there is one craft item I do not have... fiberfil. Although I have been in crafty stores many times since making my initial four pouches, I still have not picked up a bag of fiberfill, so they remain incomplete.

The second project I saw is a knitted breast prosthesis. An unexpected project, created by a dynamic breast cancer survivor... even if you don't knit her commentary is delightful. The link is - http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall05/PATTbits.html

I am sure there are many more projects out there and every cancer center has suggested projects but I think both of these are rather unique and will meet the needs of many breast cancer patients.

Challenge Project

The Seams Possible Neighborhood group of the Houston ASG has a challenge for next year. The organizers handed out little CD envelopes with three things in them - a paint chip, a sample of a stitch and the name of an old movie. The challenge is to take these three inspirations and create a project that incoporates them. Not too tough, right? Well, here are my three design elements -

The blue is the envelope the pieces came in. The paint chip looks Mauve to me or a dusty Rose color. The stitch looks like a standard utility stitch. BUT the movie... Sergeant York, from 1941... that could be a problem. The movie is based on the diaries of Alvin York, a Tennesse hillbilly, sharpshooter, pacificst who becomes one of the most decorated American heroes of WWI when he single-handedly attacks and captures a German position using the same strategy as in a turkey shoot. The real York chose Gary Cooper to play him and Cooper won an Oscar for his acting skill. I have no idea how to incorporate all these elements into a project but it must have been fate that gave me this particular challenge as I received it just after visiting Hobby Lobby and picking up this clearance fabric -

Looks pretty good doesn't it? As I have seven yards of this thirty inch wide fabric I certainly have enough to execute any design but Gary Cooper in Rose... I don't think so... maybe a military style jacket and match up the stipes or a knapsack or 'go to meeting' type dress or.... I don't know but ideas are always welcome. Fortunately I have a few months to figure it out.

Wish me luck!

BTW - while I wrote this I was watching Happy Feet on HBO. What a delghtful movie! Great music and a wonderful 'ugly duckiling' type plot line. Watch when you need a good smile.

Making Vintage Handbags

I am a sucker for almost any book that talks about making handbags. I was hoping that this book would talk about vintage construction techniques... like handling horse hair interfacing or closures prevelant in previous years. None of these issues were addressed however this is a great book of vintage shapes from the 1920's, 30's, 40's and 50's.

I needed something that used a lot of buttons for the ASG annual meeting. We had a challenge to use a bag of buttons in a project. The buttons were given to us at last year's meeting and, Friday afternoon, this book arrived in the mail and inspired me to use my buttons in a bag. I know that I had a whole year to select and complete a project using the buttons but what would be the fun in that?

Here is a picture of the shiny brass buttons I received, for the challlenge ,with my helper.

I removed the shanks, mounted the buttons on a styrofoam board, spray painted them with primer then sprayed them with copper paint. I did learn that if you get spray paint on styrofoam the styrofoam tends to shrink up and I ended up with a piece of styrofoam with a bunch of button shaped mountains on it. I don't think I will use styrofoam as a background for spray painting again.

The bag I chose to reproduce was Grace from th 1940's. The supplies list and cutting instructions are very well done.

Here is Grace as I interpreted the design:

The fabric was from one of the wool sweaters I picked up in Canada and felted. The leaf was created from gray Ultra Suede, fused to the wool and stitched down using copper thread. The buttons were applied to the leaf using Glitter Glue. The handle and lining are more of the same gray Ultra Suede . If you look real closely you will see that I twisted the handle when finishing up the bag.

This handbag is an excellent size for a day out... not too big, not too small. It held most of my bits and pieces but I did not ask it to hold my Nintendo DS or a book, both of which I tend to carry when I am out on my own.

Two new time wasters

What kind of Yarn are you? My initial answer was who cares but this quiz asks odd questions so you too can find out what kind of yarn your are... http://www.quizilla.com/users/bisybackson/quizzes/What%20kind%20of%20yarn%20are%20you%3F. By the way I turned out to be mohair, a yarn I really hate since I was given a mohair sweater many years ago only to have it felt the first time it was washed.

The other site has many, many funny things in it that are adult oriented but clean... search on bug spray for a particularly good example. http://bitsandpieces1.blogspot.com/