A New Sewing Adventure! Vintage Patterns and On Demand Fabric!

Today my first yard of on demand fabric arrived! A few weeks ago, I participated in a workshop at the Textile Center with Stephen Fraser, co-founder of Spoonflower Fabric. What is Spoonflower? It is a website that allows you to upload your design and create fabric. You can order a fat quarter or yardage.
Check out their website www.spoonflower.com

It was a fabulous rainy day. The highlight for me was learning the 'math' for creating appropriate repeats for the width of fabric I was looking for. The prints are available on a variety of very good quality cottons, linens, silks and blends. It sounds like there may be more offerings this summer available as well.

My yard of fabric is a pencil drawing of some cherries that I colored with COLOR CRAYONS!! It took me not more than 5 minutes to create the design. I spent a little time playing with the types of repeats and scaling it to different types of fabric widths until  I found this layout that I liked. I chose a half drop repeat because I like the secondary pattern created by the tiles.

Spoonflower has had a tremendous impact on the quilting community especially. It has impacted independent retailers... in a good way. You see, Spoonflower has weekly contests. Every week there is a different contest that ANYONE can enter. The design must meet certain criteria or limitations and then the people who frequent the sight vote on their favorite fabrics. The benefit of this is that many quilt fabric manufacturers have found out about Spoonflower and follow the contest winners! Some have found their way to become licensed fabric designers for companies like Windom Fabrics. Michael Miller and Robert Kaufman have had specific contests to 'find their next licensed designer on Spoonflower'. Many other companies follow as well. It is a great place to see the trends of what people are designing and what people are buying.

Designers can sell their designs.. or choose not to. It is personal preference. I hope to enter some contests, just to make myself become more fluent and more disciplined in the world of fabric design.

Remember those vintage patterns I found, the 1946 apron pattern is the one I am going to make with this fabric. I am hoping to cut it out this weekend and maybe have a new post for monday.. Either a progress report.. and or a finished apron! Might have to stop at Glad Creations to get some Rick Rack.. I think the bright turquoise blue would be perfect on this fabric!

Ooh, this is going to be sew much fun! (I know that was very cliche! I couldn't resist!)

Poodles and Pillowcases

Over the weekend I went to the cabin and shared with my mom all of the photos of heirloom embroidery I took this week. The intention was to have my mom tell me who made what and when. It seemed appropriate for a Memorial Day weekend.
Mom just mentioned to me today... "I didn't realize you have so many pillowcases." It is ok with me. I like stuff like that. My mom has been embroidering since she was young. My grandmother taught her. My grandmother, tatted and crocheted as well, although mom never learned these things. When mom was 6 she bit the end off of grandma's tatting needle, so Grandma quit tatting after that. Grandma would have been 50 then. I think she still crocheted, as my stash includes doilies from the 60's that Grandma made for her black and silver mohair sofa.  They were rectangular arm covers.

Here are some dishtowels my mother made for me..the first set... we seem to be missing Sunday...it is most likely in someone else's storage box... (MOM's) I am not sure we have gotten through all of them...

Poodles Mom embroidered just before I was born- how did she know I would like to sew on Wednesdays?

My niece saw these dishtowels after my mom brought them home from AZ. She was eyeing them and finally said, "Grandma, I REALLY like these." I snatched them up and said, "These are mine, you will have to place your own order with Grandma." Not to worry, my niece is now 10 and has 34 pairs of pillow cases made by my mom and who knows how many dishtowels of her own.  My mom has already taught her to embroider several years ago.. well, and I taught her to sew already too. She is in good company.

Poodles Mom just did for me a couple of years ago... what am I doing Wednesdays these days?

 These pillow cases, my grandmother gave my mom and said she should have since she was the one who broke the tatting needle... I am grateful for that... My mom says I get my color sense from my grandmother... Thank you Grandma! I am having fun with it! I think my signature colors of hot pink, lime green and black are inspired by my grandmothers love of color... I never saw her use those colors, however, after I adopted them, my mother told me here bedroom was done that way when she was little... the colorist was my grandma....

Pillowcases made by my grandmother, in 1918, when she was 18 years old

The pillowcases above and below were a surprise from the weekend. I didn't know my grandmother made these.  The lower photo were done around 1926-27 as she was married in May of 1927.  These have a crocheted edge and are worked with a white buttonhole stitch with pink and yellow. Good thing I have grown to like pink... it is prominent in my grandmothers work.. The living room that featured the black and silver mohair sofa, included geranium pink pillows and chairs, the walls were mint green. That was in the late 50's -60's.

Another set of pillowcases made by grandma in 1926 for her wedding

Thank you for allowing me to share the stories of my beautiful treasures.. Glad Creations has a good selection of vintage type embroidery patterns for dishtowels, and embroidery floss! DMC is mom's favorite!

A photo to go along with yesterday's post. I spent the day today organizing photos on my computer.. there are over 2000 now.. and they are easy to retrieve. (they were not as easy to find last night) Now to just stay in the habit of properly filing them into the appropriate folders every time I download them from my phone.

I am quite inspired by the new look of the blog, except, the colors aren't my signature colors. There is a color combination that is almost my brand (it actually is, many people see the combination and think of me...almost like magic! I like magic... but I only use it for good and never against someone else's will)...Oh, back to MY personal colors... Hot Pink, Bright Spring Green and Black...that is my ultimate blog background... Just to find/figure out the best way to make it MINE! I am an original, so I like to create original things and experiences...

I am back...

Hello, I am back and not making any promises I can't keep. I have been following some of my favorite blogs regularly and working on some projects that have been really demanding of time and energy... It is difficult getting into a new habit and finding out what I want to write about and coordinating all of my interests into one unique blog that makes sense. Maybe it needs to be more than one.. I don't know. Maybe I just start out with it being more of an online creative journal, getting back to my passion of sewing and working with fabrics.

I just recently finished some fabulous silk pillows for a client and am quite pleased with how they turned out. Invisible zippers and all, they went together ... well... smooth as silk.

 Here is a photo of their permanent home. A newly upholstered Eastlake Settee on a 5" plank Hickory floor. It is lovely!

















It is now time to focus on the color workshop this July with Leatrice Eiseman. I am very excited about this. There is homework to do and books to read and a quiz to take all before the workshop. I am looking forward to the challenge of furthering my color knowledge and increasing the benefits that my color passion and experience  can offer a larger group of people. Most likely there will be new methods of sharing the fascinating world of color and increasing the color knowledge of others out there. There are plenty of beginning color workshops.. lectures and classes out there. Many are taught by people who have read books and have a basic conceptual knowledge of color. All of my training and education is based on my personal/professional experience. I play in color and I learn a lot from playing. If anyone is interested in learning color by playing with me, please feel free to contact me to create a fun and rewarding color learning experience. I am committed that my students leave feeling confident and knowing more about color and color relatedness than when they started and the only feeling of overwhelm they may experience is where to start applying the new knowledge of color in their lives.. personally, professionally and creatively. Send me an e-mail for more info..

Getting "it" together

The past few months I have been gathering information about a lot of things that I want to further explore in my life. None have turned out to be something to set aside, so far...


With that, there has been a lot going on. Now comes the task of creating an infrastucture of automation with built in flexibility.


I want to be able to allow my areas of strength and expertise support me while I take on new areas of learning and application.


So, the next thing to create is the infrastructure. There are many tools out there that I have found, the problem is, until you know exactly what you want to do and how much time you want to commit to it, those tools are just another thing to do.. so.. on with the infrastructure.


I will do something that allows me to put my brain into the mode of methodic creation... sew ! Sewing for me is something I do wholly and completely.


 It engages my physical self, standing, sitting, cutting, detail work with my hands.. I can feel the energy flowing from my finger tips.


My mental self is also engaged, the problem solving skills and visualization of the next steps and how it all goes together stimulates this part of me.


Spiritually, I find that my intuition is fairly high and accurate when I sew, not to mention the trillions of additional creative ideas that flow freely into my being.


And finally, my emotional being is involved. Either the process is going well and inspiring me to keep going and happy endorphins are swimming in my blood stream OR the thread is breaking, needles are snapping and I keep sewing the wrong pieces together in the wrong direction and I am channeling unexpressed frustration from other areas of life out into the ethers... either way.. it is a healing and regenerative process for me.. sew on to it..


 I will post things I have been making and what I am working on ... by the end of the week? Integrity.. be in integrity... commit to it.. OK.. I will put it into the emerging infrastructure....

Anticipating the pictures

The new iphone has been great fun. In under two weeks I have managed to take over 700 photos and research a good 10K apps. I have it narrowed down to a few... under 20....

The more I see that can be creatively expressed through technology, the more inspired I become. I haven't any really great edited photos to share yet.. I have to figure out where to store all of this stuff, electronically and how to access it quickly. Be assured once I do, every post will have a photo............. (or three!)

Right now, I am feeling like I am losing ground on some of my personal projects currently in process. I have some exciting new design projects coming up, a kitchen and a commercial project, as well as the area of access to clientele. All are in the beginning stages. It is very exciting. I just need to create a good structure to maintain balance and keep it all running smoothly.

Expand my creativity on my own projects, be in the practice of what I have learned and developed on projects for others and share the inspiration and excitement along the way; that is my focus today.

Some projects I want to desperately get finished for myself are, the cherry dress. A lovely rayon of black navy, with deep red cherries scattered about. The neckline is a v- with flounced ruffles, the top being the black navy and the under flounce is a deep red, just peeking through. The sleeves are a small, flounced cap that slips out just beneath the red of the underflounce. All that is left is the zipper (an invisible one of course) and stitch up the side seams and finish the bottom dress and lining hem. All in all about an hour and a half of work left on it.. should be easy yes?  not so far.... keep getting distracted!

There is another mixed media project to get started. I have scheduled time with a freind.. when I do this, I have more likelihood of staying on top of a project. I am much more accountable to others lately than I have been to myself. Something I will consciously have to work on. (not at the expense of others, but to honor myself) My life works very well when I honor myself and am accountable to me.. and life is pretty good right now.. ooh, the excitement of what lies ahead! Some SURPRISES I am sure! There is a new book at Glad's that I am drooling over. The author is Leslie Riley and the book is Create with Transfer Artist Paper: Use TAP to Transfer Any Image onto Fabric, Paper, Wood, Glass, Metal, Clay & More! of course there is most likely a link to it, too techie for me right now. Anyway, this is what the book I am working on with a friend is going to use. Oh, I forgot to mention, I am creating an art book for a story I wrote back in March. It is inspired by a dear friend of mine. I will document the process of its creation. By the 5th of July, I am to have the story boards done and the main construction materials gathered for a 4 hour workshop with another creative friend of mine.

Then, I must continue working on my textile designs. I have a collection of cupcake fabric started on Spoonflower.com (need to figure out this linking thing...to make it easy for you all to find see what I am talking about. I can be descriptive, however, there is something to being able to see for yourself. Then get together with another creative freind (really, all of my friends are, they are a great network of support and reflection of the fun I have in my life) to sew the entry way cushion with fabric she designed herself. We tweaked the pattern layout and colors.. I am excited to see the actual textile!

Ooh, this post may be getting too long, especially with no pretty pictures to break it up yet, so I will save the cupcake quilt description for another post... where are my glass beads, I wonder... that is what has stopped me on that one.. I kept opening that darn box EVERY time I was looking for something else.. and now do you think I can find it? I have opened at least 15 other boxes... oh, the creative chaos.

Maybe pics next time, the ones I have been taking have been practice, many lovely gardens, too bad I couldn't capture the scents!
Thanks for reading,
Shelly

Inspired, Motivated and Overwhelmed....not necessarily in that order!

It has been a while since my last post. A lot of exciting things have happened in the past week and it has been busy, non stop.. I was able to post a photo..I knew it would be easy... just discovering the 'how to' was time consuming.

One of the new additions to my creative arsenal is my new iphone. I have finally taken the plunge and did it. It too is SUPER EASY to navigate and does soooooo much! I am looking forward to having her as a new assistant! She is my MM phone. My source of magic and my muse.... one of them anyway...

My next order of learning is to maximize the camera feature and create fabulous digital art; just for fun and to post my creative expression here on this blog and any others that I am inspired to create later on.

I have taken over 200 photos in the first days alone...Minnehaha Falls, Como Park Conservatory and the Mississippi River. Now to learn to create some very cool images with them.

I am inspired by the potential of future creating and how it will impact my understanding of creativity, of myself and my professional expression. Eagerly, I have been awaiting a clearing in my schedule to take action on the inspiration, however, I find myself in a state of overwhelm and have no idea where to begin. So first, I chose to just journal this morning and get my bearings, recapping the past few days and then start making my lists. What I have, what I know, what I don't know, what I want to accomplish and then start putting plans into my calendar of what to do next. Although, too much planning and no action... that doesn't work either. I am learning the balance, when I get overwhelmed and lose focus on what I am doing, I know it is time to work on the next thing that comes to mind. I am trusting my intuition to guide me on the best path of learning, discovery and creation. The challenges of a creative being.......

It seems my mind is wandering again.. time to go on to the next thing.. I will post again... soon... perhaps my mind will wander back here before the day is over?