Personal Lesson in Creativity - Quilt Edition

You never know when a lesson is going to sneak up on you. Here's what snuck up on me, today. 

I was working an online jigsaw puzzle, like I do most days, and here's the link for it:  https://www.jigsawexplorer.com/puzzles/double-wedding-ring-jigsaw-puzzle/

This is a double wedding ring quilt, from the 1940's made by an African American artist, which is now in the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston. It's beautiful, isn't it. It speaks to me. It speaks to me about where I am right now as a quilter. (Not that I expect any quilt I ever make to be in a museum collection anywhere, at any point. But then, I doubt that this maker expected that to happen either.)

Not knowing more about this quilt than I stated above, I am going to make some assumptions, which, even if they aren't true about this quilt, are true about MANY quilts. It was made for a practical purpose: keeping someone warm. It may have been made as a gift, to be treasured for many years, and multiple lifetimes. It was made with what this quilter had at hand to make it with, so the rings aren't all the same colors. It is not an easy pattern, so skill went into the sewing of it. I love the purple as the background color. Often this pattern includes a white background, but the purple adds some life to it. I think it is interesting that only ONE of the rings is the same colors all the way around. (top right corner, red and yellow) The other bands create movement in the moving patterns of colors, so that my eyes travel around this quilt.

If I could ask a few questions of this quilter, I would ask them how they decided to spread the colors through the quilt. Is this the vision of the quilt that they started out with? Did they work to make it perfect? Or work to make it done? Please understand that by asking about "perfection," I am not asking about their skills as a sewist OR a quilter. 

For me, done is achievable. Perfect isn't always. Perfect may put a halt to ever getting a piece done. And yet, this is art. I am not questioning that. It is art. I have hopes that my skills as a do-er and a get it finished-er will continue to improve to doing a better job getting the thing done. Skills gained, if you will.  In the mean time, I will enjoy the way the color combinations in this quilt create interest and movement in a way that other orientations of those blocks would not have, and use it as food for thought.

Kids' Clothes for a Clothes Closet

I've been making some kid-sized clothes. I enjoy making them, honestly. I don't do fancy, complicated patterns, I do fun fabrics. Because I love them. Then, because I don't have any elementary sized kids living with me, I donate them.

bug skirt!

These days, many schools from elementary on up, have clothes closets as a resource for their students. Organ Mountain High School created a fabulous clothes closet for students to address their every-day needs, AND specific needs, like having an outfit to go on a job interview in. Students were not questioned about why they needed the clothing, or what alternatives they had, or anything. They were welcomed into the space and allowed to take what they needed. Yes, I have donated to that space, and may again some time. 

Denim pants with a decorative stitch detail

Most of the clothing I'm making this go-around is elementary school sized (more or less). Considering that elementary schools include kindergarten (and sometimes pre-k), to 5th grade, there is a lot of range of sizes. I usually determine the size of the garment I'm going to make by the yardage of the fabric that I am using. Sometimes I'm able to find a piece that will make more than one garment.

Red corduroy pants

I often recommend to new sewers to start with kids' clothing if they want to learn how to make garments. The patterns are often similar, but the kids' patterns can take LOTS less fabric, so if you mess something up badly, you aren't out as much money. I also like that the more you practice, the better you get at some of the details, and techniques that make the clothing nicer. You can practice collars, and button fronts, making a variety of pockets (kids like pockets in their clothes almost as much as I do), and other details. The clothing doesn't have to be fancy.

A skirt with attached shorts AND pockets! Some green leggings behind them

But for kids to be able to choose a new garment when they don't usually get to, it is pretty nice. I know that picking an item of clothing that is "home made" may not be every child's first choice. It won't be what all of their friends are wearing.  But, I feel like there are kids out there that will be happy to have something new, something happy, and hopefully, something in a style that they like.

Short sleeved top 

I've gotten to sew garments that make me happy, too.

Cactus shorts with pockets

I've gotten to practice skills, and build new ones. And share something with my community that I feel is important. Some time this week, I'll gather up these garments (and the ones I didn't take pictures of) and donate them to a school clothing closet, and when I come across a fabric I can't resist, I'll make something new.

Some years, I find like-minded sewists who like adventures in kids' clothes, too. Some years I don't. I appreciate the company, but I don't require it. I do what I like!

 

Gardening Again

 

My goodness, it has been a while. I was doing so well, posting semi-regularly, until I wasn't. And, when did March turn into MAY???

Of course I'm making stuff, but this post is about this year's container garden on my front porch. I've started it again, and including the aloe vera and the irises from last year, which are both spreading out, although the irises did not bloom this year. I really hadn't expected them to, because they've only been planted here for one year, and I think it takes a couple before they bloom, but they seem happy and thriving, none-the-less.

About half the garden, irises on the left

Last year, one of my favorite plants was the basil that I grew. It smell so good when I went out to water. I planted some in the tower again, but it was a little later than the rest of the seeds, so it hasn't come up yet (but I've seen evidence of sprouting, yay!) I have some corn this year too, and some of it looks pretty healthy. I also planted tomatoes and beans. Last year I harvested a few of each and I'm hoping for more this year. We'll see.

The other half of the garden. 

I planted almost everything from seeds again this year. Except that tomato plant. I pick that up at Walmart to give me a head start on the tomatoes (hopefully). It looked very healthy, and had blossoms on it already. It actually had a tomato on it already too, but I didn't see that until I got home. Last year all my flowers starts died (except for the irises) but this year they are giving me more hope. Some mixed seeds in the box and on the window sill, and some marigolds in the tower again this year (they are doing better than last year).

It isn't much in terms of a "real" garden. I'm not fooling myself that this is going to feed my family in any meaningful way. I am happy to have growing things, though. To feel some accomplishment when they sprout and grow. I'm not even mad if they fail. The beans in that left white grow bag grew, and even blossomed, and then dried up. I don't think I had enough soil in the bag, and they just didn't have the roots they needed. Poor babies. I put some more soil in it (and around them, in case they wanted to perk up) and planted some more beans.

What I really think I enjoy is how that tomato plant really hit me with the smell of tomato plant yesterday. I really want to smell that basil again. Did I cook with it? One time, I think, but I enjoyed the fragrances of the two varieties I had late into the fall. I want that again. Inside the house, in my plant window, I have some celery growing. It smells so fresh in with the geraniums that are also growing there (three different varieties). So, evidently, I enjoy the smells of the growing things. I never took the time to realize that in my previous small efforts at keeping plants alive. Who knew? I didn't.

Tree Hat Gnome Joins the Party!

 

I have been enjoying crocheting Gnomes. I've a good collection started of snow gnomes, and I'm not done with them yet, but I wanted to try one of the other patterns I picked up. This time, It's all about the tree hat gnome.

Snowy tree hatted gnome

This guy was relatively easy to crochet and construct. He stands up well, even. I think the less stretchy cotton yarn does the trick for these stuffies. This one took a skein plus some more because most of it, as you can tell, is done in the green yarn. I got the hat, the body (including the arms) done, but then ran out making the "tree" part that gets sewn to the hat. If there is a particular challenge to this gnome, it is getting the "tree" sewn onto the hat with the spacing to cover the hat well, and not let the hat show through.

Quick trip for yarn refill required

He's taller and bigger than the snow gnomes, so he takes a little longer to make than they do, but I thought he came together well. I do want to experiment with color schemes, though. Is it too much green? Should I try a darker green? Maybe matching tree and body is too much? I have questions! Of course, I do.

So, here is the next tree hat gnome in progress:

A little bit of an autumn vibe

The body is going to be orange, the nose and arms a little lighter brown, and the tree wrap will be the variegated green/gold with white for that early season snow. That will work, right? It isn't particularly Christmas-y, but I still want to see it put together.

I think the next gnome on my agenda is one of the nutcracker gnomes. They should be a hoot!

The Ladybug Challenge

 

Last year I started a challenge, using the crafting magazines that have been left to me. I have actually enjoyed looking through these magazines, with the thought of creating something. AND I've found them inspirational, as well. This issue has been traveling around with me for a while, with a gallon ziploc carrying some balls of crochet thread.

Annie's Crochet Newsletter Sept-Oct 1996

Inside, is a pattern for a pair of cute little crocheted ladybug earrings. Since I made those ladybug outfits for the stuffed bunnies, I was caught! No, I am not making earrings, but I thought they would be cute! cute! cute! on a hair scrunchie, or the like. Heck. They're just CUTE!

Ladybug Pattern!

  

Ladybug Pattern page 2

I've been busy making stuff, so these guys kinda have been biding their time, waiting patiently (since, like, 1996). But, last Thursday, I started one. Today, I finished the cute little guy. 

Top view

  

Side view

Small, and adorable. 

So, here's my take on these guys. The pattern was pretty simple, and easy to follow, and not super difficult with the small hook and thread. Even so, I am going to make another, and scale up the yarn and hook a little. Yes, I used beads for the spots. I have never gotten the hang of French knots. Even today, they were more like French nots! But I got to sift through my bead stash and found these guys, which I like the look of. A lot. The biggest pain in the butt was having to thread the needle to go through the ladybug to the next spot spot (hee hee) and then unthreading it, waxing the thread so it was stiff enough to go through the bead (and making it easier to rethread the needle, too) and then rethreading the needle. 

Lessons in Sewing: Visible Mending

 

What? Sewing by hand? On Purpose? And it isn't even embroidery or cross stitch? What IS the world coming to???

A friend and I have been reading up on three rather connected things: visible mending, Sashiko and Boro. All hand stitching techniques that create new from old. That repair fabrics with the addition of other fabrics. That combine to lengthen the life and beauty of fabrics, and garments, or even make something new from them. Refashion them. Create art from them (at least at some level).

One of the ideas is to extend garment life and usefulness, and create less fabric/textile waste. I'm for that.

Another of the ideas is to create new from old (sometimes even very old) by combining fabrics from various sources with hand stitched elements. Creating unique pieces, and interesting elements, and possibly art. I say possibly art, because I think art includes elements of practice, and vision that every piece may not achieve, but still doesn't lessen the utility and interest of the effects of the crafting.

And the idea of creating art in the every-day is very interesting to me as well. 

There are other philosophical elements to this practice, not the least of which is a form of meditative practice achieved through comfortable repetition of a manual task. It can be achieved through the act of a hand craft like crochet, or knit, or hand sewing. I think that is interesting. I think that I can and have achieved a bit of that mindfulness during crochet, as I read about it with the hand sewing texts. I will share those books in the future, as I become more familiar with them, and can share what I am learning by reading and using them.

At the moment, though, here's my starting place. How convenient that Raine tore a pair of her pants. I offered to try the visible mending technique to fix them. I told Raine that she may or may not like the results, and that was OK. If I mended them, and she didn't like the result, she was no worse off than with the torn pants. I was only out the effort of the attempt, and a craft needs practice. 

This was what I was working with

These pants are a comfy flannel pair. Not new, so the fabric is somewhat worn. If you have sewn and mended, you know that makes repairing them questionable. Oh, sure you can sew the seam again, but how long will that last? Is it worth the effort? Raine agreed to let me try out the visible mending. I did not have more of this flannel, but the book I was reading was very much about using denim for the hand stitching, and I had some old jeans. I made a large patch, which I put on the inside of the tear so it wouldn't look like a big sign on the front of the pants. That's just not a good look.

I used a sharp embroidery needle, and  a fairly small type of embroidery thread. A thimble and a pair of pliers were both very useful as well. To save my hands, I used the thimble to push the needle and the pliers to pull it. I could take several stitches at a time that way. I used a light blue, a cream and a rust colored thread for the rows of stitches. I didn't worry about them being straight or perfect. I just wanted to get them done, really. It probably took me about 5 hours to get to the point where I had Raine try the pants on to see how they looked and felt. They were not perfect, and I took a couple more hours to stitch up some edits and finish up. 

This is the pants with the mend

The shape of the patch was really pretty visible when she wore it in the front, but when she turned the pants around, the effect was much less visible. The denim was just too heavy with the flannel, and next time, I will do a better job of picking a patch fabric. I hope. Since the pants are elastic waisted, and the pockets are cargo pockets, the pants will do OK when she wears them "backwards." So, they are mended to usefulness again. That is a success, even though it is not a perfect success. Not bad for a first try, I think.

The mending stitches are visible here

So here are some take-aways from this experience. The multiple rows of stitching helped incorporate the two fabrics, even though it was not perfect because of the weight difference between them. I also think that the stitching will help spread the stresses of wear across a larger area of the fabric to help the more worn areas last longer than they would if I had just resewn the seam that tore. Finally, while this example of visible mending is certainly not art, I do think the lines of stitching create interest. They aren't super obvious, and I wasn't trying to make them that way, but there is movement there that perhaps helps the patch blend in with this flannel fabric, which has a lot going on.

I am still thinking about the time it takes to sew this by hand VS sewing on the machine. I'm not saying I don't like it, but it is something for me to think about...

 

Christmas Gnome Ornaments

 

My latest crochet obsession. It all started with a search on Etsy, and some patterns I bought and downloaded (and I may have to go back for seconds because SQUEEEEE!!). It reminds me of ALL the birds I crocheted a couple of years ago, and I even pulled out my tub of cotton yarn to use on these guys. When I did the stacking ring toys, the sheep I did in the cotton yarn was much more stable with the stuffing than the acrylic ones, so I looked through for Christmassy skeins.

Snowgnomes!!!

I've added string to these to hang them, as they are intended to be ornaments. I got a few different trim things to use for hangers, but I'm not satisfied with those, so more experimentation will follow. I love the hats. I love the huge carrot noses. I love the little twiggy arms. And this is only ONE of the patterns that I got!

There are also  some gnome nutcracker ornaments, and Santa gnomes with trees for hats. But I had to start with the snowgnomes. Can you blame me?

Two versions of this tall hat

Besides the Christmas flavored snowgnomes, I am going to make some Wintery snowgnomes as well and some that are just perfectly happy to hang around to make someone smile. Like me. They definitely make me smile!