playtime

in which our plucky heroine does something unexpected...

...at least for me. I usually approach my sewing with a fairly utilitarian attitude. I love planning out what I want and need to wear, and figuring out how to make that happen. This project is rather the opposite. I decided to enter CCL's Pre-2020 SWAP Jacket Challenge on the Stitchers Guild forum, since I had so much fun last year with the Dress Challenge. At first, I was thinking about the Zambeesi Jacket. But I realised that what I found appealing about that pattern was how creative the designer has been with her collage-style fabric combining...

So, with that in mind, and because that sort of thing is not part of my repertoire, I gathered a bunch of my "too small to make a garment pieces of knit fabrics in grey colors, and some of the interesting silk scraps from the last Gathering of the Guilds, and started cutting out pieces and simply zigzagging them together! 

with a base of two fronts cut from striped grey and pale blue hemp knit, I overlaid the very sheer chiffon shibori dyed scrap, and added a few extra bits along the front edge, and the shoulders. I didn't expect/realise that the circular spots, which looked transparent, were actually dyed black, which caused an interesting effect laid over the striped background...

not being very keen on purple, I cut out some of the blue/grey/black tie-dyed silk and added a few rectangles. The rest of that fabric will be added to the back of the cardigan, and as bands on the sleeves. While the front isn't yet finished, it will sit for a while while I think about what else to add, to balance out the asymmetry. Am considering either possibly some couched applique, or some block printing, or both...

today's gratitude - fun bits in the scrap collection

glorious mud

in which our plucky heroine gets her hands dirty...

I signed up for a just for fun, free, Beginning Ceramics workshop series at the library, 5 short sessions of making things from clay, a crafty medium I last played with as a child. Definitely outside my comfort zone and skill set. (usually the art workshops at the library are one afternoon, not five, and usually more "dry" media, like origami, or book arts, or knitting groups)

A dozen pottery buttons (the raw clay showing the texture of the canvas we rolled the clay out on, yet to be fired and painted) might be a really fun addition to my wardrobe in the future...

This is an experiment, as I have no idea if they will even prove durable enough for use after they are fired, but it would be so nifty to have buttons I made on a sweater or cardigan jacket I made.

I was inspired by some beautifully funky pottery I saw on the internet; this odd little sculptural form will hopefully become a tiny clay flower holder. The pieces in these three photos are my efforts from the three class sessions we have had so far.

Next week we get to paint underglaze on everything we have made so far (which will have been bisque fired in the interim), and the final class, in April, we get it all back, fired again to set the color and with a shiny clear glaze over it all, and will talk about it.

and... as an appropriate soundtrack, an old favorite:

scenes from an Enameling Playdate weekend

in which in which much fun was had with glass on metal, combined with extreme heat and a great mixture of friends from near and far, and our plucky heroine learns it is possible to fit almost twice the number of usual students into one workroom...

At one point on Saturday there were SEVEN adults in the studio, as well as Toshi the WonderPup tucked in the corner near the laundry, and two patient and well behaved children entertaining themselves in the living room. It was the first weekend long Enameling Playdate, and there have been some amazing first and second pieces created. It does my teachery heart good when folks have so much fun on their initial effort that they immediately want to make another one...

Larry and Jen had both come with specific ideas to try out, while Cathy looked for new inspiration in some books on Anglo-Saxon artifacts

Jess works to bend the tiny cloisonné wires for her design...

Larry starts to apply the enamel powders

Jen is working on her second piece of cloisonné

Bill is engraving sample plaques for trying out the new Japanese and French transparent red enamels...

there were, at times seven folks in the studio... not quite all are visible in this picture...

in the background, our plucky heroine is conversing with Cathy about some odd enamel behavior
(photo courtesy of Jen Ariadne)

our intrepid supervisor: Toshi the Wonder Pup; happy to have so much of the pack in one place at the same time

the various colors of washed enamel powder in the center of the larger worktable... I usually keep the enamels, when in use, in small china dishes on lazy susans, but Cathy thought to add labels to the colors, which helps when there are enamels that look similar as powder, but different colors when fused and fired

After the damp enamel is placed in the cloisons, it must dry completely before being fired...these enamels, resting in their firing trivets, are on top of the kiln, drying...

Cathy sketched out several possible designs before choosing which one to make; her first enamel is inspired by the enameled center medallion in an Anglo-Saxon disc brooch

Jen's first enamel is this graceful trillium

Jess used her heraldry for her first enamel

Jen has a real knack for bending the cloisonné wires - look at this tiny sphinx!

and Cathy's second enamel is inspired by Anglo-Saxon floor tile motifs. This design would be an excellent one for any beginning enamelist, as the graphic quality is strong, the wires easy to bend and apply.

Larry's piece is not quite finished yet (he had to leave early) It will need another layer of the background enamel, and then grinding and flash firing. Still, he did amazingly well, given that he had major dental surgery on Friday and came to enamel on Saturday...

Cindy's piece is also not quite finished (she also had to leave early) but all it still needs is to have the surface ground smooth and be flash fired in the kiln. She will be adding some lighter blue embellishment to the surface of her blue cat.

I always need a sample project when teaching so as to have something available to demonstrate various enameling techniques. My sample enamel for this weekend - one of my favorite animated characters, Puppycat!

just for fun

A week ago, our plucky heroine decided that a new costume would be more fun to wear than simply putting on some of my SCA clothing as fancy dress... Being rather enamored currently with Bee and Puppycat, my choice was obvious, though I was quite surprised that no one recognised me at the party tonight!

The dress and the apron were made from a red duvet cover for the dress and a white sheet for the apron (I love Ikea). I learned several new skills as part of this project, at least some of which will be of future use to me:

• using serger to gather fabric
• machine applique with fusible web and zigzag stitching
• drafting a peter pan collar, and applying it with binding
• drafting puffy sleeves

:::

Neither of my machines has a ruffler... somehow I am just not usually a ruffles and flounces sort of gal, despite my peculiar insistence on wearing dresses and pinafores. The outer edges of the white twill sheet (which are already hemmed) were in very good shape, which was helpful in making the apron and sleeve frills. As suggested by Elizabeth of Karlstad aka The Fabulous Dr E, my serger can do more than finish seams, it can be set to gather fabric! The online tutorial she suggested had more useful information than the manual that came with my serger. (Robust Ruffles vs Feeble Frills) Fortunately I am fearless about turning the dials and switches... Rather than handpaint or stencil the cat face I chose to just fuse on suitable fabric and machine stitch around the edges, and the nose/mouth is just hand drawn on with Sharpie marker.

:::

These will remain as costume pieces, as neither is practical or coordinates with my everyday wardrobe! Work aprons need to be made of sturdier stuff, and have functional multi-pockets... (the wee cat paw pockets are actually stitched closed at the top, since otherwise the ruffley bits kept trying to flop down, gravity doesn't work quite the same way in cartoon-world)  I just can't see myself running round town in ruffles and huge puffy sleeves, though here in Portland it would definitely not be the oddest outfit on the bus.

Tuesday tidbits

A phone call last night led to a change in plans for today, as my intrepid artist pal Bill Dawson was heading south and would be able to lend a hand on some projects around the homeplace. Way back in 2009 there was something very special left on my doorstep... it was not a babe in a basket, but a wonderful hand-forged pot rack from my dear pals at White Hart Forge. Today the pot rack has pride of place in the Acorn Cottage kitchen.

Slow and steady will get there in the end, and thanks to the generosity of my friend Nicole for the oak support beam and for the helpful efforts of my fellow artist Mr Dawson for the structural work that attached it to the east wall. It really was not a one person job! I love my friends...

:::

The other project slated for today didn't quite turn out as hoped for, which is often the case with minor electrical adventures, particularly in a somewhat older house that has seen work done by folks that were not Bob the Builder... and, of course, our plucky heroine is not an actual contractor, nor does she play one on TV.

I did have the brilliant idea to add an outlet to the bathroom via the one directly on the other side of the wall in the room next door. However, I neglected to actually measure the comparable distance inside both rooms, and that outlet is at about the same distance from the wall as the bathtub is - definitely not a good plan! So, switch to plan B, and add an outlet to the wall next to the light and fan switch...

A careful opening was sawed in that wall, in what looked like an appropriate spot, and lo and behold, the wall is full of sheetrock patching and a whole mess of wire spaghetti. Bleah! That was sorted out, the excess removed and a modest amount of fresh wires and actual wire-nuts took its place. The problem was, that the way things were wired it was not actually possible to safely add an outlet there.

However, the scary mess of wires and junk is now gone, and the nice clean wires and nuts are properly encased in a covered access box. No need to wonder what the former homeowners were thinking, since they were not thinking at all... remember, these are the same former homeowners that thought assembling the bathroom sink plumbing using only putty was a good idea... There was talk about what plan C would entail, but it was getting to be time for Mr Dawson to head north again, so any further electrical adventures will be put on hold for the time being...

:::

Saturday two of my friends came by to celebrate the turn of the year towards springtime, eggs and chickens and such... the result was dozens of dyed hardboiled eggs. Playing with the colors was so much fun that it seemed like a good idea to also use a few empty eggshells, since HB eggs have a limited lifespan, and seasonal decorative bits add a nice touch to the entry shelf. This red egg, covered with little plus signs, is my wishful symbol that this year be balanced towards the positive.

:::

Have been making slow but steady progress on the brown dress for SWAP/6PAC. The last remaining bits unfinished are the pockets and the sleeve edge bindings...

The hemline band was attached in a kind of bound seam with homemade bias tape:

First the band was layered atop the wrong side of the skirt panels, (wrong side to wrong side) and then the bias tape laid over that (right side to right side), then the whole thing stitched together with a quarter inch seam.

Quite a bit of pressing to get everything smoothed back into order, with the hem band at the bottom, and the bias tape covering the raw seam edges and folded in half to enclose everything neatly. Once that is stitched down however, you have a seam that has no raw edges at all on either side, very nice indeed for a hemline band.

The pockets for this dress will use another patch of the Japanese native dogs fabric, this one with an Akita motif:

The patch is stitched down to the pocket fabric, and additional handstitching textures the background in a similar way as the Akita puppy* patch on the center back. This led to another idea, to copy the silhouette in reverse on the other pocket, just as an outline in light color running stitch.

In the interest of using what I have, I traced the design on a piece of kitchen wax paper with a sharpie marker, made sure the marker ink had dried, and turned it over, pinned in place on the other pocket, and then stitched over it. This technique is fast and easy, and the wax paper is very easy to remove, particularly if you score along the stitching lines with the tip of your sewing needle.

I intend to line the pockets, since there is quite a bit of thread on the insides, and pockets are on dresses and pinafores to be USED, don't want things getting snagged on the back of my embroidery... but that is a task for another day

* our plucky heroine does not read kanji, alas... if someone can read the words next to the puppy image, I would be grateful. I know that the bottom kanji is "inu" which means "dog" but the upper ones are a mystery. I do know that the kanji on the larger panel is aki-ta-inu, that being pretty much the sum total of my word recognition other than "tea"

event-full weekend

On Saturday, Valentina Corva and I traveled to be present to see my dear friend (and former apprentice) Svava and her husband Ref step up become the first Baron and Baroness of the newly created Barony of Dragon's Mist. Hard sometimes to remember that I have been involved in the SCA for almost twenty years - what a long strange trip it's been...

Svava and Ref swearing the oath of investiture,
King Thorin and Queen Dagmaer - AS 46

Sunday, B returned from his trip to Arizona; on the way back from the airport, S and he picked me up on their way home. (The Steampunk Picnic was another inspired idea from the creative head of S) We had fun dressing up, and having tea and talk and playtime at Cathedral Park, underneath the St Johns Bridge. The dicey weather was cooperative, and while there were a few sprinkles of rain, we were safely ensconced under a helpful alder tree, and simply covered the tea sandwiches (salmon, and cucumber, and peach jam) with a cloth till the sunlight returned. V had cleverly brought with her a lovely red umbrella, so was quite prepared for any eventuality.

Somehow, after our picnic, and the inevitable picture-taking afterwards, we ended up playing tag-you're-it. I daren't actually calculate how many years it has been since last your plucky heroine ran madly around on a grassy lawn with her pals; 'tis good to know that there is life in the old dame yet!

started our picnic while waiting for more friends to arrive


R and B looking demure and dapper


after teatime it is time for playtime


a delightful afternoon was had by all...

night rain on boro mountain

Though I imagine that to those working a more normal job my life must look a lot like toddlers playtime, in fact working four self employed jobs takes rather a bit of every day, and most times when not working, my householding responsibilities fill as much time as allowed. Unadulterated playtime is a rare thing, or it'd not be so noticed when there is a bit...

Took a bit more time last night with the stitchery-scene, (inspired by Jude Hill's "cloth whispering" video series, on her blog Spirit Cloth), and it went off in an entirely unexpected direction. The cloth at the top is a scrap from a beloved well worn thrifted shirt; when torn to a rectangle, the heavy multiple light colored threads made a kind of scattered fringe off the edges, reminiscent of rain falling. Maybe it is the current ongoing rain reverberating?

So, what if the rest of the various blue fabric was simply covered with lighter running stitches, a kind of informal sashiko, reminiscent of boro cloth? What if the moon was stitched down with horizontal stitches like a haze of clouds? What if the trees were mostly dark against the snowy hills?

Not sure if the lighter trees work with the design...

the image echos memories of the year of winter in Idaho; the trees dark, the snow under moonlight bright enough to see pathways; memories of childhood: how once the leaves fell, the shapes of the hills underneath showed clear against the sky; so many memories of watching the rain move over the land in different seasons and places...

To just take materials and play, to allow them to have a voice in what they become, the collaboration... that is timeless delight.