a surfacing light

What's a little time between friends...?

Hi All - It’s been a while, but then what’s a few months between friends?  Okay, it's been nine months, but who’s counting?  I’ve been making stuff…like the Station Fire Rug.  The Station Fire Rug came into being after Tad and I dumped my plastic fabric and yarn stash bins on the garage floor twenty minutes after the Station Fire crested the ridge above our house and twenty minutes before being evacuated and filled them with things like files, photos, artwork. 

When we were allowed back into our house four days later, we came back to a thick layer of ash over just about everything and a house that looked ransacked, which, of course, was not far from the truth.  It was pretty miserable up here – SO hot out, the electric surges had blown out the air conditioning and the ash filled air was almost unbreathable.  I just didn’t have the heart or the energy to reorganize my stash bins, so I left it all in a jumbled mess on the garage floor.  For two nights I went to bed consciously asking the question “What can I do with all this stuff???”  A couple of mornings later, my subconscious woke me up with the thought of RAG RUG!  Something I'd never done before and have always wanted to.   The rug was fun to make and as it is crocheted rather than braided, it was a real stash buster.  

The Station Fire visits our street.  The crazy neighbors watching and the unseen crazy husband of mine taking this pic.  I'm in the house cowering.  We left shortly after!

The Station Fire Rug - a motley mix of old pj's, t-shirts, leftover yarn and fabric scraps.  The yarn gives it the "smoosh" when you step on it.  It's much softer than a rag rug made from only fabric.

This pic is a little washed out.  I need to finish the back by tying in all the ends.  Now that the weather is HOPEFULLY going to stay cooler, I can deal with having a very hot, heavy rug on my lap.

I love textiles, knitting, crocheting, quilting, etc. and although I don’t think my fabric creations qualify as real quilts, I can’t get enough of mixing stuff up.  My friend Heather, a first class seamstress, knitter, crocheter and friend kindly taught me how to make a tote bag I had spotted at Michael Levine’s, and I have been going to town on them ever since.

Heather hard at work in my studio/dining room:

The bag has a square bottom (see the Un-Paper-Bag pattern at the purlsoho blog the purl bee) made by sewing a seam across the bottom–a tecnhique that is tricky to understand in the pattern and easy peasey to do once someone like Heather shows you how!  Heather can make really difficult, gorgeous things in a nano second - check out her beautiful yoga bags and baby clothes on her Auntie Heather’s etsy store.  Zoe and I have the ecru cotton tote bag for our yoga mat and love it!

 

I am just loving making this bag out of Chinese silk and cotton, I did the quilting myself!   Pretty basic stuff, I know, for those of you seamstresses out there, but for a beginner like me, I feel like a kid pulling that little chocolate cake of that easybake oven I finally got for Christmas one year!  Sooo exciting, sooo accomplished, sooo delicious!

  

Chinese silk and printed cotton, muslin backing, organic batting in between!  The batting makes it feel luscious...

Almost finished, handles coming up next!

And while you’re checking out blogs, take a look at this one too, Tartellete.  I LOVE this blog, I don’t really bake that well – I tend to forget things like eggs, sugar, baking powder - little things like that. Sadly, I am neither kidding nor exaggerating, not even a little bit.  Everytime I look at the gorgeous pics on “tartelette” I ache to bake.  I don’t of course, I just press my nose up to my computer screen and pull out my colored pencils and maybe draw a cupcake or perhaps just wind some freshly washed yarn in the backyard.

Freshly washed cotton yarn, preshrunk, sitting in the sunshine and ready to be wound.

R.I.P. Marigold

Dream & Reality

"What Color is My Soul?" - Valenzuela

We’ve had one of those long body pillows in the house for awhile now and really have no idea where it came from.  I don’t recall buying it and you’d think I’d notice if someone showed up at our house with a five foot long pillow, but at the risk of channeling the famously memory impaired Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, I truly have no recollection.  Zoë had it on her bed for awhile but in our recent clutter clearing, deep clean and bedroom switcheroo, she jettisoned it and guess where it landed?  On our bed, of course. 

Have you ever tried to make one of those things look nice and tidy on your bed?  Pretty much impossible, unless…fabric stash to the rescue!  I had saved the “Dream & Reality” graphic from one of my favorite t-shirts and have been looking for just the right place to use it.   Too many morning coffee drips and car braking spills end up making most of my t-shirts entirely unwearable (at least in public), and out of guilt more than thrift I try to recycle some of my favorites.

In addition to the shirt, I found a length of black velvet in my stash, so I really just needed a nice print to create a frame for the t-shirt graphic and so that (happily!) meant a trip to the fabric store.  I say “happily” because for me, “fabric store” means the granddaddy of them all, Michael Levine in the sweaty, chaotic, almost impossible to find parking in, heart of the garment district in downtown Los Angeles.  So fun!  Anything else is just running errands!

Pudgy little black cat or pile of velvet?:

Both!  (As you can see, Mikey loves that gorgeous bit of aqua and orange Amy Butler fabric that I found for the next quilt which is in the cutting process!  If there's any extra, I promised him a little cat quilt.)

But back to the t-shirt–you may think it odd that I would save an old coffee stained shirt, but I love that “Dream & Reality” t-shirt because it perfectly expresses my way of thinking.   I think that the only thing we can truly possess and have any type of control over are our thoughts.  Yeah, that constant and exhausting perpetual chatter that runs through our minds is actually controllable and even better, once we get a handle on it,  life can change very quickly in the direction we want to go.   I think that the tenor and shape of our thoughts is perfectly entwined with the colors and forms that emanate from our soul and both deeply affect the way we dream, the things we dream for and our ability to achieve them.

Wow, speaking of spiraling thought processes, how did I get from covering a pillow to mind chatter?  Oh, yes, coffee stained t-shirts, fabric and that crazymaking cornucopia of fabric,  Michael Levine, downtown.   It’s all connected!   I love Michael Levine–picture a cat rolling around in catnip totally oblivious to all else–complete with claws stretching and retracting, nose sniffing and tail twitching–and you’ll have an idea of what I look like as I wander and weave through aisles lined with bolts of cottons, silks, poplin, ribbons, zippers....aaahhh, heaven!  Although I do try to abstain from the actual rolling in the fabric for fear of being escorted out...Woot!

I found a gorgeous print imported from Japan that has a strong enough graphic for the bit of patchwork framing I wanted to create between the black velvet and the t-shirt.  I loved the bold drawing of the Geishas and background patterning contrasted with vintage kimono colors.  My Geisha drawings like the one at the top of this post and the little Geisha Ghost below tend to turn out more abstract.

"Geisha Ghost" - Valenzuela (in the style of Kiyonaga)

This is a weekend project because sewing velvet is like sewing butter to butter–buttah to buttah, baby–and I’ve got velvet side panels, a full 56” velvet back and a zipper to install–on the velvet.  Talk about the wide berth between Dream & Reality, the final product might be very different than the intention and expectation!  Well, I’m off to sew…next post, maybe I’ll have a pillow cover!

p.s., I'm so lucky to have two such hardworking Personal Assistants!:

 

Colors, Quilts & Clawfoot Tubs

"Fall FLower" - Valenzuela '08

In a few years I’ll be fifty and my kids will be gone to college and/or busy enjoying fulltime jobs (we hope!) and Nutmeg and the cats will be old and sleepy.   My husband and I grew up in households that told us we needed to find a job and stick with it, perhaps even retiring from a long-term position with a company of good repute.  Good advice and we followed it…or tried too.   As we all know now, companies come and go and we need a lot of diversity and continuing education in our lives and jobs in order to remain employed and maintain a reasonable life style.  So as Tad and I look down the road to the next stage of our lives, we have decided we want to truly follow our passion.  For Tad, it’s advancing his photography work and teaching computer animation/graphics.  As for me, I’m passionate about the illustrated book that is nearly complete, drawing, handcrafts like knitting and FABRIC.   I love fabric, more than just about anything.  Yup, more than chocolate even.  I really enjoy drawing on the computer with a mouse, as in the clawfoot tub below (which is the style I'm using to illustrate my book) but after a full day of living in the abstract brain of the computer, I find that I crave texture, tangibility and actually holding something in my hands.

"Clawfoot tub" - Valenzuela, 08

I’ve been looking for a way to combine those passions and I’m thinking I’d like to use my drawing and computer skills to design my own textiles.  For example, I think my clawfoot tub drawing would make a cute fabric pattern, maybe for a shower curtain or bathroom print?   But first things first!  The initial step in designing a line is understanding how different fabric patterns work together–because unlike paint, charcoal or collage, I can’t simply change a fabric I don’t like by adding a bit of cobalt blue, a strip of beautiful paper or a photoshop filter–what you get is what you got.  Very tricky for someone used to being able to change the medium with the click of a button or the swish of a brush.

For me, the best way to master a medium is to use it, and use it alot, so I made a quilt.  I’m calling it a quilt because it has a front, a back and batting in between, but it really should have a different name because I declined to make the binding (a HUGE, boring, painful job) and just made a “quilt sandwich” by sewing up the side seams and turning it right side out.  After all, if I’m gonna be following my passion, I can choose to leave out the stuff I don’t like. I also didn't do hand or machine quilting on it, I finished it off with "stitch in the ditch" quilting which I think is more than enough.  I have found that actual quilting can become more important than the fabrics and I prefer a simpler look.  

The pattern I chose called for using the quilt back material for long strips down the center front, but when I finished the quilt front I found that not only was the green backing material I had chosen the least favorite of my fabrics, but that it had become the central fabric, overpowering the entire quilt.   Yuch!  See below!

Quilt Making Lesson #1:  Try to find a big, full sized picture of the quilt in addition to the small, artsy, staged picture shown in the pattern book before going to all the trouble of making it.

Quilt Making Lesson #2:  Make sure to use your favorite fabrics as the central focus.  I liked the floral print and the yellow paisley, detail below.

Happily though, my dislike of the green fabric became one of those crazy accidents that can change the entire trajectory of a project/life.   After the front fiasco, I revolted against using the hated green as a backing, so I found some wide, heavy muslin that cost about $3.00 a yard (versus the $9.00 for the green) that works beautifully for a quilt back.  I’m going to use that same easy to find, inexpensive muslin as a backing on all the quilts I make–I think it adds a sense of continuity by tying each individual quilt to the other quilts I am making with a large element and also reflects the simplicity that I love.  In fact, I’m thinking about naming my small line of handmade quilts “Muslins”.

"Muslin Backing"

All in all, it looks okay on a bed and the cats love it, it's one of their favorite nap spots!  Of course, that's not saying much as they tend to nap anywhere and everywhere, although they do enjoy helping with the quilting.  Here's Leonardo (Leo) below, pitching in by getting lots of fur all over a pile of freshly washed and ready to be pressed muslin.

Michelangelo (Mikey) getting ready for a well-deserved nap after having to get out of bed for breakfast, below:

Well, I’ve been nattering on here for awhile–in the future I really am going to send out little bulletins with pics so I don’t bore you all with these long, random posts!  I would LOVE to hear from you about what you are thinking of as far as lifestyle and philosophy changes.  Anyone else thinking about moving in a different direction?  Or have you already?  Leave a comment or if you like to be private, just email me.  I always love hearing your thoughts.

Right now, I’m on to finishing the drawings for the book and have started the next quilt!  Pics soon!  Also, we really enjoyed the pumpkin patch, but it has to go this weekend because we’ll be planting bulbs and some other seeds in our flower beds, so here are a couple of goodbye pictures: 

(I love the tendrils in these pumpkins!)

Moon Flower

Wednesday night’s lunar eclipse was shockingly beautiful, and I use the word “shocking” in the literal sense. I was toodling down the 210 freeway about 6:30 in the evening when I was jarred out of my usual state of highway hypnosis by the beguiling sight of the moon transforming herself right before my eyes.

Later that night, Nutmeg and I spent our walk admiring the remnants of the lunar eclipse and were joined by bunches of families who had hiked up to our street to share the experience with the gaggle of geese who live across from us. The geese were quiet for once, also a shocking occurrence. They love to natter loudly at anyone who has the audacity to approach their fence and as they get many visitors, there is usually quite a bit of chattering. Maybe they were quiet out of honor and respect for La Luna.

As I too like to honor the moon any time I can, I’ve designed a transfer motif called “Fleur de Lune” to kick off Bohemian Graphics, my line of fun patterns that I like to transfer onto everything. I really enjoy making things by hand, but I don’t do much of it because when I do take the time and make the effort, I’m often disappointed with the results. Now I know full well that there are times when good skills are an imperative–quilt making, knitting hats and making space shuttles for NASA are cases in point, but there are also times when a lovely gift or keepsake can be handmade with much less effort. Embracing that Bohemian spirit, I’ve put the Fleur de Lune motif on a set of plain pillow cases I found at Target. These are very soft, light and inexpensive cases ($4.99 for the set) but they are also very thin and probably not the best base for an embroidery project. Since I had absolutely no intention of embroidering them, they were perfect.

I designed the pattern with the stitches outline that I have fallen in love with since I started taking the beginning quilting class at Quilts 'n' Things in Montrose taught by the brilliant, patient and kind Linda Rasmussen. Linda has designed, made and handquilted the most striking New York Beauty quilt I have ever seen. As this quilt is an award winner, I’m hoping she’ll put a picture of it up on her website very soon! If she does, I’ll let you know. But I digress, back to the directions–I used a Micron .05 black marker rather than a fabric marker, because you can draw on ANYTHING with these markers and they don't bleed! They come in lots of colors, they can be found at any of the arts or craft stores like Michael's or you can order them on-line here. They last forever! I have had some of my pens for well over ten years–they just don't dry out. SO, using the marker, I simply traced the pattern onto the pillow cases, wrote a journal note on the inside band and voila! An heirloom! Okay, perhaps not an heirloom but definitely a useable keepsake of a lovely memory. If you’d like to give it a try, download the free (this one’s on me!) pdf file here and trace it onto something. When you’re finished, email me–I’d love to see a picture of your handiwork.