Patchwork Underground

Yay! I finished the quilts/wall hangings, the photoshoot AND the photoshopping of the slides! They’re at Citizen’s Photo in Portland as we speak and they should be done tomorrow at noon which leaves me just enough time to overnight them to Eugene and have them there by the deadline!

For those of you who just tuned in, I’ve been working on my application to vend at Oregon Country Fair this summer. It’s super competitive, this is my second try at getting in. If you don’t know what Oregon Country Fair is, you should totally check out their website! You can find it here. It’s this awesome yearly event that happens in the woods of Veneta, OR….arts, crafts, music, vaudville, everything. Best festival I’ve ever been to EVER. Hands down. In past years, I’ve worked at the fruit booth in community village and also at the smoothie booth by the main stage but I’ve always wanted to have a little booth of my own.

K….here’s my slides in the order they’re gonna appear. They’ll project these up on the wall for a panel of judges and read a little description I’ve written of each one to explain what the heck is going on.

Ok. Slide #1

Slide #2

Slide #3

The End.

Fingers crossed for getting in this year!!!!!!! Send good vibes if you have any to spare. =)

<3 erin

Oh lordy….I had a heck of a time trying to take these pics (which I’m NOT using in my application) because the light is SO BAD in my little sewing room.  I messed with them in photoshop and they’re still bad.  So this is sort of what the wall hangings look like…except the colors are WAAAAY better.

I’ll be taking my “official” application photos on Saturday so hopefully once I do that I’ll be able to post pics that actually resemble the colors in these guys….

So I finished this one I showed you earlier….it’s probably about 2′ x 2′…

And this one is of a girl playing banjo.  It looks kind of like a bass but I assure you it’s a 5-string banjo.  No there aren’t 5 pegs.  Don’t ask me why.  I think this one looks a lot cuter in person that it does in this pic and a lot of it has to do with the color in the photo.  She’s  not green…she’s turquoise dammit!  And that background fabric.  This pic doesn’t do it justice at all.  It is the cutest most awesome piece of fabric I’ve ever owned.  I’ve been saving it for over 2 years now.

This one is probably about 2′ x 3′, a bit bigger than the first one.

Only a few more days til my application for country fair is due!  So far I’ve finished two wall hangings…only one more to go and only one day to do it before I need to take pictures and have them developed into slides.  Wish me luck!

I’ve been a busy bee working on my application for Oregon Country Fair this year!!!

My application is due in the office in Eugene, OR by Wednesday of next week…so I have to be done on Friday, take pics on Sat and have it out that same day.  Yikes!!!!!  Just like me to procrastinate to the last minute.  I plan on making this one big one and 2-3 smaller ones.  Anybody know a good (cheap) photographer in Portland?  Here’s the start of the “big one”…..

Taken from this sketch….which was taken from one of my woodcuts I posted on here ages ago….

I think I like it so far….still debating on what kind of framing/border it needs.  I’m thinking a solid dark thick border with a thin line of crazy patchwork running through it…

My sewing room is looking a lot more lived in…

I even hung some things on the wall, like this awesome vintage fold-out for broomstick lace projects.  I like to imagine what these ladies’ lives are like.  (The two college girls on the right are totally lesbians, right?)

Unpacking my stuff, I found this little felty virgin I made 2 x-mases ago….I hung her in the corner of the room that kinda freaks me out.  I think her red eyes will scare any nasties away!

So I happened to be making prairie points and decided to turn the event into a tutorial! Don’t know what prairie points are? Well…they’re traditionally used as a finishing touch to quilts - they’re little folded, repeated triangles of fabric that make a sawtooth design. Here’s a good traditional example I found here:

(Photo credit: calamity Kim!  Thanks for letting me include this, Kim!!)

The good news is you do NOT have to make each triangle seperately. I repeat: you DO NOT have to make each triangle seperately. Lot of folks still do, especially if they want each prairie point to be a different color/print.

I say f(&* that. I’m going to show you how to make long strips of continuous, nesting prairie points from a single length of fabric. It’s fast, it easy, its fun. Here we go…

Step 1:

Cut a strip of fabric. The width should be 4 times bigger than the size of your finished prairie point. Fold the strip in half and iron the crease. Open and whip out your scissors. Here’s comes step #2.

Step #2:

Using a ruler, mark out squares along one side of the crease. Snip all the way to the fold. On the other side, off-set your squares by 1/2 the size of your squares. (If you’re making 2″ sqaures, skip the first 1″ and start marking from there.) Cut out that dead space at the start of your second side - you don’t want it there.

Step #3:

Here comes the oragami. Don’t panic that I don’t have a pic of folding the very first square. I got so excited that I forgot to take a picture. Like I said, don’t worry - they are all folded the same way, from the first prairie point to the last. Start with the first, top square. Fold the top right hand corner down so that it meets with the bottom left hand corner.

Step #4

Now take the top left hand point and fold it down so that it meets with the bottom right hand corner. Done! Now, move on to the next square (on the bottom row this time…)

Keep on repeating this again and again. Nest the prairie points as you go by making the final fold (step #4) *over* the last prairie point. Stick ‘em where ever. I would baste along the exposed edge before attempting to insert them into any seams.

Enjoy!

Ahhh. I’m finally all moved in to my new home in Portland!

We’re right in the Alberta Arts District….here’s our new bus spot:

Look at her all tucked in between those two houses!  It took us about an hour (literally) to back her into that spot.  Tight squeeze.

Oh yes, and our new housemate’s dog, Cisco…a total sweetheart…

Annnnd…..my new craft studio (located in the beautiful blue house to the left of the bus)!!!!!!!!!!

Obviously, I still need to decorate, get an ironing board in there and set up a little spot for my computer.  It’s not much to look at yet but WOW! I’m so excited about having a crafty space again. Can you believe I fit all that stuff in the our 8′ x 27′ housebus? Looking at it all laid out in this new room makes me realize exactly how much stuff I really tried to fit in there.  How totally insane.

We ended up getting the big folding table (under the window in the picture) at this Goodwill free-for-all place called “the bins.”  It’s a huge warehouse with a hundred or so people all pawing through piles of clothing and junk.  It’s a Costco-esque flea market/dump alot like the one in Santa Rosa that I mentioned earlier but 20x the size.  $7 for the table and $5 for the chair.  Not bad.

I also visited THE LARGEST FABRIC STORE IN THE WEST today.  It’s called Fabric Depot and it’s a 15 minute drive from my new home.  I was so excited and stunned at the size of this place walking into it that I almost blacked out.  I spent a good 2-3 hours in “getting to know you” mode - fingering the trims and oogling….well, everything.  Trying to get a handle on the organizational system.  Noting that they had every color of felt, corduroy, flannel, etc. imaginable.  All the fancy fabric designers were accounted for and all the cheap-o fabrics from Joann’s/Walmart were there, too.  They even had “themed” sections like…cat fabrics, music fabrics, sewing-themed fabrics, astrological fabrics and cartoon fabrics.  Oh yeah, did I mention everything was 30% off?  Yes, EVERYTHING.

Now that I’m all moved in I want to get back on track with my blogging habit.  =)  I apologize again for ignoring everyone during my move!  It was crazy.  You were missed.

<3

erin