Patchwork Underground

Carrying on a theme started a few posts ago with human hair embroidery….I want to share with you guys my review of this excellent book I recently scored at the local public library.

Freestyle Machine Emrboidery, published by Interweave Press earlier this Spring, is a rare treat for sewing enthusiasts.  I had to fight off a lot of other people in the hold line for this much anticipated book.  Totally worth it!

First of all, the photo-rich format is gorgeous.  Carol Shinn’s inspirational fiber art is generously sprinkled throughout.  (If you’ve been lucky enough to see it before, then you know that that’s a good thing!)

Second, this lady knows what she’s talking about.  I have seen other books on freestyle machine embroidery (sometimes called “thread painting”) but none that demonstrated such a mastery of the medium as Carol’s book.  I was blown away by the clarity and no-nonsense approach of Carol’s step-by-step instructions.  Her simple language and total mastery of technique reminded me how beautiful the process of stitching really is.

Here I was thinking I pretty much knew my fibers and that was that.  Nope, totally wrong.  I learned so much about textiles from this book!  Warp, weft, the effect of stitching direction on the distortion of fabric - it’s all way more involved than I first thought.

I have done my fair share of guerilla darning and (way) amature thread painting and once you start loading up the fabric with stitches, funky things start to happen.  Who knew that you could control that effect?  Even exploit it?  Heck, before reading this book, I could never even figure out exactly why it was happening at all.

Oh yeah - and there are a lot of nifty ideas in Freestyle Machine Embroidery that would transfer to any type of sewing, not just freestyle machine embroidery.  Inserting beads into machine stitching, working with coins, doing funky things with zipper parts - it’s all in here.

All in all, worth a read if you’re interested in the technique and worth leafing through if you’re looking for inspiriation in any medium.  Two big crafty thumbs up!

Sometimes you just have to change things around.  This was one of those times.

Less clutter = fewer places for stress, drama and negativity to hide! (OK, you have to be realistic…there will always be piles of scraps everywhere.)

I invested $16 in these cinder blocks.  Since I was adding more and more stuff onto these shelves the milk cartons started to buckle.  I really didn’t want to be the victim of a crap avalanche in my workspace.

Fabrics new and old.  Everything in its place….

Marx…in hair. All I can say is WOW.

I found Professor Wei Jingxian & his art of hair embroidery when I was searching for modern-day practitioners of Victorian hairwork. (You already knew I was dorky. Whatever.) Professor Jingxian has been doing what he calls “sketch hair embroidery” since the 60s. Apparently, hairwork was also traditionally practiced in China but, like Victorian hairwork, has pretty much totally died out.

Well, except for Professor Jungxian.

I LOVE his choices of subjects. He has travelled all over the world doing “hair embroidery diplomatism.” And yeah…he’s done ALL 43 presidents of the United States.

So I’ve never seen anything like this (especially made in modern times) but I have seen some pretty amazing Victorian hairwork examples in several museums here in Oregon, including the Pioneer Museum in Brownsville, OR. The Brownsville museum is RAD but you wouldn’t know it from the janky sign on the I-5. (I went because of the janky sign but that’s just me. Thrift shops, junk yards, podunk DIY museums - what’s the difference?) Anyways, Brownsville’s museum was NOT what I was expecting. It’s totally well-managed, big and awesome. Not podunk at all. Their historical (and totally local) fiber arts collections is rockin’. They have quilts, weavings, native american basketwork and, yes, stuff that crazy white ladies made out of human hair over 100 years ago. Definitely worth a visit if you’re ever in the area.

In conclusion: Yay hair crafting!

It’s zucchini time! Julia and I had some serious blue ribbon zucchinis in our garden this year and this turned out to be the yummiest, vegan-est thing you can do with 4 cups of grated zucchini. Who knew?

It’s soooo good toasted with Earth Balance (vegan butter stuff). We also liked it with last year’s pear butter. (It’s almost pear time again so we thought it would be prudent to eat up last year’s batch to clear room for this year’s…yummy yum yummm)

We have to give credit to Orion (Julia’s brother) and his friend, Aaron, for digging this recipe out of the Stern Family Cookbook several years ago. More credit is due to my mother-out-law, Deb for preserving the Stern Family Cookbook for posterity. It’s actually a really cool DIY family relic….may if I bother her about it she’ll send a pic of it to me and I can post it here. =)

So, originally, Orion and Aaron veganized this zucchini bread by substituting flax seeds for eggs. I’m not a huge flax so I used banana instead. YUM!

We also added walnuts and raisins for extra grubness…

Hey look, I learned how to use my macro!!!!! (Thanks Allegra!)

The nitty-gritty:

We took this recipe and doubled it. We filled 3 bread pans this way and used up all our zucchini…4 cups of it.

3 cups flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt (or to taste)
1 tsp. baking powder
2 cups sugar (we used honey, not anywhere near 2 cups tho)
1 cup oil (we used 1/2 cup applesauce & 1/4 cup oil & 1/4 cup earth balance)
1 1/2 bananas (instead of eggs)
2 cups grated zucchini
1/3 cup orange juice
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans)
1 cup raisins

Sift together dry ingredients. Add raisins & nuts. Beat oil & sugar.
Add eggs. Stir in zucchini, juice, vanilla & zest. Ad dry ingredients
& nuts. Spoon into oiled pan or tube pan (WTF is that Aunt Lil?!) Bake at 325 degrees for 1
1/4 hours. Enjoy!

Attention Portlanders: I’m going to be teaching Patchwork 101 at Skill-Share Studio this Saturday from 2-5! You’re invited. =)

I just put up a bunch more of these flyers all over Alberta, Hawthorne, Mississippi and Belmont…so all you cool PDX kids should see ‘em. (AND COME!) It’s sliding scale $5-$25 and we’re gonna be making these awesome retro checkerboard pillows using a “cheater” strip patchwork technique called Seminole patchwork. Like the flyer says…if you can sew a straight line, then you can do this. I mean it. And it’s stupid fun.

So, come on down if you’re in town! I’ll be there with bells on….