Patchwork Underground

Just got done planning and hosting my little sewing workshop for Transition PDX. We made these beauties:

Patchwork was popular in the Great Depression as a way to save money and turn old clothing and scraps into something new.  I expect it will become more and more popular as our resources continue to dwindle, hence the patchwork + Transition Movement connection!  (If you don’t know about the Transition Movement, check it out!  It’s a community-building network aimed at preparing ourselves and our communities for the myriad consequences of peak oil and climate chaos.  A large part of their approach is based in DIY self sufficiency, so it’s a crafter’s paradise…)

I thought that these little 9-patch pin cushions would be a great way to teach basic sewing skills and get folks acquainted with the principals of patchwork construction.  It really got people’s creative juices flowing and some beautiful creations that got made that day.  Thank you to Henry for ring leading this workshop - I had tons of fun doing it!

In other news, Julia and I finished our coffee table top mandala!  We bought this messed up table at the Bins a few months ago for $3.  I stared at it for a long time until I figured out what to do….

…and now, OOOOO!  I love it.

I did the top in a combination of cheap acrylics, sharpie squiggles and dollar store glitter glue.  I varnished the whole thing with this awesome water-based (read: non-stinky) varnish I bought for weather-proofing an educational display I made for the Fruit Booth at Oregon Country Fair 2 years ago.  Still good!  Love this stuff.

OK, if you are one of the very select group of folks who has been following my crafty exploits since I was in high school then you may recognize the center of this wall hanging in progress…

It started as a crewel embroidery sampler on fabric I ripped out of an old floor pillow.  I began in the center and then just worked around that first flower you see in the middle.  It just kept growing.

I would take it to work with me at the Games Gallery in the Santa Rosa Mall (yes, the old Dungeons and Dragons store that closed like 10 years ago) and stitch on it behind the counter.  I would take it to Mme. Newlon’s french class with me and work on it there.  (Best way to determine a teacher’s craft politics is to bust out a needlework project in class, right?)

People were really drawn in by it so I started making it more and more trippy and cosmic because that seems like what it wanted to be.  If you start in the middle and work your way out towards the edges I think you can really see the progression from tidy sampler to tripsoidfloyd mandala.

Anyway, once I stitched on the women (which are stuffed applique) and filled in the sunrise to match the added fabric color, I figured I was done.  I pretty much ran out of fabric to work on.

Then, something unexpected happened: PANIC!

I never really had a plan beyond the stitching itself.  I thought maybe an insert on the back of a jacket?  Or?  Then the white background started to wear on me.  I had pangs of regret for not stitching on a cream or light blue piece of cloth.

With all this uneasy indecision I put it in my top drawer and forgot about it.

Then, moving into my new house I rediscovered it and really looked at it for the first time in years.  I still really like it so I hung it up, unfinished, in my sewing room.  I still had no idea what to do with it.

A few days later, I was working on piecing a small log cabin quilt. I had a few of the blocks laying out on my cutting table when I suddenly realized that the colors in the log cabins matched the colors in the embroidery PERFECTLY.

Sometimes I trick myself like that - I start making something for one purpose and then in the middle of the process I realize that I am actually making it for another purpose.  Cool.

Thanks, sewing angels!

(P.S.  I am in the process of thoroughly testing my new Gingher Dressmaking Shears and Pinking Shears.  Rest assured, it is VERY scientific work.  Stay tuned for a detailed review of these lovely cutting tools!)

My Patchwork Lace Top and my Alphabet Baby Quilt have never looked so good!

It’s always fun to see what the photographers do….especially in Stitch!

Go get yours now!

OMG! Hat Making - where have you been my whole life!?

This hat is insane and I love it!  The back story: I was bumping Lady Gaga in my sewing room and testing out a traditional Dresden plate pattern that I found on the internet. When it was done I was like, “OK, so, this is cute and would make a nice pillow or whatever - but seriously now - what would it look like on my head?”

BANG!

I used super stiff iron-on interfacing as the body for the brim, ironed it onto the Dresden plate, hand stitched a rad fake fur lining onto the other side and stitched a doily center onto the middle to form the crown.  I hid the unfinished bit where the brim meets the crown with matching lace so that it just looks like an extension of the doily.  I also hand-stitched wire into the brim so that I can move it all around and change its shape however I want to.  I used tiny stitches everywhere so that the whole thing is REVERSABLE.

Plans for the next hat are already in the making.  This time, I want to actually wet felt a vintage-looking hat together….with feathers and rhinestones and fake foliage, of course.  I already put a couple different millinery books on hold at the library and they should be shipping to the North Portland library for me soon.  There’s a right way and a wrong way to do this thing and I’d like to actually learn how to do it for reals.  Yay!