Patchwork Underground

First off, I’m so sorry that this move has forced me to neglect my blog and all my blogfriends lately.  I promise the neglect period is almost over.

You probably guessed that our move to Portland is taking longer than expected.  After many meetings with potential housemates/landlords we have finally found the right situation in the Alberta Arts District!!  One where I get to park my housebus AND move into my very own sewing studio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  There aren’t enough exclaimation points in the world for how excited I am!  SO EXCITED.  I’m going to be looking back at all the amazing sewing spaces I’ve seen photographed on many of my favorite bloggies in preparation for moving in.  Pictures of my new space to come soon! =)

We’re waiting here in Eugene, OR for me to get over a little cold I came down with before we make the big move - hopefully it’ll all happen in the next couple days.

On the way up to Oregon, I had the chance to stop by at my grandparents’ Eikler in Walnut Creek, CA and take a BUNCH of pictures.  I might even go so far as to call it a photo essay…..

I know that a lot of you were really interested in my grandma’s gigantic macrame.  I have to make it clear that my grandma did NOT make the macrame piece in her atrium.  It was a gift from a local high school art teacher.  My grandpa led me to believe that it was a class project but…he’s 87 now and tends to make stuff up to fill in the gaps so it’s hard to say one way or another.

When she was still alive, my grandma - Betty Kunkle - was a full-time potter.  Her (crazy-super-fancy!) house is covered in all this art - some of it hers, some of it from her neighbors and friends and some of it from her travels around the world.   It hasn’t changed much at all since my grandma left us way back in 1993.  Visiting her house was (and still is) a totally classy experience, especially for a little girl growing up in a podunk blip of suburban “town.”   I think you’ll agree that the sophisticated retro modern awesomeness is totally overwhelming….in my opinion, the whole interior decoration vision my grandma had for this house is an art piece in itself.  Prepare for picture overload:

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A couple of footnotes:

-The white feminine sculpture behind the artist’s wooden model was made by my grandma, as was the brown and black tiled wall plaque, the melty sculpture/tower and many of the pots on the top shelf of the hutch in the living room.  We still don’t know who made the chair-man.   (Possibly an uncle?  Possibly grandma?)

-There’s a family rumor going around that grandma’s backyard was in Sunset magazine in the 60’s.  Fact or fiction?  I don’t know.  More research to be done, I guess.  How to figure that one out?

-My grandma painted the brick fireplace white in preparation for a dark multicolored jute macrame my mom said she was going to make for them.  Mom says she started it but never finished.  Where is it now?  Unsolved mystery.

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So, now I just need to buckle down and make a ton of hard copies of these photos for my grandpa.  Any suggestions for how to do that painlessly (and inexpensively)?  I’m not a whiz with those dark arts….

My favorite thing about visiting Santa Rosa is the thrifting. There’s tons of thrift shops here - even the old-school “bins” type where you get to dig around in massive piles of unsorted, unwashed clothes. Ahh…heaven. So meditative.

This week, I scored two amazing vintage macrame magazines. Macrame is one of those dying art forms that our moms barely remember doing through the haze of the 70’s. Did you know you could macrame a table or a chair? Me neither. Check it out….

I think of two women when I think of macrame:

First, my good friend, Lara, who is not only cool enough to have found a macrame owl necklace but also wear it regularly.

Second, my grandma. She had a huge macrame hanging pot-holder thing. It holds a big raku urn/pot that she made (she was a full-time potter). It hangs big, dark and low to the ground and the macrame part is all kinds of chunky jute. Even though she’s gone now, her giant macrame thing is still hanging there in her Eikler’s atrium, visible from all angles because like a lot of Eiklers, the atrium was in the center of the house and the glass walls go right through to the family room…that’s a seriously classy piece of macrame, grandma!

I’ve macramed a sampler or two in my day but never something giant. Maybe it’s time for a macrame come-back? And no….I don’t mean macramed iPods cozies.