Salsa Girl is Back

The March challenge left me feeling flat and uninspired.  I think it was because of the project I selected.  I fell way short of my goals, and I certainly couldn't say I had fun.  I was in fact working at the task of drawing and I usually wasn't happy with the results of the sketches I did.

I decided to turn back to wild and crazy in April.  Back to experimenting with techniques, back to having fun.  When I read Sharon's challenge to address change, I immediately thought of my wish to move away a bit from knitting and try quilting.  Fiber to fabric, so to speak.

It so happened that I was in my local quilt shop earlier in the day and found a pack of color-coordinated fabric in primary colors.  Needless to say, I had to take it home with me, but I had no idea what I was going to do with it at the time of purchase.  I have also begun to acquire some "fat quarters" with the goal of learning how to quilt in the coming months.  The fabrics are in no particular palette - just what appeals to me at the time I'm in a shop or at a yard sale.

I decided to address this month's challenge by trying to marry knitted fabric with woven fabric. I wanted the piece to be transitional, in some way incorporating the best of both the fiber and the fabric.  I pulled out some inspirational photos of crazy quilts, with the intention of perhaps using the fiber in the embellishment of the seams.  But I felt I didn't know enough about quilting to complete a project by the end of the month (Lord knows, I have a hard enough time keeping up with these challenges when I at least have a vague idea of what I'm doing!)

I recently completed a fabric postcard class at my local quilt shop, and I thought that maybe I'd do  post card-size piece.  I thought I'd use one fabric as the core or center and then work the knitted fabric(s) as a kind of frame, maybe embellish the fabric with buttons or sequins or beads, and then back the piece with either a knitted or woven complementary fabric.

Here is the fabric stash I started with:

And here is the fiber that I selected from my stash (Note about the fiber:  I stuck to all synthetics or cottons since all the fabrics were cottons or cotton-polyesters):

I ended up selecting four possible fabrics and five or six fibers in coordinating colors:

The fabrics all came from Moda's "Sss-silly Safari."

I swatched up three of the fibers and began playing with the pieces.  Being a nut for color - any color as long as it's screaming, in-your-face, outrageously bright - and as long as I can combine a zillion patterns in coordinating shades with all kinds of glitter, charms, and sequins dangling around, I am REALLY happy.  So I realized after about 10 minutes of shifting fabric and swatches around, I'd need a bigger piece than 4" X 6" (10 cm X 15 cm) because I wasn't content to use just one fabric and two or three fibers.  I wanted several fabrics.  I also wanted to combine the knitted and woven fabrics randomly, rather than having the knitted parts forming a frame around the fabric.

Here's where I'm at for the moment:  I have decided to begin a "book" of fabric pages.  I plan to make several more swatches from the coordinating fibers and I'll play around with them until I come up with something that's pleasing to me.  I plan to use the "build-a-book" instructions that Virginia Spiegel published in the Fall 2006 issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors (p.60-65).  I haven't decided on the size of the "page" yet, although the instruction suggest 10" X 6 " (25 cm X 15 cm).

Back in the Game?

When the challenge for the month of March was issued, I immediately thought of the perfect way to make me (or anyone else for that matter) notice details - draw a picture or take a photograph.

I've always wanted to be able to draw better and a couple of years ago, I took a course at the local art center at night.  The teacher was very tolerant of my beginning efforts and I showed up for every class, including the ones where we were asked to draw the human figure from a living, breathing model.  Thinking about that class now, God bless the model.  She'd visit each easel at the end of the modeling period and see how we had portrayed her.  All my renderings of her looked vaguely alien, but she was always very kind in her comments.

In any case,  I decided that I never got good at drawing because I never worked at it diligently.  When I took the class, I didn't draw outside the structured classroom time, and to get good at anything, you have to practice at it daily.  I thought this was the perfect opportunity to see if I could stick to some kind of schedule and get better at drawing too.

The project as I conceived it fulfilled my personal goals for this challenge:  I already had a sketchbook and a set of pencils so I'd definitely be within my $10/month limit for project supplies; I've wanted to practice drawing so that I'd improve the diagrams of projects I'd hope to undertake; and I thought drawing daily would be fun.  My objective was to draw one thing every day, however small or trivial.

Here are the results of my efforts to notice details:

I didn't manage to draw one thing per day, which was a personal disappointment.  The goal didn't seem that outrageous.  But there were days when I got home so late from work that I just didn't have the energy to tackle a challenge.  I did try to stretch myself by trying a cartoon figure, drawing designs from memory, and putting some of the objects of my attention in context (my art teacher always used to pass by my easel and ask me why the fruit/bottles/cans were floating in space without any reference to other objects).

I thought the challenge would be fun but it wasn't.  I discovered that I do not think drawing is fun.  It is not relaxing for me.  I couldn't wait to be finished with each sketch I was doing and get on with my knitting.  As a child and young adult, I never just spontaneously drew or doodled.  I suspect that people who draw or doodle would not necessarily pick up knitting needles, so I am content with this.

I feel more confident about my drawing now - I can at least put a name to each object I drew which is some comfort.  As a result, I have more confidence in recording ideas in sketch form in a project journal.  And it certainly is true that if you draw something (or in my case, try to draw something), you remember it very clearly later.   There are details of the palm plant and the flooring tiles, for example, that I never would have paid much attention to had I not had to draw them.

The challenge also made me look at other artists drawings.  I'd ask myself, "Would I be happy with that if that werre my work?"  I was surprised how many times I'd decide I'd reject the piece because I didn't think it would be good enough to publish/sell/publicize.    Never mind that the drawings were all published in art magazines.  To me, they were not particularly attractive.   I suppose much of that criticalness is merely taste.  But the March challenge did made me think about when something from the craft table is good enough - maybe not perfect, but okay.  I'm still working on this notion of good enough versus perfect versus it's done let's move on.  Settling that in my mind is for some other later challenge, I suppose.

So, I am now off to consider April's assignment.  I have already decided to use fiber, no matter what Sharon throws at us.  I've noticed that most of my fellow challengees are needleworking.  I think it's time to stop bucking the tide and get with the needle arts program.  Also, to those of you have been left comments, I only have computer access on the weekends so I am not intentionally ignoring you if several days go by without a response.  I just don't have the capacity to read and publish your comments more quickly.

February's Challenge Completed

My response to the February challenge certainly morphed between conception and finished project.  After my last post, which admittedly was eons ago, I had finished an envelope and had gathered an assortment of buttons and seam bindings, with the intent of doing a sort of "rosary".  After the post, I kept looking at the items I had put together.  I kept thinking about my mother and how she'd consider the assembled materials, and what she'd think of the project overall.  And that's when I switched gears yet again.

My Mom was a very fashionable woman in her time.  She'd never have settled for a few buttons and some seam binding.  She'd embellish a dress she'd made for one of her daughters with smocking.  She'd add a corsage.  She'd find some fabulous jewelry to accessorize an outfit.  So I dragged out every conceivable embellishment I had on hand and began considering how I might merge part of me with part of her.  After all, I AM half of her genetically.  Why not have half of me in the project?

I was torn about this approach because all of the items I had from her did not altogether match up well with things from my stash:  glass beads with plastic buttons; colors just a little off to be really compatible; and not enough of any one thing to tie it all up in a neat package.

Then I decided that the neat package concept was my problem.  Alzheimer's takes what was once a neat, pulled together package and rips it open.  Goofy stuff hangs out of a person suffering from the disease.  So who says everything has to be neat and matched in this particular case?  So I settled on a few items from my stash (beads mostly), stopped by Jo-Ann's to get some jewelry embellishments, packed up all the items, and went up to the capitol for a week of paid work.

For once, I left work on time one afternoon and got home with enough energy to do more than flop on the couch with my knitting.  I decided to make a bracelet out of the beads, partly because my mother always would ask of any project, "So what are you going to do with THAT?"  "It's a bracelet, Mom.  I can wear it if the spirit moves me."  I used her buttons, my beads, and the newly purchased findings.  I never beaded before, so I'm fairly happy with my first attempt.  I don't think it's too bad, except that the bracelet is a bit too big for my wrist (okay, it's gigantic!), so if I want to wear it, I will have to shorten it.  Then again, I forgot to measure it as I was stringing the beads and buttons - Freudian?

I really got into stringing beads.  It is very repetitive, almost like knitting if you can manage to work up a good rhythm.  The envelope was sort of plain, so I made a string of beads to embellish the front of it.  When the string was completed, I stitched it to the envelope.  I used some of the buttons that didn't make it into the bracelet to complete the face.  Here's the envelope opened flat.  The colors in this photo are true.

And here it is closed.

And here's the envelope and bracelet together, in case you are interested in scale.  The bracelet is 11 inches (27 cm) long.  The envelope is 4" X 6" (10.5 cm X 15.5 cm).

So there you have it, the February challenge completed by the end of March.  Some demons exorcised, some not.  But I did eventually have fun with this project.  I didn't spend more than $10 (my personal expenditure limit for each month's challenge), and I sure know what's in my stash now when it comes to beads, sewing supplies, buttons, and fabric.  Mom, I don't know what I will do with this project.  I might carry it around with me to remind me of your favorite colors, or to remind me that you were once a very accomplished seamstress, or to remind me that even a practical person like you had a pretty good stash.

And for those of you who think I am so far behind at this point that I will never catch up with the March challenge, well do I have a surprise for YOU.  I have been secretly working on this month's challenge, and I will reveal all next weekend - or not.  Depends on housework, paid work, and whether any more tornadoes touch down in South Carolina.  Now, I'm off to clean up some more debris from the garden.

Challenge #2, Oy!

Maybe if the project I select for the challenge gets too personal, that's when I run into trouble.  I'm usually a fairly decisive person, but this assignment has me twisting and spinning.

I was pretty pleased with myself on Monday evening last week.  I had pretty well laid out the project and had assembled the relevant materials.  I had planned to make a postcard that had the seam binding going at angles across the face, with black buttons sewn randomly about the card.  I also wanted an envelope to house the card.  It would hide the card with the randomly sewn seam binding and buttons, like Alzheimer's patients try to hide their forgetfulness in the early stages of their illness.   I selected fabric I had bought for the first challenge, because it had a pattern  and color palette I know my Mom would have liked.   I had some gold metallic fabric on hand that I planned to use for the interior of the envelope.  I chose some rose-colored fabric for the postcard face, and I selected seam bindings that sort of matched.    I wasn't too concerned about the matching aspect at first, because matching clothes was something that went by the wayside pretty early for Mom.  Here's a reasonable facsimile of what I planned to work with (I don't always get the most accurate colors when I photograph - Note to self:  take a class in digital photography!)

I found a paper envelope about the right size, cut out the fabrics, and hand stitched them together to form an envelope.  Here it is just before the flaps were sewn down.

As I put the finishing touches on the envelope, I began to have second thoughts about the plan for the postcard.  I had been fingering the buttons as I selected them, and I felt that maybe they'd be better used as worry beads or charms instead of being tied down on a card.

The envelope reminded me of two smaller ones I had on hand: one that a jeweler used to hold a gold necklace I had purchased; the other to hold a rosary.  So, maybe I should scrap the postcard idea and try to figure out a way to use the buttons in a chain?  As jewelry?  As a string of worry beads/buttons?  An Alzheimer's rosary?

The mismatching of the seam binding was bothering me, too?  My Mom would never have mismatched anything in her earlier years.

So, I suppose I must decide what I want to bring from the past and what elements I want to incorporate from the present before I complete any more of this project.  It's definitely a dilemma for me.

I think I want to go forward with the envelope, but I've decided to not use the postcard to hold the buttons.  Maybe a stroke of genius will hit me as I iron this week's laundry.  Or maybe I just have to lay out a bunch of supplies on my craft table and fiddle about with them in case genius needs a shove in some direction.  

Onward to Challenge #2

Now that Nikki's clothes have been retired to the more appropriate three year old hands for which they were intended, I can move on to February's challenge.

Last month, I had thought to try an admiration piece to my mother.  But I couldn't come up with a way to express my feelings, so I selected the color palette instead.  When the topic of remembrance was assigned in February, doing something to honor my Mom jumped into my mind again.  So on February 2nd, I sat down with my photo albums and thought about making a collage of photos of her with a poem to accompany them.  Trouble was, I ended up surrounded with wet tissues, thinking about the woman I loved who is lost to Alzheimer's.  Scratch that idea.  I'd need therapy  or at least a good support group by the time I completed that project.  And one of my personal goals with the challenge was to have some fun.

While going through the photos, I came up with some darling shots of my sisters in the late fifties or early sixties.  I haven't mastered iPhoto yet and I thought I might do a computer project, experimenting with photo layout and color.  This idea was gently percolating, but I hadn't firmed up anything concrete in the way of plan or process.

Then, last night, as I was putting away all the materials from the Barbie project, I came across two containers of sewing supplies that had once belonged to my Mom.  When my sisters and I cleaned out my parents' home just after they had moved to an assisted living facility, one of the items I inherited was a tin of old (and I mean old) seam bindings, elastic (thinks bras and girdles from the fifties), hooks (rusty), snaps, and sundry supplies, plus a small box of odd (really odd) buttons.  I still laugh when I think of my sisters' faces when I said I wanted the items.  I know they thought I was ready for a rest home or at least drugs when I decided to lug this junk hundreds of miles across the Mason-Dixon line, while the Lladro and Limoge went begging for a home.

When I saw the two containers in my sewing bin, that's when it hit me:  use the materials from her stash to do my February challenge.   So I spent an hour or so last night considering how the seam bindings and the assortment of buttons might come together into some kind of cohesive piece.  Since I am starting this project so late, I decided to keep the piece in the 5"X7" range.   I'll probably need to purchase 1/4 yard of foundation fabric (I don't have anything heavy enough in my very meager fabric stash)  and I may add a few seam binding colors if my design requires them.

I am going to use the color palette of one of the last garments my Mom ever stitched before she gave up sewing - a mandarin-collared blouse that I also inherited but haven't had the strength to wear.   It's not good, you know,  when someone says they like your blouse and you burst into tears.  Plus, it's scary to wear your Mom's clothes - like when you forget what you've got on and you pass a mirror, you get inclined to say, "Hi, Mom."  This does not help my self-image.

And how, you ask, does this fulfill my goals for the challenge?  Well, I'm using up stash, holding the cost of the project to under $10, having fun (okay, that's questionable, unless exorcising demons can be considered entertaining, although remembering my sisters' expressions the moment I said I wanted the sewing supplies should count at least a little bit), and it is something I've wanted to do, if only to prove to my dear Allentown sister that I really am going to use this old stuff for something.  Plus, it will actually be a stitched piece, which is more in keeping with the rest of the work the challenge participants are engaged in.  Might as well not be totally out of step here!

Oh, by the way dear Tulsa sister, you don't have to send me those embarrassing photos of us as children that you said you had in your possession.

Finally, the Fashion Show

Well, for those of you who have been waiting patiently for the Barbie fashion show, here it is.  Nikki (left) and her friend Nancy (right) were available for the modeling gig this afternoon and I finally got all the velcro closures, hooks, and snaps sewn on the clothes just five minutes before the photographer arrived.  I have to say I am tickled pink with the results.  As I was making the garments, I tried each one on Nikki but today was the first time I put the pieces together to make whole outfits.  There are a few gaps in the wardrobe, like a long sleeve blouse, a long cotton skirt, and a dress, but I think a three year old will overlook those deficiencies.

Here is a summer ensemble.  Nikki is wearing the halter top, which came out much better than I had hoped (I decided to stitch the neck straps closed, like the bikini Nikki was assigned at the factory) and a hand stitched cotton skirt.  Nancy is wearing the vest/beach cover-up/mini-dress.  The beach bag is the only item I didn't make - it was a potpourri bag I found in my sock drawer, and the color was just too perfect to not re-purpose it.

And here's Nancy in the dress above, reversed front to back.  Nikki's wearing the Kidsilk Haze cardigan with the black sleeveless blouse and the skirt I made at the beginning of the challenge.

My favorite outfit is the skirt of Shepherd's fiber, the little jacket and the halter top that Nikki's got on.  Nancy's in the first sweater I knit for this challenge.

And here are the girls in their reversible sweaters.

And last, but not least, here's the Noro coat and the Habu jacket.

I'm laughing as I scroll through the photos.  I haven't played with dolls in years and boy, did I have fun with this project.  All that remains is to dress the girls in their factory-assigned clothes, box up the clothes I made, and find some suitable birthday wrapping paper for the present.  Nancy needs to be returned to her owner, too.

I'm sorry I'm finishing the January challenge a bit behind schedule, but I'm glad I enjoyed this project so much.  If I had a do-over, I'd use snaps on the clothes instead of velcro - the velcro makes a thick closure that deforms the fit of the garment; I'd plan out the ensembles better - I made what I wanted to make and didn't think about coordinated outfits until about halfway through January; and I'd have made sure the fashion show occurred at work as planned.  I'd also have mapped out my time better so that I finished the assignment on time.  But I've always been a procrastinator so it's not surprising that I'm late with this, just disappointing.

From the January challenge, I learned that if you "show up" for a project, somehow it gets done and the results are better than expected.  I learned to trust my instincts more when knitting.  Patterns are good guides, but I didn't use a pattern for any of the garments I knit for Nikki.  That said, I couldn't have made the fabric garments without the patterns from that wonderful woman in New Zealand.  I guess it's okay to let go and do as long as you know your limitations.  And I learned that if you ask friends for help with a fun project, they will laugh with you, ask every day how the project is going, send you fabulous fun fibers in the color palette you need, and read your blog even though they most likely have much better things to do.

Onward to February.  

Longer than I expected

I apologize to the few readers who have left comments and are waiting to see Nikki and her pals all dressed to kill.  I hit a few speed bumps on the road to project completion.

First of all, it is no longer possible to buy fashion doll accessories.  I must confess that I did not complete an exhaustive search for doll shoes and purses.  But I did visit three or four stores looking for those bubble packs of accessories I remember my sisters getting after my mother made doll clothes for them.  A gentleman in one store told me they hadn't carried accessories for at least three years.  I guess this says either we are now so affluent that we just want to buy whole outfits, or it say we are so litigious that companies are no longer willing to risk a lawsuit over a potential choking hazard so they'll stop selling very small items.  In any case, Nikki is shoeless and bagless.

Second of all, a stream of disappointed women came through my office door to tell me they couldn't find their Barbie dolls.  Well, I can see clearly how this happened.  Either their minds are failing and they can't remember where they actually put them, or someone in their household was doing a clear-out and the dolls got tossed into the trash.  Of course, the guilty parties who chucked Barbie will never own up.  It's much easier to let your spouse think the item you are looking for is just misplaced.  One woman came in all harried with the story that she spent three hours in the attic searching for Barbie and came away empty handed.  She left my office though saying that the search had been worthwhile because now she knew where some other long-stored items were and the attic was all neat and tidy.

In any case, I have two fashion dolls in my possession and I will try to do the fashion show with them tomorrow.

As for the February challenge, I am still mulling over what I want to do.  Last month, I zoomed out of the starting gate.  This month, I am being a bit more thoughtful.  I am thinking I might try to learn some photoshop techniques and incorporate some old photos as part of the "I remember" theme.  I will select the photos over the next week and decide how I want to handle them in the overall project.   I'd also like to do some text to give the photos context.  I'll be able to devote my full attention to this after the fashion show.