rostitchery

who are the people in your neighborhood?

there are a lot of local and regional vendors i still want to tell you about, and a lot of great events coming up, but i've heard from several readers who are getting discouraged because the holidays are quickly upon us, and things are tight all around--and let's face it, whether you do it yourself or buy it from someone else, handmade ain't cheap.

so today i want to share with you some thoughts about what “buy local, buy handmade” can do for you.  and it has nothing to do with buying presents.

when you take your car in for service to the local auto shop down the street--you know, the one that is in an old warehouse and was started by the father of the man who runs it now--you're putting your money into the hands of someone who lives where you live, shops where you shop, sends his kids to the same schools you send your kids to.  that money ends up helping your neighborhood stay healthy and vibrant and attractive to live in.

the same goes for every little, independent, locally-owned and operated business in your town.  the local hair salon, run by the single mother who is raising two smart, funny, well-behaved kids and keeping them on the right track--the local garden center where you get your flowers and bulbs in the spring because they know their stuff and they know your name, and they want to make sure you leave happy and tell all your friends --the woman who cleans your house, the kid that cuts your grass--these people need you, and you need them too.

you need them to buy candy bars and raffle tickets from the PTA at your kid's school.  you need them to pay sales taxes in your neighborhood so your town can hire enough fire fighters.  you need them to eat at the local diner and to have enough cash to tip the server well for refilling their coffee cups over and over while they monopolize the table for two hours entertaining out-of-town guests.

you need them to keep that money right there, in your neighborhood and community--not send half (or more) of it off to big-box retailer’s expensive corporate offices in east somewhere-you-don't-live.

because the powers-that-be at big-box retailer’s corporate office in east somewhere-you-don't-live don’t care about your kid's PTA, they don’t care about your fire department, they don’t care about that waitress who is saving every dime so she can start her own sewing and alteration business down the street.

they don't know your name and they don't give half a flip whether or not your neighborhood is clean or safe or whether there are still even any jobs there.  they don't care.

but your local merchants and service provides do.  they want to build a relationship with you, and you need to build these relationships, because these people are raising your children's’ peers, they are making decisions about your town’s development, and they will show up at your doorstep with a meal or a tool box when your whole town is under 8 feet of water.

so stop feeling bad about whether you make all your christmas presents, or whether you are cleaning your own home, or which percentage group you belong to.  YOU have the power to be a job creator, right where you are, and YOU can do this all year long.

 

*later today i'll start slinging more nashville/middle TN vendors, crafters, and arts events your way! i also have a surprise announcement coming tomorrow. :)

remembering, again

on this, the 10th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, i am revisiting this post which was originally published in 2006.  

in the days immediately following the attacks of 9/11, i spent a lot of time just trying to keep my mind off my fears.  flylady was a tremendous help in this--she had taught me that i could add to the total peace in the world by creating peace in my own home.  it was soooooooooo soothing to take up a mop and just clean--to spiritually unite my little effort to the efforts of so many brave, heroic men and women who were cleaning up a far greater mess.  a lot of contemplation can be had while swiping back and forth, back and forth, back and forth....

my heart began calling me to do something outside myself, to offer whatever i could to help.  and like most americans, my mind turned to the one symbol the entire world recognizes as "US"--our flag.

from my scrap bin i found just the right red--just the right white--just the right blue (it even had some stars on it).  i cut and sewed and pieced and trimmed and at the end of the day, i had a pile of little quilted flags.  TINY flags, small enough to fit in the palm of my hand--all different, all made on instinct and without a plan, all of them childish and simple and utterly comforting to my sore, scared heart.

i wore one as a pin that night to the show, and so many people asked to buy one that a little "industry" was born--i sold dozens of these little flags for whatever donation the buyer thought they were worth--and in just one week i raised hundreds of dollars to give to the american red cross.

as much as possible, i will describe how i made these, but there aren't really any instructions because the making of them was more a process toward healing than an exercise in creativity. 

i started by cutting several strips of white and red fabrics and piecing them together lengthwise in groups of two (white and red) and three (red/white/red).  i also cut little rectangles from the blue fabric, not really paying attention to how many stars were in each piece but making them about the width of the red/white/red group.

i cut the group of red/white/red strips into segments that seemed proportional to the blue field--i did this by eye, and i think you can trust your own eyes for this too.  i stitched a blue piece to a red/white/red segment, stripes running horizontally of course, making the upper half of the flag.

i cut the white/red pieced strips into segments the same length as the upper sections, stitched the upper and lower sections together, and trimmed them to square up the corners.

lastly, i layered the flags with batting and muslin backing, stitched around them and turned them right side out, then quilted along the stripes and around the blue field.  i sewed pin backs on by hand after the flag was all done.

i kept two of these little flags, the one that i wore, and one other.  i got them out today so i could wear mine to work, ella took the other one (that one does not have a pin back on it), she held it over her heart and sang her ABC's.  i think that is as american as it gets--to hope for a better future as we remember the sorrows of days past--all wrapped up in the hand of a child.

 

oh yes, we sewed

 

ella and i made some angry birds.  and then we surprised our friends with them. 

SRC:  two “pages” of red felt and several scraps—plus engineering—i’ll take 50 points because these were special. 

 

*we were running short of time so we glued on the eyes and the eyebrows—but i don’t like them that way and wish i had sewn them on instead.  fabric glue would have been a better choice but i didn’t have any.  and now the eyes and eyebrowns are too stiff to sew thru.  lesson learned.

chosen

it's thursday, and at this time of year that means:  project runway.

every time a new season of project runway starts, at least a dozen people passionately urge me to audition to be on the show.  i've even been approached by someone from the show who is in a position to advocate for me in auditions--but i've resisted every such suggestion.

the usual excuses i’ve made are that i don’t want to be involved in "reality" TV--or that i don’t have any interest in doing fashion design--or that i don’t want to be away from my family (that part is extra true).

but there was something else--i just couldn't put my finger on it--until i saw the episode when the challenge was to make something for nina garcia to wear.  i was sitting on my bed, folding my family’s clothes, and watching the contestants frantically scouring mood for just the right fabrics to make something fantastic for someone who had the power to set them on their life’s journey, and then i realized: 

i'm already doing this.

i'm already dressing the people that matter most to me.

i'm already the winner--because the people that i care about most in all the world, the ones who are the most influential in my life and who i am most proud to see wearing the things i make--have already chosen me.

so as i watched the designers spreading out their materials on the worktables, i spread out the laundry on the foot of the bed--they patted their fabrics flat and i folded mine flat--they pinned their garments to the mannequins and i put mine in drawers.  but at the end of the day, when they looked at what they'd made, they went to bed worried, confused, discouraged, exhausted.

i went to bed knowing that i had what i want.

 

*who chooses YOU?

planning ahead

on the best email list ever invented in the history of ever, we once discussed what exactly counts as “sewing”—does cutting count?  how about tracing patterns?  prepping fabric?

it didn’t take us long to come to a consensus:  if it was related to sewing, it counts. 

so technically, today i have been sewing. 

but specifically, i’ve been looking at stuff to make for winter my winter wardrobe.

on the top of my list is this fabulous outfit worn by the fabulous dita:

 

and this cool dress that i have no idea who made it or who is wearing it, i only know it was spotted during paris fashion week:

 

and a skirt i saw worn by the character millie helper on the dick van dyke show (the episode about the cat burglar)—i can’t find one picture of this skirt online anywhere!—it is just a plain circle skirt but with button placement that makes it a WOW.

and i know this isn’t even technically sewing but i have sworn an oath that i WILL knit this sweater:

 

*since it is national sewing month, i did at least start a pattern today—for an apron.  :)  what did you work on today?

not sure if it was trying to kill me or make me stronger

june hit me over the head with a sledgehammer.

what little crafting i got done was of the hit-and-run variety. 

and we did a massive home reorganizing/decluttering/repurposing.  in fact, for the SRC, i believe i earned about 10,000 points, and that is not even an exaggeration.  

and most significantly, we graduated a 2nd grader.

oh, plus i spent a ridiculous amount of time on my new obsession, pinterest.  (which, as my friend deborah pointed out, looking at things other people are doing is part of what keeps us from doing stuff ourselves).

 

*what have you been doing?

ever honor, never forget

The brave die never, though they sleep in dust:
Their courage nerves a thousand living men.
~Minot J. Savage

three small successes, and one big one

the sushi scarf is done.

the hallowig is done.

the secret santa gift is done.

and, the magazine article is done.  :)

surprise!

you can run out to your local magazine-procuring establishment and get a copy, or you can enter to win a copy directly from threads.  either way, i think you’ll enjoy every project in this issue.

and those of you who have known me online all these many years will be pleased to note the presence of capital letters throughout my entire article.  :)  thank you threads magazine!

clearing a shelf for hunter

this is hunter.  hunter is six years old.

 

last friday, hunter was diagnosed with leukemia.  

mandy is hunter's mother and a local friend of mine.  some of you remember her from the artsy mamas blog, and now from her bona fide mama blog.

 

as you can imagine, this is a difficult time for hunter and his family.  they need prayers, good thoughts, incantations, bones rattled, incense burned, and any other spiritual assistance they can get.

they also need some financial assistance as well--day to day things like money for gasoline, and babysitters for their younger children.  hunter has already started chemotherapy, but he will also need a bone marrow transplant.

 

to help them out, i'm selling all but three of my sewing, craft, and knitting books, with 100% of the proceeds going directly into mandy's hands.  i'm selling the books right here on the blog, rather than going thru ebay or etsy, as the fees associated with an auction that is not for a 501(c)3 eat away at the total and i want to be able to give them every penny.

each week, for as long as i have something to offer, i will post what i have available.  all i'm asking is that you share the link to the post with the listings.  even if you are not interested in any of the books, someone you know might be.  these books are only three degrees of separation from someone who will gladly pay to have them, especially for a good cause.

and if you are so inclined, i invite you to visit hunter's caring bridge page and leave a word of encouragement for him and his family.  

the first offering of books can be found by clicking HERE.  there is also a button on my sidebar linking to hunter's caring bridge site which you are welcome to use anywhere and everywhere!  please share this post freely, publish it on your twitter account, your facebook page, your blog--email it to friends--send it by smoke signals and pony express! and thank you very much, from the bottom of my heart.

 

quilt blocks i have known and loved

 

confession of a patternmaker:  about three days after making my first quilt blocks, i decided that i really did not like cutting to measure.  :D  it's not that i couldn't do it--i had the tools, i had the know-how--but it was really BORING.  every block looked like every other block, and every block looked like everybody else's blocks.

so i gave up doing it that way.  even now, i rarely make a quilt block using a template or cutting to measure--i only do it if i'm working on a project that requires it (which means it is usually not my own project).  instead i cut by eye, or i piece and then cut.

for example, i made these log cabin blocks completely free-hand.  i started with a piece that was more or less square, added a strip that i cut without a ruler, and continued around and around, like usual, but without using any precut or premeasured pieces of fabric.  (i apologize in advance for the low quality of these images--this was the dark ages, when digital cameras first hit the consumer market and cost half a billion dollars--thus these are scans of the actual quilt blocks, not photos).

 

the next block is a variation of the log cabin, it is my version of the pineapple block, which i called "pineapple right side up".  i have no idea why i called it that.  i was in the habit of naming my blocks.

 

some of my favorite blocks for free-hand piecing are houses.  at one point i had so many house blocks that i started giving them away.  these were all made by taking pieces out of my scrap box and piecing them at will.  i'd start with a center piece, usually a door, then add a wall, trim it if necessary, and continue adding bits just like for the log cabin block.  i made many of these to send to my friend tiina who collects quilts for preemies.  these quilts were TINY--each finished quilt was only 15" square.  i have lots of good memories of quilting these backstage during a christmas show.  i hoped the little houses would keep the babies cozy until they were able to go to their real homes.  (tiina, if you see this, i have been thinking about you and pray you are well).

 

    

ocassionally i need or want to make a block for a special project, like the HUG quilts we used to make on the rec.crafts.textiles.quilting newsgroup (the last one i participated in was at least 10 years ago--i see they are still making them!).  this heart block was made for someone i knew only as "singer", a member of the RCTQ group that needed a HUG.  it is pieced freehand, then i did a free-motion embroidery sun on it (from the back, using metallic thread in the bobbin), and i wrote a little message and signed it.

 

these are both moon over the mountain blocks, pieced and then with two different kinds of applique moons.  i don't love these, but i don't hate them either.  i have no idea what i used them for.  LOL

 

  

revisiting these photos makes me think it is time to get out the scraps again.  the little houses were lots of fun and i'm very home-centric these days.

this style of piecing is definitely not for everbody, but if you enjoy a little improvisation, give this a try! you might get hooked too.

*the first HUG quilt we made on RCTQ was for a member named ruth, who died from cancer so quickly after her diagnosis that we were not able to give it to her.  :(  we gave it to her family.  but we had collected so many quilt blocks, from all over the world, that we were able to make a second quilt, which we raffled off to raise money to help her family defray expenses.  i am honored to say that i was able to participate in about a dozen HUG quilt projects on RCTQ and am currently involved in a new local HUG project that has lead me down this memory lane.

*gwen marston has written a series of books on "liberated quiltmaking" in which she describes the process, as well as the philosophy, of this way of making quilts.  even if you have no interest in following this method, the quilts in her books are really beautiful to look at.

happy thanksgiving day!

 

 wishing all my readers a very happy thanksgiving day!