harmony of spaces

while doing my laundry the other day i realized something; my current wardrobe consists of shades of grey, mint blue, sunny yellow, palest peachy pink, white, and touches of oatmeal. then, today while accessorizing i noticed a certain relation between my personal space, my blog, and myself, let's say, a certain color harmony. hmm. i think perhaps these hues make me happy, so i am especially drawn to them. ah, well, do what makes the serotonin flow. so, we'll label it a good thing, yes, a very good thing.

some nice news; father is doing well, almost recovered from surgery, finally home, stubborn as usual, and never drinking enough water, but we love him anyway.

blue velvet

i created a second cushion pin the other day, with embellishments of swarovski crystals; because a touch of sparkly goes so well with the softness and dappled light of velvet. the other side of the pin is of humble natural linen, which is my queen of all fibers.

during the day, i have begun work on my weaving project, tying off areas that are not to be dyed, and mordanting the fiber. today i will dye the fibers, and hopefully i will be ready to start weaving sometime next week. first, though, i have to finish the sample piece which is on my loom now.

isn't this little guy adorable? he's definitely up to something mischievous, though. very likely a sprite in disguise. he once belonged to my great aunts, but he's mine now, as they are both gone. you could say, "further up and further in".

pins and other things

while i was in kyoto, i stopped in at mina perhonen on several occasions to obsess over and then purchase little baggies of remnant fabric from the designers workshop. the quality, colors, and designs are utterly fantastic; i'm just sorry i didn't buy a higher quantity, and don't have access to the store anymore.

one of the things i did with the pieces was make an inspiration book. i made the cover from a shopping bag, the pages from a stiff fabric, and embroidered the butterfly logo on the first and last page, i used yellow thread to sew in the pages, which matches the yellow ties. it's nice to have access to such a wonderful source of inspiration.

luckily, i had some duplicate pieces so i added them to my small stockpile of scraps. yesterday i felt like sewing a puffy pin to take advantage of the materials texture. i can think of it as an evolution on the white small puffs i've done in the past. the weather has gotten chilly here, and all i can think about is fluffy beds, warm fibers, and fuzzy textures.

gifts to exchange

at the last fiber guild meeting, we did a little handmade gift exchange. as i didn't have anything on hand, i needed to create something. and, as so often the case, i waited till the last minute to do so. so, the evening before, i got out the sewing needles, buttons, and small scraps of cloth, and decided to make a cloud pin with a raindrop embellishment. i kept things simple, and took an idea which i had worked on in japan; to line up the button holes with the holes on the pin backs i use, and to sandwich the button between two bits of cloth which can be trimmed to whatever shape one likes.

when gift wrapping, i like to repurpose, as it makes things more interesting that way. so the paper i wrapped with was packing material used to cushion glass, and the bow was made from candy foil.

the button sandwich pin needs more development, but the clean lines you can achieve is quite nice, and the simplicity lends itself to minimal embellishment. i quite like the look of the aerated paper as well, and luckily, i need to order another beaker, so, yay, more wrapping material!

tougher than it looks

i've been seeing posts about solar dyeing, and thought i would give it a try; as it's still in the 90's here and the thought of turning on the stove and standing over it for an hour is rather unbearable. using the leftover dyestuff from past dye projects, red onion skin and avocado skin, i pleated and wrapped some of my prepared alum mordanted cloth bits and let them soak outside in the sun for two days. the avocado is still soaking, so no results to post of yet.

i was happy with the results of the cotton swatch soaked in onion skin; finally some patterning to my dye efforts! as i've been going through my selvedge magazines i've been reading a lot about resist dyeing, i think that that along with shibori will be my next area of study. the linen piece was okay, some dye penetrated the edges but the inside of the pleat was still white. pretty, but not as interesting as the cotton.

i've been admiring the progress eva of tinctory has been making with her smocking pieces, and have to say that i was impressed and enchanted with her work last year, but am really enthralled by her current natural dye artworks. one day i shall own one of her lovely pieces for my own.

i had tried my hand at smocking in the past and every attempt was quite sad, so pulling out the art of manipulating fabric, i tried once more using the dyed linen swatch. after several eh stitched attempts, i ripped them out, and tried to simplify my approach. two rows in and i thought of what could fit in the niches to make it more interesting, and to aid in holding them open. looking through my bead collection, at first i tried seed beads (too small), then swarvoski crystals (too saturated in color), and finally my pearls (they popped right in and added a delicate glow to the soft coloring of the dye). as i sewed, the piece started to take shape and i pictured a 3-dimensional brooch; so when i was done, i sewed it to a bit of felt and a pin. at the finish of this project, i have to say hats off to tinctory, as this was a more difficult skill than i had previously thought, and requires a good deal of thought beforehand. i'm not sure if i shall make further attempts, but a skill learned is never lost.

back in the saddle

i had a desire to create more pins last night; sadly, i had ignored the making of them for some time. so i dumped out my scrap bags, gathered my sewing needle and thread spool and set to work.

the first is of limes and sky, with glow worms floating on a gust of air. my ode to the last days of summer.

the second is my halloween inspiration, with the warm pumpkins and dusky grays of trick or treat eve. cozy wool felt and silver edged tulle, remind me of the coming cooler days.

they won't be going in my etsy store, as i will be away for some time and have put it on holiday mode; but if you would like either one, just email me before the 27th of this month.

golden skies

the cocoons of the curricula moth are really fantastical; they've such a golden hue, it's simple mesmerizing to look at. they could've been spun from pure gold.

i incorporated a piece of a cocoon into my latest fiber pin, it's very lovely against the dupioni silk and aqua hues. i really enjoy making these pins, the yummy bits and pieces of cloth, a restrained color palette, working with different pleats and folds.

so unexpected!

i was just checking my email, flickr, and etsy this morning around 10 am and lo! there my pin was on the front page! i was super excited, this is a first for me, and it was really stupendous how the view count jumped from 32 to 420 over the course of half an hour. i managed to grab a picture of this most excellent event:

hopefully this exposure will lead to my first sale! i'm still on my "being on the front page" high, so for the most part, i'm at a loss for words.

a pin for sunny days

it's grey like an approaching thunderstorm, so it's a good balance for those sunny days. this pin has some sparkle though, and that's awesome. i have quite a lot of grey in my wardrobe but don't really feel it when looking for accessories, so i tend to go for color.

pin it to me!

after this last month i've finally regained some of my creative equilibrium. i sat down and sewed two pins yesterday, and i have to say they're both lovely little wisps of fabric.

on the shores is a pin reminiscent of cotton candy, and summer days spent among blossoming trees. i used a bit of the scraps from my party dress, the nani iro coururiere fabric, and one of my vintage pink rhinestone buttons for some bling.

melted jelly beans is a multi hued sparkly take on the piece of fabric i used in my strawberries from space pincushion. it's so yummy, that fabric; sadly i can't recall who made it or where i purchased it. with the print as inspiration this pin called for sequins and lots of them.

i've listed both pins on etsy, so if you're interested...

as to why it's looking a little bare bones on my etsy storefront, it's because some of my work is now available for purchase at shopscad in savannah.

my little display area

here are some photos of the display i had at @home. i like the tallness of everything. i'll be posting all of the pieces that didn't sell on my etsy store within the week; i just need to get pricing on shipping when the post office opens on monday.

first trunk show

i'll be taking part in @home's 1st trunk show, which is great, as it will be my 1st trunk show as well. i'm very excited and have been busy creating pieces to sell (which you may have noticed, as i haven't been adding anything new to my etsy page in awhile).

on pins and needles

do you ever have moments of intense boredom even though there are at least eight things you could and perhaps should be doing? not that the choices are dull, in and of themselves, but you just can't gather the enthusiasm to work on them.

yesterday was a day like that for me. usually i just try to force the day gone; hoping that when i wake up the next the boredom will have passed. "forcing" time to go faster means immersing my brain in a book, a favorite movie, or lallygagging around the internet. for the most part any one of these helps my boredom pass and i can get things accomplished. yesterday was such an awful all encompassing period of boredom i had to try all three (dead and loving it, highlander, notcot.org) before i was able to work my way out.

i haven't a clue how much time on this planet i have, so i really don't like wishing it away; but there are days. though luckily i was able to work on and finish a pin last night, it being the perfect short time activity to pick oneself up with.

others to join the party

i'm running out of all the pretty scraps, but i still managed to make two more pins. yesterday i was making felt for the backs and got some pin mechanisms. so all 6 of the pins are ready to go. one of them is for keeps, the yellow one; it's my 1st and favorite.

i'm not sure if i'll hold onto them for the trunk show or put them up on etsy. if i make many more perhaps i'll do both. i guess that means creating new cushions so i can stockpile scraps.

i like using tulle in each one, it makes them feel light and it adds another dimension. they kind of remind me of little hats one would wear in the past.

to give an idea of their size, here i am holding my favorite:

and the second part

the pin branch of pincushion came about while i was thinking of something to create for the smaller budget. what is more fun then pins? i know i've got quite a few in my jewellery box.

i love funky, bright, cushy pins. and this was an excellent way to use up the bits of fabric that were too small to incorporate into the pincushions but too big to go into the itty bitty fiber scrap bag. (yes, i organize my scraps; thread scrap, yarn scrap, itty bitty 5mm or less fabric scrap, and small fabric scrap)

for these pins i used buttons, sequins, beads, feathers, tulle, and both the small fabric scrap and the itty bitty fabric scrap. it was really fun to be so free. just choose the scrap, sew it onto a puffy pillow form stuffed with bamboo fiber and away you go. a snip here and there for length, but generally working with the shape of the scrap. i think they're really cute! power to upcycling!