While I’ve got y’all’s attention, and you’re being very nice to me due to the blog-a-versary (and the fact that I’m giving someone a very nice gift!)…
do any of you speak or read Estonian?
If so, would you drop me an email, and I’ll get back to you privately?
Thanks in advance!
Wow! The Wild Onion Studio blog is a year old. I didn’t realize that I had three babies born in August!
In celebration of this grand event, I will be hosting a free give-away! Please leave me a comment, and I’ll enter your name into the grand drawing! The prize is something yummy and Wild Onion Studio -ish: a trapped fiber handbag featuring free-motion quilting, and a beaded button closure, and a copy of Haute Handbags magazine, so that you can peruse other wearable art handbags.
Happy Birthday to me (well, my blog, anyway!) Stay tuned for the drawing on August 22!
The weeks before I left for the quilt show I refer to as “Houston in Long Beach” were marked by a flurry of emails between my traveling buddies and myself. For example, there were several worried posts regarding the erratic weather in Long Beach. One day, the forecast called for sunny and 81. The next, clear and 83. How is a girl supposed to pack lightly for weather that unpredictable?
Once we got the clothing issue sorted out, we turned our attention to the food dilemma, as in: what if Long Beach has no food? We handily solved this crisis in the making; each one of us shopped our way through various grocery stores and stocked up. Way up.
Please keep in mind that the following photos show provisions brought by only 2 of our 4 companions. The amount of food doubled on Friday when the rest of our troupe got to the show.
Here is our snack drawer:
Of course, an artist needs morning fuel, so we also have a coffee bar. Uh, yes, I brought an espresso machine:
And then, on an evening, we might need a glass of wine:
The fridge was stocked, too (more wine!):
Luckily, due to our supreme forethought, we survived the week without starving to death. Now, it’s back to laundry and getting the kids ready for the return of SCHOOL!! Hey! Didn’t summer vacation just start a minute ago?
What an unusual day, yesterday!
It began with the carpet guy, installing new carpet in the hall and boys’ rooms. Last night was the first time the boys slept in their own separate rooms since the youngest got out of his crib. Around here, that fact is only awe-inspiring to me, so of course, I needed to share it with you all. Moms everywhere get those kind of significant milestones.
Anyway, the boys are happy as clams to have their own private rooms, and No, for the ninetieth time, boys, NO LOCKS on the DOORS!! (Why do they think that they need locks? They’re in grade school, for goodness sake! It must be a boy thing).
While I was trying to look busy, yet available for question answering for the carpet guy, I thought I’d check on my email. Lo and behold, there’s an emailed comment from my blog that’s completely unintelligible to me. It doesn’t look like any language I recognize. Lately I’ve been troubled by a lot of splogging (splogging: when someone steals your blog content) I was kind of stern and actually, let’s be honest, really harsh in my demand request that my content be removed from her blog. And then….
I noodled around my blog stats. And there’s yet another blog or website, linking to mine, and now I’ve got like, quadrupled the amount of normal everyday traffic! Hunh! And this blog linking mine is in the same, unintelligible language. And that’s not all. There are 2 other blogs linking to me, boosting my viewer visits. It’s really nifty– and it’s all about the tee-bags that my oldest DS is selling at the Farmer’s Market!
After 2 hours of blog detecting, I figured out that:
And is that all to this unusual day? Oh no! I find out that I am a day late and a dollar short two times over. Not only have I missed witnessing the Perseid meteor shower by one day, but I didn’t see my own personal shot at the sun: my hand dyed fabric was featured on the FRONT PAGE of Etsy! I missed it! By one day!
I admit that I am not very conversant in the byways and highways of Etsy, so I didn’t know to check this kind of happening. I got a nice note from Monica, congratulating me on making the front page with one of my hand-dyed fabrics!
It was a gorgeous page (which expired this morning, so unfortunately I can’t show you), and I thank you again for putting me in such beauteous company! I’ve uploaded quite a bit more fabric:
including several 4 yard lengths that will make gorgeous, traffic-stopping wholecloth Wild Onion Jackets.
I’m just saying. In case someone in Estonia wants to blog about jackets.
(OMG! I am in so much trouble if DS1 EVER sees the title to this post– moooommmm, that’s so embarrassing….)
Today is my first baby’s ELEVENth birthday! How did he get so old? How come I haven’t gotten any older?
I remember his original birthday like it was yesterday! I was due for a scheduled C-section, because of my fibroids. And I was due on the 17th, young man, NOT the 6th!! He’s a very impatient boy, and was always eager to get out into the world; his first attempt was after only 2 weeks inside. It was a long haul of a pregnancy, flat on my back for 7 months, trying to keep him inside where he could cook properly. By the time I hit 31 weeks, the doctors let me up, so that I could buy some baby supplies. I had visions of going into labor while trying to buy a car seat, but I made it to 32 weeks….
I remember lying on the gurney, talking to my mother in a panic. I was definitely NOT ready yet. In fact, DH and I thought it was a false alarm (it wasn’t– I had gone into labor and my contractions were 1 1/2 minutes apart– oh! whoopsie! should’a gone to the hospital earlier?) We had to zoom to the hospital to meet my doctor– she was getting ready for another C-section, and then she was going on vacation, so she wanted to squeeze in an exam before she got too busy! Imagine our surprise– no camera, no bag full of clothing or books, nothin’! They had me in the OR, with a spinal, and the knife poised– waiting for DH to finish parking the car!! DH made it in time, DS1 made it out safely, and here we all are, eleven years later.
I gotta tell you, he smelled a lot sweeter eleven years ago… even so, I think I’ll keep him!
With all best intentions to keep my wallet closed… I still managed to spend some money on treasures.
With a new interest in beads (okay, okay. not such a new interest. And has anyone noticed that buying beads is like buying groceries? You spend $100 and get one little bag. Or, in the case of beads, you get a little baggie!)
I bought some groovy beads:
And some Japanese seed beads:
And then I bought some books:
The books are: “Art Quilt Masters”, the SAQA exhibit book, and Robin Atkin’s “Beaded Treasures”. This last book reviews the techniques I learned in her Woven Treasures class; the book is available on her website.
Some Stewart Gill paints:
On the left is a trio of Halo interferance paints, and the 6 pack contains Metalmica. Shiny!!
On the way home, we stopped at Marukai, a Japanese superstore. We had some lunch, and indulged in some more shopping:
These are cotton banners and wind socks… that will be cut up and used in some collage work.
Can you believe how teeny these shirts are (note: I use the plural because I also bought the shirt in green). I put the power bar next to it so you get a feel for size– the shirt stretches, but really!! Yes, it IS an adult shirt… but I plan to cut it up for the fabric.
And last but certainly not least, a little something to help out with my own “personal summer”:
Food is next!
From one extreme to the next, I saw the Bernina Fashion Show and the Quilt Arts/Cloth Paper Scissors “Surviving the Runway Show”.
The Bernina Fashion show was… incredible, amazing, and fantastic! The amount of detail in each outfit– indeed, within any given part of each outfit– is stunning. Before attending this show, I had only seen photos of these wearables; let me tell you, if you’re looking at a photo, you’ve only skimmed the surface of the complexity each artist brings to her (or his) work! It was just mind-blowing to see the pieces in person, and realize how much work is involved in each piece. No photos were allowed; if you want to see some of the outfits, please click on the link which will take you to the official site.
The other “fashion show” I attended was the Quilt Arts/Cloth Paper Scissors show, called “Surviving the Runway”. I had no idea what I was getting myself into! Think Project Runway meets Survivor meets Cartoon Network. Each table of women, none of whom know each other, have to work together to create one outfit out of a few supplies given to us by editor Pokey Bolton. We were allowed to add anything else on the table (but no cutting up the napkins or tablecloth!). And someone had to walk the runway, wearing the outfit! Nope, it wasn’t me!! Here’s my table’s model, the very confident, good sport Lillian:
Note the “Applause” sign, which Lillian flashed, when she wasn’t in front of Pokey. When Pokey was watching, the pink sign got whipped out… because we were shameless in our hunt for a win. The pink sign reads: Pokey is the most beautiful, wonderful, creative, etc etc (did we win yet?) loving, fantastic etc etc. Due to this appeal to vanity our creativity, we were awarded Judge’s Choice.
Although each table was given some papers, scissors, glue sticks, and other ephemera, there were specialty items that had to be won (by acting like a looney-tune!). We were lucky enough to win some balloons, which of course, fit into our Southern California beach gal theme. Implants, anyone?
Lillian was a trooper, with a capital T! I saw her several times over the course of the show, and she always had a smile and an air of fun about her. I hope I get to meet her again in the future!
I leave you with one funny: the Quilt Art show happened during our lunch break from our beading class with Robin Atkins. Upon our return to planet Earth, we were trying really hard to bring our energy level down so that we could concentrate on our teeny tiny beads. Mary looked up, and said (loudly) “HEY–aren’t you the woman who just took her clothes off for the Runway show?!!”. Yes indeed, one of our beading class-mates, a very classy, subtle woman, who was beading a sophisticated, elegant bracelet had just participated in the Quilt Art show, stripping down to her bra and strutting down the runway in front of 200 strangers. She is forever known to us as “Nude-y woman”!
Stay tuned for the next post: SHOPPING treasures!!
Well, Houston in Long Beach was great fun, and now it’s time to tell you about it! Disclaimer: I have a policy of not posting other artist’s work unless I have their personal permission. There’s photos of my own stuff, but not of quilts by other artists!
The show truly was Houston in Long Beach! Most of the quilts on display were exhibits from the show in Houston (except a couple of exhibits special to California). The quilts were all of such high quality– the creativity was mind-boggling! I was a bit disappointed that there was no wearable display, although, of course, some of the wearables from the Bernina Fashion Show were on display, and there was some informal modeling… while I was in a class, darn it!
Before the show officially opened, there was a day of classes offered. Mary Norton, from Fibervisions, and I took Robin Atkins’ stupendous class called Woven Treasures. It was an all day class and it was exactly what I was hoping it would be! I love when your class expectations are met; in this case, my expectations were exceeded. Robin is a very logical, thorough teacher; I always appreciate learning how to fix mistakes, and Robin gently explained how to navigate any boo-boo’s! Beads that cause you to tear out your hair were named “character building beads”– isn’t that a nice way to put it? If you are ever offered a class with Robin, I highly recommend jumping at the chance (assuming you want to learn to bead!
I got very close to finished with the tassel in class, and after dinner and a glass of wine, Mary and I were excited to finish our various beading projects. You know the teacher is good when your class learning project is so interesting that you are compelled to push through your exhaustion to finish!
Here is the tassel I freeform beaded:
Martha is Ranell Hanson’s friend– we hear about Martha from time to time, although she doesn’t live in CA. Mary and I bumped into Martha and Ranell the morning after our bead-a-thon. They were waiting for the show to open, so we entertained them with our bead show. Martha decided that my tassel would look great with her outfit, and I agreed! I loaned it to her for the day, and she looked happy to show it off for the day.
I plan to string some beads as a “chain” for the tassel, and I’ll wear it as a necklace.
Next post: Fashion shows!
Warning: blatant advertising plug! Softened with some cool quilting photos!
Here’s the 411 on the Wild Onion Jacket demonstrations I will give at the IQA show in Long Beach, CA (aka Houston in Long Beach) this coming week. If you want to see the Wild Onion Jacket in person, see how the pattern goes together, and see some of my easy “quilter-oriented” finishing techniques, come on over!
I will be at Cranberry Quiltworks, Booth #1009 on each day:
I had always hoped to be discovered by Alex Anderson, so I could go on Simply Quilts and bring the Wild Onion Jacket to lots and lots of quilters who wanted to wear their art, but who hated sewing clothing. Although that isn’t possible, since the show was cancelled (grumble grumble HGTV) I kind of felt like I was preparing for her show.
Remember how the guest artist would be sewing along, and they’d go to commercial break, and miraculously when they returned, the guest would have completed something like 5 quilts in the 2 minutes they were on “break”?! Well, like those guest artists, I need to have different parts of my Wild Onion Jacket finished, so that I can demo the different techniques. I had to make 2 different jackets; now I can “sew” the different areas, hold them up to the audience, and give everyone a visual “how-to”. Cool beans!
Here are photos of the jackets I made. The first is pretty extensively quilted:
The second jacket was done in an allover I call wobbly spiral meander– this photo just shows you the quilting pattern:
I haven’t quilted on black with a variegated thread (this is a Superior Poly Quilter thread) for a long time. It is so magical to watch the quilting patterns appear in such yummy colors!
For those of you who don’t quilt, I used a longarm quilting machine, which is a very large machine on a wheeled track bed which moves freely. I quilt freehand, which means that I am moving the machine around– kind of like I’m drawing, only my “paper” is cloth, and my “pencil” is the needle and thread!
Didja miss my whinging to-do posts this weekend?
That’s because I had so much to do that I had no time to whine to you! I got a ton of stuff done, but only because I worked from 6:30am until 10:30pm both days. Sympathy, please!
Some of what I accomplished was more hand-dyed yardage. I think I’ll spare you my to do list, and just post some eye candy. You deserve it– you’ve been very patient with me, lately!
If you plan to be at the IQA show in Long Beach (aka Houston in Long Beach) stop by Cranberry Quiltworks’ booth (#1009) and you can pet the fabric for yourself! As always, the colors are so much more vibrant in person.
The final photo is some Kaufman commercial print that I overdyed. Why I only bought 2 yards is beyond me– I love it!!
