We have been prepping for our upcoming class with the American Sewing Guild – Sacramento and wanted to share some of that with you. We are making scarves using Mokuba free lace. Mokuba free lace is a water soluble stabilizer that allows you to create beautiful lace projects. You get two sheets: one sheet is sticky, one not. For this class, we are concentrating on gussying up scarves. We have been using thrift store scarves as well as lengths of fabric (which we also found in thrift stores – it’s amazing what you can find in thrift stores! More on that in another blog entry). Here’s a rundown of how we go from scarf to, um, another scarf? It looks better than it sounds:
The materials
First we selected a fabric/scarf and then picked out thread, ribbon, and yarns we thought would look nice with it. We then had to make the initial cut. On one scarf we just cut across and added the lace to the bottom. On another we angled the cut, then made a curved cut on yet another another scarf, all to illustrate there are many ways to configure the resulting scarf.
Drill with hook
Drill in motion
Since we wanted to introduce interesting texture to the piece, we decided to make cord. This is usually pretty simple with a cord maker, but since we have now broken our cord maker for the second time (and our IT person can’t fix it), we decided to go heavy duty by using a ceiling hook as a drill bit – works pretty well!
Front side
Back side
To actually make the Mokuba free lace, you place the sticky sheet down, sticky side up and start laying out whatever you want on it. We’ve used ribbon, cord, threads, and other fabric. Once you have the look you want, you cover the whole thing with the other sheet, which will stick to the other sheet. Then you sew it all down. We’ve been using a grid pattern a lot because it makes the process of making sure you have everything sewn down pretty easy. The fun part is rinsing out the Mokuba in water. The stuff turns into a slimy-like substance that you just push off the fabric. It takes a bit of washing and squishing to get all the Mokuba free lace out, but the results are really neat.
Finished scarf
Scarf detail
Mokuba free lace is great to work with. It doesn’t mess up your needle, is easy to sew through, and keeps the fabric, um, stable. We are planning to incorporate Mokuba free lace into some of our clothing projects once we get a few hours to play. Stay tuned!
Are you interested in learning Adobe Photoshop Elements but don’t know where to start? Why don’t you start here with us? Our online class, Introduction to Adobe Photoshop Elements (PSE) for Fiber Artists and Sewing Enthusiasts, begins this coming Monday, March 5. Cost for the 3-week class is $60. To register for the class, go to www.steponpins.com. Why would you take our class over another one?
We know our students – they are sewers and artists who learn visually.
We know your language and can explain PSE concepts so you will understand them.
We have videos and handouts to provide you with various ways to learn PSE.
We offer three live meetings during the class so that you can ask about concepts you want to see demonstrated.
We have ongoing class discussions to answer questions while you learn.
We work with “paper” dolls, making learning the concepts easy and fun!
C&T, our wonderful publisher, is giving away a copy of our new book! Follow this link for more details. The giveaway runs through February 26. Everyone’s support of our book is just the bee’s knees! By the way, we love going to consignment shops and thrift stores in search of vintage scarves to use as furoshiki. Keep the scarves out of the landfills, we say!
We drove down to Concord, home of C&T Publishing, this past Tuesday and picked up a few copies of our book, Furoshiki Fabric Wraps. Let’s say we were pretty excited when we sold our very fist copy to Wanda of the Piecemakers Guild in Newark. We are giving free wrapping demos at Shared Stitches in Shingle Springs during their March Madness event on March 24, and the book will be available for purchase. If you live too far away, just give us a call, and we’ll be happy to sell you a copy. You can also find the book in the usual places. Hope to see many of you on March 24!
I’m sure you’ve all had one of those serendipitous events. You know, you planned for one thing and it just wasn’t meant to be, but then you got to do or learn something you never would have done in a million years.
For me it was visiting the Lace Study Center at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia. First, I wasn’t planning to be in Australia, and second, I’m not a lace person. A little background: I’ve never been a lace person. I remember when I was a little girl, if my mom bought me anything with lace, I’d get my scissors and cut it off. No scratchy stuff for me! Training bra with lace? Get out the scissors. Let me clear up another thing. The Powerhouse Museum isn’t a museum about electricity; the building was the former powerhouse. It’s got a bit of everything. My friend saw that there was a lace study center and wanted to see it. Of course it wasn’t scheduled to be open—it was just a happy accident. Now that place has some lace! We must have spent hours pulling open the drawers , looking at all the pieces. The volunteers were so generous with their knowledge, and we got quite an education.
Here are a couple of my favorites.
Amazing Lace
I think if my mom had bought me a dress with the car lace on it, I would have let it stay. The second piece was part of the Powerhouse Museum 2nd International Lace for Fashion Award (2002, I think). It was made with a hot glue gun. Yep, you read that right—hot glue. I’m sure that would not have made me “itchy.”
Glue Lace
Which brings me to part two of this post. Don’t ask me how, but somehow in my web surfing today, I ended up at the Lace Study Center website. Wouldn’t you know, it’s time for the Lace Exhibition. This time it’s called Love Lace. If you can’t get to Sydney this year, pop on over to the website and see the amazing pieces they’ve got on display. If you find yourself hooked, like I was, watch the interview with the exhibition designers Camilla Block and Neil Durbach. You’ll see not only the amazing pieces but the exhibition space. With portholes in the walls, the exhibition space is, like the lace it contains, an open-work structure. But the sinuous walls make wonderful backgrounds for the shadows cast by these amazing pieces of art. You’ll wish you had some of this lace in your home.
As we start this new year – and Kris’s 54th birthday today (whew!) – Deb started looking around for inspiration that will keep us happy and young. We can’t wait until we don’t have to explain our wardrobes or our love of boas (in the case of Deb) or all things pink (in the case of Kris). We’re already working on our advanced style! May 2012 be the best year yet! By the way, in the still below, Kris would be the one in red, and Deb would be the one in purple!
The Toyamas pose with their quilt (if you click on the image!)
On January 18th, we are going to be teaching a workshop for the River City Quilters’ Guild based on the commission quilt we finished in October. I just realized we had not posted a photo of the finished commission, so people who weren’t at the RCQG show or meeting wouldn’t know what we’re talking about. I guess we didn’t post because we were waiting to have the quilt professionally photographed. Well, we still haven’t, but we have an appointment with the photographer after the workshop. In the meantime, here is a bad snapshot of Mapping the Family. We’ll tell you all about the name and the story behind the quilt in another post. We just wanted to tempt you to take the workshop. As of this post, there are still a few spots open, so if you want to join in on the fun, here are the details.
Watercolor Quilts with Batiks Watercolor quilts are beautiful to look at and fun to make. Batik fabrics are stunning in their variety of pattern and color variations. Wouldn’t it be fun to see what kind of watercolor quilt you could create with batik fabrics? We’ve come up with a simple method of creating batik watercolor quilts that will allow you to focus on the technique of moving from one hue to another. The raw edges give these watercolor quilts a modern twist. In this workshop, we will create a 20” x 30” quilt made of 2 ½” batik squares. So that you will spend your time creating, instead of cutting and fusing, you will be able to choose pre-cut, pre-fused squares to complete your quilt. Yep, we did the tedious work for you. I guess it was really our way of getting “up close and personal” with all the fabulous batik fabrics. I think we each said, “This one is my favorite,” about a hundred times. Our comment about the other 80 or so was, “I don’t really like this one, but it will make a great transition between blue and brown.” Visit the RCQG website for registration information.
If you just want to stop in to say hi, we’ll be the guest speakers at the RCQG meeting on Tuesday evening, January 17th. Come along as we recount our story from our first collaboration to exhibiting in NYC. Learn how the River City Quilters’ Guild always seems to be there for us at critical moments. Sentimental Journey: The Pixeladies and RCQG is a program of quilts, storytelling, and the role of local quilt guilds in the support of artists and entrepreneurs.
When I have a deadline I don’t want to deal with, my way of procrastinating is to do other things that I’ve been putting off. Like cleaning. So this week it was cleaning off my desk in the studio. Kris is gone, so I can spread everything out and go through each piece of paper. I’m not a journal keeper, so when an idea strikes or I see something worth remembering, I grab the nearest piece of paper. Napkins, envelopes, those awful subscription cards from magazines. They work, but how do I keep them together? I have several idea folders in the Pixeladies’ file cabinet. But Kris wants to go through them. What she really means is that she wants me to throw some of the stuff away. So I need to beat her to the punch. I decided I’d start gluing them on paper and putting them in a binder. (We have oodles of binders, but that’s another story). No organization, just glue, punch and put in the binder. At the same time I requested an account from Pinterest.com. It’s the online version of my idea folders. Today I received my Pinterest account. So what better time to take on a new project than when another dreaded deadline is looming.
This is the long version of how I got to the meat of this post. Somehow, while looking up things to pin to my boards, I came across the blog DreamDrawCreate.com: Art Lessons for school kids written by Janis, an elementary school art teacher. Wow! I want to go back to elementary school and be one of Janis’ students. As I was skimming the posts, I saw some really cool sculptures. When I looked closer, the sculpture looked like one that my nephew Louis made for me a couple of Christmases ago. Too bad you can’t see it in 3D. It’s very interesting from all sides. And it’s FIBER ART!
Louis' sculpture
Louis' sculpture
I think next time I have a creative block (or need to procrastinate), I’ll go back to DreamDrawCreate.com and do one of the art projects for kids! So, do you procrastinate? How do you keep track of your ideas, thoughts, and inspirational images? Do they help get you out of a creative rut?
It’s that time of year when the Pixeladies furiously attempt to clean the studio, sweep all the bad spirits out the door, and look forward to a new year. What better way to do that then to receive advance copies of our book! The FedEx driver said this was her favorite delivery! And, while we were cleaning today, C&T, our publishers, had two azalea plants delivered to the studio. Tomorrow we’re going to celebrate by buying new well-deserved cell phones. After all, we are two of the last 19 Palm Pre owners still in existence. We’re closing the studio until January 2. Until then, may you have the most wonderful of holidays. Our hope is for peace on Earth, good will toward all, and the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl.
The theme was snow. We went to our local hospice thrift store and found 4 painted plaster (?) snowflakes and one brass one. The mission was to create ornaments worthy of Gail Bird’s ornament exchange. The real challenge was to only use embellishments from our stash. Well, I’m not sure if that was really a challenge–we have quite a stash. Remember, I am the one who never throws anything away. I guess you could call some of the sequins vintage–I’m sure I’ve had them since the 7th grade. And my grandma and Mrs. T recently cleaned out their jewelry boxes and donated them to our stash.
Plain Ornament
Deb wields the glue gun
That’s me trying to use the hot glue gun. I only got one small burn. Kris was in charge of gluing the small parts together and only managed to glue a couple of fingers together. I think we need to go to gluing school. Below are our finished snowflakes.
Green Frosty Snowflake
Crystal Blue Snowflake
Ruby Pink Snowflake
Amber Gold Snowflake
Silver and Gold Snowflake
The silver and gold one is for our hostess. We won’t tell you what our other gift is; let’s just say Charades will be a little wackier this year!
