So Much To Say...

So much to say - LOL. Have you noticed that I'm rather chatty. It's true. I could write chapters today however, I'll attempt to limit myself to a short - a relative term - conversation.




This is my new grandbaby car. My oldest son bought his very first car Wednesday. He's continuing our family tradition of buying a quality, second hand vehicle. That's the lovely bonus of having an incredibly talented mechanic in the family. Howard can fix fixer uppers. Not that Aryck's is. We've all concluded that it's the "best" car because it has fewer miles, no dents, and considerably less rust than our other vehicles and only one color of paint.

Before buying this one, he and his Dad had built a Turbo Sprint that ran really well from two others that didn't. Originally, the Sprint was two shades of blue and then, after an accident, it got a new white door becoming three colors, and then Howard and Aryck replaced and repainted the hood black and it was four colors. VERY fun. I definitely knew which car had my kids in it - or used to know and will know again when Kyle drives. Right now, I'll watch for this purple Neon.

This is the view of my friend Lorraine that I see frequently as she bustles off to grab a book or a pattern or a sample or a notion to show me what we're talking about. Her studio is a treasure trove.

Have you seen one of these? Do you know what it's called? Do you know where I can find one? It's like a knitting spool except you turn it and it "automatically" knits cording. PERFECT for making I-cord. I want one.

The pattern info workshop was great - especially spending time with other women who sew. One of the women - Christine - was an on-line student of mine. We'd met once before so it was fabulous to spend time together again. Teaching on-line, I rarely got to meet my students.

At the class, we compared seven different pattern groupings which was more than I expected. I thought we'd just do the big four. We looked at Vogue, McCalls, Butterick, Simplicity, Burda, New Look, and Kwik Sew. As Lorraine had said, they are all based on the same basic block and measurements for each size and are nearly identical in sizing. There are fine tuning issues that make some patterns more desirable than others but overall, a size is a size is a size.

I'd heard Lorraine say this before however seeing the patterns lain over each other was really interesting. It explains why when altering patterns to my moulage, I am making the same changes over and over consistently. Even so, I lean toward Vogue, Butterick, and Burda patterns because of the more interesting design lines. To me, that's one of the best aspects of sewing - uniqueness.

Five of us went out for lunch afterward and continued our conversation. I got the feeling that these women had a lot of sewing experience and would have loved to spend more time chatting with them. Having someone to talk to, who loves to do what you love to do, is such a fabulous part of creativity. It's why I enjoy spending time with my friend Caroline. We can gab forever about sewing and it never gets old even though we are - LOL!

When I say that Lorraine is one of the few people that knows more about sewing than me (and everyone at lunch agreed that that does in-deed sound arrogant) that fact is heavily influenced by the reality that I hardly know anyone that sews fashions. My friend Caroline and I are about equitable in knowledge and skill only she lives 2100 miles north of me. Lorraine knows far and beyond what I know and lives an hour and a half away. Charlene lives in Kamloops and she and Lorraine could chat together with ease except Charlene is a busy business person with little time to talk - all of which makes me glad that sewing fashions is starting to become popular again. Perhaps I'll end up with more playmates - what fun that would be.

After lunch, Lorraine and I went to Fabricland and I bought NOTHING at the sale. What a good girl am I - although - to be honest - I'm popping over to our Fabricland later this morning because the muslin is supposed to be on half price. We'll see. If not, I'll wait because there is absolutely no need to pay extra for something that technically gets thrown out EXCEPT THAT - a brainy idea - if I buy 100% cotton, I could cut up the test garment and dye the fabric afterward. YES YES!

This thread soup is from the smallest texture piece that I started on Wednesday. I cut these thread ends off when stopping and starting stitching and store them in a container under my construction desk. They're mostly silk finish and rayon threads. To make this mix, I sliced through the threads with the rotary cutter and then "tossed" them on the counter top before spreading them over organza and soluble stabilizer.

Because I'm working to a size, it was important that the thread take up a specific amount of the background fabric. I used these rulers to push the bits into place before covering them with another layer of soluble stabilizer and stitching them together.




After the stabilizer was washed out, the thread lace was placed over a piece of hand dyed fabric by Elin Noble (plus batting and backing) and stitched horizontally in tight rows. Along with texture, one of the commonalities of this set will be horizontal lines. The color series has vertical lines and the line and shapes series has curved and flowing lines.

On my way home, I drove out to visit Carolina at the Aspha Naira Gallery. She has been evacuated twice and is still on evacuation alert, most likely until the end of the fire season in the fall. The fire at Terrace Mountain was 95% contained and then horrendous winds came up one night and now it's only 30% contained again. Because of that, someone has to be at the house at all times. They could be evacuated with only minutes notice. They've had so much help - which is fabulous - and most of their things are now stored in town. All of the art is gone, the house and studio are quite bare, and Carolina and her family are living out of their trunk. VERY stressful. I'm glad I went to visit. A hug and a chat aren't much but it helps.

Have a great weekend. I'm off to stitch. Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful: recycling ideas for threads and fibres