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Saturday, May 31. 2008

A perfect weekend

No doubt, each of us has certain criteria which define what makes something perfect – a perfect day, a perfect weekend, etc. – and these criteria vary from person to person. But I would be willing to bet that the two criteria a) spending time in attractive surroundings and b) spending time with congenial people rate high on almost everyone‘s list. My last weekend included both a) and b) and therefore came very close to fulfilling my definition of perfect.

 

The attractive surroundings were a quilt shop, “The Patchwork & Textilwerkstatt” in Merzig, a nice little town on the Saar River in south-west Germany. The shop is owned and run by Sibylle Wasow, a good friend of mine. I must admit that I‘m a little proud of Sibylle. She was one of my very first students when I began teaching patchwork and quilting here in Germany (years ago) and she caught the quilting bug so thoroughly that she opened a shop in her home (in Merzig) in 1998. That shop was such a success that it wasn‘t long before she needed more room, so she moved into a lovely shop in town in 2003. 

 

Sibylle has a good eye for color and design so she has an outstanding selection of fabrics. Right from the beginning, she began specializing in Japanese fabrics and she also has a good selection of fabrics from Kaffe Fassett and Oakshott, as well as many (I have never counted) of what she calls “standard” fabrics from many different companies. She has completed her selection of fabrics with some linens, wools, and a few other fabrics for garments and/or home decorating. Of course, she has sewing and quilting notions and supplies and books – including many Japanese books to round-out her special area.

Photo

 

In addition to doing everything that is needed to run a shop, Sibylle and her co-worker seem to spend a large part of their time sewing. What seems like a constant flow of new quilts, bags, and other textile projects, both large and small, show customers what wonderful things can be made with the fabrics in the shop. As part of her offerings, Sibylle also organizes patchwork and quilting classes...

 

...and that‘s where I come in. The congenial people who spent my weekend with me had signed up for a hand appliqué class in Sibylle‘s shop and I was the teacher. I have taught several appliquè classes at the shop in the past years, but this one had a special emphasis. Sibylle has announced a competition with the title, “Houses, houses, and more” based on quilts and other projects on the theme of houses, as presented in Japanese books by Yoko Saito or other Japanese quilt designers – once again putting the emphasis on her Japanese fabrics and books. This class was conceived to help anyone interested in participating in the competition learn the basics of hand appliqué. 

Here‘s the little appliquè that I made for the class – inspired by the Japanese book, “House” (I would like to say who the author and publisher are, but I don‘t read Japanese).

I appliquéd it and Sibylle quilted it for me.

 

It was a small group, but they were all extemely motivated and worked very hard all weekend. I have seldom had such a quiet class – they were all concentrating on their appliqué! That all of them enjoyed good conversation became obvious during our lunch breaks, which we spent together at two good restaurants near the shop. They were wonderful to work with and I had a great time! Judging by the results of their sewing and by their thanks, I can only assume that the participants had a good weekend also.

 

Here are a few photos of the shop and the class:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Written by Mary at 10:55 in Shows, shops, and museums
Comments (2)

Monday, May 19. 2008

Star wars – fighting the UFO’s

As I think I mentioned in my first blog entry, I am interested in almost everything connected with textiles and (time permitting) like to work in many different techniques. One problem with having many textile interests (besides never having enough time) is what to do with the various stashes and UFO's.

 

I not only have fabric (plenty), I also have yarns for knitting, weaving and crocheting, unspun fibers, threads for sewing, embroidery, bobbin lace and tatting, and the notions, tools, and equipment for all my various textile activities. In addition, my propensity to create UFO's is not just limited to one particular technique, so I have sewing, knitting, weaving, etc. etc. projects in various states of completion - I do finish things also, but the UFO's seem to pile up.

 

I actually like things to be organized - I like to be able to find what I am looking for - and have spent considerable time and money trying to find the best way to keep everything neat and orderly. I always read the articles about how other quilters, weavers, etc. organize their studios and try to incorporate their good ideas.

 

This week-end was devoted to my latest storage project. My living room is very long and narrow and also very high - it used to be a storage area for building materials before we renovated the house. Up until about a month ago, I had a shelf system mounted on the end wall - metal standards which carried adjustable metal brackets which supported shelves. It wasn‘t really beautiful, but it was practical, economical, and easy to install and it served me well for over 10 years. But I always had in mind to replace it with something more attractive. About a month ago, the living room got painted, so we had to take down the metal standards anyway and I decided that now was the time to finally replace the old wall shelves. I talked the problem over with my SO and a friend who is a cabinetmaker and together we came up with an idea to combine a lovely wooden book shelf with (hidden) storage space.

 

Since the room is so long and narrow and high, the living space wouldn‘t suffer much from being shortened slightly. In other words, we decided that we could pull the book case away from the wall, thereby creating storage space behind it. The storage area was to be shelves of the same wood (beech) as the book shelves, but narrow enough that they would be really hidden behind the book case. The cabinetmaker friend suggested also adding two drawers to the book case to hold small tools and accessories (good idea!).

 

Theoretically, it all seemed perfect....but it is always exciting to see if things really work out the way intended. Well, my new book case/storage space was installed Friday and then we (SO and I) spent all week-end putting things in order (why is it always necessary to create a huge mess in order to make things neat?).

 

Here it is right after it was installed. The photo was taken from the 1st floor gallery to show the storage shelves behind the book case.

 

 

And here it is, with books and

boxes of yarn and fabric (hidden)

in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This photo gives an idea of how high and narrow the room is.

And here is a shot of the storage space (difficult to photograph).

 

It is everything I had hoped for! Attractive and practical. The storage area is narrow but high enough (I think 2.30 meters/ about 90 inches) that it holds all the boxes of yarn that I had on the old wall shelf, plus many boxes of fabric (which were some place else up until now).

I fear that the storage problem is a never-ending story, but my new book case/ storage space is definitely great step forward! Now what can I do with the space that was left where the boxes of fabric used to be....?

Written by Mary at 15:11 in Assorted textile techniques
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Monday, May 12. 2008

The Seven Sisters Quilt Show

Usually when I‘m travelling, I arrive someplace the week after the local quilt show or the weaving show is next week (and I‘m leaving tomorrow) or I read the local newspaper Saturday evening and discover an article about an embroidery show on Saturday morning (too late!). But this year when I was visiting my father on California‘s Central Coast, I arrived on a Thursday and my father presented me with the “Calender” section of the local newspaper with a long illustrated article about a quilt show which would be taking place that coming weekend. I could hardly believe my luck!

 

The Associated Quilt Guilds of the Central Coast were presenting their “Seven Sisters Quilt Show” (there are 7 guilds in the AQGCC). This wasn‘t an annual affair. It was the first “Seven Sisters Quilt Show” and had been several years in the making – once again, I could hardly believe that I had actually timed my visit perfectly for the show.

 

And what a show it was! For 2 days, over 370 quilts of all styles, all sizes, and all levels of ability were shown and more than 30 vendors offered their assorted temptations. I had assumed that I would be going to the show alone, but my dad said that he would come along, which was nice. Two can see more than one alone and sharing impressions, explaining techniques, etc. heighten the experience.

 

 

 

Having helped hang a few exhibits myself in the past few years, I was impressed by the amount of work invested in the show. Quilts were not only displayed on a huge number of temporary frames, they were also hung from the ceiling. All quilts were uniformly (and well) labelled. Vendors‘ stands enticed visitors along the outer walls and even in a tent area before we actually entered the show building.

 

I can‘t say that I liked all of the quilts, but I could appreciate the time, energy, imagination, and love invested in each and every one of them. And, of course, I did find many truly impressive. Here are a few that caught my eye:

 

 

A wonderful optical illusion quilt, with impressive piecing. The squares (well, actually, I guess they are trapezoids) of the center red and black area measure about 1/4 inch. I‘ll write the name of the quilter and name of the quilt as soon as my suitcase arrives (hopefully tomorrow – it didn‘t arrive with me, missed one of the connecting flights). The suitcase did arrive, so now I know more. The quilt was made by Andi Perejda and is called “What a Trip!”.

 

 

 

An intriguing, very original combination of two different sizes of “Snail Trail” or “Monkeywrench” blocks. And it was entirely hand-quilted with tiny, very even stitches!

And while we‘re on the subject of quilting...the large majority of all quilts in the exhibit were machine quilted. I hadn‘t realized that machine quilting has become so popular. Many were machine quilted by someone other than the quilt‘s maker so it seems that people (women probably) in the quilting business are actually making some money, which is nice.

Once again, the names of the maker and the quilt will be added here when my suitcase arrives. The quilt is “California Reel” by Allison Lockwood.

 

 

As a contrast to the preceding quilt, I thought that this was a good example of how effective a simple pattern can be when made with well-chosen fabrics. In this case, I can read the quilt‘s label when I enlarge the photo, so I know that it is called “Japanese Circles” and was made by Gay McNeal (the last name might be wrong – once again....when the suitcase arrives – yep, that's the right name) who was inspired by the book and class, “Circle Play” by Reynola Pakusich.

 

All in all, I can sum up my impressions of the show with congratulations and thanks to the members of the AQGCC!

Written by Mary at 16:53 in Shows, shops, and museums
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Tuesday, May 6. 2008

Musings on a braided rug

I‘m visiting my dad at the moment. Since we live so far apart I only get to see him once a year (I do phone him regularly) and then I usually stay for 2 or 3 weeks. I don‘t do much when I‘m here. The main object is to see my dad, talk with him, etc. Of course, I always help him a little with housework and repairs while I‘m here. One repair that is almost always needed is to sew up holes which have appeared in one of the braided rugs that he has on the floor.

 

 

The braided rugs were made by his grandmother (my great-grandmother). My dad says he can remember her working on them when he was a boy, so he figures that they must have been made sometime during the 30‘s. When I was sitting on the floor yesterday, repairing one of the rugs (and trying to remember to hold my back straight in the process), I started thinking.... 

 

I wonder what my great-grandmother would have thought to hear that her rugs are still being used (and still in fairly good shape – they wear like iron!) in 2008. And I‘ll bet that she would have been pleased to know that her 60-year-old great-granddaughter was willing and able to repair them to help them survive a little longer.

 

In case you‘re not familiar with braided rugs, here‘s a photo of the one I was working on yesterday.

 

To make such a rug, you first cut fabrics (all wools in the case of our family rugs) into strips of a particular width. The strips are then each run through a metal device (a little like the bias strip folders/pressers that you can purchase today) which folds the strips. Three folded strips are then braided together to form the basic unit of the rug. When one strip ends, it is tapered (to reduce bulk) and overlapped with the tapered end of the next strip (some people sew the ends together) and the braiding continues. 

 

In the next step, the braid is sewn (actually laced) together, from the center out, in flat, spiralling concentric circles or ovals (our rug). The first straight section of braid in the center of the rug that I was working on measures 58 cm (23 inches). Around this center line are 52 concentric ovals. The first oval around the center line measures approx. 1.20 meters (48 inches) around and the outer oval measures a total of 8.30 meters (9 1/8 yards)! The rug is 2.90 meters (3 1/4 yards) long and 2.35 meters (2 5/8 yards) wide. So how many total meters/yards of braid were needed to make the rug? The mind boggles! If each round were only 1 meter around, that would be 52 meters, but they keep increasing up to 8.30 meters so she must have braided several hundred yards! And that was just for this one rug. My dad says she made many more than the two that he still has.

 

Then she laced the braids next to one another, around and around, until the rug was the size she wanted. Depending on the colors of the fabric strips used, patterns appear when the strips are sewn together. 

 

I mentioned that these rugs wear like iron. Despite the age and constant usage, no braid loop has worn through. The upper one or two fabric layers of some of the folded strips have been worn away, but that‘s all. The reason they need repair is that the cord used to sew the braids together has become weak with age so in some sections, the braids are no longer sewn together. Even so, not much repair is needed. This year I only had to re-sew 6 or 7 sections for a total of maybe 1 meter (a little more than a yard). 

 

These are the things I know about these rugs. Some of the things I don‘t know are: Where did my great-grandmother get the fabrics for her rugs? Did she use new fabric or was it all “re-cycled”? How did she sew them up? (Hopefully not sitting on the floor....my back aches at the thought!) How long did it take her to make the rug I‘ve been describing? (Probably impossible to answer because she most likely worked on the rugs in her “spare time”.) 

 

Despite the threat to my back, I don‘t mind helping my dad with this job. Ours is not a family that has accumulated family jewels in the sense of gold, diamonds, etc. Our “treasures” are more in the nature of the rugs that my great-grandmother braided. By taking care of them I feel that I am honoring my heritage and preserving it for my children and grandchildren. I just have to remember to teach some of them how to fix the holes! 

Written by Mary at 00:05 in Assorted textile techniques
Comments (4)

Thursday, May 1. 2008

The pyschology of knitting

I finished my latest pair of socks. Here they are. 

 

They were fun to knit. And they even seemed like they knit up faster than my normal stocking-stitch socks – which can‘t be really true because the little pattern slowed me down. After all, instead of working k2, p2 for the ribbing or just straight k for the foot area, I was slowing down to work yo‘s, working k3, p2 or working a slip stitch and then passing the slip stitch over – and that all 15 times per round around the ankle and 7 times per round across the arch. So they must have taken longer. But the fun of working the little pattern made them seem to go faster. And somehow, the knitting of units make things go faster. Knitting rounds and rounds of stocking stitch are sort of like walking long distances in flat, empty countryside. You know that you‘re getting somewhere, but there isn‘t much to measure your progress by. But working small, countable units is like walking to the top of the hill, then to the top of the next hill, etc. You can physically see that you‘re actually moving forward. It might alse be that it‘s like giving yourself a small reward every time a small unit is completed. I have noticed the same effect when using the self-striping sock yarn that we have available today (like they yarn these new socks were made from). 

 

I have a pattern for socks with a considerably more complicated lace pattern. They look lovely, but the pattern requires much more thought and concentration than these last socks did. I should probably give them a try and see if my theory of sock knitting also applies for them. If I do....I‘ll let you know.

Written by Mary at 02:24 in Knitting
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