glittergoods

quilt, glitter

I realized yesterday that I forgot to photograph the back of the auction quilt, thus:

It was an interesting back to put together, not because there's anything particularly interesting about it, but because I'd picked up that aqua/brown dot on sale & thought yes!  this will be just right! -- forgetting that the reason that I do not have any of that particular line of dots (I think it's Michael Miller Dumb Dots) in my fairly serious polka dot collection is that I actually find it to be...mildly grating in some way, like the dots are a little too large or a little too regularly spaced or a little too obvious or something.  Whatever, I mean, clearly I think way too much about the specific scale & placement of polka dots; the point is that I quickly had buyer's remorse about the fabric, but sternly forced myself to use it anyway, & I think that in the end 1. it works pretty well, & 2. there's that much less fabric hanging around my overstuffed sewing space, so hurrah me.

Although really what I think is that denim chambray is a genius quilt backing & it can make anything look better.  It is on its way to becoming the linen/cotton &/or Kona sage of my quilt backing scene.  Also:  60" wide, makes my life much easier.

Ok, enough about the quilt. 

I have been thinking about  PMC (fine silver clay) for probably three years now, & finally took a class a couple of weeks ago. I've had this idea that the clay could give me some excellent flexibility in building chunkier settings for my glitter + resin.  So far, so good.  (Am taking a PMC ring class in a couple of weeks, very excited.)

happy trails, plus cake.

In a very welcome break from everything, today we went to a birthday party for one of my daughter's best old friends.  Who is a tiny little horse nut.

So there was some riding.

And some wee goats.

Tired?  Frozen?  Filthy?  Bring on the cake!

I made a horsey mini Mail Sack for the mini horse nut.*

With a mini horse tucked inside.

*I really like this pattern.  And, yes, I am thoroughly stuck on the auction quilt colors.

quilt, print

This year is maybe the worst ever for our family falling prey to whatever stupid supergerm is going around, also I have recently had the irritating & totally unsurprisingly revelation that if you are up to your neck in being the auction design lead as well as being the kindergarten class project lead AS WELL AS having committed to a variety of handmade donations, well, not only are you someone who maybe needs to learn to say "no" a little bit better, but you should probably try to avoid being laid flat out with a fever for four days in the middle of several converging deadlines.  And that it's a good thing you are in no way involved in writing the catalog copy, as your life has become one huge blur of a run-on sentence.

But!  I am finally feeling human again (just in time for my son to be wiped out by whatever stupid supergerm caused nine kids to be absent yesterday (nine!  Although my husband pointed out that his class - nine actually makes for a very pleasant teacher-student ratio, so maybe it was very enriching for the healthy kids.), & I have finished the auction quilt!  Hurrah!

I love this one.  I started with "garden" as my concept, struggled through a number of sketches & color stories that weren't quite making it happen, & eventually solved it through the time-honored "less is more" method.  (I also used my own personal time-honored rule of "when in doubt, see if some Kona Cotton in Sage helps."  So far, the answer is usually yes.)

Things probably would have been easier if I'd started with "door" as my concept instead. 

The slightly mismatched strips you see there are different dyelots of the same fabrics that I had hanging around in my scrap boxes (the darker linen/cotton is actually left over from the preschool auction quilt), randomly inserted into the piecing.  Including the darker aqua was a deliberate plan; including the darker "natural" was just a way to get the length I needed without cutting into more yardage, but I think it worked out really well (&, probably, better than it would have if I'd planned it out).

This is my absolute favorite part of the quilt:  a big rectangle of featherweight corduroy in a mossy olive green.  (Along with evidence of the teeth-gnashing struggles I was having with the tension settings on my newly tuned-up machine.  I eventually got in the groove, but not before a lot of tedious unpicking.)

 

But then the tedious unpicking is always worth it when the quilt comes out of the dryer all rumpled & squashy.  Just like last year, I wouldn't mind bringing it back home (though last year's went to a friend of mine, so I get to visit it sometimes.)

Meanwhile, class projects have to get done too:

 

I did a block printing project with my daughter's kindergarten class earlier this year, so we decided to have the kids do a set of city-themed prints.  (The entire project was inspired by pixiegenne's beautiful block prints from a while back.)

 

A few kids are doing Seattle landmarks, the rest are doing houses, buildings, & a few trees.  We're about halfway done, & -- even though I think it's going to look terrific -- the very best thing about this project is watching the kids light up when they peel back the foam & see the prints they've made.  I think they'll feel some real connection to the piece when it's finished, which is a nice change from last year's GIANT DECOUPAGE BENCH.

(I'll still be relieved when it's done, though.)

have snap press, will travel

Today was the annual Arts in Careers Day for the third, fourth, & fifth grades at my kids' elementary school.  They go to an arts-integrated school (art incorporated into every subject), & this is one of the little touches that I just love about our community.  It's the second year that I've participated, & while I do love going in & running a couple of workshops for the older kids, I confess that it also makes me sort of grit my teeth in preparation for next year when I will be living with my very own third grader.

However, even the surliest group of nine year olds cannot resist an opportunity to get their hands on heavy machinery, so my snap press is a huge hit.  Last year I also brought along my respirator, which was also very popular until I had to confiscate it due to too many Darth Vader hijinks.

Since I can't actually bring glitter, a screenprinting setup, or resin into the classroom, I sewed up a batch of felt wristbands, made some glitter snaps, & then showed the kids how to put everything together with the snap press.  It works well because even the anti-glitteriest boys cannot resist the press.

I also brought in a selection of work for them to check out.  One group asked me very detailed questions about resin, the other was very curious about how much money I make when I sell things.  They were impressed with some of the prices until I explained retail & wholesale & then made them do math in their heads.

Possibly as revenge for that, they asked me if I use math in my art.  While it turns out that I do use math all the time, I am using it particularly much right now because I have finally started working on the quilt I'm donating to the auction this year.

I had just recently finished a series of annoying calculations in order to:  reach my desired length; accomodate the different angled edges of the pieced strips; and allow for trimming the blue strips to different widths as I went along.*  They may have heard slightly more about this than strictly necessary, but I was excited to be an example of art/math integration in action.  (Possibly the only time I have been excited about math, ever.)

I don't really think this justifies having to take high school calculus, but I do sort of feel like I should write my third grade teacher a thank you note.

*Answer:  2 inches.

sk8: whew.

I have a post about the recent nephew quilts in me, but first I will talk about the very fun skateboard birthday party we had today, plus I am irritatedly stuck on the design of the (small, no kids involved) quilt I'm supposed to be making for the auction this very second, so party talk instead!

Party favors:  a finger board, an organic lollipop, a glow stick, & a custom vinyl sticker, all tucked inside a little pillow box. 

I used sticker paper from Papilio, & was reasonably pleased with it.  You print it, rinse off extra ink, let it dry, & then apply an optional laminating spray for UV protection.  I found that it had a bit of the same issue I ran into when I used inkjet printable fabric last year -- the color rinsed down to a colorfast level ok, but there was some bleeding around the edges.  If you try this stuff, I recommend doing a fast-moving rinse with a sink sprayer, if you can.  Also, if you buy the spray, definitely do it outside (stinky!) but you should think about covering it during dry time for dust protection, also if you spray it outside in, say, February, you are probably not going to get a completely smooth finish if your temps are down in the, say, 30s.  But, like I said:  reasonably pleased, none of it was a deal-breaker, & it's pretty cool to be able to print waterproof vinyl stickers on the inkjet.

I have two things to say about the cupcakes.  First of all,  I completely failed to consider the ramifications of handing a roomful of eight year old boys cupcakes with tiny little pointy sticks embedded in them.  Also, I tried to mix my own red frosting last night (for a decoration idea that ultimately failed anyway) & holy moly, that's hard.  Oh, wait, three things:  I have had a bit of a vegan cupcake breakthrough, which is that they -- particularly for vanilla, which is what these are -- do MUCH BETTER when I use a hand mixer instead of my KitchenAid.  A hand mixer on, like, 2.  I have baked, hm, 9 dozen? cupcakes over the past month & so have given the matter serious thought. 

Anyway, I liked the cupcake picks, even though I am not sure that they will be making a reprise at a certain male child's ninth birthday, as he & his friends are hooligans.

Little skater hooligans.  (Isn't that mural fantastic?)

 

Happy birthday, kid.