Calamity Kim

Yo Love

This must be learning week because today I am off to take a pin weaving class for two hours and then next Friday it is another two hours. I have woven many things but this is a tiny bag and I get an opportunity to hang with my peeps- and learn a new technique!

This is where the class will be held- at Colleen Cassidy-Berns Art Studio. Here is the link It looks like a lovely environment to create- lots of light and definitely the right atmosphere.
The crochet is complete on the apron and I am so happy with it! I think I need to do the back edge also- or I am going to ask my peeps what they think.
Several fingers on my left hand were sore- but it does relax your mind.
I really like it! What used to be frustrating is now joyful!
I wish everything could be like that!  After I finished the crochet,  I pulled out the Literal Girl Quilt piece and started adding some vines, leaves and yoyo's.   

While we watched a New Earl, The Office, Smallville and Without A Trace (not my favorite, but what ya gonna do?)I love you, but I gotta Git!!! Y'all have a nice day! I can't believe it's Friday already! I will be back later with pichas of the fun! Love & Stitches, Calamity Kim

Blown Away

For the past 3 years I have had a shoe calendar, printed by Workman Publishing. This year I bought too late and settled for handbags, unable to find the shoes that I normally love. Some days it pays off- like this interesting bag in a bag called "horse chestnut" by Emily Jo Gibbs.Yesterday I remembered that I needed to make a few postcards and dug out the pictures I had printed on fabric to use before I left for my recent trip to Georgia. Of course, it is too much to ask for me to stay small. 4 1/2 x 5" is just too small. So it became another book cover.I sliced up a Dover image of a winter landscape with the rotary cutter and patch worked it with 2 other fabrics. Once I laid the transparency of my Grandmother with her bird on top,  it took on a different mood.Like doodling with a needle I added a few beads and pins and a bee shrinky dink button I had made and it came to life.
I see these small vignettes as a moment in time where portions of stories are whispered and hummed and shared.
Personal moments that should not be forgotten.
Grandma mended this birds' wing and it would fly down and visit with her when she was out in the yard, as if to say, thank you my friend.I don't want to cover the bird on the quilted cover- so I will put this on the other side. I really am going to continue to try to make fabric postcards- I think I just enjoy working larger. I have too much to say.

I machine stitched one side of the binding to the front edge and then started to hand-stitch the back side while watching Lost last night.
Fred read the enhanced statements from the bottom of the screen so that I didn't have to look up.
We re-watch the previous weeks show from 8 until 9 and enjoy the little crumbs of extra knowledge that they are sharing when airing the episodes. It's almost like pop up videos but without the annoyance!
I know some of you don't watch Lost, so you can skip ahead, while I just say: WOW!!! It's all about BEN, ain't it? Interesting, I must say!
Of course I think that Walt's Dad is the spy on the boat- his name has been in the credits and I would be shocked if it were someone else. We knew Penny's Dad was a bad man, too, right?!!
The Fathers in this show are a brutal lot aren't they?
It leaves me on the edge of my seat every week without fail and even though my son thinks it has "jumped the shark" (aka Fonzie from Happy Days) I am still as much in love with it as I ever have been. You could say, I'm Lost. teehee- sorry.

It is very windy outside today and the sun is peeking out from time to time. I have errands to run and projects to finish. When I was in Georgia I saw hundreds of the horse chestnuts lying on the ground as I walked and wanted to fill my pockets with them but knew that I really had no use for them. I am over dried flower arrangements. Lord knows I made enough of them in the 80's! I love the sputnik shape, however, and marvel at nature's beauty one more time.
It reminded me of a manikin at Hot Topic that always sits in the window- this girl with blonde spikes covering her head. So cool.
Anyway, I am going to try to mend my mood and get some fresh air, if I am lucky a tornado will pick up the house and send me to OZ.

A shawl for a friend

Today is dark and cloudy, with temperatures dropping. I sew with all the lights on to get enough light. Working on a gift for someone sweet. Trying to create something with fabric collage isn't just random images- it requires a great deal of auditioning different fabrics to get the right feel. To portray that person in fabric. I think about what I know about the recipient and go with that.Like if they are into "vintage" or modern. Are they shabby chic? Or just elegant?Do they read Victoria magazine? Do they collect old linens?I don't know her very well but she has done some nice things for me and I wanted to make her something cozy and warm.She recently sent me a sweet package of treasures to use in my collages- items like yoyo's and buttons and vintage fabrics. The little yellow dog house charm- which says-"you're in the dog house"- which is where I usually live- don't ya know- is so perfectly calamitous!! It is lined with vintage chenille and the cotton & silk batting is going to make it snugglishious! That probably isn't a real word, but it should be!I get stiff in the shoulders while machine quilting and dream of a long arm machine when I start trying to maneuver projects of this size under my regular sewing machine. It would just take too long to get it quilted if I did it by hand and I am already late for her birthday.It is difficult to know whether I am going in the right direction- until she receives it and tells me what she thinks- sometimes I nail the person and sometimes I don't- I just always try to keep my inner critic bound and gagged until I finish. You always know your own mistakes when creating something and I have found that most viewers look beyond small details to the over-all look of the piece. I wanted this to have an old-fashioned-tea-in-the-garden-feel.

I am trying to get this finished before there is another snow storm where this is going - am I being mysterious enough for you? I want her to be surprised and delighted. I want her to wear this and wrap herself up in the good wishes and joy I am channeling into it as I sew.After I finish then,  I am going to work on a few other items I have lined up- an  art apron for a friend is finished except for the bias and then I will share that- I don't want to spoil her surprise- she has been "infinity" patient- jennifer of infinity monkeys- sweet and kind to me...I have the best of intentions but have a difficult time unless I feel like working on it and then once I get started I can't do anything else...I have drafted a pattern to share of the art apron for Jennifer- but that will probably be next week- this week I am finishing this...

quilted book cover - don't look Junie Moon!

Each time I think it's finished I see another empty spot and pick up the needle and add a few more giant stitches...my hands were swollen after walking 4 miles yesterday, but quickly went back to normal as I put needle to cloth.Nothing spectacular, just keeping busy. I wanted to walk  to this library that I had seen and been enchanted by. The Appleby Library is in a gorgeous white washed brick building with those columns....

As I walked past each lovely house with gardens of daffodils and tulip magnolia's all blooming, bright spots of color in the still taupe landscape, I felt the wind and the sun's warmth sooth my feathers and lift my hair and spirits.
I reached the library and was embraced by the quiet stillness as I wandered through the tall book cases. I flipped through some magazines and then went to find whatever quilt books were there. On the way home I felt more centered and peaceful after the trip back in time.
I have a vivid enough imagination to see the ladies in their ball gowns floating down the staircase, smelling of gardenias and peaches... Augusta is lovely.
Once I got back to the house I sat outside on the patio with Mom and enjoyed the sunshine. There are large pines in the neighborhood and I swear they were talking and as they swayed  in the breeze yesterday!
I am getting ready to go to the PO to mail the little quilted book cover to Junie Moon. I have to get dressed and get motivated.

This is a composition book cover-which I had to explain repeatedly because it isn't a true quilt or a place mat or anything really useful- unless you enjoy writing in composition books, like me, and think they are enhanced by a bit of patchwork...I see my work through their eyes and it must seem quite strange.
Maybe I am strange.
Some exotic gypsy quilter in a land of Puritans?...I don't think my work is unusual or any different than any of the other art quilters out there.
Perhaps its just different and weird if you haven't been exposed to it.
I love traditional quilting but feel that I am allowed the freedom to explore non traditional ways of working the fabric and I am not judged by any rules.
I make what I want to please me and I guess I don't care what anyone else thinks.
I do want them to like it,  but if they don't I just shrug it off and say, whatever.
Deep inside, under the layers of ambivalent batting, my heart is a patchwork of all the pain and beauty and mistakes and joys that my life has been.
The pins stick and tiny droplets of blood appear, growing larger until they slide down and stain the counterpane of my soul.
Maybe thats why I make pin cushions...maybe all my work is in symbolism and I am too obtuse to even realize it until I take it out and examine it here.
Book covers protect and transform...that's why I make them...

Fabric Postcards 1

Fabric Postcards 1, originally uploaded by Alpha Stamps.

I was just flicking through Flickr and I came across this. I then went to the Profile page and found this:  http://www.alphastamps.com/
and then I was in heaven. Loads of stamps, foils, ephemera, links!!!

The coolest links.

I know. I don't get out much.

I am sewing up a storm...with breaks for dish washing and laundry folding!

Y'all come back later for pictures- the pink bromeliad is blooming again this is from last year

Printing on fabric

I had a question about printing on fabric from Susan so I thought I would do a bit of show N tell before I get busy listing some stuff over at my Etsy shop.
First and foremost you need a good printer.
I have an HP 8250 that we bought several years ago. I always say to Fred- "have I told you that I love you today"? He often replies- "Yes, but not as much as you love the printer".
Funny. He knows me so well.
Then you can get many different kinds of premade fabric sheets on which to print.
I only use the sew in kind.
NOT the iron on kind.
I think that the ink jet direct to fabric is more permanent and stable.
I iron directly over it while working and you can't do that with the other kind.
It can be washed and is much better than iron on. 
They can be found at Walmart and Jo Ann'sCraft stores and Hancock's and on line. Put "Sew In Ink Jet Fabric Sheets" in a search and see what you get.
There is also a line of products called Bubble Jet Set which is a liquid that you soak the fabric in then dry and iron on to freezer paper and run through the printer like paper ( after you cut it to 8 1/2 x 11).

There are many books out there on this subject.
Go to the bookstore or library.
Investigate.
Learn.
It is so easy with a computer.
When people first started doing this ( 10 years ago?) I was in love with the look but didn't have the proper tools to do it.
I was making teddy bears then anyway.
I did go to kinko's a lot.
I did fool around with printing vintage postcard images on muslin ironed to freezer paper. Then I sewed them in layers to batting and muslin backing (after stamping it with a postcard stamp).
Then I tea dyed them and baked them in the oven to dry.
A wire hanger and a bit of glitter finished them off.
I decorated a Christmas tree with these using postcards of Grove Park Inn and Vintage Holiday messages.
I also printed images on transparencies and sewed them to fabric .
I have spent a lot of time learning different techniques.  Flower Pounding and flowers on fabric with acrylic gel medium to name a few.
I love the fact that I can create a collage and then scan it and print it and then go to the sewing machine and quilt it together with other fabrics and I have made something utterly unique in all the world.

Try it.
You'll like it.
So, Susan, does that answer your question?
To make my collage I used pictures of a certain singer and after drawing on her face I layered her with a printed scrap booking transparency and some poppy and crown images and then printed them on fabric. Then I used some Amy Butler Lotus flowers and leaves to adorn the crown. A moon here and a crow there. Tea cup, spoon, spider...it tells a story...The queen of the Gypsies sees your future... she knows your past...She reminded me that it has been more than a month since I updated the shop...I better get busy....

embellished

embellished, originally uploaded by calamity kim.

encrusted is more like it.I worked on this from 9am until 9 pm. I had already made the front.
Well, I had made the collage and then printed it on to the canvas a while ago and then I pieced together some more of the sides and bottom and did a little fabric collage for a total of maybe 6 hours.
So this is the 18 hour bag.
Better than that 18 hour girdle my Mom used to wear!
More pictures tomorrow.
Calgon is taking me away!
I need to soak.
My shoulders have been all scrunched up for a week or two.
Ya see, I have a fabulous sewing  chair but it is in the office.
I am sitting in it now.
I guess I will roll it back to the sewing room since I have been spending more time there than here.
I kept noticing that I was holding my shoulders really tight.
Sewing shouldn't be stressful! It should be fun- right?
I am very happy with how the bag turned out. It's big, and roomy too! 20" wide x 14" tall by 3" wide reinforced bottom.
The handles are 27" long.
It could be a diaper bag.
A tote bag.
A  great purse.
It will always get a comment or two.
People are always asking me about my quilted yoyo bag and it is a lot tamer than this.
Next is the red & aqua Alice quilt....remember that one?

remember the paper poppies...

Of course the finished quilt top was too plain for me....so I had to Jazz it up...with the cayenne poppies...why do I love little red? maybe because she is vulnerable and defenseless in a big, dark wood...the cries of wolves making her walk faster to her dear Grandma's house. Knowing that she shouldn't be asking if he is a good wolf or a bad wolf, just accepting that he is a wolf and he can't over come his nature.  Mix in a few toad Princes and puss in boots and you've got the beginning of a fine fairytale doll quilt...nope, I didn't see Shrek yet this weekend...maybe next....

a bag by any other name would still be a purse

So I have been working on this today- A purse. I was going to use an Amy Butler pattern that I had bought last year and never used. I do that. I MUST have it and then never use it. I am trying to stop that. I am going through my patterns and reminding myself of what I have. Lot's of times I see a pattern or a book and it's like they are brand new! I totally forgot that I had them. I remembered to take the ginkgo biloba today. Can't hurt, Might help. (*teehee*) Sadie had her bath and blow dry today and is nudging my elbow to go out once more before bed...she is a tough taskmaster...I am ruled by my dog. geez. she is a sweetie though! More on the purse tomorrow...I think I am sleepy tired too!