A New Project - A Regency Box

I see by the dates its been nearly a year since I posted here.  Maybe its something about summer and being shut in the house with the air conditioning droning on and on.  And maybe its summer that makes me think in terms of embarking on long-term projects.  No, I always think in terms of really big projects. LOL  This time the idea was sparked by members of an embroidery list I belong to.  One of the members has been posting pictures of gorgeous Palais Royale sewing boxes.  Richly glowing exotic veneer coffers laden with exquisitely carved mother-of-pearl sewing tools such as would have been used by Marie Antoinette and her court ladies.  Understandably, there has been lots of cooing and twittering about how really delicious these boxes are. 

Then another member had this brilliant suggestion - why don't we each make such a precious box.  Embroidered interior, lovely exterior, a home for our best tools and treasures.  Of course, there were a certain number of us who instantly rose to the bait.  I'll admit it, I love beautiful sewing tools and I am a total sucker for precious beautiful boxes.   Once Phillip referred to me as the "Container Queen".   Guilty as charged.  I have a few carved and painted ones - even a couple I've done myself.  But Palais Royale ?!?....  So I shared all this with Phillip knowing that he'd be amused at the tempest in the embroidery teapot.  And then he asked me "So are you going to use The Box?"

Yes, there's a back story here.  In the world of antique restoration, Phillip's father was a recognized genius when it came to finding and bringing old things back to life.  Living around his shop was like being present at an ever-revolving museum show.  Every time he opened his truck it was a new Cave of Wonders.  Then when the pieces left to make their debut at another show, they were glowing with renewed life.  Sometimes he bought whole job lots of things that included things he didn't really want or never got around to dealing with.  Mostly small things.  He passed away last year after a lingering illness and his shop of 40+ years got gradually cleaned out.   One afternoon Phillip came in with a box he'd found under a pile of trash and sawdust.  Filthy, pealing its veneer at every touch, threatening any minute to disassemble itself to splinters - but underneath all that, voluptuously curved and elegantly domed.  The poor ruin of what was once a lovely Regency box - perhaps for stationary, perhaps for sewing.

He knew I would like to see it even in its present tragic state and, of course, I couldn't let him just toss it out.  So, it has lived on a shelf in my work room ever since - waiting...  Because I don't have the skills to do the re-gluing of its compound surfaces. Last night, at his suggestion, we looked at it again and he judged that, with the right skill set, it could be reglued and begin its journey to a new life.  He promised to put it back together so I can do the rest.  I certainly have no Palais Royale tools, but I do have some lovely bone ones that Phillip has carved.  But it is far from having a padded tray full of lovely tools.  Just for now, it will be enough to get the rotten veneer off the frame and get it glued together.  I am thinking that it will not have any veneer replaced.  Rather, I will cover it with muslin and gesso and polychrome it like the ones they call "Chinoisserie".  That will stabilize the box and maintain a period look to it.  We will see what comes.  Right now the fun is having a head full of ideas and a project of Great Potential. 

Finding My Voice

Its been a while since I posted anything - and indeed its take a while to get my head around the larger world of quilting and fiber arts.  I have certainly bee overwhelmed by the complexity of it all and how much there is to see and experience.  I think the major challenge was asking myself where my own voice was int he midst of it all.  And while I certainly haven't found all of that, I have found some small corner of it that I enjoy and can relate to. I have made a beginning at finding some few skills and a comfort zone.  I find that I am heavily influenced by all the embroidery I have done.  Karen talks about a quilt being something you can wrap yourself in - or wrap a child in for comfort.  And I get that; I really do.  I see the ladies int eh quilt guild turning out blanket sized quilts so casually and I really admire that.  But when I sit down to think about what I really want to do myself my brain automatically defaults to what I can hold in my hand and manage with a needle.

  It was only a matter of time before I found applique and wonderfully intricate small things.  My first discovery was Shelley Swanland and her technique called Cathedral Windows.  Its base on an old technique form the 30's but way more updated and versatile - a way of layering and folding fabric that gives color layers and tactile possibilities that are really exciting.  So after a test piece or two I found her little flower "twilt" (that I donated to the AAQI) and a framework she did for a large centerpiece that was just too intriguing not to try.  So it started out as something to do for that frame.  A piece for my daughter to celebrate her new apartment.  A hamsa hand for good luck and prosperity.  Well... simple is how it always starts, isn't it.  I found colors that felt like her and the it just had to have more - like shisha mirrors and embroidery - and then tassels - and after that bells on the bottom.  And finally I got around to that frame.  Fro something only 14 inches wide it certainly has a lot to say for itself.

Well - are we there yet? No, not quite.  After a grand and glorious project like this the only logical question is "What next?"  And with such an open question of course the Universe by way of the Interwebz will, of course, be quick to oblige.  I saw an odd posting of a detail from a quilt that someone had taken at a quilt show.  So sad she didn't have the name of the artist but it gave me a good idea.  And with a few adjustments (of course) it became a dragonfly that I used as a front panel for a carryall for my cousin.  She's going to be traveling here and there - doing readings, giving lectures, being out on weekends - she needed something special to carry her things in - something really uniquely her - and she loves dragonflies.  Then not to leave anything out I gave it flowers from that first flower pattern.  And of course the mirrors in the flower centers - and of course all kinds of embroidery.  This caused Phillip to describe it as"yet another Cistine Chapel project" and yes - he's right.  I mounted it it as the front flap on a bag with lots of pockets inside and out.  made out of sturdy faux suede upholstery fabric so it will go the extra mile and not fray or break. 

But once its done - and shipped - and she has it - and she was so pleased with it - I am once again faced with the question "What next?"  Since I've given my first 3 away, maybe its time to make one for me.  and lately I've been looking at lots of pictures of peacocks...   well....

Each time I do one of these smaller projects I learn things and get more certain of what I'm doing.  I feel less at sea and more in control.  Those larger projects are getting designed and drawn up.  I have them tucked in my sketch book and I'm saving back fabric for them as I find it.  They will come in time.  But for right now I'm being all happy with my little tempests in teapots.  And we shall see what kind of tempest that peacok will provide

If there's one thing I have found out for certain recently its that its so easy to get sucked in by the dazzle of it all.  After all, the  ~WOW~ factor is huge.  Also is the idea that it is very much possible to recreate this oneself.  You don't have to have an art school degree to have this kind of beauty in your life, just time and patience and some skill with a needle.  If you aren't up to generating your own patterns, there are certainly plenty of patterns out there that you can fill in with your own colors and sense of style.  The allure is enormous.  And I have certainly been out there on the internet, trawling for pictures and ideas, collecting images of inspirations like a high school girl collects pictures of movie stars.  Now I'm at the point of working to get the skills to match up to my aspirations.  Taking quilting classes at the quilt shop helps a lot - getting the skills.  Joining a quilt guild helps too - lots of nice folks there to encourage a newbie.  I managed to make that blue and green block myself - unsupervised.  Now I need to actually dig into the tiny stash I brought home from Houston and start on a real quilt.  Although I've been an artist all my life, and have designed embroidery patterns and jewelry for years, I am really excited about doing this.  I have fabric, a sort of a pattern, a good sewing machine, and friends who will help if I get in too deep - who could ask for more.  The center panel is Laurel Burch's Celestial Dreams.  What could be more apt than a lady with a cat dancing in a sea of celestial rainbows and flowers

The Houston Quilt Show - Nov 3-6

Hoffman Challenge - first place, Ann Faustino of NJ  "Butterfly Dance".

After years of hearing my friend, Karen, talk about the Houston Quilt Show, I accepted her gracious offer to come see for myself.  She sent me a link to a web movie so that I would be in some way prepared for it, but truly nothing could have prepared me for it all.  Imagine a space roughly the size of an air craft carrier devoted to nothing but color, form, pattern and all things fiber arts.  Yes, I was truly in little piggy heaven.  And although nothing had anything really to do with hand embroidery or cross stitch, that made no difference at all.  My eyes are filled up with the shear magnitude of color and pattern.  I can say for sure that this certainly isn't your grandmother's quilt anymore.  And yes, its bee over a week now that I've been home from this.  It will tell you a little something that its taken this long for my brain to settle with this because 2 days wandering around in all this give a whole new meaning to the ideas of "overstimulated" and "brain overload".  Magnificent - extraordinary - amazing - delightful.

Am I going to give up embroidery for quilting - well, probably not.  Although I did get some quilting books and buy a number of irresistable fabric samples.  I will probably make a quilt or two here and there.  I think the real lasting impression this is going to make on me is that it has completely blown the doors off my idea of what is possible in terms of color theory. I think that is going to be my next avenue of research.  I need to look into this color thing.  I don't do too badly as it is just following my instincts, but taking a short side trip into the academics of it may well open a few doors.  It may also give my overheated brain a way to file and sort all the rest of it.

Meanwhile I am excited and delighted and grateful beyond measure to my dear friend who opened up this whole new world of art to me.

Thoughts from Last Week - Butterflies

I’ve been working on the Butterfly series for a while now and liking the design more and more. I never thought of myself as a butterfly sort of person – all that fussy lightness just doesn’t feel like me actually. But there is something about this design that just resonates (well it should because it is, after all, my design – butterflies seen through my own particular lens). I’m not doing it because I thought commercially butterflies would be a good idea (which they are and it will be). This started as a design with an antique border pattern of flowers that I found in a very very old pattern book, and, by the time I was done, it was flowers and butterflies and antique monograms. The more I developed it, the more I enjoyed it. I am calling the pattern “Butterfly Memento” – because what I see is that its a moment in time – a summer day – poised and perfect with flowers and that butterfly – the butterfly itself is a moment – poised so briefly transforming from one state to another. A day, no matter how perfect, is always changing – like the flowers and the butterfly – you can’t press them or hold them – but you can remember them at that one perfect moment. So the colors are clear and bright, the frame and background are antique – the lettering and monogram are quaint. Even the blue flowers are Forget-Me-Nots.

Butterflies Again

The longer I work on the butterfly series, the more I like it.  There is something that comes from the heart about it and I think that, even once its done, I will enjoy using the pieces I’ve made.  The final piece to any series is the etui (stitcher’s wallet, huswif, whatever you call it).  It will be sold as a separate pattern because not everybody wants one and it sort of duplicates the functions of the needlebook and scissors sheath.  I will still include a scissors fob with it, though, just for fun.  I have been toying with it for some days now.  first fiddling with the size.  Being a geometric border with a fairly long repeat, any increase in dimension is done in substantial increments of about an inch.  I got it all done and decided that at 4 x 5 inches it wasn’t quite large enough.  I got the initials changed and then they didn’t fill the space right.  etc etc.  but this is the fun of designing anything – like working puzzles.  Playing with the elements until I feel that little *click* in my head that says it just right.  This morning it finally all came together.  The larger monogram filled the space just right and the font style is beautifully compatible with the other elements.  I shaded the foreground letter (the M) and added the little blue flower to pull it all together and *click* – Ta-da! It’s a definite YES! 

Now there’s a lot of busy work to be done charting the rest of the alphabet – that will be  couple of days of picky eye-strain.  Taking the antique letters and adding the flowers and shading and outlines to each one to match the ones on the design copy.  The added joy to this will be that I will have another beautifully charted alphabet to use again later.  And the butterfly etui panel just makes me happy all over.  When it all comes together like this, its better than chocolate ice cream.

Make A Wish

wishes