International Quilt Show

Here are photos of some of my favorite quilts from the show.  Next year I will take a more substantial camera than my iPhone.

This beautiful piece is Japanese.  The Japanese quilts are very delicate, this one had more color than most of them.

 The two above are such skilled landscapes I had no words!

 This quilt out of NZ was possibly one of my most favorites.  A train! But the colors and the perspective are amazing.  (Might have something to do with the fact that Orange is one of my favorite colors).

Freakishly photographic kangaroo.  The quilter saw this doe in her yard, snapped the photo...  and created a quilt!

I did not know that quilts don't have to be angular!!!!   

 Another landscape.

 The two above are mapscapes from an English quilter.  One is a daytime view of farm land, the second is a night view of a city.  AMAZING.

 This quilt and the detail represent ecological devastation.  Not only is it a great artists' interpretation of disaster, but the materials used are so varied and interesting; dryer lint, paper, fabric softener sheets...  And if you notice in the larger image, like Pandora's box, there is hope in a small sliver of green.

 I know this dog,  I live with him, but my guy weighs in at 150.

 I laughed out loud when I saw this quilt, it is the "spittin' image of a good friend of mine.

 Can't resist the dog stuff.

 The colors in this quilt spoke to me.

 The detail in this quilt is spectacular.

Is is 2013 yet!!!!  I can't wait to go again!

Endings and Beginnings

The Center Panel Shawl is off the needles!  It was a very fun knit, but languished for a few months during the hottest part of the summer.  The weather got cooler and I got back to knitting.  It is a lovely piece and one that I will enjoy wearing and showing off...  It is not entirely fault free, but I really don't want to anger the goddess of knitting by being perfect!

 Here it is pinned like a butterfly.  I wonder about the wire blocking frames, and if they really work.  I usually block on a towel on this particular rug, but pins make for little scallops along the edges.

Here it is in all its glory.

 Detail of the center panel.

The corner, which is very cleverly constructed, and where all the extra stitches are added.  It was a kind of magic getting it off the circular needles, where it looked like a giant's beret, to lay it out and have the angular corners revealed.

This brings me to other things that happened this summer in my crafty lair.  A dear friend of mine took me to the International Quilt Show at the Santa Clara Convention Center.  To be honest I have never been drawn to quilting.  When I was a little girl my mother made the most magnificent quilt, she stitched the squares while I practiced piano.  She made enough squares to make two quilts.  I look at the quilt today and I see scraps of dresses that she made for both of us, sheets that I used to have on my bed, it really is a great work of art, and all hand stitched.  That was the first and only quilt mom ever made.  And I did not get any better at piano either!  The long and the short of it is that neither mom nor I ever really pursued quilting.  She is a fantastic knitter, and we both love to knit and sew, so quilting just never made it on to my radar.  I had always just assumed that quilting was a stunning but very precise art, and one that I excluded my slap dash approach to creativity.  And then the International Quilt Show turned my head right round.

I had no idea that quilting could be so marvelous.  In fact I will add a post after this one of some of my favorite quilts from the show.

Anyway I was inspired.  I purchased this kit for a wall hanging.  It is called "Window Spots" and is by Overland Originals http://chefab.cherrywoodfabrics.com.  My friend invited me over to help me put this lovely creation together.  This is not the most inspired photo of it, and I haven't finished quilting the swirls.  My sewing machine is not a long arm machine, so sewing circular patterns causes a great deal of bunching.  I will finish this piece, and it will hang in the living room.

  Then I got a little crazy and went off on my own tangent...  I purchased this beautiful piece of grey cotton fabric with black star bursts on it, and two small fat quarters of silk, one red one deep cadmium yellow.  I cut out the centers of the star bursts and appliquéd the silk behind each one.  Then I stitched the star bursts in black thread.  I think I am going to hand quilt it in variegated yellow thread in a squiggle pattern.  (This baby kept my hands busy during the very exciting San Francisco Giants post season....  I almost wish they had come home to win, I might be a bit further along).

And finally, true to my nature and this blog, I cast on for Cheryl Oberle's Cuzco jacket yesterday.  I am an exciting 12 rows in!  Hope to wear it by Christmas.

Other projects are in the works, but this time of year I can't share them because some people might get wind of their holiday fun !

Its not all about the knitting....

Sometimes its time to get out the sewing machine...

Several weeks ago a dress shop in town was having a blow out sale, as it turns out it was their swan song as well.  In the window was this gorgeous knit LBD with a carmel colored leather hem.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  This dress shop was known to be very expensive, so I figured it was out of my price range.  Blow out sale meant it was well within my means...  IF I happened to be a petite XS person.  As it is I am a happy Medium!  The dress was so simple, in a smooth black jersey, boat necked, three quarter sleeve.  I got to thinking about it, and my thoughts said to me, you could make that dress yourself.  

I went web hunting and found this beautiful deer skin that is a dark chocolate suede on one side and a slick carmel on the other.  

I dug into my old pattern stash and found this very simple Donna Karan pattern with three views, I can easily use the boat necked dress bodice with the the three quarter sleeve...

Here is my rendering of what the dress will look like when I finally find the right weight jersey.  This is what has me stymied in this process, most fabric stores that I have easy access to happen to be JoAnn Fabrics or quilting fabric stores.  I am probably going to make a special trip up to Britex, which can be very dangerous...

Additionally I am having a very old sofa recovered in a gorgeous dark blue herringbone fabric (supposed to be very dog resistant!!!  Whoot!).  We live in a swamp of mismatched throw pillows, and so while my mother and I were shopping for the sofa fabric we found this bold print at Calico Home.  Of course they offered to make throw pillows, not knowing that I can sew a bit.  

My thought is to center the design in the middle of each pillow, and use big wooden buttons as the closure on the back....  Hunting for the buttons now.

I love this view of a bolt of fabric!

In knitting news, lots of swatches have come off the needles, but as of yet no finished projectss.

Progress report on Center Panel Shawl

Here is an update on the lovely Center Panel Shawl from Cheryl Oberle.  The lace repeats aren't very visible while it is still on the needles.

Its hard for me to imagine that I am going to use up the rest of this yarn.  But the corners do increase every other row...

This is what the shawl looks like on the needles...  kind of indistinct.

And this came in the mail today...

I know what my plans for the evening are!

Until next time, be creative!

Jean Paul Gaultier, master costumer and craftsman

This past weekend I went to the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the De Young in Golden Gate Park.  Days later I am still taking about it, and planning my next trip up to see it.  I"ve always loved Gaultier's work, the Madonna cone bra is such a signature piece, and his use of ethnic styles ranging from the Ukraine to Africa.  What I didn't realize is that haute couture must be constructed entirely by hand!  This gives me a huge appreciation for the work.

This exhibit is so innovative.  It really is almost a performance art piece.  I won't say too much about it because if you are local you really owe it to yourself to see it.

He loves the French sailor shirt and so do I!

This is a fabulous knit ball gown, a glorious patchwork of cables, lace, patterns and baubles!  A lot of the garments had the total time it took to construct them, this one came in at a mere 32 hours!  I have to think that there were several knitters working on it!

This is an incredible corset busted gown made entirely of ribbon!

I think Teva Durham might have drawn some inspiration for her knitted kilt from some of Gaultier's mid 90's punk styles!  This gown was an part kilt, part sari and all punk!

The exhibit got me so fired up creatively I am just buzzing!  Go, get yourself to the museum!

There are labels....

like this one, a nice "made by my hands", discrete, tasteful.

 There there are the whimsical ones like this one that I designed and use for the things I sell at craft fares and on Etsy!  Named after my beloved Chocolate Lab Godiva Bacci.

And then there are labels that just say it all...

Projects in the wings

I was going to try to demonstrate the amazing cast on for center out knitting with 2dpns, but after I spent two hours trying to photograph the process, with the camera's remote trigger clamped between my teeth, causing me to drool in an unsightly manner, I decided there has to be a better way, and it is probably has to be video.  So that post will wait for another day.

Shopping in your own stash is pretty remarkable.  When I was a young and stupid knitter (all of six years ago) I would buy yarn just 'cause it was pretty!  And on some rare occasions I bought enough for entire projects even though I had little sense for yardage.  During the great knitting famine of 2010 and 2011 my stash sat tucked away in bags, to be honest I think it did a little breeding, there seems to be much more yarn than I thought I had.   And there is a wonderful cache of Rowan yarns!  Years ago we had a great knit shop in San Jose, beautiful light, splendid shop, with heaps and heaps of Rowan yarns.  I lurked and bought.   And then one day it vanished.  Ok maybe that isn't exactly accurate, I did move to LA for a few years; any number of things could have happened (although I think the economy might have been a huge factor).  But this lovely shop on The Alameda in San Jose was so pretty and lured me off my hill....  Suffice to say I now have Green Planet Yarn in Campbell, and Imagiknit in San Francisco to keep me happy.  They are there when I need to look.  I'm still on that yarn diet...  mostly.

Instead here are a few of the things that I am working on, and or plan to start in the next few weeks.  And one thing I hope to knit before I get old and saggy!

This stunning tunic from Vogue Spring/Summer 2010 has been started and frogged more times than I care to think about.  Honestly I picked the wrong yarn.  I had a variegated mauve and beige yarn in mind for this, but it is absolutely horrid.  I will knit this beauty (using the fabulous center knit cast on) when I find the right yarn.  (A clear violation of shopping the stash).

Jeannie Atkinson's Butterfly has been on my wish list for years.  I dove into knitting this when I had no idea what I was doing AT ALL!  And I  have an embarrassing amount of Kid Silk in my stash.  This is the summer for Butterfly...  two reasons; I now know how to read a lace chart, and I need something stunning to wear to the 2012 Gatsby Summer Afternoon.

This is from the Classic Elite site, I have knit this scarf in every yarn under the sun...  The scarf is called "Silky Alpaca Lace Scarf"  and should be knit in Silky Alpaca Lace weight.  I love the pattern, I have knit it in lace weight, DK, chunky...  Its a fun knit, easy repeat.  This is a yarn that I purchased for a tunic that I loved, and I thought it wouldn't stripe quite so much.  In a scarf a definite stripe works, in this tunic it was loathsome.  And I have enough yardage to knit 23 scarfs!!!

Pretty silk and mohair hand dyed, hand spun that I bought at a lovely yarn store in Colorado...  sadly I can't recall the shop's name, but it was in Boulder.

This is some terrific lavender alpaca that I purchased at Stitches West in '06?  It was all there was.  It is my perfect color, warm grey or soft lavender - just perfect.  Yardage wasn't on my mind when I bought it.  About two years ago I started Nadine from Kristeen Griffin-Grimes' French Girl Knits (pictured below), and very clearly I don't have the yardage I need.

Teva Durham's slip stitch kilt will be knit.  I've lusted after this piece for years.  I have no idea how to knit in color...  That might have to wait for 2013.  But damn this skirt is...  well it needs to be in my closet!

Intarsia and color knitting are the things that I hope to learn next.  Lace is easy by comparison!