The Sew Chick Podcast is Ready!!!

OOOOO!

The first episode of Sew Chick: Art Quilt Adventurer--The Podcast is ready! You'll hear me chatting about how I got into art quilting and then it's a sound visit with the Art Sewciety as we had fun with bleach discharging and talking about art quilting.

I'll be posting about the Art Society tomorrow and you can see what a good time I had.

Enjoy the show!!!!

Retreats and Discharge and Apples, Oh My!

This week's going by really fast for me so far. I can't believe it's already Thursday. I've been under the weather so I haven't been creatively productive at all lately, which isn't good, you know? However, Saturday might change that...

A few of my guild members branched off to form the Art Sewciety, which focuses on aspects of art quilting and techniques. One of its members went to an art quilting symposium given by Juanita Yeager and she's going to share bleach discharge techniques with us. I haven't tried that, so I'm pretty excited. I'll be recording some of it and talking to some of the members for my podcast (yay!), which you should look out for this weekend!

I'm also excited about the possibility of getting in a really good dye day next month. I'm going down to my family's country house (see the pic below), to spend some chill time w/my grandmom and great-aunt. I think I'll try to get some dyeing done, maybe even experiment with sunprinting too. Hmm. My best friend from college might be coming with me to "get her art on" and I'll make her assist me. She'll probably get a kick out of it--being a painter and all. Ohmigod, maybe they'll make us apples for breakfast! I love when they do. Ooooo...this is going to be fun.

Sew Chick: The Podcast!

Oooo! What's that link on the right?

That's right! Sew Chick's going audio and diving into the world of podcasting with Sew Chick: The Podcast! I thought it would be fun to have a companion podcast so check it again soon, as you'll be able to enjoy my explorations of the art quilting world! And, don't think I might not call upon my fellow AQ'ers to be in on the journey!

Solo Show?

I am so excited...talks are in the very very early stages, but I might have a solo show happening next March! I am so tickled that I don't know what to say right now!!!! I'm going to cross my fingers that this all works out!

From One Extreme to the Next!

Do I live in Vegas? No. Do I live in Arizona? No. New Mexico? Nope.

I live in D.C., so why, why, why was this the temperature outside today--at 5:45 pm!

First the rain, now this, LOL!!!

Project Runway's BACK!

Okay Deb and all of you Project Runway style mavens! It's baaa-aaaack! One of my fave designs is Michael's above--out of coffee filters!

I think this season's designers are better technically all around from what I've seen of the show so far. Last year's had quite a few dicey ones and I didn't think they were as good as the first season's. What PR has proven time and time again is that if you are not technically proficient--as in, you can't actually construct a garment--you will not make it through this show.

I love PR. Tim Gunn is the man.

Shows

I'm thinking about entering Quilt National in Sept., which means I need to get crackin' now.

I have some ideas swirling around. It's been a while since I've entered a show, and those of your who are regular readers know how I feel about them. It's like a necessary evil or something. I figure I'll enter ones that I feel are worth it to try. You've got to at least try, you know?

More from the Textile Museum

I had a good time at the Textile Museum.

It's a small museum and seems to have rotating exhibits based upon its collection, but there were cool examples such as this Peruvian piece from the 15-16th c. It is made of feathers! How cool, huh?

Yup, that's me peering through a magnifying glass (provided by the museum) at a piece from the Greek Isles/Crete embroidery exhibit. Such detail! There were so many other cool pieces. Like us, I imagine the textile artists who created these spending so much time and effort to create these pices of beauty--often serving functional, everyday uses and not given a second thought to it. Once upon a time, your sewing or embroidery skills were prized. It was something to be passed down. These traditions are being lost as new generations don't even know how to thread a needle in this disposable society.

We have to keep these traditions alive...

Indigo Dye and Textile Museum

Okay, I finally made it to the Textile Museum! Fantastic place! I had a lovely time there!

I was there for a presentation called "True Blue," which discussed the use of indigo dye in cultures worldwide. It was very interesting. Trade routes sprang up along centers of its production or natural plant growth. "Crocking"--when it rubs off on the skin is considered great in some parts of the world as it imparts status. However, in India, the color blue was once associated with lower castes, and the printing and dye processes were passed down patriarchially. In Japan, it was considered a protection from snake and insect bites--which could've been due to the nautral ammonia in the indigo. Celts used a form of indigo (woad) for their blue skin coloring. In Nigeria, a pit method's used where the dyestuff lasts for a year and they add more plants in to maintain the color. There, the dyeing's done by women in the South, and men in the North. Sadly, the younger generation is becoming disinterested in the process, and these dyeing methods could eventually be lost. The only place indigo wasn't native to was the Americas--where logwood was used for a rich deep blue instead. Man, I hope I got all of this right, lol...I really did learn a lot, lol!

After the main presentation, textile student Johanna Buschmann, from the Univ. of Kansas, gave us all an indigo dyeing demonstration. She specializes in shibori and in the pics above you can see her examples, demo'ing a shibori technique using a little stand with a hook, and an indigo resist piece from Cameroon. It was pretty cool. For all you dyers, she was using synthetic indigo...