Chelsea Bag

I created this bag for display. It is totally solid and somewhat awkward to make. Around the opening for the handle you end up topstitching over the topstitching. So if you are fussy, it looks a little messy. Really, if you want this bag, you have to overlook a few points that are not neat. I find that today's designers do not really care about detail. They are willing to sacrifice a fine finish so long as from afar - it looks good. Are we losing our hand for finishing?

Name the sock

Our computer geek, Robert, at work is also our photographer. I was asked to put something together for the advertisement of my knitting class. I have been working on a pair of bamboo socks which I am designing myself. So I had this thought -

You can wear "Tube socks" or you can wear beautiful hand made socks. Come and learn to knit!!!!

I thought it was rather cute and catchy. What do you think?

The Latest Me

This is the new photo that will be posted throughout the store and on the website for Fabric Depot advertising my knitting class. What do you think? Maybe I look a little stoned? It WAS taken before I had my first cup of coffee. At least this time I got to orchestrate the location being in front of a fake tree instead of brown fur. And I am wearing makeup. And Denise - look! You can see my high lites!!! These are actually my natural grays showing up so beautifully. I love my hair since I went gray.

All in all, it is a pretty good picture considering it was thrust upon me without notice. I really have to admit that as the years go by, I am loving the "self" more. To have survived what I have and be able to look as creative as I feel???? I have great hope for my eighties and nineties.

Just You

There is no old age.
There is,
As there always was,
Just you.

It seems that I am surrounded with the issues of the age of the elderly, and yet, I have difficulty understanding it all. I just don't feel at all quite there. It is difficult to be 60 years old when I don't feel 60. Social Security, and all of that stuff? I am not yet ready to begin falling apart.

I am not yet ready to turn my life over to youth. They may know more about modern technology, but I know more about my art and my work than they do. And as long as this is so, I think I will always be more important. Somehow I will have to place myself always in front of the class. This does not mean that there is nothing left for me to learn. I am always sitting in a classroom of some sort. But also, in my work, I will always be an artist, a teacher, a mentor, and such. As I respect the universe for all that it has given me, so will I always be respected for what I return to this very same universe.

Friendship

Friendship is born
at that moment
when one person
says to another
"What, you too!
I thought I was the only one!!!"

New Moon

I could have called it "The Pie" , "The Pillow", "The Round Thing", "Flying Saucer". All too tacky. But I had just finished "Nature", the cushion shaped as a leaf. I was thinking to keep this more gentle, I should call it by a more spiritual name. Then the thought came. New Moon. I will be using only rare batiks. The piping is done in silk, and the button is covered in kimono silk. That certainly doesn't sound like it should be called "The Pie". It is a simple little thing and feels really nice in the hand. There is something very irregular about it. Everything is always so perfect. Has to be so perfect. I like this one.

The Knot

The green is not to my liking. This is "The Knot" pin cushion. It is this plump little thing that is so very charming. I was sitting in my chair one evening trying to figure out a piece of hand work and there was a knot in my stomach as I struggled to get it right. I always go through this. I worry about my work. Whenever I tell people that I worry that my work will not be "acceptable" , I always get this return stare - "from you?!!!" Everyone thinks I am such an expert at everything. But I am not. I am constantly learning new things.



So here I was sitting with this knot in my stomach and I put it to fabric. Why not? Another cushion. These are the two greens that I am struggling with trying to get the green to come out right in the photograph. Believe it or not, both are the same cushion sitting on the same piece of paper.


This is the red version. At the end of each knot I have attached a button covered in kimono silk. The cushion itself is made from rayon chirimen fabric. The "new kimono fabric". We have a lot of it at the store. I would love to buy a yard of each, but it is not in the cards.



Just a bad series of pictures. This is the turquoise version. If I tilt my screen, I can actually see the true colors in all of these.


The first ones I made are below. You can see that they are not stuffed full. When I first made them I thought they couldn't be stuffed any more than that. Then I made one for a woman at work , Nancy, whom I adore, who helps me pick out batik fabrics for quilt projects. She does this on her own time and I thank her by making something for her. So I made her a knot. And I stuffed it very very full and found that I could barely tie it, but tie it I did and it looked fabulous. Forgive me, but it is like the difference between looking at Hugh Heffner and Johnny Depp. Know what I mean?


It just makes me giggle. I am still giggling. I am a woman after all.