I passed!

I mentioned this in a bulletin (yes, it warranted a bulletin) but I finally passed my level 1 skills assessment! It's taken me many tries, but speed has been my achilies heel for some time and I am beyond proud that I've managed to work past that HUGE problem.

One of my biggest problems was that I took ridiculously sharp turns when doing crossovers. I could do great doughnuts, but circles bigger than, say, a VW bug have always been impossible for me. Because of that, I coasted for at least half of every turn, and that slowed me down tremendously.

I spent some time lamenting this fact in the car on the way to practice, and Xena larter noted that I wasn't pushing off with my outside leg.... at all. I guess I took the whole "pull under" thing too seriously. After fixing that I could finally control how deep my turns were. This shaved six seconds off of my "five laps in a minute" time, and I finally made it!

When I heard Kitty say that I'd passed, I completely flipped out. I was so happy that I screamed and got al teary-eyed. I saved bursting into tears for the ride home, but it was REALLY hard to hold it in until then. I'm so glad that I managed to keep control of myself until we got in the car, because if I had been sobbing during the pushing drill that took place after the assessment I wouldn't have been able to see where I was going.

I haven't been that happy since I found out I was picked to be a dame in the first place. I completely love this sport beyond all reason. The fitness, the new friends, and the ridiculously exhausting fun that has been derby so far are all great reasons to be a part of BDD, but by far the best is the fact that I'm doing things I never, ever thought were in me.

Even on the days that I really screw the pooch at practice, I'm still so proud of myself. I'm proud that I made the cut. I'm proud that I'm learning new skills that are extremely hard for me to develop. I'm proud that I've made so much progress since I first started. I'm proud to have lost my gut and my weirdly rectangular bum. I'm proud to be a part of such an incredible group of smart, strong, dedicated, amazing women. I'm proud that I go home every night after practice with a shit-eating grin on my face.

GOD I love derby. I am such a dork for this sport that I'm amazed that any of you can stand to be around me now that I can't shut up about it.

Good grief.



Okay, so at least I'm consistent in my inconsistent blogging! :)

I stubbed my hoo.

Tonight I took a skate to the anus, the box, and then I almost threw up. Stubbed vagina and sparkly tadpoles everywhere I looked aside, I actually had a great time. I always have a great time at practice - it's exhausting, taxing, and harder than anything else I've ever done in my life. I am definitely pretty terrible, but I'm getting so much better.

Time for bed. I hope I have skaing dreams again.

Dress Up

This is the cover of a fun little fiber book that I made, called "Dress Up"

Along with fabric I used vintage images, such as these fashion drawings from a vintage magazine, and vintage treasures, like this mother-of-pearl buckle.

To protect the fragile vintage papers and make them more durable to sew through, (such as this vintage pattern) I first back the paper with a lightweight iron-on fusible interfacing. Then I cover the front with an iron-on fusible thin vinyl.

This is the books centerfold. On the left is the closet "door" with its own faux mirror, made from silver angelina fibers fused between two layers of fusible vinyl. On the right is a little paper doll.

Open the closet door, and reveal the paper doll's other outfits!

The outfits can be changed because each dress is held on with velcro!

This page shows more vintage children's fashions, along with my old girl scout pin. (I was a lousy girl scout! I only was interested when we did something art/craft related or when we went camping. I think I earned a total of 4 badges in 3 years. My sister's sash was covered front and back with badges!)

A pocket holds cards, each with a different type of paper doll outfit.

Found Treasure

I adore this photo. I can feel the mother's love for her child. My heart swells every-time I look at it. I found the photo at a local flea market, in a box with dozens of other forgotten moments in time. The truly amazing thing about the photo is the personal connection I have with this mother. At the bottom of the photo the handwriting tells me that it was taken in 1915 at Long Park. Her little girl looks to be about one year old. 75 years after this photo was taken, I took my own little one year old girl to this very same park and had the privilege of holding her hand while she took her very first walk, all around the big pond. I will never forget that lovely day, and while we had no photo to commemorate this wondrous occasion, I know that the same joy I felt is the same joy radiating from the mother in this photo.
I treasure it.

Continued Exploration and Making Peace with the Word "Doily"

This week finds me continuing my exploration of the doily form. Still experimenting with deconstructing and reconstructing vintage lace and doilies, I am also fooling around with ways of creating new doilies in unconventional ways. The orange-ish colored doily is just made up of small bits of dupioni silk and sewing thread. It was free-motioned embroidered on a water soluble base, so the end result is a very sturdy, but open, lace like structure. It was a little time consuming for such a small piece, (apx. 5" x 5") but I'm really happy with how it turned out, and the way the light shines through it when you hold it up.

And just for the record, I realize that I truly dislike the word "doily"! I have been collecting them for years and never realized, until I recently started typing blog entries about them, that I had such a distaste for the name. I have no idea why, certainly don't think it's important enough to go into therapy for! I suppose it just sounds so frivolous. I mean think about all the woman who spent countless hours crocheting and tatting. And yes, one could argue that they are primarily decorative, but back in their hay-day they served an important job of keeping the mens gross hair gel from permanently staining the upholstered furniture. Maybe that's where the "oily" part comes from? And maybe the "D" stands for "dirt". Okay this is starting to make sense to me now! A doily's original purpose was suppose to be a pretty way of catching dirt and oil from hubby's head, and preserving the life of your furniture. Who would want to call such a pretty object a "dirtoil"? That's a much more objectionable name! I now see that the name "Doily" is actually the perfect blend of Dirt, OIL, and prettY...
D + OIL + Y = DOILY! (Yes, it is scary how my brain wanders off on these rather unimportant matters, and if you hung in this far, bless you! I am much more at peace with the word "doily" now!)

Clowns and Quilt Show and Appraisal Testing

Another one of my favorite quilts. Clowns Trapped in Tulle from a workshop with Lynda Faires. About 12" square. Shown in Chicago at the Friends of Keiko show.

We just had another very successful Delicate Stitchers Quilt Guild show here in Moab. I'll have to locate some photos. I was too busy to take my own as I was doing quilt appraisals, taking a class with Virginia Robertson from Colorado and doing demos on hand applique and a mini trunk show on antique quilts. And speaking of appraisals, I got the official notification on Monday that I'm now a candidate for certification by the American Quilter's Society as an appraiser of quilts and quilted textiles. I take the written and verbal tests at the AQS show in Paducah KY in April 2008.

New Directions for "The Sky is Blue and so is the Sea"

Twins - only their mother can tell them apart!
Before - my failed needleturn experiment - good to discover this early in the process!
After - the raw edge pieces are loosely in place. They are glued in a few places, will be hand tacked when I am happy with all the colours - then put onto the quilting machine.

Here are 2 photos of the early stages of the big quilt. (2 1/2 x 2 metres). the first one is a failed attempt at needle turn. It was too slow and tedious and the shapes were too hard to stitch out. I found that this technique meant that I was about to give up and abandon the project all together, which would have been a shame as I have prepared and marked out the quilt sandwich and was really ready to go with it.

The second photo shows the same thing in raw edge. this was done in one session (about 3 hours). I have just added a few dobs of glue to hold it in place, then I'll probably hand tack it until I get enough down to start quilting and embellishing. This has the advantage that pieces of fabric can be trialled, and replaced if necessary. I found the camera was great as it reduces the piece and I can see as if from a distance. Must buy one of those door viewer thingies!

I found the work of Ferret, in London to be so inspiring. I will put a link to her blog on this site. She does the most amazing art pieces, and her images are just what I am interested in! She wrote quite an interesting piece on show judging and it has attracted a lot of comments. The message I get from people is to remain true to your own style, don't try to please the judges - keep on keeping on and be true to your inner judge. I love that - and it means that you work with integrity always. Everyone loves her work, the judges just have to come to her. No more nonsense about burying threads in art quilts, please! I'm sick of all this anal stuff. Let's just get creative!

Organic Doilies (But in Search of a Better Name!)

These "Organic Doilies" are my current obsession. (Click on the pictures to see the detail up close!) For now, this is just a working title, as I am not sure what to call them! I think they look a bit organic in nature, as if they simply grew and evolved on their own, like a beautiful coral reef. I am open to suggestions for other names if anyone has any ideas.

The way that they were born is that I had been thinking of making a scarf, and when I closed my eyes to visualize how I would create it, and what it would look like, (which is what I always do to become inspired and clarify how to go about creating something new... I spend a lot of time looking like I am asleep!) well, I was only ever able to see the first 6 inches or so. I was getting frustrated as to why I was unable to see the scarf in my minds eye, in it's entirety. Finally it dawned on me that I really didn't want to make a scarf, seeing as I get the most pleasure from working on a fairly small scale, (I have a short attention span and a scarf is just too long in length to hold my interest through to the finish!)

It was then that I saw what I was suppose to be making. Doilies! And I was to make them out of ....? Other doilies! Along with bits of lace, bark cloth, dupioni silk, bits of embroidery, and whatever else caught my fancy! So out came the boxes of vintage tatted and crocheted doilies that I have been collecting for, well, suffice to say most of my life. Then came the fun part of cutting out bits and pieces, layering, stitching, layering and stitching some more, and more... until I was satisfied.

I debuted them last night at a wonderful outdoor show, featuring other great DIY indie artists. I was overjoyed at the positive response that they received and am itching to make more, experiment more, play more.

Huh.

Today I had a lovely time skating with Rachel and Ali up in NH, up until their friend Mike broke his leg. Poor guy - I hope he heals up quickly and inexpensively!

I also realized that I do better when semi-distracted. When I'm concentrating and focusing like crazy on whatever we're doing, I waaaaay overthink things and screw up royally. However, when I was explaining things and cracking jokes, I was completely fine.

I failed crossovers during my assessment because I wasn't pushing off with both feet. I did them perfectly today, and I could do them on command (so I know this wasn't a fluke). I also did a few decent 180 degree single knee falls, which have been the bane of my goddamned existance for some time.

The most significant thing for me today was this: Rachel asked me to show her what single-knee falls looked like, and I said that I could show her only on one leg because of my tendonitis. I showed her a bunch of times, getting up fairly easily each time. As I was explaining how to position my feet, I suddenly realized that I had been using the wrong leg the whole time! I wanted to do a backflip I was so happy. I hope this means I can do them in practice - granted, I need to check with my doctor first, but this gives me a lot of hope.

I really want to find a way to go and do that again. I really liked skating with them, and I'd love to skate with the other girls who are trying to start the league. I need all the practice I can get, and this was such a nice way to spend my last day off before school starts.

Vintage Paper Posies

Here are a couple of pictures showing my "Vintage Paper Posies". I made these last winter while dreaming of warmer days. They are made from vintage children's book illustrations which were printed on a great, heavy-weight linen paper. The books are usually coloring book size, and feature these really bright colorful illustrations depicting nursery rhymes, and the ABC's. For the stems I used vintage paper drinking straws. I want to do another set, but this time use the pictures found in the old souvenir postcard books, which also have great colors and are often printed on linen paper, too. If interested you can read about how to make your own version in an article that I wrote, (pages 65-66) for the new Somerset Holidays and Celebrations, pictured below. This special publication from Somerset Studio is packed full of wonderful art and craft projects to help you creatively celebrate the whole year round!