I have special plans this weekend. Tomorrow morning I’m leaving my husband home with the girls, and my mother and I are boarding an airplane to fly “home” to Columbia, South Carolina.
I’ve been back to Columbia many times since I moved away at age twelve: lots of Christmas visits, several summer vacations, and one priceless road trip to introduce my grandmother to her first great-grandchild the year before she died.
But I’ve never been back to watch my cousin walk down the aisle. And to have lunch with my best friend from second grade whom I have not seen in at least 28 years. And to stay overnight in my grandparents’ mobile home now that they are no longer alive to greet me on the front porch and welcome me with meals and warmth and hugs and love.
So this should be a very interesting weekend for me: a nod to my past and a celebration of my cousin’s future…a chance to celebrate and reconnect and reminisce and revisit, but nothing quite the same as I remember…bittersweet, as nostalgia usually seems to be.
"See" you next week!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
"Sew" Exciting!
My mother is quite an accomplished seamstress. Over the years, she has made clothing for my stuffed animals, outfits for my school days, prom dresses for my sister and I, receiving blankets for my babies—sewing for every stage of my life. You would think I would have sewing in my blood.
She has been offering to teach me to use a sewing machine for at least twenty years now, but time and again, I have declined her offers. At first, I just wasn’t interested in making clothes (pretty much all that I could imagine using a sewing machine for, at first). Then, I was convinced that I would never be able to learn how to wind the bobbin and thread the thing!
I only get to see my mother a few times a year, so when she comes to visit, she always get a large dose of “show and tell”: what projects have I been working on, what craft books and magazines have I been reading, what ideas do I have for things I might like to do. More and more we talked about the possibilities for sewing as a part of my paper crafting. Many of the projects and ideas I showed her just wouldn’t be possible without a sewing machine. She decided it was time to get me one as a gift, and settle my threading worries once and for all.
Yesterday was the big day. We packed the girls into the stroller and headed for Jo Ann’s. She left me with the sewing machine salesperson to try out a couple of machines, while she walked the girls around and tried to stem the tide of mayhem they were beginning to visit on the store. By the time I chose my Singer Curvy model, the girls were climbing off designated chairs and grabbing spools of thread off the display—not their usual behavior, but we were asking a lot of them to spend so much time in one spot. Mom made sure I left with a storage case, bobbins, thread, and other necessities for practicing my new craft.
We left the sewing machine in its box until the next day. For starters, the girls wore me out yesterday, and I wasn’t up to the challenge of checking out my new machine until a good night’s rest. Second, and perhaps more importantly, we forgot to buy any fabric to practice on! We headed back to Jo Ann’s this morning, and I waited in the car with the girls while my mom ran in for some practice yardage.
Once it was naptime, I was ready to try out my new “toy”. And oh what fun! A bobbin I could actually wind, a machine I could actually thread, thirty-five stitches to play with. Here I am getting started with my first practice session (a little too dark to see clearly!):
And here are some of my first stitches, as I got used to what my machine can do:
And here is my patient and enthusiastic teacher, my mom:
I feel like another whole world of art and crafting possibilities has opened up to me. I feel like I understand so many more of the projects I see featured on blogs and in Somerset Studio and Cloth Paper Scissors publications because I’ve made some of those stitches myself. Now I can pull out whole file folders of projects I squirreled away, thinking that maybe someday I’d get around to learning how to use a sewing machine. That day has arrived, and I’m “sew excited” to see what new directions it will take me in!
She has been offering to teach me to use a sewing machine for at least twenty years now, but time and again, I have declined her offers. At first, I just wasn’t interested in making clothes (pretty much all that I could imagine using a sewing machine for, at first). Then, I was convinced that I would never be able to learn how to wind the bobbin and thread the thing!
I only get to see my mother a few times a year, so when she comes to visit, she always get a large dose of “show and tell”: what projects have I been working on, what craft books and magazines have I been reading, what ideas do I have for things I might like to do. More and more we talked about the possibilities for sewing as a part of my paper crafting. Many of the projects and ideas I showed her just wouldn’t be possible without a sewing machine. She decided it was time to get me one as a gift, and settle my threading worries once and for all.
Yesterday was the big day. We packed the girls into the stroller and headed for Jo Ann’s. She left me with the sewing machine salesperson to try out a couple of machines, while she walked the girls around and tried to stem the tide of mayhem they were beginning to visit on the store. By the time I chose my Singer Curvy model, the girls were climbing off designated chairs and grabbing spools of thread off the display—not their usual behavior, but we were asking a lot of them to spend so much time in one spot. Mom made sure I left with a storage case, bobbins, thread, and other necessities for practicing my new craft.
We left the sewing machine in its box until the next day. For starters, the girls wore me out yesterday, and I wasn’t up to the challenge of checking out my new machine until a good night’s rest. Second, and perhaps more importantly, we forgot to buy any fabric to practice on! We headed back to Jo Ann’s this morning, and I waited in the car with the girls while my mom ran in for some practice yardage.
Once it was naptime, I was ready to try out my new “toy”. And oh what fun! A bobbin I could actually wind, a machine I could actually thread, thirty-five stitches to play with. Here I am getting started with my first practice session (a little too dark to see clearly!):
And here are some of my first stitches, as I got used to what my machine can do:
And here is my patient and enthusiastic teacher, my mom:
I feel like another whole world of art and crafting possibilities has opened up to me. I feel like I understand so many more of the projects I see featured on blogs and in Somerset Studio and Cloth Paper Scissors publications because I’ve made some of those stitches myself. Now I can pull out whole file folders of projects I squirreled away, thinking that maybe someday I’d get around to learning how to use a sewing machine. That day has arrived, and I’m “sew excited” to see what new directions it will take me in!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Think Small!
If the thought of creating art feels daunting because you imagine that you must paint a huge canvas, fill a thick sketchbook, or sew an entire quilt, then I have an art form for you to “try on for size”. I have recently discovered “Inchies,” and thought I would share:
1. You can create an inchie in any art form you choose to practice—drawing, collage, watercolor, rubber stamping, chalks, fabric, polymer clay, whatever your medium of choice. Here are some Valentine's Day-inspired collaged inchies:
2. Inchies are a great way to create art daily, even when you are pressed for time. At 1 inch by 1 inch, it doesn’t take long to make an inchie!
3. At 1 inch by 1 inch, there isn’t much point worrying how they turn out. You have only invested a little bit of time and a few resources. If you don’t like one, set it aside and make another! Here are some illustrated inchies, done at the beginning of the year before I set my goal to learn more about drawing. I took images from illustrations I saw other places. Many aren't that great, but, hey, they're only an inch square!
4. Inchies are a fun, small “canvas” or “sketchbook” to practice something you’ve been working on. For example, I used inchies to practice tangles when I started making Zentangles.
5. Inchies are so small that they are a great way to use bits and scraps that you have lying around. Once you start making collaged inchies, you will hesitate to throw ANYTHING away again.
6. An inchie is interesting to look at; a collection of nine, fifteen, or thirty inchies is FASCINATING!
7. Making several related (or, I suppose, unrelated, for that matter) inchies allows you to make other art and crafts projects, like greeting cards, journal pages, and decorated picture frames. I made this card after seeing a blog post by one of my favorites, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, where she used inchies to make Valentine cards.
8. If you draw several 1 inch by 1 inch squares on a piece of paper ahead of time, illustrated inchies make a great art project to do on-the-go; you basically just doodle in the boxes and come away with a whole set of inchies to cut out and use however you choose.
9. Inchies are an art form that even small children can enjoy! This piece, which can officially be called "mixed-media," as it was created with both graphite and ink (that is, pencil and pen!) was created when my 3-year-old saw my page of squares and couldn't resist making her own mark on them!
10. If inchies feel too small, or you want to move on to something new, you can make your squares two-by-two, and you’re making “twinchies”! I haven't tried that size yet; I haven't tired of inchies yet!
10 Reasons to LOVE Inchies.
1. You can create an inchie in any art form you choose to practice—drawing, collage, watercolor, rubber stamping, chalks, fabric, polymer clay, whatever your medium of choice. Here are some Valentine's Day-inspired collaged inchies:
2. Inchies are a great way to create art daily, even when you are pressed for time. At 1 inch by 1 inch, it doesn’t take long to make an inchie!
3. At 1 inch by 1 inch, there isn’t much point worrying how they turn out. You have only invested a little bit of time and a few resources. If you don’t like one, set it aside and make another! Here are some illustrated inchies, done at the beginning of the year before I set my goal to learn more about drawing. I took images from illustrations I saw other places. Many aren't that great, but, hey, they're only an inch square!
4. Inchies are a fun, small “canvas” or “sketchbook” to practice something you’ve been working on. For example, I used inchies to practice tangles when I started making Zentangles.
5. Inchies are so small that they are a great way to use bits and scraps that you have lying around. Once you start making collaged inchies, you will hesitate to throw ANYTHING away again.
6. An inchie is interesting to look at; a collection of nine, fifteen, or thirty inchies is FASCINATING!
7. Making several related (or, I suppose, unrelated, for that matter) inchies allows you to make other art and crafts projects, like greeting cards, journal pages, and decorated picture frames. I made this card after seeing a blog post by one of my favorites, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, where she used inchies to make Valentine cards.
8. If you draw several 1 inch by 1 inch squares on a piece of paper ahead of time, illustrated inchies make a great art project to do on-the-go; you basically just doodle in the boxes and come away with a whole set of inchies to cut out and use however you choose.
9. Inchies are an art form that even small children can enjoy! This piece, which can officially be called "mixed-media," as it was created with both graphite and ink (that is, pencil and pen!) was created when my 3-year-old saw my page of squares and couldn't resist making her own mark on them!
10. If inchies feel too small, or you want to move on to something new, you can make your squares two-by-two, and you’re making “twinchies”! I haven't tried that size yet; I haven't tired of inchies yet!
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