Bundle of Lime

One of my favorite art teachers used to say that we learn more from our failures than from our successes. (He also used to say that just because you didn't agonize over it doesn't mean it's not good art...which is my favorite take-away from his class.) This most recent silk dying attempt was successful in that I learned what doesn't quite work. However, it looks nothing like what I set out to create. I previously read through Art Cloth by Jane Dunnewold and decided to try two particular resist techniques that she discusses in Chapter 6 of her book, the first being with water-soluble glue (like Elmer's Blue School Glue) and the second being with flour paste. I started with the glue resist. Prep included laying down a sheet of wax paper to protect my work surface. I used my ironing board for this so that I could also pin down my fabric. Here's a closer picture. I originally dyed this fabric using an acid dye bath; you can find more about the pr...

I once had a conversation with my cousin about clutter and how we both tend to over-donate to Goodwill in an attempt to not end up buried alive beneath our own piles of stuff. Apparently we were subconsciously rebelling against out mothers (who are sisters) by making sure that we didn't accumulate so much stuff that it overwhelmed our respective homes. (As a disclaimer, I don't know about my aunt but my own mother has gotten this much more under control in the last few years.) I think that clutter is something that haunts and perplexes many of us on some level. For the past decade, I have lived in a very small house. It's not so small as to be considered a tiny house but many of my friends have larger apartments than my house. I joke with people that my bathroom is the size of a small walk-in closet and that my kitchen is the size of the average bathroom. However, I enjoy the small carbon footprint and the fact that my utility bills are minimal. Last summer,...

The bf and I invested in a pass to the  Henry Doorly Zoo this year through his work. This is something that he does every year but this year, we went in on it as a team so that we could visit the zoo together. He has spent enough time there that he knows the place like the back of his hand. Me, however...I think I can count the times that I have been there on one hand. It's time to change that. In the past, I always seem to have gravitated towards one location -  the Scott Aquarium . First, the penguins are there and I have always adored penguins. Second, I love the jellyfish and the leafy seadragons, just to name a few. At some point I plan to experiment with some silk dying using this image, which I took during a previous visit, as my inspiration. But I digress. On the day we chose to go most recently, the weather couldn't have been any better. In fact, quite a few others agreed with us including countless busloads of school children. The place was definitely h...

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love the Star Wars saga. One of my first memories as a child is of going to see A New Hope in the movie theater. I even have a little nook in my living room which once upon a time served as a telephone area, but as the wires are no longer functioning and I got rid of my landline long ago, it now serves as...for lack of a better term, a little alter where I keep Buddha and Yoda together. Somehow the whole philosophy behind Star Wars resonates with me. I don't expect to move objects with my Jedi powers or use mind-tricks on the weak-minded, of course, but I can certainly relate to the idea of the Force. I have created a personal tradition of watching all 6 movies (yes, all 6) in numerical order at least once a year. That is, until I was introduced to an alternative viewing concept, and I decided to give it a try. This full post on "machete order" prompted me to want to give this a try. Instead of watching the movies in chr...

If you don't know what a soft cloth funnel is, I present to you this clip from The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra . If you like quirky movies, this one should definitely be on your list of movies to watch. It's an homage to every sci-fi creature-feature B movie ever made and it's done brilliantly. It's a must-see and one of my favorites. But I digress from my main topic... Yesterday I made a skirt out of some Italian Wine and Ivory wool tweed that I ordered back in February from Mood Fabrics . Purchases from Mood are always a guilty pleasure of mine, and I try to restrict myself to items that go on sale but I have never been disappointed with the quality when my fabric arrives. I bought this wool tweed specifically for the skirt in Vogue V8718 , which is now out of print. This skirt requires 1 yard of fabric and 1 yard only. It's basic and classic, which I felt was perfect for this particular tweed.   I've been working on my skills at fitting whenever I se...

The only thing better than knitting with Malabrigo is spinning with Malabrigo and then knitting with it. I purchased this roving (pictured below) at Personal Threads in Omaha a while ago. In fact, I sort of started collecting all of the different colorways. Roving is always somewhat more cost effective than buying yarn in my opinion. In this case, $12 gets you 4 oz of hand-dyed roving and you get twice the time with it...however many hours spinning it up and plying it, and then however many hours knitting it on top of that. You can't beat it when it comes to playing with yarny goodness! Nube is the name of this Malabrigo roving. It's 100% Merino wool and super-soft to the touch (just like Malabrigo yarn). This particular colorway below is "866 Arco Iris". I love this color combination...but who am I kidding? I love all of their color combinations. I like to spin my yarn fairly thin. It started out as a challenge to myself to get it as evenly thin as p...

I have worked at my place of employment for quite a few years, and as a result, I have accrued much vacation time. During the Summer months, I often try to take at least a couple of weeks off, regardless of whether or not I go anywhere special (typically during one of those weeks, I have my annual Star Wars and/or Harry Potter marathon, complete with sweater knitting). By a stroke of luck, I happened to choose my first vacation week of this summer during the week before Memorial Day. This means that I have my normal week of vacation plus one additional paid holiday to enjoy. And this year, I have decided to blog about my daily creative activities. Today I made Homemade Creamy Ceasar Salad Dressing using two separate recipes found here and here . I love many of the recipes that I find on ruled.me . While I have only tried a handful, they have always turned out tasty and satisfying. Craig's Ceasar Salad Dressing recipe calls for 3/4 cup of mayonnaise. Most commercial mayonnaise...

Back in March, I posted a recipe for Citrus Tahini Dressing that is really tasty. After making several batches and consuming it for the last few weeks on my salads, I decided that it was time to branch out and look for other dressing recipes. I don't miss store-bought dressings but I do miss the variety available. The other day at the grocery store, I struck up a conversation with another shopper about vegan dressings and sauces (which seems really random, but it was actually pertinent to the situation at the time). She told me about a tzatziki sauce that she had made recently using soaked, raw cashews and how good it turned out to be so I thought I would give the idea a try. Using this recipe as my main base recipe, here is what I came up with: 3/4 Cups of raw cashews 1/2 Cup of unsweetened coconut milk (or almond, soy, etc) Juice of 1 large lemon, or of 2 Meyer lemons 1 Tablespoon of chia seeds 1 garlic clove 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt 1/8 teaspoon of fresh ground pe...

With so much going on lately, I have felt really scattered and unfocused. I haven't had much time left at the end of the day to do anything creative but just today, I managed to finish an art quilt that I have been working on for a while. You might recognize this first picture from this post back in March. I started with fusible interfacing and some silk and cotton scraps from various other projects, and began creating a background by just playing around with the overall layout. Once I was satisfied, I filled in the holes with more scraps in a contrasting color and then ironed the pieces to the interfacing to hold everything together. In this process, I was careful to maintain the frayed edges of my fabric scraps in order to keep them as part of the composition. Next I began experimenting with free motion quilting technique, using an orange thread to contrast the fabric pieces. This was my first attempt at free motion quilting ever! I like the end result but I had...