My mother gave me dancing trees. We were in a train at Christmas time watching out the window when she told me, “Look Ellen, they’re dancing.”
690Fall Fanfair detail
I’ve never gotten over that. They’re still dancing.
Dancing is its own miracle. Life is a dance, and hopefully, we learn to move in it.
Not all of us do. I was taught not to move. Sitting very quietly was much safer. Instead, I lived in my head and my hands.
But it was in high school that I learned not to dance. It seems people’s mores disappear on the dance floor. It was worse than not being asked. It involved being thrown in to the bleachers. Too humiliating to try again. I’m told I should get over that. I have and I haven’t.
MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA
My friends, Donna and Roy Hinman gave me back dancing. They ran a contra dance party once a month. Contra is a gentle Ring around the Rosie game for grownups. It was wonderful to move with everyone and be a part of it. Slowly they coaxed me back into the dance.
A life time of not moving is hard to translate into a life of movement. I was able to dance at my wedding. I move in my water aerobic classes. I’m limited by age, wear and tear. But if I can’t always dance, my trees can.
Have you ever made a bunch of samples only to find them under the sewing machine table with the glue gun over them? It can happen. Ask me how I know.
I’ve been there. We’ve all been there. This is a little trick I’ve used to keep these things together in a way that works for me.
I make a number of samples, all the same size, make sure they’re stabilized, write on the sample itself any setting or stitch information I need and bind the samples into a small fabric book I can put on my shelf.
I recently got a flower foot. It’s a very cool foot that stitches in circles, and is well worth a blog on it’s own. I did a sample book for it and thought it might be a trick worth sharing.
But I’ve done these also with students in class. We work one skill per page and write on the stabilizer everything you want to remember.
When you have a collection of samples that all are on the same subject, sew them together on one side and take a small piece of bias tape and bind the seam. You’ll have a small permanent cloth book you can put with your references for when you need it.
Several Tips
Use a stiff interfacing you can iron on your pages. It will help your stitches and make your book easier to work with and read. I use a 9 inch square most often. I make them from the same fabric I use to dye my fabric or sometimes from the same fabric I’ve used for the quilt.
Use a pen that you can read on fabric. I had no luck with Sharpies, but a gel pen worked great. Experiment and use what works best.
Trim your pages so they’re the same size.
Stitch your pages down with a straight stitch.
I use left over bias for my binding, but you could use a straight strip as well, I suppose.
You could also keep samples you’ve used testing out fabric and thread for quilts you’re working on so you have a record of your choices.
It’s always great to document information you need. I hope this give you a new way to do this.
I know paint sticks are old news. But I really didn’t get it the first time around. Did I buy them? YES! did I know how to use them? Not so much. Was I disappointed? I was devastated.
The premise is that you take oil paint sticks and rub them on fabric with a design rubbing plate. Simple. Not so much. Everything slid all over the place and I made a special mess. Like many things, it went under the heading of “Well, I tried.”
It was several years later when I walked into a booth full of oil paint sticks and I told the lady I had failed. She said the words I longed to hear. “You’re doing it wrong.”
There is nothing as lovely, if not also annoying as knowing there’s a better way to do something that will make it work for you.
I love oil paint sticks, particularly the metallic ones. Glowing lovely color on hand dyed fabric with texture, what’s not to like. These Shiva Oil Paint Sticks are from Amazon.
The rubbing plates come from a lot of sources. My favorites are from the Cedar Creek. They have numerous kinds and sizes. Again you can find them at Amazon.
Here’s the secret hand shake. You have to keep the plates from moving around on you. There are two tools to do that.
The Grip-n-Grip Mat: Use this 14 x 11 inch rubber mat to hold the rubbing plate on so it wont wander under your fabric while you are rubbing.
Use 505 Spray on the rubbing plate itself so the fabric doesn’t move on you.
Basic Tips:
Peel the oil paint stick to get to fresh wet paint with a potato peeler. The surface of the stick will dry after your’re done and protect the paint stick.
Secure the rubbing plate on the grip mat and spray the rubbing plate with the 505 spray. Place the fabric on top. The fabric can be removed but it won’t slide around.
Gently rub the oil stick over the surface of the fabric. Feel free to mix colors.
Let the fabric air dry for at least 24 hours. When it’s dry to the touch, you can iron it with a paper towel as a pressing cloth to set the color.
You can clean up with Goop, the cream you find in the car care section for cleaning oil off hands.
Artifact: Wind over Water
These are done on hand dyed fabrics. They create something like a batik look, but with ultimate control. The metallic colors absolutely gleam.
I’ve discovered I can stitch into the oil paint stick rubbing with metallic thread for extra shine.
920 Artifacts: Dragonfly 4
Don’t be afraid to try something that didn’t work once for you! It may be there’s a secret handshake you just need to know.
I fell in love with praying mantises the first time I saw them. The eyes! Those glowing, impossible eyes. And the way they move! They’re every bad Sciffy movie you’ve ever seen.
I can’t say a thing for their domestic arrangements. But they are great gardeners. They will take care of your garden like no one else. Each year I would put in Mantis eggs. I rarely saw them. They would hatch 2 inch bright green baby mantises. My roses grew happy, with praying mantises guarding them like big eyed pit bulls.
That’s not the only reason though. My body has always felt so odd, so different and so scary. Add to it the insults that came daily from classmates and it won’t’ be a surprise that I felt like was from outer space. So when I saw my first praying mantis, beautiful and weird I knew I’d met a kindred soul.
I’ve learned several things from mantises.
Celebrate your weird. It’s yours! It will give you notions, dreams and destinations all your own.
Celebrate your beauty, even if it’s unlike anyone elses. If they can’t see it, it’s like not looking at blue skies or the rainbows in puddles. Their loss.
