dolin bliss

What a lucky girl I am!

Surprise I am finally back!  Whew, it has been a whirlwind the past year and a half.  No need to bore you with all the details.  So let's get down to why I am so lucky...

I can finally mention this lovely book!!!  It has been a long time coming.  I had the honor of helping Jennifer Paganelli of Sis Boom write, illustrate and create the patterns for this beauty.  Jennifer is such an inspiring person and I was so honored that we got to work together.  We have never met face to face, and were put into contact with each other via Chronicle Books (they must have known), how great we would get along.  The book is available for pre-order and will be released at the end of April.  

More book info to come and maybe some catch up posts, on what I have been up to.

My First Quilt!

So excited to have finally finished my first quilt.  It is nothing fancy, just a string pieced number.  But I still love it. 

I did this along with the workshop I coordinated for the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles with participants from Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence, mentioned here.  I figured if I am going to continue on with being the project coordinator I needed to have actually gone through the whole process.  It was so much fun and I can totally see making more quilts in the future.  This one was pieced and quilted by machine.  The SJMQT purchased this fantastic machine and I am now trained how to use it.  I still need to learn the computer component, but I do know how to run this fancy pants machine, doing free motion quilting.  Right now, we are teaching all the women that went through the entire workshop how to quilt on it too.  They are having a blast with it.  

This evening we are heading up to SF for Frances and Greg's reception at Flora Grubb.  Can't wait to see the bride and groom in their custom made apparel.  I will post finished pictures of the green couture dress I made for her, next week.  

Finished Mikey Embroidery!

A little reminder of what this looked like before it was finished.  Not such a great picture of the work in progress and photo it came from, but you get the idea.

I realized after a couple of years of being a work in progress, having a previous blog post about it AND being featured in a Craft video... That I should post a finished image of my Mikey embroidery I made for my sweet and very patient husband.  I finished this up quite a few months ago and it just kept slipping my mind to post it.   So here it is:

- I wanted most of the focus to be on Mikey, so he is really detailed and the rest of the embroidery is more simple.  Then, I framed it with 2 different fabrics and put a hanging sleeve on the back, so it can be hung up on the wall.  

Matthew was very happy to finally have the finished object.  

Monday, I delivered a very special wedding dress and cocktail hat to the fabulous Miss Frances, but you will have to wait until next week to see that finished project.  We are going to their wedding reception Sunday evening and can't wait to see her all gussied up in her green dress.  

Canning and Quilt Crazy

Over the long holiday weekend I wanted to get some canning done, with the veggies I bought at the farmer's market and also some veggies from my garden.

 

All of the above were picked fresh from my crazy prolific garden.  I canned the beets, zucchini, some of the jalapenos, lemon cucumbers and crystal apple cucumbers.  I didn't want to waste the beet greens, so we sauteed those on Sunday night.  YUM.  I had big plans to can all afternoon, but our little Domino pup, decided to eat a black widow spider, that I had poisoned the night before.  So we spent the afternoon at the vet.  He is just fine and never even showed any signs of being sick, but I would rather be safe than sorry.  Once we got back home I settled into my crazy night of making pickled vegetables.  I was up until midnight getting all of this done.  I know, what a wild way to spend your Saturday night!  

Everything turned out pretty good, but I am in love with the green beans and the beets.  I used this recipe for the green beans from Sunset Magazine.  Soooo good.  I want to make more of them.  Sunset has a great guide to canning, if you have never done it before or just rusty at it.  This guide has been very useful to me lately.

For the past nine weeks, every Monday night I have been going to a quilt workshop that I planned in partnership with the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles and Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association.  We were trying out this workshop for the first time with participants from Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence.  There have been 5 women who have come every week to work on making their own quilt.  Most of them have never sewn before, so this has been a great skill building exercise for them.  It has been great fun for all involved and we are all almost finished with our quilts (I got to make one too).  

 

Here is a little peak at mine:

 I will post pictures of the finished quilts, in the next few weeks.  We have a few more sessions to go, before everyone will be done.  

New Tutorial is Up on the Craft Blog!

Things are happening behind the scenes here in my studio.  Sometimes it is stuff I can't talk about while I am working on it, sometimes it is stuff that has taken me forever and a day to actually finish (so embarrassed) and then there are those ongoing projects that I just wish I could snap my fingers and be done with them.  

I recently wrote a fun tutorial for Craft on how to refashion old or ill fitting tee shirts, into this tank top:

The tutorial went up onto their site today, so check it out when you have a chance.  It is a pretty quick project, some basic sewing and crochet skills are necessary.  

Remember this post from way back in October, about starting the Stitch Diva's Hourglass Jacket?  Well, it is finally finished!  Geez, took me long enough.  I love it.  I did need to rejigger a few things, but I am happy with the end result.  

Oops, I just realized I forgot to button one button, before taking the picture.  Typical.

Another, sort of ongoing thing I have been working on has been reorganizing the studio.  It has been a challenge, since I also still need to work here, but it is coming along!  I hope to post some before and after shots soon.  I know I always like to see where people create, especially when they have small work spaces.  My studio is not huge, it is only 9' 6" x 8' 6" and I have a lot of crafting crapola.  Don't get me wrong... I know I am lucky to have a room devoted to just me and my work, but I still can't fit all of it in here.  I have been able to bring more of my stash out from the basement, which has triggered some new ideas.  My next project for the studio is to make fabric valances (is that what they are called), to hide my rolling window shades when they are up.  I will keep you posted.

Holy Hawaiian Dresses!

Here's a quick little post for your enjoyment...

Here is a sneak peak at the great vintage hawaiian print dresses that I scored at a thrift store today!  Six dresses!  That never happens.  Anyhow, keep an eye out on my Etsy store, because all but one of these babies will be going up for sale.  They will be perfect for spring picnics, drinks at your favorite tiki bar or summer poolside parties.  They will be going in within the next week.  A couple of them might get shortened, because they are a weird unflattering mid-calf length.  

Here is a fun link to check out when you have some time, Snippets.  It is an online magazine that is part of the crafty website Cut Out and Keep.  I haven't taken a lot of time to peruse the entire site, but I thought I would share, since I just stumbled upon it.  

Hello Again and a Refashioned Cashmere Sweater

OMG!  Has it been almost two months since I have posted?  Where has the time gone and what have I been up to?  Geez!  I don't have much of an excuse, but I have been concentrating a bit more on some freelance work.  

I have always wanted to be the one that keeps a journal religiously, and can look back years later at all my oh so interesting entries.  But I have never been good at it and the entries end up feeling way to self conscience and not at all interesting.  I guess that is kind of how I have started to feel about my blog.  Don't get me wrong, I love blogs!  But sometimes I feel like I don't have much to say and don't want to bore you.  I need to change my way of thinking about it all and just blog and create things to blog about.  So here goes!

On that note, I do have something to share, that was quick, easy and fun.  On a recent thrift store outing I found this great pink cashmere sweater for $5!  BUT, it was a tad to small, bummer!  I held onto it while I finished my shopping, not sure if I should put it back or buy it (I also was holding the exact same sweater in a pale turquoise, that I am kicking myself for putting back).  I decided to buy it and figure out what to do with it later.  I brought it home, washed it and set about figuring out what to do with it.  

Since it was a tad small, I thought, why not make it into a open loose cardigan.  So I carefully removed the ribbing at the neck.  Just so you know most sweaters (especially ones made from nicer fibers like merino wool, alpaca and cashmere) are fully fashioned.  Well, what the heck does that mean?  You ask.  A fully fashioned sweater means that all the pieces used to make it up are knit to shape (unlike, a tee shirt which is cut to the shape you want), then those pieces are linked together (which is like sewing them together).  Anyhow, this means you can carefully take apart most sweaters without the pieces coming unraveled.  Just a little tidbit for you to know.  Sorry for the tangent.  I removed the rib around the neck and cut a straight line up the center front.

Since I cut the center front of the sweater, I needed to finish off the edges somehow, otherwise the garment would start to unravel.  I had this vintage fabric with pink flowers, that went with the sweater.  So I cut a couple of bias strips to make binding, to finish off the front edges.  

Now what to do about the neck and closure of this cardigan... How about a great shawl collar that become the ties to close this puppy up.  

Here is a close-up of the shawl collar.  It is basically a wide bias band folded over, then I sandwiched the neckline of the sweater between the two layers of the shawl.

WOOHOO!  A great new cardigan to bring welcome Spring in.

Pom Pom Fringe, Wooden Spools and Knitting Needles...

Just a little hint of the many crazy things that are on my mind and don't make a whole lot of sense all together.  Well, I guess they do all have the crafting thing in common.  Oh yeah crafting, what is that?  So sorry it has been a bit uninspiring around these parts lately.  I am in a crafting slump and don't know what to do with myself to get out of it.  I have quite a few projects that I do want to finish, but when it comes time to pick them up and work on them, I just don't get that far.  Ugh, it is driving me crazy!  I know that my new Etsy shop has been taking up a lot of my time, but not all of it. 

-How my brain feels!  I recently found a big ol' bag of pom pom fringe at a thrift store for only $2.  This is only half of it.

I also need to figure out the direction I want to take this here blog.  I don't want it just to be all about my new store (which it has been lately), but I do want to share things that are exciting to me (my store included).  To let you in on the big picture... This is all stemming from my sort of indecision on what direction I want to focus my creative energy on, which was the original focus of this blog.  I tend to dabble in all sorts of crafty stuff, but never for too long, 'cause I get bored.  But I feel like if I want to get serious about where this creative energy will take me and hopefully be able to make a living on it, I need to get serious with something.  I am just blathering on now and sorry if it is boring.  I am sure there will be a bit more of this "sortin' my stuff out", in the coming weeks or months, but I will try and keep it to a minimum.

A few images of me playing around with my camera in my studio (read between the lines here... PROCRASTINATING!):

-Some of the many wooden thread spools I have collected over the years.  What to do with them all?  Any ideas?

- I love my vintage Bauer Pot that holds my mixed collection of old and new knitting needles.  My dad gave me this pot, he called me one day saying he thought I would like this pot he found...  Yes, I said that "he found".  Someone had thrown this beauty in the trash.   

- Oh pretty pom pom rainbow!  Fooling around with my bag o' pom pom fringe.  

Here is a new site/blog I just discovered Colette Patterns.  I have been reading her other blog for a while now and found out through there, that she is starting her own pattern company.  I can't wait to see what she will have to offer.  She has great personal style, so I am sure her patterns will reflect that.

Pacific International Quilt Festival or PIQF

Geez, is it Thursday already?!  Where has this week gone?  I have been meaning to post about this since last Friday, but some freelance gigs have had to take first priority.  So here goes...Last week Santa Clara, CA hosted 17th annual (I think) PIQF from October 16th-19th.  I have never been to a quilt show or festival and decided that I would volunteer to man the San Jose Quilt and Textile Museum table on Friday morning and spend the afternoon wandering around the show.  Since this was the second day of the show, it was pretty busy all morning and we talked with a lot of people about our museum and during the slower periods we got to do some people watching.  Let me tell you these folks are very serious about quilting and all the accoutrements.  You would have never guessed there was a recession going on looking at the vendor sections of the show, people were of course buying fabric, but also big ticket items like super fancy sewing machines.  I got a kick seeing the glazed over happy face of many a person when they walked out with their new baby (insert fancy sewing machine).  I think we all have had a moment like this and I still remember the day I brought my Bernina home.

- I have a thing for peacocks and loved the colors used in this quilt.  Unfortunately, I totally forgot to write down any information about this beauty.

I didn't spend a whole lot of time looking at the vendors, it was way to crowded and I wanted to see the handy work of these quilters.  I took a quick stroll through the quilts, noting which ones I wanted to come back and look at closer.  There were all sorts of quilts there, from the very traditional (following older designs with historically correct fabric and made entirely by hand) to the very modern art quilt (original designs with all sorts of different types of fabrics/treatments and made with machine).  I was so very impressed with all the work that went into the quilts and wearable art that were on display, so I wanted to share a few of my favorites with you (there are more images on my Flickr set).  

-My Flower by Michiko Takakuwa, Japan.  Sorry for the chain in the picture and not being able to get the entire quilt in the frame, it was a big one 98" by 102".  The flower border that you see on the bottom was around all four sides of the quilt.

Well, my photography skills don't do this amazing quilt any justice.  It was entirely made of of 1/4" hexagons, there was a total of 182,172 pieces used to make this quilt!  It was hand pieced and hand quilted, such an amazing feat.  The 72 year old quilter that made this quilt lives on a farm in northern Japan and only quilts in the winter, when their farm is covered in snow.  This quilt took two winters to complete and this will be their last quilt made with such miniature piecing, because of weakening eyesight.  

- Close-up of My Flower, remember each of those pieces is only 1/4".

- Oppose by Marion Manson, New Zealand, 46 1/2" by 46 1/2".

I liked this one for the colors and fabrics used, and it playful design.  But once I read about it, I liked it even more, "This quilt explores the concept of opposites.  Yesterdays fabrics, rescued from Op Shops, in today's decorator colour scheme and retro style."  A quilter after my own heart, using thrift store fabric in some of my favorite colors!

- Close-up of Oppose.  All of the centers of the circles had sayings and poem stamped on them.

Here is my absolute favorite quilt and again my photography skills leave much to be desired (I also wish I had gotten the entire quilt in the frame).  

- Finale of Fireworks by Etsuko Iitaka, Japan, 83" by 78".

This quilter used antique kimono fabrics for this quilt and it was just gorgeous.  It did look like the finale of fireworks and wish I had gotten a better picture of it.  

I was very inspired to start quilting after seeing this show, but my quilting bug will have to be put on hold until I have some more time and less unfinished projects.  

Progress on my Hourglass Jacket

I have been having fun crocheting the broomstick lace Hourglass Jacket, I posted about previously.  I am at the point where I am going to start the crochet ribbing at the waist.  

I am now a top down crocheting/knitting convert... it makes so much more sense and you can try it on as you go, so you know when to make any necessary adjustments.  Here is the vintage yarn I am using for this garment.  It says it is all wool, but it doesn't feel like it, it is so very soft.

Have you seen this quilt?

It is by Denyse Schmidt (I have been a big fan of hers for a long time) and it is up for auction here!  What a great cause and such a cool/historical way to do it.