La plume de ma tante

“La plume de ma tante” (my aunt’s pen) is what most people remember from their early French lessons. Is that like “run, Spot, run”? Maybe.

I began learning French when I was in 6th grade, back in the Middle Ages. In the first week, my clever teacher taught us a small “play”, in which I was to go into a forest, searching for flowers to bring to my mother. I still remember how excited I was, walking home, picking some wildflowers, and giving them to my mother with a flourish and a French phrase!

Now this little life tidbit will come into play later in this post, so tuck it away in your memory, and read on!

If you’ve been reading about the sad state of my winter wardrobe, you’ll know that I’ve been working on updating my sweater collection. I found an old black hooded sweatshirt, and thought, hmmmmmmm. Blank canvas!

I found a vintage black floral pillowcase, some black floral yardage in my stash, and some butterfly yardage. I did some collage work on the front and back of the sweatshirt, covering the various stains that magically appear on sweatshirts. It seemed ok, but it wasn’t speaking to me…

Until one morning, when my turn on the French stage popped into my head! Aha!

I finished collaging with more of a plan, including pulling off the bottom ribbing, replacing it with the striped fabric.

Pour moi, the piece de resistance is the lettering I added, which has made this one of my more satisfying and personal re-models:

Je voudrais bien aller dans le foret pour chercher des jolie fleurs (I would like to go to the forest to look for some pretty flowers)

C’est mignon, n’est-ce pas?!!

Wearable Art Connection fashion show

Some of you know that I belong to the Los Angeles Wearable Art Connection. Every year, there is a challenge fashion show; this year the challenge was to create a vest.

I entered in the “Manipulation” (fabric, not people!) category, and I’m pleased to tell you that I was voted into First Place! Ok– enough about me, I know you want to see the goods!

(Ha ha! Just teasing you! I’ll show you the real deal– this is just me, standing up at the podium while Diane Ricks reads my artist’s statement.)

This is the full outfit. Although the challenge only called for a vest, I was inspired with a full blown vision of the skirt, too! I created the fabric for the vest with my embellished noodles technique, using my own hand-dyed fabric for the background. The zinnias are made with gorgeous hand-dyed strips from Judy Whitehead. (Thank you sodypop! Your gifts are always appreciated– and loved and used!)

Here is a close up of the vest. I’ve embellished the fabric with silk flowers, fabric charms, Angelina fibers, and crystals:

Here is a close up of the skirt. It used to be a pair of white jeans. The inset is a piece of my hand-dyed cotton in a different coloration from the vest, with wavy strips of the vest’s fabric raw-edge appliqued to create some graphic tension. The zinnias are made using the same embellished noodle technique as the vest– I simply created them separately and appliqued them onto the skirt. I stencilled “Zinnia, Zinnia, Zinnia” using acrylic paints mottled to mimic the hand dyed background fabric:

Here is a photo of the flowered cuff I created using Judy’s hand-dyed cotton:

And, courtesy of Mary Norton from Fibervision, here is the newly crowned Zinnia Queen, modeling the entire outfit. Dig those bejewelled shoes!

All (well, some) things chicken

My friend Carla likes chickens! She is currently working on a series of chicken cartoons based on her experiences as a longarm quilter– these will be featured in the new magazine, Machine Quilting, Unlimited.

Anyway, because she is my friend, and because she has generously made me some beautiful wearable art, I thought I would share the art cuff I made for her, based upon her chicken cartoons:

I used leftover quilted fabric from this Wild Onion Jacket:

This happens to be Carla’s favorite Wild Onion Jacket of mine, so while I don’t like her enough to give her the jacket (just kidding, Carla- I love you, I do!) I thought giving her a piece of the jacket would appease her!

The cuff was really fun to make:

• cut out a rectangle of quilted fabric long enough to overlap your wrist by about 1″. (the width was determined by the height of the applique)
• using craft felt, which doesn’t fray, cut out applique parts (I referenced Carla’s cartoon drawing, BUT please note that I have special dispensation to do so! Always use copyright-free work if you aren’t using a purchased pattern or original drawings for your applique)
• hand or machine stitch the applique parts to the cuff fabric
• with embroidery floss, buttonhole stitch around the edges of the cuff fabric. I made sure that my stitches were primitive looking, with knots showing and uneven stitches for a handmade, amusing look in keeping with the chicken applique
• sew a 1″ piece of hook & loop tape (a common type has the brand name “Velcro”) on appropriate sides of the outer edges of your cuff
• enjoy wearing your new art jewellery

I apologize for not having photos of the step by step directions– I made the cuff pre-blog! If enough people are interested, I’ll try to make another cuff, and post a photo rich tutorial!

That’s all for today…I’ll leave you with one last chicken photo:

These are lovely pastel-colored eggs from a friend (well, from a friend’s chicken). She (the human, not the chicken) delivers fresh eggs to us in this adorable chicken-shaped basket. Delightful!!