spent the weekend working, I mean WORKING. Idle hands and all that…Got going on some recycled products for our upcoming show at Rhythmix next weekend (see http://www.blacknwhitenredallover.blogspot.com/ to know what the hell I’m talking about). I got to work on an apron pattern and spent considerable time this weekend figuring out how to piece, trim, and streamline production of said apron. These are adorable — cute found or vintage fabrics with vintage trims, in saucy combinations of pink and black, fun fabrics from the past, or retro prints, rescued quilt pieces, etc. Saved from landfill! Very cute, and I will have about a dozen for next week.
Come to Hank Hooper’s family fun CD release party at Rhythmix Cultural Works, Sunday 2-4, and check out the arts & crafties for sale. That’s where we’re holding our first outing of recycled/recrafted objets d’art. If I can get it rocking this week, we’ll also have purses, frames, trays, and a selection of recycled paper products. IF being the key word.
This weekend I also did the East Bay wine tour, visiting several urban wineries for the story I’m writing for the EB Monthly. Met some very enthusiastic wine aficionados, passionate about their craft. I sense that hanging around with these winemakers would be a very cool thing. Watch for this feature in the May issue.
So I was sewing madly, and also touring wineries, and no, I did not have even one sip. Nadda. I also stopped at Laci’s Museum of Lace and Textiles in Berkeley, which is an extremely cool place to go if you are into any kind of needlecraft, from knitting to costuming to lacemaking, etc. Saw their dazzling collection of fashion items for the past 200 years — from false sleeves, embroiderie anglaise, the black mourning shawls popularized by Queen Victoria, christening gowns, mens’ embroidered and brocade vests, and more. Quite awe-inspiring. And so very sturdy, most of them. As the wondrous shop manager and costumer, Erin Algeo, will tell you, these garments were meant to be worn, and then boiled, mangled and pounded on a rock. I imagine that few of my current clothes were made to withstand that: dry clean only, hand wash, lay flat to dry, do not wring…
That will become another story for EB Monthly, for June or July, as long as the exhibition is open (till August 2, if you want to go, and it’s free). It’s at Adeline and Ashby. With free parking afore it, too.
Then I stopped in at the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, where I had to park around the back, grumble grumble, and I could see right into the donation area. And I swear to Buddha — there, stapled onto the wall, was a Peanuts needlepoint kit that I swear I did myself in about 1972. It’s Snoopy walking with his bowl on his head and a hobo stick over his shoulder, with Woodstock behind him. I remember how long it took to do that eternal green background — like years, it seemed. Hundreds of stitches! Even though the whole thing is just 6 x 6 inches, I remember it taking forever. And also, the weirdness of the shape of the red bandana on the stick. Red with white spots that I remembered, when I saw it, as vividly as when I did them — because needlepoint canvas isn’t perfect, and a circle shape might be kind of square. And I remember being frustrated by the weird shape of the polka dots, that were not regular and round or square, but totally odd, each of them. I saw that picture stapled to the wall through the back door and I thought, I know that piece. I remember that. I made that.
There was no one there to ask. Truly. I would have asked for it, or about it. Maybe there were many of those kits, but the weirdness of the polka dots just struck me. I think it was my own work.
Isn’t that strange?
So as you can see, it was a very full weekend, with self chained to the sewing machine and running around and then chained to the computer as well. PLUS I drove to Pescadero to pick up my beloved Husband who was camping at Butano Creek with the fellas for the weekend. Lovely, long drive and then he didn’t expect me and almost drove off with the guys. Luckily he and I caught each other in the nick of time. Nice drive home, too — Highway 1 without the fog: a rare sight. Beautiful ocean waves. With these little Bay waves at our door, I forget how vast and lovely the ocean is. How blue, how green.
Back into deadline mode again, and heading into a week of prepping for the crafty fair, and then meeting some other deadlines, and then — in two weeks, New York to see My Mia graduate from AADA. Yay!