and speaking of books

I'm so excited about this event! We don't get to get together as often as we'd like, but in just a few weeks not only will Heather, Denyse, and I get the chance to hang out in one of my favorite places, but we'd like you to join us:

The wardrobe opportunities for this event, thanks to Heather's amazing poster design, are potentially endless. What to wear, what to wear...

book week: sewing reference

I've been on the hunt for a really good sewing book to recommend, and I'm very picky. I don't like the books that start with a few pages about the tools you'll need and then immediately start talking about sewing patterns and how to use them. Are you kidding? I'd never teach you how to drive by showing you the controls of the car and then telling you we're going to drive to Chicago on the freeway for your first lesson, and in my opinion giving someone their first sewing lesson with a sewing pattern is akin to that long-distance beginning driving lesson. I feel strongly that your first few projects need to start very slowly, teaching you how to operate a sewing machine, how to stitch a straight line with an seam allowance (what's a seam allowance, anyway?), how to backstitch, etc. If you start with a sewing pattern you'll quickly be overwhelmed and frustrated. So there. (But that's just my humble opinion...)

My favorite book for many years now has been the Bishop's Method of Clothing Constructions, but I only like the reprinted 1966 edition because it contains what is called "torn projects" in which you learn to sew by using simple fabric rectangles to make basic projects like an apron without a sewing pattern. The book builds from there and is an excellent resource for many garment sewing techniques, even if the projects themselves are a bit dated. You can still find the book at used bookstores, but I wanted to find a new book to recommend. The Sewing Bible, by Ruth Singer, fits the bill.


It covers all the basics, showing you how to sew a seam and the variety of ways to finish a seam allowance:


How to stitch and clip curves:


How to stitch and turn corners:


And it delves further into a wide variety of techniques, if you want to learn how to do a particular type of finish or want to perfect a particular method:


I was surprised to also find more elaborate fabric manipulation techniques like this section of various ways to pleat fabric. Calvin Klein used some of these methods in recent collections:


It also contains quite a few project for a wide variety of skill levels, and it's not at all like driving to Chicago since the projects vary in difficulty and gradually expand on basic sewing skills. It's a sizeable manual (300 pages), and it also makes a terrific reference book. I've been keeping it next to my workspace at the studio so I can refer to it when I'm writing instructions, and it's come in handy on several occasions already.

book week: creative coloring

It's past time for another book week, isn't it? I've been saving up all sorts of good ones to show you, especially since the holidays are arriving. It's nice to have a few ideas for giving and receiving, I think, so I'll show you some favorites, new and old, over the next week (or so).


Like a lot of parents these days, I'm not very keen on the traditional coloring book. Rather than color someone else's artwork, I prefer to encourage Tsia to do her own drawings. But we all need a little inspiration sometimes, and Tsia and I are both excited about the Doogles book by Taro Gomi, which acts as sort of a springboard drawing and coloring book that expands on the idea of a coloring book and makes it much more fun. Instead of coloring inside the lines, each page gives a suggestion for the start of a project and lets you take the creativity from there. For example, you can draw silly faces:


Or decide what to feed some crocodiles:


And I especially like this sort of page, which demonstrates to children that you can make your own patterns and embellishments within the basic framework that's been given (in other words, it doesn't all have to be one color!):

But you're not limited to pages with drawings already in place. Use your imagination to decide what (or who) is making this noise:



Tsia and I are looking forward to doing some of the collaborative projects in which, for example, two people can each decorate a fish on neighboring pages. The fish are drawn with just a simple outline so we might use glitter or yarn to decorate them once we've done a little drawing and coloring.

Near the back of this enormous book book (it's more than 350 pages thick!) is a short story to be illustrated. And at the very back are blank pages with suggestions like "Draw a pair of uncomfortably pointy boots." (Oh, I think I might have those in my closet already!)

Once you've worked your way through the entire book (and that should take you a while, with all those pages), there are several more by the same author that build on this concept. Tsia and I had a difficult time choosing one book, they're all so inspiring.

We've been giving this book to Tsia's friends when we're invited to birthday parties. I frequently stock up on items like this so we don't need to go running off in search of a last-minute gift, and I like this book because it appeals to boys and girls and to a variety of ages.

If you're looking for other creative books for older children who might be interested in making things with their hands, I still love the Girls' Best Book. In just a couple of years I think Tsia and her friends will be ready and I'll start stockpiling it for gifts, too.

mini gardens

I had a little moss left over from a recent project (long story--I'll tell you sometime later) and remembered this tutorial on Design Sponge about making terrariums using found items. Can I tell you how much fun this was? I wish I had been a little more organized; I would have collected wide-mouthed jars and taken the materials to Tsia's school. The kids would have loved to make them!



Right now the teacup and two Mason jar terrariums are living on our dining room table; they make great centerpieces. I'm still looking for little seedlings to add a bit of height and variety, but that may need to wait until next spring when baby plants are alive again (assuming the terrariums survive that long). Even if they don't survive the winter (or my really sorry lack of plant-keeping skills), I'm noticing lots of moss in the cracks of the sidewalks. Maybe Tsia and I will plant more terrariums together next spring.

my favorite stop

I hopped off the N train the other day just to take some photos for you.

Oh ok, maybe I did it for me, too. This is my favorite stop in the subway system, and I don't get to admire it much anymore. (Once upon a time I worked in the Flatiron Building, which is just upstairs from this station, so I visited it much more often than I do now.)


The walls of both the uptown and downtown stop are lined with mosaic hats.

Here's a quote from the MTA Arts for Transit website about the work:

"From the 1880s through the 1920s, 23rd Street was a major vaudeville, entertainment, and cultural district, and 'Ladies Mile,' the fashion and department store haven of the time, was located nearby. In his mosaic Memories of 23rd Street, Keith Godard represents the area through the various hats they might have worn."

The hats are all at different heights. Here's one that's especially far from the floor:


Why? Well, take a close look at the plaque below it:


I would imagine that Mr. Barnum was very tall. And why do I say that? Take a look at the hat next to it, which is very close to the floor. Click the photo to see whose hat it is:


(If you can't read the type, it says "Tiny Tim.")

I love the glass tiles used in the mosaics. They have a rippled surface that reflects the light in a fascinating way, and the colors themselves are incredibly clear and vibrant.

It's fun to stroll up and down the platform imagining the people who wore these hats. I have a few favorites, but I'll let you admire them and pick your own:




green





beret
beret
tophat



There are many more, but unfortunately the next train arrived and I needed to leave.

Which is your favorite?

drawing again

After about a year of almost strictly writing, Tsia has finally returned to drawing. She had mostly been obsessed with spelling names--hers, "Mommy," Todd (written always as "Todd" and not "Daddy", and her friends' names)--and with the alphabet, but suddenly when school started she returned to making her adorable robots and the most wonderful new rabbits. This robot drawing was tucked into my handbag to keep me company when we traveled to Quilt Market last month.


We've also been assigned book reports as homework, so after we read a book Tsia draws a picture and we write about the story itself. We've been working our way through Beverly Cleary stories (more about this later), so here is our report about Ramona the Brave:
The book report triggered a small family of paper bag owls (love these ones, if you want to try it at home), like Ramona's owl.


But this is my favorite book report so far. We read If I Built a Car, and Tsia's illustration focused on this spread:


Can you recognize the pudding, cupcake, hot dog, milkshake, watermelon, cookie, french fries, hamburger, and aerosol cheese? And don't forget the boy and his dog. Cracks me up because I can actually tell what each one is.

Today Tsia is home from school with a fever and a cold, and although it's only 10:30 am we've already done painting, stitching, weaving, organized a closet, and selected some fabrics for a quilt. Obviously she's not that sick. I can hardly wait to settle down for some relaxing drawing again. Whew!

a blue silk winter coat?

Tomorrow I'm going shopping for fabric in the garment district.

Tsia needs a new winter coat, and I'm planning to make a her warm School Days Coat next month. Since I'm going to be in the neighborhood anyway, I'll be shopping for her too. I'm guessing that I'll be able to find her a great wool-cashmere coating at Mood. (Because for the less than the price of a nice wool at B&J, I can probably find a cashmere blend at Mood. And darn that because I like B&J so much better!)

Anyway, this was my exchange with Tsia tonight as she was lying in bed:

Liesl: "What color fabric would you like me to buy for your new winter coat?"
Tsia: "Blue and pink."
Liesl: "OK, but it can only be one color, so which do you prefer?"
Tsia (under her breath): "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe...." (Out loud.) Blue. Silk!"
Liesl: "Well, since it's a coat, I think it needs to be wool. So I'll look for some blue wool, OK?"
Tsia: "OK, but can I have a matching tissue?" (Meaning, a matching handkerchief.)
Liesl: "OK, I can probably do that." (Thinking "OK, I'll use something with pink for the lining and make a handkerchief out of that." I can't imagine a wool handkerchief would be very pleasant.)

I guess that silk Jump Rope Dress made an impression. Anyway, here comes a blue wool coat.

And I keep meaning to tell you that CraftSanity posted a podcast interview with me the other day. Todd tells me that anyone who has listened to the news in the last year now understands what a hedge fund is, so my apologies for dumbing down the explanation of what George Soros was doing in the 1990s.

loose connections

My apologies if you and I have been in a discussion at any point during the past few weeks and I've managed to work into our conversation some art trivia, travel factoid, bicycle particulars, or bizarre animal minutiae. You see, I've been obsessed with reading David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries, which is a really fascinating collection of observations and stories, loosely held together by Byrne's penchant for moving around cities on a bicycle, which he often takes along when he travels.

The books starts out with a short history of American cities and how they've been changed as highways have broken them apart and cars have become increasing important in our culture. He makes some very compelling arguments in favor of in bicycling in New York, as well as in other cities. I fear, however, that all his talk about conservation and downsizing are preaching mostly to the converted, since it's a rather self-selecting group that's likely to read the book in the first place, isn't it? (We know who we are....) But the book has pushed me one step further toward attempting to commute to our studio in Brooklyn on a bike. The only things stopping me are the lack of a bike and a place to store it. I'm sure I'll work out those minor details, however, given a little time.

Anyway, I somehow managed to discuss the lyrebird, dogs addicted to licking cane toads, and Cindy Sherman (Byrne's companion who, by the way, rides away from a Chelsea gallery at the end of her segment on last week's episode of Art21 on a fold-up bike) with several different people who stopped by our booth at Quilt Market. So if you wanted to discuss fabric and sewing patterns and learned instead about Imelda Marcos' childhood, I blame it all on Mr. Byrne.

On the other hand, isn't this video clip of the lyrebird (from the BBC series, The Life of Birds) fascinating? I couldn't believe it until I in watched it several times. I'm not sure which sound is best: the camera shutter or the chainsaw.

And speaking of Quilt Market, we managed to sneak away before the show started to visit The Menil Collection. I was most looking forward to the Rothko Chapel, but it was the Cy Twombly gallery that really amazed us both. (Sorry that photos aren't allowed inside the collection--these were all I got.) I think it will become an annual tradition to visit before Market every fall. In fact, next spring's Market will be held in Minneapolis, and I'm already trying to convince Todd to give a little tour of The Walker Art Center to anyone who wants to join us.




As it turns out, the bike exhibition at the Aldrich Museum is directly connected to Mr. Byrne and his book. Little did I realize this when I picked up the book at the library before we left for Houston, but that night Todd returned home from his visit and explained the connection to me. Here are a few shots of our favorite bike in its temporary home there.




Also speaking of the Aldrich and bikes (are you feeling the frenetic title of this post yet? Some of these transitions are dicey. Sorry.) we wanted to take a workshop as a family project this spring to make Tsia a bamboo bike. Only problem: they don't have kids' sizes yet. Oh, and the cost is $1200 to take the workshop. Maybe a little pricey for a bike she would outgrow in one or two years, yes?

Hmm, I wonder how that bike would like to travel back and forth over the Williamsburg Bridge with me every day instead?

scrappy

We dragged two large sacks filled with fabric scraps to Tsia's school during the first week. School budgets are incredibly tight around here, and her school seems to do a really good job of utilizing the resources they have. I knew they would appreciate the cuttings that have been accumulating at the studio over the last couple of years.


Sure enough, just a few days later the children had stenciled leaves on muslin with brightly colored paints. And the next thing I knew, I had been sent home with a little assignment: the teacher requested a quilt made from the children's art. What could I say? It may be my busiest month of the year, but you can't say no when the teacher gives you homework, can you?


I decided to use the materials I had on hand to finish the quilt, and the process felt a little Gee's Bend, which was fun. I arranged the painted fabric pieces so they complimented each other and then gradually added strips of colored fabrics to join them. My favorite part is the bits of Denyse Schmidt's County Fair collection that I think keep the quilt from looking too predictable (although I would have added more pieces of those fabrics if I had them--didn't keep enough of the scraps for myself, I guess). The back is made from a piece of Michael Miller organic herringbone check with no batting between the layers since the herringbone is soft and thick, like a light-weight blanket.


Tsia kept me company on Saturday when I did most of the work on the quilt. We had two leftover leaves that were printed on very small scraps, so those leaves were appliqued to the finished quilt. Since it can't be washed (I'm fairly certain it would ruin the paint, since it's probably not fabric paint), I just fused the leaves to the quilt top and stitched them in place with a running stitch, leaving the raw edges showing. I had some helpers when we delivered the quilt to the classroom, and they love it!

and speaking of bikes...

...guess where our beloved green house bike has gone!


It's been transplanted to the Aldrich Museum's Bike Rides exhibition. Todd will get a chance to visit it tomorrow, so I'll ask him to say hi and maybe offer it a little plant food treat or something.

And by the way, how is it October already? This can't be!