Holly Girls Retreat

In September I attended the last of the Holly Girls quilting retreats. Pat and Sue took over Gwen’s Beaver Island retreats when she retired 9 years ago. I have been attending this one week retreat since the 1990s.

I completely unplug while I am there and focus only on the sewing and creating. It is always a much needed brain switch for me. This little bear paw block was the first thing I made this year and it helped my brain get in the groove, so to speak.

I quickly moved on to other tiny things. These purple and pink bits went into that 7” block you can see below.

Stars are always fun. These cuties finish at 1.5”

The last finish of the week was this bitty 4” block comprised of 168 pieces. I am in love with it.

Ombre Socks

I finished knitting this pair of socks earlier in the summer. The yarn is creates an ombre effect as you knit.

Because of the patterning in the yarn, the color change went from the lightest purple and got darker at the toe of the first sock. The second sock started dark and changed to a lighter blueish purple. I love them, but when I wear them it kinda looks like my socks don’t match.

Knitting Update

Silk yarn shawl on silk drapes from the thrift.

Ravelry tells me I started this shawl in November of 2018. It is now finished and just needs the yarn ends worked in. The silk drapes are waiting to be turned into a garment of some sort by Phoebe.

Scenes from Summer

We had a pretty quiet summer here in Michigan. We did some kayaking on Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

Vintage Skirt from a Vintage pattern and Thrifted Fabric

Miss P has been sewing up a storm this summer. Her most recent finish is this paneled skirt.

She’s been researching vintage patterns and wanted to look through my pattern collection. After digging through the closet and getting them all out we decided we should make a Pinterest board of the patterns we have. Some of them were patterns I made for myself back in the 1970s and 80s. Some belonged to my mother-in-law and many of them were thrifted years ago when you could find old patterns for 10 cents a piece. Those were the days!

She used to turn up her nose at some of my 70s patterns but this time around she recognized one after watching some YouTube videos by Rachel Maksy, who often uses this pattern to make swooshy skirts.

We’ve been trying to use fabric that I already have in the house so she chose this stripe from the stash. It still had this “Wrinkl-shed” tag pinned to it. If it was advertised in LIFE magazine it must be good, right?

We just finished binge watching all of the seasons of the Great British Sewing Bee so she had pattern matching on the brain.

She is quite pleased that she got the stripes to match at ALL of the seams.

The original pattern is made from 12 panels that create a full circle skirt, but she did not have enough fabric to cut 12 panels. She made a “muslin” mini skirt out of an old sheet and found that ten panels fit her perfectly. She cut her own waistband and added a zip to finish the skirt.

She is very excited about this new super-swooshy addition to her wardrobe!

Goldwork Embroidery

In addition to the Crewel Embroidery class, I took a Goldwork class through the Royal School of Needlework.

The first step was to make a goldwork foundation.

Next, the gold threads were added.

Crewel Embroidery

I made this little scene in a crewel embroidery class with the Royal School of Needlework. I learned some new stitches. Look at that floofy monkey!

I could use a bit more practice on the shading technique used for the elephant.

I like the way all the flowers turned out.

Mute Monday - the EF1010 Project edition

EF1010 Art Update

Here are a couple more pages to my EF1010 project.

Engineering Fundamentals 1010 - a new art project

I recently reread Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Big Magic. I was fascinated by her idea that we are visited by creative ideas. She indicates that we are most often too busy or have our attention focused elsewhere to notice them, that we say no to them without even thinking about it. This idea has resonated with me and I have been trying to have a more open mind and pay attention when these ideas surface.

Almost forty years ago, I took my first college engineering course, EF1010 Intro to Engineering. It was the class where we learned about each of the branches of engineering. This was the era when the engineering school had the requirement that freshmen "dress" for class. That meant no casual clothes. It was easy to spot me, the only female in the class, the only person wearing a skirt to class. It was an especially memorable day when the professor pointedly told me, in front of the entire class class, which branch of engineering was best suited for females.

I did go on to get an engineering degree in the major that the prof said would be best for a female but I think that was, in part, because it was where the females felt the most ‘safe’ and respected, not that it was the thing we wanted most to do. I never ended up working as an engineer. I did not like the person I would have had to become to “make it” in that environment.

In a recent closet clean out, I found my drafting textbook from that Intro Engineering class. Every time this book has surfaced in the last forty years, I have contemplated tossing it but have not been able to bring myself to do it. I took drafting in high school and LOVED it. I went to college with my dad's old drafting tools and a brand new Hello Kitty mechanical pencil. I wanted to like that intro class but it was filled with bad experiences. For some reason I have hung on to the book. This time, when I saw the book, it was like Elizabeth Gilbert described, an idea came to me and I was open to it. I will be creating some art with its pages. I am excited about the project and am finally getting joy from this old drafting book. Maybe I can exorcise some demons at the same time.