Letting Her Play... Or How I'm Learning to Let Go of my Fabric

It was like a floodgate. So much just pushing on the doors, screaming to bust through and wreak havoc on anything in its path. I let her in, I really let her in the sewing room and now I can't keep her out. No longer content to arrange and make a mess of my jars of scraps she is now turning to me stash. She pulls out her favourite colours, determines just the right combination, then grabs my embroidery scissors, and hacks away. She's discovered fabric glue and fabric markers. With no input from me, and little regard for my fabric she is churning out butterflies and more.

It was one thing to let her pick and play when making her quilt. I still had some margin of control over that. Now? All I can manage to keep her from doing is hacking through some favourite fabrics with random cuts down the middle. But it rips at my quilter's gut and every now and then my heart, the heart that is tied to obsessions with fabric gets broken. She listens to me when I vehemently insist that she leave THAT fabric alone, then turns around and insists herself that she knows what she is doing and won't wreck my fabric because she is making something more beautiful.

She does this while I sew, while I write, while I cut fabric for her sister's quilt, while I play around on the internet. She won't touch my scraps, preferring to attack the bins of fabric in my stash. Did I mention the heart palpitations? Then I remember what Amanda said, It's All Just Fabric.

So we've had repeated discussions about cutting from the corner, not the middle, and how Mama gets final say on whether she can use that particular fabric. And when she wanted a big piece on which to attach a swarm on butterflies I let go and said that it would make a perfect garden.

Side by Side (Weekend Reads)

With March Break in full swing here I've been looking for creative ways to spend time with the girls. I've also been looking for a way to prioritize my time with them, while still fulfilling my creative needs. I was hoping that this book would provide a bit of inspiration.

Side by Side from Tsia Carson is not your typical craft book. She pitches it as projects that you can do with your resident crafter. Not so much about setting them up or doing all the dirty work for them. That's the goal.

To be honest, I'm not sure she really succeeded in that. There are definitely projects that work very well when parent and kid work as a team. And some that show great parallel activities so that both get something interesting and appropriate for the skill level. But it didn't really read any different than most craft books to me, other than some language about working with your kidlets.

And the projects? Well, many are things I've seen before - with some notable exceptions. I'm trying to convince my husband to do some guerilla gardening in the park across the street for the Living Willow Tree Teepee. And my kids loved the Giant Newspaper Snowflake. But pom poms, making stuffies from your kids drawings, and hand sewn pillows I've seen many times over.

My other issue with the book is the inconsistency in project instructions. In some cases they are so basic. And that's fine, if you know what you are doing. In others they are nicely detailed. It reads like a reflection of the author's own skills. If she knew how to do it, she assumed others did. If she had to research and figure it out, she spelled it out for readers. There is, however, a detailed technical section at the back of the book for the skills needed for the projects, like crochet stitches. It's pretty handy.

Carson's website is Supernaturale. I love the site for tidbits of inspiration and ideas. The book,  I suppose, is the same. Tidbits that are good for picking.

I do think this is a good addition to my library, despite my criticisms. It serves as a good reminder to be with and work with my kids a bit more. And I'm positive that once the kids devour it I will be pulling out pom pom makers and fabric paint and staplers to craft with them, at their insistence, not mine.

Just Sit Down

There are times in life when we need to push ourselves, when the teacher becomes a student, when the one who can't top talking needs to shut up and sew. This pillow serves a reminder to me to do all of that.

After my two days of teaching at QuiltCon I had the pleasure to take some classes. The pillow is the end result of my class with Yoshiko Jinjenzi. I jumped at the chance to take a class with her, even though I wasn't thrilled about making a pillow with sheer fabric. Whatever, it was Yoshiko Jinjenzi.

Turns out we were making a project from her book, Quilting Line and Color. I have the book, I constantly pull it out and drool, but I've never been inclined to make anything. The instructions seem fussy and overly complex. Well, this pillow was actually dead easy to make. We had a total of 5 minutes of instruction from Yoshiko and then we set to making.

As our first step we got to go and dig through scraps to create our own bits and bobs to highlight on the pillow. Every single person in the class had to resist the urge to squirrel away extra fabric. We were cutting little bits so it was quite fun to think about this fabrics on a very small scale.

After we picked our fabric, cut them to whatever size and shape we wanted, and laid them out on this gold fabric she provided we layered it with a sheer gauze. Some basting stitches to hold everything in place then we set to quilting the heck out of that sandwich.

That is, when we weren't crowded around her fondling the quilts she shared. It was half pillow class, half trunk show. But it was when she was showing her quilts that you saw the potential of this layering technique. Something I was quite easily dismissing at the beginning of the class suddenly provided inspiration. Of course, the intricacy of her work and the extreme attention to finishing details might have also had something to do with it.

In the end, I did get my pillow almost done. Despite the distractions of the quilts and my neighbours Marianne and Leanne and my SIL (way to represent Alberta in Austin!) All but the actually turning it into a pillow. Just as soon as I could I turned it into a finished project, minus the tassels. I knew that if I let it sit it would never get done.

This pillow is so far removed from anything I would normally make, from something I would likely every make again. Gold? Sheer? A Pillow? But it serves as a good reminder for me to just shut and sew sometimes. And for that reason it will keep a place of honour in my heart, if not my room.

Friday Favourites: Kate Inglis

There was a day, a few years ago that I came across this beautiful blog. Full of honesty and light and pain and creativity. Captivation at first blush. Fast forward a few years later and that loverly lady is in my house, threatening to steal my baby and chasing my girls with screams of zombie underpants. And I was totally okay with that because she was also taking pictures for my book. Ethereal and beautiful pictures of the projects, of kids, of my family. I can forgive almost anything for her beauty.

Kate Inglis is a writer, photographer, Mama, teacher, and more. She is a quiet, reflective soul who has a different set of eyes in her head for seeing the world. We love her first novel, The Dread Crew, in this house. I love her boys and all their energy. When we get together we can get lost in tangents about whiners who claim they have no inspiration to creative expression to Lego to old windows. Then there is the work.

I was, and still am, blown away by the work done for A Month of Sundays. Seriously folks, the photos are incredible. For a sneak peek head over to her blog.

The 5 days Kate and I spent together photographing the book were INTENSE. In between downloads and nursing sessions and breaks for cookies and lunch that my Mom made us we lived those projects. We drank wine at the the end of the day to just take a moment to breathe. Kate made friends with all my friends. I don't think I could convince her to leave her lovely home on the East Coast, but I'm thankful that she has family here and a potential excuse to visit beyond me kidnapping her.