ToDo/NewDo: Hand-Painted Bird Houses are the Talk of Bird Town

At last.. they are hung in the yard

There is no greater pleasure that wrapping up a project that has sat dormant for a little bit, or a long bit, as is actually the case.

A few years ago, as a creative project, four of us sat down one afternoon and began to paint unfinished bird houses that I had gathered for the social activity. The group included Missy (from France) who was visiting, on loan from her parents, Teresa, a past student from Mesa College, and Don and I. 

We gathered acrylic paints, and began the process of adding color and design to wood.
Missy finished hers, but the rest of us had a way to go when it was time to break down for dinner. Teresa later finished her house, but Don's and mine sat dormant for ... well, a couple of years.

Wrapping them up...

With the enforced stay-at-home we are now experiencing, it seemed like the perfect challenge to finish these bird houses and get it out in the yard. So, out came the paints, and in a matter of an hour or so, we were done.

The group

Of course, the next thing was to coat them with polyurethane, and then, we had to determine where to hang them in the yard. 

I've run out of wall space in my house (for art), and so, the yard and garden have become my new playground.
So, after and little experimenting, all the houses now are hanging on my back fence, amid my bicycle wheel/depression glass hangings.

New homes for the bird houses

Missy's polka dot version... Why Not?

What a great cloudy day! It set the colors off.

Already a birdie or two have been poking around, checking out the real estate. Don and I are having amusing conversations about what the 'he' bird is saying to his 'she' bird. 
"Hey honey... check out this red house. Don't you like the porch?"
"No dear, I think it is too much. I prefer the pastel model over here. It has a bit more deco style"
"But that one is beyond a starter house... I don't think we are ready for that"...
etc. 
etc.

The summer should be interesting.

ToDo/NewDo: DIY Face Mask by Lisbeth Wahl, Italy

Original Mask Pattern

Lisbeth Wahl, Italy

Lisbeth used her past training to develop a face mask pattern and sewing instructions. This pattern is unique in that the front panel is made of two layers which provides the opportunity to insert a barrier fabric or insert. In addition, the front panel is pleated on to the sides which allows for more fullness across the face.

Double-Layer mask

You can use any cotton-type fabric. The ties can be made with any tie-like device including twill tape, laces,

The pattern for the mask is available as 

• a PDF file (a tiled pattern which requires taping together), OR
• a Garment Designer pattern (.gds) file, should you want to edit and resize 

Click here to download the pattern and instructions from Cochenille Design Studio's website (www.cochenille.com). This is a zip file that contains the pattern the PDF pattern, the .gds pattern, and sewing instructions.

Side Piece and Front Piece

A multi-page PDF will walk you through the steps of construction.

Below you can a collection of masks made by Lisbeth.

A little about Lisbeth

Lisbeth is a world-renown felter who lives in Peschiera del Garda, near Verona, Italy.

Born in Denmark, She trained as a tailor and pursued her career in costuming and pattern making, most notably the costume department of Teatro alla Scala (Milan). She became interested in felting, and has taken her talents on to new realms. In 2016, she won the top award at the Australian Common Threads Wearable Art Showcase with her felt piece called Set Your Light Free, which combined felt with fiber optics.

Instagram: @ lisbeth.wahl.fiberart

https://www.facebook.com/lisbeth.wahl

NewDo: Virtual Cocktail Party, the new mode of social gathering

Virtual Cocktail Party

Friends Creatively Getting Together During Stay at Home Restrictions

The new mode of meeting up with friends

With recent restrictions, it has become practically impossible to lead a normal social life. Challenges call for creative measures.

Thanks to online meeting tools such as Zoom and GotoMeeting, all things are possible.

Coordinate the friends, figure out a time and theme, and set up the meeting.

Our plan was for a Friday late-afternoon cocktail party. Each couple was to prepare their own appetizers and drinks, and take photos to share.

Come 5 p.m., we all logged on to the meeting and proceeded to catch up with each other. Conversation revolved around new topics such as how we are all handling our new way of living, what home projects we are working on, what we had recently experimented with in our cooking.

Salami rolled asparagus, melted cheese and artichoke dip, and fresh fruit

Grilled broccoli and cauliflower, homemade humous, Monchego cheese with assorted crackers and almonds

ToDo/NewDo: Weaving as a Distraction to the World

Challenge the Mind... learn to weave

Holly and Leo Dumont, San Martin, California

Holly and Leo Dumont have been emailing with me to keep me updated on their progress of learning to weave.

Part of their goal?

Don’t neglect your brain health while worrying about this virus.  

The Internet provides all sorts of tools for challenging your mind. Holly shared one that I found particularly interesting, as it also serves to spark creativity. Amongst the many exercises they have, making lists of 100 things… looked like a lot of fun. https://litemind.com/tackle-any-issue-with-a-list-of-100/

The Weaving Challenge

Holly and Leo have decided to live in the present, and their focus is to learn how to weave. They had purchased a floor loom... and then...
 

See what Holly says about their process of learning to weave…

The big loom is scary.  It uses a lot of yarn.  What if I make a mistake?  What if I can't figure it out?  All this drama.  So my husband went out and bought this table-top loom.  Aim small, miss small, small mistakes, small risk were all some of Leo's thoughts.  And it made it less scary for me.  For our anniversary we were going to take a class.  But that's out, so we turned to books, on line learning and magazines.  

Ashford Table loom

The big loom came with 6 years of old Handwoven, and Weaver's Craft magazines.  So every evening I read a couple.  Some of them I don't understand at all.  

From the Handwoven Magazine I learned about Long Thread Media.  

For $100 you get  workshops, magazines etc.  (We were going to take a course with Tom Knisley, and they have an online class with him).

We got some books, recommended by Handwoven subscribers (Issue 144 & 145).  

• Alderman, Sharon.  Mastering Weave Structures.  Interweave
• Osterkamp, Peggy.  Weaving for Beginners.

After doing some reading, we decided to hit YouTube and watched the dressing of the loom for the Ashford Table Loom about 5 times.  We'd put it on, run to the kitchen, try the process, wait, what? run back watch it again, and try again.  The great thing is with the books and video, we were able to get through the warping and we're partially through the dressing.  Two minds are better than one.  Four hands are better than two.  Mistakes were made.  Laughter was more contagious than the virus that's on everyone's mind.  For several hours, it left our minds completely.

I want to make cloth and Leo wants to make rugs.  We both have an interest in recycling.  Our first project is going to be piece of cloth from which we'll make project/travel bags.  We will do one plain bag, and one using the technique of Zanshi.  I have lots of leftover embroidery thread that we are tying together to make the warp thread.

To learn more about Zanshi, go to this site

https://redstoneglen.com/classes/zanshi-and-sakiori

My goal is to make yardage and I like the following Indigobird pattern partially because you can use it to make items to sell.  Not that I'll get around to that, but I don't have to worry if I make the pattern a dozen times and give them to friends.

Below is the lining for the brown and white bag.  Leo and I dyed these during the summer.  These are leaves from our trees.  The fabric was mordanted with alum.  We rolled the leaves in copper pipes, spritzed them in vinegar (nails were soaked in the vinegar - so technically this is home made iron water) and then steamed them in a vintage vegetable steamer.  We left them for 24 hours before unwrapping.  

Eco-dyed fabric

Now… on to the weaving

Day 1

Here you can see the header (the fat red yarn) and the beginning of the weaving.

The warp yarn is 8/2 unmercerized cotton, and the weft is a thick and thin brown cotton.  This should full nicely after washing. I put on enough yarn for 2 bags plus.  There's three yards on the warp.  Each bag uses about 1/2 yard.  So, after we get the 2 bags on this warp, I should have enough for a small mystery project at the end.

We aren't going to worry too much about our selvedge edges on this go, since it's fabric and not a finished object.  We figure we got enough to learn just making a piece of cloth.

We had a hoot deciding how to beat.  Leave the shed open and beat?  Close the shed and beat?  Switch to the next shed and beat.  Since this is a table loom, so one hand is occupied moving the leavers while the other beats and catches.  After some bantering about and a bit of let's try all of them, we went with the close the shed and beat twice.  Now, if we could just agree on the music to listen to while weaving.  Leo's holding out for something with a lively beat....

Day 2

All good things must pass.  Here's the end of the nubby brown yardage.

Winding on the "remainder threads".  

Last year I did a lot of embroidery and have lots of leftover green.  Zanshi is a Japanese weaving tradition that saves all those remainder threads and reuses them.  I tied the warp yarn, an 8/2 cotton to 6 strand cotton floss.  I did this in ratios of 3.  The first color run was 1 yard weft to 12" of floss. Then Leo said it needs more green.  So I went to 18" of floss and 18" of weft.  By the way, this tying of threads took more time than anything.  Do NOT do this with cats present.  Let's just say that part of the time was spent chasing the varmint who ran off with the nudibranch green.  She's a very knotty cat.

After a plain header, Leo began the Zanshi.  I know that cotton doesn't "full" but it does shrink, so it will be interesting to see what happens when you mix unmercerized with mercerized cotton.  It sure is fun.  When I was a kid, back when dinos roamed, we spent a lot of time in Baja California.  This pattern reminds me of a hoodie that was as popular as puka shell necklaces (sans the knots), baby oil at the beach.

Now I gotta prep the mystery project.  It's a mystery to me what we will fill the rest of this warp with.  

It is not a mystery why there is no header yarn between the next project.  I "found" it later.  Katia is taking the 5th.  

An update to this project will come in a future blog...

Thank you Holly and Leo! It has been a pleasure to watch your process.

A little about Holly and Leo

Holly and Leo live in the Central Coast California. Both are long time farmers. Their love of fiber goes back to when the raised angora rabbits and Merino/Cotswold sheep.  Holly still keeps a market garden, but Leo has turned his love of plants to waterside restoration with native plants to prevent flooding.  The pair of them love plants.  Holly always wants to know, if you can't eat it, can you dye with it?  Can you spin with it?  Can you weave with it?  Leo loves dyeing but only with natural dyes. Although Leo's hand sewing is not the fastest, it didn't stop him from taking an indigo class last summer with John Marshall (highly recommend!). Holly has been sewing since Jr. HIgh School, when they taught Home Ec. but she didn't learn to embroider till taking classes at the SF School of Needlework and Design. Both Holly and Leo hope that weaving will take them into the next two decades. They recommend that if you and your kids are hanging around the house, now is the perfect time to start seeds for a summer garden. Seeds of Italy has a great selection, all of which do great in California. If you want a summer garden, start now!  (See my woad in the back row!)

ToDo/NewDo: Machine Knitting the Landscape Around You by Judith Pipher

A Machine-Knit Masterpiece: The Tom Thompson Pines!

Judith Pipher, Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Canada

This sweater is an original design by Judith. It is inspired by the Canadian artist Tom Thompson.

Judith describes her design..

My loves are Georgian Bay which is on the Great Lakes. 

The yarn colours are blends of Koigu yarn from Chatsworth Ontario. The plan was drawn on to my basic sweater pattern that was put on to paper, then coloured.  It was then knit on my 940 brother.  The back is stripes of the colour on the right side. The pictorial was done in intarsia,  the trees are hand embroidered. it was to have a front zip. That proved to be too heavy so I sewed it closed then made an I cord  to match  to hide the join.

side view

back view

A Little about Judith

Judith is a retired historical interpreter. She loves history and now volunteers to do textile management at different museums.  She does condition reports, exhibits and cares for them. Her first and best love? Fibre of all kinds.

Judith travel to learn, to meet like-minded people and to be inspired. She went back to college at the age of 64  to learn pattern making. She continued on to study tailoring with Le Grand Chic school In Italy through Georgian College Barrie. and she graduated at 70!  We were honored to have Judith study with Cochenille in both Italy and San Diego. she has also studied with Jon Moore in London,  Susan Khalje in NYC, and Kathryn Brenne in North Bay (ON, Canada)

 

ToDo/NewDo: Bake, bake, bake.. Amazing Cinnamon Rolls

Amazing Cinnamon Rolls

Mimi Burke, Charlotte, North Carolina

mmmm Finished rolls.

Mimi is a craftsperson and a baker. Her creative endeavor during these times is to bake, and she shares her recipe with us. The additional challenge for this will be to find yeast, which seems to have become an item that is missing in action.

Cinnamon Buns

Level:Intermediate
Total:1 hr 19 min
Prep:45 min
Inactive: 4 min
Cook:30 min
Yield: 10 servings
Level: Intermediate

IngredientsDough:

• 1 cup water
• 3 cups bread flour
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened at room temperature
• 1/4 cup powdered milk
• 5 teaspoons sugar
• 1 ounce fresh yeast (or 2 1/4-ounce packets dry yeast)
• 1 3/4 teaspoons salt

Honey Schmear:

• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon water

Bun Finish:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup milk.  

Directions
Dough:

In a mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine all the ingredients for the dough. Mix at low speed for 2 minutes, then increase the speed to medium and mix for another 6 minutes. To test if the dough is ready, stretch a small piece of dough between your hands into a thin sheet and hold it up to the light. If you see a web-like pattern, the dough is developed; the webs are the strands of gluten. If you do not see them, mix the dough at medium speed 2 minutes more, then test again. Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and refrigerate at least 2 hours or over night.

Honey Schmear:

In a mixer, mix the brown sugar, butter, honey, corn syrup and cinnamon until smooth. Add the water and mix until smooth, adding more water as needed to make the mixture spreadable.

Bun Finish:

Butter 10 cups of a large muffin tin. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the honey schmear into the bottom of each cup. In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 10-by-10-inch square about 1/4- inch thick. Brush with the melted butter and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. Using your hands, firmly roll up the dough like a jellyroll. Transfer to a sheet pan and refrigerate 30 minutes. Using a sharp knife or a taut length of dental floss, cut the dough into 10 slices, each about 1 inch thick. Place one slice (on its cut side) in each muffin cup. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place until they reach the rim of the pan, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. (Or, cover and let rise in the refrigerator overnight.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Let the buns cool in the pan for 2 minutes, then flip the pan over onto the sheet pan. Carefully lift off the muffin pan, leaving the buns and toppings on the sheet pan. Let cool. Meanwhile mix together the powdered sugar and milk to make a glaze. With a spoon drizzle the glaze over the top of the buns.

After doing this once here is what next time will look 
Begin early afternoon. Make dough and refrigerate 2+ hours.
Make the honey schmear and the Bun Finish. Follow through until you place the 1” thick slices in the muffin tin.

Then refrigerate overnight so you can bake in the morning and have hot fresh buns with your tea or coffee.
Do not bother with the icing in the very last step!
Make sure you place a cookie sheet or mat under the muffins. The overflow got all over the bottom of my oven.

After you take the finished muffins out there will be residual Honey Schmear left in each tin. I scooped more schmear on top of each muffins.

About Mimi

Mimi is a retired Physical Therapist in manual orthopedics who specialized in the spine. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her primary creative endeavor is Photography and she enjoys taking classes at the Penland School of Arts and Crafts. She is also practices yoga regularly.  She and her husband love to travel and hike and are very adept at tracking down farmer's markets wherever they go.  Of course, Mimi loves to bake and always has flour and yeast on hand. 

NewDo: Creative Learning at Home for a Six Year Old

A six-year-old Chef in the Making

Meet Jayden, now studying from home in the greater Denver area

Families all  over the nation are now challenged with assisting with their children's education through remote study or their own creativity.

Jayden’s remote learning started today, as Spring Break vacation has ended. Her parents are busy sorting through all the emails from her teacher, librarian, music teacher, etc. It will be a challenge to keep up on. Fortunately, Jayden's mom was a primary school a teacher (now at home with her two children), and she provides a wonderful structure to Jayden's day.

How does this six-year old see herself?

All about Jayden

Jayden loves the pigeon books so she read “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” and then she and her mom constructed a snack out of items they had at home to go along with the story. 

Her favorite series, currently

Jayden picked most of the ingredients with a little help from mom with the blue food coloring for the pigeon. 

The aspiring chef

She used brioche toast, hummus, a cracker, gelt, Fruit Loops, a chocolate chip eye and goldfish pieces nose.

yumm....

Another artist, in her own right! 
Go Jayden! And go parents for encouraging the creativity and making the best of our enforced at-home time!


A little bit about Jayden

Jayden is an active just-turned-six year old. Her favorite color is pink, although her second choice of colors tends to shift around. She loves to dance, play soccer, sing, and she can beat her Nonna when they play concentration card games. She is very good at reading, and had many books memorized at a young edge, so the reader couldn't skip sections without a reprimand. Now, she has learned to read herself and does this for her little brother who she reads to every morning. One of her passions is anything to do with cooking and food preparation. She has a variety of food-related toys and seems destined to be someone of note in the world of cuisine.

Jayden reading to her brother

ToDo Challenge: Art with a Toddler

Creativity with Art: Toddler-Style

Meet Fiona, from the greater Denver area

Fiona, Two Years Old

It is never too early to encourage our little ones to be creative. They are so free in their mind, and everything they do is amazing. If only, as adults, we could adopt their mindset and not worry about how good our work is. Fiona is fearless. She likes to try everything.




Here you see Fiona painting in her back yard. She is trying out the new easel that her Nonna sent to her for her birthday. She likes to dress the part (notice the artist smock),

Two Year-old Artist

Nonna loves watching her creativity and adding some of her own to it, by taking one of Fiona's early art pieces (with a little help from Mom) and turned it into a fabric using Photoshop and Spoonflower (digital printing) in the process.

Fabric designed by Fiona with Mommy's help and Nonna's translation to a repeating pattern.
Printed by Spoonflower in North Carolina

A little bit about Fiona

Fiona is an aspiring artist who lives in the greater Denver area. She likes to think about what she does which you can tell because she moves into a complete-focus state when she is busy. She loves to be read to, likes to poke and push things, and keeps busy at all times. She also likes her quiet time, flipping through story books, as if she was reading them. Fiona turned two this week. Her parents are encouraging of all her activities and were reading Harry Potter to her in her first week of life.

Fiona, always, always checking things out.

Zen in the Yard during Challenging Times
During this 'at home' world we now live in, Fiona's dad created this Zen area in their yard. A lot of brush was removed, and now the area is being used for yoga (for Mom, Dad, and Fiona), reflection, and quiet time. At present this space is now deep in snow, when three days ago, it was a lovely afternoon. Welcome to Denver spring weather.

ToDo/NewDo Project: Lisbeth Wahl, Up-cycled top

Upcycled Top

by Lisbeth Wahl, Peschiera del Garda, Italy

Materials available: 

• A nice quality wool sweater, which got in the wrong program and shrank in the washing machine. 
• Woven velvet fabric, with a little stretch. Odd size leftovers from the making of a dress to my daughter.
• All stuff that has been laying around for a while, until I finally turned it into this

 Unfortunately I didn’t think about taking before and after pictures.

Process:

• I cut away the sleeves and the body part, making them as long as possible.
• Then I used a pattern I had previously made in Garment Designer (A sleeveless tunic), adjusting the curve under the arm and the length of the shoulder to fit the sweater sleeve.
• Round neckline with an opening in the front. In the neckline I added a sweater “fish”form. About 1/8 smaller than the neckline circumference measurements, to make it stay nicely flat.

 Note:A weak point, which I might redo, is the uniting of the two materials in the breast-line. (the firmer fabric with the more elastic knitted sweater). Special care should be taken there to not stretch the various fabrics in the making.

About Lisbeth

Lisbeth is a world-renown felter who lives in Peschiera del Garda, near Verona, Italy.

Born in Denmark, She trained as a tailor and pursued her career in costuming and pattern making, most notably the costume department of Teatro alla Scala (Milan). She became interested in felting, and has taken her talents on to new realms. In 2016, she won the top award at the Australian Common Threads Wearable Art Showcase with her felt piece called Set Your Light Free, which combined felt with fiber optics.

Instagram: @ lisbeth.wahl.fiberart

https://www.facebook.com/lisbeth.wahl