the circle skirt

So I tried sewing my first piece of clothing this weekend. Just a simple circle skirt, but I was still pretty nervous since I'm not the best seamstress. As you can probably see, the hem along the bottom is a little strange (although somehow I managed to figure out the "invisible" hem by myself), but I think I can correct that with some ironing. Only I will be able to see all the flaws. All in all, making your own clothes is way more trouble than I thought. The time and money it took me to buy the fabric and then sew the whole thing together, sort of stressed me out. I find knitting a garment more natural, and at least if I mess something up I can go back and rip it out easily. Perhaps I just need to become more familiar with sewing. Anyways, after ironing it tomorrow, I think it will be ready to wear :)

Can we all just take a moment?

http://sisinmaru.blog17.fc2.com/

The Art Market

"However, if our society is going to make it so that football players are going to get paid millions of dollars to play their sport than artist’s FOR SURE should get paid millions of dollars to create art and comment on our culture and society."

I found this extremely interesting:

http://textileartscenter.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/thread-reviews-the-million-dollar-art-market/

From the Textile Art Center Blog, post from Joetta Maue

IF: Dusty

IF: Chicken

Not feeling too deep today

The painting of quilts and the destruction of brushes

I need to start taking better care of my brushes. This is just getting ridiculous.

Also, I'm not happy with the way these images look. I have to monkey around with them in photoshop a little bit today and see how I can get the white of the paper to actually be white. I was trying some white balance shit in Camera Raw this morning, but my lack of technological ability was really showing through.

Quilts and an appropriately placed folk band.

Friday night trip to the American Folk Art Museum

Ladies

printing

The Sweater Completion!!!!!

Finally, the sweater is finished, and it only took 3 months. Note the great lighting in our apartment (not).

unbuttoned

buttoned

Yippeeeee!!!!! Onto other projects!!!!!

Little houses

These are so cute! It's too bad I'm trying to de-clutter our tiny apt...

IF: Deja Vu

Cool.

Ahh! I forgot where I found this but I LOVE IT.

(*found it)

Sketch

Brooklyn Winter

Snow!

Homemade granola!

Started a "new" sketchbook, that I have had for probably 15 years. Not really happy with the whole painting. My favorite part is the chair and my cat.

Listening to the Stevie Nicks Pandora station.

Quilts

Recently I have been interested in the history of quilts, and fabric arts. Thanks to Etsy, I have just found one artist making really cool contemporary art quilts: Shawn Quinlan. His work is very interesting and incredibly detailed.


Quilts were generally made to tell the story of the maker, or family, or the time. It's interesting to think of what stories today's quilts would depict. Probably something much like what Shawn Quinlan is making.

I have been meaning to get my sewing machine out and begin the quilt I have been planning for a while now, and this might just be the inspiration I need to get me off my butt!

Listening to more Nina Simone.

Inspiration

Really into Nina and her piano right now. Sick today, will do some more work tomorrow.

The wonky hand bound book

Finished the planner last night. Definitely not perfect, but for my first binding experience, I'm pretty satisfied. It will serve its purpose. I'm excited to use it!

Resolutions

My resolution this year is to eat healthy, meaning cutting out high fructose corn syrup, cooking at home, and trying to buy more organic. I know that eating "organic", although conjuring lovely images of pastoral bliss, isn't really the way most of the industry is run. Still, it's better than the alternative. I wish all "organic" farms provided a lovely little heaven for animals until it is their fateful time to end up on a plate. But that's just ridiculous. Happy eating!

The binding of the book

It's proving to be harder than anticipated.

Projects

I've been spending the first weekend of the new year on two major projects: my first knitted sweater and my first hand bound 2011 planner. I'm sort of winging both and hoping that they turn out alright (this is how I approach most things in my life actually).

The sweater I started during a hand knitting class at FIT in the fall, and I just bought "How to Make Books" by Esther K. Smith which has given me a lot of ideas about how to make my planner.

Both are turning out to be more expensive than if I had gone out and bought them in a store, but this is partly due to my ignorance in designing a knitted garment and knowledge of affordable paper. I'm learning as I go, which I'm generally alright with. Hopefully these will be finished this week!

2011!

Ok, it's 2011 and my resolution is to post daily on this blog while creating new work, getting my act together, and start freelancing. To start, here are some sketches from my planner for 2010 and my 2010 holiday card:

Manhattan building

ASPCA trip

Subway man