PAC at Menucha - Spring time

Last weekend was another fun filled weekend at Menucha with the clan of Portland Art Collective. We had a great time creating and laughing about all kinds of things.Here is Dayna painting

India in January

I have a job that I am fortunate to travel to the orient twice a year. This year we decided to add production of our garments to some factories in southern India. It was decided that we should go visit our counterparts that we talk via email everyday and see the factories they would like us to use for future production. So on January 2nd, four of us from the office set out on a very long journey...Portland, Seattle, Paris, Bangalore...a good 25 hours of travel. We arrived late at night and drove 45 minutes to the Hotel Ista
I was totally planning to blog when I first got to Hong Kong but got so busy with work and got a nasty cold that I barely got my emails answered. I am writing this now that I am back. The driving in India was crazy and we laughed how they fill every space on the road with cars, motorcycles, tuktuks and trucks. I had lots of car time to look at the stencils on the trucks and how they decorated their vehicles. Women rode side saddle on motorcycles, holding babies, or bags or groceries. They looked so comfortable as their drivers whipped through traffic and narrow spaces. We saw one group with four small adults on a motorcycle!
The first part of our trip was to Bangalore India. This is Hotel Ista where we stayed near our first visit at the office. The pool and restaurant area was so calming.

We were in Bangalore for a day and then flew to Tirpur in the am and drove to a factory, took a tour, had lunch and then drove back to airport to fly to Chennai. The first factory is a knit factory that does knitting, silk screening and embellishing. I can tell you that there is a good bet that you have a tee shirt in your closet or drawer that was made in this facility. It was wonderful to see thier capcity and skills. Here are some pictures of the workers sewing sequin on tops. The workers are brought from the north as this is a specialized skill they told me.


The women wear the most beautiful wrapped sari's. The colors were bright and clean so amongst the background of the red earth and dirt streets , these beautiful women would stand out. Their hair would be pulled back in long perfect braids, some with flowers streaming down. This signage colors inspired me. It is a good example of the bright colors.

Not to bore you with details, we visited three factories in three days and ate very well, each showing us local cuisine that they favor. We went to the Shish-kabob Factory on the last lunch and the food just kept coming. I was so full! We had about 2 hours to shop before our last dinner, so our hostesses Suman and Saritha took us to a small mall where we bought some cotton scarves, then to a sari shop named Silkworm, that had the most beautiful silk and cotton fabrics for sari's and tunic tops. I bought a beautiful pink silk embroidered piece that I can make a top out of...they offer a service to make it up but I was leaving the next day and would not have time. I am excited to design a summer top with this.


The other piece I could not pass up and believe me I wanted to buy more..was this organic cotton hand woven Sari. It is bright orange and pink, it is appox 6 yards long and 46" wide. not exactly sure what I will do with it but I am sure I will find something.

Last Day of 2011

Today is Saturday December 31, 2011. I am not much for New Years Celebrations, we usually have a nice dinner, watch a movie and head to bed. This year our daughter is a teenager and we want to make sure she is safe and sound so we offered our house as a place she and a couple close friends can come and hang out to play games and watch movies. My husband and I will hide out in my basement studio and watch movies on my computer. Sounds boring I know but it is worth it to know my 16 year old is safe.
This was a good year..Year of the rabbit. It was pretty mellow considering how awful 2010 was for me...Year of the Tiger. This next year is year of the Dragon. I hope it is another good prosperous year for us.
I will literally begin the new year traveling the world. I leave on jan 2 for India. I will be there on business to visit factories making our clothing. It will be a quick trip, traveling with my boss and his boss. I am sure I will not get any shopping in, but it will be my first time in this part of the world. I will take pictures of what I can to share. Once I am in Hong Kong I will write more. I will travel to Tokyo as well...so stay tuned. My goal is to blog my way along this trip. I don't make New Years resolutions...but goals. and my goal is to blog about this trip to share with my family and friends who care to read about it.
Goals for 2012:
Continue to sew my way through the studio.
Be able to make a smaller dress size and shop the Athleta and Title 9 Catalogs!
Have more Art play days in the studio.
Be more patient at home.
See my sisters and old friends I have not seen in a long time.
Completely finish my quilts. machine Quilting and all.
Participate in the PAC show December 2012 with a bunch of new stuff.
Get out and take more pictures with the digital SLR.
Think of a happy thought everyday to keep me going.
Don't let my daily job get me down and dry me up. Do the best I can but not let it consume me.
Make a piece of jewelry for every new outfit I make.

Ok that is good to start with. I will be adding more on my trip notes. So until Hong Kong and Japan!.

Day of the Dead Mask

My daughter's Spanish teacher gave them extra credit if they colored a paper mask or made a puppet or dressed up for Halloween. Well when my daughter Cora tells me about projects like this...I have to ramp them up!!! Cora wanted to make a mask but with fabric or a store bought one knowing I would jump at the chance to go to the art or fabric store. After our brain storming discussion we came up with a canvas mask that she spent the weekend painting. I think it came out very well. Cora also made some paper flowers a-la Frieda and we pinned them in her hair. The teacher was impressed but wanted the mask to keep. Cora said she wanted it for her portfolio and didn't want to give it to the teacher so she only got half the bonus points! It was a good collaboration with what we had at home in the studio. Save my trip to the art store for another project...Christmas is coming!

Remnant Stash

I am a self proclaimed "Remnant Whore" I scout out the remnants at most fabric stores but non better than my beloved Fabric Depot. My daughter, Cora, has been playing softball this summer and the practice location is a few blocks from Fabric Depot here in Portland. I love this place...it is big, well lit and has the best remnant rack I have ever found. They mark down the pieces 20% from the regular a yard price...then 50% off of that! One night I challenged myself to only spend $10 and I found lots of great stuff for the stash. One night I cleaned up on Oil cloth!
I was able to find fun flannels for some scrappy kids quilts, batiks, mesh and lots of solids to have for those arty quilts I like so much from Jean Wells lately. I will not miss the Softball schedule but I will miss going to FD twice a week! Look for some of this fab in projects I can finally make now that I have the weekends and evenings to myself again!

Project Runway Premiere Party!

My daughter won tickets from a local radio station , 95.5, for a Project Runway Season 9 Premiere Party! We were so excited because it was hosted by Seth Aaron Henderson, winner of season 7! The girls gussied up and Dad put on a clean shirt and we headed down town on the beautiful summer evening. The stage was the bing Lounge. This small venue is used for radio concerts and small showings. There was quite the crowd so we squeezed in amongst the Portland Fashionistas. By the end of the evening Stephen and Seth were buds and the girls won lots of swag. Sorry for the out of focus...I did not have the flash on.

Scraps 101 - Real Scraps!

A few years ago I made a few Valentines Quilts that I collected Red and Pink fabrics for. I love Valentines day..my birthday is in February..so I made a few of them and gave them away. But alas I bought too much fabric and still have a large stash of Reds and Pinks. So I drag them out every so often and make something. I made a nice Log cabin last year to try out my Log Cabin tool...a later blog. But the other morning I woke up with an idea of a collage piece then cut up into hearts to make some cards out of. I am trying to start early for the PAC show in December! So here is my process:

I cut a red piece as the base fabric..if any background shows through or raw edges at least it will be red and not muslin.
Then I cut random pieces and laid them over each other. I put variegated or red thread in the sewing machine and machine quilted over the peices. I just randomly stitched to make sure the edges were sewn down and it was pretty solid in the stitching.
I made a heart template to fit on a A6 card size. ( I have lots of red envelopes left from Christmas...using the fat of the land so to speak). I cut with scalloped scissors, wavy scissors and straight edge for variety. Then made a small bow from strips and a small shell button. I think they came out really cute and can't stop making them! I need to move to another color.....