Quite a long time ago, about a year in fact, I took my second dyeing workshop with Carol Soderlund (wonderful! highly recommended!  go here to find out more!).  I tried again to get my dream-colored t-shirt, and this time succeeded! Here’s a picture Beth P. took of me (weighing, sigh, less than I do now):

I knew back then that I wanted to re-make the shirt into a nicer top, but ProChem only had t-shirts in stock, plain old T’s.  Here is what the shirt looked like before I took to it with pins, sewing machine and scissors in late October:

I used fuchsia dye, the other red that is MX R4 (Fuchsia is 8R), a warm yellow and a cool yellow… it was pleated on the diagonal with the lines running from upper left shoulder to right hip.  The dye was then poured – squirted – painted on in the opposite diagonal.

First, I pinned out what I thought I wanted to take in on the sides and underarm, then went into the bathroom (which has a low enough mirror) to see how long I wanted the shirt to be.  I ended up cutting 5 1/2 inches off the bottom, then taking a 1 1/2″ hem.  I used a twin needle, which gives the double-straight stitch on the top, a zigzag on the bottom, and stretches just a little bit.

Second, I took in the sides (alas, I am not blessed with a generous bustline, tho in summer I actually am grateful), leaving the extra room at the bottom my hips need.  I also took in the sleeves a bit.  This photo shows the taper…from about 3/4″ at the hem of the sleeves, to a smidge over an inch at the torso, tapering to a point like a dart. I used the stretch stitch on my machine…basically it looks like three stitches on top of each other.

For those of you with a larger bustline, you can also take vertical darts in the waist area underneath the bust for a more tailored fit…just put the shirt on inside out and pin.  Carefully.  Then REALLY carefully remove the shirt, try it on right side out and if it looks good, take it off even more carefully and stitch.

At first I wasn’t going to trim and finish the edges, but the amount taken in was enough that the underarm seam pulled unattractively, so I trimmed to 1/4″ seam allowance,  and zigzagged the edges.  Serging would also work, but I don’t have matching thread and didn’t feel like setting up the serger!

You might (?) be able to see the blue washout pen markings on the top in the photo above.  I look good in square necklines, so had planned to trim off the neckline edging and sew a facing using the cut-off fabric from the bottom.  However, I wanted this to be a simple tutorial, and–on a whim while checking out the fit after stitching the sides –turned the collar ribbing inside.  I liked the look!  So, I simply stretched the ribbing so that it would instead function as a facing, and topstitched it in place with the twin needle.  Here t is without the blue pen!

And here is a so-so picture of me (with no make-up and messy hair… what am I thinking putting a picture like this on the internet?????) in the shirt–sorry about the partial lobotomy…that’s what happens when you set the camera on timer to take a photo of yourself:

And an even less flattering photo (I decided to decapitate myself with photoshop…the fat sloping chin was just too awful LOL!), but straight on so you can better see (?) the final result:

Remember the original look of the shirt?

Here’s the finished outline:

All in all, I think it is a vast improvement over the baggy shirt.  Even with trying it on about four times, it took easily less than two hours to do everything.

Disclaimer:  political content…all of it!  Indulging for just a moment, then back to our regularly scheduled blogging ….

It is time for a change.

And the times HAVE changed.

A while back I wrote this story here, but it is time to repeat myself….  in 1975 I began college at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.  I used to fly into Dulles Airport, which is some distance from  DC, so you had to take a shuttle bus into the city (and then a cab to the university). The old downtown core still had buildings burned out from the riots and fires of 1968, the year of so many race riots and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King’s assassinations.   It wasn’t long after I arrived that I realized I was — despite being in a relatively progressive city — two states south of the Mason-Dixon line (for my non-US readers, that is where the Northern and Southern states divided during our Civil War, 1861-65).

I think it was when I arrived for September…either in ’75 or ’76…the bus driver on the shuttle from Duller to DC (he was an African American) announced “now all you smokers, you gots to sit in the back o’ the bus, where I used to have to sit.”

I was dumbfounded.  I had grown up in California (and a sheltered middle-class white girl, at that).  There was very little discrimination there, and at least in the lamentably lily-white county where my family lived, few African Americans.  There were the Chinese (who were brought in to build the railroads in the mid 1800s during the Gold Rush), the Spaniards and Mexicans (Mission San Rafael was in the next town over, and the northernmost of the Spanish missions is in Sonoma, 32 miles north of our house), and of course the Anglos.  Even the Russians came to California, to Fort Ross, 62 miles north….the Mexicans and the Russians nearly met! So it was a shock for me to come face to face with someone who had grown up with the oppression of racial discrimination, and yet could joke about it (it’s that wonderful Freedom of Speech thing! and a good sense of humor on his part).

On November 4th, our nation elected Barack Obama as its next President…..   one of the joys is that his daughters don’t really yet understand that it is so remarkable for a man of  Caucasian and African parents to be moving into the White House.   A mere 44 years ago, Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act (if you haven’t read Johnson’s speech, it is really amazing…Wikipedia must have it), to protect the rights of ALL Americans, not just the white ones.  It was a law that was needed because discrimination was rampant….lynchings still happened, race was still a significant factor.  It is a factor still, but nowhere near what it was–and we’re doing better.  The Civil Rights Act outlawed segregation in schools, public places, and employment; it protected all races, and before passage they added women, too, from discrimination …the impact was HUGE and remains so to this day.

I am SO PROUD of what our nation has done…on November 4th, 2008, and over the past 45 years.  I am just as proud that so many people registered, voted, that this was one of the most widely anticipated elections, that so many who had never voted before were moved to become part of our right and responsibility to vote.   I heard that in one of the Carolinas, more African Americans had voted….on MONDAY, the day before official election day (via absentee or early balloting) than in the entire 2004 election…way cool!

Perhaps because I’ve lived overseas and in the third world, I appreciate a bit more easily how astonishing it is to live in a democracy and be able to vote… that the culture of democracy is so ingrained that even kids on a playground will take a vote to see what game to play at recess.

I am proud.  And I am REALLY happy!  It is time for a new era, and it has begun…..

Anyone want to join me in a rousing chorus of God Bless America?!!!!

Addendum, Weds. morning,  Nov. 5th…. they are reporting a turnout of 64 percent of the population…that is the second highest in history (usually I think elections are in the 25-50 percent range)… apparently 100 years ago, in 1908, 66 percent voted.  With the larger population, tho, the turnout is by FAR the largest number of citizens who have voted.   WAY COOL!   I hope the enthusiasm for being part of the process holds…..

The Frayed Edges met at Hannah’s house in Harpswell, Maine, this month.  We missed Deborah, but had a wonderful visit amid the autumny leaves and air.  As usual there is a flurry of e-mails the weekend before about who’s gonna fix what…. Kathy asked if I’d share the recipe for the turkey kielbasa-potato soup, tho she was planning on making a pie already.  I quickly volunteered to make the soup, which I’ve mentioned on this blog in years passed….. Hannah had sumptuous, blueberry-laden muffins and coffee, Kate brought a salad with fresh baby organic spinach (from the acreage next to her house no less…fresh picked…handy having a farm next door!), bacon, blue cheese and a raspberry-vinagrette dressing….she and I cleaned the salad bowl.  Heck, I could have eaten the bowl myself!  I’ll post the recipe (from Janet Wright on San Juan Island, who got it from the cook at the Cannery restaurant years ago, in Friday Harbor…the legacy of this recipe is long!) at the end of this post.

Last month, Hannah gave each of us these wonderful IKEA mirrors…they are about 12 inches square, with a 4×4 mirror in the center.  I’ll share mine in the next post, on October 31…but for now you can revel in Kathyu’s wonderful mixed media piece made of painted 2×2 ceramic tiles from Home Depot, some stone tile (same place), and some Fimo clay tiles that Kathy made!  I  LOVE IT!

I shared my leaves table runner and my Batiki bird, which shipped off to Lark books on the 23rd, for inclusion in a book that will come out late next spring…hmmm…. I see I haven’t blogged about it…OK, will do that in a week or so!  Hmmm….only have in-progress pics of the table runner on the blog too…gee….you’d think I’ve been working instead of blogging LOL…OK, I’ll share that one too!  Give me a chance to take pics and write the blogpost…..

As always, Kathy shared her latest project, still in progress…. to get an idea of the size of it I’m including this photo, tho it isn’t the best:

Here’s a better picture of the quilt…..

Kath is using this cool technique of printing the birds onto tissue paper, fusing them to the quilt, then stitching the daylights out of them….yields a very accurate, realistic and stunning bird.  You may have seen this picture already over on Kathy’s Studio in the Woods blog:

And here’s the crockpot soup recipe:

•  Most of a 5 pound bag of Yukon gold (or similar) potatoes
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• some butter and a dribble of oil
• 1/2 pound turkey kielbasa (buy it in a 1 pound package, freeze the other half)
• 8 cups chicken broth / stock (more or less)
• 2 bay leaves (if desired)
• pepper
• stoneground mustard

Scrub and cube the potatoes into pieces, a small potato can be cut into four, a larger one into pieces that are about 1 1/4″-ish square-ish …just cut them up!  Place into large crockpot (turned off at the moment). My crockpot will hold a 5 pound bag minus four or five potatoes–this brings the potatoes to about 1 inch below the rim.

Slice kielbasa in half lengthwise, and again so it is in four quarters.  Cut into 1/2″ chunks.

Add butter and the dribble of oil to skillet  and saute onion until clear.

Push onion to outer edges of skillet

Add some of the kielbasa and brown.

Push that kielbasa to the side and brown more…if pan is too full, dump onion and kielbasa into crockpot.   Brown remaining kielbasa.

Pour a cup or so of the chicken broth into the pan to deglaze.  Turn off heat under skillet and pour contents into crock pot.

Add enough broth / stock to cover the potatoes…pretty much up to the very top of the crockpot.   While adding the broth, stir to mix up the onion and kielbasa througout the potatoes.

Add 2 bay leaves, pepper and whatever else you’d like to season with.

Turn on low for 12 hours; OR turn on high for 1 hour, then to low for 6 hours (or low for 6 hours, then high until the potatoes are tender).  When I make this for the Frayed Edges, I make it after dinner the night before and let it cook all night.  It is obviously not on while in the car, then I plug it back in at our destination for the day.

Just before serving add a large dollop of stoneground mustard, to taste, and mix.  I love the tangy goodness (this is the secret ingredient that makes this soup glorious)… I know it is odd… you don’t actually taste mustard, just flavor!

I’m SO GLAD they like this soup, as my family pretty much doesn’t, and an entire crockpot full is too much even for me (it’s about a week’s worth of meals!).

No, I have not died, fallen prey to a disease (other than possibly slothfulness where blogging is concerned) or any other horrid thing…just been really busy working, getting ready for Houston, teaching, meeting with my Frayed Edges friends and other sorts of good things.  Today, I thought I’d share some of what I got to see on my way home from teaching on Saturday the 18th…glorious! (PS..photos are clickable for a larger view)

This photo was taken from the driver’s seat, window down, in Hope, on Route 17.  Route 17 is a 2-lane highway (by-way) that runs from Rockland to Augusta and beyond.  I take Route 90 West to 17, then turn north/west to Augusta, the state capitor.  On the way home, at about 5, the sun was low in the sky and the air was golden……

Farther up the road, closer to Augusta,  the trees on my side of the road cast their shadows all the way across the road and into the open field bordered by these trees:

And a closer view:

And that hill from Hope down to west Rockport….

To my utter astonishment and delight, one of my newest pieces–Fields of Gold– (finished in the nick of time) has been juried into Art Quilts XIII at the Chandler Center for the Arts in Chandler, Arizona.  Actually, if I tell the total truth, the facings weren’t even completely sewn down when I took the photos for my entries!

I am mind-boggled to find myself in the company of so many of the leading art quilters today…. the list of those in the show is here.

A little bit about this piece:  I had designed the center part, which I called Sunset Trees, for a project / exercise for the applique section of my manuscript.  It is 9×12 inches (or thereabouts) and I intended for it to finish at that size…small and easy to manage as a learning exercise.  Then, I was able to help my friend Lisa Walton of Dyed and Gone to Heaven (Sydney, Australia) get an entry into the IQA / Festival at Houston when she unexpectedly got a quilt finished and photographed in time, but not enough time to mail reliably (i.e. quickly) from Australia to Texas.  I told her not to send anything, but she did anyway…a metre of her glorious hand-dyed fabric that ranged from rust to gold to green.  I pinned the fabric up on my design wall, next to Sunset Trees, trying to figure out how to make a journal entry for this year.  I couldn’t think of anything that wasn’t trite (the black silhouette of an Aussie cowboy and outback house against the glowing sun…been done well by others, and too many times).  Then I realized that if I used one section of the piece, it meshed PERFECTLY with Sunset Trees’ background.

Then I mulled over the quilting… at first I thought of blowing grasses.  Then, in the back of my mind, the song Fields of Gold by Sting came to mind.  I knew I had seen a quilt named after that song somewhere…and when the Frayed Edges got together in early September I mentioned it.  Deborah piped up:  it was on my blog!  I did one!  So here is Deborah’s version!  To me, the wheat fields of late summer /autumn are Fields of Gold, so I googled wheat images, learned that some wheat has the really long whiskers, other varieties have shorter, fewer whiskers, etc.   I think my favorite part of this entire quilt is the wheat quilting!  Once again, I seem to be moving toward nearly wholecloth pieces that are drawn with thread…. Here’s a detail:

Enjoy…now back to working on the Elusive Crested Batiki Bird, a small piece I’m doing for another Lark book on small quilts.  Cheers!