The Fingerprints Make It Beautiful

Almost 2 months ago a beautiful baby boy was born. He has his momma’s pouty lips and his daddy’s heavy eyes and, hopefully (probably), all of both of their cool.

Jamila, the new momma, has been a constant source of inspiration for me since I met her at the library where we both worked. She’s a great librarian who consistently made me want to step up my game, but more than that she’s an artist. A fantastic artist. And her refusal to let her art slide just because she had a 40/hr week job was what I really needed to see at the time.

Her art is beautiful, but she’s also put in the time to learn the business behind being a successful woman marketing herself and her work. Jamila talked me through opening my etsy store, gave me tips on packaging and presenting my work, and sent me encouraging e-mail after encouraging e-mail when I was freaking out over my first craft fair.

This baby is so blessed to have her as a mom. To have both of his parents as his parents. I know he’ll be loved unconditionally, encouraged in all his pursuits, respected in the choices he makes and raised to be a concerned and aware citizen of the world. There’ll be mistakes and hard times, lessons learned and forgotten and learned again. But when you start in the world with such a sturdy foundation it’s easier to make the wonderful and beautiful contributions to the world that I know are in store for him.

This quilt, almost 2 months late, is, in the words of Cher Horowitz, a total Monet. While it may look good from a distance, up close it’s easy to see the mistakes and strains. But Jamila is an artist too, and I know that she knows that it’s the fingerprints that make art beautiful.

Cleaning Out, Stash Busting and Downsizing

I’m moving next month to a much smaller apartment.

An amazing woman in my book club has a house on the Isle of Hope, a peninsula that sticks out into the Georgia Intercoastal Waterway and is backed up by Skidaway State Park and hundreds of acres of protected marshland. Kathryn and her husband rent out their small garage apartment, usually to NOAA scientists, and in 42 short days it’s going to be all mine. The location, wonderful landlords and the cut in rent were all too good to pass up. And really, I don’t need a big place. I am one person. But my stuff…

My stuff acts like a gas and expands to fill up any space it is allowed.

So for the next month I’ll be mostly taking a break from making things to clean, downsize, say goodbye to my spacious apartment and beautiful kitchen, and try to figure out how I’m going to fit me and my all of my remaining stuff into an apartment half the size of the one I’m currently living in.*

A big part of that downsizing is to get rid of the inventory I have stock piled for my etsy store. To aid in that I am running a HUGE gigantic sale from now through the month of July. Use the coupon code MOVE25 for 25% off any purchase in the store and MOVE50 for 50% off anything over $50.

There’s some new stuff in there too, so go take a look and help a girl out. For instance:

*Yes, I have The Book. Of course I have The Book. I haven’t read The Book yet, but I have read my friend Abby’s blog post about a similar downsizing she went through recently. And she’s read The Book, so that’s basically the same thing, right?

Something Holy

Two weeks ago, two of my favorite people got married. To each other.

I’ve been friends with Sunny for 9 years and 10 months. She was the second person that I met after I moved into my freshman dorm room, and the 1st who didn’t completely terrify me. “Hey,” she said, “I like the way you guys lofted your beds. Want to be friends?” And that was it.

I met Eli when he started dating Sunny, about a year later. It quickly became apparent that we were kindred spirits and could keep each other company while Sunny was off being a social butterfly. A very social butterfly.

The wedding itself was beautiful, with every last detail wonderfully considered, but the love from the people there, surrounding Sunny and Eli was the most breathtaking part.

I had a small role in the wedding too: I got to hold one corner of the chuppah canopy, a quilt I made a few months ago using their wedding colors and a Joni Mitchell quote that Sunny picked to
surprise Eli. When Sunny asked me to speak during the ceremony and explain the quilt I got a little flustered. At first I was uncomfortable talking about something so important and yet so obviously outside of my own faith tradition and culture.

Make the damn thing? Of course.

But explain a Jewish tradition to a lot of Jewish people? Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I did my research though, consulted jewishbride.com, where I read horror stories of chuppah holders fainting, and talked to the only Orthodox man that I know, the father of one of my favorite story time families from my last job, who was immensely more helpful.  In the end I finally figured out what I was going to say the night before the wedding and wrote it on an old pizza box because I couldn’t find any paper in the friend’s house where I was staying for the weekend.

     According to my favorite orthodox scholar slash the only one I know, in the Jewish tradition the holiest place isn’t the synagogue, or the temple, or some pilgrimage site. It’s the home. The home where a couple builds a life, where they come back together at the end of the day, where they raise and bless their children, and where they work together to make the world a better place.

     The chuppah, with its roof and 4 open sides represents Sunny and Eli’s 1st home together, where they’ll begin this lifelong journey. The open sides to welcome all of us, all of the loved ones not here today, and all the new loved ones they’ll meet along the way.

     And the roof, this quilt. I made this quilt using a technique called paper piecing. Paper piecing takes a lot of time, much more so than other quilts I make.It requires a well thought out pattern and a plan of action. It take a clear vision, great patience, commitment and a good deal of blind faith that everything will come together in the end. It takes that extra time, but it can also produce something really spectacular.

     Sunny and Eli will take this quilt home with them, a physical reminder of not only today and their 1st symbolic house, but also that through their partnership they provide each other with support and a necessary balance and that through their love, stronger and deeper than the individual, they bring out the best in each other.

Eli isn’t Jewish either- he was as much in the dark about a lot of the stuff happening during the ceremony as I was- but in March, after I’d given them the quilt during a wonderful weekend in New York, he sent me this text: “According to Jewish tradition, you’ve created a holy thing. No pressure.”

Some of the beautiful pictures in the post were taken by a new friend, Michael Lothrop, and were used with permission.

Thanks bud!

Holding Eleanor’s Hand

Big news. Fantastic news. Big, fantastic news!

So you know how I really love the author Rainbow Rowell and all her books? And how I’ve been very eagerly anticipating her newest, Carry On, coming October 2015? And how I make a lot of art- a lot of art- about how much I love her books?

                                      

This isn’t even all of it y’all

Well, in January Rainbow contacted me and asked if she could use some of that fanart for official merchandising purposes. And I said yes. Actually I squealed a  lot and danced around my room and then I said yes.

It’s taken 5 long months of me biting my tongue and not telling anyone anything (except my parents. And maybe my book club) but the day is finally here!

YOU CAN NOW BUY ACTUAL, PROFESSIONALLY PRODUCED POSTCARDS WITH MY ART ON THEM!

And since they’re available for sale through dftba.com, that means somewhere, in some way, John Green is aware of my existence. Librarian life goal, unlocked.

A print of my Eleanor and Park Hands embroidery is available as part of a postcard set. The postcards are large- 6×8 inches- large enough that I wouldn’t call them postcards, but rather smallish art prints. Also included in that postcard set, and in all of the merch Rainbow is now selling, is art by lot of fantastic artists whose work I’ve admired for a long time.

P.S. Did I mention royalties? I get frickin’ royalties, something that has never, ever happened to me before.

To Infinity and Beyond

I spent the weekend (when I wasn’t at work) tye-dying. That in itself isn’t super unusual, I probably tye-dye more than the average adult, but this weekend was a little different. Not my hands, my hands look like that every time. My friend Sunny’s bachelorette party is coming up, and since she’s the sun that we all orbit around, we’re going with an outer space theme. I’ve been tye-dying the galaxy. I got the original inspiration from this post on Doodlecraft, but here are a few extra tips to make sure your galaxy tye-dye goes as smoothly as possible.

Step 1
Consider Your Fabric

Obviously, you’ll want to start with a black base- a dress, a shirts, maybe some shorts- but you also want to make sure that the fabric will accept the bleach. I had this beautiful gauzy and sheer tank top that would have been perfect. Alas, the rayon (?) didn’t fade when I sprayed it. Today, we’re using a drapey cotton jersey shirt.

Step 2
Wash Your Garment

This step doesn’t matter as much if you’re using a thrifted or previously washed item of clothing- or maybe it matters even more? But basically you want to get any icky, factory, stain guard chemicals out of your clothes.

Step 3
Spray with Bleach

I mixed up some bleach + water in a spray bottle, about 2 parts bleach to 1 part water and sprayed in a diagonal slash across the front and the back of the pattern. You’ll want the bleach splatter very light in some places and very heavy in others. Experiment with a light hand on the trigger, allowing a few seconds for fading to start to show. It’s a lot easier to add more bleach to you project than take it away if you go too hard.  

Step 4
Let It Sink In

I let the bleached garment dry for a loooooong time. Like an hour. In that hour it went from the dark pink/red to a much more manageable and faded light pink.

Step 5
Rinse

Wash the bleach out in your washing machine.

Step 6
Let It Air Dry, or Not

So for the tye-dying stage you want your fabric to be damp but not too damp. That perfect sweet spot is up to you. The drier your fabric, the less the colors will run together and the brighter your overall, finished product will be. The difference in the two pictures below is from tye-dying as soon as the dress came out of the washing machine (top) and letting it air dry for an hour outside (bottom). Step 7
TYE-DYE!!!!!!!!!!

Using your favorite outer space colors (I used 2 shades of blue, fuchsia and green) to color your damp garment. Unlike traditional tye-dye, I didn’t use rubber bands create designs, I just painted with the squeeze bottles. A little here, a little there, a little more. The dye will soak through to the other side of the shirt. While that might not be awesome for other dye projects, it suits our needs just fine.

Step 8
Let It Dry

Let it dry completely Step 9
Set the Dye

No home tye-dyed garment is ever going to beas vibrant and bright as it looks when it’s finished drying. The first time you wash your dye job, it’s going to run. There are 2 ways I know of to set tye-dye and minimize the inevitable color run. The first is heat- stick your completely dry garment in the dryer and let it spin around for a while. The second is vinegar- soaking a tye-dyed garment in vinegar will cause the colors to run/muddy slightly, but it’s also the best way to keep as much vibrancy as possible. After your dryer cycle, plunk your garment in a bucket or trash bag filled with white vinegar and let it sit for about half an hour.

Step 10
Wash It Out

Taking your garment out the of vinegar, ring the excess liquid out (gross, right?) and send it back through your washing machine and dryer. This is the big reveal moment. DOESN’T IT LOOK AWESOME!?!?!!?! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go turn every single black item of clothing in my closet into outer space wear.

Cotton is the Gift

Cotton is the traditional gift for second anniversaries. Cotton along with paper, year 1’s gift) is kind of my specialty. So when one of my favorite friends hit year two with her man I figured I could come up with something.

I’ve been playing around with a new, more realistic style of embroidery and this sweet moment from their ceremony seemed the perfect guinea pig.

A little bit of tracing…

A little bit of stitching…

A little more stitching…

And done!

Making Patterns

This is going to be a process-y post.

I’ve been using paper pieced patterns for quilts and other projects for about 2 years now. My first foray into the field was a tangram baby quilt and my most recent one was finished in March. We’ll get to it eventually. While I sometimes use or buy pre-made patterns, there’s something extra special about coming up with my own. I like solving problems, coming up with solutions, and the whole process for making a pattern is just one big, tricky equation.

I start with a drawing

Then I use a ruler to turn all my curved lines into straight ones. Dividing the face into distinct sections, based on color and shape, I continue the lines to their termination point.

Since a mask is the kind of thing that benefits from exact vertical symmetry I chose to only make a pattern for half the face. Later, I’ll scan it into the computer and flip it on a vertical axis to get both halves of the face.

Once the pattern has been scanned and flipped, I print out both halves, tape them together and color again. Just to make sure I like how it looks. This is when I compare it to my original drawing.

Now all that’s left to do is make a test block. I cut the pattern into sections and have at it. I love paper piecing because it’s literally just sewing inside the lines. Paper pieced patterns produce mirrored image, so even though the lightening bolt was on the right side of the pattern, it’s on the left side of the finished mask. This doesn’t matter for any of my patterns, but it makes letters super tricky. Which is why I buy those patterns.

Seeing the block all finished, I can pick out the inefficiencies and go back to the original pattern and make adjustments.

The image may change from pattern to pattern, but the process remains the same.

Evolution of Style

The first papercut I ever made was a Christmas gift for my mom: e.e. cummings’ poem “[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in],” more commonly known as that one poem from all the weddings.

It’s gigantic, spanning 4 panels and the entire breakfast area of my parent’s kitchen, and it is riddled with mistakes. Every time I’m home I see something new that makes me cringe- a backwards letter or an awkwardly shaped S, a P with the negative space left in. My mom assures me that there’s a rustic charm to my earlier work, but still, all I see when I look at this piece is what I would do differently now, with four more years of experience putting exacto knife to paper.

I got a chance to try this poem again about a month ago. A friend of my mother commissioned me to make another one, same size, same poem, for her daughter’s birthday and I jumped at the chance to fix some of my earlier mistakes.

It’s harder than I remember, doing solid walls of text, and there were many, many rough draft versions, but eventually it came down to this: easier to read, better use of negative space and not a single backwards letter.

 

Surrounded By

Did y’all have a nice March? Mine was spent traveling, up and down the east coast and all over Georgia. Some trips I really wanted to take and some I absolutely did not. But, as an added bonus, I learned first hand if you think you have a conference in Covington, Geogria that is not the same thing as actually having a conference in Carrollton, Georgia. They’re separated by about an hour and a half of panicked driving through rush hour Atlanta.

My blog posts run about a month behind my actual crafty progress and since most of February was spent sweating over a project I’m not quite ready to share, March was a fallow month here.

I did finally get around to making some samplers that I’ve been dreaming about since January.

January was when I read Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay, and fell head over heels for an essay on being friends with other women. For most of high school and a little while afterwards I claimed to prefer being friends with guys. I thought it made me cool and edgy to say that boys were less drama, and I didn’t like girly things anyway, so why would I want to hang out with girls? Now, I love my dude friends, they’re fantastic men, but to say that it’s easier to be friends with them than women, or that they are in any way less drama is absolute bullshit.

I have, and I think a lot of us have, a pretty deep socialized shame about being a woman and liking “girly” things, and it’s a damn disgrace that I let that shame or fear of being considered a “typical girl” scare me away from forming meaningful friendships with more women earlier in my life. I feel like I’m always trying to unlearn the problematic shit that I’ve internalized and this particular battle, to not automatically associate the feminine as wrong or less than, is one of my harder battles.

But here’s the thing, this past year, the one that was so hard? I only got through it with the support and love of the women in my life. I have three girlfriends who I leaned on especially hard in 2014. I wanted a way to let these women know how important they are to me, and how much I appreciated their ongoing, unconditional love. Reading Roxane’s essay on being friends with women struck  me as particularly heartfelt, funny and true.

These samplers, qui se ressemble s’assemble, come from some advice Roxane’s french speaking Haitian mother gives her; they mean, roughly, you are who you surround yourself with.

And I’ve surrounded myself with the very best people.

The Essential Things

On September 30, 2013 I started angry quilting. The federal government was about to shut down and take my city paycheck with it.

On January 25, 2015 I finally finished that angry quilt. A DC flag on the front and 51 stars on the back.

A lot has changed in the year and some change it took me to finish this quilt. The government is back on its feet (kinda), I’ve left DC and moved to a place where my vote actually matters (again, kinda), and there’s been a changeover in majority leadership for the senate. But the one thing that hasn’t changed is DC’s lack of self-determination, in fact Republican senators from Maryland and Pennsylvania even attempted to block a measure passed by DC voters to decriminalize marijuana.

Living outside of the DMV I’ve realized just how rare it is to hear about DC issues. There have been at least 2 potential government shut-down deadlines in the past year and if I hadn’t been paying attention to NPR, I never would have heard about them. Before DC voting rights were like a persistent hum- always there even if they weren’t actively being talked about. But now? It’s easy to see how the majority of people have no idea that there is an issue, let alone care about it.

This quilt is headed back to DC to live with my friend Laura. Laura was one of my first friends in DC, and one of the few from that time period that sees DC as its own entity, not just an extension of the federal government. The quilt will be well loved and worn out up there. Meanwhile, I’m going to send my Georgia senator another letter about DC statehood.