Visiting Amana, Iowa and other crafty places

Amana Iowa is a small town that was settled in the 1800's.  Actually, there were five or six towns, East Amana, West Amana, High Amana, Amana, South Amana, and Homestead.  (Yeah Homestead doesn't really fit into the naming pattern does it?)  These towns were settled by a German immigrant group who wanted to pursue a self-sufficient life style.  One of the things that appealed to me is that until the 1930's, the groups ate meals at a communal dining room, meaning that those who wanted to cook, cooked, and others could pursue other interests, such as making clothing for community members.  Sounds like a great idea to me.

They have turned now into normal towns, but retain their historical significance and have opened a number of touristy attractions, such as gift shops and restaurants which cater to tourists by serving German-style meals.  Anyway, there were several quilt shops.  One of them was really remarkable.  I just wanted to go home, toss out my entire current stash of fabric, and start over using entirely the gorgeous, amazing, beautiful fabrics from this shop.  There were also many many patterns, especially patterns for bags.  I guess bags are very popular now.  This shop showcased some of it's fabrics in the bag samples, and I wanted to make every single one of them. Maybe I could get a job making shop samples for this shop.  It was really wonderful.

I should also talk about the Des Moines (Iowa) art show which is happening this weekend.  The walk Friday went right down the street but we were walking too early and the booths were just being set up.  This is a fairly large show, and very lovely.  So I returned after the walk and strolled past all of the many booths.  There were three fiber artists that I took particular note of.  Two of them seemed to be similar- I had difficulty remembering the first one and how she differed from #2.  (#3 was very different, I'll comment below.)  Anyway both of them used what appeared to my unartistic and untutored eyes to be rather simple designs and simple color schemes.  Both of them created small quilt tops, or perhaps quilt top fragments would be more descriptive.  The largest for both were maybe three feet by four feet, perhaps even 40 inches by 50 inches, but not really big enough to be a lap quilt.  Not that the items were quilts, as both artists framed their work, or prepared it for framing, and neither included any sort of backing or batting.

The first fiber artist seemed to have things like a framed "swatch" or fabric samples.  Here, how do these fabrics coordinate for the bedroom, Mabel?  The three fabrics were stitched together with a zigzag stitch, then framed.  $75.00.  Ouch.  Other works included circles stitched to squares, then lined up into a two by eight rectangle of squares, each with its circle in it.  Then framed.  Finished!  For sale!

The second booth featured a larger bargello quilt top, about 40 inches by 50 inches.  As I remember it, the colors were greens and yellows, maybe some gold.  The best thing she had to me, as well as the biggest.  The quilt top was framed, (edges left raw if I remember rightly) and the price was $4500 or something like that.  I did not make a mistake when I typed two zeros in the price.  Clearly the Monday Morning Quilters are missing the boat to put so much effort into batting, backing, and binding their quilts, as most of their quilts are far more appealing to me than these from the art show.

I thought the colors were uninteresting in both booths.  Are my eyes perhaps going?  Are the cataracts getting worse all of a sudden?  The second fiber artist advertised "Hand dyed" fabrics used in her projects.  I wanted to tell her that any bigbox fabric store sells plain colored fabrics, but perhaps she couldn't find the colors she really liked.  There were a variety.  None of them popped, none of them spoke to me.  None of them vibrated or sang or even hummed a tune.  They just all sat there on the walls, and in the bins of "matted, ready to frame" artwork, and quietly waited for a purchaser.  It wasn't me, obviously.

The third fiber artist created "art" using felted wool, that she processed herself, making the felt from "raw" wool, (I wasn't brave enough to ask her if she washed it first, but of course, making felt uses lots of detergent or soap along with water in the felting process, so I suppose prewashing is a moot point.)  She then painted it with acrylic paint, cut it into narrow strips, and glued it into groves in boards.  She cut the grooves and finished the boards herself, and they looked very good  The finished product was quite interesting.  Her colors, many of them, popped.  I just couldn't see buying something like that to hang on my wall.  Oh well.

So much for my recent forays into crafting.   I've been looking, not doing.  And wanting to start over.  And not really knowing where I am going.  At least with this blog, and the 52 projects goal, I might know if I get there.

Hope you get where you are going, too.

Traveling with crafts

The really cool thing about traveling is that items acquired on vacation do not add to stash, really.  So if you believe this, you will totally understand my purchasing about five fat quarters of fabric and two skeins of sock yarn (well, you need two to make a pair of socks).  And a couple of books.  Books aren't stash anyway.  I already have enough books, yarn, fabric and everything.  It is just all at home, not here.

So I am working occasionally on an embroidered piece of wool, which is to become another project (not numbering it yet).  And on some knitting projects.  I am close to getting done with some stuff, and have to spend some time finishing projects.  Then I can list them here (it here?).

So off to work on projects, and not waste time blogging.  Not that writing this blog is wasting time, of course.  Just reading blogs can waste an enormous amount of time.  If you consider it wasted, since you are reading.

Anyway, here's wishing you lots of time to read and relax and enjoy yourself however you wish.

Progress from Colorado and Nebraska

It seems that I can work on projects when travelling.

Today we have Project 5: "balls of cat" two smallish balls, which turn into cats.  The balls are grey, the cats are red.  They are knitted.  The pattern is based on a pattern by Susan B. Anderson for an egg which turns into a bird, but perhaps her grandchildren didn't invent Kitty World, so perhaps she doesn't know about the wonders of super cats who live inside Borne Balls, and come out to save their world from the evil kitties.  I was able to knit on these while DH drove, and also as we were visiting DD for a few days.

Project 3:  Spring Green Tee is  also now on the list, completed, and worn!!  It fits, it is lovely, I like it.  I am including it as a "small project" because, although the overall tee shirt is not exactly a small project, and I have been working on it for the better part of a year, off and on, mostly off, but some on, obviously, I did come to the waist and think that I couldn't possibly knit another stitch.  [Well, I just had to put in a period there, although I did want to see if I could just make that sentence go on and on.  But NO, I couldn't.]

Just before we left for Iowa, I got out my stitch dictionary, and found a couple of stitches that I thought would work.  The tee was just not long enough, and I had had enough stockinette.  So I completed the bottom in a diamond shape which Barbara Walker refers to as smiling diamonds.  Mine are upside down, however, as I knitted the tee from the top, so they resemble smallish umbrellas more.  But nevertheless, I was able to complete the bottom six inches of the tee, finish off the sleeves and the neck to match the sleeve and bottom pattern.  Okay not match, but a small element of the diamond pattern is at the front of the neck, so as to tie the whole thing together.  I did most of the knitting while DH drove, as I could knit and look around just fine.  A quick and easy lace pattern that doesn't look as easy as it is.  Done, ... done done done.

So I have one pending and four completed, and this is week six, so I am only one behind.  Not bad for not knowing what I am doing, and traveling besides.

Hope all your travels result in cute little cats (or other small goodies) to love.

Doing versus blogging

Apparently, I can either do projects, or blog about them, but not both.  I have been surprisingly productive in the past three or so weeks, but haven't gotten anything posted.  I think I have three projects done.

[I have also gone through all my yarn stash, organized it into potential projects, and identified about ten or fifteen definite "cast-on-now" projects.  I put these into plastic (or other) project bags and matched them up with patterns and needles.  So they are ready to go.

I also have been working on some quilting projects.]

Now for the finished projects:

I took a class in fabric painting and used water-based paints with a brush to paint fabric.  We also used a resist to protect areas from being colored.  Although it was a lot of fun, I don't think I am going to add painting fabric to my favorite activities.  Several years ago, I took a different class in painting on fabric, using fabric paints which look very much like magic markers, only with sharp points.  If I ever want to paint fabric again, this is the method I will use.  In the class, I did produce a lovely picture of an Iris, though, to which I added batting and backing, then quilted it and bound it with a contrasting fabric.  Unfortunately, I do not have a picture available of this project as we are currently not at home.  But it is still Project #2.  It is finished (well, except for a label, does that count?)

Project #3 is taking much longer to complete than I anticipated.  See, I'm learning stuff already.  Project #4 is languishing at home, waiting for the sewing machine to stop breaking needles so it can be finished off. 

Better get busy on Project #5 now, as this is already the fifth week of the challenge.

Hope your life is not more challenging than you might wish.