Monday, July 09, 2001
The green stole is finished. It took longer than I expected, mostly due to a lot of design-process futzing on my part. Since I don't have any really good photos yet, I'll describe it briefly, and badly.

I used 7 shades of green silk for the patchwork. After the red stole, which was an Adventure in Underlining, I decided to try something easier this time. Ok, I cheated. Fusible interfacing was involved. Not just plain old fusible interfacing, but the super-nifty gridded kind for quilters. I lined up my little squares of silk on that, pressed them lightly (with my mega-swanky new iron) and then folded along the gaps between the squares, and stitched the seams. Clever!

Izola Reservar HotelesSo, I made a nice long strip of patches, in the pattern of the image on the left. I split up the 7 colors of silk into 2 groups, which I treated as 2 different fabrics; 3 duller shades, which I used in place of the gray blocks in the image, and 4 more vibrant greens, which are the green blocks. I alternated the fabrics within their groups. The patchwork pattern is simple, but it also resembles a series of crosses, so it seemed appropriate.

I really drove myself insane trying to come up with a good way of adding a cross to the stole. I played with applique, and with goldwork embroidery, and with more patchwork, and nothing really worked. The traditional cross, with the horizontal piece about 1/3 down the vertical piece, didn't work with the patch pattern, which suggests a more symmetrical design. So, I stared at it for about a month. Stare. Stare. Stare. Then, I was poking about on embroidery.com and saw a gorgeous Canterbury Cross machine embroidery design. A small bulb sputtered to life in my head and I decided to give that a try. The image here is exported from my embroidery software; it's not the actual embroidered design, and it's about half the actual size, but it gives you an idea of what it's like.

I stitched it out using 2 different gold threads, and green rayon thread. I used a gold Madiera thread for the main fill area; it has a slightly twisted texture, so it reflects light differently than the other gold thread, a smooth-finished Sulky, which I used for the edges and detail. The end result was very rich. In fact, it reminded me of the hand-embroidered ecclesiastic symbols sold by vestment houses. Those are shipped as individual motifs that can be sewn to vestments, with gold or colored thread couched around the outside.

Now, I couldn't actually stitch the cross directly on the patchwork fabric, because of the seams. When the needle is moving as fast as it does for embroidery, hitting a seam can throw off the stitches. So, I decided to stitch the cross out on a piece of the lining fabric, which was a lightweight Thai silk. Then, I cut the fabric close to the edge of the design and turned the raw edges so they were under the motif. Now, I had an embroidered applique! I basted it in place on the stole, and then couched a green rayon cord around the edge, with a heavy gold cord around that. The effect was much richer than a plain machine-embroidered motif.

The stoles I made are in the Byzantine style; the center of the stole is at the Deacon's right hip, and the ends cross over the left shoulder and hang almost to the floor. It's a long piece of fabric! On the red stole, I simply mitred the pieces at the hip, where the two ends come together to form a 90° angle. For the green one, I used a square of fabric with another embroidered cross applique to form the corner.

Better photos soon, I promise!

Sunday, June 03, 2001
Wow, stop updating your web site for a few months, and people get concerned...

Well, the main reason I haven't been on speaking terms with y'all is that my house was without net access for a little over a month. It was due to a silly mistake, and the person responsible is very, very sorry. Actually, it wasn't all that bad; I think I was more productive during that time, since, let's face it, this computer is a time-sink-o-rama. And, maybe, I get enough computer time at work. Just a theory.

Anyway, I'm back in the land of the wired, and I have finished one of the projects! My friend was ordained yesterday, and wore her lovely red silk patchwork stole, created by me! I'll have more photos soon; the one at the right is kind of rough. It really turned out well, despite the fact that I had no idea what I was doing. I'm currently working on a green silk patchwork stole for her.

relevant reference: Crosses of Many Cultures, for applique designs

Monday, April 09, 2001
I took advantage of my newly clean space to start seriously working on the stole. The Thai silk works really well as an underlining. I played with the seven different fabrics a while, found the right sequence, and put together a small section. It looks great, although I did learn some things in the process. For one thing, I need to use a slightly smaller straight stitch, since the corners of the rectangles are a bit loose. I also need to avoid doing this project at 1:30 in the morning. Really. I hate waking up, looking at what I did the night before, and wondering what the heck happened. sigh. I swear, that seam looked straight at the time...

Saturday, April 07, 2001
Yay, my sewing stuff is SO organized now! It's completely delightful. While I was cleaning, I embroidered flowers on my pillowcases. They're very pretty. I used the forget me not design that's on Threads' web site. I've been doing a lot of one color work on the altar linens, so doing a multi-color floral gave me a chance to really utilize my new Martha Pullen Thread Stand.

Now that I have actual work space, I can really get moving on this stole project! One of the silk fabrics I'm using is a bit lightweight, so I've been experimenting with various fabrics for underlining it. I might just end up using the Thai silk we chose for the lining. Hmmm.

Thursday, April 05, 2001

Heraklion accommodationGlamour Girl in her pink and red metallic dress, with pink marabou trim.	Purple metallic dress with blue sequins on top and bead fringe on the hem. Shown with eyelash fabric stole.	A reluctant superhero.
My accomplices and I made dress up clothes for MacKenzie's 6th birthday. Here, she is wearing 2 of her glamorous dresses, with sequin straps. She is not wearing the rest of the red metallic ensemble, a red feather boa and pillbox hat with pink ostrich feather trim. There was also a tutu with ribbon roses, a blue ballgown-style skirt with black lace, a bride's skirt, veil, and bouquet, plus a purse and lots of jewelry. We also made a gold superhero set, with a cape, headpiece, skirt and magic bracelets (which she isn't wearing in the photo), but I think the look on her face gives you a good idea of how she felt about it. That outfit was our favorite, but it just wasn't a hit with Miss MacKenzie. She loved the rest of it, though!

I went to Michigan last month to deliver MacKenzie's big bag of dressup clothes for her birthday, and to surprise my dad on his 60th birthday. It was a fast trip, but a reasonably good one.

Since I've been back, I've been working on getting my sewing room in better order. One feature of this is my new thread rack, which my grandfather in Florida made for me. It's wall-mounted, and holds about 150 spools, plus various other things that hang. I really love it. The photo on the right also gives you a look at my sewing table on a good day! I also have a new bed, which means new under-bed storage (I'm sleeping off the floor for the first time in a year and a half! I feel so grown up!) for fabric, yay! So, soon I will have a much better sewing setup, as soon as I can find time to finish arranging things.

I am finishing up a batch of altar linens, so they're ready for Holy Week, which is coming up all too quickly. Last weekend, I did some emergency repairs on an Easter church hanging, which had a threadbare rod pocket. I reinforced it with cotton duck, and I think it turned out well.

Have you ever noticed that, when you're making something for someone else, whether it's a cake or a pillow or a dress, your thoughts are very much on the recipient? I know that, when I was making MacKenzie's birthday present, I was thinking of her much more than I usually do; not just about how big to make things or what colors she likes, but wondering about what she thinks about, what her fantasy world is like, and how she's growing up. I think this is why I enjoy working on church sewing so much; it gives me a space to think about God and Jesus and grace and all the other things I lose sight of when I don't have those still moments.

Tuesday, March 13, 2001

My next project is my first foray into liturgical vestments. I'm making a stole for a wonderful woman at my church who is being ordained as a Deacon. Red is the color for ordinations, so we have selected seven red silk fabrics of various textures to be used in a patchwork design. It's going to be gorgeous. There will be a stylized dove applique over the patchwork on the front of the stole, with gold couched threads and beadwork. I'm so excited about this project!

I have also been making altar linens for my church, and embroidering them with my Rose. My narrow rolled hems are actually rather impressive. Well, now they are. My first attempt at a lavabo towel was a bit, um, charming in its imperfection. I really enjoy having some handwork to do while I'm having Couch Time, and hemming the linens is wonderfully relaxing. The book, Sewing Church Linens, is a must for anyone attempting this project.

blogger!