Coming Full Circle

The Great British Sewing Bee

I've been watching with great interest the BBC series The Great British Sewing Bee (series one just ended and a second series has been approved - yeah!).

To summarize, the show has compiled a group of 'amature' sewer to compete against each other for the title of most talented amature sewer in Britain.  They are given challenges that get more difficult as the show progresses with eliminations after each episode.  I have to say that after watching this show I'm amazed they are categorized as amatures.  The only thing that makes them amature sewers in my mind is that they don't sew garments for a living.  Personally I would be more than pleased to have the skills of any of these talented people.

And this leads me to my post and my deep and meaningful thought for the day (Ha!  I'm laughing myself stupid after that comment....).  Haven't we come full circle with our needles and thread....

Way back when - it was a given to have been exposed to and be knowledgeable in (be it garments or home furnishings) the art of sewing.  This was a skill most housewives possessed as a matter of course.  We learned this from our grandmothers and mothers and were also taught it in school (who remembers Home Ec?).  Even if we didn't become proficient sewer, we still knew how to sew on a button or hem a skirt.  It absolutely amazes me that I have spoken to young women nowadays who have never even picked up a needle.  When did this most basic of skills fall to the wayside?  When did we, as women, get so busy outside the home to have lost the continuing thread of knowledge from our foremothers in home sewing?  And I'm wondering when did the thread become reconnected to bring us to today with the billion dollar industry in quilting and booming home garment making interest?  What changed inbetween?

As my field of study at college was Social Anthropology, I have a bit of insight into this topic as I planned to do my thesis on the changing roles of women in contemporary society.  One of the main aspects of my paper was the changing dynamics of the nuclear family with the advent of women going into the work force and how this shift changed almost everything we thought of as the basis of family and women's roles within the family up to that point in history.  Its only recently with the switch of attitudes by young women that we're seeing a bit of a reversal.  For example, a women who grew up in the 50's would most likely have conformed to the mores of society and what was expected of a woman of her status.  She married and raised a family and didn't work outside the home until much later in her life.  As times changed and society viewed women in a new light she taught her daughters that they could grow up to be anything they wanted to be and encouraged their independence.  Her daughters grew up to be doctors and lawyers and scientist with the belief that they could have it all - the successful career and the happy home life.  However her daughters found that this wasn't always the case.  Something had to give.  She couldn't spend 10 hours at work and come home to feed the children and the husband and do the housework without loosing her mind and without the need for 'mothers little helpers', a.k.a. amphetamines.... Flash forward to today.  Our young women have seen Super Mom - and have felt the effects of what had to give for Mom to be super woman and they've decided this isn't what they want for themselves and their families.  These young women are looking at their home life with different eyes then their grandmothers from the 1950s.  To these women a successful family life IS their job, their vocation and a worth wild one at that.  I'm not saying women still can't be the doctors and lawyers and scientist.  What I'm saying is that there will be sacrifices made for it.  Anyway, this is getting too deep....

I'm so pleased to see that within the last 10 years or so there's been a resurgence of interest in the 'home arts'.  Women, as well as men, are rediscovering the creativity and usefulness of having the ability to make something specifically their own from fabric, needle and thread.  I think we've really have come full circle.

I'll be hanging out to watch the next series of The Great British Sewing Bee to get some pointers on how to bump up my own sewing skills.

Retreating we shall go.....

Black Wattle Retreat.  You reached the entrance after driving about 10 miles on a dirt road.

This past weekend one of my quilt groups - Running with Scissors - had a retreat in country WA at the Black Wattle Retreat in Toodyay (pronounced to-jay), Western Australia.  I'm a city girl and don't go 'country' very often.   There's a good reason for that....bugs, dirt roads and the total silence of the country drives me crazy!  I'm used to cars, street lights and civilization.  Anyway, going retreating in 'the bush' as Australians say is always an interesting endeavor for me.

The retreat compound has numerous buildings with the main house the central point for food and mobile phone reception.  Here in the country getting mobile reception is always a challenge and this place was no exception.

Our group was split up into two sleeping assignments.  Three of us were in the 'log cabin'.  I have to explain that the definition of log cabin in Australia is a bit different to that of the northern hemisphere.  I'm not making a disparaging comment, merely pointing out there is a difference.  Our log cabin was actually a large metal shed clad in vertical strips of wood inside and out (I thought the vertical arrangement was interesting as I've never seen a log cabin built this way...).  But I suppose if the wood bits don't correlate to the structural integrity of the building it doesn't matter if the wood is place horizontal or vertical.

Our log cabin

We had all the comforts of home with queen sized beds, a fully stocked kitchen, a potbelly stove - even a spa located next door to our outside bathroom.

Home away from home

Posted on the outside of our detached bathroom

  All our quilting work was accomplished in The Goose House - a purpose built common area within walking distance of the guest houses.  An interesting feature of The Goose House is that on the  inside metal red painted walls of the building, names are written in chalk from previous groups who have used the space.

Our common room

Our name sake for the Goose House who was perched above the kitchen space

Kilroy was here

Though we consumed plenty of food (gourmet I might add - swordfish one night and osso bucco another....) and wine, we did get plenty accomplished in the way of quilting.

Quilting and wine go hand in hand

Consuming a completely homemade breakfast the next morning

 Some of us even had time for a look see in town.
 

Toodyay is a lovely old Australian country town

When I got home on Sunday I spread the blocks I had finished during the retreat on my kitchen floor and Daphne, my dog, approved.

My dog's impression of a 'thumbs up'

 All in all is was a lovely retreat.  I'm already looking forward to the next one.

TGIFF

I've been asked by my quilting friend Laura to post to her blog for TGIFF (Thank God its Finished Friday).  Its so rare that I actually HAVE something finished it's rather exciting to be able to do this.  As most of my quilting is done by hand it takes me a while to complete stuff.  Not that I'm complaining.  Anyway, here's the big reveal.

This is my what I'm calling my Psycho 70's Apple Core Modern quilt.  Yeah, that's a mouthful.

Psycho-70's Apple Core queen sized quilt

 My apologies for the less then lovely photography.  I wasn't able to put it outside to photograph because I've been working too late recently to get home when it's still light enough out.  So I got the husband to stand behind this and hold it up.  The white background is very white though it doesn't look like it in this picture.  And the apple cores are very bright - again, the photo isn't the best.

Close up of apple cores

All the apple cores were pieced by hand using as many bright and unusual prints I could find.  I wanted the finished product to be a riot of color.  Originally I thought I would piece the entire quilt with the apple cores but decided I wanted to experiment with negative space as well so I incorporated a large panel of the apple cores into plain white fabric and put the panel to one side.

Close up of variegated thread

I appliqued the panel to the plain background by machine applique using variegated purple thread.  I then hand quilted around each apple core using heavy gauge red thread and a large stitch so it would show up well on the back. 

The back with hand stitching around the apple cores

I then machine quilted the negative space with vertical curved lines, again using variegated thread in lots of different colors. 

Full back

I like the finished product.  I would do another quilt with negative space just to experiment more with texture.  This one I wanted to keep relatively plain because I wanted the apple cores to really be the focus.  I think it looks rather nice on the bed.

 As well as on the couch.

Sometimes It's All About the Accessories...

 

I'm a girl - well, a woman.  That statement should tell you all you need to know about fashion accessories and me.  They go hand in hand like black and white, Lucy and Ricky and a 1960s VW Volkswagon Beetles with a painted peace sign..... I like to accessories no matter what I'm wearing.  This, as a quilter, includes my sewing kit.

When I'm traveling with my hand piecing I need certain tools of the trade to travel with me; scissors, needles, pins, pin cushion, thread and something to hold it all in.  Most times I have a lovely looking case that from the outside looks like a book.  It holds everything, including the project I happen to be working on, nicely.  But sometimes I whittle the kit down to it's bare essentials.  But even when I'm bringing nothing extraneous except what I need, I still like it to look good.  It's part of my nature.  So here's a look at what the bare essentials are to my sewing kit:

I made this little bag to hold this and that.  I found it's perfect to hold all that items that follow below

My thread spool holder.  This is handy as it holds my thread spool as I use it so I don't have to chase the spool all over the floor as it unravels.  My husband made a few of these for me and I love them.

A finger pincushion.  I usually like using a finger pincushion because its convenient.  Its right there on my left hand so I hardly have to move much with my right hand to extract a pin from my project and put it into the holder.

A pin/needle holder.  I keep extra needles and pins in this soft case.  A friend made it for me one year for Christmas and I use it all the time.

And finally my scissors accessorized with my personal name beads (so I don't forget who I am).  These lovely scissors are Australian made and are called wallaby scissors.  Storks are so northern hemisphere.

So as you can see, even in sewing as in real estates its all about accessories, accessories, accessories.

A New Member of the Family

Let me introduce the latest edition to my sewing machine family.

This is Gretchen.

1963 Husqvarna Zig Zag 19E

 I bought Gretchen at the vintage fair I went to a few weeks back from a seller who said he was tired of dragging her around.  I got her for a very good price.

She is a 1963 (damn, that was a good year...) Husqvarna Zig Zag 19E machine.  I did a bit of research and came up with the following.  She was made in 1963 which was nearing the end of the full metal jacket era of sewing machines for Husqvarna.  A few years after that machines started to incorporate plastic bodies.  She has zig zag capabilities as well as three needle positions and you can drop the feed dogs by a flick of a switch.  She has an extended sewing bed - which is all metal.  She also has a completely independent bobbin winder on the right hand side that once the bobbin is fed onto the reel disengages the needle.  When the bobbin is filled, the needle engages again automatically.  Pretty cool for 1963.  She was built to compete against the Singer Featherweight and was rather expensive for her day.  One blogger purchased this machine with it's original sales receipt still inclosed which in 1963 was a staggering $345 dollars!

When I purchased Gretchen (I named her Gretchen because she looks like one, don't you think?) the capacitor in her foot pedal had gone which caused the needle to run at full speed and couldn't be stopped when the foot was plugged in.  I took her to the sewing machine hospital and had a full service done on her.  She's now working good as new and I just love her.

These photos were taken on my last retreat as I had to bring Gretchen along.  She worked beautifully and I'm truly happy with my purchase.  She's definitely going on my upcoming retreat this weekend.

You may ask, did I need another machine?  LOL of course not!  But I really think when an opportunity to get such a beautiful vintage machine presents itself, you have to take it.  It was love at first sight.

Ahhh, the Smell of an Old Book...

 When I started this blog years ago one of the first topics I discussed was my love of old books.  Not just any old books though, books pertaining to women's sphere of work, i.e. domestic chores, cooking, household management, sewing...with my particular interest in any publications prior to the mid 1960's.  I suppose I find books on this subject before the 70's really interesting because it's so foreign to my time of growing up.  I was born in the 60's, was a preteen in the 70's and a high schooler in the 80's (damn, I'm showing my age...).  Over the years I've accumulated a respectable amount of old books covering women's domestic life.  I just love them and they have a pride of place in both the French secretary in my living room and on display shelving behind my couch.

What do I love about them?  Just about everything really.  I love the style of writing during those periods.  It was so formal in its structure yet filled freely with descriptive adjectives "This smart frock of iridescent blue and peach, is based on the shirt style, can be worn equally well for casual day wear or accessorized appropriately for evening entertaining."

No one writes like that anymore!

I love the way how any problem had a simple domestic solution.  If your husband is stressed after a long day at work, handing him a cocktail as soon as he gets home while sitting in his favorite easy chair soaking in the stress free home environment puts him in the right frame of mind for consuming the three course meal you have slaved all day to make him.  This will take away his woes.  If your children are unruly, make them a nice new outfit and bake them a cake.  That will fix the problem.  If you feel depressed, well there's nothing like a trip to the hairdressers and a new frock (in your husband's favourite color) that won't work wonders for your psyche.  As long as a woman had these books in her reference library no problem was too big or too small to tackle in the table of contents.  I suppose what I love most is the innocence and nativity in these old books in the belief that all problems were solvable through domestic bliss.

Perhaps quilt books today are out modern day replacements for our foremothers Better Homes and Gardens, Betty Crocker and Readers Digest domestic bliss books.  Feeling depressed?  Make yourself a Kaffee Fassett color filled quilt to cheer up your room.  Children driving you crazy?  An eye-spy quilt is just the ticket.  Husband having work problems?  Make him a manly quilt that's just the right size to fit in his briefcase (or man bag) so he can bring it into the office and smother his boss with it in style - problem solved.

Bet you never thought quilting could be so therapeutic....

Pin Interest

 

Danielle's unbelievably busy pin cushion

 I have a real interest in pin cushions.

I don't make them and I don't collect them but I do love to photograph them.  All my friends in my quilt groups know I'm nuts about this because I'm always taking pictures of their pin cushions.  They obviously think there's something wrong with me.

I don't know exactly why I'm so drawn to them.  Perhaps to me they are functional pieces of art.  And each pin cushion is unique in a way to its owner not just because of the beauty of that particular choice of cushion but also because it's customized by it's owner with their pins.  They each tell a little about the person who uses them.

I have many, many more photos but I won't bore the be-Jesus out of you with them as you may not be as enamored with them as I am.  But here's one last one - my own.  My husband calls it 'the bad fruit'.  I wonder what this says about me?