Let there be light

I almost forgot!

It’s been my goal this year to try to work in classes and at least attempt to find other crafty people around here. The trouble is that I am by nature a lifelong, dedicated, sincerely introverted person, so I crave a lot time where the rest of the world just goes away. I often get that time only when I pick up a needle or a hook (or a book, to be fair).

But I am trying. I figured there were certainly things I want to learn, so I looked around for who could teach me, and went from there.  So that’s how I found myself in a class on lamp-making at the end of May. The class was a lot of fun! It was taught by Gil Stancourt, who has been making lamps for 20 or so years who will (as he says on his business card) put a light bulb in anything. I thought it was really funny that he said he’d started teaching classes just so he could talk about making lamps more   And at the class I made this!

I know, it’s not an exciting of a lamp, being a wine bottle with no shade and a vaguely Asian base, but who cares? I made it! And now I understand how (simple) lamp wiring works, and what sort of (basic) components you need to build a lamp, and (sort of) how to drill a hole in ceramic or glass, and (mostly) where to get various components should I wish to build a lamp myself.  This is a super crappy picture, I know, but it’s really exciting that I know how this socket works. It is deeply satisfying to that part of me that always wants to take everything apart to see how it works.

I suspect that I will go to next month’s antique fair just to search for miscellaneous items that I can turn into a lamp. Because, you see, there’s going to be a follow-up lamp class that will teach me more intricate wiring, and I have to (a) practice and (b) find possible suspects for that class. And then I will construct Frankenstein lamps and lamp shades. I’ve been waiting for this class a long time, as you can see by the list of lamp tutorials that I have collected:

• make a custom lampshade
• heirloom linen lampshade slipcover
• ruler pendant lamp
• photo lamp shades
• string ball chandelier
• cork-covered lamp base

There was an unexpected bonus to this class, too. We got to cut and sand metal using that machine you see above there. I’m a power tool dork, so I was quite thrilled by that. I was extra happy that a professional machinist took the class as well, and he was kind enough to give us his expert rundown on cutting and sanding metal. It was fascinating. I’ll tell you, I run into people who make things for a living with their hands, and I just think sometimes that I did the absolute wrong thing with my life. Not that I dislike what I do, but there’s just something about making things and working with my hands that just isn’t the same as anything else. I was almost ready to give it all up and see if Gil wanted a lamp-making apprentice.

Anyway, since my house is actually rather lacking in lamps at the moment I may actually be able to do something useful for the house while I explore this new hobby. And then, of course, I will take another step toward making Jeff’s earlier statement true, that I won’t be satisfied until I’ve made everything in my house.

Potholders and Bacon Fabric and more

FIRST, a shout out to one of my best friends who got married today. Congratulations Paula!

I have FINISHED finished my whole kitchen project. Everything I was going to do is done, and then some. I planned to make 2 curtains, 4 cushions and a potholder, and I made three curtains, six cushions, three potholders and a mixer cover. I just could not seem to quit. But finally, I’m putting this project to bed (until I decide to make coordinating placemats and napkins or something) (because you know I will). Without further ado, voila valance over the kitchen sink:

That window, if you can believe it, is 55″ wide. I love having a big window over my kitchen sink. I have a collection of little things on the sill. Next up, above and below, is the quilted cover I made for my mixer. It is made of linen with a pieced decorative element and bias edging. It took a long time to make because I did all the quilting as well as the piecing myself. It’s pretty heavy duty. I drafted the simple pattern – it’s constructed with one long piece and two side pieces.

Under that mixer cover is a KitchenAid complete with Alton Brown-esque flame decals. I’m now saving for additional attachments and more bowls and things for it. This thing has made a lot of bread in its four months at my house.  It’s really good at kneading dough. Now it’s really good at holding up a cover.

I also made three potholders. They are based on the two I own and like. Potholders, I’m here to tell you, are NOT quick to throw together. There are a lot of layers of fabric, the terry cloth I used tends to get caught in my machine’s feed dogs, and between the quilting and putting it together there’s a lot of time involved in the sewing. If you can’t tell, I’m pretty thrilled to be done! I’m also pretty thrilled with the results.

The Williams-Sonoma oven mitt I based these two on has a terry cloth lining that I’m quite fond of. I chose to emulate that for all my mittens and potholders. After all, I had leftover terry cloth from my bathroom wrap project, so why not?  In addition to terry cloth there’s a layer of thick fleecy felt in between for added protection. I made the oven mitts from more coordinating fabric not used in other projects, a floral and a stripe.

And now, maybe, you see where my “bacon” reference in the post title comes in. After cutting some of the striped red/pink fabric into bias strips, I realized it looked a lot like bacon strips.  This particular fabric’s honestly a bit bacon-y and pink for me, but I think as long as I’m not seeing it in long narrow strips it’s fine. I like it with the floral, anyway.

I know people think I’m slightly nuts for making all this stuff for my kitchen, but completing huge and complicated projects like this really it helps a lot with improving my skills. I think I did a pretty good job on these things – I can tell my abilities with sewing are really getting better, which makes me happy. Craft, unlike art or knowledge, is one of those things where you aren’t good unless you practice it a whole lot. In my opinion, most good art has some type of practiced craft as its root. For example the technical craft of piano is at the root of artistic piano playing. In the same way I can express more and do more with my sewing as my sewing craft improves.

Now onto something completely different!  Well, not completely different. Just not anything for the kitchen.

P.S. So yesterday morning (or was that this morning?) I re-read my last post and asked Jeff if I came off as a curmudgeon. He replied, “You’re opinionated.” I said, “What does that mean?” and of course he responded, “It means you’re opinionated.” He’s right. I am. I can’t help it. Hope y’all don’t mind too much

Cushion + Pillow Win

That’s pretty much my story for the end of March. As you can see …. TADA!

I finished the bench cushions last Sunday, and I’m terribly pleased by them! This afternoon I also finished the four pillows in celadon and lemon that coordinate with the benches.  All are made from heavy natural linen on the sides/backs/bottom alongside various coordinating fabrics from Kate Spain’s Fandango collection.

Can we talk PIPING? If I’d left off the piping this project would have taken half the time and about 1/3 less fabric than it did. I think that I had to make 54 feet of 2.5″ bias tape, then pin that to cording, then sew it, then trim it down to .5″, then pin and sew it onto the cushions and pillows. It is my hope that the projects look more crisp and more professional as a result. I think it makes a big difference, myself, and now that it’s over with I’m glad I went to the extra trouble and time. Plus, piping is a new thing for me – another sewing skill CONQUERED. HA.

So can we talk zippers next? Again, a sewing accomplishment, at least for me, because until now I’ve found zippers intimidating. No more. I installed 6 hidden zippers using a pattern I came up with myself. I find it quite tidy to have removable washable covers via hidden zippers. I was thinking I might do a how-to for my hidden zipper pattern, but … um. No. Just getting it all sewn up was enough of a travail for one lifetime.

I have 3 more small things to finish up, but for the most part that’s the end of this enormous project. All of this kitchen stuff together means that this February/March project is arguably the largest craft project I’ve ever taken on. I think that it took more than 40 hours to put all of this together so far, some of which my brother and Jeff did. The sewing by itself has taken a lot of time. For each of the four rounds of cushion sewing with the piping it took 2 hours to pin and then sew. If I haven’t posted much lately it’s because I’ve actually been really busy working on this project, and also because sewing this much totally screwed up my back. I had to take some time off.

Luckily, our resident opportunist assures me that it was all worth it.