Crochet Lace Doiley Scarves

I'm frantically working in my studio to build up my inventory to take first to Art & Soul in Portland on Oct. 3rd and then I'll be selling at the Weavers' Guild of St. Louis annual show Nov. 5-7. A few weeks after I get home from that I'll be in some Christmas shows so I'm really under the gun to produce! These are some new designed scarves I'm working on. The pale blue/gray one pictured on the mannequin is completed. One is in the process of being layed out to sew and the other picture shows dyed pieces in various colors. Of course these are "wayward threads" using vintage crocheted doilies, curtain panels, and laces. I'm backing them with dyed gauze and may throw in some silk ribbons.

Sandy's Work!

Sandy was a student in the hat making workshop at AU. She recently sent me pictures of her finished work, some of which she created after the class. She is so enthusiastic and has more ideas to make flower pins running through her head. I love this creativity and just had to post her photos.




I worked on a "wayward threads" wedding stole the last couple of days and completed it.






I have so much to do and seems like such a little time to get it all accomplished.

Outsider Hats to Dye for Class

If a woman rebels against high heeled shoes, she should take care to do it in a very smart hat. (George Bernard Shaw)

So many hats and only one head!

Beautify America. Wear a hat!


The hat class at Art Unraveled was a huge success. The first segment of the class students dyed silk fabrics and ribbons to make flower pins and create hat bands with. Jennifer Whitmer created the flower pin design which the students hand sewed and the third segment she led class in forming a hat out of a parasisal straw hat body called a hood. Here are pictures of students work from the dyed fabrics, to the flower pins, to the hats and then showing them fully embellished. You can see by the smiles on all the faces how pleased we were. What a fun group. We even had a woman who had never sewn before, Sandy, and look how marvelous her work turned out! It really is easy to make these hats and flowers if you have the desire!

These are some pictures of the dyed fabrics ready to begin creating hat embellishments.






Look at all the beautiful blooms that were created!






I don't know why I didn't get a picture of Kitty with her finished hat but here is her beautifully crafted flower pin!







The finished hats being proudly displayed.








Here is Sandy beaming in her new hat. I'm sorry I cut her flower pin off, can you still see it? I don't claim to be the best photographer and sometimes when teaching and getting caught up in it all I forget to take pics or I get partials like this one. At least I caught her wonderful smile (she's the one who had never sewn before so she had a lot to be smiling about!!).



(And for those who were in the class remember mums the word on the saran wrap episode!)

The Drive Home from Phoenix

I have some photos to post of my trip to Sedona, to the art retreat,and other of my journey to and from Arizona but I have to load them from my camera still. I have stories to tell but will get to them later. My immediate thoughts are of the dry, barren, dusty fields I passed along the San Joaquin/Sacramento Valley as I was driving on highway 5 (or The 5 as southern Californians say). Acres and acres of unplanted fields. Acres and acres of dead and dyeing fruit and nut trees, some of which were toppled over to the ground. Desolate and sad. Every quarter mile or so were signs saying "Congress Created Dust Bowl". Farmers have been denied water rights that were once plentiful. It's a hugh dilemma since the water was denied to save the fish since the water table was being severely depleted.

Read this article and see the photos. Here's a paragraph from it.

"Farmers throughout this region echo the sentiment that politics, not the drought, is the problem. Most of California gets its water from a huge estuary called the Delta, where two big rivers join in the center of the valley. But so much water was being pumped out of the Delta that a tiny smelt there, an endangered species, is disappearing. So late last year, a federal judge ruled that the amount of water being delivered to the south had to be sharply cut back."

I've heard that salmon and other fish were dyeing from their habitat being diminished by low water levels, not just the smelt. So do we try to save the fish or the orchards and crops? I wondered why almond butter was $11.00 a jar. Food prices are going to skyrocket and how much will get imported to other states?

"One out of every six jobs in California is tied to agriculture in some way. California has the largest agricultural economy in the nation; half of the nation’s fruits, nuts, and vegetables are grown here. About 20% of the nation’s milk supply comes from California; 92% of all grapes grown in the United States are grown here. Cotton, foliage and flowers are also in the top 10 agricultural commodities produced in California. Fresno is the most productive county in the nation, with an agricultural worth of 3.5 billion dollars in 2000."

Fresno is in the middle of the region that is now turning into a dust bowl. Think how the Joad family fled the nations dust bowl to come to California in "The Grapes of Wrath" and now we must wonder if that sequence may be reversed?