Lonestar Day 2

Working nights has given me lots of time to sew and I've made all kinds of progress on the star portion of this quilt. Here's what I've done since yesterday:

I sewed strips together to create 4 rows for each point of the 8 point star:


Each set of strips get's cut at 45 degrees to create the rows:


Here's how the four rows go together to create the points:


Sewing the rows together is a little tough because you can't line up the seams because the seams are diagonal. So the seams have to be pinned about 1/4" off so that they intersect where the seam will be to sew them together.

The eight points then become the star:


Now comes the tricky part - sewing the the squares to fill out the corners. This is tricky because the corner on the star is already sewn. More about that next time.

Lonestar

Annie will graduate from Pharmacy School in a little under 2 years (right around the time that Lexy will graduate from Nursing school and I'll turn 30). Since I made Lexy a quilt for her graduation from High School I am going to make Annie a quilt for her graduation (I guess that also means I have to take Lexy to Europe for hers - better start saving now). Since, most likely, Annie will never read this blog, I'll document the process of making Annie's quilt.

I'm going with the Lonestar Quilt design because Annie's always liked the name Lonestar - partly because of Space Balls, partly because the first four letters also start our last name. This is how I'd like the quilt to look when it's complete:


The outer stuff is all border, which is pretty easy, so most of the work is involved in the star part. I've bought the fabric, and I'm working now on piecing the star. To create the star you sew strips of different fabrics together and cut them at 45 degrees and sew those together to create the points of the star.

So far I've cut the strips and I'm sewing them together:


I managed to cut all the strips without cutting my fingers (yay!). I'll post some more pictures once I've done some more sewing.

Collaging

I love collaging. It's whatever you want it to be. It's also very useful. I've used it in costuming to convey a general look that I'm going for rather than drawing out a specific outfit. Most of the shows I do involve pulling or finding clothes rather than making costumes, so I can't say exactly what I want because there's no guarantee I'll find (or be able to afford it). So it's great to make a collage of colors or styles that I'd like to convey how I feel a character should dress.

My freshman year of college I made this collage for my "Clothing and Culture" freshman seminar. It is meant to represent how art/architecture and fashion mimic each other. This is that worked in the year 2000:



Recently, for Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, to help us understand our characters, the Assistant Director has us create a collage based on what we thought was sexy. Here's my "Sexy Collage":



I also like collaging just for fun and for art. Ben Franklin has shadow boxes and I made a couple artsy, 3D collages that now hang on my wall. It combines more than just pictures from magazines, there are pieces that I drew/painted in them as well. The photos aren't great but here they are (I haven't really titled them):

Mark's Pimp Cup

Woohoo! Two posts in one day. I'm on a roll.

After a rollicking college-like drinking party at my friend Mark's house I somehow managed in my drunken state to remember to grab his pimp cup so that I could bedazzle it for him. It was a little boring, though impressively large.

So, after a hungover tour of Ben Franklin Crafts I used some puffy paint, rhinestones and these cool bubble sticker things from the scrapbook aisle and bedazzled the crap out of that cup. It was reminiscent of the goggles I made for a show once - I'll have to write about it sometime.

Here's the totally awesome bedazzled Pimp Cup:

Ren's Quilt

So, now that I have a follower (yay Jen!) I feel like I should blog since I haven't posted anything since March. I have a couple plans for future posts (I have some free time coming up so I'll be able to craft more), but for now I'll just talk about what I did recently.

Through the theater I have a group of close friends, one of whom just graduated from high school. For her graduation I decided to make her a small quilt, and the others in the group decided to participate and each made a square. Here's the (almost) finished product:



I made the center square and the four side squares. The coffee one is self-explanatory. We're not racist, the burning Canadian flag is because Ren was in a car accident with some Canadians and now has a personal grievance with the entire country because of it. The Diva is because she was a Diva-in-training and has now been granted full Diva status.

The bottom left square (that doesn't really fit in with the color-scheme) is an interesting story. There was one of us who just does not craft, so to make his square we had him donate a meaningful piece of clothing with which I would make a square. The fabric was a bitch to work with, but the jacket it came from was memorable. The cut out's were done via laser cutter which one of the other girls had at work. It was an interesting was to cut, but I don't know if we'll do it again.

It was a fun group project and she loved the quilt when we gave it to her:

Pointe Shoes

I am (was) a classically trained ballerina in the Vaganova (Russian) style and danced “en pointe” for 6+ years before and after college (when I took a ballet break). My ballet days are somewhat behind me – I still dance, but my focus is a little more on jazz now – but, ballet will always be a part of me, and I haven’t given it up entirely (see my Zombie Ballerina blog).

My first Pointe shoes were Capezio Aerial II’s (the old style – I don’t like the new style) and eventually I moved on to Grishkos or Russian Class. I kept my first pair for a long time and displayed them proudly, but eventually they died and I had to throw them out. When I moved home after college and had lots of free time to craft I decided to decorate a new pair to replace my first pair.

For one of our performances in high school three of us choreographed a dance to “The Phantom of the Opera.” We had pretty black costumes and wanted to have pretty black Pointe shoes to match. We bought some Rit and stirred up a pot of black Pointe shoe stew in my friend’s yard with her cat nearby to complete our witchy scene.

And after all the “Double double toil and trouble” we learned that you cannot dye Pointe shoes like that. The box of a Pointe shoe (the hard part that supports the toes) is made from rosin (tree sap) and melts in hot water (and the dryer). So we ended up with beautiful black Pointe shoes that were too small and way too mushy to dance on.

So, I had learned my lesson about dying and decided to try another approach when decorating my new shoes (from eBay). I bought some Rit and this time, made a watery paint and painted the dye on with a brush like watercolors. This allowed me to dye the fabric without ruining the shoes as long as I didn’t apply too much at one time to the box (it also came in handy when making my aforementioned zombie ballerina costume). It also let me do some neat things.

I was able to do shading and color variation – I used a bluish/purplish dye and I think I mixed it with some watercolors. Also, I added some glitter to give it a bit of sparkle. I also glued on some sequins, added a bit of pizzazz with some glittery puffy paint, painted the insole and added pretty lavender ribbons. This is how they came out:

I had all kinds of plans for different shoes, but never really kept up with it. The shoes now gracefully adorn the doorknob on my bedroom door.

Curtain Costumes

Some of the most important costumes in “The Sound of Music” are only worn on stage for about a minute – the infamous Curtain Costumes. Not only do the children have to look adorable in them, but they are an important plot point as well.

In the story, as you may recall, the Children – “little marching machines” – are somewhat ignored by their father, a former sea captain, who treats them like sailors on a ship rather than beloved offspring. Maria comes along and teaches the children how to be children and how to sing – the latter being what breaks their father out of his widowhood induced funk and brings the family together again.

The changing point for the captain comes when he returns home a month after Maria arrives to find his children romping about the estate dressed in play clothes made from old curtains. The clothes are made from curtains because he wouldn’t give Maria material to make them clothes, so like a true “make it work” crafter, she used what was available – the old curtains from her bedroom.

The curtain costumes spark a conflict between the Captain and Maria that helps the captain to realize what has happened to his family, and to start falling in love with Maria. So, even though they are seen on stage for only a brief moment, they are vital to the play.

Since the prospects of renting costumes for our production of “The Sound of Music” were rather slim, I decided that these would be built for the show. Originally the lady who was going to assist me was going to make them, but things didn’t work out, so I took on the task.

In an earlier post I mentioned the challenges I had finding fabric on the island, so I ended up ordering some online (from 2 different vendors because Fabric.com only had 11 yards)- Benartex Splendid Holiday Alpine Holiday Pine (Christmas fabric, but it works great). I love this fabric.

I used a variety of dress patterns (one old (1950’s), 2 new, and one I made myself) and copied the Lederhosen I had purchased on eBay for the boys. They are adorable costumes, if I do say so myself.




This picture was in the Maui News article about the show. You can’t really see all of them, but you get an idea of how the fabric worked out (the children were singing when the photo was taken – hence the odd expressions on their faces). I’ll post better ones if I ever get any.