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"Haberdashery" quilt pattern

12/30/2024

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This pattern is Haberdashery, by Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet Co.  Someone gave it to me, and I can't find it on her website (though it looks like it was part of her currently unavailable "Fashion Fun" collection), so I don't know if you can buy it; it might have been an exclusive in Fat Quarter Shop's Sew Sampler subscription box.  The repeating motif of hats is darling, and simple enough to be a palate cleanser between more complicated projects. 

​This is a quick project: a few nights of cutting and counting squares until I have enough; a few nights of assembly, and the top is now tucked away in a bag of to-be-quilted items.  I don't have much to say about the sewing.  However, I'd like to honor Lori Holt's wish from her "About Me" page on her website: "​My wish is that my designs . . . will inspire others to create and will also instill the desire to pass down the valuable lessons of days gone by taught to us by our mothers and grandmothers."
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The Discourse Around Gee's Bend Quilts

11/10/2023

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I have mentioned before that I dislike Gee's Bend quilts.  This is a rare opinion... people tend to love Gee's Bend quilts, or at least praise them.  Good for them!  I am all for people loving art that speaks to them.  What interests me today is the squirming cringe I feel when I say I don't agree.  Why do I feel constrained to pad my opinion, when I give it, in a lot of stuffing about how great the quilts are, really, even if they're not my thing?  That psychology interests me more than the quilts themselves! 
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The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

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Couture Brute?

11/4/2023

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An outside hall at Mt. Hood Community College (hereafter MHCC)
What I dislike occupies more brainspace than you might expect.  I worry at it, like tonguing a cut in my mouth, trying to quantify what I dislike and why.  Sometimes, in creative assimilation, I make what I don't like, and so become a connoisseur.  Then, like a cut in my mouth, the thing heals and I forget it ever bothered me.  Most things have some beauty if you look close enough.
Today I contemplate Brutalist architecture, the Brutalist design philosophy, and how it might be expressed in thread.  The photos in this post are all my own, of Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon, USA.  ​​

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Dying Art or Cognitive Distortion?

6/12/2023

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I visited the Quiltopia quilt show in Salem, OR last year with a non-quilting friend.  She said "Oh, it's so sad that this is a dying art!".  Queried I: "What makes you think it's dying?", and she responded by pointing out the aging demographic she saw... that most of the people at the show were middle-aged to elderly.  She worried that they would age and die, and thus would perish quilting!  But, I countered, the middle-aged-to-elderly demographic is constantly renewed, as people age into it! 
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She might be the last quilter! Mennonite Board of Missions. Photographs. Illinois, Eureka, 1961-63. IV-10-7.2 Box 3 Folder 70. Mennonite Church USA Archives - Goshen. Goshen, Indiana.
Maybe quilting is a hobby people tend to take up in their middle years, as they settle into homes that have room for all the stuff, and as they age out of caring about fashion and clothes-sewing.  Plus, a lot of young people exhibit their quilts on blogs and message boards (looking at you, r/quilting!) and Facebook, rather than in shows. 

I wonder by what rubric we could actually evaluate whether an art is "dying"? 

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Paralyzing Procrastination

7/14/2021

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If procrastination were an Olympic event, I could represent my country... eventually... aw, heck, I wouldn't get around to it.  In school, like many smart kids, I discovered that I could rush my homework at the last minute and still get decent grades, so there was little need to budget time for study.  As an adult, my lack of discipline around time has greater consequences.  I try to combat procrastination by various means.  For instance, I say I need a deadline.  Without a  deadline, I won't finish.  But in practice, a deadline only works if it's imposed by another; if I have a deadline from someone else, it activates my dread of disappointing people, but my self-imposed deadlines have no teeth.  Still, that's not a good solution; do I really want to be motivated by dread and obligation? 

In the last several years, when sewing for paying clients, I kept repeating the same miserable cycle: I'd get a project with a deadline; I'd be excited about the possibilities and make plans to do something really cool; I'd get intimidated by my own perfectionism, so I'd fail to start; I'd fail to do anything else, either, because I felt guilty to work on things that were not my assigned project; I'd talk badly to myself in frustration; finally the deadline would near and I'd rush to finish, feeling a surge of creativity and pleasure in creation, but falling short of my perfect vision because of lack of time; I'd deliver the project and feel freed to do other things again. 

In the winter of 2020-2021, it got really bad, as I had a perfect storm of other issues and winter depression as well.  There was a jacket that might have taken me two weeks to make if I'd budgeted a few evenings here and there, but instead too nearly six months of angsting and procrastinating.  I was happy with the jacket, but at my wits end with my own maladaptive behavior! 

Then one day I saw a video put out by Cathy Hay, a historical costumer and researcher whom I follow.  She said something that may have opened a door in my head:
There's a transition you go through when you switch from having a project to having a finished thing.  And that's because you change role... from Maker to Owner of a thing.  You switch, when it's finished, from being the maker of the thing to the person who's judging the finished thing.  So when you're afraid of finishing, it's really the Maker in you who is afraid of the Owner, the judge, that is gonna look at the finished thing and judge it.

And the Maker needs to talk to the owner and say “I'm okay with this, however it turns out. I don't really care what the owner thinks, because the maker had fun making it.”
I've since practiced telling my maker-self what my owner self will think, even before the thing is done, so I can finish.  I'll say things like "I'm going to love having this blanket", or "I will use the heck out of this, and be charmed by its quirks" or "It'll be nice to hear others admire this, and only I will know about this mistake... it'll be my little secret."  My future self trying to earn the trust of my present one.  I think it's helping. 
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Making the March Sisters

4/23/2020

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Big news in the world of sewing vloggers!  Which is to say, not big news, but I am enthused.  In December 2019, Sony Pictures released a new version of Little Women (Louisa May Alcott's novel about four sisters), directed by Greta Gerwig.  In February 2020, at the 92nd Academy awards, the film won Best Costume Design for Jacqueline Durran's costumes. 
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Apparently, Sony has a good handle on which demographic will truly obsess about their film, because that same month they contacted four historical costumers who have followings on YouTube and asked them to make Little Women inspired costumes, as part of the extended promotion for the upcoming digital and BlueRay releases.  Each vlogger got a copy of the film to watch, a sister to sew for, and sponsorship.  Each made a video showing their project development, talking about the film and their character, and showing the finished costume.  What a great idea!
Today, I'll talk talk briefly about Louisa May Alcott and her novel, ruminate on womanhood in fiction and fashion, and show the various vloggers' creations. 

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Honesty About Money...

1/7/2019

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A year or so back, a woman late of Hawai'i asked me to make her puletasi, a two piece Samoan ensemble of fitted blouse and wrap skirt.  She was unhappy with the work of her current seamstress, who didn't finish seam allowances in any way.

We had a brief email exchange, in which it quickly became clear that we had very different ideas about a fair price for the labor, and it ended amicably with us agreeing not to work together.  But it was such an interesting exchange, especially in light of my previous ruminations on money, that I want to examine it. 

I will not be betraying any personal or identifiable details here, just the bare bones of our disagreement, and the broader question of pricing and the value of time/work. 
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Puletasi, by Amolioo [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

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Feminism and Consideration

12/27/2018

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One day I told my mom, in passing, that I was a feminist.  "You are?!" she asked in bewilderment, and I wondered what feminism meant to her.  As I see it, I am a feminist because of the things my mother taught me: I believe in educating myself, paying my own way, embracing my inherent strengths, appreciating how I'm different from men, being strong and gentle, standing up to people who would use or devalue me, voting, et cetera.  Why would the word "feminist" put her off when she knows and approves all those things about me? 

But when I read something like this, I understand where the confusion comes from:
I should be able to dress how I want and act how I want.  That's what feminism is about, not about making others feel comfortable.
-- Emily Ratajkowski (a model), interviewed in Marie Claire Magazine, June 2018. 

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Is it Vanity to Care About Clothes?

8/20/2018

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When I look at my life over the past few years I see two streams of thought: thoughts of God/faith/Christianity, and thoughts of clothes/sewing/external presentation.  To many, these would seem incompatible.  Doesn't Christianity frown on thinking too much about clothes?  Or, in some denominations, doesn't Christianity obsess about clothes in a censorious way that denies wearers any joy in their raiment? 

(All Bible quotes in this post are from the NIV.)

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Stove tile (1530's) showing vanity, from South Tyrol. UBC Museum of Anthropology, Cat. No. Cg102/103. By Wolfgang Sauber [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons.

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Bathing in a Semiotic Sea

7/12/2018

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Two friends of mine have been talking about clothes lately.  Here are their situations in brief:

Friend A is a professional woman, a freelancer, whose life and work intertwine a lot.  She works with clients in her studio in her apartment, for example.  She is interested in curating her wardrobe so it works for easy daily wear, but also gives the impression of competence, professionalism, and style.  She wants to be able to grab any item from her closet in the morning, and look like a put-together professional.  She sees it in terms of costuming: dressing for the role she has to play. 

Friend B is a professional woman as well.  Her job requires a college degree, but is also physical and doesn't require dressing up.  A very active person, she likes to wear comfortable clothes, like sweat pants and gym-wear, on her days off.  However, when people routinely tell her she looks like a teenager or young college student, she finds this annoying.  She worries that people are telling her she's immature, or are judging her as less serious because of her clothes.  So now she's wondering: should she make an effort to dress more "adult" in order to forestall those comments?  And if she does, does that mean she's less of herself? 

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    Karen Roy

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