daisyjanie

a message from the glory days

{image courtesy zapp196, flickr}

I've seen so many pretty & interesting inspiration boards posted on various blogs recently (poppytalk and modish are great places to see some of these), and they've 'inspired' me to examine my own inspiration board. It's filled with lots 'o notes and cards from Matt, my sister and the Peanut Man, in addition to pics, colors, shapes and patterns that lift me up. The note that I always have in my periphery as I sew is the one I like the most, and thought you might get something out of it, too!

Background: Back in 2004 (seems like much longer than that!), I was a partner in a painting business called Fresh Paint LLC. I'm sure you've heard me reference it previously. We were asked to be part of a Designers' Showcase, which was a fundraiser for a women's shelter. It was one of the most challenging and labor-intensive things I've ever done. I was so stressed out, couldn't eat, had no time to do regular things. When it came time for opening night, Matt gave me a card with this note inside about what an inspiration Fresh Paint was to him and Peanut Man - and the lessons they took away from this experience just by watching it all unfold. Without further adieu...

1. Make time, don't kill time.
2. TALENT may start it, but ATTITUDE will finish it.
3. Why 'push the envelope'...when you can shove it the hell through!
4. A war for integrity lost is always better than a battle for pennies won.
5. Never be ashamed of a creative idea.
Bonus: Never agree to paint a house that has no working bathrooms. {long story for another day}

{handpainted powder room & floorcloth from Designers' Showcase 2004 - my sister liked it so much, I replicated it in her powder room!}

how to: quick and dirty curtains

When you have too many deadlines, errands and all-around-too-much-to-do, why not add 'make new curtains' to the list?! That was me recently, out of my ever-loving mind, but unable to resist the temptation to whip up some new curtains. The old ones were from Ikea and were only supposed to be placeholders until I had time to do something "real." That was 5 years ago! Ack. As the title suggests, these are truly quick and dirty. What does that mean: no pinning, ironing & measuring only when necessary, lots of swearing, no tabs, no buttonholes, no rod pockets, no pleats, gathers or other bunching. Two 84-inch long rectangles were my only goals - width would be whatever was eeked out of the fabrics when all was said and done. Did I mention the swearing part - waaay too much static for one person! So here we go:
What I used:
- 2 chocolate brown, satin 84-inch curtains from Target
- two 2.5 yd-pieces of a pretty Asian-inspired satin brocade.
- white, rain-no-stain lining fabric

1) The materials.
2) Take apart one chocolate curtain, do a once-over ironing (not unlike an egg). Cut into four equal strips - these are about 7" wide or so.
3) Sandwich your brocade between 2 chocolate strips. Sew right sides together. Trim all ends so chocolate is flush with brocade.
4) Press seam. I use a teflon plate on my iron. This enables me to use high-heat and full-steam at all times (sorry to make you gasp!).
5) Topstitch the length of each chocolate seam- about an 1/8" from the seam. Measure the size of your rectangles. Think about your finished length, and back up from your known measurements to determine your seam allowances and sizes of finished hems.
5.5) [Not pictured] Fold your bottom edge under. I folded mine 2" and then another 2". Sew once close to the edge of the bottom and once about 2" up from the bottom where your "top edge" of your fold would be.
6) Cut the amount of lining fabric you'll need to back your rectangles, keeping seam allowances in mind. Fold over twice on the bottom edge, sew. I didn't measure!
7) Sew right sides of lining and rectangle together along sides only!
8) Pet your doggie...he's cute, but he's mistaken and confused and doesn't know he's too big for the room, the static and the voluminous fabric you're swearing at!!
9) Press all seams (ugh). Staystitch top edge.
10) Fold over top edge twice (I eyeballed this) about 3/4" and 3/4". Press.
10.25) Sew along top edge and along each side as well for a nice, finished look.
11) Hang with pinch clips on a sturdy cafe rod.

Hard to gauge from these before & after images if it really looks better or not...but I'm pretty happy with it! I should have adjusted my thread tension to avoid the puckering, but that was not in the cards. The 2nd brown curtain was mounted in front of our closet. When we moved in, we thought we'd put a real closet door there, but there's a brick wall behind the drywall...that ended that idea. George was wiped out after all this action! Me too!!

math girl

My former business partner and I had an incredible vibe when we worked together, always spouting off crazy creative ideas as if they were plucked from one another's brains. Yet we had VERY different approaches as to how those ideas should actually get from a paint can to a brush to a wall, and it was this pivotal difference that made our designs work. Her nickname was "Ran" for random and mine was "Pre" for precise. I was definitely math girl, crunching numbers like a mad accountant on the eve of April 15th. Love the ruler, the level and the calculator! And with fabric design, it's no different at all! If you don' t like being chummy with x- and y-coordinates, being wickedly precise to the thousandths decimal place or looking at art with a graph behind it all the time, then this is definitely not your gig! I happen to love making a flowing design sit 'precisely random' inside my bounding box and figuring, twisting and tweaking the whole thing until it's just a blend of energized harmony. My mouse hand is swollen, my fingertips are numb and my eyes are bleary, but it's all part of the process...these papers are only the tip of the iceberg!

Here's an example of a design I painted in a Designers' Showcase a few years ago (a worthy charity event) - you can see where precision and randominity come together to make it work. My sister and brother-in-law liked it so much that they had me re-create it in their powder room (which is what is shown here b/c I can't find the original showcase image):

how to: jewelry mirror

Here's a very cool idea for organizing your jewelry. I usually grab my jewelry as an afterthought, and if I'm already running late, I don't have time to dig and untangle!

Materials
1 9x12 mirror
1 picture frame with 9x12 opening and a pretty wide perimeter
30 cup hooks (mine are 7/8", nickel finish)
drill
masking tape
pencil
ruler
OPTIONAL: framing points and framer's gun

1) Gather your materials. Disassemble the frame backing.
2) Check to make sure your mirror fits. I had this one left over from something else, so I wanted to be doubly-sure. Set mirror aside - do not leave it in the frame!
3) Measure the width of your frame's perimeter as well as the length of each side. Figure out how many hooks you want to put in and how far apart they need to be. Mine are 1" apart, and there are 14 across the top and bottom.
4) Make all your hook marks using the ruler to guide you.
5) Drill pilot holes.
6) Install your hooks. I have on gloves ONLY because it starts to hurt after the first few! Make sure they're all tight and in alignment. I finished tightening each one with pliers.
7) Once I had both top and bottom rows of hooks screwed in, I spaced out 3 other hooks on each side. Altogether I used 30 hooks.
8) Clean your mirror and lay it inside the frame. IF you're using framing points to hold the mirror in place, put pieces of masking tape over the spots where you will insert each point so you don't scratch the mirror (been there, done that!). IF you're NOT using framing points, just add the cardboard backing and close the backing tabs to hold in place.

Hang and you're done! Much, much better! I like the idea of using a mirror b/c I stand right there and try out different pieces to see what looks best. Lots of twists you can put on this original idea...have fun!

a bright spot

Corner of a handpainted mirror from my early days (little tiny chink out the bottom but still my favorite). A lot of my fabric design style comes from how I used to paint. The mirror was designed by me, and I had a cabinet maker produce them. The top layer is 1/4" corkboard - gives it an intesting texture. I used to make thumbtacks to go with each one, but my customers told me they were too pretty to pierce. Good point (ha, get it, point?!). While I'm reliving the glory days, I was once a juried member of a local Craft Guild for these and sold them at fine art / craft shows around southeastern PA....ages ago before there was an "indie" movement! (Craftsmen crafts not arts-n-crafts...BIG difference!) I'll try to post more images from household "bright spots" that make me happy. Maybe Mondays would be a good day for that since they're usually such a downer for me...