Quilting Kick

My new love is....
Drumrolll......

SEWING!!

My craft space, compared to before, is the size of a football field. I feel like I won the craft lottery and moved into a craft castle. It's great! My sewing machine now sits tall and proud on a large table in my upstairs funroom. It no longer hides in the closet.

I'm absorbed in the joy of sewing. It all started about a month ago when I bought myself a quilting kit for kids. What fun!! Super simple, fun instructions and all supplies included. After that, I immediately ran to the fabric store (there are so many good ones in Portland), picked out the most irresistible fabrics I could find, and started sewing away with my new tricks. Here's a funny threesome wallhanging that I sewed.


I guess you can't really call it quilting unless there is batting in the middle and you sew lines over the whole thing, but what-ev. It's basically like quilting cause it's sewing together pretty, pretty fabrics to make a flat design. I'm really inspired by a famous quilter named Denyse Schmidt who designs with an irregular, awkward look that I love.

Kathleen, remember when you had all of those juicy, wonderful fabric scraps from quilting? Do you still have those? (I hear you're coming to Portland in December... hint hint.)

On another exciting note, last week I had a craft night at my house. A handful of my girlfriends came over and it was so fun! This is something I'd love to have monthly or so. Below, Stacey works on a dazzling top she is sewing for herself. Nicky is doing some collaging with paint, dirt, and flower pedals. It's so much more fun to craft together. Craft on, ladies!

Hardly Strictly Fabulously Definitely Fun

We got back today from San Francisco, where we spent the weekend at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. It was about 65 degrees and sunny both days. So fun!


The festival is in Golden Gate Park and totally, completely FREE. About 40 bands perform, big and small, on 5 different stages. This years big acts were Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Del McCoury, and more. I thought I did a good job of not trying to see everything I wanted to see. A multiple-stage festival is much more fun when you just relax in one place, I've learned, especially when it's really claustro-crowded like this one.

Except for the fact that you have to fight your way forward to actually see the stage at times, I wasn't kidding when I said this festival is outrageously chill. For one thing, any ol' soul can just walk into the park and spread out a blanket. No ticket needed. For another thing, there is no beer garden or wristbands for drinking. In fact, they don't even sell alcohol, everyone brings their own and no one cares about it. No one gives a damn about smoking (well that's not true, there is a 'no tobacco' rule). The lack of law enforcment is pretty amazing in this day and age, considering the fact that this is a gathering of about 70,000 people.


Here is my one shot posing with the man of the weekend. Warren Hellman, the guest banjo player up on stage, puts on the entire festival. He happens to be a really nice billionaire and pays for it all out of his pocket. Just for fun! A gift from him to us. Thanks Warren! He doesn't do any commercial sponsorship, so there is no advertising anywhere. His name is often mentioned and everyone cheers. Wow. It must be rough. I mean, to have an endless pot of cash AND have everyone love you...

Hardly Strictly is a gem and I recommend it, no doubt. But get there early to get a good spot. This precious event is no longer a well-kept secret.

Connecting

Alrighty... you're all obviously waiting in pure agony (probably losing sleep) over not knowing what the mystery picture below is. I'll tell you... It's the blown up image of the inside of some sort of cable that goes deep down in the ocean. Ziegy recently went to his company headquarters in Denmark. They had it framed on the wall as artwork. So he took a picture of it for me! Neat, huh? He been in Vancouver, BC at the Oceans 2007 conference for the past week. The other day on the phone he told me he was getting ready for a seminar on underwater cables and connectors. Sometimes I think his job is fascinating, other times not as much.

He comes back tomorrow and then we are hopping on a plane to go to San Francisco. We are going to spend the weekend at this totally outrageously chill event. We'll see music friends and also my friend Kari down there. Fun is ahead!

Stitching Together Thoughts

I've been spending quality time in my upstairs hideout, where I have the juiciest space to do whatever creative thing I dream of. I'm stoked to announce: I have a new craft! I'd show you pictures of my new creations, but unfortunately, Zieg is traveling right now with the camera. So stay tuned for the return of the camera. I guarantee that next week's photos will be exciting to "unfold." In the meantime, rest assured that I am full of inspiration and jolly jubilee for life. I am definitely not bored!

Needletune needs new pictures. Since I have to hold off on showing off what I made, here's a pair of random musings about photos I found in the computer.


Here is a my silly friend Kari from college, who I recently bonded with while she was living in Astoria, Oregon (where "The Goonies" was filmed). Her house was on a hill overlooking the ocean. It had what appeared to be the Golden Gate Bridge out the front door. Breathtaking! But in return for the beauty, she had the shortest shower in the world. An elf shower. This is what she had to do if she didn't feel like going to the gym to take a shower.



Isn't this pretty? It was taken by our little camera just a few weeks ago. I bet you have no idea what it is. I'm not telling. heh. Any ideas? Leave me a comment and tell me what you think it is. If you're right, you'll be my new best friend! If you are wrong, Needletune points for you for effort.

It's late, I'm all crafted out. Good night.

List of Lists

Right now in my life, I am doing a lot of little things to keep busy and stay afloat. A little of this, a little of that... all meeting together from different directions to make for what I think is a pretty interesting life. (Thankfully, it is all stuff that involves some creativity or I think I would go crazy.) Well, all of these things add up to what feels like a very big thing, a mass of thoughts in my head. So today, I did something that made me feel more organized and also made me laugh-- I sat down to make a list of the lists I need to make. Seriously. I'm not sure what that says about my life! Next, I think I might try drawing out a tree with branches to get my lists organized.

Ooh, Let's Join

Here are the 3 poster designs that I just finished for Girls Inc. I ended up being asked to do separate designs for elementary, middle school, and high school. Since the posters are laminated, it works well to write on them with a dry erase marker, so the white boxes are for meeting times, etc. The posters will be displayed at schools all over the Portland area. Enjoy!

Elementary



Middle School



High School

Crazy Sexy Cancer

This lady to my left, Kris Carr, is incredible. She has cancer and made a movie about how she is kicking it in the ass and is embracing her life to the fullest. How cool! It's called Crazy Sexy Cancer and it debuts on TLC tomorrow night. Set your DVRs!

I love it when someone takes a bad thing and makes a good thing out of it. When I first heard the name of the movie, I thought I was hearing things. Most people wouldn't associate cancer with anything fun and sexy. Cancer sucks, right? It's not a fun thing. I'm one who fantasizes about a world where illness and death is not such an uncomfortable topic, so I ran to my computer and googled these three words. When I learned about Crazy Sexy Cancer I was refreshed. What a strong girl! By putting herself out there in such a positive way, she is helping cancer, and all of it's associated suckiness, to be just a little more approachable. Oh thank goodness.

I am so inspired. Seriously. The quality of shows on cable TV is amazing. And no I'm not serious about that.

Fun Design Job

I'm stoked to share with you that I was hired to do some graphic design work for an absolutely fabulous non-profit in town called Girls, Inc. They are a national organization completely devoted to empowering girls. Their motto is "Inspiring all Girls to be Strong, Smart, and Bold."

My job is to design marketing materials for girls ages 8-21, inspiring them to join Girls, Inc. and become members. My designs are naturally youthful and fun, so I am a good fit for the task. But I realized recently that I have no idea what is cool to girls these days! I know what I would want for them to think is cool, but that wouldn't necessarily make it appeal to the 13-year-old of 2007. Any ideas? I'm challenging myself to think outside the box of flowers, hearts, and swirls, and give this some real substance. This project will be a lot of fun.

I'm honored to be on board with Girls, Inc. and I wanted to share my news and also bring the organization to your awareness. I'm also using this as an excuse to share the link to my online design portfolio, which I'm quite proud of. Take a peak at it. (Click to enlarge an image.)

Good Stuff

My friend Sarette is so crafty. Look at these pants she sewed for herself!

Today I discovered the most fabulous new store in Portland that is only a bicycle spin away from my house. It's called Twisted and is has yarn, crafts, classes, and tea. Yet another reason why I love this city! Not only does Twisted have a weekly movie night, where you do the craft of your choice with other fun ladies (or strong men), but the two girls who just opened it are really nice. I'm hoping they decide to do some hiring soon.

Which reminds me that the other day, while shopping with Sarette, I discovered another store which is equally blogworthy. Saint Cupcake is a fun little boutique on Belmont Avenue. It's full of handmade things that you don't need at all, but you just want so badly. It's a great store to waste time in. And just when you thought this store couldn't be more scrumptious, at the back of the store, you'll find that you're actually shopping in a cheerful little cupcake shop! What's more fun than that?

Portland has a huge craft and DIY (do it yourself) scene and it is about half of the reason why I live here. I'll tell you more about that another day.

Movin' & Groovin'

Last weekend was a whirlwind! Not only did we transition from Seattle to Portland, but I personally shuffled from one music festival to another. The craziness started last week, when we packed up our stuff into a U-haul in Seattle, drove down, and unpacked it into our new garage. Then I drove out to the Gorge for the Stevenson Bluegrass Festival and played a dance set with Deadwood Revival on Friday night. (Yes, it was called a "dance set". And boy did they dance, thank the Lord.) Then, On Saturday I drove out to Hornings Hideout and met up with the Ziegman for the big String Cheese Incident weekend. In the meantime, we homelessly stored all of our stuff in our new garage. The move was chaotic, but the whole weekend was planned out and worked seamlessly!


String Cheese is a big jam band that puts on a huge camping festival every summer on beautiful grounds outside of Portland with a lake, a creek, and lots of forest. The stage area is a huge natural bowl-shape ampitheater that is perfect for thousands of people. Many people feel very at home at Hornings Hideout.


The weekend is not only about the band, but you see lots of costumes, dancing, workshops, and crazy circus-like hoopla. On Saturday night, they cleared out floor and put on a big theatrical show while the band jammed in the back. We were at the front of the crowd for this. I loved it! But also I was glad that we did not all go up in flames.


While frolicking in silliness with our friends Amy & Sean, we passed by a beautiful collage made with scrapes of random fabric pieces and glue gun. In the collage are images of flowers, water, animals, hills, etc. This is only part of it to show the detail. In my already blissful state, I thought this was pure luscious eye candy. Seeing this now makes me want to stop this unpacking nonsense and start crafting NOW!


I mean, could this be any more CUTE???


We are very lucky in that we are part of a huge community of friends in Portland called "The Visitors". Here is the group photo from the weekend. I, of course, was lost in my own world hula hooping at the top of the hill and missed the whole photo. But Zieg made it. He is the big guy in the lower left side with the scarf on his head.