Bedouin Textiles

We enjoyed another exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. I'm always impressed with beautiful objects that also serve practical purposes. In this case, Bedouin nomadic tents, rugs, cushions, clothing, along with camel ornamentation and saddlebags.

The show is just a small portion of the collection amassed by Joy and Robert Hilden.

 The pieces on display were made from the 1960s through the 1990s. The textiles are made from a variety of materials: cotton, sheepswool, goat hair, camel hair, and include synthetic yarns in the newest pieces.

Joy Hilden wrote a book in 2010 about their collection and her research. As cultures disappear, it's important for the artistic and creative arts of peoples to be preserved and shared.  There is no substitute for interacting with cultures firsthand, but seeing this collection is a small glimpse into the weaving done by the Bedouin women. And Joy's book,  Bedouin Weaving of Saudi Arabia and It's Neighbors is available in the museum store and online.

Make it a Wonderful Day!

DIY "Chocolate" Bunny and an Easter Quilt

This is a zero-calorie "chocolate" bunny. It looks good enough to eat, but it's a thrifted figurine painted to look delicious.

This is how he started out- gray with a white tail. I saw his chocolate potential though.

I gave him a quick coat of gesso, and then a couple of layers of chocolate brown acrylic craft paint that I had on hand.

He's finished with a coat of matte-finish Mod Podge, which gave him just the right amount of chocolatey sheen.

And here is a quilt I made- with Helen. Helen made the zig-zag quilt with a wide green border.She didn't like it…but I did! I cut off the border leaving just a thin strip of the green and then added my own wide  patchwork of bright squares to repeat Helen's colors in the center piecing. 

 Terry did the long-arm quilting in edge-to-edge straight lines an inch apart.

The softie bunnies are by designer Mimi Kirtchner. (These were available from The Land of Nod, but you can see Mimi's originals on her website. I love her lumberjacks too!)

Here are a couple more pics of the quilt…

 Polka dot binding and backing…

…and a bunny who makes an annual appearance in our kitchen.

I also found some thrifted (Value Village) eggs too- some decoupaged, some painted wood. And crafting with supplies already on hand made for some inexpensive (and no calorie!) additions to our Easter decor.


Make it a wonderful day!

Shibori, K, and Me

A few weeks ago, I spent a fun weekend with my college friends, K. She lives over an hour away- too far for getting together as often as we'd like. We have a great time going to see art, making art, and just hanging out. One of our activities this time was shibori. That's Japanese fabric dying with indigo. 

We prepared our cotton fabric by securing it with rubber bands or tying it with string- around stones, folded, fanned, scrunched, bunched…

We then dipped each piece in the bucket of indigo dye, moving the bundle with our gloved hands. (*Note, if you try this at home, make sure your glove doesn't have even the tiniest hole. My index finger was blue for a week! K used different gloves…her blue thumb lasted for days too.)

We strung up a make shift clothes line in our garage studio to let our fabric, t shirts, onesies, (and even a full-sized table cloth!) dry. And then we stood back to admire our work.

The one below was a gray t shirt- it took the dye a little differently…

We loved how each piece was a bit of a surprise when we opened it- with more practice, maybe our results would be a bit more predictable.

K had some onesies on hand- I dyed this one twice so the circles on the bottom half are more subtle than the larger one on the top.

I sewed my shibori squares to make napkins, complete with mitered corners.

And I found some napkins at a thrift store (Value Village) to add to the mix. I think they'll look great with my plain white dishes and some bright yellow daffodils for our Easter table.

Thanks K, it was a fun and productive weekend. :D

Make it a Wonderful Day!

Quick Yarn Scrap Art

Here's a quick version of yarn scrap art. We built our own hearts or other simple shapes to mold yarn scraps dipped in thinned glue. (Maybe you've seen something like this done with cookie cutters. But this has the added fun of making our own foil mold.)

Here's how: Tear off a 12-inch strip of foil. We used the heavy duty foil that is 18 inches wide.

 Fold in half, then in half again. And then in half one more time to make a long strip that's about 1 1/2 inches wide and 18 inches long.

Shape into a simple open shape and then tape the ends. (Or use a small strip of foil to secure the ends by just wrapping around the ends and pressing with your fingers.) Place on a small piece of foil, larger enough to write the artist's name on it with a sharpie.

Dip short scraps of yarn into the diluted white glue. (About 1/2 glue, 1/2 water.) Use your fingers to wipe off extra glue so it's still pretty wet with glue but not swimming in it. Layer them into your shape and let dry. 

Once they are dry, carefully lift off the mold. We left the yarn shape attached to the backing foil and cut out near the edges of the yarn. We liked the way the foil shined in places to add interest to our yarn shapes. Mount using hot glue to colored card stock. Ours are on 6"x6" squares.

We did these as an "extra" on the days we were doing our paper mache, which used the same diluted glue. A roll of foil and a box of yarn scraps were easy to bring with me, and the kids were already in "gluey fingers" mode.


Make it a Wonderful Day!