End Of Book 2.

End of book 2.

Don’t tell me embroidery is relaxing.

“By the eighteenth century embroidery was beginning to signify a leisured, aristocratic life style — not working was becoming the hallmark of femininity.” (The Subversive Stitch, Rozsika Parker, 1984: 11)

Women’s work as an oxymoron: if women do it, it cannot be work. Women cannot work, so anything a woman does cannot be work. Therefore, embroidery, actually called ‘work’ by women, cannot be classified as work. It is instead, a leisure pursuit – assuming one is not paid for it. And one cannot be paid for it because it is not work, cannot be work if it is produced by an upperclass woman. To try and pay her for it – for her to try and sell it would be to undermine her husband’s fragile masculinity by implying he cannot support her. But all of this is to say nothing of the women who did do embroidery as work, as a living, who did sell their labour. 

I think this is one of the reasons I get irritated by people telling me it must be so relaxing to sew. I don’t find it relaxing. It is work. It is labour and it is my job. I don’t tell other people that their work, their job, the thing they do everyday must be ‘so relaxing’ because that would be an absurd assumption to make. Maybe they do find it relaxing. Or maybe they enjoy it, but don’t find it relaxing because actually it’s hard work and concentration. But it is not my place to assume these things, and of all the questions one could ask about another’s job, whether it is ‘relaxing’ is a strange place to start. What are people implying when they tell me I must find embroidery relaxing? That it’s easy? Unskilled? Requires no concentration? That it’s not work. 

Some people find embroidery relaxing because they do it as a hobby. They do it as a thing which is not their job. Just as some people take up wood-carving as a hobby. But do people tell the professional carpenter that their job must be relaxing because it is considered by others to be a hobby? 

Don’t tell me my job is relaxing. Don’t tell me my job isn’t work. 

Maaaan, I really need to get back to practicing free-motion quilting.

Quilting Circles - Ruler Work

I am having so MUCH FUN with the Circles on Quilts templates by Westalee Design by Sew Steady.  There are so many possibilities.

Two Circle on Quilts sets include four sizes that can quilt concentric circles from 2-inches to 12-inches at ½ inch increments.

The templates rotate from a pivot point. A metal tack is placed underneath so the template rotates from from the same axis point to create concentric circles.  Watch short video demo below.

Using the Circles on Quilts is so EASY. With the right free-motion tools: thread, needles, supreme slider, a machine capable of free-motion quilting and gloves, all you need is Westalee’s ½-inch ruler foot and the templates to make perfect circles WITHOUT marking.

A 10-inch and 9.5 circle made the outer 1/4inch channel and a 6-inch and 5-inch circle created the inner ½-inch channel. Both channels created space for a beautiful swirl of feather plumes. A 2-inch circle in the center and the 5-inch circle encase the swirl design.

So, what do you think? Are you ready to try the templates?

Timaeus 1: tetrahedron prototype.

I’m the kind of person who’s too impatient to wait for there to be good daylight and make sure there’s no crap in the background for me to take photos and post them, so here are some photos taken at night, under artificial light, with some bags in the background (my office is my studio is my lounge. Mess is inevitable).

Anyway, somewhat delightfully ironic to call this a prototype, since prototype can mean both the first thing you make which you then go on to perfect, or the thing from which all future models are derived: almost like a platonic form. The form which is to be perfected in future models and the perfect form from which all later (imperfect) models will be derived are represented by the same word.

Why is that ironic? Because a tetrahedron is one of five Platonic solids (tetrahedron, hexahedron [more commonly known as a cube], octohedron, dodecahedron, icosahedron): it's a platonic form. It's the prototype for all tetrahedrons. Except I'm hoping that the next ones I make will be more perfect that this. My prototype/Platonic form is imperfect and rough. But it is still the first manifestation of the basic concept from which all the others will be built.

I will (hopefully) explain more about the Timaeus (A Platonic dialogue where these solids are mentioned) as I make more and expand/explore/refine.

Behold the awesomeness that is the World’s Largest Crochet Blanket, certified by Guinness World Records on January 31, 2016. Measuring 11,148.5 square meters (120,000.98 square feet), this colossal blanket was created in Chennai, India by members of a social media group called Mother India’s Crochet Queens. A total of 2,500 participants contributed to the project, ranging in age from 4 to 93, and originating from all over India and 13 other countries besides.

“Subashri Natarajan, the crocheting enthusiast who initiated the project, asked contributors to send in granny squares, rendered in their choice of color and style. The simplicity of the request was deliberate: It allowed not only beginners to take part, but it also made it easy to combine disparate pieces into one massive whole. Many sent in entire tapestries, each revealing the unique personal style of its maker.”

The entire project took about six months to complete. After the blanket was assembled and the record certified, it was divided up into 8,034 individual blankets to be distributed to people in need, which is possibly even more awesome than the world record itself.

[via inhabitat]

Right and below the needle: 8 stitches in five different threads, all in the wrong place. -____________________-