Monday, May 25, 2009

Fiber Arts Fiesta and More

Albuquerque's biennial Fiber Arts Fiesta was May 21-23, and I got a chance to attend Saturday. It was great to see a lot of my sewing friends, look at exhibits, and shop! Yet I have somewhat mixed feelings--great event but there was an aspect of same ol', same ol'. I suppose I should be happy that vendors are still participating during this recession, and people are still buying, but I'd love to see something different. There were too many vendors that return with the exact same stuff every 2 years. And not that I have anything against quilters, but enough with the quilt stuff already.


Park Bench Patterns likes this event; they've come 2 or 3 times. New things at that booth: fabric kits, pre-packed, coordinating fabrics. Great idea! I bought 2 of them:





I bought some buttons and a fancy bead at Treasures of the Gypsy. They're a New Mexico based company and have had a booth every year that I can remember. Same format, but they always have interesting stock.

I got this little cutie at the Japanese Textiles and Tours booth. I love cats, and combine them with Asian style cuteness, I couldn't resist:



I also bought RTW, a couple of skirts at Silverado, which is still getting out of the clothing business after, ummm, 4 or 5 years now? Yes, I have a bit of a quibble with that. They've been good to the fiber arts guilds in the area, so I guess I'll get over it. I loved the fabrics of the skirts I got, and the price was right at $20 each. They will require a little bit of tweaking (length) but they're basically "me".



I didn't take pictures of any of the exhibits. People are sensitive about their work being photographed and posted on the web. I can't say I blame them.

After the show, I went by Sunflower Market and picked up some dinner items. It's a nice store--somewhat like Whole Foods, but less expensive. I was able to find everything I was looking for. DF and I made pizza Saturday and Sunday nights. I made the dough before heading to the Fiesta. He took over the prep on Saturday evening, even though he'd never made a pizza before! However, he is an Italian-American from New Jersey and has observed the process thousands of times. Oh. My. God. Best pizza I've ever eaten! Extreme thin crust, not greasy, not soggy, good flavor! I definitely recommend using a pizza stone and peel and cooking at the highest heat your oven will generate (550 F for most home ovens, BTW, commercial pizzerias bake between 700 F and 900 F).

On Sunday, he worked on his technique a little more, rolling out the dough less thin for a chewier crust. He wants me to make the next batch of dough with regular whole wheat flour instead of the white whole wheat flour I used this time.

Also on Sunday, I went to a sit and sew with an ASG neighborhood group, Material Girls. I hadn't been in a long time, but when I ran into DJ at the Fiesta, she encouraged me to come. It was fun hanging out and sewing with other people. I worked on a muslin of Louise Cutting's Pure and Simple Shell. It needs an FBA and more hip ease but I think it'll be a great TNT once the pattern is perfected.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Recent Events

Just a quick post to let you know what I've been doing lately...

DF and I went up to Santa Fe over the weekend and had a great time. Even though it's close by, it was nice to get out of town. This was the second highway trip for my car and once again, it came through with flying colors.

I also got a new computer that I'm loving, but there are still many things I'm setting up and learning how to use. I still haven't moved over a lot of files, there's no music in iTunes, email needs work, and the printer needs to be linked. I will get there eventually. The old computer still works so it's not that urgent. The new computer was gifted to me by DF because he wanted to buy a new Apple MacBook, and so I now have his old MacBook Pro.

I also had some work done on my house. The old swamp cooler has been replaced with a more efficient model that will not leak. This also involved some minor roof repair as well. The next step will be replacing the ceiling in the guest bathroom, which has a big hole in it. It's been like this for a while, but why replace the ceiling if we weren't sure that the leaking was solved? Oops, I guess I should have explained what a swamp cooler is! It's a type of air conditioning used in the desert that that cools air through the simple evaporation of water. It differs from refrigeration or absorption air conditioning, which use vapor compression or absorption refrigeration cycles. Definition courtesy of Wikipedia, which has much more information about how they work. Thanks Duchesse, for the reminder that this is an uncommon item in more temperate climates.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Simplicity 9505, View A, Version 2







I came across a pretty border print cotton when gathering fabrics for the Ronald McD Pillowcases and decided it would be perfect for a springtime version of the tunic nightgown that I made last from stripe flannel.

There is no piecing involved with this one. I just laid the major pattern pieces on the cross grain to take advantage of the teacup border. The fussiest part of the sewing was the neck facing due to the slit, but that's a minor quibble because the rest was so easy to do.


I sacrified the lower band of the border due to the curved edge on the sleeve hems. The pattern piece below shows the curve:



As you can see on the reverse, that lower band is all over the place due to the curve, and no way to fix it without major gyrations.