Always Collecting...

I hate going shopping – usually I end up in a book store, or a yarn shop. But there is one store nearby which I simply LOVE going to. (Actually, I thought I had posted pictures from it somewhere on the blog, but I couldn’t find them, at least not under the labels that I thought would be natural.) It is a Farmer’s Hardware and Utilities store where you can buy everything. And I mean everything from aprons  to nails to tools to you name it. Just look at this - doesn't it make your heart sing? - :

On Tuesday I went there because I had realized that time is drawing near. I really must come up with thoughts now about how I am going to deal with that creative outdoor bird which needs to be shipped in four weeks at the latest. I had had a few ideas, but I figured I might as well let myself be inspired there. I can spend hours walking the isles, taking in the various kinds of machinery, tools, utensils that you can buy, at moderate prices. Taking lots of pictures, too. When I come out of the store I tend to carry loads of stuff that I will be using in a different function than the original design intended. Such as these items, all my treasures from Tuesday (and I held back!):

Several items for printing on fabric. I do have a strong collection in that realm by now, I better get started on that project sometime soon!

And little screw-nuts, which will become adornment for the bird that had taken me to the store to begin with.

Which I sat down to deal with yesterday morning. It's coming along nicely.

Technical wizard

While I was reporting from my experiences in Falera at the workshopwith Nancy Crow I once mentioned that Heide Stoll-Weber gave me few hints which would have helped me a lot with one top, had I thought about them before sewing things together. Heide and I shared a house in Falera, together with a few other friends.

I had known about Heide as a technical quilt wizard and dyer before I got to know her personally. Her technical wizardry is documented in the 2001 publication accompanying the Berlin Quilt Symposium, in which she described her technique for inserting pieces of fabric, thus eliminating unwanted seams. My admiration for that technique grew immensely when I tried to follower her directions and wante to insert something myself!

Her hand-dyed fabrics are well-known throughout the quiltworld, and I think one can safely say that her contribution to the development of quilting in Germany through her hand-dyed fabrics cannot be overvalued.

As a dyer I was self-taught and well infected with the dyeing virus before I ever took a class with her and first met her personally (except for over the counter encounters at quilting events). Nevertheless, her class proved an enrichment of my dyeing knowledge.

In Falera Heide demonstrated that she has technical wizardry in other areas as well. She was the one who showed us how to boost our too low cutting tables (pushing the local store’s sales of canned tomatoes to numbers unknown until that day):

Always include in your supplies
when going to a workshop:
 high cans that help boost a
cutting table to a much more
comfortable height.

She was the one who kept insisting and negotiating with the janitor until we had a wonderfully large cutting table in the hallway which became everybody’s destination when the individual cutting tables next to our work tables turned too small:

Put a large board on top of two tables
pushed together, and cover with several cutting mats -
voilà, your large cutting table is waiting for you...

And she was using and promoting a new little tool to such a degree that she really should have been paid for it:

Magic little tool: pattern tracer

And she was right, this thing is a little wondertool. It is called “pattern tracer” and uses the same principle as pattern tracers that one knows from sewing one’s own clothes, except that this one doesn’t have the little teeth that they used to have. It leaves a clear mark that functions as the seam line, but can be easily removed by steam ironing.

It has completely altered my working method for free hand cutting and is a fantastic addition to my tool box. Thank you, Heide!

This past Thursday evening a joint exhibition by Heide Stoll-Weber and Christine Brandstetter was opened at the Quilt Star Galerie in Freiburg. (Quilt Star, Basler Str. 61, 79100 Freiburg, opening hours Monday 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday 9:30 a.m. to – 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.)

I’m going to be in Freiburg during the first week of November for two days, and am looking forward to seeing this exhibit!

Farewell, Daisy!

During my sewing years I have worked on a variety of different types of sewing machines.

The first one was my mother’s machine that she had received as a present upon her wedding, early sixties model. That machine was the production site for my entire Barbie-fashion-collection. At that time I still wanted to become a fashion designer.  This machine was exchanged for a Pfaff later on, which I was allowed to use every once in a while, but it was always made clear that this was not my machine.

An Aunt then gave me an old cabinet sewing machine that which could be run either by foot pedal, or on electricity. It had been in her way and found a place in our cellar. That was not exactly a highly motivating environment for sewing, but as it was not portable it could not easily be brought upstairs to work with, and then returned back. However, for several years the existence of this machine counted as a sufficient argument against the acquisition of my own machine – “You have one downstairs, and you don’t really use it much!”

A few years later I inherited a portable machine left by my great aunt – again an old one, post-war model, very heavy, but with very nice stitches and a purring sound.  It must have been a top model when it was acquired, even featured approximately 30 embroidery stitches, although I never figured out how to change the pattern notches. This was the machine on which I produced my first patchwork pieces.

When my mother acquired a fancy Bernina I was the recipient of her by then older Pfaff and took it with me. By that time it had begun to develop little peculiarities, however, and although I did use it for several years I was never really happy with it. Unfortunately I had been rather quick in passing on the old post-war model, which I really began to regret when the Pfaff turned out to be beyond repair.

That was the time when I decided it was the right moment to finally acquire my very own and new machine. It must have been approximately ten years ago, because I already knew my husband. Because I did not want to have a sewing computer I decided on a Husqvarna “Daisy”. I used this machine a lot, it went with me to my first Nancy Crow workshops, and I really grew attached to it.

Nevertheless, two other machines somehow appeared in my life during the past six years, and Daisy sort of receded into the background. Lately it had only been going with me when I was teaching workshops where I only needed a machine for demonstrations, because it was the easiest machine to be transported. When I heard that a former student of mine was looking for a machine of her own because so far she had been sharing a machine with her mother I immediately thought that that would be a nice place for Daisy. She would be appreciated again, and today we two parted. I was surprised how hard I took the separation, though – probably because it was my very first very own and self-paid machine? It’s not that I am short of sewing machines – I still have two and will always be able to sew on a substitute even while one is being taken care of at the dealers’...

In any case, I wish Daisy and Rabea a lot of fun together. Farewell, Daisy!