It’s like when you finally decide to get your hair cut and that day it looks really good.
This last bag came together so easily and was such a pleasure to make, it almost makes me question my decision not to make any more. But I don’t think creative people can make such absolute decisions. They shuts down creativity. So I say this is my last bag, but only until I have the urge to make another, which may or may not happen. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
I struggled making this bag, but Barbies dress, which is the first I ever made was alot easier. A friend gave me some matereial for the the bag and I agreed to try and clothe her 46 year old Barbie. She’s been naked for a long time and my friends sons were beginning to wondering why she has no clothes. After a day and a half the bag came together, so I thought I’d have some real fun and try making Barbie a dress.
I had no idea where to start. I’ve sewn my own clothes from patterns, but never without. I thought of the Dr. Seuss Cartoon “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. I always remember the Grinch cutting the Santa Costume out or the red fabric and sewing it together. It was very one dimensional and he made it look so easy. Then my mind got bogged down with memories of patterns. So many different shapes that made no sense until the whole shirt or dress was together. Nothing ever looked like what it was, sleeves, collars, even the pockets were confusing.
So I cleared my mind and thought ” What would I do”? I found myself throwing a great piece of vintage 1970′s fabric over Barbie and cutting a “v” for her head to pop through. One thing lead to another and soon it all fell into place. I made one dress with mistakes and then another with different mistakes but was able to adjust with just it with just a few stitches. I had to take Barbie’s head off to get the dress on her, but this was one area I had a lot of practice in. After her head was back on , I tied a belt around her waist and put a ribbon in her hair (she has some bald spots). Now she has a great dress and looks 20 years younger.
Yesterday I spent the day working in the studio. I didn’t listen to music or some of my favorite radio shows (Speaking of Faith, Selected shorts) I listened to the wind blowing the dry leaves still on the tress and the ones already fallen. Twice the wind blew my studio door open. When ever this happens I welcome it and say “thanks for visiting” as I close the door. I love the way the wind comes and stirs everything up. Natural pruning as the dead branches finally come down, leaves creating dry eddy’s. The gardens are thin and the colors spare but intense. I feel it too, the change outside and in. Time to rearrange the furniture.
I have 2 handbag orders left to complete. I started working on one yesterday and I know these two will be my last. They just don’t hold the creative interest they used to, I’ve figured them out and find my mind moving on even as I work on them. Thanks to so many of you, I’ve sold all the quilts I had on sale. It was hard to let go of some of them, but I think it’s necessary to move on. So something has ended which means something new will begin.
Between selling the quilts and buying a new sewing machine I’ve made space for new ideas and means of carrying them out. I have a series of quilts in mind based on a girl named Rita. The first new quilt will be “Aprons of Silence” inspired by the Carl Sandburg poem. It feels good to get back to the quilts and I can also imagine their “potholder offspring”.
Some inspiring photo’s of my “flag” quilt “Pieces of Myself “that Jon took last week.
Someone wrote to me about trapunto quilting. They said I was almost doing it with my new machine. Not knowing what it was, I googled it and found that my experiments with my new machine were hardly new. This idea of telling a stitched story has been around for at least 700 years. The quilt above is known as the Tristan and Islode quilt which tells their story. It’s Sicilian from the 1300′s. It’s one of the earliest known quilts and the only medieval one. Traputo means to embroider in Italian. The raised designs are stuffed from the back with batting then stitched so the design pops.
We’ve been vacationing in Provincetown for the past few days. I did some sketches of the hotel lobby. This is the front desk.
Couch in lobby when you can get on the internet.
Front door of Hotel. Home tomorrow.
After learning out how to use the rest of my new sewing machine, I figured out how to drawing with the free-motion foot. This was the feature that sold me on the machine to begin with and I couldn’t wait to try it. I started by sewing swirly lines, just getting to know how it worked. I quickly got used to the idea of being able to move the fabric in any direction. I found myself going from swirls to spirals to figures. Then a dog and a house and tree. More figures set within a contour lined landscape. As I worked I was reminded of the jigsaw puzzles I’ve been doing for the past 6 months. In another patch of fabric I sewed a woman a house a dog and a flower. When I stopped to look at it I realized I had created a non-linear narrative of me in the studio at that moment. I was a bit stunned, it was completely unconscious, like automatic drawing. Then my mind kicked in and I felt the story was missing something. I sewed a truck with a man in it (Jon was out for the evening) and a line attaching it to the woman. There it was, the story of my first experience with my new machine told in stitches and cloth.
The little drawings looked like petroglyphs and I felt a connection to the primitive artists who told their stories on cave walls and rocks. I was enthralled, I had touched on a primal part of myself I had never before explored. I thought of fairy tales and universal symbols. I knew, for the first time, the process of expressing emotion using representational art. I imagine lots of artists figure this out as kids reading comic books and drawing cartoons, neither of which I ever did. I had an art teacher who believed that, as an artist, you learned different creative processes when you needed to use them to express yourself. Somehow drawing with the sewing machine tapped into a need within me and also gave me the means to express it.
My mother gave me my singer sewing machine over 20 years ago for my birthday one year. I remember going to the shop and asking for the simplest machine available, I didn’t even want a zig-zag stitch, but they didn’t have any machines that didn’t have zigzag. I was used to my mother’s black Singer from the 1940′s . I’ve been using that machine for 20 years and using it almost everyday for the past 2 years. It still works, but it chugs and plunks and often sounds as if it just won’t go another stitch.
So when I went to the sewing shop in Glens Falls (who even knew there was a sewing machine shop in Glens Falls!) I told the woman I wanted a machine that was inexpensive and not to complicated. Either she was a good sales woman, or she knew what I wanted more than I did. She sold me a computerized Brother (never heard of Brother) quilting machine with about 200 stitches and a special flat bed attachment and 8 different feet. The thing that sold me was the free motion element. This allows me to basically draw with stitches. I think it’s traditionally used to mimic a design in the fabric to be quilted, but I see it as a new creative tool to make, well… I don’t quite know yet.
I spent the night figuring out how to use the machine, and was surprised how simple it really is. It’s a smooth sew, my work done on my Singer actually looks crude compared to the few simple stitches I experimented with. It’s as if I’ve been using stone tools and just entered the bronze age.
I have some new work for sale for the first in a month or so. It’s not as much as I had hoped, but I was still catching up on some old orders. The place mats are the new item and I’m having fun making them. I also planned on selling my latest quilt, but someone purchased it before it was done. Below is what I have available for now. I’m on my way back to the studio to do more work. I just bought a new sewing machine (more on that later) and am nervous and excited about trying to figure out how to use it. I may be using on the old one for a while yet. So email me at maria@fullmoonfiberart.com if you see something you like or have any questions. You can also visit
These are the front and back views of an ipad bag. It’s quilted and has a velcro clasp. I used a great piece of a 1970′s polyester shirt which has, what looks like, a kids drawing printed on it. The bag is $50.00 + $5 shipping.
1 set of 4 place mats. They are roughly 13″x16″ and made from a with a mix of vintage and contemporary fabric sand clothes. They are $75.00 + $5 shipping for the set. Below are closeups of each one.
I have one lone reading eyeglass case with cat fabric. It measures 2 1/2 ” x 6″. It’s $15 including shipping.
Last I have a few potholders. Most of you are familiar with them. I’ve had to raise the price, they are now $15 each including shipping.
I have 3 available with animal themes. (Christine at Redux has a few more with dogs and cats)
And 8 regular potholders available. 5 of these have pieces of an old quilt and need to be hand washed in cold water.
That’s all for now. Let me know what you think, and thanks for looking.