A Day In The Life of Lizzy House

I'm on spring break this week with the kids.  It has been heavenly. It's always great to spend quality down time with the kids. We are in Utah, which is a boon, because my dear friend, Lizzy House, lives in Utah. I took one of my days to go hang out with her in her beautiful studio. Not only did I get a wonderful afternoon with a friend, I got a sneak peak into the world of a fabric designer while I was there.

Lizzy received her "proofs" for her new collection of Pearl Bracelet fabric. She's going to have over 30 colors of this marvelous print. Her task, on this afternoon, was to make sure the colors were to her liking and to make adjustments before the actual fabric gets printed up.  She laid them out carefully in color order, placing the existing fabrics in the range to assess as a whole.

 Lots of study . . .

and pouring over these color charts below to pick the exact right adjustment that the proofs needed.  This stack of color charts Lizzy rifled through is absolutely huge, and the difference between each tile so seemingly minor, it boggles the mind. 

Lizzie hummed along with a lot of interesting commentary for me. This navy looks dead. This neutral has too much green. This red isn't orange enough. It all fascinated me. I never cease to be amazed by the power of color and the influence that a little tweak here or there provides in order to obtain that soothing spot, the one that says "hmmm I love that!"

There's nothing like seeing the space in which someone works and the way in which they work to make you feel like you know them that much better.  I appreciate the effort and care Lizzy gives to each and every fabric produced. You can see the difference that effort makes in her work, too. The quilt pattern below, The Colorist, is one of my favorites.. The folded quilt on the chair, The Meadows, hasn't been released yet.

Many thanks to Lizzy for inviting me into her beautiful home.  Never underestimate the power of connecting with people in real life–twitter and the web can only go so far.

I have an amazing easter egg tutorial that I'm going to post, hopefully Monday.  I'm a little worried that I am too late to post it, but I can't fathom waiting an entire year to show you!  I also have another bracelet for boys and my mom's birthday present coming right up.

We're headed back to Colorado tomorrow. We're all packed up and I have my knitting project all ready.  Hope you are all enjoying the warm, springy weather. 

xo anne

Heritage, Creativity and Love by Kathreen Ricketson–a Sew, You've Always Wanted to Quilt guest post

I am thrilled and honored to introduce my first guest poster on flax & twine, Kathreen Ricketson. She and I have worked together many times.  I have guest posted on Whipup.net and contributed to various Action Packs, a fabulous craft magazine for 7 - 12 year olds, over the past couple years. When I first conceived of this quilting series, she was one of the first people I thought of.  I asked her to tell me what quilting means to her.  I am honored to bring you Kathreen Ricketson's lovely musings on the role of quilting in her life.

Kathreen Ricketson is a quilter, maker and mother. She is the founder of whipup.net and has written two books on quilting and four books on kids crafting. She is also the founder and editor of Action Pack Magazine for kids.

http://action-pack.com/

http://whipup.net/

Heritage, creativity and love

I don't really think of myself as a quilter. Which is funny because I make a lot of quilts and have written two books on quilting. I think of myself as a maker and designer and artist who happens to enjoy the medium of working with quilts. Making quilts, sewing and crafting is more to me than a pastime or hobby or even a business, it is a link to my heritage as a woman. My mother is a crafter, as was her mother her mother before her. They were thrifty women whose job was to raise a family and keep a tight household budget, while at the same time making sure their children and husband were dressed nicely and had good healthy food to eat. They were proud of their role as homemaker, but it was hard work too. They sewed and then mended all their own and their families clothing, they knitted sweaters and hats, they baked all their food from scratch, they grew their own vegetables, kept chooks for eggs and meat as well as managing the budget and the house repairs and they did it all without all the fancy technology that we use today. I find it fascinating and inspiring just thinking about it. Imagine spending a whole day laundering the sheets or using a treadle sewing machine to make dresses and suits for the family or saving all those flour and feed sacks to make a quilt!

Lately I have thinking about the importance of the role of the homemaker. It seems to have been discarded in recent years, being a stay-at-home mother has been a difficult role to be proud of. Our life has become so rushed, so busy, so full, that those 'old fashioned' skills of being thrifty, making-do, home-cooking, gardening, sewing and mending are being lost. Which is why I do what I do, why I blog about craft and work from home and make my own laundry powder and why I sew and design quilts. 

But that's not the only reason I make quilts. I am driven to create. I am an artist and need to make or design or create something every single day - or else I get tetchy and bored and restless. Making quilts is a wonderful creative outlet for someone who is interested in art, design, fabric, sewing and textiles and I am grateful to have found this way of releasing my creativity. I love to explore colour and line, I love to learn new skills and I love the feeling of fabric.

There is something else too. Quilts embody love. Quilts are warmth and comfort, they are tradition and community, they are home and family. When I make or design a quilt I think about all those things and hope my quilts embody those ideas. I want the quilts I make to be used, to be cuddled in, to be thrown on couches and to be hidden under by small children. 

So for me I guess I made quilts for those three reasons above: Heritage, creativity and love. That is what quilting means to me.

Many thanks, Kathreen.  For more exciting quilting posts to come, keep checking the Sew, You've Always Wanted to Quilt gallery here:

New Series: Sew, You've Always Wanted To Quilt . . .

I've always admired quilts.  They can be absolutely stunning– the colors, the prints, the actual quilting stitches themselves.  The richness of quilts, their many layers, always engage and enthrall me.  The beauties above are from Kathreen Ricketson's (Whipup.net) gorgeous book Little Bits Quilting Bee. 

In my own personal crafting however, I've always believed, or feared, rather, that quilts are too complex, too involved (as if knitting a sweater doesn't take a long time!).  When I see quilting patterns, I can't help but freeze up at the thought of so many fabric decisions.  I love color and pattern combinations and can feel confident with mixing two or three fabrics together, but when you talk about picking out 24! or more to go together, I get kinda panicky.  My perfectionist jumps in and I am stalled in an oblivion of decision making.  Not to mention, quilts just seem so big.  

To make matters worse, since starting the blog, the thought of completing a quilt seems farther away than ever before. Making a quilt just seems too time-intensive. This bothers me. The strong desire to explore quilting further keeps gnawing away at me. I certainly don't want to ignore quilting here on my blog!  I love the art just too much. Not to mention, I originally started this blog so I could carve out time in my life to create and make the things I've always wanted to make.

Though I have plenty of other series underway, I decided to pull together a new series that will include thoughts on quilting, as well as simple and easy diy projects for those wanna be quilters inside of us to get our toes wet.   It's called: Sew, You've Always Wanted To Quilt. . .

This quilting series is another kind of first, too, as I am inviting guest bloggers on flax & twine for the first time.  I have an excellent collection of beautiful quilters to share their talents with you.  So, keep your eyes peeled for the button on the right.  I will be adding posts as we go, so bear with me as the series fills out.  I hope you are as excited as I am to see what's coming our way!The images above are from Lizzy House's studio, which I recently had the privilege of visiting.  She is an amazingly talented fabric and quilt designer as you can see. Much, much quilt and fabric envy to be had there. If you're interested in the quilt on the wall and in the button above, you can buy the gorgeous pattern for The Colorist here.  For the one on the chair, you'll just have to wait as the pattern is under construction as I write! 

Talk to you soon!
xo Anne

A Kiss

I was rushing around the kitchen the other morning doing my usual: eggs for baillie, peanut butter for Allie, yogurt for Charlie, coffee for me, lunches out, empty dishwasher - you know, the usual.  Sandy came downstairs and he and I bumped into each other in the kitchen. Oh yeah, my husband. I stopped in his way and put my arms out. We hugged and he kissed me quickly and pulled away towards his next task. Now, wait a minute, I thought, there was nothing about that kiss that had anything to do with me.  He was thinking about his smoothy, packing his lunch for the day, getting the kids teeth brushed and how much time we had left until school drop-off. I realized that I, too, was thinking only of what must be done. That kiss had utterly no meaning other than a morning task completed. I felt a rush of disappointment, and then paused.

"Sandy," I asked.  "Will you please come back here?"
"What, hmm?" he murmurred.
"Please, kiss me without thinking of anything else but me"
"Oh," he said with a low, rumbly laugh. "Good idea."
And, there in front of the refrigerator, I with a lunchbox in my hand, he with a bag of frozen fruit, we had one humdinger of a kiss.

Hmmmm. a present kiss.  a kiss in the present.  a present of a kiss.  Try it yourself, you'll thank me.

A Finger Knitting Door Curtain with Bells DIY

For those of you who are my age, just tell me you never wanted one of those groovy beaded door curtains from the 70s.  I know I did.  Something about the clickety clack of those shiny, plastic beads jangling against one another beguiled me. I never had one, of course. And, like most things like that, I outgrew the desire to have one festoon my door. But, when I think of it now, that internalized yearning for one remains. I believe that the love of things like that from when you were a girl (canopy beds, rhinestone tiaras, anything made of tulle) stay in your cells forever. 

Recently, I got it in my head that it would be fun to make a door curtain made of finger-knitting, like the bead curtains of yore.  But, what of the sound?  That's when I decided to add bells to the finger-knitting for a special little tinkling upon entrance and exit. 

Allie and I made it together, which was a lovely experience. As soon as it was up, she took to it right away, running in her room and out her room just to hear the bells sound.  She settled down with it after a while and played to her hearts content, feeling her room had just transformed to her own private getaway.

Like most things of these sort (think said rhinestone tiaras, canopy beds, mosquito netting, etc), I anticipate the sheen of it will wear off over time, but its certainly feels glamorous in the mean time. 

I love the jingle jangle of the bells almost as much of the gentle clack of the beads . . . . almost.

Hooked on finger-knitting? Check out the gallery for my series 5 Fabulous Finger-Knitting Projects, by clicking below:

Here is the Jingle Jangle Door Curtain DIY:

Materials:

Approximately 400 to 700 yards of yarn depending on door size and yarn thickness

1 bag of mini- jingle bells

Needle

Measure the door you intend to hang the curtain on.  We used 15 strands of finger knitting, putting bells on five strands only, as Allie didn't want it too jingly.  

Finger knit (for a how to of finger knitting go here) the intended bell-less strands to approximately 3 inches short of the distance from where you intend to hang the curtain to the floor.  You will use approximately 4 inches to secure the strand in the top, but the strands will stretch. 

Adding Bells To Finger-Knitting

The bells should have a hole on top for stringing.  Make sure to pick  a needle that fits the yarn and can still go through the hole on the bell.  

String approximately 7 to 10 of the bells onto your yarn.

Pull the bells a good way onto the yarn, as you will use a lot of the yarn in the finger knitted strand.

Finger knit approximately 8 rows (6 inches or so).  If you run into the bells as you go, continue to push them down the strand of yarn towards the ball.

When you get to desired place for the bell, bring one bell across one of your middle fingers as part of the  finger-knitting.

Bring the bell and the strand over your finger, as you normally would.

The bell should settle into the middle of your finger knitted strand.  Then, continue another 16 rows or so before you place another bell.  Continue to place another bell every 16 rows until the strand reaches your desired length.

For each of the other four strands of belled finger-knitting, alter the starting spot of the bells (for example on the next strand, add a bell after 16 rows, then add another every 16 thereafter) so the bells don't line up once hung.

Make the Valance

For lack of a better word, I'm going to call this top part the valance.  It is the panel that the finger-knitting will fit into and hang from.  It is made of a finger-knitted strand of finger-knitting.  Isn't that fun??  The finger-knitted strand you start with needs to be fairly long (I think at least 12 to 15 times the width of the door).  I just added more strands until it fit.  This too will stretch some.  You finger knit the finger-knitting as if it were a piece of yarn.

It should look like this at the end.  Make sure it is long enough to stretch most of the way across your door frame.

Make the Curtain

Decide on the pattern of strands.  Lay them out.

 Weave each strand of finger-knitting under and over a row of finger knitting in the valance.

Turn the strand at the top, and come back down the next row, weaving in the same manner.

Here is the back and top of the valance. Tie the tails of each strand of finger knitting to the bottom and back of the valance.

Weave the ends of the valance into the back of itself.

Trim off all ends.

The back should look like this:

The front should look like this:

We hung it with super sticky backed plastic hooks.  It has been up now for over three weeks, no damage or falling.

Finis!

I hope your kiddos love the curtain as much as Allie does. 

Leather + Thread Wrapped Bracelet DIY - a year of handmade gift

Here is part 2 of my nephew Conrad's birthday gift. I gave him two more bracelets using the same technique to make both of them. The diy tutorial is below. These were fun and so easy to make.  My boys (8 and 9) were so excited they demanded I make them some too.  So, more fun bracelets to come.  This alternating leather and thread one is my favorite.

Here is a bracelet of just the embroidery thread in alternating colors.  I shortened and lengthened the white thread section to create a pattern.

I like the leather wrapped one together with the beaded bracelet I show you how to make here.

Well, really . . . yes, you know it . . . I like all three of them together.

This gift for Conrad, one of the cutest six year olds I know, is part of my commitment to make only handmade gifts this year.  I think they are a lot of boyish fun.  Also, they are perfect for those girls that are not so girly.  For more handmade gift ideas, check out my year of handmade gallery here or by clicking below.

If you're looking for more girly, glammy bracelets, check out my gallery of jewelry for girls (or women!) here.

Here is the diy tutorial for the wrap bracelets:

Materials:
Leather or faux leather rope

Thin leather cord

Embroidery thread (DMC 5)

Make a loop with your leather cord.

Twist the loop and tie a knot.  Trim some of the excess from the end, leaving about 1/4 coming from the knot.

 Bring the end of the leather cord alongside the leather rope.

Start wrapping the leather cord around the leather rope and its own tail that you've held along the bracelet.

When you reach the desired number of wraps, twist and loop the leather cord such that the part coming from the bracelet  is on top of the twist.   Tighten around the bracelet at the bottom of the wraps.  This I call a "locking loop."  Trim the excess on the end piece.

Next,  start the embroidery thread section the same way, holding the end of the thread against the bracelet and wrapping the thread around both the leather cord and the leather rope.

Wrap the thread until section is desired length, pushing the wraps against the beginning of the bracelet. Then, lock that section with a locking loop (as above.)  Trim the excess on the end piece of thread.

For each section of leather and for each section of thread, keep the number of wraps consistent.

 Do a locking loop at the end of each section.

This is what the leather looks like locked.

Repeat these alternating wrapped sections until desired length. Lock the last wrapped section a number of times.

Make two knots at the end with the cord, the rope and the thread together.  Two knots will allow for varying lengths of bracelet.  Trim the ends.

 Finis!

I think all three of my Conrad gifts are fabulous.  You can also make wrapped bracelets with a locking loop the entire way. A lot of folks do it that way. This puts a little bump, which is the twist, in the thread or cord, but it makes a cool pattern in the bracelet if you do that way consistently.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I just think jewelry looks cool on boys.  My boys really like the idea of adding the football as a prop - even cooler!

Hope you all have a happy making weekend.  The next finger-knitting project in my 5 Fabulous Finger-Knitting Projects is next.  Its a good'un and is a flashback to something very special that I wanted when I was 7 myself.  I think that was 1979, so prepare yourselves!