wise craft

echo star pdf pattern available

2013-05-13T10:26:13-07:00

I have finally put the pattern for the Echo Star quilt in my shop. This is a downloadable PDF pattern, as all my quilt patterns are. When you place and pay for the order, you can immediately download it.

This pattern also contains instructions to make a pillow version of the Echo Star.

Several of you have asked about this pattern, and I'm so sorry for the delay. Working with your husband can sometimes be, um, interesting (love you Peter!).

My original Echo Star quilt and other beautiful star quilts made by the members of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild will be on display at Island Quilter on Vashon Island as part of their June Artwalk, with an opening reception on the evening of June 7th. This is a wonderful Island, wonderful shop, and if this gorgeous weather holds out, a wonderful opportunity to walk around the island. I can wait to see all the star quilts hanging together!

preparing for summer cocktails

2013-05-07T05:40:00-07:00

The wise craft household has upgraded the bar. Or at least the bar cart. The first one served us quite well, and was perfect our cocktail Fridays, but when Peter recently moved into a new office,this cabinet came home when there was no longer a need for it in the new space. I wasn't totally sold on its art deco style and kind of pretended it wasn't in our dining room for about a week- until I thought, what the hell? Let's just move all the nice glasses and liquor bottles there and call it a bar cabinet? I spent part of last Saturday cleaning the glassware that I could move in there (everything from wedding registry crystal to vintage glassware that used to be available in detergent boxes).

Erica, I would have rolled the old bar cart to your house if I'd known you'd be interested, or at least tried to.

Front and center by the libations is Peter's 3rd grade ceramic sculpture of Nixon. I just love everything about that piece- that a 3rd grader was so moved by a president to render him in clay, his hands in the classic up-in-the-air-pose, that his mouth was used as an ashtray when I first met Peter, everything. (Plus it always starts a conversation, perfect over drinks, right)

To our new improved bar service I've also added a collection of orphaned silver spoons we own that I've never known what to do with. Let's stir drinks with them! I polished them and put them in a mint julep cup.

I am laughing-we have not used nearly enough of that liquor since the last time I photographed it! Since I've been deep in editing and pattern writing, I'm thinking it's high time to do something about that. My bar board awaits! Although I always seem to go to the old favorites over and over again- Pim's cup and the classic gin and tonic.

What about you? What's your favorites?

may 2013 desktop wallpaper

2013-05-06T05:30:00-07:00

I was flipping through all the sketchbooks I've filled for the sketchbook project and came across this image I did with the hand carved stamps I'd made not too long ago. I decided to turn it into this month's desktop wallpaper.

You can download it for your desktop here. (See all past calendars here.)

Enjoy! And thank you for all the nice comments on the sliced swoon!

sliced swoon quilt

2013-05-01T05:14:00-07:00

My niece in North Carolina is getting married in June. It's the first wedding in our family in quite a while, and I am plenty excited. I love weddings. And isn't a wedding gift a great excuse to make a quilt? I think yes!

Not knowing what the couple's home decor looks like, or even what my niece wants it to look like, I wasn't sure where to start. But after a little snooping around her pinterest boards I did get one home decor clue, the color blue is apparently favored.

I decided on Swoon by Camille Roskelley (pattern available here), it felt like the perfect choice. Am I the last one to make a Swoon quilt? Maybe so, but if you haven't made one, I highly recommend it. Anyway, thinking about the color blue, and wanting to stay away from flowers and feminine prints, all the Sketch Basic blues came to mind. I used the same color formula for each of the blocks and always kept the deeper-valued blue in the same position for each "star", to keep them all visually weighted the same. Also, my version cuts the side star blocks in half (the "sliced" part). Just a personal preference, but I do not like to use square-sized quilts, it just feels like an odd size, but I'm probably the weird one here.

It's well-documented by now that I really love a design that just runs off the edges of the quilt. So this one finishes out around 54" x 80".

The back is pieced with the scraps of Sketch and Joel Dewberry's Notting Hill "Historic Tile" in Citron. Straight line quilting (I would space them farther apart next time) and Essex linen/cotton binding.

Here's hoping it will loved and used for years to come!

friday favorites: artist lisa solomon

2013-04-26T05:38:00-07:00

Friday Favorites is a weekly series of posts about my favorite things, inspirations, people, and other favorites. Enjoy!

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"Lewisite", 2011

colored pencil, acrylic, graphite, embroidery on duralar.

h1n1 virus, 2011

colored pencil, acrylic, graphite, crochet doilies, glasshead pins on duralar.

we are family: blue and brown beds, 2010

colored pencil, acrylic and thread on embroidery on duralar

Lisa Solomon is a true inspiration to me for so many reasons. I mean, she juggles being a professor and an online teacher, an artist, with being a mom and wife, and creative force behind MODify. Lisa does indeed wear many hats. (And I have a feeling they are all beautifully crocheted from colorful pearle cotton). Lisa's artwork grabbed me the minute I saw it, many years ago. Her delicate crochet and thread work of viruses and toxins, her beautiful visual interpretation of the radiation migration of the Fukushima Diachi plant caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami disaster, and her felt tank installation (a hard steel machine built for combat rendered in beautiful colors of felt), her work makes me think about the concept of art in a way I never did before. Its hard to explain, as art can be sometimes. The feelings that art can evoke can't always be described perfectly.

I am lucky enough to own an original piece of Lisa's , from her domestic scenes series, "Two Lime Chairs".

I knew I wanted to include her as soon as I started my Friday Favorites series and she has graciously allowed me to pick her brain so that we may all read more about her world. Mixed in between, I have included images of some of her work (I selfishly tried to pick my favorites, but narrowing it down was hard). Here goes!

Doily No. 83 (Orange) 2010, acrylic, graphite, embroidery on duralar

Lisa, I am so excited to have you in my Friday Favorites series! We have known each other for sooooo long online, yet we've never met face to face. That's never stopped me from calling you a dear friend and creative inspiration.

Fukushima Diachi, April 11, 2011, 2012, Embroidery and graphite on Duralar

Here are a few questions-

Sycronized Tanks: Radial Formation [Charcoal, Orange, and Yellow], edition of 3, felt tanks, glasshead pins

1. I love that your art combines the components of art and craft, and elevates to fine art. And how you straddle the line of strong/severe with soft/delicate (I'm thinking of your beautiful felt tanks as an example of this, pictured above). How do you describe your work to someone not familiar with it?

Wow. What a nice thing to read and for you to say. I'm definitely interested in both art and craft and how the two work with and against [in some cases] one another. I've also always been interested in why there is such a hierarchy [sometimes] between the two pursuits.

It's interesting that you point out the dichotomy in my work because it's definitely something that has become an integral part of how I work and think. It sort of all came together for me one day when a friend was sitting with me in my studio. I'm half Japanese and half Caucasian [my dad's side of the family is Jewish]. My friend is also 1/2 and 1/2 – same combo. She was noticing that she felt that my work had a very Japanese sensibility to it, but that it was also distinctly NOT Japanese. As a joke I said that since I was a happa the work was happa – she exclaimed that was IT. As I thought about that more and more it became clear to me that in essence I was a "hybrid" and that I was making a "hybrid" type of art work too. I tend to mix materials in strange or different ways [crochet on top of glass, embroider fragile paper], or push ideas against one another. I do things that seem slightly wrong, or off, or mixed up: I leave long threads as evidence of my work, I make frightening things really cute and pretty – like the tanks, or war chemicals molecularly represented by doilies, I take "craft" and force it into the "art" realm, I make big things small and small things big…

I'm not sure if that answers how I describe my work… so let's see…If I'm giving the stuck in an elevator speech I usually say that I'm a mixed media artist that makes things rooted in the act of drawing. That my work utilizes a lot of traditional crafts – like embroidery and crochet – to talk about things that are both personally and culturally of interest to me. I work on both an intimate small scale and a grand installational scale depending on the project. My “drawings” have seemingly found a place between 2-D and 3-D, shown on the wall, and yet concurrently existing and yearning to be off of it. In this tenuous position my work is, in many senses of the phrase, “between states.”

2. I know that you, like me, are always rolling around the idea of how we define what we do in our minds. (I loved your post about this very subject here.)I know it's important to have that 30 second speech, but why is it so hard? What are your thoughts?

Yes yes yes. The definition of who we are and what we do. I think a lot of this comes as an external pressure. People want to put you in a box so they understand you – but I think it's also important for you to define who you are – OR – who you want to be too. I mean, you can manifest things if you name them right? If you want to BE an artist/florist/baker then start saying that you are – and acting like one [and if you don't know how to do that – do what you feel that person would do] and then in a way you just become that…. The act of doing/making/naming is powerful.

I think it's hard because the declaration of whatever it is that you do takes confidence, right? And I think many times artists/crafters/makers live in a world of self doubt to some degree [at least I do, and most of my creative friends do as well]. I think, too, we don't want to appear cocky or too self-assured. That can come across very icky [we've all met that person right? And gone eeewwwww?]

I can really tell, though, that things are shifting for me. Maybe it's as I'm getting older. Maybe it's just the time spent. Maybe it's because I'm just that much more invested. Maybe it's cause I can't turn back, but more and more I'm realizing that even though it's HARD to make that declaration – that I should. We don't make it any easier on ourselves…. And that in many ways society doesn't make it easy on us either. But in the end – I have earned whatever label I want to put on myself. I am passionate about and honored and privileged to do what I do. It is not an easy way out, or a joke, or something to just pass the time. So I want to own it, you know? I keep asking what is it that I'm so fearful of defining? Any label I pin on myself [artist/crafter/designer] is easily removed or exchanged for another.

3. What are your favorite sources of inspiration? How do you record your ideas?

Inspiration. Oh it's everywhere I think. It's in the car as your mind wanders, it's in the radio/tv/magazine story that catches your fancy. It's in the objects that you surround yourself with, or pass by on the street. It's in the way the light changes from season to season. It's online [although it can be overwhelming there too]. My friends. My friends are endless sources of inspiration [like you]. My kid too. It's so cliché, but she sees the world with such fresh eyes. Everything is still new and fun and waiting to be discovered. That is so so so inspiring. I find just work itself inspiring. The act of doing, making, thinking. Rest is also inspiring – possibly because it seems in short supply – heh heh.

I record ideas the old fashioned way in a sketchbook. I'm totally addicted to instagram. That is both an inspiration and recording device. I still record ideas and thoughts on my blog [although blogging has definitely changed A LOT since we all started ages ago, I still like that it's a place to collect and share]. I write myself dumb notes in my datebook [yes I still keep a paper datebook]. I still pin things to the wall, and collect imagery that is meaningful to me. I have folders and folders, stacks and stacks of research and inspirational things that live in my studio.

3. Give us a glimpse into what a day (or part of a day) of doing artwork looks like for Lisa Solomon.

Hmmmm. Let's see. It all starts with coffee. Then I saunter into my backyard studio to get to work. If I have any emails or things that have to get done I do them first thing so they aren't hanging over my head. Then the day will depend on where I am in a project. If it's the beginning of a project there's a lot of research. So I'm online, or reading books, or making sketches, or trying dumb ideas out to see if anything is going to work. Sometimes if I'm in a research phase I'll try and take breaks to do something fun like draw in my garden – so that I'm actually MAKING something. Sometimes I get a bug up my butt to make something [could be anything – a tote bag, screenprint] and then I have to get that out of my system. If I'm on a deadline – like a certain amount of work has to get done for a show or the like I might be in head down just get work done mode. In which case I kind of have a plan and am just trying to check things off lists. Although even if I'm in this phase I'll try and take a moment or two to snap a photo, or make a small drawing, or do something "just for fun" outside of what I'm working on. I have found that I need to keep a little window open for experimentation – for the happy accident – and it generally happens when I least expect it.

But the day? The day itself? Wake up – hang out with kid. Get her to school. Switch to tea. Do any "work" emails. Check out what friends are doing online [while eating some kind of snacky breakfast]. Enter studio. Get to work [usually while listening to NPR]. Lunch around 1pm. Look at work while lunching – figure out what needs to get done or changed or started. Check out what friends are doing again. Back to work. Pick up kid. Repeat. If I'm lucky I get almost 2 full days a week in the studio when I'm teaching. A lot of times I do handiwork [crochet or simple embroidery stitches on pieces] at night while watching TV after the kid has gone to bed.

Wallet Size Me, 1978, 2004 Embroidery on satin (back side showing), vintage embroidery hoop

5. In your book, Knot, Thread, Stitch: Exploring Creativity Through Embroidery and Mixed Media, you pulled together so many creative ideas for using thread to draw, embroider, and create. It caused me to look at so many new ways to create with your simple techniques (embroidering a portrait is on my list to do very soon). What's your favorite type of embroidery?

(Wait, is that like asking you to pick a favorite child??)

Ha ! It is kind of like asking me to pick a favorite child. I actually tend to keep my stitching fairly simple in my artwork. I use thread/embroidery like drawing. It's a line. It just has a bit more depth and texture than other types of line. It can become an accent. An area that immediately represents the hand even more…

In terms of "crafting" I'm a huge admirer of hardanger embroidery – mostly because my grandmother used to do it – but I've never ventured to try it. At least not yet. I keep meaning to incorporate it into something I'm working on, but haven't figured out how yet.

6. I know there are many of us all over the world who are contributing to the 1000 doily installation you are creating for later this year. Can you give us details about it, and where and when it will be?

Oh the 1000 doily project. The first time I have really asked for help with a big project [from people other than my mom and immediate friends who usually offer to help me before I ask them]. I have been completely overwhelmed with the response to this. I am going to do a show later this year – November 2013 at Fouladi Projects in San Francisco. http://www.fouladiprojects.com The working title is Sen which is 1000 in Japanese. 1000 is a big deal in Japan – think 1000 cranes for good luck, or 1000 buddhas [there's a temple in Kyoto which houses 1000 buddhas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanj%C5%ABsangen-d%C5%8D]… I wanted to use this idea of 1000 – but within my own lexicon. So I had this vision of 1000 doilies. And I wanted to tie it to other things that really interest me namely color and color theory.

I use a very particular kind of crochet thread in my work – I love it because it comes in crazy colors. So I figured – what if I used 100 colors of thread and made 10 doilies in each color.voila 1000. I'm going to pin them to the wall in some sort of arrangement – I haven't quite figured out how exactly yet, but I'm thinking about it [constantly]. In rainbow order? Or from light to dark? Or a combo? Or in a pattern – like a radiating circle [like the Japanese flag]?

There's actually a little bit more to the story, but I'm kind of superstitious – I tend to not reveal plans for work until it's complete – but I had to talk about this project a bit to get it going ;) so I'm OK with saying this much. When I get all the doilies back from everywhere and I'm ready to put them up I'll talk about the other components that are in play.

I have been completely and utterly overwhelmed by the generosity and interest of these amazing women all of the world who are helping me do this. It has become larger and more meaningful than I could have ever imagined. I always talk about how women are connected by these domestic acts of making and this project feels like a perfect manifestation of that. It's SO fun to see people post their progress on instagram or their blogs; to get emails and notes and gifts from women saying what the experience has meant to them – or that it's ignited a spark in them to continue making something else … that is so humbling, and really really makes my heart happy.

Thank you Lisa! xo

clearing my brain with crochet

2013-04-23T05:30:00-07:00

blair/wisecraft

make preserved palm leaf bowls

2013-04-22T01:30:00-07:00

One of the best parts of visiting our family is the creativity we all share between us when we're together. On the island last week we did just that. With palm leaves! Palm trees are in abundance there, literally everywhere! Folks on the island preserve the leaves from these trees and use them for all kinds of things- as sculptural pieces in their home, to hold desk utensils, or to serve hor d'oeuvres at a party. I love the idea of bring natural elements like this into our homes, to enjoy up close.

One afternoon, my father-in-law and I went foraging for appropriately shaped palm leaves to preserve. The leaves in these pictures are all ones that have been trimmed or have fallen from the palm trees. Some have nicer shapes than others, but most of them can work once preserved.

If you ever find yourself near discarded palm leaves (this happens to me once a year if at all, but maybe you are luckier), here's how we preserved them.

The bottom part of the leaf that attached it to the tree itself, sometimes call the "boot" is the ideal part to use for this project. That area can be perfectly shaped for vessels or bowls. But we managed to make some really beautiful ones just using discarded palm leaves that seemed to have just a bit of curl around the edges, and shaped to be able to hold something inside or sit on a table without wobbling.

I scrubbed the leaves, which are surprisingly sturdy and tough, with soap and warm water and set them out to dry overnight.

Once they were clean and dry, I coated them with an amber-colored shellac. Two coats on both

sides were all they needed. I love the shine and amber shade that the shellac added.

The stems aren't needed and could be cut off, but I liked the way they looked.

I left most of them at my inlaws, thinking they'll put them to good use, but I picked two of them to take home. They withstood the trip home in my luggage perfectly!

For now, I have them both in the dining room holding some of our favorite collected shells and air plants.

Thank you all so much for the etsy orders last week! I am working on some fun new things for the shop, stay tuned!

flash sale!

2013-04-18T17:00:00-07:00

I am feeling inspired and energized by having a little time off, and felt like celebrating with a sale in the shop! Just enter SPRINGBREAK for the coupon code at checkout to receive 15% off your entire order through Sunday 4/21/13.

Now go get to it!

xo,

Blair

the dolphins danced with us

2013-04-18T00:00:00-07:00

We just got back from a relaxing Spring Break trip to Florida. I posted a few pictures during the week on Instagram and the wise craft Facebook page, but I thought I'd post some highlights here too. Stay with me till the bottom so you don't miss the video. As we were leaving the island to go to the airport, we had our very own personal dancing escort of the most beautiful, playful dolphins. Captain Dan explained that they love to play in the wake behind the boat, like kids. Such a nice reminder that we need to remember to have spontaneous fun. Enjoy!

friday favorites: quilting books i'd grab in a fire

2013-04-12T05:30:00-07:00

I have a special bookshelf in my studio that is filled with favorite quilting books. The ones I pull out to look through when I feel in a creative rut. Each of them inspire me in different ways (some for color, some for pattern, some for symmetry of design) and they are the ones I turn to again and again. In my eyes, these books represent quiltmaking as an artform, not simply craft. I thought I'd share a few of them.

Anna Williams: Her Quilts & Their Influences by Katherine Watts

This book was published by the American Quilter's Society in 1995, so not really vintage, but the quilts of Anna Williams span a lifetime of instinctual, brilliant color patchwork piecing, a lifetime of honing a skill she described as "what I do to take my mind off my troubles". The copies of this book left in circulation are not cheap, and it is shockingly thin (a mere 25 pages), but it is truly inspiring. As Denyse said in her workshop where I first learned of Anna, "you can't fake" what Anna did with color, pattern, and quilting. Sadly, Anna passed away in June of 2012. I love having this book of her work to inspired me.

Quilts by Roderick Kiracofe.

This book was a gift from Erin and I absolutely love it. Not an old book at all, quite new in fact, available as a self-published book on Blurb).The colors, the patterns, the entire collection of quilts in this book is completely inspiring on so many levels. Some of these quilts were shown at QuiltCon recently (another reason I should have gone!) and it must have been wonderful to see these in person. Great fabric and color reference on these pages. And something about seeing beautifully colored quilts on a stark white background really appeals to me.

Abstract Design in American Quilts: A Biography of an Exhibition by Jonathan Holstein

This book is the story of an exhibition that opened in 1971 at the Whitney Museum in New York. This book reminds and inspires me to remember the art of quiltmaking. There is an entire story within the pages of this book of how the exhibit came to exist, along with full pages of the quilts themselves with information about each one. There is page after page of graphic inspiration and use of color and pattern. This is a beautiful book for any quiltmaker to have in their collection.

Patchwork Simplified by Alice Timmins

This is a well-used old library copy with a copyright of 1973. I love the mod, geometric feel of the patchwork in this book. Look at those wonderful quilted skirts above (although I'm sure she is beating her head against the wall on the right, wondering why she didn't just make that fabulous patchwork into a full quilt instead of a skirt).

Patchcraft by Elsie Svennas

Another treasure, beautiful use of color and shapes within quilts. Gives great examples of applique and embroidery used in quiltmaking, although many of the images are black and white. Still...

The Perfect Patchwork Primer by Beth Gutcheon

This book is just a great reference book for so many techniques, standards, and really just the whole idea of quilting's place in a creative life. A must-have for any vintage quilt library.

I would love to hear what quilting books you have to inspire you!

Happy Friday!