Paper and Threads

I have 100s of buttons in my studio from my many, many years of sewing.  When we lived in Texas I bought an old English oak button cabinet to use as a side table, and the buttons that I sketched tonight were some of the lovely metal buttons that came with that table.   Each one has a very intricate design, regardless of how small.   The two largest buttons in this group are 3/4 inch and the smallest is 1/2".

Last Saturday I spent the day between the New York City Garment District and Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) with my new fried and fellow EDM member Paula.  She is from Brazil and currently studying at Columbia.  I have walked past the Garment District sculptures at 40th and 7th Ave many times, but on Saturday joined Paula in taking a few pictures of the large button, needle, and garment worker.  It sometimes takes new eyes to make you see something that is so familiar!  I thought that I would include it as another sketch for the Button challenge.

Posted by Shirley at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I have never sketched a flag - and was lucky enough to have one in front of a historically landmarked building in my neighborhood in New York City.  I want to do multiple sketches of this beautiful building that was the home of a light opera composer in the early 1900s.  In the 1930 census that I viewed its value was already estimated at $1,000,000 and it is well maintained and now contains several luxury apartments.  I was able to do the sketch while standing in front of the building and then take a photo of the flag when it was blowing to sketch and paint at home. 

Posted by Shirley at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

None of my current "threads" projects are close to being done.  I have 2 wedding quilts and one baby quilt in the process of being quilted or pieced.  And I'm hand piecing a Liberty of London quilt during this year of London travel to have a wonderful textile memory to go along with my travel sketchbooks. 

I just learned that many visitors to this blog find it because they search on images of chuppahs (as I once did when I started thinking about this project when my first child was married).  The images previously posted all show them suspended at the wedding ceremonies of my 3 children.  Here are photos of all 3 showing the actual design.  They are all 6 feet square and made from hand-dyed crepe de chine that I made using procion MX dyes.  They are hand quilted using silk thread.  The yellow/pink chuppah was made using a wax resist.  The blue chuppah is machine appliqued using many individually dyed fabrics, and the autumn leaves chuppah was drawn with a commercial silk resist from Prochem and painted with dyes using watercolor methods.  

Posted by Shirley at 9:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

My husband and I went to DC last weekend to visit our son in their new home near Eastern Market in the East Capitol Hill section.  We went to the Market early each morning for food and on Sunday I went 30 minutes before the group so I could quickly sketch the Eastern facade (built in 1873).  I stood and then sat on the sidewalk across the street and just finished when they arrived.  Then we realized that the image used for the market on T-shirts and by local artists is the North facade.  One of the artists in front of the Market told me, "I'd never do that complicated Eastern facade."  My sketch of the north facade is coming.

On Saturday we went to the Library of Congress Book Festival on the Mall to hear Mo Willems, the author/illustrator of the pigeon series of children's books.  Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus is a real favorite in our apartment with our grandchildren and he was wonderful - even passing out paper and pencils to all of the children in the audience and then teaching them how to draw the pigeon!  We walked home up the Mall toward the Capitol, but I didn't have time to sketch the rotunda.  This sketch was done from a photo taken as we walked by.

Posted by Shirley at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

The grid format was perfect for sketching my lunch today.  My work always far exceeds the amount of time I have in any day, so whenever possible I bring lunch and eat at my desk while reading, answering email etc.  Some days lunch is provided at meetings and I have some control over the menu so the choices are reasonable.  I'm not a health freak - and it takes alot for me to pass up potatoe chips, french fries, juicy big burgers, melted cheese, tacos and fajitas, and large loaves of freshly baked bread.

In the past, when I didn't bring lunch to work, I seemed to eat all relatively unhealthy things that were available in the building and growing older means slower metabolism and the need to reduce calories.  The sandwich is smoked turkey and fresh tomato on whole grain pita.  I only sketched half.  I bought the tomato from a produce cart halfway between my apartment and garage on my way to work and it was really fresh and delicious.  The remainder is self explanatory.   

Posted by Shirley at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)