Saoirse's Helping

If you’ve seen the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book, you know that it’s not an ordinary quilting book. There are not strict rules, no precisely-matching corners, it’s all organic and free-flowing–akin to the quilt’s from Gee’s Bend. The designs and style have really captivated Josh and he’s actually done all of the piecing for a crazy (and huge) version of The Big Zig (progress on that has pretty much been thwarted by both our having to move across town–ugh–and the fact that the thing’s so big that it’s practically impossible for a mere mortal to quilt). Josh decided that the Hop, Skip & a Jump quilt from the book would be perfect for Viola.

This photo is the version in the book--it's hard not to straight-up copy the fabulous red and white color scheme...

Josh went with a gray and blue palette–most of them from random fat quarters from Bolt, some gray shot cotton (also from Bolt) and some bits of an old blue shirt (more on that adventure in a minute). A pretty nice combo, eh?

The small amounts of red and yellow in the blue fabrics kind of balance out the design, if that makes sense... It keeps it from looking too stripey.

The old blue shirt fabric proved to be a bit of a “challenge.” (“Challenge” always sounds so much more positive than, say, “pain in the ass,” doesn’t it?) Because the aforementioned old blue shirt was, you know, really old–hence, it was a good candidate for being hacked up and given new life in a quilt. However, there’s a minor detail we failed to consider: sometimes, when fabric is really hold, it doesn’t really have the structural integrity to hold up to sewing.  So Josh had a hell of  a time with those pieces, they just frayed and frayed as he sewed. Ugh. You can see in the photo below the nubby blue shirting that had to be whip-stitched to the gray fabric because it unraveled after the top was pieced together.

Aw, yes, the blue shirting was a good idea. Until it wasn't.

Once that excitement was over, Josh quilted the top. Since neither one of us is down with anything so insane as hand-quilting, Josh went with a free-form, random vertical strip for his quilting. It turned out pretty fantastic, actually. It’s funny, something so unconventional can really make a rather simple design like this quilt very distinctive and kind of arty-looking. The cheap-ish natural color cotton quilting thread helped too, since it looked kind of rustic.

Quilts are hard to photograph, but, hopefully this gives a decent impression of the meandering lines Josh quilted.

Oh, yeah, and then we backed the thing in a pretty dark red. (And put dark red thread in the bobbin, so the quilting on the back is barely noticeable.)

Is this quite possibly the most boring photo ever posted on Sewer-Sewist? Just maybe...

Finally, Sarah bound it in bright blue using a patented no hand-sewing technique that’s a combination of a trick Susan taught us and Sarah’s method for binding sleeves (it’s hard to explain, but it’s a two-step process and involves monofilament/invisible thread).

Here’s the finished quilt…

Finished!

It hung out on our Old Man Chair (Have we ever told y’all about the Old Man Chair?) that we found on the street last year (seriously–it even came with Old Man Smell) for a week or so, and we got really, really attached to the quilt. So Josh is just has to make one for us. Perhaps in Denyse’ awesome new Hope Valley?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Josh printing for the first time.

Josh's first printing project--some calling cards for his dad.

Letterpress gears--this one's on "Tony"--the larger of the Vandercooks at PNCA.

Josh's type.

The type in the corner is six point--so tiny, and so lovely. This is from my project.

~Sarah

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Yes, Josh really made this flag.

Yes, it’s completely reversible.

Yes, he cut and appliqued the felt pinwheel.

Yes, he sewed the whole thing together.

And, yes, he hand screenprinted the “Don’t Tread On Me.”

Oh, and yes, that’s Josh holding it up and he’s about 6’2″, so it’s really, really big.

And then he informed me it was a gift for me.

Because my husband is just that awesome.

~Sarah

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Red, black & white banners flying on the stage outside the Rose Garden Arena before the Trail Blazers' first playoff game in several years. These semi-transparent banners are really beautiful rustling in the breeze with the cityscape in the background.

I’m hoping that “Josh per a tres!” actually does mean “Josh for three!” in Catalan, because that’s what the online translator said, and those things are never wrong–right?

I thought I’d share Josh’s latest screen printing project–an impromptu one, at that. (Although, let’s all agree that normal people don’t plan and execute a three-color screen print on an “impromptu” basis–Josh is weird.)

It’s been well documented that Josh has officially jumped on the Portland Trail Blazers bandwagon in a big way. (Although, really, he’s been on the bandwagon for about three years, but he’s reached the terminal stage of BlazerMania–emotional investment.) He has also sucked it up and finally become, like the rest of us here in Portland, a big Rudy Fernandez fan. Portland hearts Rudy, an flashy player from Spain–and people are wearing the T-shirts around to prove it. (Seriously, the now-defunct G.I. Joe’s sold them. First they were just women’s shirts, but then they started stocking men’s and you’d see a lot of very old male Blazers fans wearing them too.) I think the final straw was last Wednesday, at the Trail Blazers’ last regular season game, and Josh’s return to going to games after nearly a month of dealing with a nightmarish situation with regard to the horrendous customer service by the Trail Blazers season ticket staff and dealing with the thugish occupants of section 322 in the Rose Garden over the course of 41 games (and really, I’m pretty sure that I’m not quite ready to drop my complaint after the service folks’ pathetic reaction to our concerns). What was so special about Rudy’s performance that night? Well, he made six freaking three-point shots! Six! Which meant that he also broke the rookie record for most threes in a season. (You can check out some highlights of Rudy hitting threes this season here and if you’re feeling really wild and crazy, check out this phenomenal bit of play from Rodolfo.)

So, a bit more about Josh’s inspiration. Rudy makes a really unique and energizing hand gesture when he makes a three, and fans have started imitating him when he scores. It’s joyous, and it gets everyone fired up.

Portland, Oregon - Where the NBA Playoffs are finally happening again!

Josh got the idea to create a screenprint based upon the logo from the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain–you know, as a shout-out to that awesome city and country. (We went to Spain in 1998 and spent quite a bit of time in Barcelona, it’s one of the most wonderful places we’ve been–and we’d love to go back sometime.) Do you remember that logo? 

This is Josh’s re-interpretation:

A last-minute three-color screenprint? What a maniac!

Josh elongated the “face” to better resemble Rudy, and added Rudy’s signature “3″ hand gesture. The results are pretty nifty, if I do say so myself. 

The Trail Blazers put up this awesome banners of all the players all over the Rose Garden Arena outdoor concourse. They're really swell-looking. Here, Josh demonstrates Rudy's "3" sign under one of the Rudy banners.

Now, Josh would be the first to admit (actually, he did admit it to me yesterday), that he got all nervous about the playoff game on Saturday night (with good reason, apparently) and had to do something, hence the complexity of the three-color screenprint. He also printed me one. 

Josh tried to get me to take my picture under a certain players banner, but I thought that would be 1) a mixed basketball metaphor and 2) too Fan Girl.

Sadly, the Blazers lost their first playoff game, and I was–frankly–devastated. I never imagined that they’d lose, let alone get blown out. But, I’ve got to believe they’ll come back with a vengeance. So, I’m asking y’all a favor: If you currently have no NBA loyalties, or if your team’s not in the playoffs (I’m speaking to you, Phoenix Suns fans–I rooted for y’all’s team for a long while during the Jail Blazers Era and have even read :07 or Less.), please consider sending some positive playoff energy our way. It would mean a hell of a lot. For inspiration, here’s a video we shot at the Playoff Rally at Pioneer Courthouse Square on Thursday. 

15,000 of us showed up to cheer on the team just for making the playoffs! Look how excited everyone is! We need this here in Portland! So, please, send some positive vibes here to the Pacific Northwest.

~Sarah

P.S. You can check out my Flickr set for our pics from Saturday’s game.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Sarah brought home a really intriguing book called Fabricate that had an awesome notebook computer sleeve pattern in it. I spent a great deal of time thinking of making one, because it involved felt, which I love, combined with the opportunity for silly embellishment, which I also love. When Sarah brought home her little notebook from work, I like the cheetah, and sprang into action. Well, not really that fast since Sarah didn’t pick up my felt when she went out to the fabric store without me. (Ahem.)

When I was able to get out there, I found this really cool red, black and white felt made from recycled plastic bottles, much like the hoody I have been wearing lately (made by Sarah). The idea to make a Trail Blazers-looking bag was a no-brainer with Sarah completely wrapped up in the latest playoff push and I love of sports uniforms. My favorite Blazers jersey is the red alternative one that I have seen twice in person (both Christmas Day games, one against the former Seattle Sonics–normally they only wear them for special away games). 

Following the laminating technique described in Fabricate (you used Stitch Witchery/Wonder Under to fuse the layers), I created the front and back pieces and started on the appliques. To get the three different color stripe pattern, I dug deep into the scrap pile and found a piece of white satin, grey coat liner and a piece of black jersey off an old t-shirt I never wear.

(Maybe the theme should be “sustainability?” But let’s get back to the topic at a hand.)  

I stiched on the three stripes and began working on the back. I hadn’t originally planned for a number, but I got some burnt stuff from the iron and adhesive on the felt that needed to be covered. Besides being a big Brandon Roy fan, Sarah likes the shape of the number 7 (hand-setting type will make you think about these things a lot), so the number to choose was an easy one. (Plus, who want to cuts out 44 or 88 from felt?).

The appliques were added and it was now time to stitch the six layers of felt together, the bottom panel went okay. However, the sides just weren’t going to fit through our sewing machine (oh, for an adjustable presser foot). The solution I came up with was adding eyelets and lacing the sides together. This gave the bag and almost shoe-like look, so for the closure I decided to fashion an “S” in a similar style to the inside 7 on Brandon Roy’s kicks, which I was really happy with.

The "S" on the laptop sleeve clasp was inspired by the "7" on Brandon Roy's shoes.

This project was actually incredibly easy except for the all of the add-ons that took it from an afternoon of working to a weekend of sewing, cutting, cursing my luck and, finally, completion. All in all a hell of a lot of fun. 

Does this mean that I have to join Sarah’s Posse?

~Josh

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Frank Robinson - The Reds should have never traded him.

One of the reasons I got into this whole sewing thing is that I wanted to make my own baseball jersey. I have been obsessed with having an “authentic” looking flannel for sometime, but I am not the type to spend $250+ on an article of clothing, no matter how cool that I might find it. On our trip to Washougal, I found a lovely piece of white wool flannel (cream might be a more accurate description) and had in my mind a multitude of potential uses. However, that piece of fabric sat in the box of potential projects for a long time, mostly because I wanted to make something “perfect” or truly “authentic” looking.

Sketch of 1957 Reds uniforms - one of the images used as inspiration for this project.

I spent the better part of a year looking for a pattern, but too no avail. Sarah and I went round and round about how it was such a simple construction that I didn’t really need a pattern, but for some reason I held onto this five dollar piece of wool like I would never find another. Inspired by a cold winter, and a need to get back into sewing, I decided to go for it. Sarah and I made a pattern by using Swedish tracing paper and an old jersey that I had (let’s be clear, this in no way was a $250+ piece of clothing, it is a jersey made out of sweatshirt material, it was cheap and huge and I have never worn it). Basically, the “pattern” is a simple shirt with a wide, curved facing that goes all the way down the front and around the neckline.

Stitching on the number 20.

The next step was to find a jersey to replicate, and of course I wanted to do my Cincinnati Reds and I thought there was no more appropriate players’ jersey to wear than Frank Robinson. Robinson was one of the original bad-asses in C-town and in one of the worst trades in baseball history was traded to the Baltimore Orioles because the Reds said he was an “old” thirty. The very next year, he hit for the Triple Crown with the Baltimore Orioles and continued his Hall of Fame career. Robinson eventually became the first African-American manager and later managed the inaugural season of the Washington Nationals, where his old school hard-assness was refreshing as a baseball fan to see.

Trimming the stabilizer behind the numbers.

I choose the 1957 uniform after looking through the baseball Hall of Fame’s Dressed to the Nines exhibit. I liked two things about this — that it’s vest and that I would be able to cut out the logo from felt by hand and have it look good/authentic. This is one of the seasons that the Reds were known as the “Redlegs,” so as not to appear that they were the Communist team. Put all of these together, along with the irony, and coolness came together in a perfect storm.

The dog: "Dad, can you please make me a jersey, too?"

Making the jersey was pretty quick and painless, especially without sleeves. I decided to bind the sleeve holes with shinny cotton bias strips (Oh yeah new skill, making bias strips!). While it is hard to tell if the sleeves were actually bound in the original, I really like the look in my version. I made the logo and the numbers out of a wool-rayon blend felt. I have used acrylic felt on other things and frankly the wool-rayon blend, while a little more expensive, looks and feels so much better (the 100% wool felt is too rich for my blood). To get the size of the numbers and positioning correct I used the Liebe Apparel web site, which has a fantastic guide on numbering and lettering sports jerseys.

Jersey back - I used specific porportions and and placement of the numbers, for an authentic look.

All in all, this was a fun project, and for less than $20 I had my throwback jersey and accomplished something that I had set out to do in the beginning. I was lucky to find the a nice piece of flannel in flat folds table, so most of my money was spent on felt. Sarah and I had so much fun figuring this out that we are going to do a Video Threads episode on DIY baseball jerseys (of course I will make the road gray jersey). And  down the road, I think I will also try designing a vintage-looking hockey jersey as well.

Mixed sports metaphor happening here...

~Josh

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

And now for the awards…

The most useful thing I made myself this year. (This award is presented by Sarah’s lovely blue dress.)

And the winner is…

The orange and blue hat was in heavy rotation most of the year.

My Baseball Hat! In surprise move that has totally left the producers of the Oregon Camouflage Sweatshirt reexamining, not only their script, but their tiny marketing budget, this low-budget indie project has come out of nowhere to capture the hearts and minds of, well, me. Why did I love this project? It is functional, fun and was on my head most of the spring and fall (too hot for the summer). I wasn’t even expecting this draft of the project to work and sometimes our “mistakes” lead to better things (I think Sarah might have edited that exact line out of our wedding vows).

The most useful thing Sarah made for me.

And the winner is…

Oh, something that didn’t make the blog (occasionally that happens). My awesome, blossom, Heather Ross gold fish fabric PJ bottoms. They are PJs–I am an adult and yet I still refer to them not by their proper name, pajamas, so you know they gotta rock.

The most disturbing trend of 2008.

Oh, and  we have a TIE…

We've definitely upgraded our screen printing set-up since this early go at it.

In a surprise move, I actually spent a lot of time showing Sarah how to screen print. If you know the blog, you know I am the dumb ass, so this shift from grasshopper to master has been strange (but fun). If only I could be a hard ass and make her clean her own screens, then I would feel like I had some real power. (As an aside, she has been less rigid about making me pin my own things when they aren’t working. Could my subtle mind control be working? Will I get her to learn to “paint the fence” by painting our fence? This could be THE story line to follow in the New Year).

Is this cool or concerning? You be the judge.

I think you all know what is coming next. Sarah’s ascension to uber-Blazer geek being broadcast to the world. Screen printing, season tickets, twitter followers? What is the world coming to? Did I mention she was on the 2008 Fan Board? Of course I have been caught up in this, but can we live in a world where the Blazers are playing into late-June? This also could be a story to follow.

(Would somebody please stop drink service to my Dayton Triangle Hoodie? Not winning does not give you the right to drink copious amounts of Bourbon and punch Jack Nicholson. Good thing that went down at the commercial break.)

Biggest question of 2008.

And the winner is…

While the overcoat didn't get a lot of run, the shoes I'm wearing in this shot sure did.

In a landslide:  Why didn’t I wear my velvet clothing more? Pants from ’07 and a lovely jacket from ’08 just sat in the closet. They need a better agent (or belt loops in the case of the pants).

Let’s wrap this up…

Weirdest thing I did in a snowstorm that might become a feature.

Obviously it isn’t walking around in boots and no pants (which didn’t happen). It is the Video Threads series. Look for more; it was fun to do.

Best value in the house.

Besides the dog, the re-subscription to Burda World of Fashion. Man, that is expensive on the newsstand (did I sound old using the phrase “newsstand,” we need more of those by the way). If you like it, get a damn subscription. You, your accountant and your mailman will all be happy.

Most interesting thing about having a website.

We sure had a hell of a lot of fun with this crafty posse at Thatch this summer.

All of the cool people I have got to meet this year. Really, I know I am the quiet one (which is very real), the one that is not as web 2.0 connected, but whether in person, on the comments or through Sarah’s stories, I am continually impressed. We had a political component this year, which I had a lot of trepidation about; it only produced a handful of hateful and idiotic comments. I think that most people, even if you didn’t agree with us politically, appreciated the passion. Thanks, it means a lot. Plus I got to meet Pearl, who is just about the coolest.

Coolest spouse in the house.

And there she is... (At the Barack Obama rally at Memorial Coliseum this spring.)

You all know it has to be the Sewist. As I have been distracted by work, printing and running she has kept the website up and still encouraged me to explore my creative side. I am a lucky mofo–look for me to pull my weight around here more in ’09.

~Josh

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Do you remember this skateboard? We’ve used it as a prop few times in photos here off and on.

This is the best "Before" shot we've got--we're always forgetting the befores.

As you can see, it’s pretty darn boring.The stuff on the back that looks like “wood” is actually a big decal printed to look like wood. So, armed with the contact paper stencil technique from Lena Corwin’s Printing by Hand, I created a new look for my crappy skateboard.

Cutting out the stencil. (That's our dining room table, by the way--it doesn't see many meals, obviously.)

First, I sanded off the sticker. Which was vinyl. Which made Sarah really annoyed, since I forgot to wear a mask. Wear a mask if you sand off a vinyl sticker, folks!

Then, instead of taking the path of least resistance and making a normal stencil, I made a reverse stencil of a wolf from an image that I manipulated in Illustrator. I spray glued the image to a large sheet of contact paper and cut out all the little, tiny pieces that made up the wolf.

Next, I stuck the pieces on the sanded board.

Sticking the pieces of contact paper on the board.

The wolf silhouette on the back of the board.

We have a large supply of wood stain products in our garage–not of our own doing, they came with the house. So, after some spot testing, I selected the fancy-sounding “Red Wood” color and started staining over the stencil. I applied four coats of stain. I also learned that Sarah knows a lot more about wood finishing than I do. For example, she showed me how to rub the stain in rather than just brushing it on so that you won’t get streaks. However, this was after I had already been a bit “aggressive” with the paint brush, so some of the small stencil pieces got stain underneath them. But, I was able fix this after I peeled off the contact paper by scraping the stain off with an Xacto knife. The staining component of this project took four days, because I let it dry thoroughly in between each coat.

Following the first coat of stain, I was starting to wonder what I'd gotten myself into...

Scraping off the excess stain from my overly-enthusiastic staining. I first tried this with the Dremel tool, which didn't work at all. The Xacto allowed me to use a much lighter touch.

After fixing the spots where the stain ran, I started the polyurethane process. two days and four coats of semi-gloss (which was also found in our garage) later, the damn thing was finished.

After the fourth coat of polyurethane.

I reattached the trucks and wheels, and the skateboard was looking good.

It's hard to take pictures when there's so much shellack--can't avoid the glare when using the flash.

The pathetic thing? I don’t have the heart to ride it now, because it looks so nice and took so long (10 days!). I’m going to have to get over that, I know.

Done!

~Josh

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Me.

With autumn bringing cool weather, I needed a new hoodie to wear (by the way, sometime we’ll have to ask Sarah to write about her hoodie addiction). For inspiration, I wanted it to look like the old Dayton Triangles jerseys from the 1920s, because I am from Dayton and I like stripes and appliqués. And I really like any excuse to screen print just about anything.

Why the Dayton Triangles? Well, my dad remembers them playing at the park near his house when he was growing up in Dayton, Ohio in the 1950s.

I started out with a plain gray hoodie and used tape to create the stripes I wanted. I then used a blank screen to spread the ink.  (Which made one hell of a mess.) After drying, I was left with even stripes on both sleeves.

I really can’t believe this actually worked.

To make the bottom half of the hoodie navy–after briefly considering screen printing the whole bottom–I wisely bought a navy crew neck sweatshirt and cut it underneath the armholes, I then cut the gray sweatshirt two inches under the armholes to give it more length, (one and a half inches with the seam allowance).

On the chest, I made a simple triangle out of wool felt and stitched it onto the a larger white piece of felt and then sewed it onto the front of the “jersey.”

This was really a quick and easy project, except for the long drying time of the sleeves.  With the cold weather coming, it looks like I am going to get back on the sewing machine and out of the garage (where we screen print).

~Josh

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Obviously, his running buddy approves of this stylish head-wear.

~S & J

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.