Eye Candy

One of the great things about having out-of-town company is that you take them to see things that you wouldn't see done otherwise.  My sister was here this week and we did all kinds of things that I wouldn't have taken the time to do.  We went to the Joseph Manigault House in downtown Charleston.  And what a wonderful gem that is--from the general shape of the house itself to the exquisite detail of the beautiful sweeping staircase  in the central hall.  Unfortunately, my camera wasn't behaving so you'll just have to take my word for it when I say that it is well worth the trip. 

I did, however, get my camera working when we visited the South Carolina Artisan Center in Walterboro, SC.  This is a gallery filled with work of artists from throughout the state.  As we pulled into the driveway, the first thing we saw was this incredible metallic tree sculpture and then, just a few step further along, was another tree--this time a palmetto.  The Artisan Center is located in an old house that is composed of small rooms that seem to meander from a large central showroom.  It was fun to wander around at a leisurely pace and let the surprises hidden in each room unfold of their own accord.

In my former life, I was a potter for fifteen years, so I went to a LOT of craft shows and it was always wonderful to walk through the show and experience all of the unique creativity that seem to be saturating the very air around me.  And I believe it to be true that when you are surrounded by the creative force, you, too, become more creative.  It doesn't have to be in your particular medium--the energy is there.   You can see from my photos that there were many different mediums represented and it's always a

mazing to me to see how an artist can take a very simple material and end up with something truly extraordinary.  I was particularly entranced by some of the baskets as I used to make them myself.  The ones in this picture were transformed into another purpose by adding the turned wooden necks--baskets becoming vases.  And each one of them had a different weaving pattern.  There were other baskets, also--some of the traditional sweet grass baskets and others that started off as fired clay pieces with basket weaving added to complete them.

 Everywhere I looked, there was something that caught my eye--angels painted on wood, fish made from cut tree branches, dyed and painted fabric, trinket collages, fabric embellishment, paintings--and on and on.  Fine craft art is alive and well in South Carolina.  We need to seek it out and relish in its power to renew our spirits and to connect our hearts to the bubbling well of creativity that lies within each of us.  It's more than just eye candy.

It's Beginning To Look A Little Like Christmas

For the last few years, most of my time has been spent in designing and making quilts.  It has been--and continues to be--something that feeds my spirit and enriches my life.  I would hate it if I couldn't do it.  But, you know, sometimes you just want to do something a little different.  When I learned that my friends Corky, Janice and Cindy were going to head up to Accent Sewing in Murrell's Inlet to embroider this 20" high Santa, well, I was interested in going also.  I've done a fair amount embroidery but never a design with multiple hoopings (9, as it turned out). The thing that's pretty challenging in doing an embroidery with multiple hoopings is the need for accuracy--and patience.  You can't just slap the fabric into a hoop and expect it to turn out right.  You actually have to measure--which is sort of difficult sometimes for an "eyeballer" like me.  It was time to change my ways.

 Before we could begin our class, we had to buy supplies.  Accent Sewing is a Bernina dealership--a REALLY good dealership--and they were well-stocked with anything we might need (and some things that we didn't strictly NEED but seemed to jump right into our shopping bags.  Here are Corky and Janice discussing the merits of a set of designs for another quilt.  With a 25% discount on embroidery designs that day, it was hard to resist.  (I succumbed a little myself).

I wish I could say that we just breezed through our embroidery on Santa.  It was, after all, mostly applique which meant there wasn't nearly as much stitching as in a regular embroidery design.   There was, as it turned out, a LOT of angst in between the beginning and the end and you can see the elation  on Janice's face as she and Corky held up their Santas for the camera.  FINALLY.  And the next two pictures are of a little closer view.

 

 And where, you might ask, is mine?  Well, as you can see in the picture on the right, I encountered a problem early in the process.  Things went along pretty good until I got to Santa's red pants legs.  At that point, the thread kept getting jammed up in the bobbin case and no amount of fiddling around was successful.  After a while, Bob-the owner and mechanic extraordinaire--called a halt to the process and decided to give my machine the once-over.  Which meant I was through for the day.  Things did work out though.  He fixed the problem and I embroidered my Santa a couple of days later. 

I think he turned out pretty good.  And I've included a close-up of his face so you can see the detail.  We all agreed that we would like to make another one sometime--but not this year.  I think we've had enough "Ho, Ho, Ho" to last us for a while.  But, in the meantime, I might have a design that would look good on a hand towel and another that would jazz up a sweatshirt and one that would maybe go on a bag of goodies . . .