The friday five....

i ran across these on another blog and it was vaguely textile related (and fun besides)...

1) Of everything in your wardrobe what do you feel the most comfortable wearing? Why?
i love jeans. any of you who know me could have probably answered that one. my favorites right now are eddie bauer boot cut.

2) How would you describe your style?
classic artsy eclectic.

3) How many pairs of shoes do you own and do you wear them all?
not many... 15 maybe? i hate shoe shopping and i tend to have a favorite pair or two that i wear all the time until they fall apart.

4) Where do you buy most of your clothes?
old navy, eddie bauer

5) What was the last piece of clothing you bought?
purple corduroy capris (beth thought i was nuts!)
becka on 07.30.04 @ 03:50 PM CST [link]

Low immersion dyes

i have talked about low-immersion dying several times but i finally remembered to take pictures this time. this oneis a "work-in-progress" shot of the t-shirts we did for andy's mgroe get-together last weekend. stacie, andy, danielle and scott all helped dye about 20 t-shirts in a variety of color themes.

beth and i did some more dying last weekend. we worked with silk scarves. beth also did a camisole. every time i dye something new, i learn a little more about how to get it to turn out how i want it to. next week i am going to learn how to paint and print on silk with the same dyes i have been using.


becka on 07.29.04 @ 11:04 PM CST [link]

A Secret Project Revealed.

I had been working on a couple of secret projects in the last few weeks. They have been gifts for various people and I finally have finished one and can show off the results.

Octopus' Garden
I made a quilt for my sister, Beth. First, I chose a color palette of greens and blues, with watery themes. There are prints with octopi, seahorses, fish, ocean waves and some lovely blue roses.

Then I cut and stitched strips together. The pattern is one I used several months ago for a quilting class.


Strips are cut into squares and then stitched in to bigger squares. I have never machine quilted anything before and I was itching to try out my new machine and all of its fancy quilting features. The finished quilt is about 5 ft square. I am very pleased with it and I hope Beth uses it a lot.
becka on 07.28.04 @ 06:36 PM CST [link]

another busy one

i have been busy doing all kinds of things with beth that i will have to post all about sometime. we have sewed a renaissance bodice, dyed silk and a rayon dress and done lots of shopping and strolling around.

this week's stitching question is:
What are your favourite cross stitching websites and why?

i do not cross stitch. i don't know why, but i really find it tedious. i love the end product and i admire cross-stitchers, but it's just not for me.
becka on 07.27.04 @ 08:54 AM CST [link]

Busy week

beth is visiting and we are having a busy week. yesterday we went up to s.r.harris, a huge fabric warehouse store. it's a fun place. we found some fabric for beth to make a slip cover for her living room chair and some to make a renaissance bodice for beth when she comes to visit us in august to go to the renaissance fair. today i think will be sewing or a trip down to the new ikea store. we slept in a little, so we're not really going yet.
becka on 07.24.04 @ 09:42 AM CST [link]

Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week

i found a blog with a "question of the week" for other textile bloggers to answer on their blogs. cheesy but kind of fun. so here goes...

Would you consider yourself ‘addicted to stitching’? Why or why not?

i really love always having a project or two to work on, usually something portable (like knitting), a larger work in progress (renaissance costume additions) and something brewing in the back of my mind (new kitchen curtains). addicted? no, not really. i enjoy it, but i also burn out and want nothing to do with sewing, especially after i have finished a theater or art show. i am addicted to creating art, however. when stitching doesn't appeal then i switch to beads, computer graphics, paper, cooking, photography... i dabble in almost everything.

becka on 07.19.04 @ 11:57 PM CST [link]

My addiction

I am currently completely addicted to "Wicked", the new Broadway musical. I read the book (of the same name) by Gregory Maguire a while back. The book was so-so. It was interesting, but I didn't really like it. It is basically a story of how the Wicked Witch of the West (from Oz) got to be wicked. From what I can tell having not seen it, the musical has kept the premise and done its own thing. I saw Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel on the Tony's and on one of the morning news shows and they were marvelous. So, when I saw the cast album cd on sale at Target the other day, I grabbed one and I have listened to it about 15 times. You can read a pretty good synopsis of the musical here.

becka on 07.18.04 @ 03:15 PM CST [link]

The good, the bad and the ugly

The Bad Simplicity 9886 The Good Vogue 7328

i just wrote an email to Simplicity Patterns about the pattern we used for the pajama pants class. the girls and i talked about it and i decided that they needed to know how lousy this one was. i love Simplicity patterns usually. they fit me great and they don't call for lots of extra fabric. when we went to cut them out of the girls' hand-dyed fabric, we were short by about 1/4-1/3 yd and had to cut out cross-grain to make it work. i even re-measured the fabric just to make sure it hadn't shrunk. sizing was screwy too. the pattern sizes show about 9" difference between waist and hips measurements, where our girls really only had about 2-3" difference. they were all a little baggy. despite problems, the pants turned out beautifully and the girls were thrilled. ironically, the pattern i chose for the messenger bags class, which was cancelled, is a great one and i love the way it worked. rachel and i each made a practice bag and they are beautiful.

becka on 07.17.04 @ 01:12 PM CST [link]

It's a girl scout jamboree

today was girl scout jamboree day at the textile center. 20+ girlscouts and 15 or so helpers doing weaving, felting, and embroidery. we have been sort of dreading the chaos that is sure to ensue... the girls arrive at 9:30 and we stare at them with amusement. instead of the squirrely sleep-deprived 9 year olds we are expecting, these girls are all 16! that's right, 10th graders. we had so much fun with them (once we did a little mental adjustment).

one of the samples i embroidered was a little blue bird. i remembered a website that i ran across several weeks ago (which i probably can't find again). an artist (painter, i think) had given herself a challenge of making a bird a day for a month. something different every day, each one unique. she had documented and posted blog entries about each one - painted, drawn, stitched, sculpted. a little of everything. i thought it was a great idea and what a fun creative challenge. i am thinking about doing something similar, maybe in august.... birds? dogs? i don't know the theme yet. any suggestions?
becka on 07.16.04 @ 06:04 PM CST [link]

Our last day

today is our last day of pajama pants class. we have a terrific group of 6 girls and they are having so much fun! today is hemming and then free-for-all day. they each have about 1/2 yd of leftover fabric and we told them that they could make whatever they want with it. i am interested to see what they come up with.

we are also decorating the textile mobile truck this evening. we are going to have it in the "art car parade" next weekend and so we are giving it some new pizzazz. beth and i might join the parade and hand out flyers.


becka on 07.15.04 @ 07:46 AM CST [link]

My brain on soap...

i spent the last 2 days up to my eyebrows in soapy water, teaching felting classes. we made a lot of cool stuff today with 12 or 13 boys, grades 3, 4 and 5 and yesterday with 6 and 7 yr olds.

i realized as i sat down to type that i mailed rachel's birthday present off to her without ever taking a picture. i do this so often it's not even funny. i get it all done, swear i am going to take a million pictures and then my brain ceases to function and i wrap whatever it is up and mail it off. i was feeling like i hadn't posted any project pictures in a while because all i have been working on is presents for 3 people and i didn't want to give away any secrets. rachel's birthday was sunday and i sent her a "fairy garland" of 2 fairy dolls holding a garland of silk flowers and ribbons. hopefully i will post pics some day.
becka on 07.13.04 @ 06:39 PM CST [link]

Puppets Sneak Peak is up!

Please look at my new Puppets Page.
becka on 07.11.04 @ 04:53 PM CST [link]

Revised Pics.

i have revised the pics on the jewelry page to include some close-ups of the necklaces as well. hopefully i will get some puppets up today. Beachcomber Necklaces
becka on 07.11.04 @ 09:52 AM CST [link]

Faithful Readers are in for a treat!

I have started working on the "Becka's Creature Shop" store and you get a sneak peak! I put together this page today and you can check it out: Beachcomber Jewelry. I had a creative jewelry muse haunting me for the last couple of days, so I made some necklaces. I don't generally sell necklaces at the shows I do because there are usually way too many "beaders" there, so these are going to be a website exclusive. I would appreciate any feedback you have about the page, necklaces, prices and so on. I am going to implement shopping cart features soon, but I need to do a bunch of reading first. If all goes well, I should be able to accept paypal payments on the website. Puppets & soft books should be following in the next couple of weeks. (The necklaces are for sale, by the way. I would be happy to put a "Sold" sign by them if anyone is interested.)
becka on 07.09.04 @ 04:51 PM CST [link]

Rainy day

i am working on a secret project today. i will post pictures later, but it is a present for somebody's birthday next week!

it looks like my pajama pants class is up in the air still. we have 3 or 4 registered so far and we need 6-7 to make the class go. not looking too promising. i will still have a summer camp to teach next week, so that will be fun. i am doing felting for that class - taking fluffy wool, dying it and making it in to felt fabric. we are going to make felt pom-pom bookmarks and geodes and maybe snakes.


becka on 07.06.04 @ 04:02 PM CST [link]

An adventurous week

on sunday and monday we drove to rapid city to drop rachel off from her stay at "Camp Ickyanu", aka our house. we listened to 2/3 of the book "everything on a waffle" because the 3rd cd didn't burn right and we are still in suspense waiting to hear the ending. there were lots of rahns and dogs at slate creek. andy and i had a lovely camping spot up on top of a hill a little way from the house. i think our best story from the trip has got to be: the 2nd morning we were there, at 6:00 am we were awakened by the cows licking the outside of our tent. quite a unique wake up call. andy did lots of hiking, i rode the 1880 train with one niece and nephew, a few brave souls went swimming and we did get to have dinner with my folks & sisters on wednesday night.

this weekend, the plan is to vegetate.
becka on 07.03.04 @ 09:41 AM CST [link]