Inglenook Sewing Bee - Back with a Bang

Ms. Annie with her log-cabin quilt, which she's been working on quietly at home for over a year. The entire quilt is hand-quilted. She is almost finished with the binding and was so excited to show it off when we re-convened.  

From left, Ms. Jeraldine (now the president of our group), Ms. Carol, me and Ms. Annie. This was our first day back and we topics of conversation covered a Birmingham Fredrick's of Hollywood that used to sell women's underthings to a man that hid money from his wife in books in their library and when he passed away, the wife gave away all of the books...

Ever since our inception, we've wanted to make something special for the library to hang as a thank you for being able to meet there weekly. This is the beginning of a wall hanging we are making for Inglenook Library.

We have so much fun and take over the library during our sessions. This library-goer was caught in our hen-talk and laughed under his breath more than a few times.

Fashion's Night Out - It's about local, y'all...

A week from today, downtown Homewood, AL is having a block party. We're gonna celebrate all things local, all things beautiful, all things charitable and we're gonna look good while we do it. Leading up to Birmingham's own Fashion's Night Out, I've been working with some of the students from this summer's art camp in Woodlawn to create an image of fashion that resonates with them. The sketch was the only thing provided and from there, the students have spent several afternoons with me in the DISCO space in Woodlawn, working on their mural. As the days have passed, I've watched them take ownership of their design. They began by owning small portions of the canvas, feeling shy about moving away from their one "corner", but as the days have gone by, the image has become more cohesive, with portions being painted over, sometimes by the original artist, sometimes not. 

As of yesterday, the students had mostly completed the garments and were working on their idea for the environment surrounding their icon of style. What began as a prodding from me a week ago: "Where IS this girl?! What is she doing?" has turned into a discussion among the artists. 

"I think she's in heaven" says E.
"Just because she's in a bunch of color? Or are you gonna draw heaven?" says M.
"I don't believe in heaven, or well, my friend says hell is on earth and there isn't a heaven. I don't think that, but I don't know about heaven" says E.

Silence while E puts yellow paint on her large brush and begins to block out a sky at the top of the mural. Below E, M and A (who are in a couple) sit at the base of the mural, working on a mix of light blue, white and purple. They decide, for today, that their icon of style is in the sky, perhaps in heaven, perhaps just soaring above the chaos of the city. It might change completely next week. Regardless, you have one chance to see their completed mural: Sept. 6th from 6-9pm in Homewood.

A wonderful place to work: DISCO space in Woodlawn

Woodlawn students and their icon of style

Synchronicity in research

Photo of Bacardi Cube (left) by saikofish; Photo of Bacardi Tower (right) by Bob B. Brown 

I love when I'm minding my own business, driven to pursue a thought, an idea along a path of research and a delicious synchronicity appears to urge me along.

It is a time of unbridled creativity here in the studio, and I find myself out of training to keep up. One the one hand, there are many, many practical orders that need filling, yet the creative spirit is running wild and I must daily give that spirit free reign to research, play, create as she sees fit.

I received two orders of fabric this morning and after picking up a few books-on-tape from the library, I was ready, scissors in hand to dive deeply into sewing and listening. Next thing I know, I'm under-stitching a facing while listening to the history of cancer. Did you know that there are paleontologist-pathologists? One in particular who found the oldest known proof of the existence of cancer after conducting autopsies on thousand-yr-old bodies atop a Peruvian tundra??

So I found myself, after a few hours of sewing and the completion of one petal top, needing a bit of a change. I felt very weak and realized it had a lot to do with the graphic description of early aggressive surgeries and radiation therapies gone wrong. Lord, humans are a wily set. I shifted to the computer and began work on a digital inspiration board for a new project I'm working on that will have its debut in December.

When I'm not listening to books, I like listening to music and have recently discovered Pandora (I know, I know...I also do not have an iPhone...). So HOW COOL is Pandora?!? I mean, they don't always have it spot on, but it's a pretty close. When I need to rock while sewing, I listen to a station made up of the following seeds: Violent Femmes, Hole and Ween. A random, quirky, edgy little mix and yet just as I returned to the station this afternoon, ready to get busy with my research, A Day in the Life by the Beatles came through the queue...it seemed an odd choice given what usually plays on this station, but a good song nonetheless.

As the orchestra began its ascent, I typed, "Miami Architecture" into google and the first thing that caught my attention was an image of the building on the right in the above photo. I clicked on the image and learned that the Bacardi Building tower was designed by Enrique Guitierrez and built in 1964, followed in 1973 by the Bacardi cube (building on left in above photo), which was designed by Ignacio Carrera-Justiz. Intrigued and excited by both buildings, I continued my research and came across this article by Robin Hill, an architectural photographer based in Miami. If you don't care to read the article - though you'll be missing a delightful bit of writing - I will leave you with this: as the strains of "A Day in the Life" reached their zenith, I read the following sentence in Hill's article:

If the Bacardi buildings were a song, they might be that famous Lennon and McCartney recording, "A Day in the Life" from the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

My father and I share an awe for experiences such as these, though this might be my first experience with a synchronized soundtrack.

While the Miami project remains semi-veiled, here are a few warm-up designs from a brainstorming session yesterday. The veils will be drawn as the days grow short.