The Singer Man and my sewing machine collection

After bee today, I went by Molly Green to pick up my mother's Singer sewing machine. I had brought it to the boutique in order to start sewing during business hours, but it has been in the closet since 2010 and is in need of more TLC than I am capable of giving at the moment. I drove it over to the Singer store on Montclair Ave and had a lovely conversation with Allan, the owner/dealer/mechanic.

Allan notified me that for the most part, the Singer is in excellent condition and is a model from the good old days when Singers were made to be tough and reliable. As he collected my contact info, he asked if I lived by George Ward park and I said I did. He said that when he was young, you used to be able to drive through the park - which is now a lovely neighborhood park with baseball fields, a frisbee gold course, picnic areas and a good deal of space for running your dogs. Allan told me that he drove his wife through the park and asked her to marry her dead smack in the middle. "It was very romantic then". On Sundays, years after she said "yes", he would take her back to the area and sit and watch the sun set over Birmingham at the end of their weekly joyrides. I told him that my father and I would go on joyrides on Sundays when I was a teenager. I haven't used the word joyride in such a long time. The whole environment and way of life contained within Allan's store is a throw-back to an era that I feel my generation is nostalgic for. Allan is certainly best described as mid-century modern.

I was just about to leave his shop, having been told my Singer would be ready for pickup in a day or two, when I noticed amid his sea of machines (all of them lined up like soldiers awaiting orders to head out to the front) a turquoise and chrome machine that looked very familiar. "I have a machine this exact color and even with this great R-emblazoned reverse button, but mine is an ABC Lifetime, also made in Japan". Allan told me that back in the 1950s-70s, many machines were made in Japan without the names affixed to them and then shipped to distributors in the USA, where their various names were put on, even though they were all the same model and usually shipped from the same factory. I asked Allan if he could look at my ABC Lifetime and possibly get it working again. And I'm so happy to say that he was pretty confident that he could get it running again.

In case you haven't yet seen the ABC Lifetime, it is a beaut. And I'm proud to say that it will be my fourth (working) machine if Allan is the wizard he says he is. That makes me the owner of a Bernina 180, a Janome 3128, a Singer Old-School and an ABC Lifetime Japanese "clone". Now I'll have to take in my aunt's Singer which I absconded with on my last visit to my grandfather's house in Huntsville (which I was able to do because it is supposedly broken) and I might become the mother of five working sewing machines. And happily, happily, since my need for machines is multiplying by the month. One at Molly Green, one at Inglenook, one at ArtPlay and one here, at World Headquarters. I suppose I'm safe with four...for now... 

The ABC Lifetime came in this great sewing desk...two colors that make sewing so much fun!

Check out that REVERSE button!

Inglenook Quilting Bee

This morning, I met with the women of the Inglenook quilting bee for a three hour sewing feast. Inglenook Library is located in North Birmingham and is a tiny three room building that acts as community center and library for its neighborhood. The bee originated when Ms Annie and I got to talking one day last September about wanting to learn more about quilting. Ms Annie was originally a member of the Birmingham Quilter's Guild but for a variety of reasons decided to focus on learning more before rejoining. I met Ms Annie at my first Guild meeting back in May of 2011.

Ms Annie and I started meeting at the library, which was incredibly generous to us and purchased two long tables from their very modest funding so that we might have sufficient workspace. Ms Jeraldine, a woman from the neighborhood started showing up during our sessions and is a quick learner. Now Ms Carol has joined our little group and occasionally Sharon and Ann from the Guild stop by. Today it was Ms Annie, Ms Carol and I.

The women asked me to explain how to use an acrylic ruler to measure and cut a specific measurement. If you've never seen an acrylic quilting ruler, they are seriously confusing the first time you put one down and actually try to use it with a rotary cutter. Everything is backwards, meaning non-intuitive. I spent a good hour trying to come up with a clear way to explain the 1 in square, the half-inch mark, the difference between one quarter and three quarters and how to tell you were going in the right direction, and don't even get me started on eighths. I find it interesting that my two years of middle school math tutoring did NOT come to my rescue during this particular teaching exercise. Fortunately for all, Ms Annie, Ms Carol and I all have a heaping of patience and good humor that gets us through such sessions. After my tutorial, I went to the machine - a new one purchased over the weekend for the Upcycle Challenge workshop at ArtPlay: Janome model 3128 - and pieced three quilt blocks from strips the women were cutting. I sat at the machine and sewed while listening to the two women fuss over the ruler and work out the measurements in their heads. It was lovely to see these two women with their heads together giggling and fussing over an eighth of an inch. We managed to get three blocks made and I pieced their scraps together for an almost fourth block and then showed Ms Annie how to thread a bobbin and the machine since I only go to the bee every other week and won't be there next week.

One funny moment from our bee occurred before Ms Carol arrived. Ms Annie had purchased some fun puppy fabric that she wanted to use as a quilt top and she wanted me to help her make her sandwich: top, batting and backing. She brought all of her materials in and I noticed that her batting was really fiber fill for making pillows or stuffed animals. She desperately wanted to get her sandwich made so she urged me to use the fiber fill and we opened the packaged and patted it out on her backing and it stood about seven inches high. I said, "Ms Annie, I don't think this is going to work" and she said, "I'll mush it down and it'll be okay" so we covered the mountain of fiber fill with her puppy fabric top piece and both started laughing so hard at the huge mess. We "mushed" it down but there was no way it was going to work. I admitted to Ms Annie that were I a better, tougher teacher, I wouldn't have even allowed her to try such a thing, but then we decided that I was tough enough when it came to making her work with a ruler. We returned the mountain of fiber fill to its bag and she will now challenge herself to make a doll or pillow for her grandchildren.

Since the bee began last fall, the women have completed a cuddle quilt, which was donated to the guild's collection of cuddle quilts and will go to an organization in need of blankets. Also, I sent a request to guild members asking for supplies that would help the bee get started and received such an enthusiastic response that we are swimming in rulers, rotary cutters, fabric, cutting mats, irons, pins, thread, needles, ironing boards, etc. If you need it for quilting, we've got it and about seven versions of it. I am really awed by the cycle of generosity all around me. I hope to keep this bee going and to gain new members from the neighborhood. For now, Ms Annie, Ms Jeraldine and Ms Carol keep me happy and reflective every other Tuesday.

Telling our story

This afternoon, my father and I met with Journalism student and Molly Green intern, Allison Hubbard. Allison approached us about doing a story on the father-daughter aspect of our collaboration for an Arts & Culture piece she is writing. Having been interviewed all of zero times about Tré Lilli, I don't have a smooth way of telling where we come from and how and why. I actually like this fact because I found myself searching for the meaning. What is the meaning?

More than once along this journey, I have grappled with this question, but not today. Allison wrote like mad as my father and I unraveled our long, winding stories, and it was clear to all present (and perhaps completely for myself just today) that both my father and I are doing exactly what we should be doing. My Dad paints and continues to paint because he has found that one, beautiful mode of expression that gives him peace and allows for quiet from all the chaos of daily life. Never mind that he was a biochemist and is not formally trained in art practice or theory. I sew and continue to sew because I have found the one, calming mode of expression that stills the world and gives me the time and the strength for reflection and growth. Never mind that I have a master's degree in China studies and that I have logged more hours at a sewing machine in the past month than in all my years up until thirty put together. Never you mind.

Did I tell the story as it should be told today? I have no idea what I left out, but it is now Allison's story and she will tell it as she sees fit. I hope that every time I sit down to tell the story of the birth of Tré Lilli, a different set of words and experiences unfolds, because honestly speaking, this story is far from over and is more mercurial in its evolution than a field of fireflies at dusk.

Way back when...

Wow. We're preparing a retrospective here at Tré Lilli - a lot can happen in two years! - and I came across my very first designs today. It is just amazing to see how we've grown. To make these little "sketches", I took images of dress sketches and laid artwork onto the dress silhouettes. Then I photoshopped the dresses onto images of myself (majorly altered as you can probably tell - the silhouette proportions did not fit well in reality). While the process is pretty much still the same, I've learned a great deal about garment construction and my design eye has evolved quite a bit. So enjoy...and stay tuned for a little video that tracks the progress and process of the past two years.

This is the very, very first dress I designed. It isn't far off from what I've been working with recently, in terms of silhouette. I think my designs have matured, but I do love the colors here and below.

Makes me think of the 1940s. Love that little trail of monks. I wonder where they're all heading? The bird pockets are a good idea!

I love this "sassy-mama" sketch. My costume design professor from college - Deb Trout - would be the first to ask, "Exactly how is this garment constructed? What makes that skirt poof out like that?" I guess I'd say, "Chicken wire?"

What a sweet little dress. I'm gonna have to go back and revisit this one...

Upcycle Challenge

This afternoon, I picked up several items of clothing from My Sister's Closet, the retail shop attached to the downtown YWCA that provides clothing and a comfortable shopping atmosphere for women in need of business and interview clothing. Tomorrow beginning at 5pm, several ArtPlay students will take on the challenge of up-cycling these articles of clothing. Once the garments have been given a second life, we will return them to My Sister's Closet. Stay tuned for "before" and "after" photos of the donated clothing. Watch out, Project Runway, we just might steal your thunder!

Textile design

I received a new package of fabric this week - for making my first made-to-order dress - and since I was placing an order and also needed to cover half a yard of fabric with another pattern, I couldn't help throwing some completely new designs into the mix. So now I have new fabric to play with. I love Spoonflower and couldn't do what I'm doing without them. But on windy days such as these, when it's February still and it's nearing 70 degrees outside, one feels the need to switch it up a bit. Thanks to Alisa Burke (introduced to me by new quilting buddy Lorrie), Dad and I are inspired to play with surface manipulation to come up with some new textile designs. My first experiments with bleach (bleck!) and watered-down acrylic are blowin' in the wind as I write this. The bleach, while offering an easy (yet super-duper toxic) way to draw on dyed fabric, has singed my nose hairs and reduced my paintbrush to a sad little nub, so I will try Alisa's suggestion of glue resist next...

New fabric from Spoonflower.com

Bleach-painting technique from Alisa Burke

Bleach is applied first, then watered-down acrylics...would like to use ink for adding color back to the fabric

A windy, warm day in Birmingham and this sample is dry in no time