This week I pulled out my trusty Jeans Machine sewing
machine that Grandma gave me and spent the whole week sewing! I first converted the dining room into
a sewing room. After the Unitarian
Universalist Art Fair in December I was secure in the knowledge that my new
Re-Shirt designs were well-received.
Around that time I had cut out some fabric for the next batch of
Re-Shirts. If you haven’t seen
them, they’re artsy tank tops with tuxedo tails made out of fabrics that have
had a previous life. That means
that old shirts, skirts, tablecloths and curtains are all fair game. When I think of curtain fabrics, all I
can think of is the great Carol Burnett and her parody of "Gone With the Wind."
My friend Ruth has been wonderful about giving me all kinds
of fabric scraps, including batiks and embroidered pieces that I think came out
of a jacket. I even ‘retire’ a few
shirts from my husband’s closets that he shouldn’t be wearing any more. The process of creating shirts itself is
a lot like making soup—what goes in depends on what you have on hand and what
color palate strikes my fancy.
Just as I was finishing up this week, the tension on the sewing machine
went wonky and it got stuck in reverse !?! And so the sewing was over. ugh. It now sits at Klaiber’s Sewing Center awaiting some care and attention.
In hindsight, it probably would have been a good idea to give it a
little oil every now and again instead of plowing through several show’s worth
of Re-Shirts. I mentioned to my
friend Karen Cherrington that my machine would be down for two weeks, and she
generously loaned me her sewing machine as a replacement. She bought it in 1984 and the machine
never made it out of the box. It
looks like a really solid machine, but I’m guessing it’s going to need a little
oil. I should be chugging along
again by the beginning of the week.
Basically I’m gearing up for the Bloom show, which will be this coming
Sunday, February 24th from 12 to 5:30 at the Bloomington Convention
Center.
I’ll be in booth #60 if
I’m not talking or laughing loud enough for you to hear me when you come
in. I have seen a lot of
advertising for it, including in this morning’s Herald-Times, so I’m expecting
a good turnout.
On the home front, we celebrated Valentine’s Day with special
chocolate. It wasn’t homemade pie,
but instead I picked up a mousse cake from Angel B’s bakery in town. It went nicely with the 2010 Molllydooker
shiraz. Yum! On Friday night the whole crew went out
to see ‘Traces’ at the IU Auditorium.
It was an amazing show! The
upper body strength and athletic ability of the performers was
outstanding. We saw individuals
who could hold their rigid bodies at an angle of 90 degrees from a standing
pole, or climb a pole while spinning around it without using their feet or
bodies. It’s truly a cross between
circus acrobatics and modern dance.
It had a few dramatic choreographed falls and dramatic recoveries that
freaked out Jim a little, but otherwise we all had a great time. On Saturday morning I slipped off to
the Bollywood dance class at Panache.
Darrelyn runs the class, and basically it’s a huge sweat fest. She’s an enthusiastic ball of energy
that inspires the thirty or forty participants to dance their hearts out. I may not be exceptionally coordinated,
but I really enjoy the class. And
finally, between everything else, I’ve had a chance to slip into my art studio
and do a little weaving. I have
idea for another Garden Walk piece.
It involves a stone path turning thorough a white picket fence that
guards the flowers on the inside yard.
I’m hoping to make some good progress on that piece this week. I’ll just have to see what else life
sends my way!
Until next week,
Martina Celerin
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