treasure

Introducing my treasure: my mom's old Pfaff 130!  I learned to sew on it when I was a teen.

Purchased new in the early 1950s, it came to my house after my mom passed away last year and I recently found a man nearby who could get her tuned up and in running order. You should have seen his eyes light up when he saw her in the back of my car. He couldn't stop telling me what a treasure I had and how good a sewing machine it is. He put a new foot controller on her, too. She was originally a cabinet model with a knee controller.  I never liked the knee controller, preferring to work with my toes! I don't think my mom would mind that I made the change. 

This machine had not been used for years, although the cabinet had been placed in my mom's office to hold her Merlin vision enhancing device at a comfortable height for her to use for bill paying and other reading. Right now the Pfaff is resting on top of the closed cabinet, in the garage, until I can get machine and cabinet up the stairs and into my studio. It is really heavy!  I can't wait to get it set up and sewing up a storm.  I'll post another picture here when the studio setup is ready to go ... without cardboard boxes in the background.

You may have read in an earlier post that my other sewing machine, a Simplicity portable, has a name.  She is Lucille. The Pfaff needs a name,too, don't you think.

Thank you again for visiting. Please leave a comment or your suggestion for a name for my treasure. And stop in again soon!

I+SEW+Sceles

I love a play on words and this next project is just that, and will be figurative, with a nod to geometry and a little bit of quilting thrown in for good measure. There's a deadline. I sure hope I can pull it off. Here's a picture of some of the major components as they stand today.

I+SEW+Sceles

She's going to be a 20" or so tall pyramid standing on a 6" base. Her face is a Creative Paper Clay casting from a mold of one of my sculpted faces, tea dyed and glazed. I may add more coloring as the piece progresses. Her torso and limbs will be appliqued and quilted and free-motion stitched on the front triangle. Will she wear clothing or be nude. I don't know. What do you think. I'm not sure about her hair yet. Maybe it should be piled high to complete the peak of the triangle. Beading and other embellishments are sure to be added.

The deadline? She's slated to be part of the TAODA exhibit at Houston's International Quilt Festival in a couple of months.

I+SEW+Sceles? Isosceles. Get it?

Thank you for stopping by. Please come back to follow my progress.

taking stock

Today I'll be straightening my studio, putting up the clutter left from the mad dash to finish 'a masked ball' before the ODACA Day meeting and luncheon. I'll set up my newly-repaired sewing machine. I'm so glad she's in good operating condition again. I missed her a lot even though I don't sew every day.  She deserves a name, don't you think? Lucille ... she'll be Lucille from now on. She was my mom's machine before she came to me. Mother probably didn't name her. If she knew that I have named her now, Mother would look at me like I'm nuts. Maybe I am ... I still play with dolls.

That photo should be cropped.  I'll do better next time. Titled 'a masked ball,' he served as a centerpiece at the ODACA Day Luncheon on July 23 in New Orleans. He was won by one of ODACA's new artist members in a drawing to select winners of all the centerpieces. He has a fine new home. I am pleased.

I should talk a bit about this blog's title: shreds and tatters.  It's really just my philosophy, if you will, for costuming my figures. I love to see raw and frayed fabric edges in a figure's costume. They add texture and life and sometimes just a touch of the unexpected. I'm not opposed to hemmed or faced edges and I use them too, juxtaposing the frayed edges for effect. In recent years, 'shreds and tatters' has been descriptive of my life and emotions. Readers who are acquainted with me personally know why this is so. It is life. Life changes, life moves ahead. I promise not to dwell on this aspect here on the blog. I will resume my original intent here and bring you glimpses into the mind and heart of an artist, figurative assemblage and beyond. 

I'll talk more about 'figurative assemblage' soon. But for now, I'll leave you with a teaser: I.SEW.SCELES!