Our newest fairy baby came to spend the day while her momma and I worked on projects.
It was her very first craft day!
She rested on her pillow under the sewing table with the fabric scraps and dog toys and seemed pretty happy just to hang out with us.
Ace Hardware has 6 foot banquet tables on sale for $29 each, so I bought three for my May Day celebration and art event here in the studio next Spring. Since I still had my studio dining tables set up for Thanksgiving and was loving the table scape and not ready to disassemble it, I just set up two of the new tables for us to stitch at, and that worked out great.
During our Thanksgiving dinner, we had started talking about Magnolia Pearl and a few of us decided we wanted to make some bags like hers.
So, this craft day became sewing day. Here is my new purse, a colorful confection of left over bits and pieces. I was going to go all neutrals, but fell in love with a swath of dyed velvet and a magenta silk ruffle, and had to use those, whether this purse will match anything I own or not!
Adam's Beloved brought a grab bag of old clothes and scraps to cut up and she had the best stuff to play with. The velvet was from a long skirt that had been torn along the side.
She scours thrifts for old clothes to reuse and had a great assortment.
She is making a Gypsy diaper bag for the baby. Here is the flap all pinned and ready to sew on. The bag itself is made of patch worked velvets. Both of us were inspired by Magnolia Pearl for our own bags, but I made a few others that were not as elaborate too.
Well, this one is still pretty elaborate, its got some MP influence going on too.
You notice I said that Miss Robin inspired us? Who has NOT been inspired by an admirable artist? We studied her look and used the ideas to make our own creations. I'm a big believer is sharing ideas and tricks, techniques, and styles. And I think that anything you create using something you've learned or seen should be your OWN creation.
Take what you've learned or seen and make it in your style. We all do it, its not stealing. None of us has a monopoly on an idea. Just because I make wallpaper covered journals, or decorated bottles, or fairy Charlottes doesn't mean that I think I own the idea! I started making jewelry with vintage pieces in the 80s and I certainly don't think I have a monopoly on it. I'm thrilled to see it everywhere now that it is so popular, and I am smart enough to know that I am not the one who popuarlized it to start with too.
A friend was flipping through a magazine the other day and stopped at a page to ask if I'd done the art. I thought maybe I had, then took a look and saw it was someone else with an idea much like the one I had published a year earlier. Was it stolen? NO! It was their take on it. Or maybe they had never even seen my article, but if they had, then GOOD, I hope they learned a little something from what I did.
And if you ever take one of my classes or are inspired by one of my pictures, I'd be sooooo flattered if you got your project published. But I do hope that you put your own spin on the piece. Its one thing to follow step by step instructions and then claim them as your own, its another to learn a technique and then make something with it.There is not one thing wrong with learning by doing step by steps, of course. I taught myself to paint by copying painings I liked. Plus I teach online classes and I know that its perfectly okay to do the patterns and steps to create and learn.
. Its one way of learning. But once you learn a technique, try challenging yourself by adding to it and doing something that says YOU with it.
No students should try to market the exact same class and patterns that anyone sold to them, BUT- if you learn a trick or get an idea from my class, and make your own project to market from that idea, then GOOD FOR YOU!! That means I am a good teacher, so YAY ME!!
I certainly will never say that no one who takes Romantic White Christmas classes can never, ever teach a class about an altered shoe or a garland. Geez.
Which brings me to the lovely, gracious, classy Dawn, who tackled this in her blog this week. She stated her opinion with no name calling or bad blood, like I said, Classy. My pal, Lisa, is a passionate artist who puts a lot of herself into her creations. She used tips learned from another artist and did well with what she learned. Isn't that what every teacher wants? I'd say that is the mark of a successful class! She did NOT reproduce the items in the exact way, she made her own creations.
As far as classes go, why take one if you are not going to use what you learn in your own work?
I don't want to get too serious or contraversial, but I care about Lisa and know her work. And I loved Dawn's post, its worth you popping in to read.
Also, I am honored to have Lisa and Dawn teaching at my event this spring, along with Carol. I dearly love their styles and look forward to how much fun I'll have with them here at the cottage with me!
Since I just mentioned that I have been making necklaces from old pieces forever, I had to show you this!
Our Gypsy Beloved found it at a thrift store and brought it to me because it reminded her of me. I took one look and remembered making it in 96, as a holiday special order for someone 14 years ago!
How serendipitous.
(by the way, my style has changed a bit over the years, but I still like this one)
Okay- back to bags, thanks for listening to me and my mini rant– I made this hobo sack for the oldest of the grandgirls. The fabric is from a pair of Goodwill jammie bottoms, already in a patchwork pattern of India print cottons.
Here is the back of the bag. I cut the pockets out of the pants and added them to the bag, along with a few extra trims. A grreat short cut way to make a funky, fun bag for a young girl.
The second sis gets a smaller version from the same fabric, with one of my angora roses (learned in Betz White's class) pinned to it, and a ruffle made of embroidered doilies.
I took what I learned from the Silver Bella class, and added my own twist. My roses are more opened up and have extra petals. I changed her pattern to make it look more the way I wanted the roses to turn out and now, I feel like I can feel good about making these myself. I'm using her idea, but my own pattern, and have added to it, plus put it together differently.
This is from Betz' class.
And this is MY take on her class.
Yes, I learned how to make them in Betz White's class. But I've taken the techique and used what I learned to create something that looks like I made it myself.
EDIT:
Well guess what??? The rosettes are from a free tutorial that Betz posted HERE,
and she says she got it here.
And that person got it from Martha!!
Well, doesn't that just fit PERFECTLY with what I was saying earlier?????
Share the love, share the tips, lets all learn from each other and pass it on!
The pocket on it is made from some scraps and the ruffle at the top came from a package sent to me by Robin -I had to save the wrappings, since it was so pretty. Sugarwings got a bag too, with lots of pink rosebuds. We are going to fill all the gift bags with little presents and give them to the kids for Christmas.
My husband was horrified that I was making one for the 5 year old grandboy too. He thought it was a purse. We said no way, its a toy bag. I tried to make it macho by using corduroy (the leg of a pair of pants) and a man's tie as the handle and the pocket.
The pocket is pretty cool, it was Gypsy Beloved's idea to turn the tie over, and use the backside of it as a pocket. You know how ties are open on the back at the point? The tip of the tie is now a flap that folds over and closes by sliding into the little tab that is on the back with the name of the store on it. This one said "Dillards" but I covered that up with a pinking shear trimmed bit of the India cotton, and added a little plastic airplane given to me by my dear friend, Lisa.
She sent a giant box of goodies to me out of the clear blue! (pictures later)
In all I made 7 bags in the 9 hours we spent hanging out with our sewing machines, chatting, creating and baby snuggling. And I don't even enjoy sewing. But this was fun to do.
I am linking to Tea Rose Home's show and tell today.
Please check back Saturday for a giveaway announcement!
This album was a gift to my son, Mr. Zen and his Beloved. Its filled with all 7 kids, and photos of the two of them together too.
