Tag Archive for 'Soak'

THE QUILTS OF GEE'S BEND

Published on August 13, 2010 in patchwork, scraps and traveling. 8 Comments Tags: , , , , .

The Quilts of Gee's Bend

Back in 2002, I got to see The Quilts of Gee’s Bend exhibit at the Whitney Museum in New York. Those historical quilts made quite a stir at the time. I remember walking through the exhibit marveling at the colour, the re-purposed fabrics and perfect simplicity of the composition. Little did I know that this show would help push me towards the creation of the workroom several years later.

A few days ago, I traveled down to London, Ontario to see an exhibit of more contemporary quilts from Gee’s Bend and to participate in a workshop with some of the women of Gee’s Bend. Jacqueline of Soak organized a small group of ladies for this road trip, all I had to do was get up at the crack of dawn.

We spent the morning walking through the show. Though the exhibit seemed small at first glance, it is huge on substance. These quilts were all made within the last four years by various women from the Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective and they are wonderful. I was so incredibly inspired by many of the pieces in the show.

After lunch at a local market, we joined a workshop led by four women from Gee’s Bend. Using scrap clothing, some solids and a couple prints, they led us through their techniques to create a couple blocks sewn by hand. The true highlight of the day was spending time with these lovely ladies from Alabama. Their sweet, enthusiastic and warm dispositions had us grinning and laughing, while we tried to soak up their teachings and their southern twang. The day ended with hugs and a class photo. Perfect.

I posted all my photos from the day here.

The Quilts of Gee's Bend

The Quilts of Gee's Bend

The Quilts of Gee's Bend

The Quilts of Gee's Bend

The Quilts of Gee's Bend

My block from the workshop

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QUILT MARKET : PART ONE

Published on October 19, 2009 in delicious, the workroom and traveling. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Perfect Bunny in Cincinnati

I was super lucky last weekend to tag along to Quilt Market in Houston Texas with Jacqueline and Chris from Soak. (Guess which cute bunny tagged along with me!) I’ve been curious to check out this huge trade show and quilt festival since I opened the workroom.

Funny thing is, this first post has nothing to do with the fabric or the quilts!

We left insanely early on Friday morning to catch a 6am flight. We had a stop over in Cincinnati and then got detoured to Austin because of bad weather. I actually really wanted to go to Austin, but all I got to see this time was the rainy tarmac from the open door of our tiny aircraft as we got extra fuel to make it to Houston.

I’ve never been to Texas and I was hoping for warm weather, but it was cold and rainy the whole time. I had packed my bathing suit for the trip, but didn’t even make it up to see the rooftop pool at our hotel.

One of the tricky things with traveling is finding good local food. I’ll admit that I didn’t do any research on Houston before the trip, so I certainly wasn’t prepared with any suggestions. By some chance, both Jacqueline and I spotted a cute looking restaurant outside the downtown core on a cab ride back to the hotel Friday night. I had the good sense to write down the name, T’afia, so that we could check it out online later.

Saturday night was the famous Moda dinner party. We had originally planned on going to this free dinner. After a bit of thought we made the best decision of the trip and made a reservation at T’afia instead.

Beet Brownie with Honey Comb & Blue Cheese

If you ever go to Houston, you must visit T’afia. T’Afia is owned by Monica Pope and the focus is all local. Every Saturday morning they host a farmers market in their parking lot and develop their menus based on what’s available. It was one of the best meals that I can ever remember having. Absolutely everything we had from start to finish was delightful, including the service. It was so good that we wanted to return on Sunday night so that we could keep eating through the menu. I wanted to try EVERYTHING. Sadly, they are closed both Sundays and Mondays.

I’m listing what I had for dinner because I really don’t want to forget it.

  • Medjool dates stuffed with chorizo, wrapped in bacon
  • Butter lettuce, radicchio & cucumbers, pinenut, goat cheese, sherry walnut vinaigrette
  • Yaokum Co. flat iron steak, roasted sweet potatoes, miso sauce
  • Texas cheese selection: veldhuizen bosque blue & gruyere and paula’s hoja santa with house crackers and panforte
  • Beet brownie with honeycomb and blue cheese
  • Inwood Estates Tempranillo/Cabernet Sauvignon

Before we left, we coerced our kind waiter at T’afia to give us a list of his recommended restaurants for our Sunday night dinner. We picked a Texas BBQ joint, Beaver’s. When we met up with Heather Bailey and her husband Isaac during the day, we invited them to have dinner with us. They brought along their friends Joey and Jona of Fabritopia. My mind is a blur of what we talked about during dinner but it was super fun and filled with laughs. Heather and I both tackled the ‘Pit boss Chickwhich’ sandwich for dinner (All-natural smoked shredded chicken made sloppy with “Ring of Fire” BBQ sauce, a fried egg, crispy cornmeal onions, cole slaw and pickle) and for dessert we all shared Candied Bacon Ice Cream, Brown Butter Ice Cream and Brownie Balls (Fried brownies, peanut butter and vanilla ice cream).

I have to tell you, I would go back to Quilt Market again just for all this delicious food. That’s not to say the fabrics were not amazing. They were! The next post is all about the fabric. Check out the first slide show of my trip…

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

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STITCH MAGAZINE

Published on May 13, 2009 in spotted and the workroom. 14 Comments Tags: , .

With a little help from Anabela, I finally located a couple copies of the newest issue of Stitch magazine at Presse Internationale. There’s a nice mention of the workroom with a couple great photos. (that’s Anabela’s quilt, Grant, Rosalyn and Michelle in the top photo!) This piece came about because Jacqueline of Soak kindly mentioned the workroom and put me in touch with one of the editors. It’s such a treat to be on the same pages as so many great talents in this new magazine.

There is an informative article on Liberty of London fabrics (they are coming in the next couple weeks!), people who are printing their own textiles (Lena Corwin, Ink & Spindle and Lotta Jansdotter) and tons of cool projects and patterns. I’m going to get myself a subscription so that I don’t have to run around the city trying to locate a copy. Plus, I want to make sure this magazine stays in print.

I know there are a few people trying to find copies, so please comment if you see a copy somewhere in the city. Michelle said there were lots of copies today at the Indigo at Bay & Bloor.

Thanks so much to everyone who emailed and tweeted when they saw the article. It’s great to see how popular this publication is already!

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STYLISH DRESS BOOK #B

Published on November 17, 2008 in stitchery and textiles. 14 Comments Tags: , , , .

Ah, Stylish Dress book you are eternally inspiring and full of simple things to make!

I realized in a panic last weekend that the Nani IRO fabric was almost gone. It would have been very wrong for me to let it all slip away without whipping up a little something cheery to wear. I turned to the Stylish Dress book and decided on style B, a loose smock top with a nice full sleeve.

Drafting out the pattern from the book always requires a lot of care, to ensure that you trace the correct pieces, mark all the correct markings and remember to ADD SEAM ALLOWANCE! The lovely thing about these patterns is that they are simple and relatively quick to make. I drafted the pattern Sunday afternoon, cut out the paper and then cut out the fabric. On Monday, I overlocked the pieces and did all the sewing in a few hours.

The neckline is gathered and so is the sleeve. The sleeve is cut into two pieces with gathering along the upper arm and then an elasticized cuff. It’s very sweet. It’s all meant to be a showcase for this fabric, which completely sold out on Tuesday when I wore the top to work. The Nani Iro fabric is a double gauze cotton which is two layers of a looser weave cotton that are lightly stitched together. I didn’t even bother to pre-wash the fabric. This top will be hand washed in Soak for the rest of it’s life. (Scent for Celebration is my favourite)

For those looking to get themselves a copy of the Stylish Dress Book or any other Japanese Craft book, I highly recommend Pomadour’s Craft Cafe on Etsy. Just beware that it will be hard to resist the lure of these cute craft books. Somehow I just ordered two more books for my collection. Oh! Make that three books.

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