Twisted Textiles

The Fashion Collaborative Group in Lexington KY is having a “Limo Fashion Show” during the gallery hop this Friday night. Starting around 6:00, we’ll be meeting at the Kentucky Proud Market at the Lexington Civic Center. From there, about 10 or so models from our fashion group will be seen about the town, escorted by a *slick* stretch limo so that they may peruse the galleries whilst showing off the latest looks from local designers. Around 8:00, we will convene back at the Market for more strutting and a bit of wine tasting! Make sure you don’t miss it – keep an eye out for the limo and meet us at 8:00!

Also, I’ll be one of the models participating in this event! I’ll bet you’ll never guess whose design I’ll be modeling… :}

Because I could sure use some help around here!

First of all, I cannot believe all this talk about Christmas already. (We still have TWO holidays to go before Christmas, people! Stop and enjoy them!) But I suppose that’s just me, the master-procrastinator speaking…

Yes, I am starting to wonder what the heck I’ll be making people for presents, but our family also has several birthdays in these coming months, so it’s already jam-packed with gifts and occasions.

Speaking of gifts, I’ll be participating in Jennifer Zingg’s Gifty, Thrifty & Under $50 sale again this year, which will be held at her gallery on Dec. 5th and 5th. A great opportunity to buy affordable, one-of-a-kind, original art!

Oh yeah—This photo here is from my show opening! It was a super-fun night, and I received so much wonderful feedback from people, including intelligent conversation about art in general. I met some new people, and I got to catch up with friends I haven’t seen in ages… Thanks Jen for hosting such a great event and opportunity!

I’m winding up some of my “in-progress” artworks to get them ready for my show, which opens this coming Saturday, October 11th! It will be at 6:00 pm, at the Jennifer Zingg Studio and Gallery, located at 210 W. Broadway, Frankfort KY.

I am very much excited to be able to share my art with everyone, and hope you’ll join me for the opening night!

The photo here is a closeup of the plastic Grocery Bag Petticoat, which will be paired with the Milkweed Frock Coat that I’m finishing up today. Other artworks in this show will include some “oldies” from the past, a lot of new recycled and fabric art, various types of wearables, quilted paintings, photographs, and some experimental sculpture.

Also, I’ve just heard that we may be graced with some live music, too…I can’t wait!

All dressed up with lots of places to go!! Our family ventured over to Ohio for the Ren Fest a few weekends ago, so I just had to share a few pics of the costume that I whipped up for the occasion.

Our family hadn’t been to the festival before, so I didn’t know what to expect…but I was very excited to see that lots of other people were all decked out, too!

Since I didn’t have time to get all historically accurate with my attire, I had to settle for making the “vest” part of my dress from a pirate costume pattern.The fabrics I used are from a new shipment straight from my mom’s attic—because isn’t that always the best place to find cool stuff anyway?! The lace trim was a spool that I had bought years ago on clearance. The cream ruffled dress that I’m wearing with it was my Aunt’s (it required quite a bit of hemming) and the over-skirt probably belonged to my other Aunt. Since I already had the pattern, the fabrics, the D-rings and the ribbon…the only thing I spent to make this costume was TIME!

Novi, Michigan (Sept. 28-30, 2007)
I came, I saw…I didn’t exactly conquer, but I learned a lot and had some great experiences. A Gazillion (approximately) Midwestern women can’t be wrong, right?!

Photos:

• A shot of my quilt on display (with a winner right above it).
• My favorite entry from the competition, by Cindy Cillick Geist.
• Me messing around with paints in the Faux Batik class, instructed by Ginny Eckley.
• A cute plastic apron from an exhibit about antique aprons (private collection).
• New felting supplies…dyed alpaca wools and my “starter project” in progress.

Overall, I was happy with the balance of topics covered at the expo. As this was my first year, my mother and I attended all three days, Fri. Sat. and Sun. (there were additional all-day, pre-show workshops on Thursday that we decided to skip this time). We took a lot of classes, so we had to find time for the “vendor floor” in-between, but I think we got to see everything we needed in the amount of time that we had.

Some of the instructors were top-notch…excellent speakers, very knowledgeable, and sometimes entertaining (like the people from Simplicity, and also Kaye Wood) but others were downright unprofessional. I was very pleased with most of my classes, and even if I wasn’t impressed by all of the instructors, I at least left each class having learned one thing.

I would like to have seen more focus on high-quality arts (not just crafts), and maybe just a few more vendors with really great things for sale. There were also some organizational problems with class registration, but next year I’ll know how to plan around it! I also didn’t get into any of the shibori classes that I wanted (even though we pre-registered online!)—but despite the few frustrations, I think I’ll give it another shot next year.

We didn’t have time to see any of the fashion shows, but that’s okay. I went in with very high expectations for the fashion/clothing sections of the expo, and didn’t see much in that area that either caught my eye or made me think. But we ARE talking about Michigan here folks, not Paris, France! (Not that I’ve ever actually been to Paris, but you get my drift.) I will definitely have to enter more contests next year. In fact, I’m putting it on my calender this very moment!

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