Tag: Media Review

Another Shout-Out for the Creative Prompt Project

Scarlett Burroughs over at Craft Gossip.com has written an article/post about the CPP. I am really excited that the project is getting some traction in various places around the web.

Craft Gossip has different areas dedicated to different types of crafts including felting, crochet, knitting, and many others. Recent articles/posts include book reviews on a metalsmithing book and a post on elf-like Christmas stockings. It looks like she has tutorials, videos and freebies. Go check it out and thank her for highlighting the CPP.

Catch Up Saturday Again!

Well, my brain seems to be really full these past few weeks. Once again, I am writing another catch up post for you. I know that catch up isn’t exactly the right term, but Full Brain post sounds a little odd to me.

1. Tote bags: Always on my mind. I haven’t made any new ones, but I did listen to a new podcast called the Quilted Cupcake Podcast. Jean, the producer has a very friendly and professional not ditzy style. She is methodical, but not talking head boring about presenting the information she wants to communicate in the podcast, which was easy to follow. The show notes blog is a must, at least for this episode, because Jean packs the podcast full of information, links and tutorials. The episode to which I have linked is episode 11, which is about tote bags. I downloaded all of the episodes that were available, but listened to this one, the most recent, first. I found it on iTunes and you can find it there, via a link from the show notes blog or also on Libsyn at http://quiltedcupcake.libsyn.com/.

Some of the blogs and sites to which Jean links are sites that I already claim to read.

Jean mentioned Rachel Griffith’s P.S I Quilt blog, which has a great tutorial about gussets. I haven’t tried it yet, but will, especially since I am thinking about expanding my bag making horizons. Jean also does a great book review and mentions several tips and tricks that should have been obvious, but were revelations to me.

She also mentioned a couple of books, Sew Sublime Bags and Sew What by Lexie Barnes. I was able to reserve the former at the library, but not the latter. Will have to think about that. I’d like to see it and not buy it at the moment.

I spent some time listening to her earlier podcasts and she has definitely improved her style. Some of her discussions talk a lot about thrift store shopping and saving money. She mentions a lot about how much she spends on things in the course of the discussion. It is apparent that saving money and getting a deal are important to her. My only criticism would be to leave the price tags out.

Her episode on aprons (#5) was really good and I do like her book reviews; they are very complete.

2. Flickr Creative Prompt Project Group:  I am very pleased to report that  a number of participants in the Creative Prompt Project have joined the group and uploaded their responses. Quilt Rat, SherriD, and Kathy (new member-YAY!) have all joined. Quilt Rat and SherriD have uploaded all of their responses and Kathy has uploaded several photos so 80+ drawings/photos/art are all available to view together. I am really thrilled about this. There is always room for one more, so join in and upload your responses. You don’t have to go back and do them all.

3. Free MOO cards:  Get a free pack of MOO cards. There is no free lunch so there are some restrictions, but free is free and the MOO cards are really cool. Thanks to Deirdre for this tip.

4. C&T Publishing has a list of blogs by their authors and fans. Others were new to me, such as Barbara Brackman’s blog, which includes lots of tidbits about quilt history. I also like the logo C&T created for this particular page. the different artistic letters are fun.

5. I am weeding the links. I find that blogs change over time and don’t suit me anymore. If you are using my blogroll as a fave page, you may want to rethink that. 😉

Intelligent Making

Once in a while a person comes along who is really able to explain parts of making (or craftmaking) that I like. I listened to the CraftSanity episode #28 with Debbie Stoller and felt that way.

In the first part of the episode, they talked about Debbie being a feminist. Immediately my defenses went up, because I have found a number of feminists to be quite angry, which I don’t think achieves anything. I found Ms. Stoller to be quite different. Her personal definition of feminism has to do with valuing men and women the same. Simple and easy to understand!

She also talked a lot about work, including housekeeping or homemaking and crafts, in the home and their value in society, which I always think is an interesting discussion. She really talked about craftmaking in an intelligent way.

I think that there is more to quiltmaking (and other crafts, of course) than just buying and meeting to make. Those are great parts of any hobby, bu I find tha I also enjoy the study of the quiltmaking: studying the technical parts, learning about the history, researching old blocks. I feel like it gives me more depth when I go to work on a piece.

Ms. Stoller validated that in the way she talked about women’s work and its value.

This is an older podcast and I think it is still interesting.

clipped from craftsanity.com

CraftSanity Episode 28
Stitch ‘N Bitch with Debbie Stoller
Tune in this week
for a chat with Debbie Stoller, the co-creator
of

magazine and author of the
“Stitch ‘N Bitch” books that have inspired
thousands to pick up their needles and start
knitting and crocheting. Many of you are probably
familiar with her wildly popular knitting book
“Stitch ‘N Bitch Nation” that was joined recently
in bookstores by her latest crafty publication,
“Stitch ‘N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker.”

Debbie has some
impressive credentials. She earned Ph.D. in the
psychology of women from Yale in the late 1980s, but
decided not to lock herself in an academic ivory
tower. Instead she set out to do something about one
of the things she thought was jacked about the world:
the media. Since her research was on women and media,
she’s dedicated her career to doing what she can to
make it better for women.

tara40_home
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Inspirational Artists

Quick Note:
City Arts and Lectures, a program here in the City had an interview with Maya Lin yesterday. The show is replayed Tuesday nights at 8pm on KQED FM in San Francisco. KQED has a media stream so you can listen on your computer to the interview even if you don’t get KQED.

The reason I am telling you this is because I think you should listen to it. I sat there riveted the whole time thinking that I wanted to be Maya Lin’s new best friend.

I didn’t know how well spoken and thoughtful Maya Lin was. She is also a thinking artist. She thinks about her art and what it means and how she is going to make it. She does research. Listening to her made me think that I had found a kindred spirit.

I also listened to a CraftSanity podcast with Brenda Dayne. Brenda is a podcaster who created Cast On!, a knitting podcast. The podcast is number 22 and I would recommend listening to this episode of CraftSanity. The show was from 2006 (still making my way through the archive of over a 100 podcasts), so I am glad to see see that Ms. Dayne is still podcasting. During the show she said that she wasn’t sure how long she would continue. Ms. Dayne has a great voice! Very smooth and a voice to which it is easy to listen.  I don’t even knit much and am thinking of listening to a few of the Cast On! podcasts just to listen to Dayne’s voice.

A couple of things I liked about this podcast follow.

First, Jennifer always asks what advice her guest has for listeners wanting to start creative businesses. Ms. Dayne’s advice was spot on! She said to look at creating a number of different, but smaller income streams, such as writing, making things, teaching, producing posters and cards of your work. Her idea was to suggest that a creative business person not expect to make their entire salary from one thing. If you make stuff and expect to make all of your money from that work, you will burn out and be out of business.

Second, she talked about the landscape around you informing your work. Ithought this was wonderful to think about. Ms. Dayne lives somewhere in Wales (apologies to my Welsh readers: I know nothing about Wales) and moved there approximately 9 years ago from Portland, Oregon. At the the time of the podcast, she had lived there for 6 years, so I am extrapolating out and assuming she still lives there. Ms. Dayne said that she had knitted wonderful classic sweaters in Portland that were perfectly suitable for Wales and she wasn’t wearing them. She didn’t have a good reason why. After thinking about it, she said that her new work was very different in color from her old work and the old work wasn’t suitable. She said it much more eloquently than I just did! Ms. Dayne also said that she had no doubt that she would wear the sweaters again when/if she moved back to Portland. She followed that with saying that she thought the landscape was informing her work.

This comment made me think of the way you see different colors of fabric in different areas and thought it might be part of the same idea.

CraftSanity episode #22 is well worth a listen!

Small Treasures

I listened to an interview with Mary Lou Weidman on Annie Smith’s podcast this morning. I listened to and wrote about it before. You can find the podcast and show notes at Simple Arts and the podcast on iTunes. It is the 4/17/2008 episode and well worth your time. Mary Lou is a really positive person and what I noticed about this podcast was her discussion of small blessings. I know that blessings can be a loaded word for some. I think of her concept as small treasures anyway.

Mary Lou talked about enjoying the small things in life: a special pear with a wonderful slice of cheese on it, a nice cup of tea, a wonderful bar of soap or bottle of lotion. While I have been trying to, generally, think positive, this comment gave me a little shove in the right direction. I also realized that there were a few recent things that I have really been enjoy.  I recently received some apricot vanilla bars of soap and some of my favorite chocolates from a very special person in honor of a very special anniversary. Times are tight financially right now and these were in lieu of the  wished for trip to Hawaii. I find, however, that I am not too disappointed and that I think about these gifts very often. I really am enjoying them.

Fabric Closet, Working
Fabric Closet, Working

Also, I have been rummaging through my stash quite a bit lately for fabric for the Tarts and other projects. I do this pretty regularly, but am not buying as much new fabric, so I am paying more attention to the fabric I have. It is really fun!

Crazy Test, Complete
Crazy Test, Complete

Finally, I also finished the Crazy Test on Thursday. It is ready for…something. I don’t know what it will end up as or who it will end up with.

In general, all is well!

Another Reason to Mention the Creative Mom Podcast

clipped from www.etsy.com
Sweet Pink and Green Birdhouse Lovee - Small Quilt
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I have been listening to the Creative Mom podcast for a couple of months now and it has been on my list of things to tell you about. Amy Cowan creates CMP, where she offers essays, book reviews, pattern reviews, a community of like minded people, creative prompts, enthusiasm and a travelogue of her journey through the creative process.

This is a very professional podcast. She is organized and prepared for the podcast. The sounds is perfect. Her voice has a calm and relaxing timbre. There are few ums, uhs, like, hemming, hawing or dead air. Amy rarely mentions her personal issues. On the occasion she make s a brief mention, she doesn’t go on and on about them and she often weaves the explanation of the issue into the theme of the podcast. This is a podcast for the creative person who thinks about art on many different levels: the physical act of making, a daily creative discipline, and something to be studied.

I know the mom part may turn off some of you, so I want to get that out of the way too. Amy’s two boys are definitely involved in the podcast.Mostly they work as headline readers for her next section. Listeners hear their little voices saying “I am the art and the art is me” or “books to read, books to read” for the book review section. Amy reviews books that she reads to her children as well as adult books. Amy observes her children and weaves those observations into the theme of the podcast as well. I don’t think the involvement of the children would annoy those of you who are sensitive to the child worship that sometimes occurs on the web. That doesn’t happen here.

While Amy does different kinds of art than I do (more sketching and photography, mostly), I have found that I enjoy listening to her talk about her process and what she does to keep going. I feel inspired when I listen to her podcast. She has been working on a bird project for at least a year. Listening to the podcast makes me consider whether or not o focus on one word or subject for a period of time.

As I have gone through Amy’s older episodes I came across a collaboration she is doing with one of her listeners, known as Gooma8x, and was directed to their joint Etsy site. The quilt above was posted there and it is gorgeous! Amy and Opal (Gooma8x) also have a joint blog called Here2There.

Finally, I also discovered another Amy goldmine in Threaded Thoughts, another blog.

It is apparent that Amy is in her creative sweet spot right at the moment and we are the lucky recipients of her largesse. I urge to check out one or all of the various media streams Amy has created.

Reviewing Pamela’s DVD

Rosalie, over at Art You Wear, said she has been watching the new DVD from Pamela Allen and  posted a review of it to her blog. Rosalie has a lot of interesting textures posted on the site. I don’t know if she has made them all or if she is passing on information.  I know I am eager to hear what people think about Pamela’s DVD.

Art You Wear and me

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Reconsidering Craft

The old and boring art vs. craft debate takes on a new view in this To the Best of Our Knowledge episode. As with many topics, looking back into the past and reconsidering past attitudes provides insight into the future.

clipped from www.wpr.org
To the Best of Our Knowledge

RECONSIDERING CRAFTS

America’s gone craft crazy. Everyone’s knitting, or keeping
scrapbooks; throwing pots or wood-working. And naturally, there are new
chains of stores that carry all the supplies these crafters need, or think
they do. In this hour, To the Best of Our Knowledge considers what
we mean by the word craft.” Does it mean a hand-made object that’s
almost art? Or could it be anything that’s thoughtfully done to the very
best of the doer’s ability? Reconsidering crafts, next time, on To the
Best of Our Knowledge.

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Resolution Goes Bad

After a particularly “less than stellar” day at work that produced a lot of animosity for my computer, I resolved not to turn on my home computer.

My computer is off. All good.

iTunes, however, is not on my computer and I decided to update my library while I supervised websurfing by certain individuals. In the course of updating iTunes, I came across Craft Sanity, a podcast by Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood. TFQ had mentioned a particular episode to me over the weekend and I went looking for it. I wasn’t able to figure out how to download one episode, so I went to her site and saw these beautiful photos of colors and fabric. Now, here I am blogging. Sigh.

Enjoy the colors!

clipped from www.craftsanity.com
CraftSanity Episode 41
A Chat with Quilter Weeks Ringle
mendhi-line-up
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Will You LOOK at those Dots???

The Quilting Stash podcast host, Annie Smith, interviewed Mary Lou Weideman in April. The show is really great, interesting as well as entertaining. I just listened to it this week and finally went to look at Mary Lou’s quilts. I have one one of her books, but the photos of these quilts are so cheerful. I think she is one of my new heroes!. Will you look at all of the dots she uses?

I was interested to hear, in the interview, that MLW creates her borders first. Look carefully at the witch quilt’s border. It amazes me that she can make the border first when it is so intricate. Definitely a technique I want to try.

clipped from simplearts.com
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Annie Smith on Quiltmaking on the Go

Annie Smith, of the Quilting Stash podcast fame, wrote about quilting while she was tied up in her car. I listened to the podcast yesterday and then went to her blog today to see the photos. I was thrilled to see her sketches of quilts. First, the sketches themselves are great. Second, I was glad to see that someone else sketches out whole quilts and, third, I see that I am not the only one who gets inspiration from her surroundings.

clipped from simplearts.com

Program 121 – Mobile Quilting!

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Diane Gaudynski Speaks

I am in a hard place in my life at the moment where I sincerely dislike the work that I am doing. I don’t dislike the skills I have or what it takes to do the work. I don’t dislike the profession or the people in the profession. I am simply astonishingly bored by going into the office and doing the same work day after day. While I struggle through the process of figuring out what to do next, creativity is incredibly important. I have found it difficult to inject much creativity into my life recently as I race around from one task or obligation to the next. I find it difficult when I can’t get to my machine or when I am too tired to be inspired. I have been struggling with visual journaling and trying to squeeze some hand piecing into the spare moments. Nothing is perfect in the creativity department.

As a result, I have, once again, turned back to quilting podcasts. They are a perfect fit at this point in time and space. I can listen in the car, on the train, at the doctor or at swimming.

I have been listening to one podcast for a long time and recently switched to Annie Smith’s Quilt Stash podcast. I immediately felt a great sense of relief and calm. Annie has a wonderful voice and she speaks intelligently. The other podcast host[ess] used some strange grammar, weird words and odd idioms. It began to get on my nerves.

Tonight I listened to podcast #119, a visit with Diane Gaudynski. I always had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about DG for no good reason except jealousy. Bad, Artquiltmaker! Now I am in love with Diane Gaudynski. The interview was so warm and friendly and Diane gave some wonderful tips in a warm and effortless way. I immediately put her book on my Amazon wishlist.

As a result I am back on the quiltmaking podcasts as a way to get some creativity into my life. Try out Annie Smith’s podcasts.

Quilter’s Podcast

I knew that Annie did podcasts, but I came across them just now and thought I would make a note of them for the future.

clipped from www.simplearts.com
clipped from simplearts.com

Program 119 – Interview with Master Machine Quilter, Diane Gaudynski

podcast
Running time: 01:04:19 Size: 29.5MB

I hope that you’ll enjoy this wonderful interview with Diane. She offers so much insight and inspiration to every quilter. Pay special attention to what Diane says, as there are tips and hints sprinkled throughout what she shares.

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