The Stitch Up

Smithsonian Stitch Class

Last month I found a whole new obsession - fiber art classes at the Smithsonian!  Most of the classes are given at the S. Dillon Ripley Center which is this tiny building next to the Smithsonian Castle.  When you enter the Ripley Center you basically just walk down a spiral staircase into a long hallway of classrooms underground - it's pretty cool!  

I took the Haute Couture Embroidery Class which was taught by Elizabeth Lay who is a Decorative Arts Historian currently working at Montgomery History Museum.  She gave an awesome presentation on designers who use embroidery in their haute couture designs.  She talked about a few designers I knew about like Poiret, Vionnet and Worth, but she introduced us to several designers I wasn't aware of like Guo Pei - whose designs are so beautiful and Iris Van Herpen who  partners with NASA and is moving embroidery into a whole new dimension with 3d printing.

After the presentation, we moved on to designing our own haute couture buttons with a fun array of fabric and beads to choose from.  I think my only complaint would be that I could have used a little more time for working on the buttons, but that was mostly because after the presentation I was fairly overloaded with inspiration and just couldn't focus on one thing.  

I loved the set up of this class - learning and getting inspiration from current and vintage designers and then spending some time creating in a cool location.  I recommend the Smithsonian classes and am on the lookout for my next class!

Adventures in Stitching

October was a pretty fun month for craft outings.  Somehow, I had completely missed the fact that there is a textile museum just around the corner from my office.  The Textile Museum at George Washington University is a small museum but it has rotating exhibitions that are very interesting.  When I visited this week the two main exhibits were China: Through the Lens of John Thomson and Old Patterns, New Order: Socialist Realism in Central Asia.  The China exhibit was mostly really interesting photos of people in traditional clothes, but they had a few actual items of clothing as well and the embroidery was spectacular:

  


The Central Asia exhibit had a variety of really colorful fabrics.  The exhibit described these fabrics as a mix of modern and traditional design which you could really see:

It doesn't take too long to walk through the exhibits, but it's nice to have something so near by to take a little break during the day and look at pretty fabrics.  I think they update their exhibitions fairly often so it will be nice to check in once in a while and see what's new.

My big October crafting event was a needle lace class at The Williamsburg School of Needlework.  It was two days of learning needle lace technique and it was wonderful.  The teacher was really skilled and had us tatting almost immediately.  You can (hopefully) see my progress as we tried out different patterns and techniques.

 

I am already looking forward to going back for another class.  There is also some good bar-b-que, microbrews and of course Colonial Williamsburg nearby so it makes for a pretty nice craft weekend.

Now, it's time to start getting ready for some Christmas crafts.  I have a few things planned but always seem to add some last minute projects just to stress myself out.  I'm trying to wrap up crocheting a cowl before going full blown Christmas.  Hopefully I'll have that to show off here before highlighting my Christmas  projects.

Happy Fall everybody!

 

 

Winter In New York

We did a little post Christmas, Happy New Year, trip to New York last month.  New York is just a great town and we try to see a few different things every time we visit.  This time we spent a little time in Brooklyn.  We hit the Brooklyn Flea Market which was awesome.  The market goes indoors in the Winter but still has plenty of vendors and so much food!  We ate grilled cheese, lobster rolls, donuts - and it was all delicious!

My main excuse for going to NY this time was to see the "Death Becomes Her" exhibit at the Met.  It was wonderful.  It was a really cool presentation of mourning clothes from the 18th and 19th century.  

While this exhibit was amazing, we actually stumbled on the last day of an exhibit on Kimonos which completely blew me away.  These kimonos had so many intricate designs and patterns they were truly art.

I was seriously in textile heaven.  

While we were in NY we found a great spot enjoy the sunset...

and the lights of the city at night.  

Despite how fast paced NY is our trip was really relaxing and rejuvenating and exactly what we needed after the holidays.