lysa flower: : Page 2

There are times when you need to “Just BEE”

Lysa May 31, 2016 2

Right! At the end of last year, artist/author/friend Lori Weidenhammer and I decided we were going to do a booth together in 2016. At the booth we we’d be promoting her book, Victory Gardens for Bees, and I would create a bee themed fabric collection and garden themed projects. We set off to decide which venue would suit us best. We both agreed Mini Maker Faire in Vancouver was the way to go!

While Lori was finalizing her book that gave me to time to figure out what I was going to make for my fabric collection. We talked about making bandana’s so I knew those would be a must! The five images above are my bandana designs.

Before I knew it, hey, look at that, its March (almost April) and Elizabeth Olwen is offering another Skillshare class. Bada bing, bada boom DONE! Honestly, I wish it was that easy. This collection and I started off rocky and we had ourselves an old fashioned rumble. For a time I was worried that this wouldn’t come together. Feel free to take a peek here HERE in my classroom to see how it all went down. Oh and you’ll see my googly eye magnets, I’m especially proud of them. I made them myself! (Big GRIN)

One thing I adore about Elizabeth’s classes are her use of mood boards. This is an image that no one else sees and I used to try and skip this step. Not anymore! Hand on heart I will never skip this step EVER again. Even though no one sees them it adds so much flavour to a collection. I also have started including a written intention behind each collection. I wrote this for my new collection, which I call, “Just Bee”:

It would take us an hour and a half to drive to my Grandparent’s farm. With the first steps out of the car, I’d feel the sun on my cheeks and a cool breeze in my hair. I’d hear song birds with the hum of bees hustling around every blossom. The sky was blue and the air smelled sweet. They’ve long since sold the farm but those quiet days exploring the farm will always be with me.

I’m so relived that in the end it all came together! Phew! Like I said, we had ourselves a rumble. There were times it felt like, okay, this is good… to, oh? Wha? YIKES! It’s falling apart… ACK! What’s happening?!!… Okay wait, wait. This could work… Not bad… okay, I can work with this to… I FREAKING LOVE THIS!!!!!!

Then the cherry on top was when Elizabeth left this comment for me:

“Love love love! Oh Lysa, this is fabulous! And clean and fresh and lively and fun. So much good energy. I love all the interpretations on bees — like the hexi hive pattern, so clever. You clearly think wry conceptually about your collections and it serves you well. So pro!!!!”

I’ll admit it, I LOVE teacher’s gold stars and that one, well that one was a pretty shiny big one. I can’t thank Elizabeth enough for her feedback, knowledge and her encouragement. Artist don’t always share their knowledge with one another, so when they do, it’s pretty incredible. I’m so very grateful. It’s not easy being a newbie.

Venue-check!

Fabric collection designed-check!

Next up: Printing the fabric!

She’s the Bees Knee’s

Lysa May 23, 2016 3

On the 11th of May, I joyfully attended my friend Lori Weidenhammer’s book launch dinner. I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I am of her! Lori and I met 16 years ago at a Momma and baby group in Vancouver. We were both transplanted prairie girls, her from Saskatchewan and me from Alberta. Her son had the BEST moose hat and Lori has the most contagious laugh! Seriously I LOVE her laugh. When I heard her laugh and saw the moose hat I just knew we were going to be friends!

Loris photo A few years later we moved away from Vancouver. Somehow, thankfully, Lori and I continued to stay in touch. I remember the beginning of Lori’s love for bees and gardening. I also remember her telling me about her Madam Bee Speaker persona. It was so fascinating watching on Lori’s blog, Bee Speakers Saijiki, as she worked with various gardens and started to educate school children about bees. When she called and told me she was doing a book on bees, well, it was just perfect! It was totally meant to be. And totally a labour of love.

Fast forward to this past November, I received this little email from Lori, “hey wanna do a poster illustration for my book?”

“Um. YEAH I do!”

I was thrilled and excited just to be asked. I have to admit, one of my favourite parts of working on new designs is the research. Lori pointed me in the right direction and off I went, learning everything I could about Bees and Victory Gardens. This isn’t the exact illustration because… well you’ll see in the next two scheduled posts. I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

A few months after finishing the illustration, Lori and I met at Shatkea, the place she wrote everyday while working on her book. As we chatted I suggested we do some kind of booth together, either a craft fair or farmer’s market. We could promote and sell her book and I could do up some bee themed fabric and garden wares. We looked around and decided Mini Maker Faire would be the best fit. So that’s what we did!

Booth 2103, that’s where we’ll BEE! (see what I did there? wink, wink!) Save the date and if you’re in the area, pop by and say hi! We’d love to see you!

Made from Uppercase’s fabric collection, I looked up Windham’s dresses… wait that came out wrong!

Lysa May 10, 2016 4

Okay, you know I’m a super duper Uppercase Magazine fangirl, right?! It’s my go-to magazine for inspiration and research. I keep each and everyone… and well, being gorgeous inside and out doesn’t hurt either! I’m super excited that they’re ALSO coming out with FABRIC! Fabric inspired from the magazines spines! SO SO pretty! I can’t wait to see in on the shelves!

Side note: Uppercase is coming out with an Encyclopedia set too! It’s going to be amazing!

At Quiltcon 2016 I was lucky enough to see Janine’s Vangool’s talk about how the whole Uppercase and Windham Fabrics team-up came to be. Mickey Kueger of Windham fabrics happens to be an Uppercase subscriber. That’s him on the right, in front of all the paper dresses that decorated their booth.

AND did you see the dress quilt? It was A M A Z I N G. We were all smitten.

Okay back to the Uppercase, Windham fabric collection – keep in mind this is extremely condensed but basically, Janine sent Mickey an email about his subscription renewal. Which led to a whole Uppercase collection! What a great story hey! A short but a great one!

Fast forward a month or so later… so there I was. I had to make two flags for a swap. On my studio table sat an Uppercase charm, a paper dress from the Windham booth and other un-put away Quiltcon bits. I knew I wanted to do something really special with my Uppercase charm pack and I wanted to make something really special for the flags.

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Then BINK! A light bulb moment. Charm pack. Paper dress. Fabric dress. Flags… Ooo I could make fabric dresses for the flags AND for cards to send! Eeek!

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I remember being told at the Windham booth they’d be putting up a pattern for the quilt on their site. I haven’t found it but maybe I heard wrong? Maybe it was just wishful thinking or maybe I completely missed it. They only have one MEE-llion patterns on their site! And that’s just the free ones. For real!

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However, I did find their YouTube link for making the paper dresses. A little starch, a hot iron and some near misses with my fingers, a few buttons and bows later, I had all these pretty little dresses!

When my swap partner posted on Instagram the flags and card people were asking about them. And well, sharing is caring right. Have fun but we warned they’re a teeeeeeeeeeeeeeny bit addictive.

Abby Glassenberg’s (from While She Naps and the Craft Industry Alliance) Stash

Lysa April 12, 2016 2

“Details”( Drawn March 2016 ) 18″ high, 14″ wide- 2″ deep

I don’t recall how I came to be on Abby Glassenberg’s newsletter BUT am I ever glad I did! I’m always thinking about her posts long after I’ve read them. She’s not afraid to go against the mainstream and say, hey, this is how I see it. I loved Abby’s insightful post about being an online mom. She’s challenged Alex Vernonelli’s, from Aurifill, behavior (I think we all truly thank her for that). Not to mention, through an article she wrote for the Craft Industry Alliance, she spearheaded conversations that resulted in raises for Quilt Festival Teachers. Needless to say, I look forward to her newsletter popping in my inbox and reading her blog. Oh and Abby also has podcasts, which I love to listen to while I work away in the studio. They are, of course, excellent!

Most recently, in October of 2015 Abby and Kristin Link from Sew Mama Sew co-founded the Craft Industry Alliance. When I was at Quiltcon this past February the consensus was, if you’re not signed up for it you should be! So I did.

Um, so yeah, I think the secret’s out. I’m a fan girl. darn it, I was hoping to keep that under wraps but I can’t. I was so thrilled when Abby accepted my Stash Drawing Project invitation. I did the drawing in late December/early January. I knew Abby was moving into her new studio in February which you’ll see is a gorgeous space (photo credit to Lisa Neighbors)! I contacted her again in March so we could include it with her stash drawing. I was all set to do this post. But one thing kept nagging me, I couldn’t put my finger on it… Then I had an ah-HA moment. The drawing sucked. It fell flat, the composition didn’t work. I don’t know why I didn’t see it earlier. Maybe it was the rush of Christmas and the New Year? I have changed things up a bit. People in the past have sent me their fabric to draw from. However, I know that ‘s a pretty big ask. This was the first time working from a photograph. Could that have been it? But I’ve done plenty of drawings from photos before. In the end it didn’t matter why. So I redrew it. And I’m SO glad I did!

I adored her vintage cotton and feedback fabrics. It would have been so disappointing to have botched those. I did try to save the other drawing but yeah, it’s fire wood now. What can I say, every once in a while it happens.

I’ve also changed the format from 5 questions to: finish this sentence. My goal for this Fabric Stash Drawing Project, is that it’s for those who participate. Abby was the first one to give this a go and I LOVED her answers!

Without further ado:

Hello, my name is Abby Glassenberg.

You might know me from my blog, While She Naps or from the trade organization for craft professionals I co-founded, Craft Industry Alliance

I sew stuffed animals and dolls.

I started sewing when…I was in 8th grade Home Economics. I got a C- on my project, a pair of very wonky Bermuda shorts, but I was excited about the potential of sewing and bought a sewing machine with my Bat Mitzvah money.

The first piece of fabric that stared off my stash was… fabric from my mother-in-law. She liked to sew home dec like pillows and table cloths. She gave me left over fabrics from her basement and I sewed a monster with them.

I organize my stash by… fabric type. I mostly sew with fleece and it’s in a giant tub on the floor of my sewing room. I also sew with quilting cottons and they’re sorted by color in clear plastic bins. The solids are in their own bin and I love looking at them because they’re in rainbow order.

The best advice I could give about starting a fabric stash is… search flea markets and yard sales. Lots of people give away their fabric stashes and that’s a great way to begin building without spending a lot of money. This way you can experiment without any real financial consequences. Later, once you hone in on what you really love to sew, sell the rest at your own yard sale.

If I decided to move into a tiny house, I’d have to downsize my stash. When I moved into my tiny house, if there was a windstorm that (WHOOSH) blew all the fabric out of my arms, the fabric I’d chase for miles to get back would be… this tiny pile of beautiful vintage feedback fabrics. They were given to me by an old friend who found them at the dump near her house. I love them because they’re prints that you don’t see anywhere else. They’re totally unique and the color combinations are so beautiful. I only have a small piece of each, but they’re perfect for special details like a teddy bear’s ear lining.

Previously on Lysa Flower Part 3: A lot happened all at the same time!

Lysa April 6, 2016 0

And all while Part 2: Surface Design was happening during the first half of March, this was also happening – creating and designing this puppy!

A big thanks to my husbands helping hand. He did inspire this quilt but also picked the most opportune time to ask if I needed the roller before this shot. He’s always there to keep me on my toes!

After spending so much time on the computer lately it was really nice to get back to my sewing machine.

BUT then this happened…

A power outage. They’re always so convenient, especially when you have a design and a quilt due all at the same time. We were 36 hours with out power. Let’s just say I LOVE POWER! I thought I was grateful for it before, now I really, really appreciate it!

Luckily I was able to hit all my deadlines before rushing off to our annual San Francisco trip. I found this stowaway in my pocket, I have no idea how he got there but I decided to show him the sites!

And of course what would a trip to San Francisco be with out a trip to Britex Fabrics.

The day after we got home from San Francisco I was off to the Creative Stitches show to work my shift at our FVMQG booth. I didn’t get as much time there as I liked but I was happy to be greeted by these lovely ladies, Darlene (left), Brenda (top), Vera (right) and Peg (seated).

Phew, it feels like it’s been quite a whirlwind! Mix in Spring Break and ooft! I’m happy life is starting to get back to normal. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming!