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!

I’m not really sure how to go about this or how to write about it…

I’m still a little in shock.

but I won..

Unbelievably, I won. I won a portfolio review with Elizabeth Olwen for this collection I designed in her latest Skillshare class!

We live in amazing times don’t we! YouTube, E courses! You can connect with people, instructors all over the world and learn anything. ANYTHING. It’s crazy. How did we do it before?

I’ve always loved learning, in fact I easily could become a professional student. My husband says I could have been a doctor if we added up all the time I’ve spent in school!

Last year when I was working on my first fabric collection, I checked out Elizabeth Olwen’s Pattern Design: Creating Inspiring Repeats. Lurked would probably be a better term. It was weird really, I’ve been buying fabric, looking at it, sewing with it forever but when faced with how to design a collection, I was like, huh? I loved Elizabeth’s class, it really filled in the gaps and answered the questions I had.

With The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design finishing at the end of 2015, I have to admit, I panicked a bit. I’m a girl that loves deadlines and schedules. Then early January rolled around and what popped into my inbox, but an invite to another Elizabeth Olwen class, Pattern Design II: A Creative Look at a Full Pattern Collection. Building a collection over two weeks? Hmm… I waffled, do I have time? Then I snapped myself out of it. Make time. Do it now, there will never be a perfect time.

It was a gorgeous class. The lessons were well recorded and well explained. Her information was clear and concise. Plus, uniquely she provided feed back and a Skype Q & A call. From what I understand not every class is hands on like this one. Score!

I posted my mood board from the class a few weeks back. Creating a mood board was a step I’d often brush past and one I don’t think I’ll ever skip again.

In brainstorming for the mood board I realized the story of my collections was this:

When I moved to the west coast my grandfather unexpectedly started sending me letters. Every time I received one I dropped everything and wrote him back. Being a sucker for stationary didn’t hurt, however this routine we created, it allowed me to meet my grandfather in a way I never had before. He was very romantic about the past, something we had in common. I long for my pen-pal, the ritual of putting everything on hold, slowing down, thinking of what to say, answering questions, putting pen to paper and simply writing a letter.

A far contrast to the internet, Youtube, E courses, etc (all things I love). I know I’m a conundrum.

P.S. Elizabeth was very sweet and remembered the project I did her Wildwood Collection back in 2014 (and calender) . She’s awesome like that!

Wildwood is inspired by long walks through the forest, searching the forest floor for rare flowers and interesting leaves and forms and revelling in how timeless it feels. One of the themes that inspires me throughout my work is that of the fairytale — the fields and forests of a British landscape, the places that wild-at-heart maidens run away to when they’re going to be married off to someone they don’t love, the sound of fallen leaves crunching as a horse gallops through. A ‘wild at heart’ spirit. A sense of romance. The wild forest. ‘Wildwood’ speaks  to these foresty areas and their uncultivated nature ~Elizabeth Olwen

Above was the description we received when we took on this Warp & Weft Challenge. British? Romance? Fairy tales? Perfect! I love anything British, especially anything from the BBC, hence recently watching “Call the Midwife“. The more I looked at Elizabeth Olwen’s Wildwood fabric I felt like it came from the same period as the show. The WW2 era I think we all have romanticize about at one time or another. In the show I loved seeing them handwriting letters, licking stamps and sending them off hopefully to arrive in time. You might already know but I have a thing for envelopes and stationary. When working on this project I cracked open my record player, broke out my Grandfather’s albums from the post WW2 era and scattered my vintage button collection about.

I thought about the story of Little Red Riding Hood – which I think the Wildwood in Crimson just screams. PS. The blue fabric is called Deco Petal Navy. I thought about Little Red Riding Hood travelling to visit her grandmother. Which led me to thinking about when I was a kid visiting my grandparents. Both sets lived about an hour from us. We’d ritually fill up at the gas station, dad would buy us each a bag of Old Dutch potato chips and a Pepsi. It was very comforting. Maybe not the healthiest but to this day I just love eating in cars, a habit I’ve had a difficult time breaking. I’ve always loved a good road trip (the right soundtrack is key) and I’ve always brought a project with me to work on, whether we’re driving or we’re flying.

So, for this challenge I wanted to make something that would be the ultimate travel sewing kit. Something to keep me organized, something to hold on my lap and something that’s better than throwing everything into a large pouch, which usually results in getting all my threads tangled, my scissors lost in my seat and having to reach around on the floor (ew!) looking for buttons I’ve dropped.

This is what I’ve come up with. I call it, “ To Grandmother’s House We Go!”

Inspired from some vintage buttons my friend Trudy gave me for my birthday last year, I attached two buttons with elastic to clasp the sewing kit together. That way the kit has plenty of room to grow!

The top flap opens and doubles for a thread catcher.

I always find I never have anywhere to put my teeny bits of thread. I either have to put them in to my pouch, then they mix with all my other supplies or I have to… shhh, don’t tell anyone, drop them on the floor.

The bottom flap I’ve sewn in some of my vintage buttons to hold my thread.

It’ll require some pre-planning and pre-loading of the thread but I think well worth it. I’ve developed a big pet peeve of thread unravelling in my project bags. This will keep everything nice and neat!

The flap on the right holds scissors and a seam ripper (perhaps a point turner depending on the project.)

I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve lost my scissors in my seat while travelling.  So annoying! This little button strap is to prevent that from ever happening again!

And the last flap is a needle book.

A needle book with  three layers of felt.

The travel kit includes two pockets (three if you include the thread catcher) and one zippy pouch.

The Essex linen holds most fabric-y things in place but I thought I might need pouch with a zipper, for those slippery things like buttons or do-dads. (I love the word do-dads!)

… and really, I just wanted an excuse to make a 3 dimensional cassette tape zippy pouch.

I worked in the salvage on the cassette tape. On one side I used Elizabeth Olwen’s signature. On the other side I pieced it to say, “Wildwood”, ” For Cloud 9″. I can’t believe how well it worked out!

And of course, I had to do the bottom true to form.

TA DA! My Warp & Weft Challenge with Elizabeth Olwen’s fabric for Cloud 9!

Be sure to stop by the other blogs from the Sewing Society. Carla’s clutches and Cynthia’s table runner are just the tip of the iceberg. I’ve seen a sneak preview of a few of  the other projects. You’re gonna love them! I know I do. Thanks so much for popping by!

Blog hop schedule:
September 26- Carla from “My 1/2 Dozen Daily”
September 27-Cynthia from “Cynthiaf”
September 28- Me
September 29-Cathy from “Blueberry Patch”
September 30-Esmari from “Warp and Weft”
October 1- Shannon from “The Finished Garment”
October 2-Hedi from “Elegance & Elephants”
October 3- Sherri from “Thread Riding Hood”