Studio Nita Lou

A new year, a new blog...am I crazy?

2012-01-14T15:40:00.000-06:00

Well, apparently I have started the new year by taking complete leave of my senses: I just created a new blog. This at a time when I am questioning the wisdom of attempting to maintain any online presence whatsoever. On my official List of Things to Think About in the New Year appears the following action item:

think about letting go of websites and blogs and podcasts and maybe even

[gasp]

Facebook.

Thus, starting a brand-new blog makes, um, no sense whatsoever.

Except...

Some things just make me happy. Simple little things like a new bar of soap or a flower or a snippet of overheard conversation. Maybe hearing a song on the radio I'd forgotten I knew the words to. A cartoon, a rock, a shadow. I don't know. I like to take photographs and I like to write a few words (okay, sometimes a lot of words) about the things I take pictures of. I guess I felt the need for a special place to put this kind of stuff.

Oh, and I dreamed up a great many intriguing and clever ideas for the title of this new blog but they'd all already been taken, so in the end I settled on Nita Lou Recommends.

Make of it what you will. As for me, I'm completely baffled--but smitten.

Happy new year, everyone.

It's a new year, it's a new day

Won't you wake up and celebrate

--"Wake Up and Celebrate"

(aka the very first song I wrote this year)

Tis the Season for Hints and Secrets

2011-12-20T10:13:00.000-06:00

Marsha's Mandala Pillow (detail)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

For those who like to blog about the gifts we make for family and friends, 'tis the season for keeping secrets.

Which is to say, 'tis the season for bloggers to not have much to post about lest we prematurely reveal what's inside those holiday-wrapped packages! Fortunately, even in the midst of the holiday season other gift-giving occasions occur. When a dear friend from Italy visited recently I had a sudden desire to make jewelry to send home with him for his wife, also a dear friend, who wasn't able to make the trip with him this time.

"Before" photo of Mari's necklace
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

I'd not made any jewelry for a looooooong time. The tools felt clumsy in my hands and I kept remembering components I'd neglected to get when I went to the bead store: crimp beads, for instance, and crimp covers. (I made a special trip back to the store for the crimp beads, but not for the covers.) When it came time to photograph the jewelry, I realized I'd lost the knack of finding exactly the right background and lighting to get the shots I wanted. But I'd also recently learned how much fun one can have with adjusting a photo via imaging software, so I fooled around with exposure and saturation settings and came up with what I think of as something equivalent to the Before and After beauty makeover features found in magazines (see photos, left and below).

"After" photo of Mari's necklace
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Here are a couple more glamor shots:

Mari's necklace focal point
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Beads on Mari's necklace
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Marsha's Mandala pillow fabric transfer applique
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Another dear friend recently had a birthday so I made what I call a mandala pillow for her. I drew a mandala of her first name, Marsha, on paper then made a fabric transfer of it. This I appliqued onto several different backing fabrics, sewing around and around it, until I finally found one that seemed right for the pillow. (See photos at left and below.)

Marsha's Mandala Pillow
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

With regard to what I'm making for holiday gifts this year--and what I'm excited about making more of in the new year--I can't really say much without giving away secrets. But I will leave you with a hint and a promise. The promise is to reveal all once friends and family have had a chance to unwrap those gifts.

For now, happy holidays and here's wishing every one of you a happy new year creating whatever it is you love to make. For me, that means things that are sewn and photographed and worn and played and sung and read and eaten and--

well, you'll find in the list below your hint:

lemongrass

cinnamon

juniper

ylang-ylang

red mandarin

lavender

sweet fennel

geranium

ruby grapefruit

lemon

lime

wild orange

chamomile

flax seed

orris root

atlas cedar

See you in 2012!

Short and Bittersweet

2011-11-23T07:05:00.000-06:00

for LLE

Bittersweet Cocktail
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Every year around this time, my sister sends me a box of bittersweet cut from the vine that grows in her yard in Kansas. I usually put it in this one pottery jug made by a friend from college, but this year the jug was already occupied by a bouquet of iris. So I paired the bittersweet with some baby's breath in a jam jar and put the jar on the table out in the sunroom. Now, bittersweet is a brittle thing and there are always a few berries and leaves left in the bottom of the cardboard box it arrives in. Sometimes I scatter these bits and pieces around the base of the pottery pot but this year I decided to put them in a fancy glass that belonged to my maternal grandmother, who lived and died in Kansas. I took some photos that didn't turn out very well but after I played with the settings in iPhoto I came up with this image of what I am calling a bittersweet cocktail.

Cheers, Sis.

And thank you for this year's bittersweet.

This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: Joy's Soul

2011-10-01T09:36:00.000-05:00

Joy's Soul throw pillow (close-up)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.

--Troilus and Cressida, Act I, Scene 2

As part of my reorganization process, I've been thinking about all the things I do that bring my soul joy. I even created a little photo album to post on Facebook called Things I Love to Do. See my daughter smile, listen to my husband play guitar, go to the beach at South Padre Island, drive my car--these are things I love doing. I love to take close-up photos of flowers...here's a picture I took at the edge of a tour-bus parking lot in Scotland:

flower at edge of tour bus parking lot in Scotland
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Sometimes I take close-up photos of flowers with other stuff in the background. The picture below was taken near Loch Lomond.

close-up of flowers near Loch Lomond
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Unfortunately, my held-together-by-a-rubber-band camera finally gave up the ghost while I was in Scotland in July, so I wasn't able to take very many more photos while I was there. But I brought home a treasure trove of mental images, some of which I'm certain will find their way into future sewing projects.

Other activities that made my list of Things I Love to Do are: setting the table when friends are coming over for dinner, trying new recipes (paella! fig tart!), and making the same thing I've made a zillion times before simply because it's so gosh-darn good (flourless chocolate cake!). If this isn't the best time for you to be thinking about dessert you may want to close your eyes and scroll right past the photo, below.

flourless chocolate cake
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Believe it or not, reorganizing things even made my list! I'm funny that way...

I don't know if I've mentioned it in these blog pages, but a few months ago I suddenly started writing songs and dreaming up melodies for them. Both of which are things I'd never done before in my life. In my head, I hear very specific arrangements for the music but--because I basically have no idea what I'm doing!--I have a hard time communicating the intricacies of these to my resident studio musician (read: husband). So in June I took up the guitar.

Literally.

I picked up a guitar and asked my husband to show me how to play whatever chords it sounded to him like I was singing and I took it from there. Next thing you know, instead of coming up with music to go with lyrics, I'm stitching together the few chords I know how to play and then figuring out words to put with the music. It's a rather messy, unpredictable process--which, come to think of it, pretty much describes how I sew. And that, dear readers, is why you don't find sewing tutorials on this blog. But that's another topic for another time...

Since playing guitar is now something I love to do, I needed a photo of that to include in my Facebook album. I tried to capture a still from one of the practice-session videos I sometimes make, but the image quality wasn't very good. Which led to experimenting with the various adjustments that it's possible to do in iPhoto. Now, I've used iPhoto for years but it was only recently that I fooled with with these settings for the first time--when a picture I took of the dog didn't turn out the way I meant for it to. The result of doctoring the photo of myself holding a guitar, below, looks to me more like a painting than a photo, which is pretty cool. I gave it the highly original title Woman Holding Guitar.

Woman Holding Guitar
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

And then I thought, Hm, I wonder how that would look as a fabric transfer?

So I started tinkering with the palette, adjusting the settings to give the photo now a greenish hue, now an overexposed yellow and red edge, now a sepia filter. I printed each experiment onto some 4 x 6 fabric transfer paper. Next thing I know, I'm creating a multi-image, multi-fabric wall hanging--still, as of this writing, very much a work in progress.

I guess what I'm saying is that although I write a blog about sewing, it also ends up being about cooking and songwriting and photography and learning to play guitar and myriad other things I love to do, all of which mysteriously become interwoven in the creative process.

This week at Sedbi Design Studio I made three throw pillows, two as birthday gifts for my husband (to take to his office), one that I may have to keep for myself. It features a fabric transfer of yet another thing I love to do, which is to write word mandalas. In case you can't read my handwriting in the photos below, the phrase for the mandala is Joy's soul lies in the doing.

It all comes full circle...

Joy's Soul throw pillow (front)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Joy's Soul throw pillow (back)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Whatever it is that you love to do, here's wishing your soul joy.

Note to Self: Reorganization in Progress

2011-09-22T09:55:00.000-05:00

Note to self: reorganization in progress (chalkboard at Sedbi Design Studio)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

The thing about writing a blog that's mostly about sewing is that if you're not doing much sewing, you're not doing much blogging. Lately it seems all I've done is make brief guest appearances at the studio. For example, after dining out the other evening, four of us swung by to pick up a small pillow as a gift for an out of town friend to take home to his dear wife who wasn't able to accompany him on the trip to Austin. I'd post a photo of that pillow but apparently I never got around to taking one, which is so unlike me. I usually take pictures of everything I make the moment the last thread is snipped.

What's going on?

For lack of a better word, let's call it reorganization. That's what I wrote on the chalkboard in the studio during one of my brief stops. The words in progress connote forward motion toward a goal, though I'm not at all sure in this moment what that goal is. But for now this chalk note to self serves as a kind of visual anchor in the midst of what feels like a great deal of drifting.

I did literally reorganize the studio not too long ago. I relocated two tall shelving units and their contents, reconfigured my storage closet, repurposed a gift-wrap cart to hold fabric projects. Relocated, reorganized, reconfigured, repurposed...I seem to be stuck on R-words these days.

Well then, you may ask, if not spending time at the studio sewing what all else have you been doing?

Um, rearranging things at home?

I started with something that looms frighteningly large in my home life (see menacing photo, below).

Laundry
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Yep, laundry.

It seems there is always, ever, and forever a basket of laundry sitting around somewhere in my house, waiting to be washed or folded or put away. Laundry on the floor, on the bed, on the cedar chest, on the dining room table--you get the picture. Which is so not the home decor look I am going for! It struck me that if I could simply establish a work space in which to accomplish in one spot all of the folding and sorting and hanging-up that has to happen prior to the putting-away of clean clothes, I could maybe just possibly get the upper hand with my chief nemesis, Laundry.

So I relocated (there's that word again) some shelves from a closet and reconfigured (ahem) some space in the laundry room and lo and behold, voila, ta daaaaaaaaa! An all-in-one workspace.

Laundry Room Workspace
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

I cannot tell you what a relief it is to have solved that problem! Relief...that's a good R-word.

Other non-sewing things I've been doing are: throwing small dinner parties (my first paella!), hosting out of town guests (more are due to arrive later this month), writing songs and learning to play guitar, reestablishing a regular exercise program derailed for over a year during recovery from ankle-tendon surgery, and researching what it would take to try to make a go of selling the things I sew. For help with this task I turned to a book by Kari Chapin that is, coincidentally, beautifully color-coordinated with my favorite coffee mug. So I've been reading it while drinking my morning coffee.

Morning Coffee Research Reading
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Chapin asks some tough questions of would-be marketers of handmade products, questions to which I haven't yet worked out my answers. (See earlier comment about uncertainty in connection with goals.) A few years back I rushed headlong into starting a small handmade greeting card and jewelry business called Flash Fiction Gems which ended up having to be rather painfully dismantled, so I am taking my time considering whether Sedbi Design Studio will become a full-fledged business or remain more of a free-time pastime.

And then there's the question of returning to writing...

I've been on a kind of year-plus sabbatical with regard to writing and seeking publication. Last Saturday, for the first time in a long time, I attended a writing group in which a timer is set (for fifteen minutes or so) and everyone free-writes until the time is up--after which, if you choose, you may read aloud to the group what you've just written. It's a time-honored method of getting writing wheels turning and, sure enough, for the past few days I've found my thoughts repeatedly wandering to ideas for new stories.

So, let's see: that's cooking, sewing, entertaining, songwriting, learning to play guitar, exercising, and writing. Plus long-distance parenting of a college senior in L.A. Add to that the myriad duties involved in running a modern-day household, for my real job title is actually full-time homemaker. But it seems as though I'm leaving out something that takes up a great deal of my time... Now, let me think, what is it?

Oh, yeah. Laundry. Guess I better resume that task before it gets the upper hand again.

I'll keep you posted on how that reorganization in progress progresses.

This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: Nita Lou's Pattern Optional Sewing Method

2011-08-27T09:58:00.001-05:00

Vintage Paris Postcard Work in Progress #1 (with vintage jewelry)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

I'll tell you a little secret: what I set out to sew is seldom what I actually end up making. This happens even when I use a pattern.

It's uncanny how often my sewing projects tend to take a sudden veer in a completely different direction from where I thought I was going. You might call this making a big darn mistake, but I prefer to think of it as...well, embarking upon an adventure in creativity.

By the time I declare something finished I may not even remember what I originally intended to make! I guess it could be useful to document my process step by step in order to analyze exactly what happens to maybe figure out a way to prevent it. Except the exact moment a veer occurs is not always clear to me. Besides, some of my favorite creations have ended up being things I never even set out to make.

This time, however, I'm well aware that my project took a turn in a different direction. See, what I set out to make yesterday at the studio was a table runner. A table runner for my very own dinner table featuring vintage travel postcards from the Exposition Universelle. Because I'm hosting a dinner party for some friends tonight and the menu I came up with features coq au vin as the main course so I thought...

Well. It doesn't matter now because the so-called table runner I set out to make dramatically morphed into something else along the way. Something that at present consists of four raw-edged pieces of fabric-transfer-appliqued whatever. In a desperate bid to hold onto the concept of a table runner, I experimented with displaying the fabric pieces overlapped in intriguing ways along the center of the table, sparkly vintage jewelry strewn amidst them and purple ribbon tied around the base of the candle holders and, and--

It so wasn't happening.

At the moment I'm not sure what these partially completed pieces are going to end up being. Who knows what will transpire with them the next time I sit down at the sewing machine? For now, please consider this a sneak preview of work in progress. Samples of Nita Lou's Patented Pattern Optional Sewing Method for you (and me) to ponder.

I'll have to say, though, I do still kind of like the way they look with that jewelry...

Happy adventures in creativity to you!

P.S. Dear Readers, if these fabric whatevers suggest anything at all to you in the way of a finished product (other than a table runner), do let me know. Evening bags? Jewelry travel cases? Wall hangings? Shadow boxes with jewelry? A quilt or sofa throw?

Vintage Paris Postcard Work in Progress #2 (with vintage jewelry)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Vintage Paris Postcard Work in Progress #3 (with vintage jewelry)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Vintage Paris Postcard Work in Progress #4 (with vintage jewelry)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

These Past Three Weeks at Sedbi Design Studio: Seashells and Wedding Bells

2011-08-20T10:01:00.000-05:00

Whoa.

I can't believe I haven't posted my weekly blog for three weeks! Where did the time go? I guess I've mostly spent it settling back into home life after being away for a while, first to Scotland and then to Tennessee. Last week I spent a lot of time planning and preparing for hosting a Spanish-themed birthday dinner for some close friends, for which I concocted my first-ever paella (which was deemed a great success--yay!). Let's see...I cleaned out a closet, reorganized the laundry room--did more of that kind of stuff. Oh, and I've been practicing singing and playing on guitar the new song I wrote while I was in Tennessee. As for sewing, I'm afraid I don't have all that much to report, but here we go.

Before I left on my travels, I was commissioned by a friend to create some sofa pillows and wall hangings for her waterfront home on Long Island Sound. She wanted a seashell theme in peach and aqua. Being a nut for fabric transfers, my first thought was to do something that features photos I've taken of shells on the beach at South Padre Island, Texas. I'd had this idea about using really big images on smallish pieces of fabric, so--knowing, of course, that the colors weren't at all what my friend wanted-- I made up the pillows, below, using upholstery fabric I had on hand to test out the concept.

I call these Funky Seashell Throw Pillows.

Funky Seashell Throw Pillow #1 (front)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Funky Seashell Throw Pillow #1 (back)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Funky Seashell Throw Pillow #2 (front)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Funky Seashell Throw Pillow #2 (back)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Funky Seashell Throw Pillows #1 & 2
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Okay, that was a lot of fun but not really the direction in which I needed to be going!

Since the seashell wall hangings are destined to be hung in a long, narrow space above a high window at near-ceiling level, I realized I needed to find a simple but bold shell graphic to place on a colored background. I found what I was looking for at this wonderful site of public-domain images: http://karenswhimsy.com/seashells.shtm

So far I've only "sketched" in fabric and thread what I have in mind making, but my friend likes the design and says she wants sofa throw pillows to match. As you see in the sneak-preview photos, below, I'm using wavy lines of stitching (in black and in a metallic blue thread) around the black and white fabric transfers of the shells. These are two of the five images I've chosen for the wall hangings, which I'll alternate on two different fabric backgrounds. I've not yet started on the throw pillows, but should soon have something interesting to show you.

Sneak Preview of Seashell Wall Hanging #1
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Sneak Preview of Seashell Wall Hanging #2
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

The other piece my friend commissioned was a commemorative wall hanging as a gift for a young couple whose wedding she recently attended. The wedding was held here in hot, drought-stricken Austin, Texas in late June, so guests were provided with clever little cardboard fans on which was printed the order of service. I made fabric transfer images of the fans and sewed all around them in different colored threads with different stitch patterns, creating a versatile two-sided wall hanging that could also be hung in flag-like fashion to be viewed from both sides. (See photos, below. Note: the photos have been retouched to remove some of the names and other personal information.)

Commemorative Wedding Wall Hanging (front)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Commemorative Wedding Wall Hanging (back)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Commemorative Wedding Wall Hanging (back) close-up showing detail

photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Wow.

I guess I've actually gotten more done in the studio than I thought!

Happy cooking and sewing and closet cleaning and laundry room reorganizing and songwriting and guitar-playing and what-have-you to you, my dear readers.

This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: Lessons in Being Helpful

2011-07-31T10:51:00.000-05:00

floor plan
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

This week I am in Chattanooga, TN. The purpose of my visit is to help my beloved in-laws with their move from a four-bedroom, two-story house to a two-bedroom apartment in a senior living community. I imagined I'd be spending every day this week packing, packing, packing, then ferrying small boxes of stuff over to the new place and unpacking, getting things all settled in their new places before the big furniture move next week.

I imagined wrong.

As it turns out, things are proceeding at a much slower pace. I've been in Chattanooga for four days now and have packed, oh, about a half-dozen boxes. I've been to the recycling center to pitch glass, plastic, and paper into the correct bins. My assigned task this morning was to make blueberry muffins.

All my preconceived notions about how this move would be accomplished--and the many ways I could be of invaluable help--have been tossed right out the window. Instead, this is turning out to be one more big, fat opportunity to let go of expectations and simply be in the moment, to sit back and enjoy the ride instead of insisting on steering.

In other words, it's been extremely difficult!

A lot of speeches I've made in the past about what's helpful and what isn't are coming back to bite me on the keister. How often have I said something along the lines of, "Well, it's really only helpful if people do what you actually want them to do, not what they think would be helpful to do."

For example, I am moderately famous in my circle of friends for frequently rearranging the furniture at my house, and I like to think I'm rather good at it. So when my father-in-law asked me to draw around the little cardboard furniture cut-outs he'd taped onto a floor plan of the new apartment, my eyes lit up. Why, not only could I draw around those furniture cut-outs, I could also come up with several other possibilities for arranging the furniture in the new space. When it comes to arranging furniture, there are always myriad options! You just have to be open to--

No.

He really, truly only wanted me to draw around the furniture cut-outs so he could un-stick them from the floor plan. That was all the help he needed. More help than that was actually perceived as being, um, not helpful.

So I need to look at this more in terms of being on stand-by than piloting the plane. This huge task of moving will all get done, one way or another, even if it's not done the way I would do it. I'm here to help as needed, even if it's only by baking blueberry muffins or drawing around furniture cut-outs. I'm learning that sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is to stop trying to be helpful.

(But just between you and me, I still think that recliner would work better in the corner of the living room.)

This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: Pictures of Scotland

2011-07-23T09:19:00.000-05:00

Canal near Loch Lomond
photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

I'm curled up on the living room sofa drinking a cup of coffee after a good night's rest in my own bed, glad to have gotten to spend a week in Scotland but very happy to be back home in Texas. Above and below are a few photos I took on my trip. My held-together-by-two-rubberbands-camera worked sporadically, at best, so that made taking any photograph at all an iffy enterprise.

Mostly I treasure the pictures I brought home in my head from the coach tours I took and my rambles on foot in Edinburgh.

Ah, Scotland:

rolling green hills brushed with paint-box colored flowers

still and rushing waters

quilt squares of laundry snapping on windy clotheslines

narrow clattering cobbled streets edged in black wrought iron lace

moss-blanketed headstones asleep at the feet of soaring, spiky church spires

damp stairs dipping down into and up from the respite of city gardens

and, towering above,

the stone walls of vast ancient castles

I hope to capture some Scottish colors and textures in fabric and thread in days to come.

Linlithgow Palace
photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Cell-Phone Photo of Stream Outside Blair Castle
photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Scottish Thistle
photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: Vanishing Scottish Woollen Mills

2011-07-19T13:34:00.000-05:00

Pure Scottish Wool
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

This week at Sedbi Design Studio, we are in Scotland!

Edinburgh, to be precise, though last Sunday I did take the train to Linlithgow, whose palace was the birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots. The excursion did not involve anything relating to fabric or sewing, so we needn't say any more about it here.

On Monday, I went on a half-day group tour in Edinburgh and we visited the castle but it poured rain. This excursion did not involve anything related to fabric or sewing, either.

Today I went on a full-day group tour whose description read:

"From Edinburgh travel to Stirling with its imposing castle and then head westwards to Callander. From Callander we drive into the Trossachs, which is a scenic area of lochs and mountains. After climbing the Dukes Pass we will shortly arrive in the small village of Aberfoyle, where we can visit a Woollen Mill. {italics mine} Later we make our way to Loch Lomond, to enjoy a cruise on the loch, before returning to Edinburgh."

People, I'm here to tell you: I've been excited about visiting this Woollen Mill for weeks now--ever since I first signed up for the tour. Visions of deep remant bins filled to overflowing with half-yard bits and bobs of wool fabric nightly danced in my head. I even saved room in my luggage for fabric (technically I think I called dibs on some space in my husband's suitcase), figuring I could probably also squeeze in a few spools of Scottish thread without anyone really noticing.

When I woke up this morning my first thought was--well, my very first thought pertained to fixing a cup of tea as quickly as possible before anyone started trying to converse with me, but my next thought after that was, Finally! An excursion related to fabric and sewing! Castles and mountains and lochs are all very nice, but I couldn't wait to get to that Woollen Mill.

Sure enough, when the tour bus came to a stop in a big parking lot somewhere in Aberfoyle I was the first person off the bus. Oh, look: some sheep in a pen! Great, but where's that Woollen Mill? Oh, look: some miniature horses in a pen. Cute, but what's that got to do with a Woollen Mill? I raced on past a tiny shop with a sign reading "handmade goods" and into a much larger building that I was certain must be the Woollen Mill--only to find myself smack in the middle of the Scottish equivalent to a Cracker Barrel store. Oh, no! I must have missed it somewhere between the bus and all these scented candles. Back outside, quick!

As you've probably already figured out (much faster than I did), there was no Woollen Mill. Or rather, apparently there is one somewhere in Aberfoyle, but the nice saleswoman in the handmade goods shop I eventually made my way into informed me that (a) the mill doesn't typically let people go in and watch the wool being made and (b) it wasn't situated anyplace near where the tour bus had parked. Thus, (c) there wasn't an actual Woollen Mill on our tour. The Scottish Cracker Barrel was a kind of woollen outlet store.

At which point my disappointed little seamstress soul cried out, Wah!

Looking back over the earlier parts of the day's tour, I guess I might have seen this coming. I mean, the only bit of Stirling's "imposing castle" I saw was what I could glimpse between the roadside foliage as the tour bus sped past on a winding, two-lane road. And, whereas I'd specifically chosen appropriate footwear and apparel suitable for "climbing the Dukes Pass," it was actually the tour bus that did the climbing, while the tour group remained seated inside it, many of us wishing we could at least open a window and get a breath of fresh air.

So, no Woollen Mill after all. But the little handmade goods shop turned out to be a local artisans' collective, and today's volunteer clerk/artisan was a delight to chat with. I bought (among other things) a skein of Pure Scottish Wool yarn that I think will fit quite nicely in my husband's suitcase. And after I get home I plan to take my yarn over to Sedbi Design Studio and tape a sign on the door that reads:

Nita Lou's

Imaginary Scottish Woollen Mill

virtual tours only

*** buses welcome ***

This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: Sew and Tell

2011-07-16T17:11:00.001-05:00

Tucson Tea Towel
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Whew!

I finally finished making those birthday gifts for my BFFJHD (Best Friend From Junior High Days), wrapped them, shipped them, and heard that she had received them so now I can sew and tell by sharing with you what I made for her. (Note: I also have a BFFHSD--Best Friend From High School Days--whose birthday was last month. But you've already seen her present, the plain embellished camisole. Which may sound like a contradiction in terms but it wasn't, given the context...it was plain compared to the fancy embellished cami I made for yet another friend whose birthday was in June.)

O-kaaaaaaaay. I'm glad we got that settled.

Have I mentioned that I am writing this in a jet lag-induced fog occasioned by taking an overnight flight to Scotland? I'm trying to stay up long enough to go to bed at something resembling a normal bedtime, otherwise my sleep schedule will be off for the entire week that I'm here. Or so I've been told.

Anyway, before I show you photos of the gifts for my BFFJHD who lives in St. Augustine, FL, I want to explain the theme I used, which was: Tucson.

Tucson? Yes. Because when we first met in Mr. Spearman's 7th grade math class in Manhattan, Kansas (don't even ask...) we discovered that we had both lived in Tucson at the same time and didn't even know each other!

This fact somehow had a lot more impact at age 13.

But: if we hadn't discovered that we had Tucson in common we might not have started passing notes back and forth in Mr. Spearman's class in an attempt to establish a specific date, time, and place when we could have crossed paths. Even though our grades in math took a hit due to the volume of note-passing, we never did manage to figure it out--but that ended up not really mattering. Because we had become friends and we've stayed friends all these years.

So what I made for my BFFJHD was a collection of Tucson-themed housewares. Specifically, two small pillows and some linen tea towels or napkins or what have you. I enclosed laundering instructions along with these items, but I also included a note cautioning her that these are soft goods, and therefore not meant to last forever.

Unlike our friendship, which is durable.

Below are a bunch of photos of the Tucson small pillows and (let's just call them) tea towels. May I please be excused now to go to bed so I can rest up for exploring more of Edinburgh tomorrow?

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

photos 1-8 above Tucson Small Pillow series
photos by Nita Lou Bryant

photos 1-5, above Tucson Tea Towel series
photos by Nita Lou Bryant

This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: No Sew and Tell. Yet.

2011-07-07T08:20:00.000-05:00

Cicada and Small Garden Sculpture
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

One drawback to writing a blog about sewing when what you spend most of your time making are gifts for family and friends is that, until the gift has been finished and delivered, you can't post photos or blog about the making of it without running the risk of ruining the surprise.

Which is precisely my situation at this time.

I have been working and working on a (now belated) set of items for my oldest friend's birthday, keeping her posted about my progress--or lack thereof. I am excited about what I am making and eager to post a Sew and Tell for my few and faithful blog readers, but I can't. Yet.

So for now I give you...

a cicada.

At least, I think that's what it is. When I was out watering the garden one recent morning I saw a spot of unexpected color perched on one of the crape myrtle trunks so I leaned in close to get a better look. My first thought was, "Ew, a bug!" quickly followed by, "What beautiful colors!" So I dropped the hose and ran inside to get my camera.

Because my third thought was, "I have got to sew something in that same color combination."

Below is what it looked like up close.

Cicada Close-up
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

I haven't had a chance yet to go through my fabric supply in search of cicada colors (on account of all the working and working on the ever more belated gift for my friend), but I look forward to doing so. And when I find them I will let you know.

In the meantime, I need to stop blogging and get back to sewing that--

Well, I really can't say what. Yet.

This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: Mortality and Playing Hooky

2011-06-25T09:13:00.000-05:00

photo by Nita Lou Bryant

This week at Sedbi Design Studio I've mostly been playing hooky, so I don't have much to show.

I did get a good start early in the week on the birthday gifts I'm making for my oldest friend, who lives in Florida. But my second-oldest friend, who lives in Connecticut, arrived mid-week for a visit. So from the very first moment she was available I took time off from sewing to hang out with her.

The night before my friend arrived I'd received some shocking and sad news about the sudden death of a kind and generous spirit, a good writer, and the mother of a son the same age as my daughter. I am talking about Karen Stolz, who--as I understand it from what I was told--died in her sleep on June 15th at age fifty-four. I first met Karen in 2005 when I attended an eight-week novel in progress workshop she taught here in Austin, and we'd stayed in touch ever since. I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that she is gone.

Others will write more eloquent and meaningful tributes to her, and a blog that's mostly about sewing is probably not the place for me to attempt to do so, in any case. But I do want to say at least this in this space: a sudden death causes you to stop and think about your own life and how you spend each precious, unpredictable moment of it. It affects the choices you make.

At the beginning of the week my highest priority was sewing these birthday gifts for my Florida friend. (Yes, I could have gotten an earlier start on them--we all know how that goes.) But my Connecticut friend was right here. Right here in the same town, in the very same room with me, where I could see her face and hear her laughter and give her a hug. So instead of attempting to divide my time between my usual schedule (a schedule which includes doing something that I truly love doing--sewing custom-designed handmade gifts), and seeing my Connecticut friend while she was in town, I chose to spend every possible moment that I could with my friend.

My Florida friend will, of course, understand if her birthday gifts arrive a few days late. I am not worried about that. If I am worried about anything it is failing to remember that this is a choice I could be making every single day: to spend time with the people who matter to me whenever I have the chance to do so.

Even if it involves playing hooky from doing something else that's important. Because you never know...

Rest in Peace, Karen Stolz

This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: Small Paris Pillow, Fabric Wallet & A Buttonhole Beauty Makeover

2011-06-18T17:09:00.001-05:00

This week at Sedbi Design Studio I made a small pillow for a friend who likes to travel, using the same vintage Paris postcard fabric transfer image I put on the rustic poet's notebook a few months back. I think the five tassels sewn on the diagonal lend the piece a certain elan.

Small Paris Pillow (front)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Small Paris Pillow (back)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

After that, I embarked upon a whole new project: sewing a fabric wallet. Have I mentioned that I seldom sew from a pattern? It seems to work out better for me (eventually) if I just figure out how to do something on my own. Some people might see this as doing things the hard way, but to me it makes sewing a lot more satisfying--and fun.

What I had is mind was something simple: a slim fabric case to hold a few credit or identification cards and some cash. I practiced constructing the card-case piece and attaching it to the lining before sewing the lining to the piece of fabric that would become the wallet's outside. The photos below show some of the steps in the process:

Personally, I'm a sucker for before-and-after photos. So here's my version of a buttonhole beauty makeover (see photos, below.)

"before" photo of buttonhole
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

buttonhole "after" shot
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

As you see, all I did was add a soupçon of decorative stitching around the buttonhole. (Oops, sorry! I forgot we were no longer in France.) And, unlike some of the makeovers we read about in beauty magazines, this is something you can try at home.

Below is a peek inside the wallet, empty and then full:

Sedbi Design Studio fabric wallet (empty)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Sedbi Design Studio fabric wallet (with cards & cash)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Finally, photos of the finished wallet, closed and open. I used a simple wooden button for that fancy buttonhole:

Sedbi Design Studio fabric wallet (closed)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Sedbi Design Studio fabric wallet (open)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Sedbi Design Studio fabric wallet (with cash)
photo by Nita Lou Bry

I'm really happy with how my wallet design turned out. Except I've already decided that next time I want to incorporate a key hook into the design. So stay tuned...

Happy sewing, everyone!

This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: Embellished Camisoles, Plain and Fancy

2011-06-12T16:32:00.000-05:00

For my two friends with early-June birthdays, I made embellished camisoles--one plain, one fancy.

The fancy one is for a young friend of mine who loves to cook. I used a cooking-themed fabric to create a ruffle across the front of the cami (see photos, below).

photo by Nita Lou Bryant

She especially likes to make desserts, so I cut out a cupcake from the design on the accent fabric to create an applique on the back of the cami (see photos below).

photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Decorative stitching around the neck, hem, and armholes on the cami's front (see photo, below) suggest swirls of piped icing to me. Hey! Does anybody else suddenly wish they had a cupcake?

photo by Nita Lou Bryant

My other early-June birthday friend is someone who generally prefers things that are plain, rather than fancy. So for her the only embellishment to the cami is the addition on the back of my Sedbi women's exercise apparel word mandala (Stronger Every Day, Believe It) and, near the hem, my logo. (See photos, below.)

photo by Nita Lou Bryant

As you can see in the photo below, the front of the cami is plain, plain, plain.

But I did add one more thing--on the inside--that I think she will get a kick out of. I discovered I could make a fabric transfer of my business card! So I ironed that right smack onto her birthday camisole below the garment manufacturer's label.

Photo by Nita Lou Bryant

My special birthday wish for my friend is that she wear my business card in good health. I can assure you that this is the first time I've ever said that to anyone.

Coming up next from Sedbi Design Studio: a mid-June birthday gift and one for my dear friend whose birthday falls on the 4th of July.

This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: Leaf Motifs, Fauns, and Staple Guns

2011-05-28T10:11:00.001-05:00

leaf motif fabricollage wall hanging close-up

photo by Nita Lou Bryant

I didn't plan it this way, but it turned out to be leaf motif week at Sedbi Design Studio.

First I worked on a special thank-you gift for a special someone: a leaf motif fabricollage/fabrimandala wall hanging. (Whew! That's a mouthful.) The photo above shows a close-up of the mandala's center. Alert readers may notice that it features the same mandala I created for my line of women's exercise apparel (see photo below). Which is, of course, the design from which I drew my business name, Sedbi: Stronger Every Day, Believe It. I made this wall hanging for the wonderful personal trainer at the rehab gym who saw me through my 12-month recovery from surgery for a torn ankle tendon. It's meant to be a fabric equivalent of the high five he always gave me at the end of every challenging workout. (Slap!)

Stronger Every Day logo
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Below you see the wall hanging temporarily installed on my studio wall:

leaf motif wall hanging fabricollage (left view)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

leaf motif wall hanging fabricollage (right view)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

And below are photos of the front and back of the wall hanging displayed against a black background. As you see, I attached the fabricollage to a canvas stretcher frame so it can be hung on a wall. (Have I mentioned how much I adore sewing projects that end with me whipping out a staple gun and making a lot of noise?)

leaf motif fabricollage wall hanging (front)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

leaf motif fabricollage wall hanging (back)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Here is another close-up of the two overlapping word mandalas. I used clear fabric transfers to apply them and put a small amount of batting underneath for a subtle 3-D effect.

Next, I turned my attention to creating a college-graduation gift for a close friend of my daughter's who is a dance major. I remembered a time when he came home for spring or summer break and brought over a videotape of his performance in a once-controversial role choreographed and first danced by Nijinksy. He described in great detail the set design, the stylized movements of the choreography, the significance of the costumes, and the challenges he faced in trying to both recreate and somehow make his own Nijinksy's infamous faun. His pure passion in telling us about this experience became my inspiration.

I used a fabric transfer photo from the 1912 performance as the central element for a fabricollage, attached it to a lush, leafy upholstery-sample fabric, and made a throw pillow with fabric ties. My goal was to sew a unique and memorable gift for this talented young dancer, and by all reports I succeeded. My daughter presented it to him at his graduation party last evening and texted me on the spot to say that he LOVED it (all caps hers).

Below are photos of the Nijinksy pillow.

leaf motif Nijinsky fabricollage pillow (front)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

leaf motif Nijinksy fabricollage pillow (back)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

leaf motif Nijinksy fabricollage (close-up)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Finally, in keeping with the faun theme, here's the card I made to accompany the gift:

Nijinsky faun graduation card
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Is there a special someone you'd like to thank with a unique handmade gift? Know anyone with a birthday or anniversary coming up? Celebrating a birth, graduation, wedding, or other event? I am more than happy to create custom designs. In fact, that's pretty much what it's all about over here at Sedbi Design Studio--I don't think I've ever made the exact same thing twice. Check out my portfolio slideshow, either on my website or in the sidebar of this blog. (The website version plays better, in my opinion.) And remember, anytime you have in mind a sewing project that involves a staple gun, I'm your gal!

My current works in progress: embellished camis, another small pillow, and maybe some lightweight summer bathrobes...more photos coming soon.

This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: Word Mandala Wall Art & Small Pillow Series

2011-05-15T09:03:00.002-05:00

Word Mandala Wall Art
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Wham! Wham! Wham!

Things got a little noisy over at Sedbi Design Studio the other day. And let me just say that I might have taken up sewing far sooner if I'd known it would lead to getting to use a staple gun.

All this noise was occasioned by the process of making manifest a vision I'd been carrying around in my head for some time now. I'm talking about writing word mandalas on fabric and turning them into wall art.

What you see in the photos above and below is my very first version of this vision, a piece called Rages with Trout. I made it for a dear friend who is a fly fisherman, employing a phrase coined about him by one of his fishing pals. For me, writing word mandalas on paper is a journaling technique, a meditation, and a form of art. I've framed them on paper before as gifts for friends and family, but I have in mind nine kinds of different directions I'd like to go with word mandalas on fabric. And now, with this whimsical piece, I have made a start.

Stapling it onto wooden canvas stretcher frames was the noisy part.

Word Mandala Art on Wall (view 1)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Word Mandala Art on Wall (view 2)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Next up, my small pillow series.

I've recently been smitten with the process of creating a series of small pillows. When I say small, I mean the kind of pillow that's just the right size to tuck behind your neck or your lower back. Below are photos of a be-tassled one I liked so well I decided to keep it on my own sofa. In fact, I'm leaning against it as I write.

Be-tassled Small Pillow (back view)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Be-tassled Small Pillow (front view)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Close-up of Be-tassled Small Pillow Applique
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Finally, below is a photo of my current small pillow work-in-progress.

Small Pillow Work-in-progress
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

I can't really say why, with this piece, I decided to cut the image apart. I can only tell you that the great thing about being in the studio is that it's a place where I feel free to do whatever I like. Sometimes this may involve scissors, sometimes (and alas for those who share space with me) the only thing that will do is

Wham! Wham! Wham!

--a noisy staple gun.

I'll post photos of the finished pillow next time I write.

Happy creating, everyone!

Secret Mother's Day

2011-05-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

photo by Nita Lou Bryant

In honor of all the secret mothers out there, I am re-running what first appeared at Cafe Nita Lou on April 27 2008 and then, in a slightly different version, as the "Raising Austin" parenting column in the Austin American-Statesman on May 10, 2008. Secret mothers, my thoughts are always with you on Mother's Day.

--Nita Lou Bryant

Secret Mother's Day

I've been thinking about them a lot as Mother's Day draws near, all those women who don't have children. Some of them are close friends of mine.

I'm not talking about women who chose not to have kids and are happy with their decision. And I make no distinction between biological and adoptive moms. Both get to open Mother's Day cards. I'm talking about women who aren't anyone's mother but whose hearts ache for a child.

They're all around you. Women who for reasons of infertility or circumstance ended up not getting to be someone's mom. When I was one of those women I used to think of myself as a secret mother. Most people don't know about Secret Mother's Day.

Secret mothers have children only they can see, who dance down sidewalks ahead of their mamas like little wisps of smoke. Their names are Almost, Maybe, Someday, If Only and Hope.

The gynecologist who saw me through my first three miscarriages used to talk about silvery linings. He always said silvery instead of silver, as though that made the horizon brighter somehow.

"The silvery lining to this black cloud," my doctor would say, "is that you can conceive."

It didn't seem like much to hold onto, a little silvery wisp of smoke.

Secret mothers are faced with impossible choices. Stay with the man you love who doesn't want kids or leave him and hope to find some other man who does. Have a child all on your own or no child at all. Undergo more tests and more procedures and keep trying or call a halt to medical intervention and give up. Explain over and over why you don't have kids or pretend you never really wanted them — not much, anyway.

Secret mothers throw themselves into the roles of aunt or godmother or family friend or teacher in order to have children in their lives some way, somehow. The longing to be somebody's mother never goes away, but they learn to conceal it. When asked, "Do you have children?" they simply smile and answer, No. They grow discreet, the secret mothers. They keep the big, long story of Why Not all to themselves. They don't talk about it anymore, even to their closest friends.

Round a corner quickly this Mother's Day, and you just might see them. You may glimpse a woman going down the sidewalk closely followed by what looks like a little wisp of smoke. If it's carrying what appears to be a folded piece of paper in its tiny silvery hand, you'll know that you're not seeing Almost, Maybe, Someday or If Only.

You're seeing Hope, who always makes her mama a Secret Mother's Day card.

This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: Fabri-collage Mother's Day Clutch Purse

2011-05-03T06:05:00.001-05:00

Fabri-collage work in progress
photo by nita lou bryant

I've not spent much time in the studio for the past few weeks, but I did manage to sneak in long enough the other day to play around with a technique I like to call Fabri-collage.

In Fabri-collage, layers of fabric frame an iron-on transfer image, which is surrounded by multiple lines of decorative stitching to create an appliqué. The photo, above, shows a current work in progress. I really like the texture created by this method, all the little bumps and ridges that result from stitching over raw edges. I'm not sure yet what this is going to end up being attached to, but I've got some beautiful paisley print fabric on hand that echoes the colors in the bird image.

I used the same technique to create an inside pocket in a clutch purse I made as a Mother's Day gift for my dear mother-in-law. (Shh! I just mailed it yesterday so she hasn't yet received it.)

Fabri-collage inside pocket of Mother's Day clutch purse
photo by nita lou bryant

My husband says he remembers his mother wearing gloves just like the ones pictured above, but he doubts that he and his sister ever sported such natty matching berets!

Here are some other views of the purse:

front of Mother's Day clutch purse
photo by nita lou bryant

Mother's Day clutch purse open
photo by nita lou bryant

back of Mother's Day clutch purse
photo by nita lou bryant

close-up of tassel on Mother's Day clutch purse
photo by nita lou bryant

The whole time I was making this purse I was thinking about what a sweet person my husband's mother is, and the great job she did of raising her son and daughter. I hope that when she unwraps her Mother's Day gift she'll feel the love that went into each stitch.

Happy Mother's Day, MLB

This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: Stepping Out of the Studio and Into the Garden

2011-04-10T23:21:00.002-05:00

New Grass
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

for Jane J.

At first there are gaps between the pieces, and it's hard to imagine that they could ever fit seamlessly together. I am not talking about fabric right now, I am talking about new grass.

As I write this, my husband's in the other room working on our income taxes. Occasionally I have to get up and go find some crucial item in the files for him, words on paper reminding me of this or that event from the past year. A year that was difficult by anyone's standards. A year that required a great deal of starting over.

But that's all in the past. Now we have new grass.

Instead of (mostly) writing I am (mostly) sewing. Instead of limping, I am back to my usual stride. I take voice lessons now. I am trying to re-learn how to play the piano. I write songs, concocting slapdash experiments with key changes and phrasing and tempo. This week, my goal is to resume swimming on a regular basis. Day by day, I am fitting the pieces of my life--old and new--together. Thanks to my dear friend the landscape designer who last week brought her crew over, I now have a garden again. A garden is essential.

Especially a garden with new grass.

In one of the mountain laurels a robin sits on a nest, beak open, panting. It's already summer weather in Austin, so I fill a saucer of water for her, poor thing. All day she watches the slow progress of green things filling in blank space below. I took her photo first thing this morning when it was still cool, while she could feel the fresh breeze of possibility rustling the leaves around her and hear them whispering maybe today, maybe today, maybe today.

photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Beneath the robin's nest many of my beloved herb plants found themselves suddenly uprooted and relocated, while brand new plants took up places in the reconfigured beds, either boldly blooming...

photo by Nita Lou Bryant

...or standing quiet and watchful, holding tight to fistfuls of buds.

photo by Nita Lou Bryant

During my happiest years in this house, every morning began the same way: I arose from bed and moved to each window in turn, flinging open the curtains. I couldn't wait for my first glimpse of the garden. But it was never sufficient merely to look. I felt compelled to open the door and step right out onto the grass and into the new morning, barefoot, wearing my nightgown, before my first cup of coffee had even begun to brew.

I couldn't wait to feel the dew on the soles of my feet and watch the sun tugged up by invisible threads, unseen needle in some skillful hand quickly stitching the day together.

This is my life and I am reclaiming it one morning at a time. If I step lightly the pieces of new grass will soon grow seamlessly together, I know.

This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: Fanciful Fabricards and Dapper Young Men on a Throw Pillow

2011-04-01T06:47:00.000-05:00

Birthday Throw Pillow and Fabricard for my cousin photo by Nita Lou Bryant

My sister's been visiting from Kansas this week, so I've not spent much time in the studio--just the usual early a.m. shift, from about 7-8:45. I finished the throw pillow I made as a birthday present for my cousin. As you'll see below, it features a fabric transfer of a very old (alas, also water stained) photo of a group of dapper young men--one of whom is our grandfather. He's the one on the far left.

Front side of throw pillow with dapper young men photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Close-up of dapper young men photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Throw pillow (back) photo by Nita Lou Bryant

I also made my cousin something I'm calling a coaster card.

When I explained to her at the restaurant where we were having her birthday lunch that her Fabricard was not only decorative but useful, she put it to use that very moment beneath her glass of sparkling water. I hadn't brought along my camera and didn't think to take a picture of her coaster card with my cell phone, but I did take this photo of my cousin's socks and shoes:

My cousin's socks and shoes photo by Nita Lou Bryant

I made two other Fabricards this week, one for my nephew and one for my dear friend, Keith.

Fabricard for my nephew (front) photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Fabricard for my nephew (back) photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Fabricard for my nephew (inside greeting) photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Fabricard for my friend Keith (front) photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Fabricard for my friend Keith (inside greeting)

Fabricard for my friend Keith (back) photo by Nita Lou Bryant

I forgot to do the decorative stitching on Keith's card before sewing the front and back together, but I kind of liked how the back of the card turned out (see photo, above). It looks so...electronic. I kept expecting to suddenly hear a low thrumming as though from a power source being turned on and then see words light up inside those little boxes--some cryptic message transmitted from outer space, perhaps.

Or not.

It is pretty doggone early in the morning when I'm over at the studio making these things, which can tend to make a person a bit fanciful.

Close-up of back of Fabricard photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Doors Opening and Closing in Real Life

2011-03-26T11:05:00.003-05:00

for the faithful fifteen

The doors opened in December 2007, but somewhere along the line I deleted my first few offerings, so Volume I starts off with the piece I wrote on March 2, 2008.

I am talking about the print version of my Cafe Nita Lou blog, shown in the photos below.

Cafe Nita Lou Blog Books (front covers) photo by Nita Lou Bryant

And, yes, I do realize that the image is partially in shadow. You may think it the shadow cast by an amateur photographer; I see it as a visible manifestation of an author's sorrow.

I had such high (and improbable) hopes when I first began blogging, hopes centered on words like Book Contract and Publication. Maybe even Movie Deal and International Rights. I was certain that if I simply put my writing out there recognition, fame, and fortune would soon follow.

Cafe Nita Lou blog post 2008

It didn't.

And neither did very many blog readers, though I remain deeply grateful for the few and faithful I have. Still, I continued to blog along and a few good things grew out of it. Some of the posts I wrote found a home (in revised version) in my local newspaper. I was asked to give a talk at an Austin high school. I won a memoir contest, complete with prize money! For a while, there, it seemed that my writing career was really, truly taking off--albeit not as dramatically as I'd hoped when I first began blogging.

Then it stalled.

Nothing I submitted was accepted for publication. My contest entries didn't make the list of finalists, much less the rank of winner. An editor's evaluation of my award-winning first novel manuscript was--well, dampening.

And then Real Life turned complicated and difficult.

Physical injury, surgery, recovery; temporary relocation during major home repairs; an abortive attempt to sell our house and the reluctant move back into it. Then came a second injury, necessitating more recovery time--my few and faithful Cafe Nita Lou followers know the story.

Cafe Nita Lou blog post 2009

I tried to put the best face on it...but the new year brought with it an unprecedented level of stress and anxiety centering around unanticipated family problems, problems so personal and painful they drove me to my knees. The situation continued to escalate throughout the fall. Writing fell by the wayside, thrust aside by the onrush of Real Life.

Though I scarcely even knew how to, my primary coping strategy--surprisingly--became to sew.

But in order to make room for a sewing machine, stacks of fabric, boxes of thread and notions, and a table on which to pin and cut, something else had to go. I decided to take some time off from the quest for publication and fame and fortune as a writer. I packed up my file folders and draft manuscripts and sealed them up in boxes; I stacked my books and literary journals on shelves in the closet or on the floor.

Cafe Nita Lou blog post 2010

In this way I transformed a writer's workspace into an artist's studio.

I wish I could report that all the complications and difficulties, the stress and worry of Real Life somehow magically disappeared with closing of CNL and the opening of Studio Nita Lou.

They didn't.

In fact, things have only gotten worse. Truly, dear and faithful blog readers, these Real Life events have broken my real-live heart.

And yet...

And yet it is some comfort to have chosen to close one door and open another. At least in this I have had a choice. Thus, my choice for now is to sew, and to write about sewing, because to do so is soothing and it brings me some measure of joy. My choice is to construct from fabric and thread and imagination things that bring comfort and delight to others in the way that I'd hoped to do with my words.

In the photo below you see the back covers of Volumes I-III of Cafe Nita Lou, complete with bar codes.

Almost like real-live books.

Cafe Nita Lou blog books (back covers) photo by Nita Lou Bryant

This week at Sedbi Design Studio: Paris 1900 and Somewhere in America in the 1940's

2011-03-23T22:47:00.000-05:00

Rustic Poet's Notebook (front)

photograph by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Well, someone in my family attended the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. I don't know which of my ancestors it was, but they sure bought back a lot of postcards. I used a few of them the other day as fabric transfers on the Rustic Poet's Notebook I made for a retired librarian friend in Ohio who celebrated a birthday this week. The photo above shows the front of the notebook; below is a picture of the back...

Rustic Poet's Notebook (back)

photograph by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

and next is a photo of the inside--note the handy dandy notecard 'n writing implement pocket I constructed using a postcard photocopy, two clear plastic greeting card sleeves, and a world o' scotch tape.

Inside of Rustic Poet's Notebook showing pocket

photograph by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

I also enclosed a handwritten card with helpful and detailed operating instructions for using the Rustic Poet's Notebook, to wit:

Throw it in your knapsack & go write!

A friend who runs a literacy program here in Austin was having a birthday this week, too. I made a throw pillow for her, using fabric transfers from a circa 1940's children's art book, and some material I purchased a few weeks back when my friend accompanied me to the fabric store. Below are photos of her gift:

Side 1 of Literacy Throw Pillow

photograph by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Side 1 of Literacy Throw Pillow (close-up)

photograph by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Side 2 of Literacy Throw Pillow

photograph by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Side 2 of Literacy Throw Pillow (close-up)

photograph by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

My cousin's birthday is this Friday and I'm making a pillow for her, too, but I haven't quite finished it yet. I'm afraid I got a wee bit distracted by my latest design and sewing adventure: baby stuff!

Watch this space for hedgehogs...

Real World and Virtual Nesting

2011-03-18T07:22:00.002-05:00

The cabinets in my kitchen are small and insufficient in number, which often results in this bit of dialogue when the dishwasher is being unloaded:

PERSON UNLOADING DISHWASHER: "Where does this go?"

ME: (opening cabinet door to point inside) "It nests inside that."

It's tricky because like items don't necessarily nest inside each other. Inside the cabinet to the left of the dishwasher, for example, two salsa serving bowls nest inside a vintage souffle dish which nests inside an oval casserole pot alongside a metal strainer nesting inside a small metal mixing bowl which nests inside a blue enamel serving bowl--and so forth. It's a system that seems to have no particular rhyme or reason. And yet...things do somehow fit together.

This morning while rearranging my electronic kitchen I decided to nest one blog inside another.

Henceforward my brand-new Sedbi Design Studio blog will nest inside Studio Nita Lou. I realize this choice may or may not make sense to anyone else in the blog world, but it feels right to me. For reasons highly personal and complex I have mostly written about sewing over the past several months, an activity that takes place at the real-world Sedbi Design Studio. And yet, despite recent evidence to the contrary, I believe Studio Nita Lou is about far more than sewing. Unlike my real-world kitchen the cabinets here are sufficiently numerous and roomy to hold myriad forms of art.

So please bear with me while I finish nesting...

3-D Travel Pillow

2011-03-12T11:48:00.000-06:00

close-up of packed suitcases on 3-D travel pillow
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

As promised, here are photos of the pillow I made as a birthday gift for a friend. I started out with a red placemat for the back and some travel-print fabric for the front, on which I placed a fabric transfer of a vintage postcard. Once I sewed it all together I was basically pleased with the result, and yet--the pillow seemed to cry out for something more. I considered adding a vintage button or several, but that wasn't quite the effect I wanted. So I went home and thought things over.

The next morning I decided it would be cool if those little suitcases actually appeared to be packed--stuffed full the way my own bags are whenever I set off on a travel adventure. So I rigged up a small scale 3-D special effect using a second piece of the travel fabric, some batting and some bias tape, then sewed it onto the pillow by hand.

Without exception, this pillow has elicited the exact same response from everyone who's seen it. First comes a smile, then a hand reaches out to administer a firm finger-poke to the bulging suitcases. The poke is repeated, leading to a burst of laughter from pillow poker and bystanders.

Best of all, this 3-D experience doesn't require anyone to put on a pair of those goofy glasses.

back of 3-D travel pillow
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

front of 3-D travel pillow
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

side view of 3-D travel pillow
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

vintage travel postcard & suitcases on 3-D travel pillow
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

This week at Sedbi Design Studio: Our Not So Grand Opening

2011-03-05T22:04:00.002-06:00

Truthfully, Sedbi Design Studio opened without much fanfare. A DBA was filed, the domain name registered, a website basted together, and--well, that was pretty much it. I guess you could say we are taking things slowly.

This week in the studio, I made two Amateur Seamstress Fabricards, one for my father-in-law and one for a friend, plus I made a composition book cover for myself--to use in a writing practice group that will meet weekly starting this coming Monday. Oh, and I started a pillow for another friend’s birthday. I’ll post photos of that next week.

I designed one of the Fabricards as a wee photo album, and put pictures of my husband, myself, my daughter, and our dog in it for my father-in-law. The other card was a reprise of the Galveston Beach themed towel set I made last week for my brother-in-law. Below are some photos. If you like what you see, I’d be happy to custom design a Fabricard (or any of the other products pictured below or in the Product Preview slide show) for you to give to your friends or in-laws. Or maybe you’d like to order something for yourself?

Just drop me a note (nitaloubryant@sedbi.com) and we’ll get started.

Thus with a scant few paragraphs and some photos is the Sedbi Design Studio blog launched.

Yep, not much fanfare here. But we’re off and sewing.

See you next week,

Nita Lou

Here is the Galveston Beach Fabricard I made for a friend.

front view of Galveston Beach Amateur Seamstress Fabricard by Nita Lou Bryant

inside view of Galveston Beach Amateur Seamstress Fabricard by Nita Lou Bryant

back view of Galveston Beach Amateur Seamstress Fabricard by Nita Lou Bryant

And here is the Fabricard/Photo Album I made for my father-in-law:

Front view of Still Motoring Along Amateur Seamstress Fabricard/Photo Album

Inside view 1 of the Still Motoring Along Amateur Seamstress Fabricard/Photo Album

Inside view 2 of the Still Motoring Along Amateur Seamstress Fabricard/Photo Album

Back view of the Still Motoring Along Amateur Seamstress Fabricard/Photo Album

Last but not least, here is the composition book cover I made for myself. I especially like having a pen holder pocket.

front view of Amateur Seamstress Composition Book Cover

back view of Amateur Seamstress Composition Book Cover

This just in: Nita Lou Bryant Designs Women's Exercise Clothes

2011-01-29T10:53:00.000-06:00

Based on an experience I had shopping for new athletic shoes this week, I started designing a line of women's exercise clothes. My designs feature handwritten word mandalas. The first one, pictured below, is on the back of the top I wore to the gym yesterday. As with most things I create, there is a story behind it--but it's a story I don't know the ending to yet. So for now I leave you with a photograph and these words:

stronger every day

believe it.

Watch this space...


stronger every day (believe it) photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Nita Lou's Laptop Sleeve & Assorted Cases

2011-01-24T16:33:00.002-06:00

Nita Lou's Laptop Sleeve
photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Oh, my gosh--I actually made something for myself! I made a fabric laptop sleeve for my new MacBook Air, and assorted little cases for miscellaneous laptop related stuff. I just love those vintage Boulder Dam postcards I mentioned before so I used them again for this project, making fabric transfers to iron on the images. As usual with my Amateur Seamstress Soft Goods projects, you can find flaws o' plenty in the sewing. But these were a lot of fun to make and--I like to think--both functional and stylish, in a quirky kind of way.

I made a slide show of all the components and put this cool watery music with it from an album by Harold Budd and Brian Eno called The Pearl.

I'd write more about this project but I started sewing some altered towels earlier today that I can't wait to get back to! So if you have any questions about the laptop sleeve collection, just ask 'em. Meanwhile, here is a sneak preview of one of the towels:

sneak preview of altered towel

photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Whatever form your own artistic endeavors may take, here's wishing you happy times creating!

CAUTION: Amateur Seamstress & Artist at Work

2011-01-20T13:23:00.001-06:00

In answer to the oft-asked question, "Hey, Nita Lou, whatcha workin' on over at the studio this week?" I am pleased to provide the following response.

Amateur Seamstress Fabric Coat Hanger Covers!

Rats. I know I took some photos of these but I can't seem to find them right now... Hold that thought.

Amateur Artist watercolor and stamped notebook cover!

About which I produced a stunning little slideshow called Bad Stamp Pad Notebook Cover documenting the process--below are a few stills from it. Despite my initial disappointment with the pitiful watercolor set and sorry old dried-out stamp pads I had on hand, I am rather pleased with the end result. I think it would make an attractive pattern stamped onto fabric--IF I had any idea how to do that.

Pitiful Watercolor Set and Blank Notebook Cover
photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Close-up of Applying Purple Watercolor Paint to Wooden Stamp
photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Watercolor and Stamped Notebook Cover Close-up
photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Amateur Seamstress Fabricards©!

More fun with vintage postcards and fabric transfers...I just love working with these things.

Birthday Card for my sister-in-law in Taft, Texas
photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Birthday Card for my sweet little mother-in-law in Chattanooga
photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Birthday Card for one of my husband's aunts, also in Chattanooga
photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Sorry it's probably going to arrive late, Aunt Sharon!

Anniversary Card for my brother and his wife in Taft, Texas
photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

Close-up of little car from vintage postcard and Amateur Seamstress zig-zag stitching
photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

I've never made and mailed fabric cards before, so I consulted with the postal clerk about what type of envelope to use (padded mailer) and how much it would cost ($1.20-$1.39, depending on whether card was flat or folded). Unfortunately, we were so busy yakking about the cards that I fear some may have gotten put into the wrong envelopes! (Aunt Sharon, if you get ML's card could y'all please just swap?)

Here's one more but I'm only going to show it to you from the back because it's for my sister whose birthday is today.

Back view of birthday card for my sister, who lives in Manhattan, KS
photo by Nita Lou Bryant 2011

NOTE: Your card's going to arrive late too, Sis. When that envelope does show up could you please confirm that you got this card, instead of the one meant for Aunt Sharon?

Thanks!

Sigh.

I need to get better at doing all this handmade stuff far enough in advance...

Amateur Seamstress Adventures: 3-D Sewing

2011-01-11T07:51:00.004-06:00

Well. Someone got a little compulsive in the studio yesterday. Okay, make that more compulsive than usual.

I set out to make a simple, little fabric envelope--something one might use to present a gift card, say, or perhaps some crisp folding money. I sewed several of these as Christmas gifts, in various fabrics. (See sample in photos, below).


fabric envelope (open) photo by Nita Lou Bryant

fabric envelope (closed) photo by Nita Lou Bryant

What was different this time was that I wanted to incorporate a photo transfer made from an old postcard.

I have a box full of postcards: some I inherited from my mom, the rest I scavenged at great personal risk at Brock's Books in San Antonio, Texas, when I was in college. *(See bonus bookstore anecdote, below.) The postcard in question is, in my opinion, extremely cool and spooky. Because this was only the second fabric transfer I've ever done in my life, though, it turned out a bit, um, lumpy.

No problem, I thought, I'll just flatten it out by sewing around it. However, this only served to create more ripples in the fabric. Which led to more sewing in an attempt to camouflage those. But you know what? The more I sewed around and around the fabric transfer, the more I began to like the general effect of it. I started getting excited.

Straps! Why, I could attach shoulder straps to this little bag, I thought. Grabbing some green bias tape from my basket of notions I sewed that for a while to make straps, adding a row of bias tape around the top of the bag as an accent. I ended up changing my mind about the straps and ripping them off but kept the trim. Obviously what this bag needed instead of straps, I realized, was a magnetic closure.

Had I ever before attached a magnetic snap to a bag? No, and frankly the illustration on the package provided this amateur seamstress no clue whatsoever about how they were supposed to be affixed to the fabric. I bent and re-bent the prongs on the metal snap pieces so many times I completely wore out two of them. And there were tears in the fabric where the prongs had been poked in. No matter: I boldly pinned more bias tape in place to cover up the holes, accidentally piercing my little finger in the process.Yeow! (This is is an approximation of the word loudly uttered at this point in the studio.) By now I was obsessed with wrestling those blankety-blank metal snaps to the ground, so I blotted the blood from my wound and soldiered on. The next thing I knew--and who didn't see this coming?--whump! I broke the sewing machine needle. Which pretty much forced me to pause in my creative frenzy long enough to take a good, long look at my sewing project.

What had begun as a simple little fabric envelope now resembled a three-dimensional mixed media textile art installation.

Looking at my watch, I realized that my studio time allotment had ended thirty minutes ago. With reluctance (along with a throbbing little finger), I switched off my sewing machine. Before leaving, I took a few photos of my work in progress (see below).

Studying these photos, I'll have to confess that I'm really not sure, any longer, exactly what I am making. All I know is I can't wait to get back to doing some more 3-D sewing!

Note to self: remember to take box of band-aids to studio.

Bias Tape & Lethal Pins photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Vexing Snaps photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Spooky Cool Postcard Fabric Transfer & Rows of Sewing photo by Nita Lou Bryant

*Bonus bookstore anecdote

Brock's was legendary. Texas Monthly dubbed the owner, Norman Brock, "the most disorganized and frustrating bookseller in Texas" in a 1975 article but the crowd I ran with at Trinity University loved to go there. I was personally responsible for closing off an entire aisle in the store one day when I extracted from a tall stack the one volume that was apparently key to that passageway remaining open. I had to skedaddle to avoid being walled up at Brock's forever. Which, come to think of it, might not have been such a bad fate.

Sweet Dreams Pillowslips by Nita Lou Bryant

2011-01-07T10:36:00.000-06:00

As stated in an earlier post about my imaginary business (Amateur Seamstress Soft Goods, "Made with More Love Than Skill"), I began by making scarves. I envisioned a line of silky, seductive scarfery similar to the kind currently sported by swan-neck models in high fashion layouts. Alas, my own creations mostly ended up possessing a somewhat ecclesiastical aspect--more suitable, perhaps, for lay ministers or choir directors. But when I turned my attention to pillowslips, I hit my sewing stride.

The first pair I sewed were in a wheat-patterned fabric, for my sister who lives in Kansas.

From wheat I moved to a series of pillowslips constructed of small floral prints. I am excessively fond of small floral prints, though thanks to a former Washington, D.C. work friend, I no longer wear them.*[See bonus wardrobe story, below.] I began making matching pairs, then branched out to choosing fabric in the same pattern, but different (and, I like to think) complementary colors. Sewing pillowslips is extremely satisfying, especially for a novice seamstress. They are simple to cut out and require only a few seams, sewn as straight as your skill level allows. I made several sets for Christmas gifts for family and friends.

With my first pair of pillowslips in 2011, I embarked on contrasting trim--mainly because the fabric I ordered online arrived somewhat variable in measure. The 1-1/4 yards required for one pillowslip ended up being cut a bit short, so I had to improvise. And isn't that often the way, both in life and in sewing? You have a plan for what you want to do, but have to adapt it to ever-changing circumstances. We'll talk more about this when we come to Adventures with Quilted Placemats, in another post.

Anyway, below are a few photos of what I call Sweet Dreams Pillowslips, designed to mix and match with linens you already have. Because Amateur Seamstress Soft Goods doesn't carry entire sets of sheets. Yet...

NOTE: Studio Nita Lou has been experiencing some, um, technical difficulties this morning so I honestly don't know whether what I'm posting, below, is a slideshow or a series of stills. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy it/them.

*Bonus Wardrobe Story

It was 1983, and I'd recently moved to Washington, D.C. from Lubbock, Texas of all places. While searching for a teaching job, I hired on as a temporary secretary at what was then a Big Eight accounting firm, known in those days as Ernst & Whinney. After a time I made friends with a very well-dressed and self-possessed co-worker we shall call Penny Haley. Penny had big green eyes, blonde hair, and a personality that can only be described as electric. She kindly undertook to teach me the secrets of successfully navigating life at the big firm and in the big city. Starting with my clothes.

"Your entire wardrobe consists of small floral prints," she said, narrowing those beautiful eyes at me from behind the series of smoke rings she'd ever so elegantly exhaled. Thus I understood that solids were preferable. So on the very next payday, off in search of solids we went.

Penny had several rules about wardrobe. Buy the best quality you can get, even if it means that you own fewer garments. Never think in terms of mix and match: each outfit should stand alone. If your clothes were really nice, no one minded seeing a repeat. Whatever you do, stick to a limited palette. I got tripped up by the latter rule when I impulsively attempted to accessorize--adding a red belt to the black and white outfit she'd selected for me to try. My emergence from the dressing room was met by a very long silence before Penny finally spoke.

"I prefer not to introduce a third color," was all she said.

The thing is, to this day I still hear that flat little voice in my head when I am clothes shopping. So, an entire closet filled with small floral print garments? No. My wardrobe consists of solid black, brown, navy, white, or gray with an occasional splash of muted (solid) color.

But floral print pillowslips? Just try to stop me...

Amateur Seamstress Soft Goods: Genesis of an Imaginary Business

2011-01-02T17:08:00.003-06:00

for my mother, who once had her own dressmaking shop

Last October I developed a sudden, inexplicable interest in sewing. I rushed out and bought an inexpensive Singer, then began making scarves from odds and ends of fabric found in a remnant bin at the fabric store. As I completed my first creations I posted photos on Facebook for the amusement of family and friends, putting my former jewelry mannequin, Dharma Blog, back to work as my model.

The very first scarf I made was presented to a friend on the occasion of her husband's CD release party. The construction of three more scarves quickly followed. The green one I decided to set aside as a Christmas gift for my brother's wife but the orange one with knitted trim still hasn't found a home. I also made a purple silk scarf with peacock-print trim for a friend whose birthday is in late October but I somehow failed to take a photo of it.

In the photos above and below, Dharma Blog models the lilac scarf, green scarf, and orange scarf with knitted trim.
All scarves and photos by Nita Lou Bryant, 2010.

Next, I turned my attention to making pillows. Amidst a cache of buttons that had belonged to my mother was a metal fleur d'lis that I just knew had to go on something for my friend from New Orleans. You may notice that one of the fabrics used for the pillows is the same as the trim on the green scarf.

Left to right in the photos, below, the fleur d'lis pillow, front and back views.

Being a former business owner, I'd already begun to think in terms product lines. As I sewed, I found myself dreaming up names and slogans for the various items created by this amateur seamstress. For example, Hint of Glamour Scarf: Let your neck go Hollywood. And Soft Life Throw Pillows: Sit Back and Relax or Prop Yourself Up. I took a break from sewing long enough to print out cards to attach to each finished product. While I was at it, I went online to place an order for fabric name tapes, just like the ones used by professional clothing designers. I even developed my own signature packaging consisting of a strip of contrasting fabric pinked on both edges with my label sewn onto the center of it. (See photo, below.)

As proprietor of my brand-new imaginary business I had a blast over the next couple of months, sewing Christmas gifts for family and friends. I made pillowcases and pajama bottoms; hankies and place mats and napkins; purses, fleece jackets and wraps; composition book covers and shopping bags; sleep shorts and aprons and bird ornaments. I even created (for an old friend from college) a unique holiday-print aromatherapy car air freshener in the shape of a gingerbread man.

I had sew much fun (ha,ha) that I can't wait to get started making gifts for next Christmas! In the meantime--oh, boy-- there are birthdays and anniversaries and myriad other gift-giving occasions ahead in the new year. Watch for my products, soon to be arriving in mailboxes all across the U.S.

Oh, and the name and slogan I came up with for my imaginary business?

Amateur Seamstress Soft Goods: Sewn with a Lot More Love Than Skill.

QUESTION FOR READERS:

Do you like to make gifts? If so, I'd love to see and hear about what you've made. Send me some photos and descriptions!

The Gift of an Artist's Studio

2010-12-30T08:55:00.000-06:00

photo by Nita Lou Bryant

I've been working on transforming my writing office into a place where various other forms of creativity can converge. It's taken me days to rearrange the furniture and I'm still stepping over stacks of supplies waiting to be put up on shelves: fabric and patterns and sewing notions; paper for making photo albums and greeting cards; soap making and aromatherapy bath-salt stuff; a few jars of beads and a box containing my jewelry-making tools.

Up until now this office space has been set aside for submitting my writing to contests and journals and agents and establishing a platform in pursuit of the goal of getting my work published. I'm changing it into something resembling a little gift shop.

It doesn't sound like this has anything to do with writing, but it does.

Some might think of it as feeding the artist, others as caring for the soul. I call it owning up to who I really am: someone who's happiest making gifts for family and friends. And planning menus and cooking, but I find that's best done in the kitchen. And writing--all of these things and in no particular order.

I am talking about doing something for love.

So I'll be spending time in a completely different place in 2011, though it's still at the same address. Here's wishing everyone a very Happy New Year, and I hope you'll all stop by and see me at Studio Nita Lou.

I'll be the one with the big smile on my face.