classes Archives | Kate's Point of View

Category: classes Page 1 of 4

My Sister Made a Baby and I Made a Blanket

On March 4, 2014

When my sister let me know she was pregnant, I was determined to make her a baby blanket. In fact. I bought all of the supplies to make hers at the same time I was making one for Mart Girl. It was a wise move because I might have changed my mind once I realized what actually went into making the baby blankets I had in mind.After toiling away for more hours than I work in a week and stumbling at several points in it’s creation, I finished it! I am more proud of this than anything I have sewn so far. And while I love the one I created for Mart Girl, I learned a few lessons in the first attempt that made the second one even better.

The state of Ohio is created from strips of fabric I cut from Wonder Boy’s shirts. (Don’t worry – they were all ones from the donation pile.) I augmented that with fabric from one of my own shirts and then some brighter fabrics I purchased. I sewed the strips into many squares which I sewed into one larger square. I sketched the state of Ohio on paper and traced that onto the fabric, used Stitch Witch on the seams and sewed the state into the large piece of yellow fabric. There is a state of Ohio on both sides with batting in between. Many spools of thread later, and a few errors that took some research to solve, I sewed the two pieces together, added the satin trim and voila!

Little H likes the blanket, but E is also a fan.

In fact, it turns out to be a great picnic blanket!

If you’re interested in making something similar, contact me if you want any tips. I don’t really know much about sewing, but what I do know I learned in an online class from Freckled Nest. The classes teach you the basics and give you enough knowledge to convince you that you can create projects that are a little above your skill level, like a quilted baby blanket.

Letterpress Print: Idea of Growing Old by The Features

By Kate

On April 9, 2013

In classes

I have been busy working on a project in my letterpress class that I’ve had to keep under wraps. The end result was a birthday gift for Wonder Boy. Well that birthday has come and gone and now I can share what I’ve been creating!Using a combination of a hand-carved linocut, a plate I ordered online and type I laid out, I created this print:

What I might have, in the past, assumed to be simple, took a ton of work! This was three passes on the press and took more hours than I ever would have anticipated. But I love the results and so did Wonder Boy. Success!

The text is a portion of the lyrics of The Idea of Growing Old by The Features, me and Wonder Boy’s favorite song by our favorite group.

Adult

By Kate

On March 4, 2013

In classes, reviews, television

This weekend was what I always thought it would be like to be grown up. Truly. When I was younger thinking about what being an adult would encompass, what me as an adult would do, I thought every day would be like this weekend. Fabulous and full. Creative and energizing. Dizzying and fun. I envisioned myself attending swanky events and hobnobbing with famous people. I knew I would be creative and reading and taking classes forever. As a kid, I could have never imagined the minutia that makes up a lot of life. I wouldn’t have predicted home maintenance, and visits to the gym and the amount of time I spend going laundry. In my mind, every day would be like a holiday. This weekend was pretty close to that.On Friday we celebrated my brother-in-law’s birthday. It was all of my siblings and their significant others, as well as my niece. A good time to hang out with everyone.

Saturday morning I went on all sorts of errands. Normally I hate running around town to check things off my list. Right now I’m in the middle of several art projects and an art class and most of the stops were to get supplies. That made things more fun! I’m especially excited about a letterpress class I’m taking.

Then I went to the library and met an author I really like. I can’t go into more detail than that for now because I had him sign a book for me and I want to use it as a gift. But I will tell you this. Not only did I get to talk to him, he also retweeted me and now follows me on Twitter.

Then I finished a book called Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead and thank goodness because I hated the characters in that book so much and am happy to be done with them.

Then I got gussied up and went to the International Freedom Conductor Award Gala, which was sponsored by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Wonder Boy wore a tux and I got to wear a dress I got for a steal – originally $250 and I spent $25.

There were two winners of the International Freedom Center Conductor Award: Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and Nicholas Kristof. Kristof co-authored Half the Sky, which I totally adore. The other author of the book was his wife, Sheryl Wu Dunn. At one point last night I went to the bathroom and on my way out passed Wu Dunn. It didn’t register quickly enough with me who she was but I knew she looked familiar and smiled at her. She smiled back and a few steps later I realized I had missed my opportunity to say thanks for helping with such an awesome book. But, she totally smiled at me so I will take it. (Wonder Boy used a urinal next to Kristof but didn’t say hello because of boy bathroom code. Bathrooms = miss opportunities for us.)

The gala went by very quickly and I was a little disappointed not to hear more from Kristof, what he did say was powerful.

When asked why he is able to keep doing what he does, seeing so many atrocities, Kristof said, “Side by side with the worst of humanity you invariably find the best.” I love that.

Later he shared the story of a Sudanese woman who was brutally raped by eight men and then beaten. When talking with her, he kept pushing her to make sure she understood and was okay with him sharing her story in the New York Times, concerned of her facing ramifications for that. Her response, “Telling my story is the only tool I have to fight back.” That just gives me chills. It reminds me why journalism is important and why I wanted to go into writing when I was 18.

Today I slept in and then made homemade pancakes. I finished an art project and then Wonder Boy and I went to two open houses. I posted two new items on Etsy. Afterwards I visited a friend and we drank wine, talked and looked at photography.

Tonight Wonder Boy and I watch Searching for Sugarman, about Sixto Rodriguez. The movie was really great, which is fitting since it was highlighting such an amazing musician.

It’s been an exhausting weekend but filled with so many good things I don’t really feel tired. Just content. If all weekends were like this, like childhood me imagined, that would be all right.

Warthogs

By Kate

On November 8, 2012

In classes, photography

One of my biggest downfalls creatively is that I struggle with reconciling what I see in my head with what I actually create. I have definitely spent a lot of time making something only to throw it in the trash afterwards because it was so far off from what I intended.In my screenprinting class at DIY Printing, my first project was DSLR camera print. I was pretty proud of it because I made something using a technique I’ve so long admired. I tried so hard to be cool with the end product. So what if I didn’t plan for the fact the image would flip and my camera turned out left-handed? So what if my lines weren’t too straight? I made it! But after the buzz of seeing my finished piece wore off, I was a little like, “Eh.”

The next project we did let us be more exact by working with transparencies to create our screenprints. Ohmigod so much easier. I played around with a picture of a warthog and was pretty excited to see how would turn out. I love it!!!

I went from this image

to this print.

Here’s a print without the green background.

Totally patting myself on the back here, but this is great. In fact, this is better than what I saw in my head. I can’t wait to get started on the next project!

My Next Project: Warthog

By Kate

On October 31, 2012

In classes

In my screenprinting class at DIY Printing, my teacher is letting us do things the easy way (to me). We’ll be making transparencies and then sort of burning the images onto our screens. Below is a transparency I made from a photograph I took in Ghana.

Here’s the original photo:

Aside from a little bit I didn’t edit out by his tail, I think it’s pretty awesome. My fill transparency also includes a section for a background color.