Studio Kit

Days 11-20 of the 100 Day Project

2025-03-15T09:41:00.001-04:00

Gosh.

Already, having made only twenty of these, I feel like I'm going to have a LOT of these, but also, feel like I'm going to have gotten a lot better at abstract art by the end of it (which is the goal.)

I was going for something a little Chinese inspired (due to staring at a piece of Chinese furniture I own for far too long lol). However, I had painted a perfect black circle at the very top; and when I moved the piece to dry, the watercolour paint ran, which rather spoiled it. So I had to extend it by tipping the paper to and fro - which helped, but in the end, the piece didn't work as a result.

So this one is also kind of a mess. Inspired by Something Lisa Made's explorations in stamp making a few years ago, I decided to make a home-made stamp of leaves. The stamp worked (much to my surprise); but as I started to build on it nothing seemed to work. I did the layers of paint (teal, black/grey and brown) and liked them, and then starting adding collaged pieces. Initially, that little egg shaped thing was part of a series of rings that looked kind of like they were giving birth. But as I was gluing them down, one of the hoops ripped, so I cut out another one, and laid it down - but somehow the new circle didn't work. Then I tried adding other things (collage and paint) to try and make the hoop work, and before I knew it, I had way too many things going on!

And then I realized that leaves weren't abstract, so the whole thing was a wash. Oh well!

After the disaster the day before, I was very tentative with this one, and though I liked the colours I chose for both the background and the collaged papers (that bright blue behind the mottled greens and blacks is quite effective); the shapes were wrong. So this one was a failure too.

But wait, there's more!

I had had another piece of watercolour paper with a stamp of the leaves in yellow (from when I was practicing with the stamp on day 13); so I covered the whole paper with a number of deeper yellow shades to blend out the leaves. It didn't cover them completely; you could still see the ghost of the leaves, so I started collaging to cover the leaves.

Because apparently, I didn't learn the lesson from day 14 - that the focus has to be the piece, not some random thing that has nothing to do with what you're making.

Anyway - this didn't work either, and I was starting to feel a bit like a failure.

BUTTTTTTTTT! Day 15! Eureka! I just started painting the background with watercolour paint, and then added some marks with the watercolour pastels.

I cut out some rings, stuck them down, and then outlined them with a white watercolour crayon. And I LOVED IT!!!

It's like when you're playing golf: every once in a while, the golf gods grant you a great shot, to encourage you to keep playing. Or maybe it's like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey. I'm not sure (lol); but I was encouraged, so it worked, whatever it was.

On Day 16, I picked out some painted papers that I wanted to work with, and painted a background to go with them. It turned out quite monotone (which I'm starting to realize is kind of my vibe); but maybe a little darker than most people might like.

At first I was quite pleased with it, then a few hours later, I didn't like it because it was too dark; the next morning when I photographing it, I liked it again, but as I look at it now, I realize that it's not well balanced - your eye kind of gets stuck on the top two thirds, and doesn't move, despite my lighter lines and bubbles - which were my attempt to get your eye moving around it.

So I'm going to give this one a 6 out of 10. Nice try. Try again. ;)

Day 17, and we're back to that orangey-coppery-rusty palette. It's funny, I don't have a lot of those old book papers, but using even just a bit seems to pull everything orange for me.

I don't like that the focal point is so centered in this piece, but it was just an accident of trimming - I start with papers that are 11 x 8, and trim them down - and in squaring the edges, the focal point got shifted to the left, which made it too centered. Otherwise, I like the movement in this piece, and the colours are well balanced.

Day 18, and I thought I would try a couple of different things. Up until now, I had been painting the background and then adding collaged papers on top of an already prepared piece. This time, I decided to a: move away from spheres (I'm starting to feel like this is 100 days of roundish things!); and b: collage first, and then paint over the collaged bits.

Remembering that I liked the blue from Day 13, I decided to make that colour the focal point, and collaged the blue squares and a rectangle down. As I started painting though, it was just calling out for red, and of course, anytime you put red (or yellow) in something, it automatically becomes the focal point.

And a couple of spheres managed to get in there too. Naughty hoops! Overall though, I liked this one

Day 19!

I painted the peaching background, and then realized that I was trying to get away from those orangey colours - although I'm starting to realize that maybe it's just me. lol (After all, I have had terra cotta something as a focal point in my house for nearly thirty years - whether it's painted walls, furniture, or currently, my living room carpet.)

So I decided to try and cover most of the background, use some of that blue, and try and really think about composition.

In the end, I think this is the most successful piece of this group of ten. I'm quite pleased with it, and may even frame it for myself, though lord knows, I already have quite a lot of art on my walls!

Day 20.

I wanted to try and get away from the orange, so I started with a painted green background, and this time, my whole focus was to try and get the focal point on an angle; and then build around it. The bottom part of that rectangle was not a rip in the whole, but two separate pieces.

After laying those two pieces down, it seemed to call out for a red square on that bottom right. And then another one, and another one, and then, sure, one more.

Looked at it for awhile... solid red squares! Threw a few of those on, and then some random mark making with the paintbrush to add some interest, and Day 20 was done.

It feels like some kind of accomplishment to get here, I have to say, although there's a long way ahead (another 80! best not to think about it!)

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I know last time I posted, I was going to also share with you my progress on the 52 week stitch challenge. The woman who was hosting it likes to stitch on paper, so there was quite a bit of stitching on paper.

I got to week 9 (remember, I was trying to catch up on that one too); and my hands went into a huge arthritic flare, and I couldn't stitch anymore. My hands were even more swollen than usual, extremely stiff and painful. It's been about a week since I stopped, and the right side of my right hand is *still* throbby and my pinky is very willing to send sharp bolts of pain up my arm when I wash my hands and such. (Boo! Hiss!)

So, I wrote to the host and asked if I could stitch on cloth instead of paper, and she said that there are some things she has planned that just won't work on cloth. She suggested that I use an awl to punch holes in the paper first, and then stitch, (:/) but I decided that I'd rather work on my own embroidery projects than hers. lol

So I expect that once I can comfortably stitch again, I'll be showing progress on my woodpecker series.

Hope you're all as well as you can be. Be kind to one another and yourself - this is a very challenging, very sad, and frankly, a very frightening time, if you live in North America.

Dang. I teared up as I wrote that!

Phew. Sorry about ending on a downer. Sending you comforting vibes. (Thoughts and prayers! lol)

Talk in another 10 days - or possibly sooner with some stitching on a bird.

Kit

The 100 Day Project

2025-03-04T00:08:00.001-05:00

Hello again, and happy March!

The days are flying by really quickly aren't they?

I've got a lot to share with you today, so let's just jump right in shall we?

Day 7/100

I've been following a woman called Lisbeth Degn on YouTube. I quite like her, but a: her videos are the type that you actually have to watch - you can't just have her cheerfully nattering away in the background; and b: her videos are quite long.

Consequently, I have to have quite a bit of undivided time set aside to spend with her, and as a result of that, I tend to watch her videos once per month, or even once every couple of months.

Day 5/100

This time, I had an MRI scheduled for 4:00 a.m. on Thursday, so I booked a personal day off work, and when I got home around 7, I just got back in bed and decided to watch her until I fell asleep.

I ended up watching about 6 hours of her videos, in which she talked about two challenges. One, she has joined, and the other, she is hosting herself.

Day 6/100

I decided to join both, but since her challenge started in January, and the other one started last week, I have/had a lot of catching up to do. This post is about #the100dayproject.

As you can probably put together, the 100 day project is one in which you make a piece of art every day for 100 days.

Day 10/100

I have a TON of painted papers - long time readers may remember that I wipe up/use up my paint waste with good quality paper towels, which I then dry, iron (make sure to iron in a well ventilated room - I'm pretty sure the fumes that off gas in that process aren't good for you), and then put to use in my art.

However, I've been doing this for 20 years now, and I have more of this painted paper than I can conceivably use.

Day 3/100

I decided that this project would be an excellent way to use up some of this paper, so decided my broad area of applied art would be "collage", and since I've been wanting to improve my watercolour skills, I decided to make my media watercolour paints, watercolour crayons, and watercolour pastels.

The first one I was just trying to get my hand in, mucking about - throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks, as they say.

Day 1/100

This one is about half the size of the others (which are 8x10 300 gsm watercolour paper), and the first thing I realized; was that I didn't like the size. Although making small pieces means it takes less time, 4x8 just felt too piddly.

And I also realized that trying to do a figurative water colour every day (which I did years ago and was my introduction to watercolour); PLUS add a collage element, was going to take WAY too much time.

Day 2/100

So, I immediately switched to a larger size, and to abstract. That seemed to suit me better, although (possibly) it wasn't much of a time saver, as each piece takes me at least 2 hours - some of them 3!

That said, once I switched to abstract, I immediately started having a lot more fun.

I am enjoying the freedom of abstract art, although for me anyway, it's even more difficult than figurative work.

Day 9/100

Finding balance is always prominent in my mind as I'm working, but also assigning meaning to what I'm doing is difficult, too.

What I mean by that, is not that I'm trying to have the viewer find meaning in it, but that I don't want to just haphazardly slap stuff on it, and call it good.

Day 4/100

I haven't studied abstract art, so I don't know what the rules are, but I assume there are some, and knowing what they are would be helpful. Lol

At its most basic, do we use the law of thirds? The golden ratio? I have a dim idea that abstract art is about knowing and being absolutely sure of all the rules in traditional art, so you can "throw them out" in order to make non representational work. Colour, line, texture, pattern and composition - as in all forms of applied art are important, I'm assuming. lol

Day 8/100

Well, I certainly can't say I'm an expert at traditional work, so maybe I shouldn't be trying abstract work, but after pounding out 10 of these in 28 hours, over 4 days I can say the following:

I am exhausted. Lol
My right shoulder is extraordinarily sore
When I'm tired, my ideas are fairly mundane
Some of these are more successful than others, regardless of whether I was tired or not
So far, days 3-8 feel like "Kit", (3 and 4 less so, but on their way); while 1 and 2 don't feel like me at all, and 9 feels so little like "me", it may as well have been channeled through me by someone else. Which totally sucks, because I absolutely loved the paper that strip on the left was made from, and was saving it for years for "something special".

Alas.

So, I'm learning, what I like and what I don't like, and I'm beginning to learn something about composition.

Anyway, next post should be catch-up on the challenge that Lisbeth is hosting (although I haven't even started that one yet). It's a stitch challenge, and it's a much more doable one project per week!

Nevertheless, I have 8 weeks to catch up on, while keeping pace with the 100 day project.

Phew!

Hope you're all doing as well as you possibly can.

Talk soon!

Musing about nothing and something

2025-02-18T21:46:00.002-05:00

I have been busy beavering away at my newest bird in (what's apparently becoming) the woodpecker series; and have many times thought I should do a new blog showing my progress. For instance, (I'll check later); but I don't think I even showed you the final incarnation of the prior woodpecker.

What's been holding me up, is that I haven't found anything I wanted to talk about in particular. I know that in years past when I was blogging about my work, I usually talked about the process, what I was doing, how I was doing it, sometimes even what inspired me to do it; but with these pieces I'm just embroidering, and not even doing any fancy stitches - I remain fascinated by the "limits" of what straight stitch can do.

Process aside (after all, what can be said about the length and breadth of a straight stitch); I had an experience that put my nose, ever so slightly, out of joint. Perhaps it's more out of joint than I expected as I feel the need to blog about it - but whatever the current angle of my septum, here's where it started.

About the same time I decided to start blogging again, I also decided to start posting on my Kit Lang Art Instagram. Whereupon I discovered that somehow, though it still exists - all of my posts are gone. I don't know if that's because it was fallow for so long, the god's at Meta decided to unexist it; or, if in a fit of pique or the depths of depression, I deleted it myself 5 or 6 years ago, the result is the same. All of my work posted since the inception of Instagram until 2018 is gone, as were all of my followers.

So, despite the fact that people seem to be leaving Meta owned socials in droves, I am in the somewhat unique position of beginning again over there, only because I don't know where to deposit the photo record of this incarnation of one aspect of myself.

Whoa. I'm really in the weeds over here, aren't I? lol

So anyway, doing that has meant that I have to trawl the interwebs looking for pictures of my work. My early work in quilts and art, should be on this very blog, but two things have conspired against me. One, that I kept hopping from blog to blog (anyone remember the now defunct "Diva Quilts"? I even had it as a website at one point.) There was also "Cornflowers in Leslieville", and two or three more. I don't know what I was on about, but as I deleted those blogs and sites before finally settling here; I also deleted all of that work.

I didn't worry about it because I had all of it on "sticks"; but then, around 2013 or so, there was a flood in my studio, and the sticks, along with a lot of other stuff; was gone.

So here I am, trying to find pictures of my own work.

ANYWAY. (My lordt, I do blather.)

Some of the work has been sold, including "Beautiful Monster" above, but its owner lives here in Toronto, so I asked her if I could borrow it to take some pictures of it. She consented, so here is an unedited photo of it. (We're getting closer to the point of this post now!)

Although I haven't reached 2013 yet on my insta (where I'm still on 2008 or so, I think); I am in an embroidery group on FB, where I've lurked but have posted very little. When I edited the photos of "Beautiful Monster", I thought, hey, now I have something to post in the group!

So I posted it, and to date, it has gotten 48 likes and 2 comments. I didn't really think anything of those stats, until, that is, l noticed today that someone else's post has 2.7K likes.

I don't know why the number of likes stood out to me, but I scrolled back to have a closer look at the artist's post. It was a really cute piece, but it was mostly a well-done painted background, with (I swear) almost no stitching,

And it reminded me of back when I was making political textile art, and people tried to shame me out of making such work out of fabric; as if fabric itself is somehow sancrosanct, and ought not to be sullied with such subjects. One of the beautiful things about art, is how it has been used through the centuries as a means of protest, as a vehicle for discussion, as an expression of the artist's feelings which must burst out through their medium. But this is not, it seems, in many people's minds true of the women who use textile and thread as their vehicle.

How many (many) times over the years, have I been scolded and told "art should be pretty!"

Beautiful Monster (a piece about fast fashion) is not exactly political in nature, but does indeed make a statement, and perhaps not one that people are willing to hear, and so it gets a few vague "likes" and "loves", and two closed comments that do not invite further discussion.

Currently, for instance, The American Quilter's Society has pulled two pieces it deems "controversial" from the exhibition Color in Context: Red. One of the censored pieces entitled "Origin" by Yvonne Iten-Scott could be said to depict a vagina and labia; while the other, an abstract depiction of the Red Cross, by Laura Shaw, entitled "Your Mother, Your Daughter. Your Sister. Your Grandmother. You", was also pulled. (Link to one of many articles, here.) The exhibition was one produced by SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Association - an organization I formerly belonged to, and may join again after this!); who pulled the entire exhibit in protest.

Of course, as the article points out, this is not the first time that the AQS has pulled pieces - I remember specifically Kathy Nida's piece "I was not wearing a life jacket" being pulled in 2016 from an exhibit. She and I are professional friends, and this act was devastating and angering to her.

So.

I am proud to say that my piece, "Written on the Body" was hanging in the halls as part of an exhibition at the 2012 Republican Convention, in Tampa, Florida.

The piece represented a commodified woman, crucified by legislation, political platforms and the words used to describe us, written on our bodies like tattoos.

Since 2012, I have, unfortunately, had the distinct displeasure of continually adding more legislation around the cross; and I suspect, under the current administration, there will be much more to come. (More pictures likely forthcoming as I update.)

If art cannot be used to engage one another about important issues, then what is it for?

And if we women cannot open our minds to those who use the "gentle arts" to discuss important issues in the same way, then where are we? And who, exactly, will we be in one year, two years, three years, four years?

No answers here, just speculation.

Feathering my nest

2025-01-24T20:24:00.003-05:00

So it seems I am in favour of feathers, after all. 😁

I was too lazy to dig fabrics out of my stash, so I grabbed some cotton and painted it with acrylic paints in the required colours. An hour of drying time, and I was ready to cut some feathers.

It was so quick and easy, it really made me wonder about the point of my stash in principle.

All of we sewists, crafters, makers, take a certain amount of pride in our "stash"; the amount we have acquired admired by others (#goals), and then we hoard it away like so many dragons.

I have even, over the years, seen people refer to themselves as "fabric dragons"; (I have certainly referred to myself as a "book dragon" on many occasions!)

But seeing that young woman a couple of weeks ago, trying to distribute, donate and otherwise get rid of her mother's much beloved "stash"; seeing how it filled her daughter's hallway and living room, and the daughter's slightly harried air as she talked about individuals and non profits and scheduled pick ups...

It did make me wonder, what are we doing it for?

Are we collecting just to have it? Does the ownership of more fabric than we'll ever use in our lifetimes get us more brownie points at the gates of heaven?*

Do we "win" when our children or friends are the ones who have to deal with a towering inferno of fabric, threads, notions or *clears throat* other tricks of our various trades? Giving them responsibility for an avalanche of stuff that they don't want and didn't ask for when we're gone?

I have thought about this eventuality, and have therefore set out in my will that my fabric stash and hundreds of spools of thread are to be donated to the Textile Museum, without ever considering that it is REALLY strange that such a donation from an individual should be necessary.

Similarly, last night, while looking for something else, I found a brand new set of water colour brushes (12 in all, flat, hake, cat's tongue, rounds and riggers in multiple sizes), that I hadn't even taken out of their plastic sleeves yet (!); and when I tried to put them in my paint brush container with their new friends, they didn't fit.

I ended up spending a pleasant half an hour or so going through all of my paintbrushes, sorting them by type and size, tossing ones with damaged bristles, and ones that had been malformed by my carelessly leaving them in pots of water for too long - even that a symptom of my overbuying. If I had only one or two of each type and size, with an intention to make them last for years, rather than unintentionally viewing them as "disposable", would I have dared?

I discovered I had nearly 20 flat brushes (in 4 sizes) alone. I won't share how many round brushes I had - but can you believe that just recently, I was thinking I needed to get a size 10 round brush (because I saw an ad for one), but I learned last night, I have 6 of those - almost none of them having even been used.

How many paintbrushes will bring me happiness? How many mop brushes, in all sizes, do I need, to win The Game of Life?

I have just been buying to buy, happily, needlessly, mindlessly, consuming as every "good" Westerner should, right?

So all of this seemingly innocent "stash boosting"...is it really just a symptom of toxic capitalism? Are we encouraging each other to consume for the sake of consuming? Pushing each other to buy more and more, in a never-ending silent competition to be sitting on a pile of the most stuff?

Yes, we need to have tools to hand and materials available for our use as we create our projects.

But how much of our compulsive collecting is for this, and not for that?

Why do I need to have an entire bin full of black fabric "for my art"; when I can put some black paint on single roll of white fabric, that I can also transform into any colour and pattern I want/need at a moment's notice?

...where wealth was mistaken for riches and the joy of possession for happiness...What he opposed in it, he must attack in himself.

Salman Rushdie - Fury

Just some things I'm pondering at the moment.

Next up, I'll need to stitch those feathers down.

Maybe I'll work on that tonight. We'll see!

'Til next time.

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*I don't actually believe in heaven, but you get my point. 🙃

Avoidance

2025-01-21T19:33:00.003-05:00

I spent all day yesterday studiously ignoring what was happening south of the border.

We are in a polar vortex currently, so it's too cold for my little presh. But I took Riley for a quick jaunt.

After I brought her home, I went skating. Dearest reader, I haven't skated in literally decades. I fell a couple of times, brushed myself off, and popped up like Gumby, (not wanting to attract unwanted sympathetic attention); and even at the time, my ankles were quite screamy, but my body hurrrrrrrts today.

A re-introduction to skating at 60 when I wasn't good at it when I was young, was certainly distracting.

And listening to the hockey players on the rink trash talking each other was quite amusing as I went round and round.

Then I went home and made my lunch - comfort food - tomato soup, grilled cheeze, and pickles. While drinking a big pot of tea, I scrolled my socials. Everybody else had their heads in the sand, too, which was comforting.

Then I had a long nap (3.5 hours!)

Then I made dinner - seasoned tofu steaks, rice, sauteed mushrooms and onions with a little onion gravy over.

Then I stitched a bit on this new bird, which is apparently going to be a series.

It seemed like a normal day.

But it didn't feel like one.

Underneath it all, I was, I guess praying? I don't know to whom, I'm a pagan, and I mostly pray to trees, the sun, grass... Perhaps I prayed to Gitche Manitou, an internal whispering.

Asking that despite what our governments try to enact upon us, that humans turn to one another, and find in one another kindness, safety, help, strength, amity. A renewed belief in a social contract that encompasses all people in all their forms; that we quietly decide for ourselves that we will not only stand up, help, be a voice and a hand when the opportunity presents itself, but that we seek out those opportunities.

A whispered prayer that we decide to care about each other.

It's the only way through.

Something is afoot!

2025-01-16T14:13:00.005-05:00

Last night I sat down in front of the TV, teed up The Moonflower Murders (not as good as The Magpie Murders but still enjoyable); made myself a thermos of tea, and set up a little TV tray with my sewing machine on it, and another with my iron and a towel as an ironing pad on that one.

Rather oddly, I find myself making a quilt.

I was beavering away, sewing tiny pieces of wool together, listening to the TV and occasionally looking at it. At one point I looked up, and discovered I had an audience.

She is SO. CUTE! ❤️

So, how did I come to be making a quilt, you ask?

How long a story do you want?!? 😂

You may remember that I'm a blabber, so the shortest version I can give you, is that about four years ago, I found a bunch of wool in my stash, and realized I either needed to donate it, or do something with it. I decided to make myself a hand quilted wool quilt, like the ones I grew up with.

I cleverly chose to do rather large-ish squares, but by the time all that hand-sewing was done, I was really over it, so I decided to hand-tie it rather than quilt it. And though I wasn't thrilled with the quilt itself (the colour scheme wasn't very me) I loved the result!

Several months after I made it though, my elderly cat developed urinary incontinence, and I'm sure you can see where this is going.

Eventually, I had to throw it out, as nothing would remove the smell permanently. It would seem to be gone, but it always came back. So that was the end of that, and the end of my quiting forays, I thought.

I had really wanted a wool quilt, as I had moved away from wanting to do something *different* than my aunties and grandmothers and great grandmothers, to wanting to stand in a line with them, and be part of something that stretched back hundreds of years.

However, long-time readers know that I have a few *dozen* quilts, and am in no need of anymore.

So I thought my wool quilt would have to be an emotional connection to my forbearers, without any physical proof of it, and that would have to be enough.

Cut to, this past Saturday, I was scrolling through my neighbourhood group on Facebook, and I saw a post from a woman who was giving away her mother's fabric stash. Her mother is now quite elderly, and no longer able to use it.

My neighbour posted several pictures. I gathered from them that her mom was a rug hooker, as her entire stash was wool, and mostly cut up into strips. The fabric itself, her daughter told me, was culled from old clothing.

Amongst the bags that she posted though, I saw one of fairly large chunks of royal blue and red. I asked her if I could have that one as I immediately thought about making a quilt for my grandson.

(Oh right, life update: my oldest son got married in 2019, BSP and I split up in 2020, Maggie (cat, 19), Jessie (cat, 19), Tyler (*much beloved dog, 17) all passed away within the same year and a half; two years later I got Riley (pictured); and I now have two grandchildren, a granddaughter (3.5) and a grandson (nearly 2). There! You're all caught up! 😉

So, I get to this woman's house on Sunday, and it turns out her mother's stash is VAST.

Huge bags went all the way down the hallway from the front door to the kitchen, as well as dozens more taking up half of her daughter's living room!

She had set aside the bag that I requested, but invited me to take a look.

As noted, almost all of it was cut into strips, but I saw a coat lining's worth of *this* gorgeousness thankfully uncut:

- clearly not enough for a quilt, but with some judicious additions, I think it could make an absolutely stunning throw for my bed, which is upholstered in that gorgeous rusty orange colour.

And I also saw this bag of REALLY! PRETTY!!! sage green and white plaid.

My inner fabric dragon said "It must be mine!", and my inner swamp witch said "Cut it! Cut it! Cut it now!", while dancing with joy. Lol

It was packaged in a bag with this equally beautiful soft cream wool, in exactly the same weight as the plaid. So I scooped it all up and ran home with my booty, like the "START THE CAR!!!" woman in that long-ago IKEA commercial.

I checked it all over, and it was clean, with no moth, but musty smelling, so I aired all of it out all day and night on Monday on a line on my balcony; and brought it in to dry (it snowed on Monday) all day Tuesday.

On Tuesday night, I quieted the swamp witch (who hadn't stopped yelling since Sunday) by cutting it up. She was utterly delighted.

And that's how, last night, I ended up doing this:

I will assemble the blocks tonight, and then I'll put it aside for awhile, because there won't be enough blocks to make a queen sized quilt, (I'll have 15 nine inch blocks when I'm done).

So I'll need to find other fabrics to bulk it out, and I don't imagine I'll find them immediately.

The little swamp witch wants me to embroider cream blocks with yellow flowers. (Wood sorrel, or possibly goldenrod?); but that would be crazy, right? Right? 🤣

So after I've assembled these wool blocks, I'll put them away and have a think.

Aren't you glad I told you the *short* version?

Lol

Talk to you soon-ish?

Until then, be kind to yourself and others. It's a tough old world out there.

Xo, Kit

Hey!

2025-01-12T00:59:00.005-05:00

lol I just checked the "historical posts" on my blog (because it's been literally years since I posted here); and the piece I'm going to talk to you about today is one that I started whittering about in 2018.

Six years ago!

Anyway, I've been working on this piece on and off as the mood struck me, with the bulk of the work being done in 2024.

I did the last stitches earlier today, and thought it was "done"; but maybe not?

I'll explain as we go.

So, if my math is correct, 15 years ago I bought 4 little bird panels from Linda Kemshall. (Or maybe it was Laura? I can't remember.) I bought them because I loved them, and initially intended to just frame them; but when I actually received them, I was like..." I could do something with these."

*ahem* Of course I had no idea what the "something" might be; so they languished.

Then I went through this phase about 10 years ago where I was printing watercolour on fabric. (I really need to get back to that; it was one of my very favourite things to do.)

And then, six years ago, I was sorting through allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll of my various personally hand-dyed, hand printed, hand painted and watercolour printed fabric (I hope the abundance of "els" really concretizes the unbelievable amount of such fabric I had); and decided to either earmark it for an actual project or donate it.

In doing so, I managed to decrease such fabrics to 2 bins.

And in doing so, I found some watercolour printed fabric* that perfectly matched Ms. Kemshall's (Laura or Linda to be determined) birds.

So, I started the long journey of stitching this piece. Pulling it out and adding some stitches now and again when the spirit moved me - I have been doing a lot of hand stitching over the last six years - but it's been spread amongst a lot of pieces - I have many large pieces on the go; as well as many more small pieces - I think I've finished around 50 small hand done pieces in that time.

Anyway!

It's done now - or is it?

Here it is - all done, buttttttt - I think I need to put some feathers on that bird. Remember when I used to do birds? That whole series was 11 years ago!!!! Time really flies. No wonder I'm so old! lol

Anyway - I'm gonna sit on it a bit and think about it. If I did so, it would totally cover Linda/Laura's work - and is that okay?

On the other hand, don't I need to make this mine? TBC

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Also, hey! I just jumped in here, like I didn't disappear for literally years, and I don't even know whether there's anyone still around.

But, I kinda miss blogging, so I thought I would.

P.S. I don't know when exactly I'll be back. It's kind of all up in the air. But if you're out there, hi!

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EPS: When I reviewed my previous posts about this piece, I said that these background fabrics were made using disperse dye, but this fabric is cotton; which is how I know it was actually made using the watercolour printing method - a very similar process (paint on paper and print on fabric); but disperse dye uses dye for polyester and acrylics on copy paper and is transferred using heat; and watercolour printing uses watercolour paint on watercolour paper, and is transferred to cotton fabric using weight.

New additions to the studio!

2019-11-01T10:59:00.001-04:00

First, the one I'm most excited about - a new-to-me Necchi industrial. I've been wanting one for so long, and finally got one! This one is about 55 years old, and being of that vintage myself, I can attest to the fineness. lol I'm going to get her running this weekend and if I don't sew my fingers to one another (this thing is F-A-S-T and strong!); I'll let you know how it goes!

Then, I added this hand-painted antique Indian credenza type thing to the studio. It was a neighbour's and I had been coveting it for more than a decade - the only other ones I have seen were around a $1,000 so it was never in the cards for me. But, don't give up on your dreams! My neighbour moved, and was having a contents sale. I got it for a song! It arrived in studio yesterday, along with my new sewing machine. :) It's going to provide some great storage, and look pretty too!

And finally, two planty additions on my desk - the umbrella tree on the left is a heritage plant - it was my mother's (who passed away in 1998). It was getting too big for the living room, so I moved it up to my studio. And I also got that nifty head-planter from a South African artisan. It weighs about approximately one million pounds, and at 18 inches tall and 12 inches wide, she's a large lass, but I think she's very cool.

I've also got a number of art projects on the go - some small pieces for Christmas sales (8 of them); and I think I've got a commission (discussion to be had with collector this weekend) to begin work on shortly, so as ever, Studio Kit is busy even if I forget my poor, neglected blog.

Hope you're all doing well, and I hope to talk to you soon!

Kit

The Little Mermaid

2019-07-05T12:12:00.000-04:00

Given the pushback on having a non-white mermaid in Disney's remake of the movie of the same name; I thought posting some older work might be appropriate.

From 13 years ago, here are:

We Are Mermaids Too

And

Little Karoo At Night

(which, by the way, is a piece I still hate. lol)

But my point is...well, you know what my point is, right?

Right.

TTYL

Kit

After Roy & Silo

2019-06-04T09:41:00.000-04:00

I had mentioned the last time we talked that a publisher had contacted me and asked that I illustrate a poem in their upcoming book called “Power Poems for Small Humans".

I enthusiastically agreed, and eventually, I was paired with poet Liz Morgan, whose poem is entitled “When Someone Asks About My Drawing of My Family”

I won’t share the poem here, but Liz's poem is about the many iterations of non-nuclear families.

My original idea was inspired by the videos you may have seen that run on the theme of a blind dog who has a seeing eye goat bff, a donkey and a pig who are best friends, animals who adopt animals from other species, and my long time favourite: Roy and Silo, the two male penguins at NYC’s Central Park Zoo, who first fell in love, and then year after year, tried to raise a clutch of rocks, until the zookeepers finally gave them an egg to hatch and raise. She grew up to mate and have adopted babies of her own. <3

The sketch I shared with you six weeks ago of the little pig, was part of a larger piece that was going to be a farmyard composed of many iterations of different types of animal families.

But then I was thinking about the brief I was given:

“… something between an illustration and an environment…the important thing is that the artwork meet and embellish the emotional place of the poem.

Now, I don’t know about you, but that gave me pause! It reminded me of when I was in second year at Uni, and a professor asked for “an intelligent, emotional response” to a text we had been given to read, and no further instruction. And it was worth 40% of our mark! Boy, that struck terror into my heart. Lol

Anyway, as I considered this “between an illustration and an environment” I thought that perhaps I was being too literal. That a more abstract idea was called for.

I slept on it overnight, and realized that Roy and Silo ought to be my inspiration. When I thought about it the next day, I could “see” this two page spread as you see it here, and realized that was they way to go. My "Roy and Silo" are two stylized male birds (an eastern towhee and a black capped chickadee) who have a clutch of baby chickadees to nurture to adulthood.

So I called it, "After Roy & Silo”.

Now that the publisher has the images for use in the book, I will unmount (dismount?) this piece and put a group of hares or perhaps a fox family in that blank space where the poem will be in the book.

When that’s done, I’ll show you that version too. J

What I'm up to

2019-05-26T01:53:00.001-04:00

So on our last episode (lol), I had done a couple of concept sketches for the client, and they decided not to go with the "farm" concept, but rather, birds. I was not disappointed. 🤫

I'm taking this off the frame and mounting it because the piece is now done. "But I don't see any birds, you say"?

That's because this piece is an illustration for a poem in a children's book of poetry. And the photo you're looking at it just a detail.

I'll share the finished piece with you, once the book is published!

Until next time...

Kit

Poor, neglected blog!

2019-04-24T00:27:00.002-04:00

Working on a concept sketch for a new project tonight. So far, there's a pig, three kids and a donkey; but there will be quite a menagerie at journey's end.

Concept is due by the end of the week, so until then, I'll be burning the candle at both ends. Ahhh, the artist's life!

Xo Kit

Making progress

2018-12-13T16:17:00.000-05:00

So, it seems that rather than post twice per month, I’m posting once a month.

What are you gonna do. Life, am I right?

(These little bunnies are the bits of fluff I was needlefelting in the last post.)

That said, I AM making progress on this piece – compiling its component parts into a whole, stitching them down, following the plan, but making allowances as the fabric and materials do their own thing and change the direction every so slightly; rather improving upon the original plan.

These days though, I tend to not be very stuck in to a plan; I grew weary with trying to make things conform to my imaginings, and now I take a more relaxed approach to the vagaries of things not me.

Hmm. It seems I am talking about life again. :)

Nevertheless, next post, I shall show you my plan as it was, and currently stands.

But for today, we have new flowers, new grass, a couple of bunnies, and the beginning of a hawthorne tree. I had a lot of fun putting that bark together!

Talk to you later lovelies!

Hello

2018-11-12T10:54:00.002-05:00

It occurred to me that I should either delete all of my blogs or actually post.

As I typed that, I realized that what I SHOULD do is delete the Kit Lang Art blog and go back to posting on the Kit Lang FIBER art blog (this one), because who am I kidding? I have a bunch of blogs and a website and I don’t really post on any of them. May as well keep the one that actually has followers and a long history of content!

So this is an announcement to let you know that I am back to posting here, on Kit Lang Fiber Art, and have deleted the kitlangart.blogspot.com blog. But just to make things extra confusing, I am renaming Kit Lang Fiber Art, "Studio Kit" because there are just too damn many Kit Lang Art(s) out there. LMAO.

in this photo, I was trying to decide between cloth birch trees (centre) and paper birch trees (outer trees)
I thought the creamier colour of the cloth would show up better on this piece, but nope - paper it is!

Speaking of content, do people actually read blogs anymore? I know I drifted away from reading them a few years ago, and gradually stopped posting at about the same time.

And then in the ensuing years, I have mostly (only) worked on commission work, and not much else. When I was blogging, I produced a lot of work because I was worried about producing “content” for my readers – an obligation that I had a love/hate relationship with.

And then I decided that producing content as an obligation to people who didn’t know me was a silly way to live my life so decided to post whenever I felt like it and to hell with the obligation. And well, here we are. No content at all. Ooops.

As you can see, I've added some texture, colour, and branches to the birch trees.

More hand-stitched branches (and leaves!) will follow.

In part though, this dénouement has not only been about content, but about a concern with “engagement”, and whether it was worth the time and effort of producing content for a blog when the “engagement” was so low. Such is social media in our time. When I first started blogging 20 years ago now (! – although my first blog had nothing to do with fiber art), I figured I was talking to myself, and was not only astonished, but a bit put out when I got my first comment.

I had actually *liked* talking to myself and was upset that there were people reading "my journal". Ah, the innocence. lol

Anyway, fast forward 20 years and I’ve had FIVE fiber art blogs, most of which have gone by the wayside. Some of you may remember good old “Diva Quilts” – that was my very first fiber art blog all about my new passion, quilting. After I got into "ART" (remember all of my hand wringing about whether or not I qualified to be an "artist"? *insert eyeroll here*), I started “Coneflowers in Leslieville” – the name of my very first “art quilt”. But I found that keeping up the two blogs was too much work.

So I started ANOTHER blog – kitlangfiberart (this one right here, kids!) which was where I decided to do all things fiber art related, and made that my new home.

Here, I've added some grasses and ferns - more of the same in both cloth and hand-stitch will follow...

So I got rid of Coneflowers in Leslieville - well strictly speaking, I folded its content and the content from what was now divaquilts.com into the kitlangfiberart blog, and continued posting here ever since. That was ... well truthfully, I can't really remember anymore when that was. hahaha. (I remembered! It was 2008.)

What’s funny though, is that to date, Diva Quilts had the most engagement out of any blog or site in my fiber art history. (I did have another “lifestyle” blog under another name that had a HUGE following back in the early days of the internet.) But "Diva Quilts" remains such a popular name (I think I still have a business registration in that name hanging about!), that all these years later if I wanted to buy back my old domain name, I would have to pay over $3,000 for it!

Related: there’s a guy who lives in my city who’s an actor who has the same first and last name that I do. For a few years, he had the domain name kitlang.com which made me gnash my teeth somewhat.

When he finally let it go, I tried to buy it, but it was selling for over $1,000 which seemed to me to be a ridiculous amount of money. I just checked, and now our combined star power makes the domain name worth $2,300. lol I should have stuck with Diva Quilts!

Blah, blah, how I do go on!

The progress...

Anyway, all of this is to say, that I think I’m going to try and start blogging again, because doing so forced me to be less lazy about producing work. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to blogging 3 times a week, but maybe if I blogged twice a month, that would make me actually get off my ass and do some work.

Because I am a bear of very little brain, and also because I am of the personality type that when you start doing one thing, you start doing another, and another, until you eventually become overwhelmed and collapse and do nothing - I’m actually taking a course which requires a lot of memory work (which is not my strong suit!), so of course I want to start blogging and producing more work outside of commissions. Just when I have all the time in the world. FYI, I also want to start going more regularly to the gym and join a choir. Can you hear me laughing at myself? lol

Some lint that was in my sewing machine. Hahah kidding! This is actually some roving which will be

needlefelted and made into some little creatures...content for the next post perhaps!

So... all of which to say, I am hoping to be blogging again more regularly, however, not at kitlangart.blogspot.com because I have now deleted it - and which is not to be confused with kitlangart.com, which I suggest you visit frequently (lol I need the hits!)

So who knows, you may see some “content” here, whether you actually “engage” with it or not.

And perhaps I’ll occasionally blog over on my proper website kitlangart.com, which believe it or not, has a blog too – although I only ever put place holder content there and have never updated it since. Cause I'm a marketing GENIUS. lmao

And if I’m talking to myself as I did back in the old days, that will be okay too.

I’ll just wave at myself and tell me I’m doing a good job. J

Okay bye!

Augh

2018-02-05T12:17:00.000-05:00

Photo shows a Canadian artist in the wee hours of Sunday night - about to head to bed*

Lol

Since we spoke last (uhhhhh…3 weeks ago?); the following happened.

I was at work, and all of a sudden, I started getting vertigo. My desk would rush up at me every time I sat down or looked away from the screen, I was sweating and nauseated, and when I got up to go the bathroom I was staggering around like a drunken sailor.

I had broken my glasses that morning, so I thought it had something to do with my vision being borked. I made an appointment to see my opthamologist that afternoon, and left work early.

I went home, lay down and tried to make the world stop spinning – got up later to go to my appointment and ordered my new glasses, and then went back home to bed.

The next morning I woke up with the same symptoms.

Same thing the next morning, and the next and the next.

By this time it was the weekend, and I was fully expecting to go back to work on Monday. But on Monday morning I was no better, in fact, I was worse - with an ongoing fever added to the mix. I tried to make an appointment with my family doctor, but she wasn't available until the next day, so I called in nearly dead for two more days.

The next day I went to my doc and found out that I had a severe ear infection; hence the vertigo, nausea, imbalance, fever, etc. She told me that I would need another TWO weeks off work (!) and sent me home with a fistful of prescriptions and a "stay in bed" order.

I'm now back at work. I'm not quite myself yet (I still get dizzy when I get up too quickly or when I roll over in bed or get out of bed); and I had a bout of quite severe nausea and fever yesterday, but I'm more or less okay.

In GOOD news since we talked last, I sold "Starling in Hawthorne" and received two commissions. Yay!

For whatever reason, I tend to get most of my commissions in February/March; I work on them through June/July; take the summer off, and then try to get back into an art practice in the fall.

This year, I had hoped to get into a regular studio practice and never mind the rest of it, but my commissions started coming in early. I'm not complaining – and perhaps this means that I won't get any in March (although I hope that doesn't happen!); but this is why there will be a lack of posting over the next little while as I try to catch up/get going/produce work!

I'm also trying to make a gift for a friend – the original plan was that I would dash that off over the last couple of weeks of January, but now that needs to be put on the back burner and stuck in - maybe at the end of this month?

So… see you soon? I don't know. I hope so! :) :) :) I was enjoying talking with you all of you again.

* P.S. amazed that my all day lipstick really did last all day! It's Colourpop - an American brand out of California with a very friendly price point. If you like make-up (I LOVE it lol) check it out! :)

Disperse Dye

2018-01-16T12:16:00.000-05:00

"Winter is Coming" (c) Kit Lang 2014 background composed of pieced disperse dyed fabrics

After having a conversation with someone on FB yesterday about disperse dye, I was inspired to do a post about HOW to disperse dye. Disperse dye is also known as "transperse dyeing" and "transfer paint" dyeing.

Although when I first tried this process, I bought the ready-made bottles of transperse paint, the next time I tried mixing my own colours, which was a raging success. You can choose how much, mix your own colours, and more importantly, I got much better results with the home-made dyes than the ready-made.

So here is my method:

Mixing the colours:

I used IDye for my disperse dyes (the link is for a Canadian store but I believe you can also get it at Dharma Trading. However, any powdered dye that is meant for polyester fabric will do.

I mix the powders to the following method:

a) 1 tsp for pale

b) 2 tsps for medium

c) 4 tsps for dark

d) 8 tsps for black

and then stir the dye into a 1/2 cup of boiling water and two drops of synthrapol for an opaque result. If you want a thinner, more watercolour effect, mix with 1 cup of boiling water.

When the mixture(s) are cool, paint your papers (more below), and let them dry.

Painting the Paper

There's no secret or particular method to this process. The most important thing for me was the paper itself - I had the best results BY FAR using paper from a student sketchbook rather than bond (photocopy paper).

I found the heating process bound the colour to the bond paper (that's what photocopy paper is for, after all!) whereas the colour just sat on top of sketchbook paper. However, you don't want to use a really, really good quality sketchbook paper as the colour will then sink into the texture of the paper rather than sit on top.

Once you have the right paper, make sure you have a place set up where your can lay your papers flat to dry, as well as drip dry - one of my favourite papers was hung to dry and as a result has drips and globs of dye on it that translate really well when transferring.

As for the painting itself - the sky is the limit. I painted papers with one colour, multiple colours, in patterns, in solids, I did solid undercoats with finger painted swoops and curves over top of the dried solid backgrounds, I painted grid patterns, combed the fluid on the paper, splattered them, "dropped" dye on the papers, smooshed the colour with my hands - or combinations thereof. Do whatever you want, let them dry and see what happens!

Try to keep notes as you're making your papers of what you've put on them, and once they're dry, write it on the back. Once you've done a press and see the result, write again what the colours actually turned out to be. That way you can re-create them, and also, when you want to use the paper again, you'll know what your result should be. (Although it will get a bit paler with each session.)

"Fern No. 1" (c) Kit Lang 2012

background is composed of torn pieces of disperse dyed papers with a fern resist

Fabric choice

If you want "glowing" colours, then the higher the amount of 'man made' material in the fabric, the better result you'll have. I had the very best result with 100 polyester silk which gives a really lovely glow to the fabric. I also tried a sheer polyester tulle with a very dark value paper which produced a really lovely see through print.

But as I don't like the "shiny" look of the fabric (in most applications, the sheen distracts from the overall piece), I use predominantly cotton, rayon, and polycotton mix fabric.

Transferring the colour

Start by using a heavily padded surface on your table, and then put a sheet of craft paper over it (otherwise the colour will transfer to your ironing "pad".)

Lay the fabric on your pad right side up, and put the painted paper(s) face down on the cloth, and then put another, bigger sheet of craft paper on top of it all to keep the iron clean.

VERY IMPORTANT!

While you're working, keep the iron moving, and keep the iron HOT HOT HOT(no matter what the fabric requirements are - you have two layers of paper between the fabric and the iron to protect it) and press down as hard as you can. Just really lean on that sucker! J

A note about the iron: I have used a standard iron with steam holes in it. If you are using such an iron, make sure that there is no water in the iron, and never let the iron sit still. If you do so, there will be a pattern from the steam holes on your finished product. I have purpose bought an iron that has no steam holes whatsoever – I looked long and hard through various charity shops and second hand stores to find one, but I finally scored!

The longer you press and/or the more pressure you apply when you press, and the higher the heat, the more brilliant your result is.

Disperse dyed large piece of fabric - also made with torn up bits of disperse dyed papers. This eventually because a throw cushion.

Further Advice

Try different things with your papers - using resists, cutting out shapes from your dried papers or tearing the papers into rough pieces and laying them out on your fabric as I did for the piece above. The key is to keep that iron moving and to do it as long as you can.

Don't worry if your first pieces are crap - my first ten were!! :) It takes a bit of time to get used to the process, and if you're using the wrong kind of fabric, you'll never get a good result. There are definitely fabrics this process likes, and some it really DOESN'T like. Lol

You will naturally get a few disappointing pieces as you begin this process, but if you continue to do so, try a different fabric.

I have, with success, overdyed a disappointing procion MX dyed cloth with disperse dyes and gotten really beautiful results, so really, the sky is the limit with this process.

When you are finished making your fabrics, put the dried papers away for further use in the future.

Although conventional advice is that you only get one or two good passes out of the papers, there are some papers that I have been using for years! It depends on how thickly you applied your "paint" and how much detail there is to it. One paper in particular which I had painted with a solid colour, let it dry, painted over it in sections with other colours, let it dry, and then painted again with a drip dry method has yielded nearly 20 sessions although I finally had to throw it out last year, after first creating five years ago.

And that's it!

One great advantage of this process is that it doesn't take up a lot of space. You can make as much or as little dyed fabric as you like, you don't have to hang it up to dry, and the little packets of dye are just that – little packets. You can pop them into a ziplock bag and stick them in a file folder with your finished papers, until the next time you want to dye!

I hope you try this process and if you do, link us to your results in the comments!

Kit

Best Laid Plans

2018-01-15T12:14:00.000-05:00

This is another piece in the group of birds I'm going to be working on. I seriously love how my hand-dyes look with these birds even if I do say so myself (this one is a disperse dye).

I was planning on talking about how the greater woodpecker piece I'm currently working on (it's in a state of flux currently because as I add more and more hand stitch I'm realizing that it's beginning to overwhelm the bird – which is the focus after all!) So I'm going to remove a lot of what I've done and pare back the stitching to something that's more subtle. But I need to have a think about it first.

And that's all I've got to say about that, really. lol

So let's talk about dyeing.

Over the years, I have done a LOT of dyeing, manipulation with paint and other forms of surface design. I've done shibori dyeing, tie dyeing, ice dyeing, rust dyeing, snow dyeing, shaving cream dyeing, marbling, acrylic inks, ice cube dyeing, smoking fabric, burning fabric, eco print, procion MX dyeing (I used Melody Johnson's "lazy dyer method" after trying some others), screen printing, thermofax; I used resists, transfers, wax, oh, I don't know what all. I was both a contributor and followed "And Then We Set It On Fire", so I tried a LOT of stuff. Like every textile artist, I'm all about the textiles, and as I'm hands on, I collected books, magazines, blog posts and tutorials about surface design, and I tried almost all of it. lol

But the fabric I use almost exclusively, is one of three things.

1 Fabric that I have hand painted;
2 Fabric that I have disperse dyed; and
3 "Wiping cloth" fabric.

In these bird pieces it's all disperse dyed. I have discovered that I like the control of disperse dyeing and the lack of mess, it's much more economical than procion MX dyeing, and I think (although I have no proof) that it's better for the environment. It uses about 99% less water, I can use the papers over and over again – sometimes even years later, and virtually none of the chemicals in the dyes will get into our groundwater. Note: although everyone says to use disperse dyes on polyester only (and it's true that that's how you get that wondrous glow); I use it mostly on cotton, rayon and silk.

If you've been with me for a long time, you may remember my painted papers (which I continue to use in a lot of my art – ten years on, it seems my concerns about colour fastness were unwarranted!). If you're relatively new, long ago in a land far away, when I was painting my fabrics, I wiped my brushes on paper towels. At some point, I actually looked at the paper towel and discovered that it had made the paper towel quite beautiful. I did some further experiments and discovered that if I dampened or even wet the paper towel as I was wiping, it made it even more beautiful! (See example below)

(I can't remember what I called this one and I sold it a few years back. But I made it between 2010 and 2012 I think, this was one of the original wiping paper towels, on which I had wiped my paint brushes as I painted my fabric and dabbed up messes/puddles on my table)

Although I did that for a couple of years (and consequently still have hundreds of painted paper towels in my stash) I decided at some point to just wipe the paint on plain unbleached cotton muslin (I always have a bolt or two of that in my studio); or on scraps of white cloth.

These are some of my favourite "dyed" cloths to work with now. I like them because like the paper towels it uses up paint whose chemicals would otherwise eventually get into our groundwater, but unlike the paper towels, doesn't require cutting down trees. Producing the fabric of course effects other ills on our environment, but you all know how I feel about TREES. (<3 all the hearts.<3)

Anyway, I don't think I'll ever use the procion MX dyes again, and I have quite a bit left. Eventually, I'll destash them.

So, in conclusion: DIPSERSE DYEING.

YAY!

Lol

Kit

ETA: this is where this "post every day thing" all goes to hell. LOL

So about nobody being interested

2018-01-12T12:15:00.000-05:00

I was out for lunch yesterday, and chose a table by the window so I would have good light for stitching when I finished eating.

I had been doing so for a little while when my light was suddenly blocked. I looked up, and there was a woman standing there, looking interestedly at what I was doing.

So I held it up so that she could see.

She gave me an enthusiastic smile and made "applause" motions with her mittened hands. I smiled back, and mouthed "thank you".

"Happy new year!" she mouthed back.

"And to you!" I said.

And then she went on her way.

The exchange took all of a minute, but it warmed me the rest of the day.

I guess I still feel a little toasty today, too. 😊

Talk soon,

Kit

Tools of the Trade

2018-01-10T12:11:00.000-05:00

For Christmas I received some generous gift certificates to fabric stores that I frequent, so recently, I hit up the January sales and purchased fabric and notions.

I have a few pair of embroidery scissors (and a multitude of snips); but all of my embroidery scissors were hand-me-downs and were quite dull. I have been using snips for the last several months, but have thought from time to time that I would like a purpose-made pair of embroidery scissors.

About a year ago I saw this pair and thought they were really lovely, but the price was more than I could (or would) justify.

But guess what was up for grabs in the January sales? You guessed it – and marked down from $89.99 to $69.99, to… $8.99!!!

I was thrilled to scoop them up, and they have such a lovely weight to them that you feel as if they are good quality. And more importantly, they're quite sharp, too!

In thinking it over later though, my nose was a bit out of joint. I imagined that if I had splurged and spent $90 (plus 13% tax) on these scissors and then saw them for $8.99, I'd be quite upset. So I had various uncharitable thoughts about "capitalism!" and "One percenters!" etc.

Butttttttt…

Well, the truth is of course, that these stores have to pay staff, and rental or mortgage payments for their properties, utilities, insurance, pest control… stock of course, and all manner of things that I probably can't even think of.

So then I began to feel quite badly for the store owner. What if they were selling them at a loss? What if it was an error and they should have been more?

Well, I wasn't going to return it and find out! Lol

There are some cases where manufacturers and purveyors of goods are clearly out to squeeze as much money as possible out of us. There is clothing store here that I used to buy a lot of my clothes at, but the quality of the fabrics they used had deteriorated so much that I couldn’t do it anymore. And it has gotten even worse since then.

And so many products at the grocery stores from orange juice to soda to soup to cereal have gotten smaller, or significantly smaller in packaging, so you end up with much less volume of product, for the same price that you were paying before. That one in particular ticks me off, because how stupid do they think we are? We NOTICE. I'd much rather that they charge us more than that they think we're so stupid that they're getting away with something!

Similarly, we went to a fast food restaurant the other day (which we almost NEVER do); and I was having a "Where's the beef?" moment. (Seriously dating myself with that one. Lol) I literally couldn't see it, and when I flipped up the bun, the patty was paper thin and half an inch smaller in circumference than the bun.

JUST CHARGE ME MORE AND GIVE ME A DECENT SIZED BURGER. Lol

In the same vein, I read an article a year just after Christmas, about the extremely popular headphones of that year. I was trying to get a pair for a gift, and it was like finding a unicorn. They were sold out everywhere!!!

The article was on one of those tech-y sites and they were comparing this particular pair to others in the same price range, comparing not only the quality of sound, but also how they were manufactured. And they said that this particular brand was producing headphones that were made completely out of plastic – 100% except for the little copper wires inside their plastic sheaths; and that they then put metal weights in them to make them feel heavier so that that we sheeple would think they were worth the price!

They said that yes, they were an excellent headphone, but that in terms of components and quality of sound, they were exactly the same as another brand, priced $100 less.

Is that their (evil?) cunning or our stupidity? I'm not sure.

I think that there are times when was can be justifiably upset with manufacturers and purveyors of services who are setting out to deliberately rip us off, either through maleficent cost cutting, production/distribution or by assuming they can hoodwink us, and there are times when perhaps the person/entity selling to us is nearly as much a victim as we are.

This might play out for instance in the anecdote that arleebarr shared yesterday of an observer who sniffed at her prices. We all know how exorbitantly expensive most of our materials and tools are, and most of us pay ourselves minimum wage (or sometimes less) and that's how we end up with our prices – which people than sniff at and think is "overpriced".

I myself charge a certain dollar amount per square inch, which doesn't account for the fact that some 'inches" take 4 or 5 of 10 times as long to produce as others because of the technique involved; but that I don't feel comfortable asking my collectors to bear.

I sometimes think "Why not?"

However, I'm a long way away from buying scissors at a discount, aren't I?

Blah blah. Lol

I'm posting every day, but it's more a free association, and I think I'm missing the point of my posting. Shouldn't I be posting about something more on point? Hahhahahaha.

TLDR: behold the scissors I got on sale!

Kit

Go Bag

2018-01-09T12:11:00.000-05:00

Because I'm going to be doing hand work on these pieces, I'll be bringing them to work with me and working on them instead of reading at lunch time.

Doing handwork like this in public always feels a bit uncomfortable for me. It seems like showing off somehow, but I also feel criticized (without anyone ever saying a word!) and want to offer an explanation to anyone who happens to glance at it: "Oh, this is just the beginning – it's going to look much better in the end!" Or talk about why I'm doing it as if I need to.

I mean I should be saying to myself "Who cares", and mostly, I do … or try to Lol

It's so strange that I feel like that sometimes when I know that in truth, most people couldn't give a flying flip what I'm doing and are completely uninterested, and that's somehow worse.

Hand work, fiber work, textile work - whatever you call it - it's viewed as "women's work"; and generally people don't value it (or us), so they dismiss it out of hand.

It reminds me of a conversation I had with a co-worker some months back. She said "Oh your boss is so nice, I really like him." I agreed that he seemed to be nice but that I didn't really know him. She thought that was strange, and we had a conversation about how I keep myself to myself at work, don't share my personal life, etc. and how she does the opposite.

She said that she forces her boss to listen to her when she talks about her running or her fitness goals, even when she can tell that he doesn't want to hear it (!); and she said "You should talk to him about your hobbies."

Although I'd just told her I don't talk about my personal life, I didn't want to seem rude by repeating that, so I said "Oh, I don't think he's interested in hearing about my sewing."

She laughed and said "No, NO one wants to hear about your sewing. I sure don't!" and she left!

I had to laugh to myself because there I was worried about coming off as rude to HER; but it made me a bit sad to think that it showed how much these skills are devalued, even by other women.

On the heels of the quilting and knitting "revolution" of the first decade of the 2000's, it would seem that people are turning back to their sewing machines again, judging by sewing studios that are opening in my city, and the business that offer rental time on sewing machines to the general public.

That's hopeful, but just to end this on a gloomy note: it would seem that these skills are nevertheless becoming archaic and rather quaint.

My evidence: the autocorrect on my phone and tablet continually change "sew" to "see", no matter how many times I tell it, "No, I really DO want to say "sew" (I mean, YEARS of this!); and did you hear that Monopoly wants to get rid of the thimble as "no one knows what it is"?

Ack!!

So I'll sign off with

#needlelove

;)

The bird

2018-01-08T12:10:00.000-05:00

About ten years ago, I got four prints of hand-painted bird panels from Laura Kemshall. I thought they were gorgeous, and the quality of the printing was incredible, but I couldn't figure out what to do with them. So they've been sitting around in a basket since that time.

The other night I was looking for an "easy" project, and I thought I'd pull them out.

I decided that looking through my stash of hand-dyed fabrics would be the likeliest place to start, prior attempts to work with the prints had been kiboshed because of my inability to find commercial prints that would work with them.

So I pulled out the stash, and had a fun ten minutes. You see, I haven't looked at these fabrics for over a year - I was feeling pretty meh about the last few batches I had made and I mostly hand-paint fabric for my work now, so when I pulled them out, I must have sounded like a crazy person to BSP.

"Oooh!"

"Check THIS out!"

"Omigod, that's gorgeous."

and laughing to myself. I'd be surprised I didn't end up in a looney bin, but BSP must be used to it by now. ;)

Anyway, for each of these prints I found a hand-dye that was so perfect, it was as if they were purpose made.

Yesterday, I showed you the machine stitching on the back of this bird. When I started stitching it, I thought I would machine stitch the entire thing and then go over it with hand stitch and beading as embellishment.

But having thought about it for 24 hours, I think the whole thing needs to be hand stitched.

So much for my "easy" project.

That bird is also itching to be covered with my hand painted feathers, isn't it?

We'll see...

Kit

Trying something

2018-01-07T12:08:00.000-05:00

EDIT: So, blogging from my phone with the app didn't work. Bizarre spacing, and the picture didn't attach!

So, I had a bit of a conversation with someone on FB today about blogging *waves* and she directed me to a site where the person talked about why it was important to blog every day. (Austin Klein)

There were some links in that article, and more links in that one (and so it goes); the most interesting of those (to me) was one called "Is Blogging Dead" (short answer: no - it's just changing from the way oldies like me think blogs work.) Anyway, the upshot is that I'm going to give it a try.

I don't know if I'll have the discipline for a daily blogging practice (it's benefits are supposed to be for me, btw, not for my audience, although one can hope you'll like it!); but I'll start with a promise to myself to make best efforts.

This is the back of a little piece (1 of four) I spent some time last night setting up for stitching.

Although I have some larger projects on the go, I've been taking a break from them for awhile and wanted to do something to get my head back in the game so to speak.

I'm also trying to get back into a better studio practice (insert eyeroll at myself here) and be more disciplined about it.

Perhaps writing every day will drive the work (for content) and vice versa.

Who knows?

Not I. Lol

Talk soon I guess! :)

Kit

ETA: obviously,THAT didn't work! LOLOLOLOLOL

Starling in Hawthorne

2018-01-06T12:07:00.000-05:00

Happy new year!

First finish of 2018, first blog post in many moons, who knows, it could be the start of something new!

I started this in 2017 - maybe even the beginning of 2017, I'm not sure - stitching birch bark on fabric and then putting one of my painted fabric birds on it, and then I lost it.

No, not metaphorically, I mean sometime around March, I actually lost it. I'd done a studio clean up, and when I came back a few days later, I couldn't find it.

I looked of course, but I remembered it being on a hoop and having been put away that way, and how many places can a big ass hoop be (16 inches across) without you coming across it pretty quickly? We'd had a series of people in the house around that time, some we knew well, some who were strangers to us - and I thought maybe someone had stolen it. (Someone *did* steal another piece of art during the period, right off the wall!)

After a couple of concerted searches, I figured it was gone, and didn't think much more of it.

Fast forward to November, and lo and behold, I found it! Off the hoop, folded up, and put in a basket, which was the bottom basket of a stack of baskets that had been sitting on a shelf the whole time.

So, I started working on it again - there wasn't much left to do.

I hand stitched it to the hoop, painstakingly wrapped purchased ribbon around the hoop and then thin copper wire over that, enclosed the back with a piece of an antique hand-embroidered white tablecloth, signed it, dated it, flipped it over to admire it, and realized I had somehow gotten some kind of reddish stain on the front. I assume it was lipstick that had gotten on my hand somehow. I tried washing it out, but I ended up with a much larger, pinkish stain that I couldn't budge.

SIGH

Okay, no problem, I decided to paint the white background white. But it took SO. MANY. LAYERS of acrylic paint to cover the pink stain that by the time it was dry, it looked really bizarre. Thick layers of paint right up to the edges of the bark and embroidery.

Nothing for it but to cut it out of the hoop, cut off the artfully arranged needle felted branches (sacrificing some of the hand-painted berries and embroidery); and re mount it, re embroider, and re needle felt some branches. Butttt, I didn't feel like doing that right away.

In December, I decided I'd like to produce something I could post (I've been working on secret projects behind the scenes); so I pulled it out again, re-worked all that needed to be re-worked, re mounted it on a hoop, wrapped the hoop with hand cut ribbon, and then with metallic copper thread, sewed another piece of antique, embroidered white tablecloth to the back, hand beaded the edge because I thought it needed a little something else and, TA-DA! It was done.

I put some fray-check on the ribbon and left it to dry overnight.

And when I looked at it the next day, I FOUND ANOTHER STAIN.

This time it was the fray check, and nothing I did could budge the stain.

By this time, I wanted to throw the thing out the window.

I brought it to BSP to both show and complain, and BSP said "Uhhhhh...I don't like the "round" thing."

Uhm. WAT?

"Well, it makes it look like, you know, don't get mad at me, but it looks like craft, not ART. It's not classy. Your work is intensive, painstaking, a ton of work. Don't you want it to look that way?"

But this is COOL.

"Mmmmm...not really. This needs to be in a frame, with a mat, under glass. Especially at the prices you charge."

Well... you may have a point.

So, I pulled it off the frame, thinking I could maybe save it and not have to redo the branches and berries and embroidery a THIRD time, but...taking into account the round shape, the stains (yes, once I took it off the hoop I discovered that there were a lot more stains)

And, I had to re-embroider, re-needlefelt branches, re-paint fabric and cut out little berries, for a THIRD time.

Then I remounted, this time on a rectangle.

It's not actually framed yet - this is my "artist rendering" of how I want to have it framed, so it's currently mounted on hardboard, 15.5 x 12.5" and is for sale.

If you'd like to buy it, please contact me at artbykitlang@gmail.com

First 2018 finish! Yay!lol

Kit

P.S. Happy birthday to my brother OJ! XOXOXO

Toronto Black Women's Collective Finale

2017-08-05T12:06:00.000-04:00

Ta da! The final learning tool for the Toronto Black Womens' Collective.

Throughout, you'll see their interests, slogans and accomplishments; and to me, the most significant thing they did (other than start Canada's First Black Women's Newspaper), was how they galvanized people to action. They initiated, led and participated in SO. MANY. marches. They were the inspiration for others.

Here's a couple of close ups. :)

If you're interested in learning more about Toronto Black Womens' Collective, you can watch the documentary Sisters In The Struggle about them, through the National Film Board of Canada, HERE; and learn more about the Collective itself (including being able to read copies of the newspaper they started, Our Lives, HERE

Thanks for stopping by.

Next week, I'll show you the another one in this group of learning tools.

Until then!

Patterns

2017-08-02T12:06:00.000-04:00

On Monday, after a bit of rambling (lol), I told you about the thought process behind the learning tool for the Black Women's Collective.

A group of women sitting in a living room, discussing how to save the world.

Last year, when I started planning out these learning tools, I decided early on, that I would make my initial sketch the exact size of the finished piece.

Normally, my sketch is about the half the size, and I have to enlarge it significantly when making the actual piece.

In this case, the sketches serve as a pattern for the entire piece.

I trace the initial sketch as above, and then cut out the pieces to use a template for my fabric as in th original picture.

And here is a view from the back, where you can see that the piece is beginning to come together!

Finished piece on Friday!

See you then. :)