surfacing

I am finally surfacing from what has been an exceptionally long, exciting, wonder-filled, eventful and exhausting 2 months.

The last time I managed to write something on here was in december - freezing cold, making things in Massachusetts. Since then, I have been back in Savannah, mostly working at the YMCA and on my NEW BOOK - The Loop It Up Savannah Project: Making a Fiber Art After School Program in Your Town!

it's finally done!
this has been an exceptionally challenging project for me. I had long planned to make this book, but because of a priceless oppurtunity to go to the American Craft Council Show with the book, the writig and making had to SPPPEEED up, more than I can even believe actually happened!

The past few months have been nearly entirely devoted to this project. I finished the first edition last thursday. We have printed two copies which I made into hand bound books with incredible covers by the kids! These books will travle with me to Baltimore this week. We will soon be printing a larger edition, which will be available for $25 a copy!

oh my the world wizzes past, doesn't it? for more specific info on LOOP IT UP, you can visit the blog : www.loopitupsavannah.blogspot.com

OTHERWISE, I have been here in SAV. We recently had our very first Fibers Open Studio in the NEW BUILDING. Very lovely and HUGE event!

This is a sweet little felted pony that one of the girls made in INTRO



Lexa and Lynzo with the color wall - what a dream!



JJ petting one of my quilts.... this was for Pamela!



As we were leaving the building at the end of the night, it actually started SNOWING! here in SAVANNAH GA. Cayewah got this great shot of Lyla.
Her first snow!



The very next day, we had the First Annual LOVE DAY trunkshow at Fabrika!
Cutest day ever.... FREEZING, but adorable!




Now I'm laying in my bed with RIVA, trying to recover from a nasty cold (which very politely waited until AFTER the book was done!) we, well not riva but me! leave for Baltimore and ACC on tuesday! more frequent updates to follow! I can promise you that! xo

Good Things: Right Now!

I feel like I have long talked and thought about the concept of "good things ahead". It is a reassuring way to get ourselves to carry on, and feel okay about it.
This past week has been a pile of those good things coming to actually pass.

Maybe I already told you, but Loop It Up Savannah got its grant! This makes it possible to go on and grow and do good work in more parts of Savannah, as well as continue what is already happening!

In the light of suddenly being funded, I decided to apply to the American Craft Council School to Market Program to do an artist book about LOOP, and everything that has happened to us in the last year. It will be a coloboration with all of the kids and families and community members.... should be very wonderful. It will include curriculum and all that good stuff.

I am overwhelmed and happy because I feel like this projet is the key, and I'm about to embark on something that I have always wanted to do!

ALSO: of import my friend Audrey just (today!) opened a beautiful little store called "The French Knot" - it is a "stitch boutique!" how completely wonderful. everything is set up by COLOR. I am in LOVE and I know that Pamela and Lexi will be too when they get back here and see it!

well, off to write some -- ooh la la-- financial and expansion plans.....

Halloween, and 87 degrees!

We found ourselves at Lynsey's horseshow today. Halloween, 87 degrees at least.
this little piggy (Brummel Dominic Zoltner) was so good the whole time!





"I love you so much I could eat you mumma"

we've decided to try to do a book about LOOP IT UP, and bring it to the American Craft Council Show this year! 1-2-3 GO!

I've, yet again, avoided the halloween shenanigans...... it is a little insane around here. Everyone is running around half naked. I sometimes block out what halloween feel like now because it was so much better as a kid and that is what I choose to remember.

Tomorrow is homework, making, CLEANING OUR HOUSE!

This is lovely!

I just got home from work and this wonderful thing was waiting on facebook, from the AMERICAN CRAFT COUNCIL!

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Ethics in the Marketplace: Natalie Chanin and the Bureau of Friends
Introduced by Maria Moyer, Bureau Chief
A few Sundays ago at the Chez Panisse Edible Schoolyard kitchen in Berkeley, about twenty of us gathered to learn how to make beautiful things from the Alabama Stitch Book. Natalie Chanin regaled us with tales as we practiced the depression-era sewing techniques used by the artisans who make her exquisite designs for Alabama Chanin. Natalie’s stories were about life—hers and the others before her—and she related these stories to sewing, fabric, thread and physics.

To hear Natalie Chanin weave a tale is like eating a meal. In stark contrast, my trying to tell one of her stories is more like reading a recipe. But, dare to tell it I will. Here goes:

During hot summer evenings in the South, Natalie’s friends and family would gather around the family home to eat, drink, tell stories on the porch and be together. On one of these evenings, Natalie’s grandfather set the children to the task of collecting sticks from around the yard.

After the children had secured their bounty, he asked them to each take and hold a stick—just one—with both hands. Then he asked them to break it. As they easily snapped their twig in two, he said, “That stick is you. You, on your own.” While lightening bugs flashed and the night rolled in, the children listened intently. “Now, take as many sticks as you can hold in your hand, maybe five, and hold them together. And now break those,” Natalie’s grandfather asked of the children. The tensile strength of the individual sticks held together as one made the task impossible. “This,” he said, “is your family.”

This is the sentiment that brings Natalie and me together with others in the Bureau of Friends. Formalized over breakfast and a pinky swear in a Manhattan bistro, The Bureau of Friends is now open for business and ready to help others do the good work. We are stronger together.

The Bureau of Friends Manifesto
As entrepreneurs and artists, taste makers and otherwise creatively engaged people, we stand together as the Bureau of Friends, tightly bound by shared meaning and purpose.

We share the belief that what we all want is shifting. On the trend-spotters front, we’re told (and we know) that mindless consumption is giving way to discretion. Even “luxury” is suffering an identity crisis and searches for substance. Put simply: People want what they buy and how they spend time to be worth it and they’re looking for objects and experiences that ring true.


For the Bureau of Friends, this pursuit isn’t about a trend. This is our life’s work.


We make a living appreciating and seeking beauty. For us, this is the pursuit of a beauty that endures and enriches. The Friends understand this as the very stuff that defines quality. Each of us demonstrates—in our own way, within our separate spheres of influence—what quality is. For us, quality is authenticity. It is a future-forward focus and eco-smart thinking. It’s handcrafted, locally supportive and globally aware. First and foremost, it is beautiful, delicious and relevant.


We know a growing number of people feel this, and we have something to say to them: We are the Bureau of Friends and we’ve joined together to support each other not only in doing the good work, but in spreading the word about it.


The Bureau of Friends is open for business as the go-to-depot for tasty and nutritious content. We’re not only a speakers’ bureau, we create experiences that connect message to specific audience and inspiration and insight to desired action.

AFT COUNCIL!