..and I was Keeping this Because???

Detail of a muslin tube used to ship a carpet from TibetKeep reading to the end – contest notice at the bottom. As my blogs about my Personal Archeology continues (otherwise known as cleaning out the studio), today I’m really showing some of my more embarrassing saves. The detail shot on the left is of a muslin sleeve that was used to ship a small, hand knotted carpet from Tibet. My neighbors were visiting a cottage carpet “factory”, and they bought it for me as a present. There’s quite a story about how the carpet had trouble clearing customs in Los Angeles, and then sat for three months in the local post office before being delivered to my neighbors so they could give it to me. I love the carpet,(and so does one of my cats), but keeping the sleeve? Since it was fabric, I justified keeping it for a number of years, but finally resorted to cutting out a piece of the 48″ (122 cm) tube that had the “from” address. Maybe that will make it into a future project…who knows? It certainly takes up less room.

Detail of crocheted tavle runnerHere’s another find that was being saved for the right re-purposing project that never appeared. It had originally been a table runner for an antique table in my first apartment. Made of cotton butcher’s twine, each of the individual squares measures about 4″ or 10 cm square. Each of the three squares that made up the width of the runner were crudely stitched together with more of the cotton twine using a very large eyed needle. (We were so intense back in those “hippie” days!) After the full length had been created, (about 48″ or 122 cm), then I turned the piece sideways and crocheted an edging the entire length. It took quite awhile to make all of those squares, but given the thickness of the twine, it was hard to get things to sit on top of the runner evenly. Even worse, food/wine stains that weren’t taken care of immediately, got even worse over time, and the big splotch in the center of the above photo was one of the least obtrusive flaws. This piece became relegated to the recycle bin.

Section of an orange chenille bathmatHere’s probably one of my really embarrassing saves. Several years ago, there were a number of products, especially sweaters, that included chenille. They were very soft and comfy, but the trouble was that after a few times in the wash, they loops started to come out. The photo on the left is of an orange bath mat that I loved, but quickly became pretty threadbare.

Close-up view of threadbare chenille bathmatIn this closer view, you can see just how empty some of the sections are of their little chenille loops. My big plan was that since there was already an exposed, underlying warp and weft where the loops had been, I could stitch, weave, and bead into those areas and create an orange landscape. One of my favorite books in my collection is KNITTED GARDENS by Jan Messent. I love her use of textures to create very tactile looking landscape surfaces such as little houses, bushes and animals that rise from the a garden surface to make a 3-D garden. I thought that my old bath mat would be a great framework on which to work. That was a “big” plan that never manifested. I began to realize just how heavy that bathmat would be sitting on my lap or on my small portable sewing table to execute the project. Another really important question to ask myself while searching for additional space for what I do want to keep was if I really was ever going to start any project using this bathmat.  One of the cats has now claimed it as his nest in my studio, as both cats like to be near me wherever I work. He’s stopped laying on piles of my fabric and he could care less that the piece has holes in it.

CONTEST NOTICE 

As I was finishing this public confession regarding the “treasures” that I’ve saved over the years, I’ve thought of a great community building project. In the comments section, if you’ll tell us about the most embarrassing thing that you’ve kept for a future piece of artwork but never used, I’ll award prize(s) for the ones that I find the most compelling/unusual/quirky. The contest will run until Oct 31, and the prize(s) will be a small stash of some of my treasures mailed to you for you to include, or not, in your own medium. Since here in the States, Oct. 31st is Halloween, I think this would be a great time to be a little wild and crazy. Want to play???? Tell us about one of your most embarrassing saves for some future art/creativity project and receive a stash of my trash (I mean “treasures”!)

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it) and can find me on Google + , Facebook,  and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

12 comments

  1. I noticed that no one had commented yet on this post. I think we are all afraid that we will win a ‘treasure box’ and we all have too many treasures of our own already! I must say, though, that you have kept more someday-I’ll-use-this things than I have. You win!!!

  2. Nancy Smeltzer says:

    I’m still leaving the contest open to see if anybody wants a SMALL bag of goodies. As for having lots of stuff myself, I do bill myself on my web site as the self-proclaimed “Button and Bead Queen of Maryland”. It’s not without some degree of acquisitions that I’m bold enough to make that statement…:)

  3. Wendy says:

    Please, please treasure what you have how ever primitive it is. I don’t have anything from way,way back. My mother didn’t seem to want to be interested in my work despite the fact I was quite skilled. I won a competion for knitting a jumper aged 8 …. all this despite the fact she was a wonderful knitter who finished off her knitting second to none. I have my secondry school sampler book and a tea cloth I embroidered at about 14 years of age. Didn’t come back into the craft world till in my 60s…… lol but I am making up for lost time now.

  4. Nancy Smeltzer says:

    Dear Wendy, That’s great that you’re making up for lost time and creating your own memories. However, at least for me, I’ve had to draw the lines somewhere because of space restrictions…and they’re pretty loose lines if you were to see in my studio..:) Some upcoming blogs will have pics of my baby clothes, which my mother did keep, and some more of my UFOs(unfinished objects). Why not create a piece of your own dedicated to those lost creations…sort of shadows of the work that brought you to where you are now??? “Ghosts of Textiles Past”?

  5. annaschueler says:

    Dear Nancy, I’ve uploaded the photo in my blog.
    I keep a birds nest in my studio and have it together with some other heartwarming things right in the direction to see them when I’m at my worktable.

    Here’s the link to it:
    http://annaschueler.com/

    I’m just discovering your other websites and we have indeed a few things in common.

    Blessings
    Anna

  6. Nancy Smeltzer says:

    Dear Anna, thanks so much for participating and posting the delightful photo of the bird’s nest in your studio. I was able to donwload it and should be able to upload it onto this blog later when the contest is over. It looks like it lives among some other interesting boxes and bottles. Thats’s EXACTLY the kind of thing that I hoped somebody would submit, and has even given me an idea for a new blog…:)

    Bracing here on the East Coast of the States for the upcoming hurricane….Fondly, Nancy

  7. annaschueler says:

    I’ve read about the storm on the internet. Hope you’re fine over there?

  8. Nancy Smeltzer says:

    Thanks so much for your concern, Anna. I’m writing a short blog about how I’m feeling as this huge storm is barrreling down on this area.
    Thanks for thinking of me.

  9. Well…I have been commenting on FB, however why not add my idiocy here. I have kept the tiniest pieces of things and still do. I have the sweater still, that ended up as a cats bed. I had planned to take this beloved sweater that rodents had chewed a couple holes in and weaver a web design, where the holes are…After all I am the next big designer, Right? I have cuffs from shirts that could be part of purses, and tiny unfinished pieces of experimental stitching that amount to a conglomeration of frustration. I have lace that had one little design on it and the list goes on and on….
    One thing I have found though is that you can keep one big box of these and unfinished projects and come back to it, on a day that is slow and it will make you smile, from head to toe.

  10. Dear Jennifer, thanks for stopping by the blog..:) Yes, I, too smile when I pull put my box of “Personal Archeology” as I remember this and I remember that project! Sounds like you could do a great piece based on recycled work, or in the art quilt world, what’s known as UFOs…unfinished objects. Are you familiar with “Altered Couture” magazine by Stampington & Company? http://www.alteredcouturemagazine.com/
    (sorry, tried to make a link and the HTML went weird on me; you’ll have to cut and past the link..:( Anyway, gorgeous magazine of “upcycled” clothing that males me want to go out and prowl thrift stores to buy the perfect whatever. However, I guess that buying new stuff defeats the purpose of using up your stash? If you do do anything with your UFOs, sene me photos, and I’ll put them here on the blog. Great idea for an ongoing feature… I’ll announce it today…:)

  11. Hah! I was thinking that you could use your unfinished needlepoint as the basis to add to and embellish with your numerous buttons and create another masterpiece. If you look on my lil web pages you will find a piece on adding a pocket to a workshirt. For the originals I had saved all the old shirts here that the b/f had and that made it easy…however on UFO’s, I just began working on one that I posted a preview of on my FB and will post it for you at a later date. I have found that incorporating older jewelry works with these mini art quilts as well. I have half buttons, ie: Ceramic Button that broke. Earrings that I have lost one of and beaded earrings that can be used,such as a peyote stitched hanging earring with multi-colors.
    I could go on and on, however I will check those sites mentioned in addition to one by one of your contributors and update you on the progress of fully UFO, partial UFO and flying to be finished UFO’s…Happy Imagining from my Gulch World to Your delightful land of UFO treasures:-)

  12. Jennifer, sounds like you’re having too-o-o much fun…if there can be such of a thing…LOL!

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