Indie Fiber Artist News

Breaking Traditions is an art quilt exhibit that hangs at the American Sewing Expo every year.  This exhibit is curated each fall by Lynn Krawczyk.  Breaking Traditions has become a community effort, helping to support the fund raising projects of fellow fiber/mixed media artists. This years exhibit at the American Sewing Expo focuses on a quilt exhibit called “Home” .

The 2009 exhibit will benefit Bernie Berlin’s dog rescue  A Place to Bark.   In honor of Mr. Berlin’s efforts to find permenant homes for displaced dogs, “Home” seems to be appropriate.  The American Sewing Expo is to be held at The Rock Financial Showplace in Novi, Michigan Sept. 25 – Sept. 27, 2009.

The exhibit features 12″x12″ art quilts. Participants for the 2009 show will express those things, memories or emotions that define home to them. This is an open call exhibit, everyone is encourage to participate. Prizes are donated for those in the exhibit and an Exhibit Favorite is chosen.

Time is running out to enter your quilt square.  Quilts due to Lynn Krawczyk by Saturday August 15, 2009. This is the RECEIVE BY DATE!  To see how many packages have been arriving at Lynn’s house, check out her blog.

The exhibit will travel during 2010 to other venues, not yet determined.  To view the guideline for submission, click here.  This is a pdf file not very large.  The 2009 Entry Form can be downloaded here as a pdf.  Prize information can be found here.

Betty White learned to knit, using traditional yarn, at the age of 10. Now at age 62, Ms. White, who lives on the west side of Michigan, covets plastic bags.

Not just any plastic, but perfect, “cool” bags, especially neon green bags.  The bags must be good looking as White has no use for ugly bags.

What does this artist, who by day teaches English as a second language, do with all these plastic bags?   She crochets!  White takes her coveted bags and crochets hats, totes, dresses and more from strips cut from plastic shopping bags.

White doesn’t use any patterns to create plastic designs, such as the vintage-style, one-piece bathing suit she recently completed. To date, White has made several dresses from these bags and started another using  soft white bags for an evening gown crocheted from more than 70 bags. The dress, with a lace-up back, took months to stitch, and it’s unusually stunning for a gown made of plastic.

Because she doesn’t add any material, White’s products are 100 percent recyclable and can be placed in the recycle bin when they wear out.

There are several sites that show you how to make plastic yarn, or “plarn”.  [tag]GooseFlesh[/tag] blog has very good instructions and pictures, [tag]My Recycled Bags[/tag] is another good sourceand has many good articles about green crafting.

Using your imagination, who knows, maybe you too can become a plastic design artist like [tag]Betty White[/tag].

I love cute, easy toy patterns to knit, especially patterns that are not labor intensive and can use up left over yarn.

Take a look at [tag]Rebecca Danger[/tag]‘s patterns at [tag]etsy[/tag]. There are monsters, and bears and bunnies, and so many more! One of Rebecca’s patterns looks just like her pug and is called Wasabi the Gregarious Pug!  Sooo cute!  Many of Rebecca’s patterns use less than one skein of yarn and are good for stash busting.  To make these patterns safe for small children,  I would embroider the eyes instead of sewing on buttons.

The prices are reasonable, about $5.00 for a pdf download.   Rebecca also offers multiplepacks of patterns for $20.00.

If you visit Rebecca’s blog, you can download a free [tag]bunny nuggets pattern[/tag].   This little bunny nugget uses 30 – 50 yards of leftover yarn.

My hometown had a craft fair today, and it made me realize I have neglected this blog.  There were all types of crafts at this juried craft show – beads,  embroidery and items made from logs – but nothing that was knit and nothing that involved fiber!

So, I turn to[tag] etsy[/tag] for my fiber ideas.  Today, I want to introduce you to Phyllis.  Phyllis has an esty store called[tag] Spin, Knit and Life [/tag]and a blog with the same name.  In this store you will find handspun yarn, hand knitted scarves and hand spun Ditty yarn.

Phyllis writes “I really enjoy making Luscious Ditty Batts. My favorite fibers for blending Ditty Batts are : Alpaca, Tussah Silk, Merino, and Blue Faced Leicester. Occasionally I’ll throw in some Llama or Mohair. I keep a drop spindle next to my drum carder so that I can test spin each new Ditty Batt.  If I can’t spin it I won’t list the Batt on Etsy. Most of my Ditty Batts will come in 6-8 ounce increments.  The color in the Ditty Batts usually comes from the dyed merinos that I purchase from http://www.bluegooseglen.etsy.com . “

According to Phyllis, you can also special order a Ditty Batt with your favorite color blended into the batt.

The Yummy purple batt at her etsy store is my favorite, or maybe its Emerald Isle that is my favorite?

Phyllis also lists dome things she is destaching, so take a look and make a purchase!