Josie's Colourful Journey

Monday, August 3, 2015

THE HAT THAT FITS

ABOUT THE HAT!
Not sure about you, but I have always had issues finding just the right size hat (yes right size/not right hat). I should have known when I looked back at pictures of myself as a baby this would be a challenge throughout life (Mom holding me). While I am not a perfect hat size, my head is a little bigger than the standard. Of course, my friends laugh when I say this, but it's true.

Over the years, I have tried on numerous hats and sometimes they fit but 9 times out of 10 they don't.

As I walk through department stores I glance at the hat racks sometimes trying one on, but most times not. Why? They never fit.

In recent years, I started to knit and my first project was a knitted hat. I then proceeded to knit more hats for myself, hubby and friends, etc. What fun this was, but yet the real challenge was to make a woven hat that fit.

Last summer I took my favorite woven hat, analyzed the construction then copied it onto newspaper. I then proceeded with some modifications to suit what I wanted, then cut up an old pair of jeans plus new print from my fabric stash. A few hours later I had a new, reversible hat. Pleased with the results I proceeded to make a few more for some friends.

Hat on left is my original

Fast forward to June 2015. Last month
I took Dawn Edward's "Fantastic Felt Hat" workshop at the NEFS (New England Felt Supply). The class was fabulous taught by a wonderful instructor with a bubbly, fun personality. We worked with hat patterns provided by Dawn adding our own twist in the form of fiber/color. At the end of both days I had finished one hat completely, and come close to finishing a 2nd one except I needed to order another accessory to finish out the brim. I will definitely make more of these as it gives me a bigger palette to play with color.

After I returned home I tried another hat. I'm comfortable now with this new artform, so now it's take to play around with new shapes and my signature bright colors.
No more complaints about hats that don't fit.

Josie

LOVE A CHALLENGE

I got a request last week from a customer to make a Smartphone/eyeglass case similar to the one in the 2nd picture below, but using the print/design from one of my silk-merino wool scarves (1st photo below). Since most of my scarves are created from scratch it's very challenging to recreate a print that's also created from scratch, but I was up for the challenge. The case also needed to have a clasp to attach to belt loops, and a separate detachable strap. Below are the results from this challenge. How did I do?

Original silk scarf with merino wool accents to create print

Idea of existing Smartphone case


Serenity nuno felt silk scarf with merino wool accents


Nuno felt scarf details


Building the Smartphone case from fiber up!

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

GARDEN STATE QUILTERS SHOW

It has been a hectic month, and I don't see this changing for the next few months as I am working hard to get ready for my Lincoln Center event in Oct. In the meantime, let me catch up with some of the happenings in the quilt/felting world of Josie.

At the end of May I had the pleasure of going to the Garden State Quilters Show at the Mennen Arena in Morristown, NJ.   GSQ (garden state quilters) is a local guild, and some of the members are quilting friends of mine who were well represented in this show. Two of my friends, Karen Jack and Betsy Vinegrad had over 10 quilts in the show this year. Wow, they have been busy.   There was also a section in the Show which showcased quilts from the NJMQG( NJMQG) which I belong to, as well as the Maplewood NJ Teacups quilting group (also a member).

Please take a trip with me to review some of the quilts from the show.   I was not able to capture everything I wanted as my iphone gave out on me, but I did get a good representation of what was at the show.