Friday, February 29, 2008

spring flowering



even through the fog, it looks like spring to me.

i had no time this week for blogging. but here are some springy flickr favorites for friday:

from the noticing project:
2/28
2/29

amy nieto's beautiful flower

ok, this one is more winter than spring, but look how white the cat is.

do you ever get fixated on certain landmarks in your neighborhood? i've had a thing, for years now, for this bush that stands in front of a house that's a block away from mine. it's the weirdest fascination. i find myself absentmindedly, or mindedly, staring at it whenever i walk past it. i've taken so many photos of it, that the house dwellers probably think i'm stalking them. the yard is raised quite a bit above the sidewalk, so the bush is at good worshiping level. it's just such a pleasing shape, and it looks good against the house. the bush is constantly changing. well, all of nature is constantly changing of course, but this bush seems to change more dramatically. and it produces two seemingly totally different flowers!! very light pink, small roses AND dark pink flowers. right now it's in the dark pink flower phase. (i have never been able to capture its splendor in a photo.)

what things in your neighborhood do you find yourself drawn to?

i'm sure most of you have seen this beautiful project underway. these women are a constant source of inspiration!

Friday, February 22, 2008

friday flickrs



i wish i had more control over the focusing of my digital camera. foo.

this is lexington street in the mission. i love these smallish railroad-style houses.

i ended up buying the butterfly dress from the window (photo a few posts ago). it's not perfect, but it was pretty cheap and it is so soft! as i mentioned on flickr, i'm going to ask you sewers for alteration advice. the sleeves on it are crazy. but i'll draw it out another day. too tired now—it's been a full week.

friday flickr faves:
window::feed store
a lot
cupcakes
by childhoodflames
for larry

happy weekend!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

turquoise


lately i have a thing for turquoise-blue.

and i always love hanne's wonderful turquoises of different shades. yum. they go with her eyes.

here's a link i should have posted during textile week. and found on print and pattern: heartart textiles.

Monday, February 18, 2008

dusk


tall house at dusk-time. taken yesterday on the way to see persepolis (super good btw).

three potato four found through one happy day
bjorn rune lie

Friday, February 15, 2008

textile pattern week: last day


just some telephone doodling. more here. and old post-it work doodling here.


i kind of want that butterfly wing dress above.

thanks for participating in textile pattern week!
folks who i know participated are below.
if i missed you, please leave your link in the comments!

grey dandelion feather
bugheart
kerry mosley
abigail percy see more of her patterns here
ah-yi see more of her work here
hazeljoy who did her thesis on textile design! check out her portfolio set on flickr too.
lisa solomon

and here is someone whose work would look good on fabric: nebo peklo

Thursday, February 14, 2008

textile pattern week: day 4


k's dog, mormor, mom, aunts k and m. (my aunt k is not this short. not sure how this photo makes her seem so short! {sag till om ni vill inte vara med har k o m.})

thought i'd post a pic from some of my first textile pattern memories. my mom had many of these simple, a-line floral skirts when i was little (again, it was the 70's). being skirt height, i had a close relationship with all those flowers. (i wonder what the skirts were made of, because some of them were softer than cotton or cotton/poly—almost flannel-ish.) and of course, i remember really liking some of my own patterned clothing, which i didn't pick out, but appreciated anyhow. i remember some brown and white striped, ribbed tights, a red miniskirt with white flowers (sewn by my aunt), a ladybug nightgown (loved that thing). it's funny how well i remember a lot of clothes. do you vividly remember childhood clothes too?

can't believe i forgot to post lotta's link on my swedish textile designers link day. i've had her website link on my links page for years, but i didn't know she now also has a wonderful blog.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

textile pattern week: day 3



seems to be a lot of pink/red in pattern week for me. also seems i'm not succeeding so much in the
found patterns. just haven't had time while it's light out to hunt for patterns. there aren't many good ones at my work, that's for sure. the bottom photo was taken at school. every day i walk over it, i think that this concrete with peeling paint would make a nice fabric. the top photo is of one of the three pieces of new clothing that i bought last year. i was trying to do a year of not buying any new clothes and i almost made it. just three is pretty good i think; i couldn't resist the pattern.

textile designer links today are a random collection:
mina perhonen (lots of goodness to click through) found through lena corwin's photo.
sari myohanen
sanne van winden
tsumori chisato
found through ah-yi
and a good swedish one i missed yesterday, ulrika krynitz (thank you erika for the link.)

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

textile pattern week: day 2


ok, i really was planning on doing found textile patterns this week. but i was in a store sunday that carries stig lindberg bags and pillows, so thought i should use the photos for the swedish links day. it's slightly more found than the back of the closet shirt from yesterday.

swedish textile designer links for you:

jobs (i don't think this site is actually up, but you can see a glimpse of it) this is another design company whose fabrics i grew up with. my mom has a closet stuffed with tablecloths including many little jobs tablecloths and doily-sized pieces. they are usually printed on linen i believe.

tiogruppen (group of 10 collaborative textile designers)


(by birgitta hahn of tiogruppen, image from their site)

ljungbergs textil
funkis
sven markelius
stig lindberg (another one who was popular when i was little and now again.)
spira
lotta jansdotter
elisabeth dunker (of fine little day) click through for more.

thanks all for participating! i'll compile a list of you participants at the end of the week.

Monday, February 11, 2008

textile pattern week: day 1



hopefully the rest of the week's photos will be of a more found nature. but wanted to start off with marimekko. so this one was found in the back of my closet.

textile pattern links
starting off with two classics. first, a modern classic, marimekko. having a swedish mom and growing up in the 70's pretty much guarantees an abundance of finnish marimekko fabrics in one's childhood. there was
(please disregard the painful photo) this (not my favorite) marimekko patterned curtain that hung in our living room window. it matched the shag carpet of course.

the above scrunchy shirt is also by marimekko. it needs festive occasions. so far it's been worn at my mormor's 90th birthday and at an erasure concert. both super good times (in very different ways) that fall into the festive category i'd say.

and an older classic, william morris. he was a super prodigious fellow, but probably most well known for his intricate, calculated and beautiful flower patterns.




(images from The Flowers of William Morris by Derek Baker)
more here

tomorrow i will link to numerous swedish textile designers.

Friday, February 08, 2008

textile pattern week + friday flickrs



the photo above, and my love for textiles/pattern, got me thinking...
anyone want to join me for a textile pattern week next week??
(interpret textile pattern week as you wish.)

i hope lena and ah-yi and abigail will join in for part. they are three of my favorite textile-lover-patternmaker-designer-bloggers. also hoping i'll discover new textile designers next week. will be posting some links to textile designers for you too.

i will start on monday. please leave a link to your textile pattern week blog post in my monday post!

friday flickr faves
i'm very behind on the flickr mosaic making. for some time i have been admiring mav's flickr favorites shown as photos instead of links. thought i'd show my flickr faves this way this week.



the above are by:
the mayfly
gee, nicole
ash
shari

click the links to see the whole beautiful photo. they all relate to wood this week!
happy weekend all!

Thursday, February 07, 2008

langue



wow. i just received a postcard in the mail from my college friend oona. she's a painter and now also a fantastic clothing designer. when she moved to new york many years ago, i remember her making great fabric finds and experimenting sewing her own clothes (especially in response to the humidity of new york). she always had a knack. the clothing she is now designing completely stuns me. what a talented woman, and quite the model! see all her collections on her site.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

witchdoctor-cheeseburger

witchdoctor cheeseburger
so i pretty much always want to play board games (except for trivial pursuit), and it takes a lot of effort for me to refrain from forcing board game playing upon my friends. (i think board game playing is the one area in my life where i allow myself to be ridiculously competitive, loud, foolish and silly.) pictionary is one of my favorites.

so last night two friends came over and joined me and my housemate heather for dinner. the conversation at the table was so enjoyable, that i decided i would for once not try to force a board game on my friends. but, i soon learned that heather is also a bit of a pictionary freak, and SHE suggested playing a game, completely without my prompting. heather and i teamed against j & c, who i must say,
were more tipsy than heather and i were. i'll give them that. they do have the advantage though of having been together for eight+ years (which may cancel out the tipsy factor). heather and i slaughtered. it was very satisfying. despite my being able to draw things pretty realistically/accurately in normal life, in pictionary, i draw like CRAP, because pictionary is not about drawing well. heather however, not only is good at conveying the word, she also scribbles with style (example above). i dig how wide that burger is. and look at that doctor's headgear. so simple and so round.

heather mentioned this morning how we need to lure more people over for pictionary playing. now that's what i like to hear. that's the spirit!

Friday, February 01, 2008

flickr friday


out my window, just before leaving for class yesterday evening.

of course it rained and blew during my walk to BART, and my umbrella did the flippy-inside-out thing, momentarily spraying me (and anyone in my way). that mother nature (aunty weather?) is such the trickster. i want one of those igloo-dome umbrellas that surrounds you. they should be even longer, like down to the knees. maybe that would be a bit claustrophobia inducing though. i like how those dome ones are transparent too—you're in your own little world in there, looking out.

friday flickr faves:
minikoff's work in progress
leah's muppies
astrid's norway
peperclipp's morning to you