the Cathay Bank
October 7, 2009 at 10:22 am | In california, vintage crafty | Leave a CommentWhen I lived in Los Feliz, one of my favorite things to do was visit other neighborhoods in Los Angeles and take pictures of cool things I’d never seen before.
This tile mosiac mural at the Federal Building downtown totally captivated me — so beautiful and so well preserved.
Speaking of tile mosiacs, Clifton’s has some of the best ones I’ve ever seen out front.
I loved these two — the Observatory and the saber-toothed tigers at the La Brea tar pits.
Griffith Park is probably the place I miss most in the whole city… and speaking of the Observatory, it’s hard to take a bad photo up there.
Union Station is such a majestic place — I love train stations, and it is one of the most beautiful ones in the world.
And one day when I was in Chinatown with Jessica on our Day of the Dead tour, I took some pictures of the Cathay Bank. I didn’t know anything about it, except that I loved the way it looked. Then last month, the Los Angeles Conservancy contacted me about using one of them in a photo archive they created to celebrate 60s architecture in LA. The site just went up and it’s fascinating — there are tons of great photos from all over the city. The interactive timeline is really cool, and I was so honored to see my photo in it… and find out more about the bank, I had no idea it was so significant!
March 8, 1966: The first Chinese American Bank in Southern California, Cathay Bank, opens and provides much needed services and capital for development of the Chinatown area.
Visit the site here and add your own photos of 60s architecture in Los Angeles to their flickr pool, too. And if you are in LA, take some pictures for me, please! I never did get a good one of the Capitol Records building.
free patterns at the Knittn Kitten!
September 17, 2009 at 12:58 pm | In chatty, crafty events, free crafty, oregon, vintage crafty | 3 CommentsI’m excited to announce that I’m helping out with a fun project — donating a free pattern to support one of my favorite crafty archives, the Knittn Kitten here in Portland!
Each week a different local crafter will be offering up a free project sheet to try, and you can find all the supplies for it in the shop to make your own version. There’s also a new flickr pool celebrating the shop — please join and add your photos of treasures you’ve found, projects you’re making with these patterns, or anything else Kittenish!
Here’s a list of the crafters participating so far…
September 22 – Heather Mann
September 29 – Teresa Sullivan
October 6 – Diane Gilleland
October 13 – Joey Groendes
October 20 – Christine Blystone
October 27 – Susan Beal
November 3 – Lee Meredith
November 10 – Bridget Benton
All of us will post photos of the new projects on our blogs every week and of course you can also see them all in the flickr group as they’re unveiled! Thank you to Diane and Christine for coming up with this great idea. The Kitten is a very special place and I am grateful to have it just a couple of zip codes away, so I’m very glad to support it with some fun craftiness!
Please help spread the word about the pattern giveaway, and if you’re local and have a chance to stop by the Knittn Kitten, I’d love to see what you make!
Here’s a hint about my project… it will involve some of each of these things:
and
my first kanzashi
August 1, 2009 at 7:10 am | In books and mags, crafty events, reviews and interviews, vintage crafty, washington | 8 CommentsI got my copy of Diane Gilleland’s beautiful new book, Kanzashi In Bloom, recently and I couldn’t wait to try some of her lovely projects! Lucky for me, Diane and I are in the same town, and she offered to come over and kanzashi with me… bringing vintage fabric, buttons, and a little tiny iron with her for good measure. I snapped some photos of our crafty morning and my little finished flower — my first one ever, and I just love it!
We started out by cutting squares of fabric (I picked a lively, tiny vintage print) and prepping them for petal-making. I love that the raw fabric square is almost exactly the size of the finished flower — crafty alchemy!
A quick press with the mini-iron later, they were ready to fold. (Diane’s book has wonderfully clear step-by-step photos and instructions — these are just a few snaps of my process as we went.)
Folding the first petal felt like magic! I love origami and using fabric instead of paper was a really cool experience.
And in just a few minutes, I had eight of them pinned and ready to join! A neat stitch and pull later, they formed the sweetest flower-petal circle.
Then it was time to choose the center button (I am into buttons, and the red moonglow round was just the thing) and hot-glue a little circle of fabric down to cover the back.
I love my little flower! It took me a few days to decide what to ornament with it, but Diane looked awfully cute holding it brooch-style with her pretty new dress… so that’s what I did, too.
I’m excited to make some flowers in different sizes and colors — maybe some tiny bright ones for hairclips, and larger and summer-ier colors for brooches or stitching right onto a handbag. Kanzashi in Bloom illustrates so many possibilities for projects to make with the flowers, as well as invaluable tips for choosing fabric and deciding on details like centerpieces and petal shapes.
You can check out lots more kanzashi excitement at the book website, and in the flickr pool of reader projects! And if you’re in Seattle this weekend, Diane will be at Urban Craft Uprising today (Saturday, August 1), showing everyone how to make kanzashi from 12:30-1:30 and then signing books from 2-3 pm. I’ll be there too, and would love to see what you make! The projects from her Twisted event last week are so charming.
And then she’ll be back in Portland for another book signing at Powell’s Books downtown this coming Tuesday, August 4th, from 7:30 – 9:00. Locals, be sure to mark your calendars!
another find from the kitten
June 18, 2009 at 4:16 pm | In chatty, oregon, vintage crafty | 4 CommentsCathy C. came up to visit this week, so Diane and I took her to Bolt and Collage yesterday. And afterwards, Cathy took me and Pearl out to Screen Door for dinner… so nice.
Then, this morning, we met up with Cathy P. for breakfast and a trip to Knittn Kitten and beyond. I found some really good bias tape, a few vintage craft books, some blue corduroy and this absolute treasure of a log cabin quilt top!
Ethel and I guessed it was late 1920s or 1930s — I love the fabrics. The colors and shading of the positive/negative cross pattern are just luminous together.
It was once a finished quilt, but someone took it apart… you can see the tie marks as a set of small holes in each center square, and in some of the strips. But the rest of it is in great shape. I’m excited to bring it back to life! I’ve already started thinking about repairing the center bits (maybe hand-sewing some new fabric to bolster it? or adding some buttons over the damaged spots?) and what to back it with and all those tantalizing quilt things.
We finished off the crafty tour with a stop at Cool Cottons and Vintage Pink. Such a pleasant 24 hours!
update, a little more detail if anyone’s interested… it looks most like a Courthouse Steps variation of intersecting large crosses in the two light and dark color families, and the pattern is arranged with seven squares across and six squares down for a slightly rectangular shape. The fabrics are in good shape (yay!), except for those tie-holes in the center squares (just a few of them are torn more than that, but not wrecked) and the same patterns and colors repeat within the center squares and log strips — but with some curveballs of different ones here and there, which make it so interesting. Some of the prints look like feedsack and some are bigger patterns. Knittn Kitten has some other lovely quilt tops for sale right now, including a beautiful Dresden Plate, so definitely get over there soon if you can.
two things that don’t have much to do with each other
May 18, 2009 at 12:07 pm | In I love to make things..., chatty, house crafty, recycled crafty, vintage crafty | 2 Comments…except that I like both of them, I guess.
Our garden is kind of freaking out, in the best way. The combination of nice steady south-side sun, decent rain now and then, and some plain good luck has turned our formerly teeny snap peas, Red Russian kale and collard greens into giants! I took this photo on Friday right after I put in the tomatoes and peppers (at the back), exactly four weeks after I planted these little guys.
Day 1:
Day 28:
kale:
collards:
Yay! We’re really happy about it. I’ve had a gray thumb (that’s a charitable description, actually) for years and it’s really fun to see the garden come along after last year’s in the back yard didn’t really like us much (probably something to do with the late planting, unexpectedly crappy soil, over-shadiness, and total amateur approach in general). We’re going to pick some greens for the first time today!
On a totally different front, I just did a jewelry project for CraftStylish that I wanted to share over here.
I haven’t had time to make much jewelry lately (nor wear any, with my quick-grabbing toddler on the case) so this was fun — I took apart an old necklace I never wore and turned it into a necklace and earrings set.
Maybe I’ll wear it while we’re eating our fresh greens…
p.s. thanks for the nice comments and emails, I am going to whip up some teeny terrarium kits and offer them up later this week!
a little fabric shopping
May 15, 2009 at 1:09 pm | In california, crafty to buy, vintage crafty | 1 CommentWhen I saw a peek at this in Jenny’s flickr, I couldn’t resist zipping over to Home Ec to do a little fabric shopping… what an awesome idea!
You can find your own set of 10 vintage-sheet fat quarters right here. No two packs are exactly alike, and I can assure you that Jenny has the cutest prints ever in her collection! Just look at the super-sweet projects she’s made with them for Sew Darn Cute.
Home Ec also has lovely new fabric (Liberty and beyond), kits and patterns, and books extraordinaire. I just can’t wait to get to Los Angeles and see the new ReForm School in person…
Oh, and the classes are completely rad too.
patchwork swapping
May 1, 2009 at 4:28 pm | In chatty, vintage crafty | 3 CommentsLinda organized a fantastic patchwork swap this spring and I was very lucky to be paired with Sarah! This lovely hand-decorated box from her appeared on my porch a couple of weeks ago…
…and the paper doll theme continued with her handmade gift to me — she made photos of me and Pearl into dolls using vintage Betsy McCall imagery, an amazing surprise!
Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of the stacks of fabrics and trims she sent, a really fun mix of vintage and new stuff to play with (they were mixed into my stash before I thought to snap a picture), but the package was such a treat, start to finish, and she even sent some cute sock monkey cards. Thank you so much, Sarah!
I found a stack of vintage quilt squares a few months ago and I’ve been saving them for just the right project, and this swap seemed like the perfect way to make something fun with one. I chose a lively one and made it into a simple little drawstring bag.
I liked it so much that I made one for myself, too, and it’s a diaper bag staple now — it holds two cloth diapers, a spare cover, wipes and a couple of plastic bags nicely. I made them reversible — I lined hers with a navy blue and white rick-rack print I found at Cool Cottons, one of my favorites (Sarah had mentioned that she especially liked rick-rack), and sent her some more of it to sew with, too.
I also sent along some doilies, some metallic rick-rack, and another of the quilt squares for good measure! Pearl was pretty interested in all this tantalizing stuff so this was a quick photo shoot and then it was all packaged up and on the way.
Thank you to Linda for organizing and to Sarah for being such a generous, creative and thoughtful swap partner! You can see lots more swap photos in this flickr pool if you want to check out more prettiness…
Okay, we’re off to the Pearl Room at Powell’s!
spring flowers
April 27, 2009 at 11:24 am | In I love to make things..., bead simple, recycled crafty, vintage crafty | 1 CommentWow, after a super busy week and a lot of things I’m excited about and wanted to mention (mason jars! inventing some hanging flower baskets! estate sales! garden! making a cookbook!) I am suddenly feeling horribly under the weather so I’m going to save those bits and pieces for another day. Bummer.
I do have one thing to show before I crawl back into bed: a little flower-embellishment project to resparkle a plain vintage handbag over at CraftStylish. I took some assorted rhinestones in two different colors
and mixed them into a floral pattern in the spirit of my favorite handbag designer ever, Enid Collins.
It is also a bit like the Blossom Book project from Bead Simple (same color mix — I love those deep-gold rhinestones) and a bit like the Treasure Box I made for CRAFT: 05 (yes, same center rhinestones again! I am a creature of habit, I guess.).
I like it!
Okay, I’m heading back to bed for now… I need to rest up so I can cheer on the Blazers in Game 5 tomorrow night.
terrariumania
March 23, 2009 at 12:11 pm | In I love to make things..., chatty, house crafty, recycled crafty, vintage crafty | 15 CommentsPearl and I headed to an estate sale on Saturday morning, just ten blocks up the street. I was pretty tired from button-ing and on day three of solo-sick-baby-wrangling, and I almost just stayed home with her. But I’m so glad I didn’t.
I’ll post some more pictures of my other finds tomorrow, but for now I’ll just mention the seven vintage mason jars that were out in the garage for 50ยข. Yay! I loved Jenny’s CRAFT: tutorial last week on making mini-terrariums, and suddenly I had jars galore for just such a project. So I invited Diane over, and we had an actual Sunday together… involving crafting for fun instead of a deadline or project. And it was magical.
We washed all the jars, checked the lids, and walked over to Urban Flora to grab the rest of the stuff we needed — terrarium-supplies heaven right here in 97202. The super-friendly woman there pointed us to the charcoal, soil, and pebbles, mentioning that she was also a terrarium enthusiast, and we were home again pouring pebbles into jars in minutes!
Pearl obligingly went down for a nap and we were off and running.
One of the (many) wonderful things about living in western Oregon is that it is so green here. I love it, it’s well worth the rain (and hail, and snow, and more rain) to have all these lush, beautiful plants and trees everywhere you look. So finding moss and a few interesting stray plants in the yard was kind of like the easiest, most fun scavenger hunt ever devised.
A few months ago, I also happened to fall in love with the same Bake It Pretty cupcake topper set that Jenny had, so we mixed in plenty of deer, rabbits, mushrooms, and trees, along with a little vintage frog I’ve had forever.
I’m not sure what this pretty curving, curling plant is but it looks like it’s having a good time in there so far…
These two bunnies look very happy together too.
I mentioned last week that my grandparents had a huge, beautiful terrarium in their living room and I loved hanging out and gazing at it when I was a kid. I was so excited to make this little one — it’s so much smaller and the shape is totally different — but the color is just the same and looking at it makes me happy.
Naturally Diane made some gorgeous ones. Here, the pet rabbit she’s always wanted eyes a mushroom with interest.
And the same estate sale yielded these two hula-ers, perfect for a tiki-rarium to go with Diane and Katin’s bar!
Anyway, if you have a few minutes to spare I wholeheartedly recommend this craft. It is such an instant gratification pick-me-up and effortlessly fun, and the results are so charming! I now have five terrariums scattered around the house making me happy when I look at them, and Diane and I are both plotting to make some nephew-friendly terrarium-kits to spread the craft far and wide. Not to mention trying to figure out how we can quit our freelance jobs to devote our lives to making terrariums instead.
Some Oregon-style modifications we did: you can use fresh moss right out of the yard or the park instead of dried, layer a thinner stripe of potting soil (since the fresh moss will have its own dirt underlayer), and spray the dirt with water before putting the moss down so that it’s dampened first, instead of waiting til the end as you might with dried moss.
A huge thank-you to Jenny and CRAFT: for the idea and step-by-step instructions to transform an ordinary Sunday into something so nice!
Cathy! Martha! Lilly!
March 11, 2009 at 12:49 pm | In chatty, vintage crafty | 1 CommentWow, I just saw Cathy’s episode of the Martha Stewart Show and it was just wonderful! Cathy was fantastic — she and Martha made ribbon straw flowers (you can see a written how-to here and find Cathy’s vintage loom kits here) and chatted, we got to see Martha draw and watercolor a new Lilly Pulitzer print, and there was a little fashion show of the new line. And I got to see Kayte and Meredith looking gorgeous in their vintage Lillys in the audience, too!
It was such an amazing show! If you missed it live, here are a few of my quick snapshots…
Martha designs a new Lilly print:
Meredith and Kayte in the audience, wearing lovely Lilly dresses:
Everyone in the audience got a pair of Lilly sandals to take home with them!
Meredith and Kayte again!
Cathy’s inspiration board of vintage flowers…
One of her vintage flower how-to booklets – Martha loved this one:
And Cathy’s segment! She and Martha made loomed ribbon straw flowers together, it was fantastic.
Martha wrapping the straw around the loom…
And finishing up her first flower!
I got to wear one of my favorite Lillys for the occasion — a patchwork wrap skirt I found at the Rose Bowl flea market for $18! I made a little craft project for the occasion, too — just embellished an old flower-printed tin with some colorful little buttons. I was so inspired by Cathy’s craftiness, and I needed a good spot to keep my random buttons corralled, so watching this amazing and colorful show was the perfect chance to make a little something. I’m going to add some tinys to the little flower centers later…
Yay, Cathy!!
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