Flock And Fiber Festival

Hello

Stink eye

 See this black dude - he's got spots - as in Dalmation spots

 I met up with some blogging friends yesterday afternoon at the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival at the Canby Fairgrounds. It's a free event and it is just amazing to see all the spinners, the knitters, the groupies, the alpaca's. The event keeps getting bigger and bigger.


For those that want to dye their yarns, comb their wools,  this is the place to take classes and show off your wares.

Unwashed Mohair

 I bought some of the unwashed/undyed and some brown dyed mohair to use the curly locks in felting. Planning on making a sheep. Teresa bought one (!) already felted. It was cute - square nails for legs, cute little face. I really liked the curly outer coat.

Every color under the rainbow

Felted sheepies.

Customers wearing their fiber arts

Spinning circle

 I don't know about you, but I think she is holding his ear and twisting it to keep him so still.


They have judging events here too.

This last month I've been watching The Great British Sewing Bee.
The entire seasons 2 and 3 are now on Youtube.

No more trying to watch on sketchy internet sites. I've heard a rumor that season 4 is being filmed. 

I've also been watching this season's Project Runway which has definitely toned down the drama and other subjects which have nothing to do with sewing. I appreciate Heidi focusing more on sewing and designing.

Brunch with Becky Ross

My friend, Pencil Girl and I met with Becky Ross last Sunday. Becky was candid about what went on behind the scenes during production of season 9 of Project Runway.

Becky lives and works here in Portland, Oregon and she was a total delight to meet.

Six weeks of taping this summer to create season 9 involved a huge amount of sitting and standing around. Contestants stand at attention on the runway awaiting scathing comments from judges; Michael Kors, Nina Garcia and Heidi Klum. The judging which takes a few edited minutes on your home screen takes 5 - 6 hours on the set. Judges confer with the guest judge; all is conferred with the producers who have their own agenda and finally, contestants who have been sitting in the lounge area - waiting- are called back out to hear the final verdict.

Even if you get voted off, you must stay until the end. While the others are battling it out in the workroom, the voted off people hang out in the break room or lounge. It all leads to serious boredom. Becky finally had enough of reading and crossword puzzles and asked for a barbie doll which she proceeded to make outfits for. She dressed them up as contestants, Bryce Black,  production assistants (PA's) or whoever asked for one that looked just like them. This led to a rumor that Becky was making voodoo dolls of cast members.

When contestants arrive in New York, their personal belongings are given a thorough search for contraband. Their wallets are secured and contestants are without phones, internet, e-mail, credit cards or even cash for the entire six weeks. If you needed a candy bar at midnight, you had to phone a PA to get one for you. Becky confessed to a new love of Red Bull drinks and other caffeinated/taurinated drinks in order to withstand the grueling pace.

Contestants had to buy new supplies for every challenge. They could keep tools - like rulers and scissors but not supplies (pins, needles, interfacings) - in an attempt to level the playing field. At Mood they had the allotted time to find fabrics, notions(supplies) and once time was called had to get in line to pay. Hopefully, back in the workroom, found you with the kind of supplies to execute something to put on the runway. You could have any amount of fabrics cut but could only take with you up to the allotted $$ amount.

Challenges were taped back to back. Literally --4 to 6 hours of sleep each night. They struggled until midnight and then came back early the next morning to finish for the runway show. Finishing one challenge, they were greeted with another the next morning. Non-stop. Weekly shows were taped two or three to a week. She said it was a relief in some ways to get voted off because she slept for two days straight.

This is a reality show so any drama induced by the contestants gets a bit of film time. The episode when Josh goes ballistic over Becky's role in the group challenge painted Josh as manipulative and antagonistic. Becky thought he was plain mean. That day started with Becky waking up sick and wanting to throw up. When Becky was well enough to leave the bathroom, Heidi announced the athletic wear challenge. --Where they had to run a lap around the track. --Where Becky got paired up with Josh and Laura and they basically told Becky to just sew. She wasn't there to add design input.

In a cosmic trade-off, contestants were not paid for their time, nor were their mortgages/leases paid while they were gone. The trade-off was the possibility of jump-starting your career and riding the five minutes of fame exposure. Even though Becky got voted off , she now has at least 43 possible career moves.

Becky wants to design for the average woman who is 5'4 and wears a 14-16 size. She wants to be an image consultant because she believes every woman can and should look their best.

She is an excellent seamstress who has really good design ideas for the Pacific Northwest woman.
She is every bit as forthright as she appeared on the show. She tells it how it is. She received quite a bit of air time because of that forthrightness and is reaping the benefit of that now with potential contracts. People really liked what she had to say.

Becky came across as thoughtful about her recent tv experience and where it would lead her. She has an innate sense of humor to be able to look back on events and find the positive aspects and how the experience will help her in the future.

Tim Gunn's critique of Becky.

Becky doesn't fit in. 

From OregonLive

Meet Becky

 The brunch was held at Portland Sewing in Portland.

House of Eliot & Project Runway

I just watched finale 1 from Project Runway. End result is three of the contestants are showing at Fashion week their collections. Next week (?) is the final finale and the decision of who will win: Mondo?, Andy?, or Gretchen?

Gretchen’s looks are true for her but don’t have that runway wow factor (gretchen is from Portland and definitely has a looser 'west coast' style than the other contestants). As Michael Kors says, "crunchy granola".
I am watching “House of Eliot” from BBC that aired back in 1991. (Can this date be right? I thought I watched it with my mom back when I was in high school).  It's about two sisters who design and sew during the early 20’s.
Evie, on disc three ( I think episode 8) has worn, twice now, this beautiful dress that is white with hand embroidered black dotted lines running from the neckline down, interrupted with some beaded/soft embroidery picture on the front hipline down and the lines pick up from here down to the hem. Hems were at calf length.

Poor stop frame from the video. Can't see the black dotted lines.

The sleeves come down nearly to the elbow with the same dotted lines down from the sleevecap. The hem on the sleeve has a slit with long rounded edges. It's a fitted sleeve with the slit.
These styles from the 20’s are very Gretchen but they have the wow factor she is missing. Lots of bias-cut flowing dresses and separates. The coats are very becoming.

Today’s technology lesson: Brian installed Google Chrome as my operating system  - because it is faster – he says.
But I cannot print just a single page (selection) of something from it – it wants to print the whole document. So – I have to cut and paste over to my Word program and then print the selection.
AND – because it will not print shipping labels for USPS/Paypal.
Making me crazy. I finally got around to calling Paypal and they took so long to answer, I typed the question into google and there it was – the stinking answer. Chrome and the newish Internet Explorer 9.? will not print paypal labels. And there is no plan to do so. This has been a problem for over a year.
USPS actually will charge my account for the shipping but the label won’t print – so I have to void the label and wait a few weeks to get a refund on shipping. Then I take the package to the post office with stamps on it.

So – today, I am uninstalling Chrome and reinstalling Firefox.

What operating system do you have???

Dip Dye and Ombre on Project Runway

Have you been watching Project Runway?
I'm a reluctant viewer. I feel stressed when they have to choose their fabrics in fifteen minutes. It takes me 45 minutes to pick out flannel at Joann's!
I feel stressed they have 8 -10 hours to design it, sew it, fit it and finish it.
I actually excel at the absolute last minute way of doing things but this show adds more stress on top of the usual procrastination.
Anyway - this weeks episode has a bit of dip-dyeing and ombre dyeing which my 4H groupies were playing around with recently. Intriguing.
Project Runway: Season 7 Episode 2 Videos | myLifetime.com

If I was more talented -I could show a still of Amy's dip-dyed flirty skirt.
Try this link to another view of the dress she created out of burlap and a little dip-dyeing:

http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/project-runway/extended-judging/episode-2/video/extended-judging-of-amy-sarabi-episode-2