Me Made May:

Ok, I do not have enough clothing sewn or knit for an entire month of garments, especially in May when it is a lot warmer.  If it were Me Made November, I could regale everyone with handknit socks, sweaters, scarfs and shawls, with winter skirts and leggings.  I've never really found what I like to wear in the warmer months. I still work in an air-conditioned hell (the cold, not the job) where I feel like I should still be wearing winter clothing, only to go outside to the summer months. Stores all show sleeveless dresses and summer play wear that isn't suitable for work or the sub arctic office conditions.

However, I can easily do a Me Made May with jewelry, with some clothing thrown in during the event.  I'm not sure if that is ok, but I'm going for it!  To me, this is an event to challenge you, and so i'm game.

Today I wore a J.Jill dress with a white sweater, and an enamelled necklace that I made.

The cord is hand painted fabric from the Design Outside the Lines retreat that I attended in September in Taos, and the medallion is from the enameling classes that I attend.  The strips of color on the medallion are very fine shards of colored glass that melt when you put the piece in the kiln.  

Two Classes:

With the holidays being over, one turns to organizing. I've always thought it is interesting that we have such an abundance of excess from Thanksgiving to the New Year and then suddenly, everywhere we turn it is either diet, exercise, resolutions and getting organized. What to do with a New Year? How do we shape up and accomplish all that we should?

Well for me, my thoughts turned to where in the heck did all this yarn-fabric-beads come from? Surely it must multiple while I'm not looking, so when at the quilt shop, I signed up for a monthly get organized "club", which consisted of sewing various organizing projects over the year as you buy more fabric etc. to make them :)   The first one was the first Friday in January, and I can say i'm pleased with the project and it is finished. Stash and Dash.  The first one is ok, I plan on making another soon, i'd love to have one for travel, one for sewing classes, one for embroidery classes and then one for knitting supplies, but that may be too much organizing for me. The next class is the pattern- Nesting Baskets.  The club is a Friday night, 5-10 so albeit after a work week, either very relaxing or tiring, with dinner included.

Folded with clear pocket holding my Eiffel tower scissors that my daughter in law bought for me. 

Open showing inside of bag.  We used the type of zipper that you can
take apart and then pair with a contrasting pull tab, as well as making the zipper
itself two toned.  I did black and white, and think that this would be neat in
garment construction, pockets perhaps?   Anyway, three mesh pockets on the inside.

Just a closer look at the insides and contrasting fabric

Rolled up and secured with buckle. The pattern calls for rounding out the
edges, but we left it squared.

The second class that I took Saturday is one that I have been intrigued with for a bit, and finally decided to just take it. It was creating a Sami Bracelet, which is basically a pewter braid couched onto a leather piece, and then finished off with a small button. This technique is a handcraft of the Sámi who are the indigenous people of the far north in Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. The leather traditionally used is reindeer, as well as the button being from reindeer antlers. In addition to fishing and farming, reindeer husbandry has been an important part of their livelihood. Right now, Sami bracelets are in style and examples can be see in the  a number of places on the net, such as:

Swed-art and Anita Gronstedt, which are far more complicated than the one I made.  For another source or if you live near this center:

The National Norwegian-American Museum and Heritage Center

I chose black as my first one, a good friend Lois made her's in red leather and it's beautiful:

 I plan on making more and want to experiment with creating centerpiece type beads for necklaces with the same technique.