• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Melanie Testa

  • home
  • Bio+
    • about
    • Breast Cancer Advocacy
    • Contact
  • Portfolio
    • Quilts
    • Mixed Media
    • Florabunda! by RJR Fabrics
    • Meadowlark by Windham
    • Soy Wax Resist
  • In Print
    • my book – Playful Fabric Printing
    • my book – Dreaming From the Journal Page
    • my book – Inspired to Quilt
    • my DVD – Print, Collage, Quilt
    • published in
  • blog
  • Store

Saturday, oh saturday.

I bought this: Six Strand Embroidery Cotton, 500gm, White and I have no regret. I am falling in love with embroidery, and I mean head over heels in love.  And Procion MX dye has some part in the picture. 

I have been having a post cancer dialog with myself as to whether I would continue to use Procion MX dye.

Pros and cons:

It is a synthetic chemical.

It isn’t conducive to apartment living/studio space. 

I still drum up projects using Procion MX dye  for at least a portion of the project. 

I own a full set of colors and all of the equipment to go with it.

So what I have decided is, I am going to use the dyes I own and I am going to use it sporadically, as I see fit.  Embroidery is my current obsession and I want a full array of color gradations in every color of thread, so I prepare to dye them. I am on a mission to use the cloth I have been making for the last 10 years. Some dye use here and there, if tidy, succinct, and abbreviated is OK.

Discussion closed. 

 David and I walked through Red Hook this morning. There was a tag sale. I bought this set of stamps for 5$, no wait, 15$, oh, I mean 10$. It was a confusing negotiation. The cigar box had a 5$ sticker on it. I told the guy I wanted it, he said, “15$, please. You get the idea. We settled on 10$. I wanted the set. It also has a full set of numbers. The box they are nestled in, not the cigar box is the original.

Great find.

We also found a brand new wash board. I have been wanting one, we hand wash a lot here at Casa Testa. This washing board is metal, has two textures, one flat, one grated. It really is Dubl Handi.

Breast Pocket production is in ull swing around the world. I have spoken to folks in Hong Kong, Australia, Finland and all over the U.S. Someone read about the project over at Craft Gossip, which I have never heard of but I like very much. Great name, too.

Here you see the western pocket. I will Kantha Stitch this piece, dense straight rows in the negative space around the ribbon. Can you see it in this picture? For no particular reason, I am stitching this pocket for my paternal Grandmother. Maybe it is because she used to enjoy watching Westerns on Sunday afternoon television.

I love the Kantha Cloth that uses stitch along with pictorial story telling. I will be researching more about Kantha.

October 6, 2012 By Melanie Tagged With: Breast Pockets, Brooklyn, Embroidery, NYC

Previous Post: « Sewing, Stitching, Embroidery.
Next Post: For Jennie »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jeannie

    October 6, 2012 at 7:41 pm

    Major lust!!! For both the thread and stamps! I have a antique dealer friend and she finds the old wooden print blocks for me, we trade for dyed cloth. 😉 Have you thought about making a glove box? (Out here in nuke land, there are people who stand for their 8 hour shift with their hands in the box. I don’t think I could do it.) I have a washboard like that from my Gram. It works great for felting, too. (In case you were looking for another craft. tee-hee!) I am just blown away by the outpouring of breast pockets and flaps. We live in such a giving and loving part of the virtual world. I hope your Sunday is as nice as your Saturday. xoxo

  2. Michelle in NYC

    October 6, 2012 at 11:58 pm

    My admiration for your efforts with the World Wide Community with the Breast Poxkets just grows and grow…and what stunning finds in Redhook….I love Redhook anyway—what are the hours and directions to that market? If it’s not too much trouble would you email me? Also…I have sent a link to your site to a friend for her sister who just underwent a double mastectomy and I want to send her the article you wrote about not having reconstructive…but I can’t find it, sooooo, again, if not too much, kindly include the URL for that.
    Thanks

  3. Barbara Fox

    October 7, 2012 at 7:29 pm

    I did an historical study of Kantha embroidery in a Level 2 class I took at the Gail Harker Center for Creative Arts and completely loved it. We each had to do our own narrrative–I chose the garden since that is my other love. Love how the running stitch can actually create movement in the story-telling of the piece.

  4. Lisa

    October 9, 2012 at 12:29 am

    OH I love letter stamps! Those are amazing and a great buy too!

Primary Sidebar

All things me:



InspiredtoQuiltSideBar

Tags

#QuiltwithLove Birds Blog Hop Breast cancer Breast Pockets cancer Craft Napa Dreaming From The Journal Page Embroidery Etsy Facebook Family Female Magazine Fitness Florabunda friends Gather your Sew-plies!! Give Away Hand Printed Hand Sewing Inspiration Instagram Journaling Meadowlark Melly Marks Multicolor Printing Multicolor Stamps NYC Peach Playful Fabric Printing Procion MX dye Quilt Quilting RJR Fabrics Sew-plies Sew Along Stamps Stencil StencilGirl Studio Supplies The 20 The Clever Guild Video Windham Fabrics

Footer

Copyright © 2022 ·Foodie Pro Theme · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in