[Sunday Oct 23rd 6PMStencil Workshop:We will have some cardboard and cutting utensils you just need to bringimages to work with and learn the basics of stencil making, Marty Garciafrom the Southside artist collective "House of Payne" will be your will beleading the workshop. Check out www.casadepayne.org]

Don't know if anyone else subscribes to Quimby's bookstore's mailing list...but here's the most recent one they sent out. The "crafty" events have been highlighted!

"Quimby's Bridgeport" will be open on weekends for one month and one month
only, Oct. 22–November 13, 2005, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays only.

"Bridgeport: Community of the Future" is a not so tongue-in-cheek reference
to the burgeoning art scene in Bridgeport. Over the past few years a number
of galleries, cultural spaces like Iron Studios the Zhou B. Center have
quietly opened and are establishing a compelling alternative option for
cultural workers to work and play.

This effort is part of the "Community of the Future Experimental Culture
Zone." The Select Media Festival helps kick start a new artistic “cultural
center” along a one block area on 3100 – 3200 South Morgan St that hosts
three independent stores: Quimby’s, Myopic Books and Odd Obsession Video,
alongside the only coffee house in Bridgeport and a local favorite dive
bar.
The stores will host workshops, presentations and other independent media
projects to create a site of interaction between residents, visitors and
the
wide range of independent media culture that these stores will supply. The
storefronts will only be open on the weekends.

Hours for Quimby's Bridgeport, Oct. 22–November 13, 2005:
Fridays 6-9PM, Saturdays 1-9PM, Sundays 1-8PM

Here's where:
It's at 3201 S. Morgan, which is south of W. 31st street and west of
Halsted, between and S. Aberdeen and S. Lituanica Ave.

Sunday Oct 23rd 6PM
Stencil Workshop:
We will have some cardboard and cutting utensils you just need to bring
images to work with and learn the basics of stencil making, Marty Garcia
from the Southside artist collective "House of Payne" will be your will be
leading the workshop. Check out www.casadepayne.org
Saturday Oct 29th 7PM
Imaginary History Fauxhemian Wine Tasting
Bring your own bottle of wine/non-alcoholic wine/wine-flavored beverage of
your choosing (decorate the label first), and discuss the the history
you've
created. How was this wine prepared? With what does it pair well? Where
does
it come from? How does it taste? What is delicious/lame about it? What is
the vintage? This is all up to  you. Cheese will be provided. Feel free to
wear those cocktail outfits that you feel like you're all dressed up in but
have nowhere to go.

Sunday Oct 30th 5PM
Randall Bailey local artist behind "Slitte" & "The Christopher Worm"
presents an interactive presentation with a sort of artificial intelligence
- in that a sort of communication is established between the viewer and
what
is being viewed. Using original drawings, sound and collage Randall will do
something strange to your mind.

Sunday Nov 6th
Gutters Special Southside edition 5PM
Gutters is a free independent printed media workshop with an emphasis on
minicomics and zines. Gutters has two main goals, the first being teaching
people all about indie printed media. We do this by bringing in special
guests for demos and discussions. If it's on paper and there's more than
one
of them, we'll show you how to do it. The other goal is to help the DIY
publishing community here in Chicago get to know one another. There is a
social aspect to all of our events, and we really want to get people
together and excited about self-publishing. Gutters is free and open to
anyone. We normally meet the last Sunday of every month at Chicago Comics,
3244 N. Clark from 3 to 6PM. So this will be a special edition. For more
info check our blog at myspace.com/gutterszine.

Sunday Nov 13th 5PM
Join members of the "Diamonds on Archer" collective as they demonstrate how
silk screening works. Bring items to be screened and walk out with a new
take on fashion and D.I.Y. printing.

--
Quimby's Bookstore
1854 W. North Ave
Chicago, IL  60622
tel. 773/342-0910
www.quimbys.com

Ohhh man...I was at the JoAnn fabrics on Elston, leaning over in a very precarious manner to go through the drawers of patterns, when *RIIIIPPPPPPPPP*...my men's dress pants from the thrift store split ALLLL the way down my ass. literally everything was hanging out. and to add insult to injury, i had biked there. i had bad thoughts about cruising down Damen with my underwear flapping in the wind...hehee...

Luckily, the woman who sells sewing machines there was nice enough to give me a piece of fabric to drape around myself while she fixed the seam. So if you saw me in the bathroom with a makeshift black skirt looking embarassed, that was me!

And that, my friends, is how JoAnne fabrics saved my ass.

I made a family tree for my grandparent's 50th anniversary. As you can see, its pretty large- and this is only kids and their kids (no spouses)! I used a vintage pillowcase as the background, acrylic paints, and a fabric pen to put in the names. It was fairly easy, and I'm thinking of doing something like this for christmas presents.

The tree:


Up Close:


Loosely based on this stencil:

Soo...I just got tickets to see the author of Julie/Julia. Its a book about a secretary in Queens who decides to cook all the recipes in the 1961 edition of Modern art of French Cooking by Julia Child. And i am SO PSYCHED to see her! Anyways, i would love to make something for her to bring to the reading, but alas, all i have to work with pictures is crummy MS Word. Could someone out there help me with a stencil from one of the following pictures?

My boyfriend's mother Lynne was a crafty kind of lady...she acted, sang, and made full fledged home movie productions with her husband... Here's a link to my boyfriend's donation page. Just thought I would put this out on Craftster:

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=110118&lis=1&kntae110118=F1DD64E67A694BDC87A125E560EF5AD6&supId=55673254

Does anyone know a good place to purchase a smallish amount of sturdy and big plain black canvas tote bags? I like the ones with the long handles that allow you to throw them over your shoulder. I'm looking to purchase some for embellishment purposes. And i want BIG ones, I have a lot of stuff to carry!!!

2647 N. Elston

The new Jo-Anne superstore opens tomorrow (Sept. 23rd). I'm so excited, the place is HUGE. Grocery store huge!

Did anyone else see American Dad tonight?! The alien character mentioned shrinky dinks - "like SHRINKABLE ART!!"

it was HILARIOUS!!! and the first mention in mainstream media of the shrinky dink....

anyone else seen any crafty mentions in a tv show lately?! maybe it will become a new trend...

Here is the second revamp I've done. it was originally too 70's for my taste, and didn't match my 50's kitchen. I collaged a page from a vintage cookbook, painted over the small details I didn't want, and checkered. the floor. It took a long time and was a little frustrating, but I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Before:


After:

Here's a sweatshirt I made a while back. Not an exact replica of the Sublime Stitching patterns (my tracing skills are not perfect!), but close enough. I can't wait for it to get cold again, so I can wear it!