Category Archives: LIFE LOVERS

The tiny apartment got a big upgrade this weekend: linen curtains!  First, a little backstory. Three years ago, I moved from Illinois to my brother and sister-in-law’s farm in the hills of southern Wisconsin. The farmhouse is tucked into a valley, surrounded by woods and grassy pastures full of grazing sheep and cattle. I moved…

“We live surrounded by cloth.” Kassia St Clair It is hard to imagine what our lives would be without textiles. From the clothes we wear to the bedding we sleep in and the furnishings that adorn our homes and work places, sumptuous patterns and textures define the world we live in. Visionary textile designers through…

Whether you were allowed to see your family this past Christmas and New Year or got to be close to some of your friends, it won’t change the fact that the turning of the year was and continues to be anything but normal for any of us. As temperatures drop even further, and a little…

“At the beginning of the seventeenth century, flame-like rivers of cloth could billow behind a prosperous citizen, or flow over his shoulder and across his lap.” Anne Hollander The Baroque era was fuelled by intense, fiery passion and raw emotional impact. Like Renaissance and Mannerist artists before them, Baroque visionaries from the mid-17th to mid-18th…

I celebrated the first day of winter by sewing a linen dress for summer. This might just become a tradition. I have certainly heard of buying clothes out-of-season, but sewing clothes out-of-season? That’s a new concept for me.  While creating the NICO dress in a Midweight OLIVE BRANCH Linen, I discovered something about myself. I…

The flowing, ostentatious language of Mannerist art in the 16th century grew out of the High Renaissance. But Renaissance naturalism and realism was replaced by heightened, exaggerated drama, and fabric played a vital narrative and compositional role. Moving beyond reality gave artists a newfound, expressive freedom, and drapery was given a life of its own,…

This summer I walked out my back door and groaned. The mulberry tree dropped a plethora of berries on the patio. There was a berry every two inches in each direction. Some berries get mercifully eaten by wildlife. Most just seem to await their fate of returning to soil. I’m tempted to be annoyed because…

Fabrics-Store has many well designed patterns to inspire the possibilities of what to make with their lovely linen. In my over two decades of sewing I don’t think I have sewn more than one piece that is cut on the bias. The NICO Dress Pattern was a very good pattern for me to stretch myself…

“Dress was employed by the Renaissance elite to manifest rank and magnificence.” William J Connell, contemporary historian. In High Renaissance Italian art, virtuoso paintings convey an extravagant world of thick piled velvet, metallic embroidery and glossy, stiffened silks. This fabric allowed artists to tell wondrous, exotic stories, whipping and swirling in the wind, circling and…

Act One: A Failure in Kindness One time I had to ask the local sheep shearer to come to shear my family’s flock. He is notoriously difficult to work with. Several experiences with him in the past led to me not look forward to making this phone call. Mother and I were so anxious to…

“Fabric was more than décor; it became part of the story.” Alan Riding, writer Sinuous, flowing drapes of fabric flow across early Renaissance paintings, wrapping the contours of bodies and breathing into them dynamic life. Taking their cue from the sculptures of Ancient Greece, artists of the Renaissance period produced diaphanous veils of colour and…

“Queen to b4, knight to F7, bishop to H5…” I couldn’t help but overhear an older man talking to himself as he replayed one of the great chess games of history. He held an orange book with tattered corners in one hand while swiftly moving the pieces on the board in front of him with…

“Veils and cloths are versatile instruments that stimulate fantasy and conjure make believe…” Paul Hills, art historian Fabric defines Renaissance art, cascading, caressing, or breezing over saintly figures, lavish interiors, and ethereal landscapes with decadent, sumptuous folds. Art reflects how fabric was woven into Renaissance culture, filling palaces, churches, interiors, and streets with glorious colour,…

I recently spent another rainy Saturday at my sewing machine. This time, it resulted in a wide leg CHARLIE Pant in Midweight Natural Linen. As the temperatures continue to drop in Wisconsin and we prepare for our first snowfall, I have been thinking about warm layers and garments that transition from season to season. I…

Do you ever think about how no one chose to be here? No one submitted an application to exist. Our existence was chosen for us. Therefore, no one has more or less right to be here than you. You have a right to take up space. You are enough, the very essence of who you…