I’ve started teaching bowl-making classes on Zoom. If you are interested in taking a class or want more information, contact me at rodiludlum@ix.netcom.com.

I’ve joined most of my sewing friends in producing masks and getting them to hospitals, doctors and others who need them in Southern California.

There are a number of designs available online and most are stitched together with just a few layers of cotton and elastic straps. These homemade masks are not a substitute for the high-grade N95 masks that are the most effective protection against coronavirus. But reportedly some doctors are wearing the homemade masks over surgical or N95 masks, trying to prolong their limited lifespan. I’ll keep making them as long as there is a need.

People who visit my art fair booth often ask if they can put a battery candle inside my fabric ginger jars to create a lamp.  I tell them that two layers of fabric plus heavy interfacing make the ginger jars opaque. 

Guila Greer from my art quilt group (extremequilters.com) told us about a worldwide project to create 12” square quilt blocks for charity quilts.  The blocks are being shipped to Australia, where they will be assembled into quilts for families in Australia who have lost their homes in the wildfires. 

A real parrot and his human companion visited my birds at the Issaquah Salmon Days festival in Issaquah, Washington on October 5th and 6th.

Cats can’t resist my fabric bowls. I’ve learned from friends, family and customers that as soon as they get a nice bowl home and placed in the perfect spot, kitty kidnaps it and turns it into his or her new favorite napping spot. Most cats fit pretty well in a full-sized bowl. Not that it matters! A customer shared this photo with me today at the Kings Mountain Art Fair. This is her 20 pound cat settled into a Frida Kahlo bowl that she purchased at last year’s fair.

Inspired by this dress in the exhibition “Guo Pei – Couture Beyond” at the Bowers Museum, I tried to make something remotely similar using an organza tablecloth cut into strips with wire sewn inside.

I made a red thread bowl for the base using Solvy and tiny confetti-sized bit of fabric.  The strips were sewn to the red base and then sewn to each other for support.  I was hoping to create a spider web type support system but it was really difficult to continue the stitching beyond the wired strips, with the thread floating in mid-air.

I made a second, mustard colored Solvy thread bowl to put inside but am now debating about putting it below instead and maybe creating multiple bowls at the base in layers, like Guo Pei does with the underpinnings on her garments.  Multiple layers would also hide the ceramic saucer I glued to the base of the red bowl to keep it upright and anchor it.

My sewing friends like the base of the yellow strips exposed rather than hidden with the yellow bowl.  They want me to add more wired strips to the center of the bowl and create a forest of round organza circles on the wired stems.