Halloween Horrors! Sewing with kids

Against my better judgement, I let my 13 year old daughter convince me to help her sew her costume (and shop for the fabric and notions at JoAnn's!) on a Friday night. The Friday night before the school's Halloween carnival. Jeanetta had seen the pattern over three weeks ago, but it wasn't available in town so we had to order it. Between the delay in getting the pattern, Jeanetta getting sick for over a week, and other time commitments, we hadn't been able to start. Now, it was the night before the carnival and she just had to get that costume done. I should have said no. I'm not a good garment maker and I've definitely left the days when I could pull an all-nighter and still function the next day far behind. But, I also really want my girls to know how to sew and I know that there is always going to be a reason not to start a project. Costume sewing is very forgiving, sew no time like the present (yes, I know that is a dreadful pun).


We arrived at JoAnn's at about 5:30 pm and got out about 6:45. Not bad considering the line at the cutting counter seemed to extend out the door. We started sewing around 8. Jeanetta did about half the work, letting me do the rotary cutting and some of the more precise sewing. I know, she should learn to cut out patterns by herself, but time, and the desire to maintain all of her fingers intact, was of the essence. Fueled (in my case) by Cabernet and chocolate, we finally finished up at 1:20 am. The carnival wasn't until noon, but we had to get up early for Jeanetta's orchestra practice. Then, a hasty change in the bathroom and off to the carnival. I can't quite decide what her character is. Wednesday? Morticia? Elvira? Still, definitely a great look :) The pattern, since you can't really tell in the photo, has long princess type sleeves (Jeanetta designed the bottom of the sleeve herself), an empire waist with ties that criss-cross down and tie in front, and a fancy dress skirt attached to the bodice. There is also a pattern for a skirt or pants to go under it, but the top is large enough on her that we didn't need them.

One issue I struggled with in deciding to go ahead with this project was fairness. There was no way I could also sew the costume Lynneva wanted, especially since I would need to create the pattern myself. We managed a good costume for her, though, by re-purposing the white dress I made for her old Princess Leah costume into a ghost costume. The last minute purchase of silver hair spray was an excellent touch and she was the best "exploding box" character in the haunted house (aka the fifth grade classroom). Lynneva had thought that a ghost costume would be boring, but not anymore. Of course, we'll reprise these characters on Monday for the real Halloween.

UFO Flip Flop

The original piece. It just washed
out against a pale background.

When is a finished project not finished? When it doesn't work for you. Of course, if you can find someone else it will work for you can always give it away, but when it is a piece you like and think has potential you really have to find a way to rescue it. The UFO I "finished" last weekend just wasn't doing it for me. It had an internal glow, but that didn't show up against the light background of my walls. Given that my wall painting plans have been pushed to the way back burner this year (thanks Laura) it needed a do over.

With the new background.

So, I created a new background for it. With my extensive stash of fabrics it was no problem to find the perfect blue batik. I then sandwiched it using the flip and turn method. I don't generally like this method, but didn't want a binding for this particular project. Once the background was turned and the opening stitched closed I quilted it with floral designs based on the original piece, first with a darker blue from Sulky Blendables, then with a shiny purple variegated, and then with the same shiny orange and purple variegated I used on the original project. It was a good chance to practice my free motion work. I attached the original piece using nylon invisible thread. Now I have a quilt I can enjoy instead of a disappointment to be stashed away in the closet corner.

Do I get to count the zombie cupcakes?

Crows feast on maggoty zombie flesh.

The costume that started it all.

This weekend marked the beginning of our family's, no, my girls' and my Halloween obsession. No doubt my husband would be just as happy to never see another pumpkin. So, we spent quite a bit of time at Jo-Ann's and Michael's on Saturday. I ended up ordering a Halloween costume pattern online because we couldn't find what Jeanetta wanted here in town. I'll be mostly winging it on Lynneva's sea monster.  I'm going as a sea witch, or sea weed, whatever fits. We got into the habit of making costumes in 2007 when I went as Rita Skeeter. The girls got such a kick out of it that we have made something every year since.

The cousins and their zombie fare.

So far we have created a small graveyard (I spent two days trying to get Ziggy to pee on a gravestone for a picture, but no luck yet) and made our first round of zombie cupcakes from the book Zombie Cupcakes by Zilly Rosen. I had my niece and nephew over and thought they would make a nice activity for the kids while I sewed downstairs. Yeah, right. Zombie cupcakes require a great deal of adult supervision. If anyone is wondering, fondant and the fondant/gum paste mix required are easy and surprisingly tasty. Italian meringue buttercream is a pain in the ass to make and tastes like whipped sugar and fat. Yuck. We'll be making a traditional buttercream or cream cheese frosting next time. Our favorites so far are the eye poppers and crows.


I did manage to complete one UFO in all the chaos. This technique comes from "Transformations: From Crafty Silk Flower to Sheer Sensation" by Peggy Holt in the Quilting Arts Fall 2006 Issue. I completed it except for the binding a year or two ago in a Quilting Arts class with Corlis Taylor. I decided to use a satin stitch instead of binding to get a more organic wavy border. This piece is low contrast, but is actually more interesting than this photo shows. I plan on doing more with this technique next weekend. Wish me luck!

When was the last time you had a flow experience? Or, has motherhood and modern life made me stupid?

I first heard about "flow" at a joint NSF/NASA conference for Tribal Colleges and Universities and other minority serving institutions. The researcher was talking about flow in the context of math learning and since the majority of students in our STEM and other programs are adult women with children I asked if they had any advice on math learning for students who had a hard time reaching flow due to having to cook dinner, supervise their children, and care for their elderly parents while trying to learn math. The presenter (and audience) just laughed, but I think this remains an important question even if we have no good answer for it.

The "flow experience" is a concept in psychology developed by Csíkszentmihályi (yeah, I just cut and pasted that name) to describe a mental state of focused motivation and immersion. The examples the conference scientist used came primarily from sports (a type of group flow): something about the Chicago Bulls and a game 7? Sports fans will know. Another example of group flow is orchestral performance. I remember well the feeling of flow when I played the french horn. The researcher proposed that flow was necessary for truly learning math. I would say that flow experiences are essential to deep learning, and deep performance, in any subject.

I haven't had a true flow experience since spring of 2010 when I was finishing my dissertation and even then I was forcing it all the way. Between my children, my family, and my work I haven't been able to focus on creativity or learn anything at any depth in a long, long time. It may be that I am experiencing the whole motherhood/career/superwoman cliche thing and need to buck up, or it may be that I'm just particularly vulnerable to distraction, but whatever the cause it is troubling. Because of the inability to find flow I tend to avoid starting things - a new project, or even a new book doesn't get started because I know my experience will be interrupted and I'd rather not suffer the pain of being torn away again. I feel like my brain can no longer engage. I used to feel like I could learn anything I put my mind to. Now I feel, quite frankly, a bit slow, a bit stupid.

So what does that have to do with my crafting and fiber arts? Without flow for me it feels like there is no art. Over the years I have gotten better at compartmentalized flow (flow with interruptions), but it never seems quite as satisfying or productive. I tend to choose projects that don't require too much creativity or concentration. What's more, I'm concerned that my children are not experiencing as much flow as I did at their age and this partly due to my inability to focus as well as the increased homework and other extra work they seem to have. Will they ever have the experience of being so totally immersed in something that breakthroughs flow through their pencil like an underground spring bubbling up through the rocks? So in tune with their fellow musicians that it feels as though they are playing as one? I guess at 11 and 13 it might be too early for me to worry about their opportunities for flow. But I'll be watching to encourage flow experiences wherever I can for them, my students, and myself.

The Sensation of Moving, While Standing Still *

It is not a good sign when you end your weekend more tired and stressed than when you started it, especially when your goal is to be more tranquil and equanimous. This was one of those weekends where I probably would have been better off resting and cleaning than quilting: resting because I always need more rest and cleaning because a messy house (the state my house is in most of the time) stresses me out.

On the surface the weekend looked like a perfect time to work on projects. My girls stayed over at their grandparents for a night, James was in the Fort for work, and I was feeling inspired by Bad Girls. I got to have some delicious Indian food, a glass of decent Cabernet, and dark chocolate. I listened to Mahler's Symphony No. 6. And, I did get something done. I did a bit of quilting on my coat and I started a couple of the Watershed School quilted logo wall-hangings.

So what's the problem? It seemed like I was going, going, going all weekend long and I don't have much to show for it. The coat is a long-term project that I expect to take a lot of time, but the wall-hangings should be very quick and I had hoped to get them completed instead of just set up. Add that to the messy house, missing a day of yoga, drudgery shopping (as opposed to the fun kind), and an upcoming week filled with a seemingly endless list of little, but necessary tasks and I feel like the treadmill of my life has taken me for a ride with no end in sight, but no change of scenery either.

* I took this title from a1989 article of the same name by Sidney Mintz. Mintz, an anthropologist and oral historian was remarking on the changes in anthropological ideas about representation that labeled him too friendly to his subject in the 1960s and not friendly enough in the 1980s. It's all in your perspective. Does that mean if I change my perspective I'll feel like I got a lot done? Probably, but this melancholy gal is going to wallow in her misery for a little while longer.