06.28.08
Posted in Threads, Drawing, General at 12:51 pm by deRomilly
I decided Thursday on a whim to actually sign up for Sharon Boggon’s new Studio Journal course at Joggles. Since I don’t have a lot of formal art training, I’ve always felt pressured by my sketchbooks… and that I shouldn’t be. So I’m hoping this will give me a new lease on them. I know just the little bit she covered sketchbooks in the Sumptuous Surfaces class helped immensely last year.
So. First week started Friday, and I’m already psyched about this. 
YAY!! This was a good investment for my art and my business, I think.
So Friday I went out to Michaels thinking maybe I’d get a new journal. Decided to use the one I’ve already got. Got the 2 skeins of DMC I needed to finish a sampler (Spots of Fun - by Debbie Draper). I’m doing it all in one color of variegated thread.
Anyway, while I was at Michaels, I saw these little bobbins of ribbon in the ribbon section… Ended up buying 5 of them. They’re intended for scrapbooking and paper crafts. Ummm… if you say so. I’m going to stitch with them, of course. Pictures. Click to enbiggen:
I think my favorite thread is the one in the last picture. It has what seem to be little pompoms every 3/8 inch or so. And of course it’s in blue and lavender, which though I keep trying to expand my color schemes I seem to always come back to: blue, green and lavender. Oceans. Grin.
I’ll keep y’all posted on what I’m doing with it all! If I can actually get to my studio any time soon, that is!
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06.19.08
Posted in General at 8:48 am by deRomilly
I don’t normally put memes on this site. But I thought this one might give you a bit of insight into me and where I come from, so I went with it.
SpiritCloth tagged everyone. :) So:
1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
At this time 10 years ago I was getting ready to leave NorthCarolina to move back to the Pacific Northwest. The job I’d been promised by the job shop hadn’t materialized, and Dad wasn’t taking care fo himself, and well, I was homesick after six months on a different coast. We were also preparing for a huge science fiction convention fundraiser, and I was doing medieval dancing twice a week: heh, I was also falling for my future husband, but I was denying it at the time. <grin> I was designing cross stitch, but hadn’t gotten up the self-confidence to try to sell any of it.
2. 5 things on my To Do list for today…
a. Write the help topic for the new software feature at the day job.
b. Pick up my pseudo-nephew/godson from Taekwondo.
c. Stitch on my next needlework model for release in the next couple of months.
d. Read.
e. Buy yarn for a knit baby shower gift for a co-worker.
3. Snacks that I enjoy
Carrots, celery, oranges, chocolate…
4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire.
Fund the ballet for a year. Pay off the house. Open a full sized combination dance and needlearts (including dying) studio. Fund a safe house for the non-profit that an acquaintance is developing for abused women.
5. Places I’ve lived. in no particular order.
Eugene, Oregon
Seattle, Washington
Longview, Washington
Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina
Tucson, Arizona
Raleigh, North Carolina
Northridge, California
Cary, North Carolina
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06.14.08
Posted in Free Patterns, Counted work at 4:30 pm by deRomilly
Of mice and Romis.
It took me longer than expected to get to the computer to convert patterns for you. But I’ve got one! OK, so I’ve got two. These are from a very large sampler I’m designing. Wish me luck, ’cause when it’s finished I’ve got to actually STITCH the thing!
Have fun with them. If you use them, let me know how!
Standard copyright notice applies. Feel free to use for personal use only, please don’t sell the design or mass-produce stuff from it. If you want to use them commercially, please ask and we’ll talk. If you link to it, please link to the entire post, not just to the chart.
Click to enbiggen. Note: the first one prints better than it displays, at least on my monitor.
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06.03.08
Posted in General at 9:21 am by deRomilly
I hope you are all enjoying the start of summer.
I have been, but I am, right now, extremely frustrated. I want to be able to stitch, and I can’t. You see, last weekend I got carried away a bit in the garden and terraced the hill behind my house so that I could install the first of several raised beds we are putting in to raise veggies. I was a little… er… enthusiastic with weilding the hoe, and now my right hand is more than sore. The tendons are so inflamed that while I can maneuver knitting (pretty easily as long as it’s not size 1 needles…) and type (which is good, cause I do that in my day job…) I can’t control a sewing needle yet.
It means cross stitch and embroidery is right out for a few days while I recover. I also have difficulty controlling a pen, so I can’t write letters or draw. Nor can I play with geometric designs unless I have access to my computer. Since I’ve got carpool duty today, I’ve got an hour and a half to sit around after work. I was looking forward to stitching and enjoying that time. I forgot to bring my book, so now I’m not sure what I’ll do… nap? I’m just not happy unless my hands are doing something.
End whine.
I have a couple of little geometric designs to post soon. I need to get them converted for you. I shall endeavour to do that tonight and get them posted tomorrow.
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05.12.08
Posted in Costuming, Dance at 8:06 am by deRomilly
There have been a few posts that sent you off on a hunt for the cabaret style bellydance costuming.
Modern cabaret costumes come in a variety of styles. If you are looking for something authentic to a specific time/ethnicity/dance style you need to be pretty knowledgeable. If you are American, and looking for an “American Cabaret” style costume, you have a LOT more leeway in decision making (and in embellishment).
For this reason, and because nothing I dance is likely to be completely authentic – as Saqra says, I will always dance with an American accent, I tend toward mixing and matching almost willy-nilly. There are still a few conventions I follow, however.
First, stylistically.
Egyptian Raqs Sharqi. This format is demure not so much by original nature, from what I can learn by reading, but by law. Egyptian law has mutated over the years to specify what dancers can wear, who can dance where, and how much leg can be displayed in Cairo. Stomach coverings and long skirts with very little slit (so as not to show much leg) are de rigeur. This does NOT preclude the “big names” such as Dina from fiddling with this and pushing the envelope.
Egyptian costuming has two different basic variations: the bedlah, or “uniform” which is generally the two-piece costume (with a stomach cover) that we know here - the bra and belt set over a skirt, whether straight or full, and the beledi dress which is a one-piece, evening-gown or caftan like garment used primarily for the more folkloric styles - for example, dancing with a cane.
Turkish Danse Orientale: This format can be much more “out there,” possibly because of the secular nature of the Turkish government, and possibly simply because the Turkish dancers have a more sexual take on the dance form. In my experience, movements are bigger, costumes are smaller. Music styles are different, there are more unique rhythms involved, including time signatures of 5/8, and 9/8, and the instrumentation is different.
American Cabaret: this format combines bits and pieces of all the other formats, and the costuming reflects that. Beads, side slits in the skirt, harem pants, heels or bare feet, and other shinies. The Americans added and expanded on the use of props in the dance. Here you’ll find sword work, veil work, candle dances in various formats, and all manner of gimmics. Costuming often varies depending on the prop used.
Tribal costuming and beadwork techniques covered later. 
There is a wonderful description of various costumes at Atlanta Bellydance.
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04.24.08
Posted in Costuming, Dance, Dance Accessories at 10:00 am by deRomilly
Bellydance costumes are amazing things. Whether you are looking at a hipscarf used for practice, a fully beaded cabaret costume, or some of the confections that the tribal style dancers put together, you are looking at a work of art. Heck, even the basic hipscarves that students like to wear to class are amazing works of beaded artwork.
This is just a quick overview of the field. There are several major designers out there, from Sim Moda Evi in Turkey to Bella and Madame Abla (may she rest in peace) in Egypt. You can see a beautiful selection of designer costumes at www.dahlal.com .
There’s a beautiful article at the LA Times about the designer Ahmed Diaa Eddin. In addition, there are some absolutely drop-dead creative people in the US creating their own costumes, and guaranteeing that they will be unique in the process. The Costume Goddess (Dina) is a guru of hand-made costumes on the cheap.
And that’s just the cabaret costumes. When you get into American Tribal Style and Tribal Fusion you get funky pants, coins, folkloric patterns and so on and so on. Tribal costuming is still more likely to be made by the individual than purchased, so examples can be seen on the sites of the various dancers and dance troupes.
The costuming Blue Moon Dance company wears at the Renaissance Fairs is typical of ATS costuming (they are a fusion group and wander out of “traditional” tribal costuming quite often) and the Indigo for Tribal Fusion (their myspace site) costuming ideas can’t be beat.
Dance costuming is a treasure trove of needlework and embellishment techniques, as well as basic costume design. Exploring them can become a hobby in itself!
Later I’ll go into some of the dance costume styles in more detail, but this shoud get you started on some eye candy!
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04.14.08
Posted in Free Patterns, Knitting at 9:24 am by deRomilly
These quick lace mitts were designed and made for my friend Rebecca. She hasn’t seen them yet, so if I see a “squee” on her blog I’ll know she reads this one. J
I learned the lace pattern in some sweater that I knit a while ago that didn’t work on me at all. I had the swatch left over, though and applied it to mitts.
Pattern below the picture. As usual, copyright belongs to G. Romilly Mueller, all rights reserved, feel free to use for personal use only, no commercial use, and if you’d like to post to your site, please post a link here rather than reprinting.
Patons classic merino in Royal Purple
Size 4 (3.5mm) and 2 (2.75mm) needles
Gauge: 12 stitches over 2 inches on smaller needles
Cast on 48 stitches on larger needles.
Work k2p2 ribbing for 2 inches.
Switch to smaller needles and begin lace pattern as follows:
Row 1: P1, K1, SSK, YO, SSK, YO, K1, YO, K2tog, YO, K2tog, K1 Repeat 3 more times.
Row 2: P11, K1, repeat 3 more times.
Row 3: P1, SSK, YO, SSK, YO, K3, YO, K2tog, YO, K2tog. Repeat 3 more times.
Row 4: P11, K1, repeat 3 more times.
Repeat lace pattern until work measures 6 inches, ending with a wrong side row.
Knit a row.
Purl a row.
Switch to larger needles and work K2P2 ribbing for 1 ½ inches.
Bind off.
Seam the 1 ½ inch long ribbing, leave 2 ½ inches open for the thumbhole, and seam the rest of the mitt.
Pick up and knit 24 stitches around the thumbhole on the smaller needles. I did this in the round, but you could pick up the ribbing straight before you stitch the lower part of the glove together, and then just run the seam up the thumb ribbing as well.
Work 2 rounds of K1P1 ribbing. Cast off.
Weave in ends.
Make the second one.
Copyright G. Romilly Mueller, 2008
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04.04.08
Posted in Book Reviews, Free Patterns at 12:27 pm by deRomilly
…not to be confused with the Geometry of nature!
I found a new-to-me website. It’s in Dutch, but she translates into English below each post. And even if you couldn’t understand it, the charts are amazing!!! She found the old charts in her Aunt’s attic, and she and many friends have been digitizing them and offering them on her blog for personal use. Definitely worth a look: archives, too…. Lilian Kok: http://myauntsattic.web-log.nl/
If you like my little geometric designs you’ll love these. I found the site through the Gift of Stitching yahoo group.
The Gift of Stitching is the first needlework magazine I’ve bothered to subscribe to in a long time. It’s completely in electronic format, which allows them to have lots of color and lots of patterns and articles for less money than printing them. And the designers are international, which provides for a broader view of the art form in general.
Not affiliated (yet, though in the spirit of full disclosure, I do hope to put up an affiliation link soon…).
In addition, I recently received a copy of “The Art & Embroidery of Jane Hall, Reflections of Nature“. All I can say is wow. This isn’t a project book, but it does detail many of her projects. With her own words reflecting a magical outlook on nature and the world around her punctuating the photographs, this is worth every penny I paid for it. Link above is to Amazon for ease, but if you can find it at an independent bookstore, please do. The images are detailed, clear, and she works lifesize… stumpwork beetles with couched gold wings: 3/4 inch wide. TINY things. The gold thread that’s couched down is the size of sewing thread. Little silk scales made for a mermaid’s tail that are the size of a pinhead, tacked down with miniscule little stitches. And I thought *I* was insane with the tiny tiny fiddly work!!! I’m going to have to revise my opinions. Maybe there are levels of insane? Like rings of hell?
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03.26.08
Posted in General at 7:01 am by deRomilly
First, I’m losing it. The company that manages my 401K sent me an email today, and I thought it was spam, but was willing to open it anyway, because I was SURE it was from the “Yarn Benefits Center.” Was from “YOUR benefits center…,” Sigh. I think I might be in withdrawal. Since I’m losing weight because of a getting-resolved (yay!) health problem, I’m not knitting for myself right now, and don’t have time to knit gifts…. So I’m not fondling yarn a lot. Waaaaa.
Second. Congratulations to my old college roommate, who after leaving her marriage and suddenly becoming a single mom, is rejoining the workforce after 15 years into her dream position. YAY!
I promise a real textile post in the next day or two. There are several that just need a bit of tweaking, but I needed to get those two items off of my chest.
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03.19.08
Posted in Artwork, Dance, General at 8:52 am by deRomilly
In a previous post I asked myself if I am an evil cultural appropriator for wanting to use traditional ikats in my work. This question came up, in many ways, because of my alternate hobby of bellydance or raqs sharqi.
There is a debate raging through the dance community - quietly for the most part, although it flares up now and again. The debate revolves around the question: “by learning, performing, and transforming this dance, are we appropriating the culture of another people, just because it is exotic, in much the same way as Europeans in the 19th century appropriated the lands the dance comes from?
It’s a valid question, and one that bears deep thought. It can be easy, when you are American, and of multicultural descent, even if primarily European, to say, “Everything around me and my American heritage comes from different cultures, so what’s the big deal?” It IS a big deal to some Middle Easterners, many of whom feel that their entire culture is stereotyped by Europeans and Americans into the word “bellydance,” a word they don’t use to describe what they do.
Now, personally, I don’t see bellydance as much of anything but American. If I am discussing Egyptian dance, I’ll say “raqs sharqi,” if Turkish - “danse orientale” (which is, of itself a European term). “Bellydance” is an American term applied to a dance form imported in the 1800s and transformed into a performance art by mostly Americans, some of Middle Eastern descent, in the 1950s and 1960s, the US’s “Golden Age” of nightclub performances. I’ve seen many women, and some men, too, find peace with their bodies and their emotions as they learn this dance (a wonderful description of this phenomenon by another dance teacher). I respect its origins and try to learn as much about its history as I can. But “bellydance” in the US is as much Middle Eastern tradition as ballet is French tradition. It has drifted so far from its roots that while you can recognize the seeds of the movements as related, they are very different plants. I am not, of course, referring to the myriad of people who try very hard to learn the “traditional” dances (which have also been influenced heavily by colonial expectations, and could therefore be accused as being somewhat tainted even in their own countries. Modern Egyptian raqs sharqi, for example, has drawn from ballet as well as movements from various tribal groups in the region).
Which leads me to textiles. When I or my family travels, I am often gifted or purchase as souvenirs, fabric and embroideries. Sometimes I buy pieces here that were created specifically for export. The question my dance experience triggers is, if I use these pieces in my art, or even the techniques I learn from them in my art, is it cultural appropriation in a bad way? My community has always been extremely diverse. My friends include Vietnamese, Indian, Native American, European American, African and African American, and the list goes on. Personally, when I use a textile or a motif in my artwork, especially if it comes from one of the cultures I am tied to by friendship - it will be used to bring those friends and acquaintances into my work - much as I might use a piece of my grandmother’s dress in a crazy quilt to evoke her life and work. I try to incorporate every textile and image I use with respect. When all is said and done, someone somewhere will probably be offended, whether because I have excluded their culture, or used it.
But hopefully, the people who matter to me won’t be, because they know I respect them as people.
Thoughts? This cultural appropriation thing is a HUGE topic. And one that can fall into any genre, be it painting, dance, writing, textiles, etc.
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