catch of the day

As many of you guessed, I have been sewing felt fish. 

I have sewn felt goldfish in the past (and you can, too!  See that free pattern over there, on the left?  Give it a try!), but this is a new fish shape. 

This pattern started with an image of a fish lamp by Frank Gehry.  There is an exhibit of his fish lamps  at The Jewish Museum in New York right now and it looks really amazing. 

Charlie and I visited the Jewish Museum seven years ago when I was pregnant with Roxanne and we had a really wonderful time there.  I wish I could make it down again this month to see this show. 

Gehry apparently was inspired to make fish when he was asked by Formica to create something from their new product line in the 1980s.  He broke a piece and it looked like a fish scale.

I cut out an image of one of the lamps from the most recent issue of Modernism and went upstairs to sketch out a new fish that would have layers of scales.  As it developed, though, it got simpler and the end result is a super pattern that comes together in under an hour, works great every time, and creates what I think is a rather fun and endearing fish. 

I like them strung together as though they have just been reeled in.  Mimi makes beautiful fish (and you can, too!  Get her pattern here!), and my fish are a similar species – maybe cod or haddock? Fish are wonderful subjects for artists. I like what Gehry said, "If you really want to go back into the past, why not do fish?"

I'm back to working with felt again and I love it. And I find it always interesting to see how an idea evolves and changes over the hours it takes for it to become a stuffed fabric object. 

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On Thursday I am teaching Roxanne's Daisy Scout troop to sew felt pencil cases. 

I modified this project from an old Martha Stewart Kids to make the cases a bit bigger, thus allowing larger seam allowances and more room for the stitches of a six-year-old. There are 22 girls in the troop and I have pre-threaded two needles for each of them and pre-cut and ironed all the felt.  I hope we can get the whole project made in the twenty minutes I've been allotted!