Paris and a Sewing Kit

Callan and Matt on the elevator to her room on the 5th floor

I'm working on several ideas in my studio and find myself revisiting last year and our trip to Paris. Callan taught English there and found a fabulous place to live in exchange for helping the Schmitt family with their young daughters.  After several months, Matt and I went to visit her.

As a Thank You, I made these two sewing kits for Lisa and Elsa Schmitt.  Callan lived in their maid's  quarters and escorted them to school on the Metro.  They became such fun for her and I enjoyed the stories from their home two blocks from the Arc de Triomphe.  I'm working on a pattern for the sewing kits.

Like everyone, I found Paris amazing.  It was like walking into a magical jewelry box.  The streets are filled with surprises and inspiration at every turn.  I expect I'll forever be dreaming and processing the things I saw there.

I'm curious about the age of Rue Georges Ville.
Here is Cal and Matt in her apartment on the 5th (top) floor.  

Arles, France Dress shop window

We then took a high speed train to Arles and more inspiration.  This dress shop creates clothing like was worn when Van Gogh walked the streets.  I'm currently using Perle cotton thread I bought there, actually manufactured in South Africa.  Go figure.

A dress fitting was going on in the back.  I bought fabric remnants I use sparingly.

Then back to Paris... I like this one, a Self-portrait with Freesia.

These Sewing Kits came from a similar pattern I made when Cal & Mariel were little. c 1993.  I let someone borrow the pattern so have adapted this new version.  My pattern will be available this spring at Intown Quilters .  It's also become a quick Color Study and easy to make MANY...  Graduation Presents, Oh YEAH!  If you've seen the pattern before, let me know so I can credit the original...  

Thanks for stopping by! 

Birthday Posting!

Here are a couple of things I've finished in the last month:

  

Slow and steady wins the race...

Small Turtle Congratulations for Aiming and Tom's wedding

Hayden Baker's Sunlake High School graduation Celebration, Dec 2011... T-Shirts become film strips

QUILTS AND MORE

Hi! I'm in over my head with BLOGGING since I've started a home business and am figuring this out as we go along.  See us Atlanta girls at:   www.EncoreProductionsATL.com

We RECYCLE REPURPOSE AND REUSE iconic T-Shirts and LPs to make one of a kind Pillows, Trays, Clocks, Wall Hangings, Bowls, etc.  The key ingredient is nostalgia and the inspiration of iconic treasures.  

Otherwise, here are some of my quilts.  Thanks for stopping by!

Nest of Hearts

The feather was an accident and Pam Prouty, photographer, thought I meant to include it (Hee)

The nest was my therapy during the year my youngest daughter Mariel left for college.  

The "empty nest" isn't so empty after all.  There's a yin yang to every season.

See the Forest for the Trees.  

This is for my love of circles and a cardinal family outside my studio windows. 

I'm seeing the treetops from above.

My Family Tree

With circles for the five elements of Feng Shui.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (Epiphany)

Mom's T-Shirts, Christmas 2011

Atlanta Olympic Quilt (55X72) 

This is remade from the 1996 version given to the German Olympic Committee.  I used the extra YEARS to make a better tree and 3-D leaves.  It's for sale.

Close up of Phoenix in the lower corner:

Bluebird for Callan

Family Tree for my Granny Ruth Bennett, for Parkinson's Disease Project

Self Portrait, 2011.  The Organza photo needed to balance the 3-D Butterflies and beads did the trick.

This one is cluttered.  I call it the Butterfly Effect.  There's much going on in my head. 

Quilts for Sale

Below are quilts I am currently selling.  

Please contact me at debrasteinmann@gmail.com.

 

Atlanta Arts Festival T-Shirt Wall Hanging

                                                                                      

                 

Romare Bearden's Savoy Girls are Jammin' too

Collaboration with four other quilt makers. (SOLD)

Here Comes the Sun IV (Free pattern available)

Love that 70's Panelling!

Rosie the Riveter T-Shirt Wall Hanging.  Yes we Can!

Japanese Indigo border.  Frame from Ten Thousand Villages.

Flowers (SOLD)

Decatur Arts Festival

I worked for several weeks with Sarah Phillips, owner of Intown Quilters in Decatur, to hang fifty quilts, some dating back 150 years. These quilts are in the courthouse adjacent to the Dekalb History exhibit celebrating the Dairy farm beginnings of our county. 

Brenda Shelby, Ellen Apte, me, Mary Maynard and Melinda Rushing with our respective quilt "slice".

"Romare Bearden's Savoy Girls are Jammin' Too" is based on his work:

  "Jammin' at the Savoy." 

"Winky's Wish: A Home for Everyone" was originally made as a donation to Atlanta Habitat for Humanity.  This version, without a deadline, includes embellishment.

Winky was originally discovered flying in a Pioneer Square gallery, Seattle, 1990.  I've adapted him  seven times.  Mariel, my youngest daughter, has this one and her boyfriend Paul's father commissioned #7 for mother Ann.
 Winky has magical powers.

Chocolate': Java King

The Decatur location is a favorite spot for Atlanta Intown Quilters to meet for a latter day "quilting bee" The  Beatles Abbey Road "Help" fabric came from a yard sale treasure.  

WELCOME!

My name is Debra Baker Steinmann and I have been a fiber artist and quilt maker for most of my life.  My grandmother, Eva Baker, taught me how to quilt when I was a child in Rossville, Georgia. I quilted at the Atlanta History Center during the Olympics and was told I'm a folk quilter because I learned from my ancestors.

Through the years I have made dozens of quilts for charity, friends and family, and myself.

In the last few years I've focused on smaller pieces, many of which are not quilts, but fabric based collages.  I love finding things at yard sales for inspiration.

This photo of my studio looks surprisingly cluttered and possibly so is my brain.  My studio is also bigger than the picture looks.  I get overwhelmed in here from time to time and do a thorough cleaning.  It's been a while.