YAS contemporary lifestyle

Yasmintoo! has had a good and purposeful life. Now it's time to retire that label and proceed to Yasmin Sabur Designs. Over the next months the blog will be undergoing a redesign. New works in progress will be on view, along with process blogs and completed works available for sale. Stay tuned, and your comments on the new format are more than welcome.

I last quilted in the late 70s. A full size bed quilt made from a single top, batiked and then hand quilted. (I am thoroughly confused by the use of the word batik in the quilting world. Having spent over 20 years as a batik artist I'm not sure I like the co-opting of the word. Batik is a wax dye resist process with an ancient history of craftsmanship practiced in many areas of the world, but achieving a high art form in the area of Indonesia. Learn more here .) Rants aside, I made a decision last year to begin working on some quilted pieces. Stockpiling some hand dyed and hand printed fabric was the first step in my process. The summer was spent in the yard dyeing yardage from upcycled 100% cotton sheets with Procion MX dye, in a low water immersion, four step gradient process. I've now filled one cupboard and an Ikea Billy book case with dyed fabric. Nothing to do but start quilting. I'm totally comfortable with my color, design and pattern sty...

I'm working exclusively on cotton sheets and curtains I purchase from thrift stores. Several months ago I hit the motherlode at the Baras Thrift Store in Hillcrest and picked up over 40 sheets for a dollar each. The clerks even helped me carry my packages out to the car. Sheets of all solid colors were included, I didn't limit my purchase to just white. Procion MX dye is strong enough to overdye most of the pastel colors solid sheets come in. I checked carefully to make sure that all of the sheets were 100% cotton. When my friend Jackie visited from Ohio earlier this summer we spent three days batch dyeing using a low water immersion technique in the back yard. Most of the fabric was dyed in a four step gradient. The best instructions for dyeing are on the Pro Chemical and Dye site. This link will take you directly to Procion MX dye instructions. Instructions for all of the many dye and other products are also on the site. The ends of the sheets have been trimmed. The ...

I began a post in reply to several posts I've read lately from quilters, art quilters, fiber artists, and surface textiles designers. All directly or indirectly on the theme of "Art", many asking why fiber art isn't considered "Art." I realized that my response could fill a book, and decided to write one. Quick response: Art is a commodity. Just like the banks and the governments set the mortgage rates, brokers, dealers, collectors and galleries set the definition of what is and is not "Art." The businesses may be equally slimy. If you make a living off your textile/fiber work, rejoice. You are doing as well and better than the majority of living artists throughout the world. Why have we allowed the word craft to be co-opted? Why trade a world of friendship, camaraderie, sharing, exchanging, craft, skill, tradition for one that doesn't value your work or your being? Why are we spending time on these questions instead of perfecting ...

I've been working on woven strip pieces. The work starts with upcycled cotton sheets, I buy them at thrift stores. (If you really want to take a trip around the cotton growing and manufacturing world take a look at the labels on sheets and where they are made. Very few manufactured in the US of A. Makes you understand why our economy is in the shape that it is.) I buy king size flat sheets in any color I can find. The sheets are then washed and dryed. After washing I dye the sheets using a variety of dye processes. A few get put aside for more surface textile design - block printing, handpainting, stencilling, silk screen, etc. All of the dye baths are some variety of low water immersion. In Southern California, about 50 weeks out of 52 have enough day light hours of above 70 degree temperatures to allow the chemical process of binding the fabric and cold water dyes to take place. The sheets are trimmed, color coded and placed in plastic shoe boxes. When starting a piece I ...

I didn't have a good reaction to the woman who told Obama that she was afraid she and her husband would have to go back to eating beans and franks in their retirement years and it wasn't what she planned. I thought kind of old not to know that most things in life don't go as we planned. Get over it. Second, cut the man a break, he isn't the second coming, he's a politician. That is saying a mouthful. Girl friend looked like she could use a few meals of beans. Forget the franks, they will kill you quick, if you eat them on a regular basis. Beans combined with grain are a perfect protein and eaten the world over. Why shouldn't Americans, especially older Americans, eat this healthy food? Inexpensive, delicious and healthy. Too much to ask. Anyway, here is one of the tastiest and simplest black bean recipes that I know of. Buy a bag of black beans. Wash them, then soak them, overnight if you cook in the morning or put them on to soak in the morning to c...

The title of this post is hilarious, all of my thoughts are random. The New York Times has an article on Desiree Rogers and her new job as editor in chief at Johnson Publications, home of Ebony and Jet magazines and Fashion Fair cosmetics. Reading the article reminded me of the great warmth and sense of homecoming Chicago offers. I can't think of another large city (I've lived in New York, Atlanta, Houston, and now San Diego) where the welcome is so warm. As a young artist returning to the city I grew up in, Chicago welcomed me with open arms. Artists rep, gallery shows, free studio space, advice on stretching, framing, shipping work to national exhibits. Great friendships with other textile artists who frequently dropped by my studio to work, talk and share their lives. Young folks who volunteered to intern. Life crammed full with art, music, dance and theater. What a wonderful experience. I'm pretty sure that after the brutal and high powered life in the glass bowl ...

Gwen Magee is a wonderfully talented artist. Quilting is her chosen medium. Her quilts tell stories using fabric, thread and stitching. Recently, Gwen has been selected to participate in an incubator project for funding art projects. If you're familiar with KickStarter , you'll love the way this concept of funding has been applied to the arts. Quoted from Gwen's blog : "I am pleased to announce that I have been selected to participate in a new online community of America’s finest artists called Project Site created by United States Artists to expand its mission of investing in America’s finest artists. I’ve been asked to join as a pioneer member! Project Site is still in an “Alpha” stage in which a very few artists have been selected to participate. My Profile and Showcase are already up, and I’ve just launched a new project called Katrina Narratives: Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place." Go straight to Gwen's project campaign here .  If you...