home ec. studio has made a change to our Sunday hours.  Our Sunday classes have always ran over 3 hours.  We cannot always predict how well our projects are picked up by our students, especially for our students who have never sewn anything in their lives.  Therefore, our classes will now be 4 hours long and will be held from 10 am - 2 pm.  We will still have open studio hours from 2 pm - 5 pm.   We are always looking to provide quality teaching so the same price applies for 4 hours of instruction - $45.  

Slowly but surely we are moving to our permanent space.  We have moved INTO the building by our official space has not been built yet.  In the meantime we have a great spot with a beautiful window and a lot of space.  Don't mind the chicken wire.

I hope everyone is having a fun four day weekend.  The studio will not be open this weekend as Yvonne and I take some time off to be with family and celebrate some personal time with our significant others on V-day.

The studio will be operational next week starting with our continuation of our kids program and our basic knitting class on Sunday.

Here are some pictures from our puppet class and our San Diego French American school students.

We've just updated our 2010 calendar with February classes for Sunday and our afterschool classes for 2010 including 4 summer camps!  This year, we are going to change the format of our camps a little and focus on individual projects.  Last year we did a little bit of sewing, knitting and crochet.  But with our experience with the after school theme projects, the kids seem to have more fun when there is only one focus.

Check our model student, Meghan and her completed scarf!  We are so proud of her!

Next month we are going to be making puppets.  Don't worry, we are still going to sew but we are also going to be a little messy next month and dabble in the art of paper mache.  I don't know whether to be scared or excited.  Sign ups available online here!

Our classes at the San Diego French American School have started this month and these kids are so awesome.  We loved kids who are eager to learn and excited about the projects.  I have not been able to take pictures but promise to take some next week.  Oui oui!

We are knitting this month!  Even our youngest student, Lilah is knitting and she's 6 years old.  The cast on process was a bit tricky for them but once they got it, they wanted to keep casting!  Luckily we were working with Twinkle's Soft Chunky yarn.  They can make a wide scarf with only 8 cast on stitches.  It's a good break from all the sewing noise.  Our knitting circle consists of grunts of frustration and exclamations about finishing rows, with some talk about life here and there.  We haven't even started the binding off process but I hope we can finish something in 3 weeks!

We have some exciting projects this year.  The kids will make puppets next month and the basic sew classes will have some cute cotton jersey knit dresses just in time for Spring.

The holidays are coming to a close and 2009 has come and gone.  Has everyone looked back at their new years resolutions for the past year?   Living a handmade life was one of my goals and I want to continue the movement for next year.  Not only has it curbed my spending habits, it has made me pay more attention to how things are made and manufactured.

I love how the kids made their own Christmas presents in the studio.  It was good to hear how much the recipients loved their presents.  I love the idea that these kids are learning how to use their creativity to make something that people would enjoy and love.  I'm seeing future entrepreneurs in our midst.  Who knows, maybe they'll discover etsy.com and become young local artists.

We've added some gift packages for holiday purchase online here.

Here is our open studio schedule:

Sunday, Dec. 13 11 am - 2 pm
Sunday, Dec. 20 11 am - 2 pm

We will be closed on Sunday, Dec. 27 and will re-open on Sunday, Jan. 3.

Although we are keeping a lax schedule this month, we are diligently working hard on coming up with some new projects for the new year.  We've bought some new books with some great projects - Twinkle Sews, Denyse Schmidt Quilts, kids' clothes, etc.  In fact, we have some great samples on sale in the studio - girls tunics and girls leggings.  Come check them out!

This is what we do with large scraps. 

Instead of throwing them out, save them and make a freestyle crazy patchwork quilt.  I made a small table runner with the linen scraps.

We're going to be open for the South Park Walkabout this Saturday, Dec. 5 around 6 pm - 9 pm.  Come visit us if you're in the area!

And remember the local San Diego Thread show is happening this weekend as well!  I'm hoping to get away and find some scores at the gently used clothing swap.

It's been busy busy busy lately.  Personal lives are shifting, kids are getting sick, kids are on a week long vacation from school, buying homes, selling homes, etc.  Excuses can't make up for neglecting the important things in life but sometimes, you just have to say no.   Yvonne and I have been trying to upkeep this website and finally, I have some time to breathe and sit down before the next surge of activities.

As everyone is anticipating the coming of the holidays, we want to impress upon you the idea of a handmade holiday.  The kids in the studio are busily making things for loved ones and it's really quite impressive.  The cacophony of little voices talking about who's getting the necklace and whose getting the bracelet, whose getting the pillow, etc.  It's actually quite touching.  Oh! The innocence of youth... and quite refreshing and different from the mall talk that I heard the other day, "Mother, you said I was going to get those new Rock and Republic Jeans I've been eye-ing since Saturday."  Anywhoo... I love handmade gifts and it's great to support to local economy by buying from local artists.  Here are some of my favorite places and artists - pigment, citizen video, junc boutique, boygirlparty, fireandflowers (currently at our studio!), Lizette Greco.

It seems like only yesterday that the season premiere of Mad Men happened and now the season finale is over.  Just like the month of November.  Time seems to accelerate to the next year when November comes around and the holidays are just around the corner.  Just 6 weeks ago we began our costume series for our kids' classes! 

Zoe and Mia (the bomb and the witch).

Zoe's complete bomb costume.

Meghan's cowgirl costume.

Isabelle's vampire costume.

We've started our new series, the silhouette textile jewelry and day 1 was a very exciting day for everyone because they learned a new craft... needle felting.  I believe it was the first time we didn't hear the humming sound of sewing machines.  We'll break out the machines soon enough but it was a nice change to our regularly scheduled programming.

The clothes clothes clothes series on Sundays are quite productive.  Here is Karina with her Japanese pattern tunic dress.