S-S-Stitch, Textile art by Susannah Schnick

Fondle My Sketchbook!

2011-06-16T16:05:00.000-07:00

Way back last September I was working on a sketchbook for the Art House Co-op Sketchbook Project, and now you can fondle it along with thousands of other's sketchbooks! The tour hit San Francisco today at the Madrone Studio, and will be open during the day all weekend.. Check it!

Sausage Party

2011-06-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

I Have a new passion in life. Move over sewing, hello sausages!!

Sometime last winter I took a class on salumi making at the Fatted Calf Charcuterie in Napa. Then I took a Pâtés & Terrines class. Then I took a Whole Hog Butchery class. Now I am completely obsessed with the pig and crispy, juicy, flavorful SAUSAGE!

I am now the proud owner of a Kitchener 5lb Stainless Steel Sausage Stuffer. Sausage party anyone?!

Long Time No Blog

2010-09-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

It's been Months since my last blog entry. It's also been months since I've worked on anything crafty...

When the Summer months take over, so does a lull in my creative activity. Vacation, staycation, BBQs, eating oysters on the beach equals good fun but not much productivity.

Good thing it's Fall.. I'm ready to have a "vacation" from vacation, hunker down and create!

Providing me with inspiration is the Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Project. A community based project where anyone interested gets sent a small paper sketchbook with an open ended theme, and can fill it how ever one wants. My theme; Jackets, blankets, and sheets. The most "textile" related theme I could do. I'm now printing, sewing, and glueing all over this little book!

QUILT

2010-06-05T16:01:00.001-07:00

Last weekend my lovely sister Molly and her fabulous husband Rafael got married in Brooklyn New York. It was quite the party! Not much is better then getting together with Family and friends, eating, drinking, dancing, and celebrating LOVE!

For the occasion I wanted to make something really special. Something my Sister and Brother-in-law would use and enjoy for years to come.. Something like, a QUILT! And what better person to help me with this large sewing project but my mom Josie, who is my inspiration and continues to be my sewing teacher to this day!

We started with a pattern idea that I got from quilter and crafty lady, Denyse Schmidt on-line. From there we drew out our version of the pattern, making it a little easier by enlarging the squares and amount of solid fabric. Then we headed to Stone Mountain and Daughter Fabrics in Berkeley, who has an expansive selection of quilters cottons and notions to choose from, and where I worked for a year last year!

The cutting and Patchwork went fast with both me and my mom working on it, and our haphazard way of throwing things together! We were done with the top in no time! What we didn't have time for however, was to actually quilt and bind all the pieces together.. So I called a local "Long-arm" quilter and quilting teacher at Stone Mountain, Angie Woolman. She was able to get started right away and within one week we had our beautiful Finished quilt ready to pack up and bring to the bride and groom in New York!

Elephant

2010-05-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

Elephants are amazing Animals. They are extremely smart, social, and sensitive beings. Not to mention they're my niece's favorite animal!

Here is my hand embroidered homage to the Elephant.

If you would like to Buy this hand embroidered Elephant cosmetic wristlet visit my Etsy Shop!

Koozie Floozie

2010-04-26T09:57:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like a snug Koozie around a cold beer on a hot day.. Really, there's nothing like it! Koozies keep the beer cold, are comfortable to hold, and add style and flair to any plain old can of beer.

I have some lovely lady friends who share this appreciation for the beer can Koozie. And, it is for them that I decided to sew some Koozies with SSStitch flair! I followed a free pattern on the Kwik Sew web site for "Cup and can cozy". It's a really easy pattern, great for beginners if you'd like to make a Koozie of your very own!

I'm a Koozie Floozie, how about you??

My Beating Heart

2010-02-09T12:20:00.000-08:00

Valentines day is a bit of a blaa holiday.. Shouldn't one express his or her love on a day to day basis instead of waiting for one day a year to gift flowers and chocolates? Although, I might seem like a valentines day Scrooge, I do enjoy any excuse to eat heart shaped chocolates and go out to Dinner! And who doesn't love flowers?!

For the Fourth And Clay holiday sale this year I hand embroidered a "life-like" bright red heart on to some really great black and white check fabric for one of my oil cloth lined wristlets. The reaction to this bag was strong, people seemed to love it. So, I ended up making three of them which all sold pretty fast. I usually don't like making the same bag over and over because I get a bit board looking at it, but this bag is a special one. So, I present to you my fourth Hand Embroidered Beating Heart Wristlet! You can buy it HERE on my Etsy Shop for yourself, or someone you love! Happy excuse to eat sweets, buy flowers, go out to dinner day!
xoxo

Culinary Adventures

2010-02-02T12:46:00.001-08:00

This Winter I have been channeling my Domestic Goddess, Sewing and cooking up a storm. What better thing to do on a rainy day (which we've had a lot of this past month in the Bay area)?!

Culinary adventure #1:
Homemade Sausages

For Christmas I got myself a beautiful, brand new lemony yellow Kitchinaid Mixer with meat grinder and sausage attachment. To celebrate, my good friend Colin and I made Loukanika (Greek citrus sausage). The process took all day, lots of elbow grease, and once we sat down to feast I didn't feel like eating any of it! But everyone else seemed to like them!

Culinary adventure #2:
Fituras de Malanga (Malanga Fritters)

Malanga is a starchy root vegetable that is very popular in Cuba. Similar to taro root, it's flavor is earthy and a bit nutty.

Malanga Fritters are very easy to make. Grate peeled and washed Malanga on cheese grater, add egg, salt, and "deep" fry in a cast-iron skillet till golden brown. Can be eaten with honey or just on their own with salt. Mmmm! I ate like 15!
There's nothing better than getting together with friends and eating great food.

Doctors For Haiti

2010-01-20T09:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I donated my Hand Embroidered gold fish bag to Craft Hope For Haiti, a wonderful Etsy Shop created to benefit Doctors Without Borders in Haiti. I was excited to promote this great program with my bag on the web page but it sold instantly! So, although you won't find any of my work there anymore the shop is still filled with wonderful hand made craftiness that you can feel good about buying since 100% of the proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders.

Thank you A.N. in Ohio for purchasing one of my bags and helping such a great cause!

NEW! On Etsy

2010-01-14T11:42:00.000-08:00

I'm back from a lovely but brief trip to Cuba, and am diving head first into my Etsy shop. Lets see if I can get my name out there and sell some sweet hand made bags on the Internet!

It's a new year and I'm feeling inspired to create! I still have a few choice bags left from the Fourth and Clay holiday open studio, as well as some discounted older bags that I'm posting on Etsy. Get'em while there hot and help me make room in my studio for new creative stuffs!

Record Bag

2009-12-28T11:31:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year my family decided to do "secrete Santa". A couple months ago we found out who in the family we were to gift. I got my sister's Fiance Rafael who is a wonderful musician. His newest solo work called Las Palabras, just came out on 7" and MP3.

Since he makes the music, I thought I would sew him a hand embroidered record bag!
It's about 14" square, fully lined with bright yellow oil cloth, with a 1 1/2in. adjustable strap. It was super fun to make, which makes me think I will be making more in the coming months.

LPs are definitely back in style, and what better way to celebrate that by carrying them around in a hand embroidered bag!

Santa is a procrastinator

2009-12-23T17:12:00.000-08:00

It's definitely Christmas time and I'm still working on my hand-made gifts.. I love to procrastinate! But it's now or never, so I'm locking myself in my sewing room and not budging till everything is just right!

Christmas is always a little stressful but it's definitely one of my favorite times of year... So, a happy Holidays to all and a very happy New Year!

Party Sucess!

2009-12-11T16:32:00.000-08:00

The Party Thursday night was a roudy good time. Holiday cheer is here!
Thank you to all my lovely friends who made it. It was wonderful to see everyone.

The Front Junk band supplied the party with the sweet, roudy, stomp your feet music.

Octopus

2009-12-04T10:05:00.000-08:00

Octopi are amazing creatures. With no internal or external skeleton they can fit into any space, they change color, and eat crabs and other shellfish. Mmmmm.. Crab...

Here's my newest bag with hand embroidered Octopus. You can see/purchase it this weekend at Fourth and Clay Open Studio.

Hand VS Machine

2009-11-30T13:26:00.000-08:00

For three years now my work has been on display and for sale at the Fourth and Clay holiday open studio. Looking back on the previous years my bags have come a long way. The concept has stayed the same; cosmetic bags and wristlets fully lined with oil cloth, hand made and embroidered with painstaking love. What has changed is minimal, but it's the small things that make all the difference. This year I've dove head first into the "hand made", and have started to hand embroider my images onto the bags as opposed to "hand" machine embroidery. The result of the hand embroidery is much more pleasing to me. The image has more texture, and I'm able to use bolder colors that pop off the background fabric. Come by the Forth and Clay studio and check them out. I hope you like the new look as much as I do!

I still have a few machine embroidered bags left over from last year that are for sale at a discounted rate on my Etsy site.

Holiday Open Studios

2009-11-30T12:19:00.001-08:00

The Holidays are here, and I've been busy embroidering, pinning, and sewing my new line of bags! Fourth and Clay gallery and studio space is having it's yearly holiday open studio featuring Ceramic works by Rae Dunn, Christa Assad, and Josie Jurczenia, along with hand made jewelry by Circadian Studios, Paper and silk-screened goodies by Linea Carta, and my new line of S-S-Stitch bags!

The studio will be open every weekend from now until Christmas (December 20th) from 11am-5pm. So stop by and get inspired by all the beautiful hand made gifts!

Fourth and Clay
2370 4th st @ Channing way
Berkeley, CA

And we must not forget my favorite part, THE PARTY! Come celebrate craftiness and the holidays Thursday December 10th 7-11pm..