Doll

in body anyway… I am recovering from a week of running around. It always takes me some time to get back to work.

Right before I left for New York I ended up doing a quick project that I was really pleased with. I needed a bag to hold all my neccessary junk for the train. I found a bag that was just right, but it was a conference giveaway- my husband gets a lot of these. It had the name of the conference and the date in big, bright white letters stamped across the front. I tried painting over them with black acrylic paint- that didn’t work at all. And, then the bag looked worse. So, I did a total cover-up.

I found a piece of fabric I liked and cut it to cover the front. I cut out and ironed on some “Wonder-Under” -(2 sided iron-on adhesive) so that the adhesive was about 1/2 inch from the edge of the fabric. Oh, and also, I ironed down the edges about 1/2 inch- no raw edges showing. Then I ironed it in place onto the bag. Next, I put a little glue around the edge (I could have skipped this step if I was more careful in cutting and planning the wonder-under. Last, I stitched all the way around. Then, pack it up and off to NY!

I am going to New York City tomorrow for a few days. I’ve been checking out various blog reports for where my favorite craft people went in the city. It is harder then I thought though- People don’t just have a link on their home page that says “My favorite New York Places”… hmmm, maybe I should do that! I’ve checked out Distressed’s New York resources list- very helpful. It has a lot of the same stores as the Threads Magazine list had, and unfortunately that list seems to have disappeared off the web. I also want to go to some of the Japanese bookstores mentioned here on Crafting Japanese. This morning I was reading mmm… coffee and she mentioned some places she liked (perfect timing!). I thought I’d try to check out Pearl River- looks fantastic. I still want to see if I can track down the Yarnstorm New York posts and anyone elses… including my own.

I am not getting any craft work done, so instead of a boring no picture post, here are some beautiful colors from my garden-

hay ferns

Graham Thomas rose

Abraham Darby rose

Wife of Bath Rose

Betty Prior rose

Scented geranium

Allium

iris

sedum

Things seem to be moving slowly around here. It was incredibly hot for a few days, better today. Also, Eleanor is home from Cape Town- horray! I am working on this female version of a robot, a fembot I guess. A number of people suggested that my dalek inspired robot was female- I thought I would try to do it on purpose. She is coming along slowly. She is of the Rosie school of robot.

Some random robot parts on my desk-

and a tool I already had but just discovered works really well with the wool and felt-

It is a hole punch. I bought it to use when putting in eyelets. You hit it with a hammer. Perfect little holes!

I was getting pretty frustrated with this guy- I wanted to give him a hat, but he wasn’t having it. Sometimes it is hard to know when something is really finished.

I made his head quite a while ago and it was one of my favorites. Suddenly that made it somehow valuable and I had a really hard time doing the rest of the robot. His nose is made out of a clip from an old girdle- that part that you attach the stockings with. I have a small bag of these that my mom saved. He has snaps for ears and “eyes” for all the rest of the metal bits on the face.

The round body was inspired by Tik-Tok of Oz. I made him a badge of honor out of some old resistors.

his shoulder joint is a hook and eye-

and here are his fingers- I love them. They look froggy to me and so now I think he is a blue froggy robot and not Tik-Tok at all.

If you want to see even more photos, there are a few more here and here on Flickr.

nothing terribly interesting got accomplished. I got the air conditioner off the floor and into the window and it’s been cold and rainy since then. I was inspired to do some cleaning in my studio (much needed)… boring, boring, boring. The floor and desk under all my piles is now clean so I’ve started back to work- here are the in progress shots of this week-

the one that’s going well-

and the one that’s not-

and here is Mango, our very camera shy kitty, trying on a box for size-

“ah, just right!”

I was suppose to participate in a street wide yard sale today, but it got rained out- I am keeping my fingers crossed for a better day tomorrow since I now have a big pile of junk sitting by my front door- ack! And of course, I am just dying to go shopping for my neighbors junk!

I saw a post on In a Minute Ago about a postcard show here in New Haven, Connecticut. Well, that is where I grew up and I’ve been thinking that I wanted to make some fabric postcards- bigger area then the atc’s- and so I had to join in. It is funny to me that I read an Australian blog to find out about a show in the next state- small world.

These are the 2 I will send down to New Haven tomorrow morning-

this one is going to my niece who is going to be in the hospital for a few weeks-

I am going to put these others into my etsy shop-

except this one- I sewed too much on it and the edges got all wonky-

I made one other but it is a surprise for someone. I will post it once they’ve got it.

I put 3 of the robots up for sale in my Etsy store. You can check them out here or use the link at my sidebar.