Category Archives: General
Snow, adventures, production
According to my stats, this is my 700th post… wow, who’d a thunk it.
I was down in Providence on Thursday to do my shift. It started to snow around noon. The store got quiet. The roads got progressively worse all afternoon. Getting home was a much bigger adventure then I like, although better for me then many. My waiting time was spent in a train station and not in a car on the highway. It makes me glad once again that I normally don’t have to commute.
We (well, mostly Ben) got the sidewalks and driveway cleared up, just in time for another hit.
Hmm, is the front door going to be frozen closed/open for the winter?
The compost pile has a peaked hat- it usually doesn’t match the garage roof.
And some other white stuff.
On a recent trip to the thrift store I found 4 very large Mens alpaca sweaters. It is one of those things where obviously a store or manufacturer or someone donated a lot of them. They are all never worn and some were obviously seconds. And scratchy. No wonder nobody bought them. $2 each for me!
So, I tried some shibori felting yesterday. This was a test. I removed the sleeves from the white sweater. On the left- I used buttons (mens shirt buttons- you know the size) and put a little rubber band to hold them in place. If I decide to do more of this, I need to find a supply of those tiny rubber bands that are used with braces. They are perfect for this- unfortunately I used up all I had.
On the right, I clipped the fabric with bull clips. Not a success. It doesn’t look like anything. I assume if I throw it back in the washing machine, it will felt up evenly, but we’ll see.
And Christmas production. I am making everyone who gets presents from this house, reusable shopping bags. I have loads of fabric that I will never find a better use for. This is a two-fer good thing. 1. I am using rescued fabric- would have gotten tossed if I hadn’t taken it. 2. I am making bags which will hopefully keep plastic out of the waste stream. Well, and then there is 3. If I use up enough fabric, I will have space to replenish my stash… that’s the dessert!
25 faces
School pictures series #2. All done and posted to Etsy.  These are so much fun to do. I love playing with the colors and patterns.
I also got the tattooed guys up. Phew, I feel like a big job got done!
atc, wip and some Chicago notes
I needed to make some more of these school picture atc’s. I’ve been thinking about boys, which I pretty much left out of the last batch, and glasses.
They should be done by tomorrow. I hope to post them and also the 2 moustached tattooed guys to Etsy tomorrow.
A story from when I was in Chicago for Thanksgiving- I was walking around in the neighborhood where my daughter lives. Down a side street, I saw an awning that said Toy Gallery. I got SO excited- a Gallery! for Toys! I rushed over to get a better look. It was a sex toy store… I still cannot believe how disappointed I was! I think in the nanosecond between seeing the sign and figuring out what the place actually was selling, I had developed a whole fantasy of what would be there- my fantasy best ever art gallery. Oh well… it amuses me every time I think about my reaction.
I had the pleasure of visiting Danny Mansmiths studio while I was there. I didn’t take any photos because he is always posting great pics of his studio at his flickrstream. I kept him away from his sewing machine for an hour or so- it was so much fun to see everything close-up and get to see the textures and layers of the fabric and the sewing. And gab.
I also connected with Brandy for a second… she was participating in a craft fair on the day we flew in. I really wanted to meet her so I went over. But, of course, meeting someone when they are at their booth at a craft fair isn’t exactly ideal conditions for craft/blog/get-to-know-someone-better talk. It is great for getting to see a bunch of someone’s artwork though, so that was wonderful!
We have had unusually wintery weather since Thanksgiving. Right now everything is coated with a glaze of ice.
the boxwood-
and alyssum-
armful
And the last- for now
This is the last of the tattoo guys for now. I’ve been thinking about the use of the word ginger, for red hair. I hear it in my head from the audio books I listen to- think Marian Keyes. It is not just the word but the Irish accent of the reader… Anyway, that’s what was echoing in my mind while working on this one-
Here is a photo of the face embroidery in progress-
beard 2, striped pants 5
One more after this.
Another bearded man.
After I did the other bearded man, I started noticing when beards went by. I decided to try to make a pooffier one.
I was having fun taking photos- well sort of… it was 19 degrees outside and my fingers were numb. But, I was enjoying the thought that I would never, ever, ask a real live person to stand and pose for me. Another wonderful thing about dolls!
His back-
Yesterday was my first work day at Craftland.
finishing the tattoo men
one more done-
It is very cold. I feel cruel when I photograph him- he isn’t even stuffed with wool to keep him warm!
It is so hard to get a sense of scale. I thought this might help. He is 23 inches tall.
finishing things
I’ve had a lot of things “in progress” and now they are all getting finished up… It will seem like everything is happening all at once, but I’ve been working on these for several weeks now, dragged out by Thanksgiving break and all.
First, the green men pillows-
You saw that middle guy before. Here are the other 2-
and
They are approximately 18 inches tall. I stuffed 2 of these with the reclaimed wool stuffing. I will report on that in another post.
very easy ornament tutorial
I needed to make an ornament for a holiday swap. This was quick and easy and you could use the same basic idea to make tags, valentines, bookmarks… I don’t know- tons of other stuff!
Supplies needed-
-fabric with decorative image
-iron-on adhesive like Wonder-Under
-Felt- I used wool blend
-nylon net, tulle and/or any sheer or glittery fabric.
-I used gold thread, but you could use anything
-hanging cord or ribbon- 2 inches or more per ornament
1. Collect fabrics that have images you’d like to use- faces, birds, flowers, whatever. I used some commercially printed fabric with an asian design and also some of the fabric I made last summer with carved stamps. You could use commercially available rubber stamps to stamp fabric.
2. Iron iron-on adhesive onto to the back of your images.
3. Trim your images to shape.
4. Iron onto felt.
5. Cut out the felt, making a frame around the image. Use all those decorative scissors you own but never get around to using. I used pinking shears and scallop shears.
6. Do a bunch!
7.Fold up the net so that there are 6 – 8 layers of the net. Make a pile with your little image on top, the layers of net in the middle, and then some other decorative fabric on the bottom (optional). Pin everything together.
7 continued- this photo shows the layers-
8. Move your “sandwich” over to your sewing machine. (I sewed mine with free motion embroidery, but you could use zigzag, hand embroidery, or whatever else you are comfortable with.)
Fold your hanging cord/ribbon in half and place at the top of the ornament. Make sure you put it far enough down so that your stitches will catch it. Start sewing by going back and forth a few times over the hanger.
… this photo does not show that though, because I forgot to put the hanger in EVERY TIME I made one!!! Mostly I remember to stick it in before it was too late, bit if you don’t, no problem. You can see that some of mine have a cord strung in the top of the ornament afterward. Easy!
9. Now sew around the edge of the image. Since I did mine with free motion embroidery, I went around the edge enough times so that the gold thread showed up and everything was well stitched down.
10. Here is a view of the back- I used red thread in the bobbin-
11. When you are finished with the stitching, clip the threads. Trim the net into a nice circle around the edge of your ornament. You can cut the net separately from the bottom fabric.
12. If you want to be even fancier, you can cut the net in decorative ways-
-clip it all the way around for a fringe effect
-cut out wedges and it looks more like a star
Here are some more photos for information and inspiration-
I’d love any feedback on this. Are the written directions and the photos clear enough? Have I left anything out? I can never quite figure out the fine line between too little information and too much. Have fun!