I was hoping to have finished these fairies by today, but that is unlikely with family and life and house and all.
free advise- don’t sew on an embellishment with lots of little beady things until you have finished all the rest of your sewing- your thread will get tangled in it with every stitch!
I love making these little flowers.
I am having trouble with this one’s hair- sometimes it feels like the doll is arguing with me… argh!
I worked on these all day yesterday. Stuffed with wool. Wool dust is everywhere now. Sewed closed on the back-
Next they got their sexy figures and a start on their faces. I put pins in for their eyes before I embroider them in. It makes them seem more alive.
I’m very fussy with the faces so I do a lot of picking out stitches. The purple/lilac body doll is one of the fairies from the first series I did in February. I embroidered a face, gave her some hair and embellished her with trim… but it wasn’t working for me. First she sat around for 5 months or so, then I took off the trim. More waiting then off with the hair, and finally yesterday, as I was working on these other ones, off with her face. Here we are, starting over.
And another. I am happy with the lips and the noses so far today. I am working on the eyes. Next it will be eyebrows and hair.
fat fairies actually-
and in the garden-
musicians-
and working on fairies-
I had a wonderful surprise yesterday. Last month I cleared out a container full of old cassette tapes. I threw some away, others I piled into a box and brought up to my studio. Slowly I’ve been listening to them and deciding if they are worth keeping (a lot are damaged in some way- they sound like a warped record). It has been a strange trip back to other times in my life, as far back as the early 70’s. Yesterday, I tried out a tape with no label- I thought it might just be a blank tape. Little kid voices started singing “Happy Birthday to you”, slowly. Eleanor and Julian, I think. They got to “Happy Birthday, dear (who was it going to be for???) mommie/ mom” -they hadn’t agreed on that part I guess- I got chills! They went on to sing several more songs- talk about being sent back to another time! I could picture the whole project being organized and excecuted.
This is what I brought home from NIADA-
It is called “Church Hat”, is about 6″ tall with the pedestal, and is by Annie Wahl. If you are interested in seeing some more photos from NIADA- much better then mine- Deb Wood posted her’s here.
Since I’ve been home my mind has been spinning with ideas. I am inspired to do another gourd doll… a bit late for the NIADA show, but I don’t do well when I feel I am trying to fit my work into a challenge prompt. I cleaned a bunch of gourds and who knows, I might get around to painting them…
I had several things on my list of things to do, even before I left town. I had promised my sister a “make-do” pin cushion. She picked out the glass and the colors when she was visiting me last month.
I got it finished today. Here it is in bondage, no I mean being glued in place-
and now another Red Riding Hood. I’ve got to work through some of the bits I’m not satisfied with on the first one-
I was so excited to see that my first Red Riding Hood was on Whip Up! Welcome anyone that has found me through Kath’s fantastic blog!
working on-
it is clearly time to move on from the robots. I’ve lost all my enthusiasm for now. I have been working off and on with this one- maybe she’s finished, maybe not… I’m stepping back to look at her for a while.
Instead I’m going forward with little red ridinghood. I drew this in my sketchbook months ago, inspired by this diorama by Natascha.
These mini sweaters are so much fun to make. I take the ribbing of the full size sweater and sew it onto the tiny one- that’s the best part.
Here he is modeling-
he’s not done yet- needs a few accessories.
I sort of want to go to the Sturbridge Antique Textile Show tomorrow, but not by myself… anybody out there want to go or meet me there?
It is not that I’m not working these days, I just don’t seem to be moving forward on anything. Summer can be a difficult time to work with all it’s distractions.
My lady robot was wearing me down and I decided I had to go on to something else for a bit. I’ve got 2 black and white kitties going.
and speaking of the kitties- I stuffed them with black stuffing. Look at the mess the stuffing makes! Do all black stuffings do this? My white stuffing doesn’t leave a mess of dust when I use it….
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!