Category Archives: progress report

busy times

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That week flew by. And now a new one begins. Happy Mothers Day!

My tree peony bloomed- always a treat.

We’ve had some crazy weather in the few days since I took the photos- wild thunderstorm, torrential rain and now some very windy weather. The plant is looking a bit tussled today. The flowers rarely last more then a week so I appreciate them while I can.

On Friday night I went to the MassArt Senior Fashion Show: Current 2010.  I was offered complimentary tickets (not sure how I got on that list!)- it is not something I would ordinarily think of going to. Well, it was so much fun! I have never been to anything like it- there was the runway, the models, the collections. I tried to find photos but there wasn’t much. I did find this one of my favorite dress of the evening. I hope I can go next year- it was a blast!

Saturday, doll club. We did needle felting. I will not be changing over to needle felting any time soon. Sorry about no pics- the photos I took were too awful to post.

And today. Working on- gladiator sandals.

Maybe too much fiddly work. Piled on the table are men in progress, paper pattern pieces, fabric marking tools, trims…

And the desk, looking cleaner then usual.

This coming week will focus on finishing those guys and then I’m off to Minneapolis on Thursday for J’s graduation. Life seems to have suddenly shifted to high speed.

wips

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I’ve been working on basting the quilt together. It progresses slowly. I have an idea now for how I’m going to quilt it. But, on the basting- I collected all of my almost empty spools of thread and some random bobbins with thread but no sewing machine to use them in, and used that to baste the quilt. It is so satisfying to be finishing up all those last little bits of thread!

My desk, this afternoon-

And today we had our Patriots’ Day parade. This is Mass Ave in Arlington, about a half hour before the parade started. Sort of eerie.

And this group made me laugh-

Hope you had a great weekend!

a little bit of this,

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and a little bit of that.

This happens to me all the time. I finished up the fish project, went to NYC, had my class and then … well I am completely scattered. I’ve got a group of tiny worlds started-

and I’ve been wanting to dye a pile of toile fabric- I’d been in the middle of that project back at the beginning of February when I veered off to the fish. And the pile of fabric, the pots, the dye, have all been sitting on the kitchen counter for the month. So, I did that at the beginning of the week-

Okay, and then there are the girl dolls that have been haunting me since last summer. They were cut out in August, put in a bin and have been sitting there, waiting for me.  I really think I need to make them before anything else. Really, yes, haunting me. There are 4. I sewed one together last night.

And lastly, there are the partially finished projects that always seem to get left behind when I move on to the next thing- one fish, one tattooed man-

It will sort itself out as it always does. Things don’t progress in a nice straight line- just wanted to make sure you know it is not just you.

* Fish Sightings! * Here and Here! See- nobody can make just one.

Hey! It’s a Giveaway!

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Do you know what day it is today? It is my BLOG BIRTHDAY! !6! Oh the places I’ve been, the people I’ve met, the friends I have made, um, the stats I have gotten totally obsessed with. Yes, six years. I won’t be linking back to early posts though. Somewhere along the way, during some computer or server change-over, the early years posts are a big mess so I try to ignore them.

In celebration of 6 years of blogging and launching the fish pattern out into the world- I hope it will be finished in the next few days- I’m having a giveaway. Pick a fish! Any fish!

My school of fish is growing even larger as I work on the pattern. The winner of the giveaway will get to choose whichever one they want before I list the rest in my Etsy shop. All you need to do is leave a comment of any kind on this post. The giveaway will close on Wednesday night 2/17 midnight est. Random number generator, announce on Thursday, you know the drill. Anyone can enter the give-away, but if you win and are not in the US, I will need to ask for a contribution towards shipping which might be around $32.

Here is my desk now, as I work on the pattern-

Still taking Photoshop baby-steps.

Other news of the week- the second meet-up was just as fun as the first. There were dire predictions of snow, but none materialized. There were 2 new people- Hi Linda and Trisha! As always, all are welcome- 2nd Wed, Starbucks, Davis Sq. Somerville, 10am. Kerry’s report here.

visiting

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I spent the morning with Abby. It is so nice to spend time with someone who is actually interested in the same things as me- the topics of our chatter included seam allowance, stuffing tools, etsy selling, reasons for blogging, recent podcasts, pattern making, photography… we didn’t let up for a second. I’ll tell you, it is a relief- no explaining! We get to the nitty-gritty immediately!

And of course, show and tell.

I should have taken a photo of all her birds and animals, displayed on her shelves. Oops!

Later, back home to work on more fish. I’ve gotten distracted from what I “should” be doing… whatever that is! Hopefully there will be some more to show tomorrow.

desk- 1/27/10 morning

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This is how my desk really looks when I am working.

Can you see? Yep, I am making some new tattooed men. It has been more than a year. I spent the whole day trying to organize my accounts so they haven’t progressed yet today. Except that I took the hair off that one guy. You can see this photo BIG over here– and click on all sizes.

weekend puttering

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Actually, weekends don’t really mean much around here since neither of us goes out to work. But, this is what I did yesterday-

I am working on flesh tones for cotton. I had a recipe that I liked, using Rit Dyes, but they discontinued one of the colors (Peach) and so now I am figuring it all out again. This is frustrating- not like when I don’t really care what color I get, as long as it is clear and bright. I will do some of that sort of dyeing soon- it is great fun!

I started a new rabbit. It is made of a felted alpaca sweater- which clearly still has a lot of stretch. I can’t believe the difference between the woven wool and the knitted alpaca! Yes, they are cut from the same pattern.

studio work

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I’ve been working away at some dolls and also my studio. I am see some progress in getting the studio feeling right. Here are a few peaks-

When I decided to move my studio downstairs, I knew I wanted to do this-

wall

I think of this as my internet connections altar and I posted a fully annotated version here on Flickr. These are all things that I have bought, traded, or been given, from people that I have “met” through the internet. Some of them I have also met in real life. It is a tangible display of the richness that the craft blog world has brought into my life. Sorry- gushing!

This is the pin-up board over my desk-

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So many goodies, including a sweet little monster by Elsita. Yep, right next to one of my Peewee toys.

Today, I hung my ornament dolls from my display shelf. They are now flying over my desk.

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And, some ladies in progress. I thought I’d get one of these finished today but instead got distracted by the organizing/puttering.

faces

the quilt

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I’m working on the quilt- see resolutions here.

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The quilt has a Japanese motif. I gave Peter several choices for what kind of quilt he’d like- the only 2 I can remember are wool or choosing fabrics from my collection of Japanese cloths. I have a lot of Japanese cloth. Some of it come from my Mom’s collection, some I have collected over the years. There are the fabrics for gift wrapping and loosely woven fabric “towels”. (I know they have official Japanese names, but I don’t know what they are.) There was a roll of cotton fabric that my Mom bought on one of her visits to Japan.

Peter picked out what he liked and I added some other fabrics (with his approval) for color and connecting. We worked on arranging them on the floor of the attic. Then he left and I got to work on other things… all fall. I think the hardest part of making the quilt is me getting started on it!

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I am not set up to work on something this scale. I am making a full size quilt- approx 6ft x 7ft.  I was okay with the center panel- I made myself enough studio floor space that I could look at it. But this morning, when I need to expand out from the center, I spread out on my bed. That green in the upper right-hand corner is my blanket and not part of the quilt.

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The one fabric that Peter choose that is not Japanese is that circle fish fabric. It is a batik that my Mom bought for me when I was in High School- so probably 1970 or so? I loved it so much that I never made anything out of it. I hung it on the wall for a while in college. I think I might finally be getting over that craziness of not using my favorite things- seems silly now.

The top is now finished. I am very nervous about the next step. I am considering having someone else do the quilting because I am worried about making a big mess of it. And, frankly, I don’t think I’d enjoy doing it. I know I don’t want to hand quilt, so I’m talking about machine quilting. Any thoughts on this?