it’s been a while

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since I finished anything.

Finally!

I did some pattern tweaking. The shape of the head is slightly different,

and I made the hands bigger. Tiny changes.

There are not too many weeks until I need to send the work out to Chicago so I better get focused again and start finishing things. Renegade is coming fast!

slow motion

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I feel like I am moving in slow motion. I’ve been working on a few things. Some of the poor tattooed men on the table  went down to Connecticut and back, several times, hoping to get some stuffing. But no. They are still as flat as I seem to be feeling.

I am working just as slowly through all the emails that backed up in the week of distraction. If you haven’t heard from me about something, you might want to try again. I may have lost track of your email.

I did have a birthday recently and bought myself a new toy… um, no, I mean important tool for my business.

An IPad! And I made my present a present! I tend to get a bit overwhelmed when confronted with a new electronic toy so I tip-toe around it for a while. But, hey, I know how to make a felt sleeve. We are bonding.

And, I’d love to hear about your favorite apps for crafty biz and for fun.

And lastly, thank you so much for all your kind words and condolences regarding my Dad. I added a link to his obit at the bottom of the post.

my dad

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My Dad passed away yesterday (July 31, 2011). He’d lived a good long life. He was 96 years old and we were so lucky that even in mid-July, at a family wedding, he was able to enjoy meeting his first great-grandson. I am beginning to understand that there is a lot of processing to do when a parent dies, even when that parent has lived so long and it was the right time.

This photo of him is dated April 27, 1916-

There aren’t too many family photos with him because he, of course, was usually behind the camera.

I have a lot of good memories and photos of him with the grandkids.

And here he is, just a few weeks ago. (July 16. 2011). I’m glad we were able to have a happy day so recently.

I suspect that posting will be spotty for a bit. I was down in Connecticut for several days already, back for a few and then away again later this week. I need to plan for Renegade in Chicago in September but it might not be my priority.

–update– here is his obit.

 

soldier, sailor and commissions

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This is the secret project that I was working on a month ago. Secret because it is a gift for someone.

It was a commission. You may or may not know that I have a policy of not taking commissions. I feel like I’ve talked about it regularly, but when I searched the blog, this was the only post I could find. It isn’t recent but still pretty accurate. These days my excuse for not doing commission work is that I am not getting paid enough to not being doing just exactly what I feel like. But, sometimes someone asks me if I’d be willing to do something that I do feel like doing. Something that tickles my imagination. When I got an email from someone asking me if I would interpret a Staffordshire figurine that a friend owns, my first thought was no… until I scrolled down and saw the photo.

How could I say no? I had fallen in love at first sight!

I used my tattooed man pattern but had to do quite a bit of problem solving to make the coats and hats. It was lots of fun and I love how they turned out.

So much white was a challenge. I decided to use a variety of slightly textured whites (twill) to give more visual interest.

I love all the blues here-

and I used every last little bit of this striped fabric to make his hair and beard.

I wanted the hats to be removable so I found some matching pins to hold them in place.

The coat is a piece of vintage twill. I’ve seen antique children’s coats made of this fabric.

These are Crimean War veterans- a soldier and a sailor. The figurines must have been a popular collectible at the time of the Crimean War because there seems to be a wide range of styles. Some examples here.

And here is my husbands arm to show scale-

They are on their way to their new home. I had a hard time parting with them!