I’ve been getting a lot of questions about what inspires me- well, this does! Jan’s post about her trip to the Chicago Quilt Fest is full of wonderful inspiration and be sure to check out the flickr set that she put together. So much deliciousness!
other goings on
walking around town- it’s Spring!
I wasn’t the only one taking photos.
I love these antique slate gravestones. There are some very interesting geometric and repeating patterns around the words, willows and urns.
On Wednesday, I went on an Arlington “craft crawl” with 3 friends. The first stop was Balich’s 5 &10. That store never ceases to amaze me- all the crazy old stuff they have there. I bought some snaps that were originally priced at 35 cents. That had been blacked out and repriced to .65, in pencil this time. All ready to raise again in another 10 years or so. They also have some of the funniest clothing ever and it is no wonder it never sold back in the 70’s or whenever it was new stock- like the chartreuse and white plaid bellbottoms size 10 girls. I was thrilled to find the peach Rit dye that has been discontinued- 4 boxes! Yes, I snagged them all. Here are some photos from Kerry, since I forgot to take any pics at all. We also went to Playtime and ArtBeat. Never made it to the Fabric Corner so we’ll save that for next time.
I am trying to be on a stats diet- I think once a week is a good idea. No blog or Etsy stats, no google alerts. I’ve been totally addicted and it is not good for me- since I can’t really do much to determine what direction they are going on any given day.
Peter is coming home for the summer next week. That means that I should take advantage of the open floor space that is available for just a few more days. I’m thinking I’ll cut out some clothing and possibly move the quilt to the next stage. Life seems to have switched gears around here and all of a sudden my calendar is filling up and there are travel plans in the offing. Busy!
town lady
wips
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!
little witch girl
Another very hard to photograph girl- I’m going to have to learn more about under and overexposure on my camera. She has a dark purple body and a black cashmere pinafore. The pinafore has an embroidered sash. The camera wants to blend it all together. I did my best to show the colors and detail.
The sweater had moth holes and I decided to use them instead of avoid them in the pinafore.
Embroidery on a ribbon sash-
She has a skirt made from my favorite angora/wool blend. It is so soft and yet has body that makes it hold it’s shape. Cashmere can be floppy and stretchy. Yes, and talking of stretchy cashmere, yesterday I thought I was all finished here but… after I went to bed last night, I was thinking about her pinafore and decided it need to be lined. It was too “relaxed”- Â not staying in shape the way I’d like. Today, I added a wool felt lining to the bodice and sewed it on with buttonhole stitch all the way around the edge. It is one of those things that doesn’t really show and only I care. But it felt so satisfying when it was finished and everything seemed to fit so much better.
and her shoes-
I will be putting the fish, the Moonbeam girls and this one on Etsy, probably tomorrow afternoon. I have put away any more girls for now- they are just giving me too much trouble! I am working on lady pillows and babies- sewing them up and then I will do the decorative work. I am hoping that I’ll be doing some traveling in the next few months and it would be nice to have some dolls all ready to take along and do the handwork on.
Yesterday was the April crafty meet-up. There were 9 of us there- the biggest group yet! It was loads of fun. Look what Sharon made for Crystal! Â Next meet-up- May 12.
moonbeam 2
And now the doll that was giving me so much trouble last week. I could not get her face right. Setting her aside for a while helped a lot. After a day or so I knew what was wrong and after a couple more days, I was ready to fix it. Add to that, she is very hard to photograph, with her high contrast (head versus dress and body) and low contrast (dress details) elements. This photo was completely washed out but I had fun playing with all the slides in iPhoto to get this-
Her “night” is shades of purple and navy. Moonbeam 1 is all blues.
Her pinafore- this is the best color when I look at the photo on my computer. It is cashmere on cashmere applique.
going to Minneapolis in May
Shout Out! I will be in Minneapolis in mid-May for my son’s college graduation and would love to have a meet-up with fellow bloggers and/or crafty types. I will busy on Sat. 5/15 but wonder if people would like to get together sometime at either side of that day. I am trying to plan the trip and want to figure out what works best. Leave a comment or email me at mimik(at)pobox.com.
A photo so this post won’t be too boring-
Happy Birthday Peter!!!!
5 fish
the five fish I did last week.
gone fishin’
First some notes- Next Wednesday (4/14) is the next Crafty meet-up-Â details here. All are welcome, bring a friend.
I want to schedule the next class for June- Tiny world or Fish. Sometime between June 14 and June 28. Any interest? Ideas? Preferences?
This is my desk this morning-
I admit defeat. Sometimes you just have to back away from what you are doing and turn to something else- since curling up in bed and moping really isn’t an option in my life right now. I will probably come back to the various girls in a few days. After 2 attempts to photograph and then tweak a doll who turned out to not be finished after all, I am working on some fish.
I had something I needed to try out with some 2mm felt (that is twice as thick as standard felt).
I brought my new fish over to visit my friends next door. They both liked the blue fish. I’m rather partial to the red one myself.
Things got silly rather quickly.
moonbeam
She wasn’t done when I went and checked on her yesterday- I took off a capelet I’d make- she didn’t need it. And, I had forgotten to do some finish work on the skirt- it was still pinned on. But finally, here she is!