2 more babies

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the other 2 projects I brought to NY. I thought they were finished on Monday night. So smug. I didn’t get around to photographing them until late on Tuesday afternoon. As I was looking at them through the camera, I started to know they weren’t quite right. The photos confirmed it. Back they went to my desk. They both had some rework and now I am happier.

The green bird baby-

The first face had eyebrows but the poor baby looks so unhappy! And a little Frida Kahlo too.

The misty morning baby-

Can you see the difference? I restitched the face onto the doll. People are often surprised to find out that I usually stuff my dolls before doing the embroidery. I didn’t stuff these babies first because they were traveling with me. This face was stitched onto the doll when I stuffed it. The main baby fabric stretched when I stuffed it but the wool felt of the face didn’t. The stitches got pulled and Frankenstein-ish. Now I am happier.

The gray-blue fabric is woven cashmere that I dyed. I am not sure what color dye I was working with, but when it came out, I wasn’t thrilled and threw it into the pile of fabric to be redyed. Every time I went through the pile, it would catch my eye and I’d think about it then put it back. One day though, it followed me up to my studio and after the moonbeam girls, this baby needed to be made.

I spent several hours yesterday cleaning and sorting out piles in my studio. Wool is now mostly put away and time for toile and tattoos. I am working diligently to have a good selection of work for Renegade. It is one month from today- YIKES!  Anyway, look- open flat spaces in my studio! Well, not anymore, but I did document it while it lasted.

travel projects

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this is the crafty part of the trip.

First project, I made a new Purl girl as a store-warming for the new space-

She was sitting in the window when I left.

Second project- one I’ve been thinking about for a while.

I’ve been wanting to use my Spoonflower fabric to make something to wear at shows. I’d been aiming to come up with something before Renegade, but the trip to Purlsoho gave me a chance for a first try. I made 6 tabs out of the figures- 2 facing front and one facing back.

And attached them to the bottom edges of a length of Japanese linen. It worked out very well, although as I was trying to put it on, I was tempted to google “how to wear a scarf” … unfortunately, no internet at the hotel so I had to wing it. Really, I ought to dress up more!

It worked out perfectly. No need to try to explain what I do/ who I am. Phew. My usual experience is that telling people I make dolls is the biggest conversation killer imaginable. Also, I know that saying it ALWAYS gives the person the wrong impression.This way, visual aids.

And third-

I feel jumpy if I don’t have a project at hand. This is how I organize my travel projects-

Applique projects work well for traveling. Before I leave, I lay out all the pieces and then baste them in place. You can see that the face piece is pinned on- don’t do that. I end up jabbing myself numerous times as I reach into the bag- silly me! Then I pick out all the threads I might want. Everything goes into a bag- zip top or cloth tote. If I am bringing more then one project (which I usually do), they each go in their own bag with the threads. I put a small pair of scissors and a selection of needles into a separate small bag. I took three babies down, worked on 2, and maybe got those 2 about half done. Now that I am back, they will get finished very quickly because I’ve already made all the difficult design decisions.

And in less then 2 weeks, I am off to Minneapolis. Busy, busy times!

trip to NY

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Ben and I went down to NY on the Megabus.  Wifi, a table- I swear, the light was better then in my studio. I’d prepared some projects to work on during the way down (about 4 hours). Coming home was crowded and we didn’t get the table, but really, it is a very relaxing way to get to NY.

I went to an opening party at the new Purl location. Yes, it is amazing.

The display window-

The felt- love it!

btw- they have bolts of felt at the store if you are looking for larger amounts.

Color is all at Purl. It is intoxicating. Even the refreshments were beautiful!

Going back to the hotel- all the lights at night-

We stayed down by Wall Street and the hole in the ground that was the World Trade Center. This promenade was just a few blocks from the hotel. Lovely. The weather was perfect which I must say is a unique experience for me in NY- usually we are there in pouring rain, no matter what the season!

On Friday we went to the Museum of the City of New York and saw a show of Chas Addams artwork.

But really, let’s get back to the party. I met Heather Ross (yes, I gushed and told her I was a big fan),  Liesl and Tamar Mogendorff. Diana Eng was there but I didn’t have a chance embarrass myself with her- I would have told her that I stopped watching Project Runway after they bumped her… but probably, that would have been weird. There was a big crowd and I can’t even say how thrilled I was to be there.

Tomorrow I will post some crafty aspects of the trip, but that’s enough for now.

garden lady

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I’m not really sure why, but red is the color of this past week. Red and green- my favorite color combination. This lady (like the last baby) is inspired by some quilt applique photos that I’ve got in my notebooks of inspiration.

I used thin strips of wool felt for the lines- something I’ve never tried before. Stitching was just not showing up on the textured black and white background.

Woohoo- I am going to New York City on Thursday/Friday. And probably Portland, ME on Wednesday to pick up Peter. Yep, life is speeding up around here.

other goings on

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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!

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!