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.

and a fish

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I’d been thinking about this doll while I was making the men. It needed to be made as soon as I got them done.

Doesn’t every chair or sofa need a fish?

Some fishy love-

We had a fun dinner conversation the other night about whether I should take the information from this dating site article and use it for my photos on Etsy.

One week until the next meet-up– Everyone is welcome!

gentleman pirate

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This poor fellow has been sitting around, waiting to get made since I don’t know when in 2008. Here is the first one I made.

His hat comes off. He has a bit of (handkerchief) linen around his neck.

I made him a felt flintlock pistol.

The coat front and tail are lined.

I’ll be cutting out some more men in the next few days but have to do some more dyeing first. Also, I need to let my poor fingers have a break and heal from sewing cotton. I find wool so much easier to work with. Anyway, off to Etsy to post all the fellows into my shop.

devilish tattooed man

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So finally, some more tattooed men.

There is a pirate in my pile of wips that I cut out in Dec. ’08 and he needs to be finished. I don’t like to work on just one of anything- I think I’ve explained before that if I do, I tend to overwork the one doll. Last weekend I dyed fabric. Early in the week I cut out 3 of the original type. But then, inspired by the tattooed ladies, I started playing with the body types. That is what keeps it interesting/fresh for me. Of course when I got to work on them, the first one to be finished is the new body design.

He looks kind of devilish, doesn’t he! When I stuffed him, I was concerned that he was a little too Bobinsky, but whatever.

I love his hair. I never plan out things like the hair. It always works best if I keep an open mind and just play with the fabric.

The thing is, I had this “great” idea, in the middle of the night. I don’t know about you, but my middle-of-the-night ideas usually turn out to be totally lame in the light of day. But, that aside, I tried to make it work for a while, discarded it, went forward on a completely different hair direction when… somehow that night idea and the hair I was putting on came together and he has his little hair horns. And he has a sewn and stuffed moustache (a first for me).

And here he is, lounging around on the sofa.

I will put whatever men I make in my Etsy shop on Monday, probably around noonish est. There, now I have a deadline for myself and I need to get back to work!

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.

more studio photos

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I want to show you what I did with the used flat file I bought last March.

The top two drawers are where I store my crewel wool. Son Julian made me those cardboard dividers when he was home last summer.

The third drawer down has misc. embroidery threads- ribbon embroidery, Danish Flower threads, crochet cotton, other random stuff. I store my floss over here.

Fourth and fifth drawer- all my delicious wool felt.

Then comes the buttons- drawer six-

and drawer seven. I just got these 2 drawers arranged after Christmas.

The bottom 3 drawers have papers and things that I stuffed into them when I moved- ie more potential goodie organized storage space. This flat file organizing is working well for me. It helps me see so much of what I need to choose from at one time.

One last thing to show you- my roll of paper. It hangs right above my desk, always handy for when I have an idea or am making a test pattern.

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.

kitty in pink

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the challenge can be to decide to make a girl kitty or boy kitty and have it look like a girl or boy. As opposed to making the doll and deciding if it looks like a boy or girl and going from there.

I love this pink wool. It was one of my purchases from my visit to Dorr.

4 December wips finished, 3 to go.