Finished this:
[45" x 51", it's off to Auction 2. I will miss it.]
Finished this:
[Sample custom pillow for Auction 1; silent auction companion piece to Auction Quilt.]
Still working on this:
[A lot, though probably not as many as we'll need, of glittered leaves for the three big mobiles I'm building for Auction 1 decorations. My leaves have a crush on Meg's flowers.]
Almost, almost there.
Oh, tiny cowgirl, refusing to actually participate in the preschool Halloween parade for which we made a special trip in the middle of our hectic day. Probably you're saving your energy for heading out to the range.
With your cowgirl trick or treat bag. (Simple Tote! Such a surprise to see you!)
Around these parts, there can be no cowgirl bag without an accompanying cowboy satchel. (There's a whole accompanying cowboy costume, too, but we have no good blog pictures of it (as I lamented last night, to much not-entirely-disguised eyerolling from my husband)). I am going to have to talk him into a reenactment.
Anyway, the bag is a messenger-style adaptation of Simple Tote, though I guess once you make the whole thing a little bit bigger, add a strip to make a boxy bottom, a flap to go over the top, & a long strap to go cross-body over the shoulder, it's less an adaptation than an entirely different bag, hm? I owe every little bit of my understanding of how to line a bag to Simple Tote, though. It's a Simple Tote in spirit! Also, another important similarity is that my Simple Tote Curse applies to this bag, too (probably because I looked at the ST pattern while touching the fabric I'd be using, thus creating evil psychic connection), resulting in me completely forgetting any type of interfacing. So, you know, pardon the flop.
When I went to look for the bag this morning to take a picture, I discovered that had he already loaded it up with Very Important Things. Way to make your mom proud, kid.
Today: stack of crowns.
I need to make a whole post about the excellent princess party we had last weekend, with special mention of the fantastic strawberry frosting I made, but I am still resting up from all that PINK.
Today I received my first ever ugly-beautiful glazed coil pot at my son's kindergarten mother's day "tea" (I put it in quotes because my daughter is incensed that we call it "tea" without actually serving actual tea. She now refers to her tea as "the fake tea party we're having at my school for mother's day."), & even though yesterday I was rolling my eyes to my husband about it, oh good, here we go, today I could not love it more.
I especially love the tiny white bowl he made for me.
As for work in progress, I am finally coming to grips with the fact that I've got a show next weekend (Baz Biz at Maker Faire!), & so I've got quite a bit going on,
like a zillion bracelets to sew together.
Oh, also, I finally decided to start up an etsy shop. The idea (at the moment) is that it will be a place to put things that don't quite belong on my official website, plus I am increasingly impressed with the quality of work I'm finding on etsy, so I wanted to join in the fun! It's pretty bare right now, but I did list a few crowns
& some bobby pin sets.
I am grateful that spring is here for many reasons, not least of which is that I can finally get some decent picture of my glitter again.
I miss the whole WIP Friday craze, I do. Not that I miss the pressure of having something photo-worthy going every Friday (though it did challenge me to reconsider the whole notion of progress, photo-worthy, work), but I miss the talk of creative process that it brought up. It seems like the current blog trend is a big ta-da of the finished project, which -- don't get me wrong -- is great, I do it as much as anyone else, but there's something chatty & homey about giving a peek behind the scenes, isn't there?
Here's what I'm working on today. I had other plans, but then my daughter had a fever & stayed home from school, so I decided that today was a good day to work on the idea I have for party favors (I am willing to do many many contortions in order to avoid making a batch of princess shirts). This is my prototype, so it's rough, but I see where I'm going now. Please note that my love of two-color screenprinting, even when not strictly necessary, continues in full-force.
I'm also working out here, in half-hour chunks as my fevered miss gets her tv + couch fix.
Isn't this golden elderberry excellent? I was promised that it will stand up to the total lack of shade my front yard gets in summer, but I'm a little nervous. In the meantime, though, I'm enjoying the feathery lime green against the giant rosemary (ridiculous, it was a 4" culinary plant that I stuck out there & now it's 4' tall. I still cook with it.) & the round fat sage leaves (also culinary, I should just give it up & plant a humongous mediterranean herb garden out there.).
Here, though, is the more honest view. That grass burns out by mid-June every single year, & this year we're ripping it out. We're expanding the back bed, adding beds in front, & putting a crunchy gravel path down the middle. I can't wait.
Blair's post about tufting the other day inspired me, in the way that I am often inspired when my thoughts turn to tufted things (which happens more often than you might think, especially because I periodically gaze lovingly at this sofa, which is like the tidy white antithesis of our rumply family-friendly thing & so I like to imagine how serene my life would be if I lived with it) to dig out this old issue of Marie Claire Idees (Spring 01) with the stack of lovely colorful thin tufted mattresses. (Also! There are no snow days during Le Temps Des Fleurs! No!)
Although, upon closer inspection + actually reading the directions for once, I now realize that they are not tufted after all, but wouldn't they be even more excellent if they were? After seeing the MSL camp furniture article from last summer (& that day bed needs some buttons too, no?), my thin tufted mattress idylls now combine the two ideas -- although, really, I can't imagine a tippier thing to bring into a house with two young hectic children, a folding camp cot topped with a tall squashy pile of probably-lopsided handsewn mattresses. Still, though, there's something about that MCI spread that particularly grabs me.
I finally started working on my big shade project this weekend, kicking things off with a 175" long pieced strip (I'm making five shades total). I thought about a few different techniques to get the no-repeat look I wanted, but in the end I just sliced up my strips & then pieced them together based on what I thought might look good next. I got a new sewing machine for Christmas (thanks, Mom!), & while it feels a little, um, daintier than my no-nonsense little Janome (& boy did I bend some needles while figuring that out), it's got a great piecing stitch that very grippily* & tidily makes a 6.5mm seam, & I sure do love the needle up/down button. I'm looking forward to trying out its quilting stitches on these shades, though first I have to finish wrestling with the stupid poly batting I bought for them (my thinking: poly = closer to fiberglass insulation (insulation being the whole point of the project) than cotton would be, but I may end up going back to cotton yet).
*not an actual technical sewing term, but maybe it should be.
*
I guess I knew that even the [ok, my] most earnest fresh-start enthusiasm takes at least a little bit of a dive when it runs up against the daily grind, but I didn't expect it to happen quite so early in the year. I blame the unexpectedly potent combination of La Femme Nikita seasons 4 + 5 on dvd & the "chore" of flipping through a stack of old magazines (old magazines, I unearthed a pile of Met Homes from 1997) & tearing out anything interesting before sending them off to the overburdened recycling bin. (I hope the recycling truck guys share some of the organization store people's fresh-start wryness, our bin is a little ridiculous right now.)
**
Anyway, overwrought spy tv (I do love it, though am reminded why I stopped watching partway through season 4, ha) plus endlessly flipping through spreads of pristine modernist homes turns out to suck all the creative energy out of the room, as well as -- since I will not be using any of the 37 million shades of white out there -- not giving me any useful paint color ideas for my kitchen (ostensibly why I'm doing all the mag flipping), so I may possibly be running a creativity deficit at this point.
*Don't remember if I've actually posted about these before, they're the small glitter dot necklaces I'm doing (replacing the ones that appear on but are currently unavailable from the website). Imagine me balancing a white plate full of necklaces in front of every window in my house, trying to capture the best version of gloomy Seattle afternoon light.
**Of course, an hour after I took the necklace picture & sent it off to the client that needed it, the sun actually made an appearance. I'm playing around with an idea for a multicolored gocco invite, although frankly I am not quite sure what I was thinking when I picked out the darkish grey cards.
And in my second post of the day, I'd like to point out that it's not all giggles & cupcakes around here, no! I am nearly to the end of my big wholesale push, which means that I'm starting to focus on all the holiday shows I've got coming up (two shows next weekend, then one the first weekend of December & one a couple of weeks later) & thinking about things like display & show specials, etc. Sometimes this phase is fun, sometimes it makes me want to tear my hair out (or bake 100 cupcakes instead of even thinking about glitter), but I've managed to come up with an idea or two.
As always, I am deeply satisfied by the supplies.
The plan for these is smaller versions of the glitter letters I did back in May. They're four inches tall, small enough to be tree ornaments but large enough to look good hanging on a wall (though now that I've written that I'm suddenly imagining a wall covered in tiny glitter letters).
I'll have these at my holiday shows, & they'll also be over at Venue in a couple of weeks (locals, it's going to be worth stopping by the store sometime this season, since they're really encouraging the artists to bring new fun stuff in). I'm also working on a couple of holiday shirt designs, but don't have one to show yet.
In between everything else, I've finalized the design for my sister's save the date cards & the paper for them just arrived. I can't get over the envelope color, especially in a big stack like that (although ask me how far over it I am when I have to wear a dress that color come June, ok?).
A realistic peek into today's work in progress would include: me brandishing a box knife at the mountain of shipping boxes that has popped up this week & is making my studio more like an obstacle course than I'd like, then wandering away in defeat; me discovering that the clever inventory markings (have this, need to make this) I scribbled down on a large wholesale order were in fact exactly opposite of the way I later interpreted them, resulting in nothing being as ready to go as I thought it was; me glowering at an unsorted pile of shirts; etc. And, really, nobody wants to see that.
So, of course, instead, I'm thinking about corduroy skirts. Call it my work in planning.
Apparently, I secretly believe that you can never have too many red corduroy skirts, because all of the fabric in that picture comes from separate shopping trips, over the course of two separate corduroy seasons, accompanied by separate sincere beliefs that I will make cute little fall skirts for my daughter. I think I'm going to make the skirt out of the bottom fabric, with a band at the bottom out of the middle fabric, & while I'd like to figure out a way to incorporate the top fabric as well, I think the weights are too different to pull it off without turning it into much more of a corduroy patchwork experience than I want. Sounds like a good tv project for tonight.
Other things being planned: seitan tacos for dinner tonight
with banana bread for after.
Ooh, I just discovered that my copy of The Crafter's Companion arrived (I wondered if it would, after seeing Alicia's post), & so now I plan to sit down with it & be amazed.
I like to look at winter squash much more than I like to eat it, but at least once a season I can't resist bringing one home:
I was kind of thinking that I'd just keep it around to admire, but the kids were curious about it & I noticed that my sage plant had some nice fat leaves on it.
Basically, this soup (curried roasted vegetable, I was surprised at how much I liked it) was an excuse to fry sage & make some bread (one of my absolute favorite fall/winter things to do). But look how pretty that little leaf is!
Mostly what's in progress around here today is more of the usual piles of cardstock & tees, but late last night I decided that it was imperative I try out one of my ideas for my upcoming Artist of the Month spot. I'm going to dress my mannequin in a creepy tee/hat & then hang a few sparkly bats around it.
I've been sneaking a few of these babies in now & then, too. I just got a new batch of ring findings in yesterday, & I can't wait to start playing around with them.
But maybe I'll go get another loaf of bread started first.
I took this picture last Friday, for WIP Friday & also to document for myself that there is something happening around here, that no matter how far I feel like I'm falling behind, I'm still managing to get good-sized orders out the door (this one is to a new store in MN), & maybe also to document that thinking about slimming down my product line might not be the worst idea on earth.
This Friday, I found myself taking this picture:
which is part of an order that I just got out the door to a different store (Naka, in Ferndale MI). It's great to be busy, but it's...busy to be busy, too. Between trying to keep my little business chugging along & continuing to adjust to life as a two-school family, I feel like I can't catch a breath. This, however, did not stop me from going to a meeting today & agreeing to help my son's teacher plan & execute some sort of mathy quilting project with his kindergarten class. I'm sure there's some late night looming in my future where I'll be sewing like a frantic zombie, but right now the whole idea is completely irresistable. I confess that I don't understand how it will help them with the whole math thing, but that's what the teacher's there for, right?
In the midst of all this, I of course managed to find some time to play with resin. This ring was the test case for an adjustable sterling setting, & I'm very pleased with the results. (Yes, Scout, that's some purple glitter you're seeing there.)
This is yet another incarnation of the glitter dots, a sterling pendant. I'm also experimenting with coating the original dot pendants with a layer of resin, & I'm not sure which one will win out. This one is a little more jewelry-like (& therefore more expensive), the other one is all about the glitter. I'll probably end up rolling both out at my next show & seeing how it goes.
With all the work happening this week, it was nice to get a little payoff in the form of the latest issue of Country Home (Oct 06). They'd asked me to send some of my knit-themed cards for use in their fancy concept kitchen for the Kitchen/Bath Industry Show, & my cards appear in the shot of the bulletin board in the October issue (p.139). You have to know what my cards look like & then also squint quite a bit to make them out (I put notes on the photo in my flickr account for the curious but non-squinty), but, yay! This was my first copy of CH, & I have to say, I'm surprised at how appealing I actually find it (I have a subscription to Metropolitan Home, which, admittedly, is an apparently perpetually-renewing gift subscription & not one that I actively seek out myself, but still, the person who gets it for me is not entirely wrong). It reminds me of MSL, except made by people who might wear rumply clothing every now & then.
This weekend I'm planning on sewing another skirt for my girl (I am developing a little bit of a corduroy obsession), eating a delicious pumpkin donut from the neighborhood donut shop, working on a couple of Halloween items + some display stuff for the artist of the month thing I have coming up next month at Venue, & maybe baking some bread if the weather stays cool enough. Turns out I'm ready for fall, after all.
