In the Garden

I've been a busy little bee, selecting fabric for totes and then making said totes.

I have to say that picking fabrics is pretty much my favorite part of any project. I'm a bad little fabric hoarder, and many of the fabrics I buy I have no project in mind for. I buy things because they make me happy, either with color or pattern or subject matter. I love to play with color in pattern in unexpected ways to find the combination that makes all the fabrics look better. A lot of my fabrics have some sentimental value to them too. So choosing fabrics means I not only get to play with color and pattern, but I'm reminded of good memories.

This was the last bit of this pretty bird fabric I had, I had juuuuuust enough to do the tote. I've also made a bead embroidered tote with this fabric. These are both from Home Fabrics but bought about two years apart. The little velvet ribbon was from an online fabric swap.

This was the last little bit of this floral as well, boo. I got this from my college sewing instructor, it was a discontinued decorator sample she had in her supply closet. She used to also go to estate sales and auctions and get huge lots of fabric to bring back to class and let us pick through and just give her a small "donation". I have some really cute vintage bits from that.
I had the floral matched with two totally different fabrics and ready to go when I noticed the houndstooth and liked that better.

These are both decorator remnants from Hancock Fabrics. I love the textured blue that's at the top. It has a fleecy backing on it, so it has a little stiffness for bags and doesn't ravel when cut. I kind of wish I had gotten more, but oh well. The little crystal button is from a pair of shoes I was getting rid of.

I had the hardest time with picking the fabrics for this one. I grabbed the floral and paired the yellow with it right away, but I just could not find anything I liked with both. I was actually pulling something else out and noticed the blue houndstooth that I had forgotten about. I love it together. The houndstooth is such a traditional pattern it works with the floral, but the colors are modern enough to make it a little unexpected. I really like it with the yellow too.

If it's not obvious, I loves me some huge gaudy florals.

Owlies

I have been really digging owls lately, and everyone else seems to be as well. I love their round bodies, big eyes, and teeny tiny beaks.

I found this wee owl couple at an antique shop. I'm not sure why they're green, but as it's my favorite color there are no complaints.

I've had my eye on this fellow for months, but I've been waiting for him to go on clearance. I finally got him 75% off, for just a bit over $6. He's going to live in the yard once I get out sitting area set up.

I got this nifty fabric, which I used to make...

...one of several owl pillow covers.

Here are some more.

I am also seriously coveting this owl vase from fruitflypie on Etsy. I think it would look adorable in my kitchen.

Edit: I got all owl inspired last night and made three little owl pendants. Here's one and you can see the others on my Flickr. They are made from polymer clay and hand painted.

Here They Come To Save The Day

I've been busy making some comic character plushes. Atomic Skull is in the works, I just need to finish off his flames. I finished two Ambush Bugs that were hanging out in my unfinished project basket.


They each got some cute little shorts to protect their modesty. The one on the right has chenille stems in his antennae, so they stand up and can be posed. They're both going on my Etsy shop later this week, along with Copperhead and Baby Rorschach. MODOK is also on Ebay until Sunday (July 12).


This little Ambush Bug already has a home.

Fourth of July

We had an awesome July 4th. Bats spent most of the day making pasta sauce from scratch. Our house smelled so delicious. I helped make vegan baked ziti. Bats found a recipe for a vegan ricotta cheese substitute that uses macadamia nuts. (I'm going to use some of the leftover miso paste to make tofu miso soup next week, hooray!) It turned out really yummy, although there was some grittiness that probably would have been better if we had an actual food processor and not a $15 blender. It was still freaking delicious though. We also made garlic knots with premade pizza dough from Trader Joe's. Just make fat little dough ropes and bake. Then they get rolled in a mixture of olive oil, minced garlic, and herbs and finished with a big glob of garlic. I almost died they were so yummy.

Once we were sufficiently stuffed with food, we scooted off to the Mecklenberg County Courthouse parking garage to watch the fireworks.



One of the people in jail was waving out the window, so I was waving back. At least they had a good view of the fireworks.

Here's the view down from where we were standing at the top of the parking garage. There aren't any in this photo, but people were pulling over beside the on ramp to watch fireworks! Bats and I were totally amazed that people would be so careless with their own safety and that of people driving, especially since there were 4 or 5 parking decks they could have gone to. It's incredible there wasn't an accident, especially since someone stopped and BACKED UP to get in front of the other cars so they could see through the trees.

But now for the good part. I got some really great pictures of the fireworks! There are more on my Flickr photstream.

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing

I got a fairly large custom order and it came out so well I wanted to post some pictures. I made two sets of bumper pads, two baby quilts, two crib dust ruffles, a valance and curtain, and a diaper organizer to hang from the crib.


The bumper pads had these flowers on the tabs. Except for sewing the two flower pieces together, these are all hand sewn. They took FOREVER and my fingers hurt. I need a thimble, but whenever I use one I tend to kind of not use the finger it's on. Generally I just put a bandage on that finger and that seems to work out.

I had a bit of extra fabric. Pattern envelopes are never accurate. Anyway, I used some to make these two little dollies for the babies. They're just two rectangles of minky sewn and stuffed. I added a little oval of felt with some embroidery for the face. The skirt is just a strip of fabric with a casing sewn at the top so I could gather it with some ribbon. They're sitting in front of the little diaper organizer, which is rather obnoxiously cute. I prefer irony with my cute.

Little valance and curtain. The curtain ties up with the pink ribbons.

One of the set of bumpers. The other set has minty green minky instead of pink, but the same paisley on the back. I spent so much time on the flowers I kind of hate them, I tend to get that way.

The two quilts. They're very simple, just twelve 12" square blocks and minky for the sashing and back. They're so soft and cuddly.

Hopefully my client will be happy with everything. :)

HeroesCon 2009

Our annual nerd weekend has been and gone once again. (HeroesCon 2007 was my first official date with Bats.) I had a total blast. I didn't buy much as I am sans a job, but bats insisted on buying me zombie comics and I got some good free stuff.
I also got to meet some of the awesome guys at Studio Revolver, especially Tom Feister and Casey Edwards. Both fantastic, talented guys. I brought some of the comic plush with me and they were both a bit excited over them.

Here's Question hanging out with Cully Hamner, who is the artist for the Question comics running with Detective Comics. (Although that's Renee Montoya Question, which mine isn't.)

We had a fun weekend.

MOAR MEMES

These are Mr X Stitch's fault, mostly. He requested Keyboard Cat and it got my going again. I already had a bit of a list going, and darn if I didn't get a few marked off.

Two movies that make me giggle. (Also, come on, what red-blooded American girl doesn't like a movie with 300 hot men in tiny leather undies?)

And horror, the dreaded Tubgirl. Unlike 2 Girls/1 Cup, I was not fortunate enough to avoid this one. It was sprung on me by Bats, and I still agreed to date him. (Instead of the proper reaction, which would have been to beat him to death with my computer monitor.)

Patterns for all of the memes are still in the works and should be available soon, so keep an eye out. Thanks to Mr X Stitch for his hard work getting this presentable and all.

Dec Your Neck

To make up for not updating for so long, I'm going to do kind of a glut of posts all at once here.

To start off, this one is about a couple of my favorite handmade necklaces.

Like most of the things I know how to do, I mostly taught myself with a lot of reading and trial and error. I'm sure there are things I do "wrong", but oh well. I tend to be happy with the results and that's the important thing, right?

I really like the look of a large focal pendant, and a lot of the ones I use are kind of sentimental. Both the pendant above and the one below I got while shopping with my mom.


Before I moved, we would have a "girl's day" every other Friday that usually involved lunch and a trip to some type of craft store, where we would do our very best to focus on one thing for more than twelve seconds. (My mother is not blessed with a lengthy attention span when it comes to craft supplies or stores full of cute things, a trait I seem to have inherited. Thanks Mom.) My trips back to California and hers to North Carolina to visit me involve lots of craft shops and then plunking down at home to make things or teach each other new things. It's one of my favorite things.


The pendant above I got on my trip to New York with Bats this past December. For some reason, Bats felt that walking for blocks and blocks in a snow storm was not only a good idea, but an "experience" we should have. Luckily I found a small bead shop where I could warm up for a few minutes. They had a great selection and awesome prices, and I grabbed a strand of probably fifteen of these for just $8. Each one is different, some are green and blue and solid and some are milky and translucent.

I think a lot of the reason I craft is to make my ideas and experiences into something concrete. There are lot of supplies I have, especially fabrics and beads, that are tied to memories for me. Crafting with these is like carrying a little memory with me, and I've always been sort of a random hoarder with things like that. (I know I have rocks and shells from beach trips in my closet somewhere...) I can wear a necklace and remember walking on a beach in California with millions of tiny shells or freezing my ass off in New York. I can carry a bag that reminds me of thrift shopping with my mom in Morro Bay.