Denim bag - finished

You would think I would get tired of making denim bags, wouldn't you? I really like this one, although I did change the original pattern somewhat. I replaced the pockets in the pattern with some recycled ones from a pair of jeans, and also changed the method of finishing the bag to something that was easier (at least for me). I don't have a particular use for this bag and, for the moment, it's going into the gift drawer.

The pattern was a free download from the internet (Quilted Garden Tote, a tutorial from Handmade by Alissa and Sew,Mama,Sew).

Denim...again?

I had a bit of time to do some stitching on the latest denim bag I'm working on. If you enlarge the picture, you can maybe see the machine stitching better. I used multi-coloured thread and just fiddled with some of the different stitches on my machine. Fun, easy, and it served to hold the batting in place (I'm using up an old piece of 'stuff' that looks like it's cotton fluff!). The flowers are commercial felt that I have hand stitched onto the denim using pearl cotton.

I will repeat the process on the other side and then add some outside pockets before I actually put it together. More stash reduction...gotta love it!!

A book and sniffle, snuffle, drrriiipppp

Today I have pictures of the front and backs of the pages I will be putting together into my art book. My friends in the little group I belong to each did a couple of the pages and there's also one from my friend Arlee. The front cover is what I did. My theme was beverages (mostly coffee & tea). I'm so thrilled with it and now have to make the back cover and put it together.

As for the sniffling, snuffling, and dripping part....spring allergies. What more can I say?

A coat?

This will, hopefully, turn into a wonderful long Khalat coat! The outside will be denim (what else?), but I'm planning to do some playing with shibori and also lots of hand stitching on it. I might even throw some of my crazy quilting style into it. The lining will be this wonderful taffeta. Both fabrics were found at our local Fabricland for $5 a metre!!! I can't wait to get started on it. (Thanks Arlee, for sharing!!).

It's Done (almost)!!!!!

Remember this???? The red blob?
Lookie! It's a sweater AND (drum roll) it actually fits!!! It doesn't have any buttons yet because I haven't found any I like. It is the first knitted garment I have made and I am so happy to have it over and done with.

It's the Einstein coat pattern from Sally Melville's knit stitch book, the name of which escapes me (and I have loaned it to a friend). I will edit the post to include that info shortly. HERE'S THE INFO: 'The Knitting Experience - Book 1: The Knit Stitch'.

Now I'm about to try something to see if the linkage problem I've been having is now figured out. Please bear with me. This is a test to see if this link will work now: Nope, didn't work. Back to the drawing board on that one!!

YEEHAW!!!! I think I got it!!!! Will somebody please let me know if it worked?? Thanks! HUGE thanks to Arlee for bailing me out...again.

Amy's Ride

As promised, here is more information about the 'Ride to Conquer Cancer' fundraiser I talked about several days ago. My friends Marie Alton and Cathy Ross (who are sisters) are doing a wonderful thing to help their niece Amy raise funds as she participates in the 200 km bike ride from Toronto to Niagara Falls, with the proceeds going to the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation. There is an excellent description on Cathy's blog (http://thedepthswithin.blogspot.com) and there you can see the wonderful jacket Cathy has up for auction. She makes THE most gorgeous clothing!! Please make a bid if you are interested!!

AND...as I told you before, Marie has some beautiful bead work available (for only $5 each!!) on her blog (click on the picture titled 'Amy's Ride') http://sredeluxe.blogspot.com. All proceeds from those are going to the cause, plus Marie is matching your donations! I have a couple that will be coming my way and, because I already own a few pieces of Marie's work, I know they will be beautiful. Please help if you can.

WHY OH WHY HAS BLOGGER DECIDED NOT TO LET ME LINK?????!!!! Sorry!

Spring!!!!!!

We have flowers. Real ones. In the garden. And the snow is melted away!! Roll on, allergies - I'll welcome you back with open arms if I can only have some warmth!

I'm not so sure, however, if I feel so benevolent towards our postal service in this country. They seem to have managed to misplace a piece of our Exquisite Corpse round robin, which is thoroughly maddening (and most of all, disappointing to the owner). All that hard work is gone...somewhere....with no means of tracing it. The only hope now is that somehow it will get returned to the sender, but what are the odds? It's not that the piece was a little tiny postcard, which you can understand perhaps getting lost in the equipment. From now on I will be sending all my art pieces 'traceable', even though there is more cost involved. Oddly enough, this is the SECOND time this has happened with a 'corpse' piece (Arlee's finished piece never arrived home from the first round). Very disappointing.

Denim beginnings

These are the beginnings of another denim creation. I think I will be adding some felt flowers and some hand stitching to this one. The wonky-looking 'things' lying on top are meant to be pockets, but they are going to change to something more useful before I sew them down. The pattern is a tutorial from Handmade by Alissa and Sew,Mama,Sew - the Quilted Garden Tote. Of course theirs was done using cottons, but I just HAVE to use denim!!

Brrrrrr...it's cold with no clothes!

And she has to wait til July!

It's a good thing the weather is getting a bit warmer because this little lady is going to be hanging around nekkid! She's approximately 14" long, which will fit within the size requirements; it's not my usual sizing because I've pretty much always worked at 18-20". It was fun making her and now it's on to creating my journal to travel along.

Heads (not tails)

Lots of Heads!

Today I've played around with possible heads for my doll. I haven't had much practice at needle sculpting (as you can tell from the head on the bottom left!!). The one on the bottom right is a winner, but I think I will try sculpting a couple of the others to see what happens.

Doll limbs

Pieces and Parts

I think this will be my doll for the collaboration I've been asked to join. There's a long way to go before she's ready to go off on her adventures and I won't know if this is 'the' one until I actually get her put together. I've put a head together but it's not quite what I want, so it's back to the drawing board.

This doll was cobbled together from several different patterns - some bits from Patti Medaris Culea and the rest has been my own invention. Next I have to decide whether to gesso her or leave her alone...decisions, decisions.

M-E-S-S (disguised as creativity)

Ideas Galore!

But not enough time to execute them so far this week. Starting the week off with a holiday seems to have completely messed me up. That, and the fact that DH decided it would be in his best interests to fall down the basement stairs meaning that I have to take over the cooking and pretty much everything else until all his bruises heal. Nothing broken, thank goodness, but he's not moving too far at the moment. It appears that his knee gave out at the top of our small pair of steps leading up to the kitchen and, when he grabbed the railing, somehow he managed to do a pirouette and flung himself down the larger set of stairs. Once the fright was over I reminded him that he was too old to be taking up ballet. This morning I asked him what DIDn't hurt (which is a much shorter list than listening to what DOES hurt). He's not a complainer tho', which is a good thing!!

So....because of all this, my studio is in a total state of disarray which has to be cleaned up before a friend arrives for coffee in the morning. One step forward, three steps back....

First pie!!!

Just look at this wonderful pie!!
It's the very first pie our son's girlfriend has made and she has reason to be proud! She asked Jack if he would teach her how to make an apple pie (including the pastry) so that was their project on Saturday. He showed her how while he made the one on the left and then she made the one on the right all by herself. She's done something I have never been able to manage and that's making pastry. If a pie doesn't have the good ol' graham cracker crust it won't get made if I have anything to do with it. I won't say just how many failed pastries ended up in the garbage before I admitted defeat!!

Happy Easter!

(Obviously I didn't do a very good job of scanning the picture!).

However, I just wanted to wish a very Happy Easter to everyone and leave you with the strains of a 'certain' song that starts with 'In My Easter Bonnet, with all the......'.

Now I know that you all are going to be going around humming that song for the next few hours and you'll be perfectly in tune (hah) with the season!

Help?

Does anyone happen to know of a source where I could find a product called 'soutache braid'? I have been commissioned to make a ring bearer's pillow and the idea I have in mind uses it. Thought it would be fairly simple to track down, but I haven't had any luck. It's not that I NEED it, but I WANT it!!

Yesterday I was the designated driver to take friends Irene & Sue on a shopping expedition. We hit all the good places - Michaels; a really decent dollar store; Chapters; Canadian Tire; and, of course, Tim Horton's for the necessary intake and outgo of fluids. Fun day! I finally succumbed (as did Irene) and got a lovely little soldering iron to set the smoke alarm off with. Have to like these tools that create such chaos!! Can't wait to have time to play with it.

Knitting? You wanted to know how the knitting was coming? Well. Ummmm. I kicked the bag it's in today. Does that count?

Knitting....and knitting....and .....

KNITTING!!!!!!!!!!!!
I WILL finish the sweater, I will finish the sweater, I will finish the sweater, chug, chug.

However, I will go batty if I don't get it done soon.

Sorry, no pictures today....busy. Knitting.

Denim stash - reduced again

I made this bag on the weekend from a pattern called the 'Bali Bag' which was published in the January 2007 issue of QUILT magazine (thanks Donna!). I, of course, being a lover of denim, decided that it would be a perfect use for some of my stash. I don't happen to have any Bali fabrics in my stash so the decision of what to use was pretty easy! I had exactly four of the purple flower buttons in my stash and I thought they looked rather cute with the happy face beads for centres.
btw...excuse the mess in the background!! Oh yeah...I've been knitting my little fingers to the bone and finished one sleeve up. Only a hundred and some odd more rows to go....sigh.

The lump and the lug

I'm actually knitting. This sweater WILL be done...someday. I hope. It's one of those knitting projects that beginners undertake for their first 'large' project. Something safe. Something easy. Something so mind-numbingly BORING that you begin to wonder why you decided knitting might be fun in the first place. Something that, as you're knitting, you feel distressing thoughts that after ALL that m-n BORING knitting, might not even fit. Yeah, it's that sort of project. I WANT IT DONE!!!!!!!!!!!

For those of you who have been wondering, here's a picture of our one-eyed wonderdog Odin and his partner in crime Gypsy. As you can see, Odin is having a grand time barking at the camera and Gypsy is poised to nip at his back leg (either to shut him up or to start a wrestling match...which, btw, he allows her to win).

Mumblings

I did take a picture to show you today, but it's dead boring so I decided you really wouldn't want to see it! I tried another experiment with the air drying clay and tried wrapping some around crumpled aluminum foil. It, too, peeled off in the same manner as on the doll. Hmm. I have now tried rolling it into a couple of balls to see if it is of any use as beads. Don't forget that this particular paper clay is from the local dollar store, so it may not be as 'good' as the more expensive versions.

Received the latest issue of 'A Needle Pulling Thread' magazine (which is a Canadian publication) and noticed the following (quoting Carla A. Cononico, editor-in-chief) "...very pleased to announce the launch of our online needlework business directory, www.theneedleworkpages.com where we've listed over 1500 needlework-related businesses of all types across Canada". I haven't had a chance to check it out yet, but it certainly sounds like it might be a valuable resource.

Another thing I noticed in the magazine is a link to a site concerning textiles (again in Canada). This is what it says: "Joe Lewis....has been presenting Canadian Textile and Fibre arts since 2005 in fibreQUARTERLY on-line at www.velvethighway.com". Again, I haven't had a chance to explore, but it also sounds like it might be interesting.

It's been a good mail week because the latest Quilting Arts magazine arrived today. I haven't had time to do more than leaf through it quickly, but I can see a number of articles I'm looking forward to reading as soon as I have a few minutes.

There was a notice on both Allison Aller's and Marie Alton's blogs today that Maureen Greeson has re-opened an on-line shop. Good news for anyone interested in crazy quilting! http://www.maureensvintageaquisitions.com if you'd like to have a look.

ANOTHER PUZZLEMENT. WHY oh why has Blog-grr now decided that it doesn't want to have the links 'linkable'??????????? At least today it didn't decided to underline my first sentence like it has been. Must be spring fever.

Huge project of the historical sort

Lately I've been doing a lot of research about book publishing. It's not exactly an enthralling subject to read about. Quite boring actually. Mind-numbing. However, there IS a reason for it and here you see a couple of pictures of my 'project'. This over-large tome is the diary of my great-great grandfather (John Albert Michie, b. Oct 17, 1813, d. Feb. 15, 1900) which was written from February 24, 1869 until March 22, 1899. He was a farmer and wrote on a daily basis about the daily life of the times. Fascinating reading, if you like that sort of thing.
I'm told there is an interest amongst genealogists and historians for this type of subject matter, so I am going to attempt to have it published, probably in two volumes. The original is in a state of disrepair and cannot withstand too much handling so it is best to recopy it very carefully.

I've been wrestling with a lot of decisions concerning the book(s)...should I re-write it in it's entirety or should I edit out what is of the same old/same old wording? Do I include the fact that each and every day he recorded the weather conditions? How do I make the book seem interesting enough for people to want to read? What computer program do I use; what font; what size; what pictures to include; what, what, what...and better yet, HOW am I going to find time to do something of this magnitude?? I realize the historical value of it all and, because of that, I'm sure it is a project well worth undertaking, but at what cost?

Decisions, decisions.....

oh....and just to make the whole thing even MORE interesting is that John's son wrote about HIS life covering at least another 40 years!!!

Dry skin to the nth degree

Oh dear. I don't think this particular experiment worked very well. Irene's cream won't do a thing to fix it either!!

Why on EARTH is blog-grrrr deciding that it absolutely HAS to underline the first sentence I type?!!!!! Grrr.
Rather out of focus, but first flower from the garden this year. I love this blue with the bright yellow 'tongue'.

"Uh oh....OH NO!!!!!!"

For some reason (unknown to mere mortals like me) Blog-grrr is being rather grrrrr-usome today and refusing to let me write where I want to on these pictures. Hmmm... maybe it has spring fever too??

Anyhoo...picture one (shown above...I think) is an ever-hopeful-of-clothing fashion doll I have lying around my studio.

Picture two (shown below...I hope) explains all the whining going on in the title of this post:
And the sadly out of focus final picture was the final straw for this poor destroyed doll.
Oh dear, whatever am I up to now???

The Earth, A Cottage, Some Cream, and ATC's

Wow, how's that for a post title?!

The first picture here is of the atcs we traded at our meeting yesterday. Our 'theme' was denim, so the top three cards shown use it in some form. Irene's is on the left, mine in the middle, and Sue's on the right. The bottom row is some extras we did, just for fun. Sue did the St. Patricks one in the middle and the other two are my efforts to celebrate spring. This photo shows the jar of rich body cream that Irene made for each of us. It feels SO good and mine smells yummy too. It's nice to know the ingredients we're putting onto our bodies and this has good stuff! Yum.

Art Doll #4

This is the end of the four-part series of art dolls I've done. This one is beaded and was a fun experiment. I'm not at all sure there is another one in my future, but perhaps. Sorry about the poor picture quality! For those of you who have seen these dolls before, please scroll down to read today's original entry!

Art Doll # 3

Art Doll #2

This one is called 'Doll-E Pardon'. She sports all sorts of words on her, all referring to "Ladies of the Evening".

Art Doll #1 (part 1 of 4 posts)

Wow...more than one post in a day! This is post number 1 of 4 art doll pics I'm reposting here, by request.

Denim stash reduction + apprehension

I had fun putting these two little purses together this afternoon! Again, they were very simple to make with the hardest part being the frogging of the zippers prior to reinserting them. I don't think you can tell with the picture, but the purse uses two matching pockets so you end up with three compartments with the centre one being zippered. The pattern was found here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Protect-the-Tech

The second part of this post is something I'm excited and scared about, both at the same time. Yesterday I received an invitation to join an art doll round robin challenge. I am extremely flattered that my work is deemed good enough to be included, but on the other hand - I'm afraid I can't measure up to the rest of the group. There goes my good ol' poor opinion of my abilities again, which is something I am working hard to get over (at the insistence of a few of my good friends..and you know who you are!!). I have a few ideas tooling about in my head so we'll see where it goes and what I manage to come up with. Wish me luck!

Parts of something of the anatomical sort

Today I tried to work on the latest piece of the Exquisite Corpse round robin and I'm sorry that I can't show you a picture of what I'm doing (until the end reveal). This particular round has me a lot more intimidated than the last ones did, but I refuse to let my fear get to me. I'm gonna do this! I know I'm not the only one who isn't sure of what they're doing, so I don't feel like the odd man (woman?) out.

Thank goodness we have a pretty decent library here so I'm able to take out lots of books to skim through for ideas for things like this. Their craft/art section isn't wonderful...lots of books, but most of them are from the 60's & 70's and not so much 'up' on what is current today. They are trying to get more in, but there are lots of financial restrictions these days and the artsy side of things most often gives way to the fiction side. There are approximately 20 branches within our local system so I make use of the inter-library loan feature a lot, which helps. Never let it be said that I don't keep their circulation numbers up!!

The pain, the pain!

If you don't want to listen to me whining, stop reading now.

Some would say it's the bad coming out of me. Some would say I spend too much time stitching (they'd be wrong, because one can never spend too much time stitching). My right 'pointer' finger is once again breaking down and is extremely painful and aggravating. Yesterday and today I resorted to wearing a thimble on it for protection; a logical thing to do one would think. However. Ahem. Thimbles and I do not get along, despite my best efforts to the contrary. They lull me into a false sense of security.

Embedding a largeish-size needle (never one of the little skinny ones that would minimize the damage) right to the bone in my thumb was the result. Nope,I don't actually USE the thimble - I just hold the finger that's wearing it aside, thusly leading to bodily injury on some other digit because my brain (what there is of it) tells me that my finger is protected and reefing on the needle isn't going to be a problem. Whoops. As I said, the pain, the pain.

I'm done whining now. Carry on.

On bird carvings, denim, and whatever

Today was a lovely spring day and I didn't want to spend it in the studio; instead I took my book and sat in the sunroom for most of the afternoon. For lack of a picture to show, I thought I'd post one of the birds that Jack carved several years ago. I don't know if you can see, but there's a baby tucked under her wings. He used to do a lot of carving (and sold quite a number of loons -enough that he got heartily sick of carving them), but has pretty much given it up now. Every time he does anything in the dust, it seems to affect his lungs. It's too bad, because he was a pretty decent carver. I did get a bit of work done this morning on a denim(what else?)/metal wallhanging I have sketched out and, if you enlarge the picture, you might be able to see a tiny piece of it behind the loon. I think I will 'tease' you with pictures of all the bits and then unveil the whole after it's finished.

Paper bag book and mmmmmmmm

Here's another item I made using a tutorial I found on the internet (http://alteredbooklover.blogspot.com ....look under 'my tutorials' for a post entitled 'Piano Hinge Paper Bag Book Tutorial'). This little book uses paper lunch bags for the signatures. My cover is made from a piece of scrapbook paper and some bits of metal I stitched on. The original tutorial called for using either skewers or pencils in the spine; the skewers I have were too short, so I substituted heavy copper wire. I have no idea what I'll do with now, but it was fun to make! And, feast your eyes on this wonderful smelling (AND tasting!!) loaf of artisan bread Jack made over the weekend......

The recipe came from this book:

No kneading, no waiting, other than putting the dough in the fridge overnight!! The master recipe makes four loaves and keeps up to two weeks in the fridge, so you can bake one every couple of days. There are all kinds of different breads, including pastries, flatbreads, and pizzas. Methinks I'm about to put on some weight if I'm not careful!

Book specs: 'Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day', by Jeff Hertzbert and Zoe Francois , published by St. Martin's Press, c2007, ISBN-13:978-0-312-36291-1

Usin' up some denim

I found this cute little pattern while I was surfing the web and thought I'd put one together using some of my large stash of denim. The original pattern called for two fat quarters. The pattern (called the 'Buttercup Bag') can be found here: http://madebyrae.blogspot.com

Meet Arnie!

Would you believe this is a Christmas present done already? Meet Arnie, the cat doorstop. Isn't he cute? He is for an elderly lady I visit with who had a black & white cat when I first met her. Unfortunately the cat has passed away and her husband won't allow her to get another one. I thought this might make her feel better.

The pattern came from here: http://weefolkart.com

Good things & boredom

Please note, that title is just a thinly-disguised way of saying I have no pictures, so I'm about to mumble. Just thought I'd warn you!

Today was spent getting groceries and running general errands. I hate getting groceries. By the time I've taken each item off the shelf, into the cart, onto the check out counter, into a bag, into the car, out of the car, into the house, out of the bags, onto the shelves - I'm heartily sick and tired of the whole process. (see, I told you I was going to mumble!)

The next 'project' is to backhoe out my studio so that Jacquie and I can sew tomorrow afternoon. I really need to learn to put things away as I finish with them. I think I do that, but why then does the studio get into such a shambles on such a regular basis?

Would you believe I have a Christmas present already purchased, AND the makings ready for another one which I hope to start tomorrow? Yeah, I can't believe it either.

For those of you who have been following the 'Odin eye removal' saga - he's doing great. It certainly hasn't changed his exhuberant personality and he's the same silly dog as before.

We had a weekend of lovely spring-like weather and then woke up this morning to discover that we'd had freezing rain and about an inch of snow overnight. Sigh. Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike winter?

I think (shhhh, don't say it too loud) that we're getting over the 'disease' we've had. My dad is still coughing quite a bit, but Jack and I seem to be getting back to normal. Hesitate to say it though, for fear it comes back to bite us.

There, is that enough mumbling for one day? Have a good one!

Canned!

I know I don't normally post on the weekends, but I have to show you the finished can cover. It's not perfect by any means, but it was a fun experiment playing with metal and getting some idea of what I can do with it.

I have to tell you about the orange ribbon 'closure' ...I set rivets down each side intending to lace it for a finished edge, but couldn't find anything for lacing that turned my crank...until...I pawed through my ribbons and found these orange bits (which originally came from a pony-tail holder). I had EXACTLY the right number to do what I wanted; how perfect is that?

This recycled coffee can will be a holder for my odd-size knitting needles that don't seem to fit in anything else.

High heels

Have a look at the marvelous shoe I received in the mail today from Arlee. Isn't it great? There's lots of beading, which I hope you can see if you click on the picture. Believe me, it's the closest I will ever get to high heels because I have incredibly weak ankles and anything higher than an inch causes me to topple over. There were other fun goodies in the parcel too for adding to my stash. There's a fun and funky clay face which is going to be the base for a new art doll. Unfortunately my picture didn't do it justice so you'll just have to wait to see the doll! Thank you, SIS!!!

More metal/denim experiments

I got a bit more done on my cover today. I don't know if you can tell from the picture but the green and red beads hang freely to add further dimension. I'll be adding more of as I go along, mainly because I've pawed through all my wooden beads and pulled out all the colours I have in these. After all that work, I want to use them!! I'm on a use-it-up kick at the moment and have made up my mind to actually USE what I pull out. As always, picture is clickable so you can see more detail.

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I'm baaaacccckkkkkkk!!!!!

Did you think I was never coming back? I was beginning to wonder myself. We've never felt so rotten for so long. I had to feel bad because I spent a week staring at the tv and doing NOTHING....ack! I couldn't even read a book!!

So...now I'm back (I hope!) and here is the promised picture of the wonderful paperweight that Paula sent me. The camera, for some reason, didn't want to focus properly on it. That lovely white dupioni silk (my absolute FAVE fabric in the world) was wrapped around it. Enlarging the picture might help you see the wonderful stitching Paula did. There are hundreds of french knots in the background, which is a tremendous feat in itself, much less the intriguing work she did on the rest of it. Thank you Paula!! Today I finally got to sit down in my studio and play a bit more with my denim/metal piece. This picture should have been taken outdoors in the sun in order for the metal to show up better, but I wanted to show you that I actually have done something.

My running shoes are no good in snow

Nope, I didn't run fast enough (or maybe long enough) to escape Jack's germs. Dad has managed to succumb too so the whole household is feeling cruddy. So....I might not be posting for a couple of days. Go ahead and talk amongst yourselves.

OH...one good thing to happen is that my Pay It Forward gift from Paula arrived in the mail today. It's absolutely drop-dead gorgeous and I will post a picture as soon as I can stop coughing long enough to hold the camera steady. Thank you Paula!!!