'Project' finished!

Here you go - a picture of the 'project' I've been working on. Unfortunately my computer is balking (again) and not letting me crop pictures so....I apologize for all the 'stuff' cluttering up the surrounding area. The people this santa is going to are Toronto Maple Leaf fans; they own a boat; and have a chocolate lab. I don't think in this picture you can see the boat, but there is one behind the deer on the right side of the picture. The Maple Leaf is the tree topper and there's another on the back of his cape. Purple was also requested. Did you notice that his coat is crazy quilted? (photos are clickable). This is a closer look at the toy basket he's carrying.

I had fun making him and now it's on to making more Christmas presents!

Another snow picture

I spent the entire day working hard on 'the project' I showed you the beginning of a couple of days ago and I hope I will be able to unveil it tomorrow. It's the last commision I have to complete before Christmas. Then I'll be getting busy working on the rest of the presents I have yet to create.

Winter!

This is the sight that greeted us when we got up yesterday morning and is still there this afternoon. The sun is shining so I was able to get a few pictures. These two trees are at the back of our property (along with several others). I don't like winter, but I can appreciate its beauty!

It's official!

Sharon Boggon has moved her site and the new address is: http://www.pintangle.com/journal

I've updated my sidebar address to reflect the change too. It sounds like Sharon has some fun goodies planned for her new site so be sure to visit!!

Carry on with your weekend.....

There's just no end to what I'll do

Just what do you suppose this block of wood is going to become? Actually, I spent the day finishing up the last corpse I have to work on and it will be headed out in the mail on Monday. Of course I can't show you a picture until the big reveal!

So....back to the question at hand. What do you suppose I'll be doing with this? Stay tuned......

A hug...of bears

I finished the bears today and they are already in their new home. These little guys are 15" tall and come from a pattern by Hemer House Designs - pattern name is 'Tiffany'. I like the lambs wool one the best...there's just something about her personality.

Now for a bit of trivia...do you know what a group of teddy bears is called? The title of this post will tell you!

LEST WE FORGET

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead, short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hand we throw
The Torch; Be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, tho poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.


On the 11th month, the11th day at the 11th hour, we remember....

Hack, cough...aaaa choooo....pffft

Yep, I'm working with fur again and it's all over everything. I am determined I'm finishing these bears this week. One is awaiting her bow and is too shy to to have her picture taken without it. This one is lambs wool, which isn't a whole lot of fun to work with either. For some reason unknown my pointer finger (luckily it isn't my 'rude' one!) has decided to undergo another peel and is quite tender. I suppose I shouldn't even be attempting to sew, but I have too much to do and the finger will have to take the punishment. Of course there's a teeny amount of ouching and gosh darns going around too when I happen to forget and try to use it to push the needle through something!!

Knitting content? On THIS blog???

Wow, even I'm impressed because knitting isn't something I often get to mention on here. Today was grocery shopping day (yuck) so nothing got done in the studio. However, the mailbox had this book in it when I got home. There are some really nice patterns in it and I must admit there are three I especially like...the cover picture is 'Komon' and is one of the three. The patterns all look very simple to make because they are mainly constructed with squares and rectangles of knitting. The second pattern I'm in like with is called 'Dogi' and is shown below. This is a very practical vest and I love that it's knitted side to side. This colourway isn't 'moi', but I sure would like to make it in denim-y tones.

This is the pattern that made me buy the book, but it's the one I will be least likely to make (somehow I envision this one being a lifeswork for my speed of knitting). The pattern is called 'Water & Sky'. I love it though!

Specs on the book: 'Knit Kimono' by Vicki Square, published by Interweave Press, ISBN# 13:978-1-931499-89-7

Fibre Art show

Yesterday we spent the afternoon exploring the wonderful 'Oshawa Fibre Art Show' which is being held at the Centennial Retirement Residence in Oshawa. What a treat for our eyes!! It was all very inspirational and I came home just itching to create something (anything). We weren't allowed to take photos, but if you want to see representations of the works we saw, go to: http://fibreartstudios.com and peek in all the galleries. A few of the pieces in the on-line galleries were actually at the show.

Each artist has a different area of expertise and so there was a lot of variety in techniques. Three large rooms filled with pictures, wall hangings and dolls...wonderful dolls. Many of the pieces were for sale. There was also an area where you could purchase small works of art by the artists and I came home with a wonderful fibre art postcard entitled 'Northern Lights' by Anne Marie Desaulniers (who unfortunately doesn't have a blog...yet). I love it!

Anyway, if you want your eye candy for the day, please check out the FibreArtStudios website!

Mumblings (and dolls)

Paula and Doreen have both published very interesting comments concerning the current abundance of memes and awards floating around the blog world and their feelings on the subject. Being that I have nothing of interest to post today, I thought I'd put my two cents worth into the discussion....

First, I have never been tagged for a meme or given a blog award - which I am most happy about. I have lived in trepidation that it would ever happen because I really didn't know what I would do about it. I have never been a chain letter participant and, truthfully, I feel memes are much the same. I am also troubled by the numbers of forwarded items I receive in emails which, although quite often interesting and beautiful, are a thinly veiled threat to 'pass them on, or else'. Having said that, there are a few that I feel are worth sharing and I will do so, but with the provision that the recipient not feel obliged to send it on OR to return it to me, thusly cluttering up my inbox even more. (What's with that anyway? Why would I want to have something returned to me that I've already read??).

I understand that it would be flattering to be given an award, but I tend to wonder exactly how much meaning there is in it. Are people passing them around just to keep up with the Joneses and because they feel they should? Do they truly, in their hearts, believe the person they're 'awarding' actually deserves said award? To me, if someone likes what I've done or said, a comment on my blog means far more. It's far more personal.

There endeth my rant.

****************************************************************

Now, on another subject - I found this site last night and am blown away by the dolls. Go take a look at: http://www.enchanteddoll.com

Orts or a bird nest??

Recently I was given a margarine tub crammed full of orts..... The lady who gave them to me was rather mystefied as to why on earth I would even want them but is quite willing to save them for me. After Christmas (when time is a little more available) I plan to play around with them and make some useable fabric for backgrounds in art pieces. At least that's what I hope will happen!!

Journals and TIF

Here are three more journal covers I finished on the weekend. These are so much fun to make and don't require a whole lot of investment of time. I'm really up-to-date on my November TIF challenge piece because I actually did put it together on November 1st!! I think this block will nicely balance the other lighter toned block from earlier in the year. I'm getting really excited to actually start putting the quilt together!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I really don't know why I'm having such trouble uploading a Halloween picture but it isn't happening. So....can you pretend to see a picture of a nicely carved, but scary looking pumpkin and a cute little witch at the top of this post? I didn't think so...well, neither can I. Proves neither one of us has a good imagination!

Today was *supposed* to be mostly for sewing - instead I spent over two hours balancing the chequebook and then another hour paying bills. Somehow that wasn't quite what I had in mind!!

Anyhoo...don't let the wee ghoulies spook you too much tonight...have a happy Halloween.

Journal covers

Here are three journal covers I just finished making from recycled denim and some scraps of fabrics I have in my stash. These are fun to do and I was able to pick up the books at our local dollar store so it makes them really cheap to create.

Fun day!

Today it was my turn to have our monthly CQTeers meeting and below are some of the fun things we tested out. The first picture is of our atc exchange. The theme this month was 'artists choice'. I did the top two, Sue did the middle row, and Irene's are in the bottom row. This picture is showing a technique that Irene taught. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the commercial product we were using (duh). Anyhow...it's painted on fabric and then a photocopied image is pressed into it with a brayer. After a short wait we peeled the paper off and were left with the image in the cloth. In theory. Mine seemed to want to hold onto the paper and the only way the image would stay was to leave a thin layer of the paper. We aren't sure why it happened that way, but nevertheless I really like the effect. I like how the image 'lost it'd sharp edges'. I think this would be fun to take further. Perhaps painting...or tea dye??

I came up with the following three techniques, which met with varying degrees of success. This one is dripping alcohol inks onto shiny card stock and then spraying it with rubbing alcohol. The bottom pieces are done on the card stock and the middle and top pieces were experimenting on gold and silver paper. The gold won, I think. I'd like to try this again, only with the salt shaker handy to see what effect might come from sprinkling a bit on and waiting for it to dry.

This technique was interesting, but I'm not too sure of the results. We tried using a heat gun to 'glue' fusible webbing onto card stock and then topped it with embossing powder and more heat. Technically the fusible web 'should' have stuck to the card...but....it was much happier either blowing away OR melting into a blob. The bottom (red) is the webbing. On the green card stock, the left part is the webbing, the middle is an ironed-on piece of HeatnBond, and on the right I stuck the HeatnBond on and hit it with the glue gun. Ended up liking the HeatnBond/glue gun/embossing powder the best.

Finally, we went back to our childhood and played with crayons! We used cheap metal graters from the dollar store and grated our crayons onto watercolour paper. A second sheet of waterc. paper was placed on top and then we ironed it until the crayon melted. It's a good idea to sandwich the papers between a couple of pieces of parchment paper to protect your iron. I think the next step will be to perhaps use some watercolour paints over top.

We had a fine day - lots of fun - lots of chocolate. Ahhh....perfect.....

Fluffing about

Today's picture is why I'm fluffing about. This is a fur coat in the throes of being deconstructed and being made over into a teddy bear. I love making bears, but I do not like the fact that all the 'fluff' from the fur gets into absolutely everything and hangs around for weeks lurking in unexpected places. I've learned the hard way that, once you have the pieces cut out, to take them outside and give them a good shake. Just make sure you're not standing downwind!!

Christmas already?

Just have a peek at some of the wonders I received in the mail from Joyce (my Christmas swap partner)!! We decided that we really HAD to do our swap early because neither of us wanted to wait. This is what greeted me when I first opened the box.... Absolutely beautiful pieces of Oriental fabrics....

Feathers and glow in the dark stars, Halloween ghosties and sequin waste, sparkly fabric and lovely blue/green/yellow fabric, and a pretty little bag...... OH...almost forgot...two linen napkins too!!....

There were lots of beads and bits of pretty coloured lining fabrics (and another gorgeous piece of Oriental fabric that got overlooked in the above pic)....

And laces, and ribbons, and marvelous trims....

I don't think Joyce could have stuffed one more thing into that box!! I love it all, and already have some ideas of a few things to create with my goodies. Thank you soooo much Joyce!! A huge thank you too to Donna for organizing this fun swap!

Mail Art

Arlee very kindly shared her jpg pictures of the mail art envelope so I am able to share them here. The first picture is of the back..... Second picture is of the front. My 'part' was the blue area with the dolphin & the sun. I wish I could have travelled through the postal system with it to see the reactions!!

A couple of people have been curious about the book I got at the CreativFestival and I neglected to give the details on it. If you're interested: 'Waverly Honor - A Workbook of Embroidery Design' by Martha Anne Hart and Hester Neblett ISBN#0-929339-02-9 Publisher is Embroidery Research Press Inc. It was copyrighted in 1989 so hopefully it is still available. The address shown in the book for the publisher is: Embroidery Research Press Inc., 10800 Alpharetta Highway, Suite 200 G-4, Roswell, GA 30076 USA

Rerun....

To those who have 'read me' from the beginning, my apologies for rerunning this doll - however, I've been asked to post her again, so here she is. I can't post a picture of what I've been working on the past couple of days because we're sworn to secrecy until the final Exquisite Corpse is revealed. I just got this one in the mail and have it ready to go right back out again. Inspiration struck the second I opened the envelope and I knew exactly what I wanted to do and it came together quickly. I really, really wish I could show it to you!!

Mumblings...sort of

I forgot to make any mention of the needlework show,so....the pictures show the book I bought while I was there. 240 pages just like the ones in the second picture. There is inspiration galore! I also picked up a few issues of Fibre Trend magazine and a small package of floche thread from DMC.

The show itself was good - knitting was big, of course. I was happy to see that silk scarves were nowhere to be seen (unlike the last time I was there when it seemed every second booth had them). Beads were very much in evidence but I managed to steer clear of them (which, given my magpie tendencies, was hard!). The Canadian Doll Artists Assoc. booth was somewhat disappointing...many of the artists I 'knew' from other years didn't seem to have dolls on display. There were a lot of wonderful 'sane' quilts (like an idiot, I forgot to take the camera). I was happy to see a small display of mixed media too. I eyed an embellishing machine but didn't buy. Maybe someday. All in all, a fun day for me (not so sure, however, about DH!!).

Yesterday you will have noticed that I didn't post - we were back in the city again (taking my SIL to a medical appointment) and we had to drive in a snow storm! Yuck - snow is a BAD 4-letter word in my vocabulary at the best of times. The ground was pretty much white this morning when we got up and there's still a lot around despite it being a sunny day. I've had enough and am quite ready for spring, thank you very much.

October TIF....Done!

I finished the October Take It Further challenge piece today. Click on it to make it larger if you would like to see the details.
Sharon also mentioned studio pictures, so...at the risk of boring those who have seen it before...here's part of mine. I oughtta be ashamed but, truthfully, I'm not! This is creativity for me.

The Blob (otherwise known as knitting?)

Here lies 'the blob'. Two years (almost) in the making and it's STILL NOT DONE!! I will never win any speed records with my knitting. It will be (if it ever grows up) the Einstein coat as shown below.
The pattern is this one from Sally Melville's 'Book 1: The Knit Stitch' book.

Tomorrow I will be searching for funky buttons for it. Eternal optimist as I am, I figure I might just finish it sometime in the next year (or three). My long-suffering DH is taking me to the 'CreativFestival' in Toronto for the day, so it's unlikely I will be doing a blog post. Just gossip amongst yourselves!

Progress on TIF

I have made some progress on the October TIF piece. Several of the seam treatments came from Pam Kellogg's e-book (with some variations). I'm still not 100% sold on this particular colourway, but we'll see what I think once it's finished. A couple more cottage pictures.....

Square Pegs and Round Holes

Door demolition has begun and now we just have to hope the new one ends up fitting in the hole. If there's some 'blue' air tainting the sky from this direction, you'll know why! More cottage pictures...enjoy!

I'm baaaccckkkk!!

Actually I've been back a couple of days but haven't spent much time on the computer. Today I've been working on my TIF piece, but not much to show yet. So....cottage pictures!!

The first two are from one of our walks....

This final picture is the view from their dock, early in the morning....

Ahhhh....heaven on earth.

Reporting in...

...just to let you know that I'll be away for a couple of days. We're going to visit friends at their cottage & will be back late Friday afternoon. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Progress on TIF

I actually had an afternoon to stitch today, so I have something to show you! The block is progressing nicely. I found the piece of (antique) lace I wanted to use and it's been inserted. Picture is clickable!

October TIF

I haven't accomplished much today, but here is my block pieced together for the October TIF challenge. I've tentatively decided where I will put the image and the safety pin marks the area where I plan to put my button cluster. The next decision I have to make is where I will put my piece of lace and exactly which one I will use. Then it's on to embellishing - my favourite part!

Lucky me!

A friend gave me these wonderful plastic bobbins, some of which already have some floss wound onto them, along with some spools of perle cotton. I was thrilled with the bobbins to say the least. I plan to rewind the floss onto my normal storage system and then wind some of my perle cotton spools onto the new bobbins. It sure will make storage a lot easier! Spools take up so much space and are notorious for escaping their confines and rolling all over the floor. The cat is the only one that is thrilled with that!!

Colours of Autumn

Obviously I did nothing in the crafting line today, nor did I have time to even look in my studio. All I have to offer is this view of the neighbours tree. It was amazing how the sky was so dark after the rain and the sun was shining just on the treetop.

Grandma's Lace

Today I have two pictures of some old lace I have in my collection. All of these were made by my grandmother who passed away in the early 1960's. I have a number of the motifs in the top picture that are loose the these pictured here are joined together with some dark brown crocheting (which I suspect might have been done by my mother). These pieces are also by my grandmother...I have a number of the square motifs (all loose). The strip in the middle is knitted and was most probably meant to trim a pillowcase. The bottom piece is crocheted and also for a pillowcase.