Repurposing

I bought 2 quilts this weekend at a neighbors garage sale. I paid $2 total. I'm planning on cutting them up to make dolls, maybe a purse or maybe another quilt.

Yep, those are my toes. I have very odd shaped feet. None of my toes touch although I had a podiatrist say that was a good thing. H says they look like Combos.

The pincushion is from Kari in Holland. We did a swap a couple years ago. She is one of the first people I ever did a swap with AND she has one of my first dolls. We both started venturing out into the craft-blog world at the same time. I adore this pincushion and it's one of my most treasured little possessions.  It's funny how we become attached to a particular object over time.

Today was a beautiful day.

The Great Lollipop Experiment :: Day 5

CONCLUSION:

Those are some incredible ants.

The Great Lollipop Experiment :: Day 4

What's missing? I think Tracie's right. I imagine we have a little squirrel or chipmunk lollipop lover. Green and yellow are gone. Red and brown remain. Observation taken at 9am this morning.

I should take bets to see which one will be the last standing. Any guesses?

As our little experiment has been going on outside we've had some interesting developments inside our Betta named Beta but Tootie calls him George's tank.  He shares his tank with 2 apple snails. 2 beautiful creamy yellow and pink apple snails that amaze us. I've noticed some interesting activity, ahem, happening the past couple of days and behold their glorious miracle!

Do you see it stuck up above the waterline? It looks like rows of corn stuck to a wad of gum.  I have to admit  it grosses me out a little, just a smidge yet I'm fascinated. I wonder what's going to happen next? That's rhetorical, of course I know what's going to happen next. Anyone want an apple snail? I have a feeling soon I will have more than enough.

 

Doll Quilt Swap

 

I finished my part for the Doll Quilt Swap I'm participating in. I decided to wing-it and go free form. I cut strips and rectangles and laid them out to get an idea of the composition. That's what this photo is all about. I kind of had a basic idea but had no clue how I was going to execute it. I'm an illustrator/designer not a trained seamstress.

I cut an old sheet to roughly the size I wanted the finished quilt to be (18 x 24). I started sewing the strips to each other as well as to the sheet fabric. I think this technique is called Foundation-piecing but when I googled it all I could find was foundation-PAPER-piecing and a whole bunch of new techniques I didn't know about. Again, not the experienced seamstress here. Basically, I make it up as I go along and hope for the best. Overall, it seemed to work well for this small quilt. After everything was sewn down I decided I didn't like one section. I cut it off, turned it around and sewed it to the other side of the quilt. I used ribbon and trim to enhance the design.

I hope my swap partner likes it. Tootie does. It's really the first thing I've made that she has taken an interest in wanting for herself. I had to reassure her that she would be getting a doll quilt in the mail as an exchange for this one.

*****

The Great Lollipop Experiment :: Day 3

Unremarkable. Nothing new. Observed ants on all lollipops with Green having the highest number upon each observation.

The Great Lollipop Experiment :: day 2

I promised an update...here is what we discovered this morning! Observation taken approximately 11am.

One of the banana lollipops was clean gone. The stick was left, tossed to the side. Who/what could it be? Tootie guessed it was either one HUGE ant or a bee with sharp teeth. I suppose we will never know.

I asked Tootie if she thought it was the stick that attracted the ants. She didn't think so. Clever girl. We decided to see if a grape would attract ants too.

At around 6pm we did another check and discovered yet another surprise!

The grape AND the stick were gone. This time Toots didn't have an explanation. You could clearly see the horror and puzzlement on her face. At this time there were considerably more ants on each lollipop. Green having the largest number. Also observed: The lighting is way more interesting at 6pm.

update

The Great Lollipop experiment is underway. Day 2 has brought a surprise even I didn't anticipate. Check back for update later.

The Great Lollipop Experiment

Back in the dead of winter Tootie asked me "Do ants eat lollipops?". I answered back with a question, "how could you find out?" Her solution was to leave some out to see if they would indeed be eaten by ants. I thought that was a good strategy, however, it being winter we had TO WAIT! For the past 3 months I have been asked weekly if ants were out yet to do our experiment. Today, however, it was showtime!

Tootie's first official experiment. Question: Do ants eat lollipops? And if so, which flavor (from sampling) would they prefer if indeed they prefer any at all?

Tootie's Hypothesis: Yes. Ants will eat the lollipops. Ants will have a preference and will prefer the red.

Experiment :: Day 1

Disarray and art with a hat

My house is all cattywompus right now. My parents are graciously giving us a bunch of furniture. Yay! It's like I'm moving into a whole new house. My studio has now been booted to an upstairs bedroom. My dining room is now going to be a, gasp, dining room and my living room is going to be a living room. Now that everything is moved out it is very apparent that painting needs to be done. My tastes have changed. I am now scouring design blogs for THE look.  So far THE look is lavender type grey, green/blueish, orange and black/white. Not all together mind you.

This is what I have to work with, behold the naked living room!

Just past the vacuum is the dining room which is currently painted a deep reddish color. The console tv is, ahem, going. This space is going to be sans tv. I'm going for Dutch Modern eclectic with 70's Fisher Price.

As I was rearranging Tootie occupied herself with the dreaded Moon Sand. I hate HATE with the heat of a thousand million suns this stuff. Thus the vacuum. Tootie looooves it. She wanted me to take a photo of herself and her creation, BUG. She wanted to be serious thus the looking away from the camera. Of course after I took the photo she cracked up and made me take another more serious one. This time with hat. Again with the ever artful looking away from the camera. Oh, the poor girl has humor like her mother and is doomed DOOMED! 

 

today 04.15.07

1. WIP, 2. bunny, 3. fishiversary, 4. starts, 5. puffers, 6. homemade hotpockets, 7. donut, 8. bloodworms, 9. beer

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Book!

Last fall I was contacted to submit ideas for a book about pincushions. There are 30 different pincushions how-to's in this book. I'm honored that I have one included.

Here is the description from Sterling Publishing

"From ultra-feminine and vintage chic to whimsically colorful and downright oddball, these pincushions redefine the form. And that’s sure to attract the many creative sewers and crafters who have chosen these small, charming canvases as the perfect vehicle to showcase fabulous fabric, simple embellishments, and novel ideas. Nearly 30 projects from a pool of talented designers provide plenty of inspiration, and there’s information on materials and adornments, stuffing options, and what makes a successful, functional pincushion. All that’s needed are beginning hand-sewing skills to stitch up such unique creations as tiny flowerpot and ladybug pincushions made from a bottle-cap base; a beehive complete with honey bee-topped pins; a selection of heirloom pincushions with vintage trim, lace, and buttons; or elegant silk fruit suited to a centerpiece as much as a sewing basket. Still others, like a tropical fish, a pair of cacti, or a crazy striped rooster, can double as plushy toys without the pins."

I can't wait to see it and touch it and smell it. Can you tell I'm excited? This is what I submitted...

These aren't the exact ones that are in the book. The one's in the book are much much better.

The pincushions were made from thrifted shirt cuffs. Sculpey was added to the pins to make ears, bows, bugs, etc.

The book can be pre-ordered on Amazon.com. Unfortunately, it's not due to be released until this November. 

Quilt for my SIL

I finished the top of the quilt I'm making for my SIL. It is a pattern from the book Denyse Schmidt Quilts. It's a little wonky in some areas. I don't think it'll be as noticeable once quilted. This is the largest quilt I've ever attempted. I haven't measured it but it is a bit taller than I am which is 5'6".

Now I'm off to do a small doll quilt for a swap I'm in then I'm going to tackle a quilt from the book The Modern Quilt Workshop for my MIL.

Ahh, the Midwest in the Spring.

This was taken by my neighbor during our neighborhood Easter egg hunt. It was snowing and in the mid 30's. She asked me today when it will stop being cold. Then she asked me if I was really really sure it was Spring.

Chocolate Icons

I'm doing much better. After my last post everything went to pot. My baby girl ran a fever that hovered between 101 - 103 for 6 days. We watched many DVD's in the past several weeks. Actually the same 3 DVD's over and over and yet over again.

Now we're on the mend! Just in time for Easter. Today is Good Friday. H and I discussed how great a job we're doing in teaching Tootie Jesus' story. It went something like this:

Me: Um, it's Good Friday today. Shouldn't we start explaining it's meaning to Tootie?

H: What? I know, we can say "you know this Jesus guy we pray to? Well, you're going to love this...today is Good Friday. Why is it called Good Friday? Well, it's the day he was executed. What does executed mean? Well see, they nailed him to a big piece of wood with big spikes through his hands and feet and left him there until he stopped breathing. So you see that's why you're going to an egg hunt tomorrow!" Maybe we could also tell her that she can be covered by the blood of the Lamb, or, we could drive the point home better and fill her eggs with blood. Now THAT would be memorable.

I hope this reads as being entirely sarcastic. H is good about using humor to point out when I start leaning too far into uptightedness or Little Miss Legalist. It does me well. We will explain the Easter story appropriately. And no, we won't be filling eggs with blood, we're giving her this chocolate Jesus or this chocolate Jesus (sold with or without stick)*.

Finally, I leave you with a little humor from Eddie Izzard titled Easter and Christmas. Enjoy. Happy Easter! gobble gobble.

If you liked that then you will also like Religion and Hymns and Religion.

*yet again with the sarcasm. I like my candy to lean more toward the actual instrument of execution.