New Toy!!!

New toy, new toy, yeahhhhhh!!!
It's a Juki DDL-5550-6 computerized straight stitch machine. You can also see (the box at least) my new gravity fed iron. I also got a button hole attachment, and a binder, and 4 different feet.....happy new toys!!

Loveys

As you can see, the bear did get eyes in the end :)
He also got two friends (who have already gone to their new home). Two lovies (or blankets with heads), they were fun to make! I also have a much higher respect of anyone who works with this stuff and/or fur in general. Sheds every where, slipper as sin, if you pin it, it still slips...like I said, fun!

Minky Teddy

I brought home some minky (aka microfiber fleece) last night so the boy and I made a teddy bear.

I know I keep posting "almost" finished things, such as he still needs eyes, but this is what I'm excited about :) The good news is, it looks like the picture on the pattern! I think I found a few ways to improve it for the next one...

Daisy Dress

I didn't know what to make yesterday and had the fabric, soooo.... It still needs button holes and to hem the bottom. I'll be darned if I can ever learn to tie the big bow like in the picture. Anyone need a size 3T dress?

Dark Lord

The long begged for cloak of Anakin...his first response upon see it was, "where are the boots that go with it?" AHHHHHHHH :)

We'll see how much of a complete costume he'll get, but in the mean time I have plenty of that fabric (poly suede) left to play with. It's actually more dark brown than the black that it looks like here. Didn't have a pattern, but it's just a hooded circle cloak with arm holes. It's been fun to make something for no reason.

Sketch

Train sketch from a while ago...I was planning on putting something in the middle, just never decided what.

2 months later...

Yeahhhh!! Working on something again!
It's been a long few months. Moved, filed divorce papers, general lack of sanity...:) But now life is starting to develop a routine again so I'm hoping this BACK notice won't be a one time thing. The pieces above are for a blanket I'm making for a friend. They are cotton seersucker, and I have a micro suede to back it with. They wanted a NO PINK girly gift.

Parrot Costume (call it done)

Let's start by admitting that I know this was an over-ambitious first project. I'm not so sure that it really looks like a parrot in any identifiable way, the intentions and drawing were easier :) and it seems to have all gotten away from me...but it was fun and he loves it which was the goal of this exercise. Suggestions are always welcome, so long as they are done nicely.

One major problem was that I had no model while making it!!! He gave me 5 seconds twice for" hey, does this fit like this?....gone. The red fabric is so stretchy and a little heavy.

As you can see I've been lazy, and only attempted to really "feather" the back and hood, as a result the cape is much heavier than the rest of it. I tried it on him this afternoon and what USED to line up as shoulders stretched and fell on the back of his arm. OY. Tried to pull it forward but adding some front weight and another line of stitching on the shoulder to help prevent the feathers from flipping over. I may try to add some more, but I'm pretty much ready to call it good.

He's holding a "seed bag." We're going to be putting them in to the gift bags filled with sunflower seeds.

His favorite part is really the tights. He didn't want to take them off, I think it's a Peter Pan thing. Or maybe it's a 9PM and mommy isn't making me go to bed so she can take pictures of me thing.

Parrot Costume 3

My deadline has been bumped up to THIS Friday (he needs to dress up for the class party), so I'm making extra effort to actually work on it, it helped that I had to stay up doing laundry anyways. The back is almost done, the orange and red pieces need to be sewn but they are pinned darn it. Debating on doing the front/inside of the wings and fixing some bald patches in the yellow (the red is a very very stretchy fabric and lets tell the truth, I eyeballed instead of measuring most of the pieces). Interesting problem with the red: I used 3 ponchos that I bought same store, same brand, same day, and they looked the same in the store but they are very different shades when I lay them on top of each other. You can see at the base of the neck, the hood is red and the piece on top is much more orange.

Quick Bus Sketch

A woman so kindly fell asleep on the bus for me, which meant I could try working from real life without worrying about her seeing me looking at her. As far as sketches go (SARAH) I know that its not the hottest, but its all about accountability and putting it up here!.

Parrot Costume 2

He got a hood last night! Boy helped cut and sew (yes, I was scared for my fingers the whole time). Pay no attention to the mess in the background/foreground...except my nifty new sewing hutch, the machine goes inside those doors when I actually put it away.

Parrot Costume

Boy decided two months ago that he wanted to be a parrot for Purim. Two weeks to go and I'm finally sitting down to do it. I did go out and buy the fabric right away, that counts right? The pic bellow is the back, got the blue "feathers" and a little yellow done tonight. More yellow and a little orange to be added tomorrow night (or some other night within the next week--I hope).
This costume qualifies as recycled, the red is a fleece poncho. The size and shape were awesome for this project, but it has a really big turtleneck on it. I'm thinking about carefully removing the neck and turning it into a hood. I think there is enough fabric to do it, just working out the how (especially the carefully removing part).

I'm Back - Sort Of

It's been a while, problems with this, that and not having access to the computer have been the main excuses. This is a quick unfinished watercolor I did with my son 2 nights ago. Just wanted to post SOMETHING and let y'all know I hadn't forgotten about this completely.

Woman's Head

Publish Post
Today's train sketch. This is based of of Jeremy Englmon's "Head of a Woman". What? You expect half naked women on NJT? Only in summer.

Parrot Costume Update

Behold! Felt Feathers.
Boy very excitedly (and VERY slowly) sewed the hood on by himself, so yeahhhhhhh! I really love how excited he is about it, "That's so cool Mom." If only I could make him stop stealing my thimbles. LOL

Parrot Costume

Boy-boy had no school today, so we stayed home doing laundry and crafting (in that order, so there :-p). He wants me to make him a parrot costume, so we made a small one for GI Joe as a sample. We are still arguing about if it needs feathers, this one is strictly felt.

Promise# 1

We have an ear! Yeahhhh! Poor Dragon wasn't a happy camper without his ear, he's feeling much better now.

Wasp Purse

So here's what I did last night from 10-1: You can see the pocket has a rough edge still to be finished, and I want to embroider something on it. It even has a magnet closure! Woohoo! However, tonight I plan to spend taking it all apart. LOL. On the list of things to fix: the lining is inside out, I have no idea how that happened. And I want to make the top sections a little shorter. It was fun though and I learned how to make my machine sew through leather - that's an old belt for handles. Oddly enough I broke 2 needles last night (for some reason both around 12:30...) but not while i was sewing the belts, just too many layers of canvas and interfacing combined with me not paying enough attention.

Fairy

By request of Sarah, a fairy. This one looks better bigger, so click on it to open it up!

Ballerina

Quick sketch, feel like I'm regressing.

Tennis

As promised, today's sketch. Do you know how hard it is to draw on the bus in NJ? The highways with their MANY turns make you feel like you are on the space ship ride at the fair, the one that pins you to the wall with centrifugal force.

Blog?

After spending far too much time reading other blogs, I have decided that this is supposed to be more than just posting pictures. Putting the pictures up has already helping me in several ways. I am feeling less self conscious about sharing things I've made with others (why the heck not? I already posted it on the internet!) and I have a feeling of accountability to making and finishing things on a regular basis. I seriously can not remember the last time I had so many projects going that I finished to any degree.

The new year is a great time to make goals so here goes:

• I want to see myself posting on a daily basis, or close to it. Even if it is only a doodle.
  
• I want to make designated time to craft (stolen train moments and 2 AM are great, but its not really predictable or consistent-well the commute is consistent but I can't do big things on the train).
• I want to make a designated craft area--somewhere other than the end of the dining room table, I'm getting tired of "shoving" all the crafting supplies off when we need it.
• I want to make things well enough to offer tutorials! Yes I know it's vague but I think it says a lot about where I'm aiming here. Not only do I want to enjoy myself but darn it I want to get GOOD too.
  

I am planning this year to try making as many different things as I can (within budget constraints anyways). I want to try making stuffies, quilts, clothing, drawings, paintings, the combination of any of the above and anything else that strikes my fancy. My real goal for this year is just to DO, to learn and enjoy.

In the works right now:

• A new art kit or whatever you want to call it. I need something more comfortable to hold my pencils, erasers, etc etc etc in and I'm not finding it, so I'm making one.
  
• I just got approval from DH to buy the fabric I want to make a "wasp bag."
• I owe several someones drawings: an alligator (or several) and fairies.
  
• I'm supposed to FIX Darth Vader and a dragon.
• There is a fishy quilt that is sitting 1/3 done in the bottom of my sewing box.

Wish me luck!

Moby Update

I think I'm going to put him aside for now. Pretty happy with him.

Moby

Quick sketch, from a picture of Moby between 2 train stops. Not finished at all, the scanner didn't even want to pick up most of the lighter pencil lines. I'll try to finish him and repost.

Dragonfly

Quick sketch done from photo, not art but not too bad.

Blankets

I made these back in February as a gift (gave the gift, but just found the pics :-p). They are Microsoft clip art pics that I hand stitched onto the blankets. The only machine part is the scallop edge on the boat blanket, in hindsight I regret doing that. The boat was done first and basically in an afternoon. The frog took what felt like a million years of evolution, his feet were by far the hardest part. I wish I had done the boat as appliqué, maybe next time.

Pies

Because food is art too and I love my new ramekins so much I just have to show them off. Chicken pie anyone?

Cowgirl

I really am trying to wean myself off of doing "copies" like this. They are fun, instantly gratifying and I'm being told are a very easy crutch. The original is from Kia Acedera with Imaginism Studios. Yes, If you look up the original, I know I screwed up the face. I think I will keep doing that until I can stop being afraid of them, I think.