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This is what I've been busy with
and here is the egg head without his jaunty cap
This doll quickly became one of the more complex dolls I've made. I wanted him to have bloomers and to be able to sit with his legs bent. Gusseted button jointa seemed to be the best solution. Once his legs were done this way I needed to make arms with the same jointing system to match. He is quite prim and proper with his stand-up collar and bow tie.
I finished this unicorn today. I thought I'd explain a little bit about what inspired me to make her.
I don't have space to keep all of the magazines that I get and I often find that I only really like a few pages or projects from each magazine so a while ago I started pulling out those pages, whole punching them and putting them into a big binder. I like flipping through it because it's like the world's greatest magazine. Anyway, I was looking to start a new project after I finished the last two horses when I saw this page in the binder
I don't actually know what magazine it was from - Martha? Country Living? - but I love the white and natural gold together, almost monochrome but not quite. And suddenly I knew that I should make a unicorn next.
I put together a big piece of patchwork all in whites and natural linens. After I made her body I added some pearl white seed beads to the sides and did some stitching with metallic thread.
Making the horn was fun - I wrapped it in a spiral with metallic thread. And I incorporated thin strips of gold tulle into her mane and tail. I'm thinking about a winged horse, too.
Seems like most craft bloggers, and perhaps most bloggers in general, are taking some holiday time off now, but I'm still here. Hanukkah is over. We are going out for Indian on Christmas Eve, for Chinese on Christmas, and we're even getting out on New Year's this year (yep, I managed to find a babysitter for all three of those impossible to find babysitter nights!). Other than that, things are still perking so I'll still be blogging and sewing, too. See you soon.
One of Charlie's colleagues has given me a bunch of her old linens over the last few weeks. She gave me a set of round cloth napkins embroidered with little strawberries and leaves that I thought might make good mushroom tops. I have wanted to make a mushroom for my little snail to hide under so I gave it a try.
Can't say I'm totally pleased with this project, but I'm also not sure it is headed for the "shelf of the damned" (a name Charlie coined in reference to the high up shelf in our room/my studio where all the failed toys live).I think I need to try again.
The last few days I have been making some toys to give as holiday gifts. I made this little sock monkey for a friend who has had a thing for sock monkeys since childhood. I used a child's size argyle sock for this guy so he is a great size - you can hold him in the palm of your hand.
And for Roxanne's teachers we got some Starbuck's gift cards (just a side note on how amazingly strong marketing can be - my pre-literate two-year-old marched right up to the gift card kiosk, announced, "Mommy we should get the Starbucks ones!", and pulled two Starbucks gift cards off the rack without me even pointing to them) and I made them some owlets. I packed them up right after making them last night, but of course I make things in threes and there are only two teachers so this last one
is now up in the shop . Her front is made from vintage cotton plaid (doesn't it resemble wool?) and her back is a piece of vintage pink floral. She has wool felt features and tiny button eyes.
Now, back to making stuff for the show.
I found this excellent book a the used bookstore in Waltham on Saturday night. I haven't made a puppet since I was a child and I'm not sure I'd like to start. The whole theater part of puppets is pretty off-putting to me. I hate to be on stage. I hate karaoke, even. And one of my biggest fears is being at a party when the crowd suddenly decides it's time to play charades. None the less, this book is pretty great. Check out the veggie puppets
But I really bought the book for these two images: the musicians
and this owl
So great.
My father-in-law picked out a super Hanukkah present for me - four pairs of sewing scissors. This is the pair I'm using right now
They're from some kind of tool catalogue and they are super sharp, especially in comparison to the nail scissors I've been using up until now. And they are beautiful. It is so nice to use beautiful things while you work.
I had a great time on Saturday afternoon shopping at the Boston Bizarre Bazaar with my friend, Lia. I met all kinds of awesome crafters in person and bought some beautiful things.
Only ten weeks left until my show and lots of work to be done, plus getting ready to teach my soft toy-making class at the end of January. So back to work I go.
I finished the second horse this morning while Roxanne was at nursery school. His name is Polonia and he is a twin. Like his brother, he has a vintage patch on one side and an embroidered vintage napkin (from the same set) on the other
I'm not generally a fan of making two of something so much alike, but as I mentioned before I accidentally cut two left sides from the first piece of patchwork so I had to make a second piece and a second horse. Now that they are done I'm sort of glad they have each other to hang out with.
I finished this horse this morning. His body is made of all kinds of new and vintage fabric pieces, including an embroidered cloth napkin from another of Charlie's colleagues. The buttons on his legs were salvaged from an old pair of cropped pants from Express that had all sorts of extraneous buttons and belt loops on them. I attached each leg with double button joints - a button on the inside and a button on the outside - so they are nice and strong. So strong, in fact, that he could stand last night with only his front legs attached. We went to bed with him staring at us like that from the craft table (my studio space is in our bedroom) which was pretty eerie.
And, of course, a vintage patch - "marching rebels." His mane and tail are torn fabric strips. At first I made a mane and tail out of yarn, but the torn strips appealed to me more for this project. And for the first time, no face. I just don't think he needs a face.
There will be another horse like this one because I accidentally cut two left sides from the first piece of patchwork I made. So I had to make another piece of patchwork and cut two right sides.
Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah and my house smells like oil after making two big trays of latkes last night. As it should be, I guess. So happy Hanukkah to you if you celebrate Hanukkah at your house.
Charlie's colleague, Liz, found me this excellent little booklet at an estate sale last weekend.
I believe she got it for pretty close to the original 1944 cover price of 10 cents. It is only about 10 pages long, but has quickly become one my prized craft books. What I love about this book is that the animal toys are jointed with buttons just like mine.
Look at the lovely elephants. There are also patterns for bunnies, kangaroos, pigs (not so cute), and horses.
These dolls look so Japanese
But best of all is the penguin.
So cute. Has anyone seen this booklet before? something similar? It was published by Clark's and Coat's before they merged. Thank you, Liz! I feel so lucky to have it.
It feels good to have this little vignette completed.
Here he is in the cauldron.
Can you see the "huff huff huff puff puff puff" fabric inside his ears and on his foot pads? I wanted him to have some fabric with text in those two spots so he would match his piggy friends and I thought this was a good way to do it. I printed the words onto white canvas fabric with my inkjet printer (I used those ready-to-print canvas sheets).
Hopefully his eyebrows give him a sufficiently "big bad" look.
Things have been so busy around here. I am finishing up the annual gift basket I make for Charlie's colleagues at work. In addition to star-shaped sugar cookies, double chocolate walnut cookies, spiced nuts, fruit, chocolates, and brie and crackers I am putting in a special elephant I made with their logo on the ears. Roxy, Stella and I are dropping it off tomorrow morning so I need to put the finishing touches on it today.
Plus, last night I got a call from one of the organizers of Craftland saying that they had sold nearly everything I sent and could I send some more pieces. I spent part of last night tagging and wrapping a bunch more items and shipped them today. The post office is nutso this time of year.
I've been in a bit of a creative funk the last few days - feeling overwhelmed by the number of pieces still left to make for the library show and feeling so saddened by the story of the Kim family. Stella is seven months old now, like Sabine, and I am a nursing mom with two little girls. I find that I can't stop thinking about what happened to them and feeling so scared and sad. Today I am trying to tackle new things and get my mind moving a bit.
I made this piece of special fabric today for a new project. I'm sure you can guess what it is.
