crafty mcgee

echidna power!

Echidnas - like hedgehogs, but better, 'cause they have a funny nose! Like many goofy animals, they're Australian.

This fabric is just a test print of the stuff I'll have up in the shop. I managed to lose 9 yards of Kona cotton. It's somewhere around here, but I spent a day looking for it to no avail. Must be the leprechauns, because my house just isn't that big. The print above is on bleached muslin, which looks OK, but isn't the sturdiest fabric in the world for quilting and such.

I've got one more new fabric design to finish, and then I'll start into production for the shop. I also have another idea, but need to do some tests before I show it off.

Politics has been keeping me busy (or busier than usual, I guess). I didn't make it to the next delegate level, but given the fact that there were only 23 people chosen out of about 218 that wanted to speak for Obama, I can't say I'm surprised or particularly unhappy that I didn't get picked. Public speaking is not one of my strengths, and he'll be well represented by others. There's still plenty to do nevertheless.

I got a couple of solid working days in my garden, too, until - get this - it started to SNOW this weekend. Rassin' frassin' climate change...

Which is all just my roundabout way of saying thanks for stickin' around, there's more to come - and if it's not too timely, it's just because there are more things to do and ideas in my head than waking hours in the day. See ya soon!

taken with my iPhone!

OK, it wasn't a few days, but you have to admit it's more timely than three months! After hemming and hawing about it forever, I decide to get an iPhone with part of my tax refund. It's the first cell phone I've ever had (pretty amazing for a technology geek like me), and in about a month I'll take the final leap and dump my 15-year-old land line number. Yeehaw!

The picture isn't that great, of course, considering it was taken through a 1/8" lens, but it gives a good impression of the general fuzziness of the garden. I think my grandma made the little toadstool.

I was going to show the fabric design I was working on, but I decided to scrap it. It was birds, and I'm kind of birded out. I'm going to stick with under appreciated animals. I should have something by next week.

Thanks for all of the nice comments, it's good to be back!

the long winter

I find it very hard to believe that I completely missed the winter, but I have....

If you are visiting here, you are probably wondering what the heck happened. I stopped sleeping well sometime in late July/early August and by the time December rolled around I was in pretty bad shape physically, emotionally and mentally after getting only 3 or 4 hours of fitful sleep a night. My doctors (both alleopath and naturopath) could find neither reason or cure, so my naturopath ended up recommending acupuncture. Hallelujah, it worked!! After a couple of months of treatment, I've now had about 5 weeks of good, solid, normal sleep, and feeling about 75% back to my old self. Yay!

As of now I've got no interesting craftiness to show off, but I am working on some new drawings for fabric and hope to post them later this week. I still intend to open an etsy shop, and I'm aiming for a May 1 start date. I received a Gocco Arts for Christmas which should come in very handy. Speaking of gifts, the image above is from Mother Earth and Her Children: A Quilted Fairy Tale - an artistic interpretation of one of my favorite books from my son's childhood - that I got for my birthday. Here's a post with a little bio of the artist, some more close-up pictures of the Mother Earth quilt, and some other lovely quilts. I don't often feel envious of other artists work no matter how much I love it, but this really made me feel "dang, I wish I had made that".

So after bloggily missing Christmas, New Year's, Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day (which, believe it or not, I actually forgot about), Ira Glass' birthday (March 3), my birthday three days later (we were both born in '59), Saint Patrick's Day, and the first day of Spring, we get to today - Happy Easter Everyone!!

I have not been a complete slug. I've been working very hard for Barack Obama to get the Democratic nomination for President. In our caucus here in Washington, I was very pleased and proud - after a short "speech off" - to be picked as a delegate for the next level. So that's keeping me busy now and hopefully into the fall.

I'm going to try to post at least a couple times a week (I know, you've all heard that before) - even if I've got nothing to show except pictures of my messy garden - in order to get back into the habit. Thanks for checking in, and I'll talk to you soon!

the most wonderful day of the year

that's right, Pangolin Day is here again! Though I only received the usual number of comments for that post (I'm sorry to say I forgot about it last year), I received a whole bunch of emails from folks who'd seen my pangolin stuffie saying that pangolins were their favorite animal. Who knew? I guess that's why they have their own day .

I used non-gocco fabric inks for the first time on this print. (The gocco fabric ink color choices are extremely limited.) The Versatex (on the pangolins) worked fine, but the Pebeo ink on the leaves was too runny. I will print a better batch to sell in my etsy shop when I open in January - yes, you heard it here first!

Have a swell day, everyone. Reflect on the greatness of pangolins, and if you're in southeast Asia, perhaps you can take a neighborhood pangolin out for a nice meal.

extra bits

I have lots of fabric critters left over from the ornaments, due to the way I set up my gocco screen:

Being a big fan of fabric patches (one of these days I'm going to make something with my collection - stay tuned), I noticed a perfect opportunity when I saw it. I was going to do some plain circles, but when I saw Mimi's  tutorial on her ornaments (I'm getting one - yay!!), I decided to go freeform. I love the color combos. I also printed these tags:

I carved a nice eraser image, but it went a tad wonky when I tried to stamp it onto the tag. I should have carefully removed the wire, stamped, then even more carefully replaced the wire. Yes, that's definitely what I should have done. (If you listen closely, you can hear the voice in my brain saying "Ha! Fat chance!") They needed a little more hand-drawn embellishment than I planned, but I still think that they are not without charm.

my little forest

- with monkeys, of course. Here are the ornaments I made for this year's swaps (both Amy's and Cake & Pie's). I think I caught most of the critters in this picture. In addition to the monkey's, there are squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, owls and several other birds. They're gocco'd & embroidered, and are suitable for standing or hanging. Here's a shot of what the set-up pieces looked like:

I'm really happy with them. There's a close-up  on flicket. Since I made so many, there are two left over that are not spoken for. Let me know if you'd like to trade. Geez, you guys are speedy! I do have some unsewn blanks, so it is not out of the realm of possibility that I could stitch up a few more.

This time I have an excuse

To start this post, I'm showing a picture of the kind of place I wish I had been in for the last month. I went to the cotton yarn sale at a local knitting store, and found a new reprint of Jan Messent's Knitted Gardens a book previously available for $100 up used. Look at all the little animals, the knitted veggies, the beehives! Such an inspirational book.

But why, you ask, have I wished I was in a monastery? Well, August has never been my favorite month, and this year didn't change my mind. The first half was helping my son get shipped off to college across the state. A little sad, but mostly just hectic (and financially stressful - never good). I took the day off to help pack the truck and see him off. When I came back inside from my child moving away more or less permanently, I checked my email and learned that my high school/college sweetheart, to whom I was engaged, and who I've kept in touch with over the years, had died of a heart attack the very same day. Attached to that sad message was a photo of all of us in college. Well, the juxtaposition really threw me for a loop, and I've been a bit out of it the last few weeks. When I told my cousin the news, part of what she said was "maybe you should paint a room". Little did she know I had been doing just that! In the midst of the launch, I finally got around to refurnishing and repainting my bedroom, the very last holdover from my whole-house remodel four years ago. Yes, when things get chaotic, I'm the type that likes to push it to the very limit. And since Hunter's been gone, I've been converting his room into a craft room, with a closing door to restrict access to naughty cats. I could post some work-in-progress pictures, but I'm creating some special bits, and I think I'll save it for my next post.

I did receive some amazing things in the mail.

The fabric from Bethany's swap. I think that ALL of the pieces were truly exceptional (check them out), and I got all of my favorites! The cacti is Bethany's, Dorathy's pitcher plants, and Mimi's sweet little flowers. AND one of Michelle's batiked dolls:

A Halloween one! Yay!! I am going to very carefully craft it into a feature of this year's decorations.

I also received a pretty quilt from bekka, who is blogless.

Great colors! My near-disaster quilt was well received by my swapee, who found the story funny (in a good way). In addition to room decoration, a have promised a couple more pieces for various things. So I should at least post sporadically this month. Thanks for sticking around!

Flying Squirrel Jamboree!

After last week's little adventure, it was a real treat to have a project turn out exactly the way I planned. Here's the fabric I printed up for Bethany's fat quarter swap. The base is gocco printed, and the colored dots are from a sacrificed sponge brush. I've always found it a little tricky to print fabric with the gocco - the fabric tends to stick, and you have to put consistent pressure on the stamp printer to get the image even. But then I had a real light bulb over the head moment -

my knitting blocking board! I lay down a couple layers of newspaper, pin the fabric down, and stamp away! The board is made of fabric, so it has just enough give that the image always comes out even. Another plus, it's 48" wide, so it's simple to print an entire yard of fabric lengthwise. To finish the width, I just slide out the top layer of newspaper and move the fabric. It's the perfect printing surface. I love it when I find multiple uses for things. I've always felt a tad guilty for buying that board, since I only use it a few times a year. This will no longer be the case!

And because the gocco is so great, I was able to clean off the screen and print up some more colorful cards. The fabric ink doesn't come in so many colors, and I really wanted the graphic element of the circle in the fabric design. So far, the only other fabric I've seen for this swap is Mimi's (you need to scroll down a bit), but if hers is any indication, some great stuff is on the way!

What should I call this post?

Maybe...."Think Fast"; "The Importance of Contingency Planning"; "Holy @#$*/!"; "Adventures in Chemistry"? It's so hard to choose, they all apply. So here was the top of the quilt - finished.

Looks good, no? But not old enough.

I sacrificed a pot of coffee (decaf) and soaked the top for about an hour. Then....(insert ominous music here)

Like I said, holy *^$@<! The background fabric looked fine, but everything that had Stitch Witchery behind it stained, and sucked up the coffee like dye. After my initial shock, and disgust with my need to be a smart aleck, I did wonder whether or not the reaction would have been the same if I'd used cold coffee - but I don't think I'm curious enough about it to do an experiment. After an afternoon with a sponge brush and a bottle of bleach, I had this:

Well, that wouldn't do, so after a couple of washings and some fabric paint I ended up with something I really liked, and finished it up.

I am sorry that the pretty patterns I picked out got lost, but now it looks really, truly old, and like it has a good story to tell. The amazing part is that I'm finished on time, in spite of a very hot day when nothing got done, and what shall now be known as "the coffee incident". I hope my swapee likes it, I know that some folks don't appreciate my "creativity".

"....found at the the bottom of an old cupboard"

In an attempt to get back into the swing of things, I joined Round 2 of the Doll Quilt Swap. The phrase above is how my secret swap partner (I'm pretty sure she doesn't visit my blog) described the kind of quilt she likes. Also "not too keen on brights". So a challenge for me!

The quilt pictured above has probably spent its share of time in the bottom of a cupboard, but it's actually just a very old baby quilt that's been in my family since before my birth way back when. I have not manipulated the photo in any way, it looks exactly like this. I'm using it as a point of reference for my quilt. I don't have (and couldn't find) any suitably old-looking fabrics, so I used beautiful, vibrant Japanese prints from the great "Petit Pattern"  books (I'm the proud owner of the whole series), washed them out in Photoshop, and printed them on some Printed Treasures inkjet fabric. Here's what I made:

Another unmanipulated picture...you think they are pale enough? Here's a start of the quilt -

I have a few other cunning plans to make it look even older. It has to be mailed in about a week, so check back soon for the final product. I'm also really excited about joining Bethany's fabric swap, which also has to be done soon. And I'm still doing admin duties for A Month of Softies and this month's theme is "Outer Space"...so this space will be active at least during the month of July.

I tried to answer most of the comments, but I apologize if I missed anyone. Things have been kind of flaky lately.