Partial Quilt

Before assembling the four panels:

After assembling the four panels, but before attaching a border:

I'm waiting for this to come back from a lady who is machine quilting it for me. It's really hard not to send the lady weekly inquiries about the progress on this thing :) I'm super excited to get it back, even though it means I will have some 40+ feet of binding to make and sew on...... remind me again why I didn't just have someone else do that for me, too?

First attempt at FELTING!

BEFORE:


AFTER:



A really awesome friend of mine noticed me oooooh-ing and aaaaaaaah-ing over her felted cuffs this past winter and she *TOTALLY SURPRISED ME* by getting me the same kit so I could try it, too! This method of felting was crazy-easy. You essentially tack the roving onto a special piece of paper that will eventually disintegrate (in the last step of the process). The before (roving)/after (felted wool) is really only noticeable in the closeups.

Ugly Rug!

Earlier this year I worked on recycling some of my favorite shirts that were dying....  first attempt at a rag rug = DISASTER.

wow, hello lumpy rug.  I unwound the whole thing moments after this picture was taken.  Second attempt is looking better, but is not worth photographing just yet......  also, the cats destroyed part of it when I left them alone for a couple weeks with minimal intervention......

April Art! Silk-screened T-shirts for the art night posse

I think my favorite way to print t-shirts for friends is by telling them to supply me with a t-shirt (whatever size/shape/color THEY like).  I enjoy the variety that results :)

Fabric scraps

Here's to playing with fabric scraps and pretending I can quilt!

The other sock monster!

Here's the other animal/monster for the baby mobile we made in March :)

Rainbow snake!

In March, I made two stuffed animals for a dear friend's baby mobile..... these are the only pictures I took, though, so you folks might not get to see the green bat/owl/monster that also went to her house.

Sock monsters

I found an amusing book and decided to make sock monsters an activity for an art night. Here are the ones I made:



now what do I do with them?
I don't even really like stuffed animals...
Hmmmmmmm.

The beginnings of a Test Run Quilt

I want to make a king size quilt for myself and I want to make it in the "watercolor" style.... so since I generally don't sew much (despite two of my last posts this week being fabric-related) and I certainly don't consider myself "a quilter", I figured I should buy just a small amount of fabric to test my ideas/theories in a more "safe" way than immediately committing to the BIG project..... so here is the beginning of my new lap blanket.

Starting with this sorted fabric:




Here's what I ended up with after a day of sewing and ironing (and a rather sore/stiff neck):



I think that this proof of concept came out pretty well! Good stuff that came out of this baby quilt business:

• I did notice that I was missing a couple of shades here & there, so I could go buy a few more pieces of fabric for the "real" quilt


• I found out that I'm not the world's most consistent seamstress and will have to pay more attention to sewing straight lines consistently straight


• I realized that buying the diagonally biased square interfacing is harder to correct (if you sew crooked :) so I'm going to do the "real" quilt "on the square"

Next steps = figure out what to use as a border & actually quilt this little lap blanket together.

More potholders!

I made more pot holders for some other friends in February :D

some January gifts

I made some pot holders for some folks in January:

Rag rug - complete!

it's been a while since I posted anything here.... let's see if I can get this blog rolling again.... this will *also* require getting *ME* rolling again in the "actually makes/finishes art stuff" category.....

remember this post?

That was the half-finished rag rug.... which is now finished and living in my bathroom!

2010 Tie Dye begins .....NOW! :D

Refurbishing some old canvas bags that came from previous employers:

Little furry helpers....

I thought it might be fun to make a "rag rug" out of some old(ish) towels...... my helpers think a half-finished project as soft & cozy as this one needs to be tested.... (gee thanks for pre-covering it in cat hair guys)

More Pot Holders!

These were actually made in March, but couldn't be posted right away as they were gifts and it just wouldn't do to show them off before the recipients got them :D

Pot holders!

This is what happens when I procrastinate sewing an actual *dress* for myself..... :) Nearly instant gratification!

Silk painting

Two Christmases ago my parents gave me a silk painting kit. It took me until this past weekend to get up enough courage to try it out. Not surprisingly, I'm starting with abstract colors and SALT! I'm totally enamoured with the effects you can get by sprinkling salt on wet watercolors.... you can see the salt crystals in the 3rd picture (where I haven't brushed them off just yet).






Now what.... what do I do with these? Hmmmm............

Second Quivet

OK --- technically my first one that I assembled, but it's the second one I finished. It took me forever to find an acceptable "other side" color ---- I settled (happily settled, mind you) on a deep purple. so there, mom. it's not green :P I think you'll like the purple!

My first quivet

A Blue Bag

K, a Latvian friend of mine who's an accomplished quilter, suggested trying out a sewing project....



Turns out my sewing skills have neither increased nor decreased for lack of use. I am still an average seamstress..... but I *can* follow directions! (the part that tells me what to sew together with what --- I obviously did NOT listen to the part in the directions that said to choose stiff fabric)