Getting personal

I've been blogging for nearly three years now and I don't put too much non-crafty stuff on here. I thought maybe for the next year I'd change that a little bit. Starting now. So here are a couple of photos I took today when I went to help my husband set up moose camp.
We were 10 miles back off the main road - took about 45 minutes to drive the trail (I was following his truck and he was going slow for me). At first I was a bit nervous about driving back by myself - we were out in the middle of nowhere but I ended up having fun and cut 15 minutes off the time it took to drive in, LOL. My little Blazer got a tad bit dirty as you can see by the windows ... gorgeous scenery though. The trees look funny because a forest fire raged through there a few years ago and now they are tree skeletons. I told my husband about my wild ride out and he said we'd have to put mud tires on my car and go bogging. I think not!!!

Severed Hand Pincushion Pattern

I decided rather than make bunches of these to sell I would make one and photograph the steps so I could offer it as a pattern. Is that lazy? There are 19 step by step photos in this pattern - kind of like an online class. You'll make the hand, dye it with Jacquard dye-na-flow fabric paint, make the glove, and do the fingernails. If you make it with felt it can be a pincushion; make it with cotton and it can be a creepy Halloween decoration. Did I say it is life size? Fun, fun, fun!!!

This is a PDF file, an e-pattern. Price: US $6.00.

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Finger turning tutorial

I've been thinking of making this video for a while ... although I have discovered that I can't turn fingers, think, and talk at the same time...

The Charmed One is finished

I've been on a roll this week! I feel like I'm making up for lost time when all the relatives were here. It was like I was held hostage or something, LOL. I added some color to the tips of the Charmed One's hair to give it some depth and then I made her charm bracelet. I have about 20 charms on there, as I was in two hand made charm exchanges. I'm getting geared up for another one too although I don't know if I'll be able to add all of those to this bracelet. I love this gal so much she's up in the living room - not too many of my dolls make it there!

Here's the bracelet, although it's hard to see some of the charms ... click on the photo to see them up close and personal.

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A good day to dye

How's that for a title, LOL! Actually it *was* a good day - it had rained in the morning but when we got together it had cleared up and it got hot. Of course hot for Alaskans is probably cool for some of you! Four of us got together at Karen's house to play. We had a great pot luck lunch and then we got to work making messes. We invented downhill dyeing - which consisted of laying a large piece of material on a slope and then squirting color onto it to see how it ran. We had some interesting pieces to say the least. We also played with those Pebeo Setacolor paints. That was fun - although I got the biggest kick out of watching the girls go through Karen's garden cutting flowers and leaves off her plants. I brought about 7 fat quarters of fabric to play with and only made mud out of one, so I'm happy. Too bad I still have to do the wash out - it would be fun to just play with them all!

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Getting creative

So if you got a laugh out of yesterday's post and the way my mind works, wait until you read this one! I am making more severed hand pincushions and I wanted to hang the dyed hand up to dry. I am going to have my husband build me a little rack to hang these from but for now this is what I came up with. I took my plastic spool holder and tied the hand to that - but as it is flexible the thing fell right over into the sink. I had to add a stack of huge metal nuts to keep the thing upright. Then in order to hold the plastic arm up I tied yarn around the bathroom light and to the arm of the spool holder. It works but you better not go in the bathroom for long or you will burn through the yarn, LOL. Click on the picture to enlarge (then click again) - you have to see it up close to appreciate it. :-)

The feminine Yoda

I was outside spraying her face with sealer when I realized that she looked like she was wearing a robe. Then I thought that she looked like a feminine version of Yoda. To make matters worse, I also thought that I probably need to make a proper 'hairdressing' cape for my dolls so they aren't suffering the further indignities of plastic bags or washcloths. Yeah, I'm weird, we all know that, LOL.

Wedding photos

My daughter Tara married Corey today. We had an absolutely perfect day for an outdoor wedding. Everything was just great, good food, good music, good friends. Perfect.

Tomorrow's the day

The wedding is tomorrow. We have the reception space decorated, we ran through a quick rehearsal, picked up the tux, and we're ready to rock! Here's the last thing I did artwise - right before the relatives arrived ... it's the face for the Charmed One .. another Sherry pattern ... although she does still need eyelashes ...

Severed Hand Pincushion on the make

... or maybe that should be in the Make magazine! I found out today that a photo of my severed hand pincushion will be in the Halloween issue of Make magazine. That is so cool! Make's crafts are rather geeky or techy oriented so it will be interesting to see how this ties into their format. Any way you look at it, I'm stoked!

** countdown **
...... 2 days until the in-laws and parents arrive to stay with me!!!
..... 5 days until the wedding
...... 6 days until I can de-stress and breathe again, ha ha ha
...... 8 days until everyone leaves and all the craziness will be over

An awesome eyeglass holder

I am so pleased with this new eyeglass caddy! I am always leaving my eyeglasses in odd places - so we'll see if I actually use this or not. The whole torso is the eyeglass holder - you make it out of cardboard - it is even bowed like a proper eyeglass caddy. Love the colors - I used three different checked fabrics and accented everything with orange and lime green. Funny thing is - those bloomers? They were in the 'brights' drawer - already sewn up - the size was right - all I had to do was add the orange cuffs to them. Never throw anything away, LOL. A really odd combination but it works. I left the tassel on her head completely intact because I might hang her from a shelf, don't know yet. I think I am going to name her Marigold. Another project done! Whoo hoo!

It's a Sherry Goshon pattern!

Flat faced

I am working on two of Sherry Goshon's patterns. They both have flat faces, gulp. My nemesis. These are really hard for me because I can't seem to get nice noses. But, hey, check this out ... I tried to copy the face diagram pretty faithfully and then did my own version of shading. I got a bit carried away with the tear ducts, but it's not half bad! YAY! Now I feel confident enough to tackle the face for the Charmed One. Phew.

Have you noticed I'm getting over my bald doll phobia? I actually took her photo without a wig on! How about that!

Painted fabric sleeves

It always amazes me that even though I have umpteen million yards of fabric none ends up being what I need. What do you do when that happens? Paint your own fabric to match! I cut two pieces of plain white cotton fabric the size I needed for the sleeves then wet them down and dunked them into some yellow Jacquard Dye-na-flow fabric paint. Then I got out a brush and painted flames on with red. After they dried a bit I added some orange accents. The flames bled because the fabric was still pretty wet and they lost their shape but I like the look. I think the sleeves came out fabulous! I love Dye-na-flow and I use it all the time. I have developed the habit of drying it with my heat gun and then finishing up with the iron - that way there's hardly any waiting time before you can use the fabric. Of course - they are usually small pieces - but what the heck. Instant gratification!

Looking good, eh? This is The Charmed One from Sherry's online class. Hopefully this coming week she will get her hair and a face!!!

Busy, busy, busy

I've been so busy helping Jeanna and Shane get moved into their new apartment these past few days that all I've managed to do in the creative department is sew a pair of arms on. Hopefully tomorrow I will get some time to myself. We will see!!!