The busier I get ...

I actually had a few minutes today to get a coat of paint on the collage I'm working on - this is for Linda Misa's class over at Doll Street. I have to start the scary part next, painting the figure on it. You can see the papers I started with at the foot of the canvas.

We also got a box in the mail with some of Loren's grandmother's 'stuff' in it, including this hand quilted and cross-stitched quilt ...

here's a close up of the cross-stitch ...click to enlarge ..

I actually said my younger daughter could have it but then I took it back before she could leave today - I'm so bad. I think it needs to stay with me for a while. It has a few stains and needs cleaning - do you think I could put it in the washing machine safely? I can only imagine how long this took to make!

Then we got this quilt too ... oh, my eyes ...I don't know what it is made of but it's very shiny, LOL.

Between his mom and his grandmother I have close to a dozen hand quilted quilts - no wonder I gave up quilting!

Now take a look at this .. my husband bought this cloth doll for his grandmother at a bazaar when he was stationed in Japan about 20 years ago ... she's a cloth over .. but cloth over what?? Who knows!


Isn't she pretty? Unfortunately she is very dirty. I'll try to clean her with cotton balls/q-tips and water unless someone has a better idea. She was a gift for someone in 1966 according to a piece of paper that fell off the bottom. I imagine she is about 43 or 44 years old.

We also got another dozen rusty silverplated spoons that I am NOT going to clean and we got this really cool seltzer bottle. I remember when I first came to America my aunt had one of these (but not as fancy) and she would make us sodas - egg creams! Man, I loved those things! The bottle says not to fill it up further than the red line. I wonder what would happen - would it explode?

We have some really weird things from his family .. including an accordian that lives in my bedroom closet, LOL.

Beaded book thongs

I received these absolutely luscious beaded book thongs in a bookmark swap over at Swap-bot. I'm afraid every time I say book thong a different picture runs through my head LOL. There's some great charms on these! Click the image to really see them.

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A new ribbon-eating puppy?

Brought home a new dog last night - another miniature American Eskimo - she is 6 months old. I wonder if she will love ribbons and fabric as much as my other Eskie did when he was little. We will see ... meet Candy Cane ... who just had a welcome home bath, LOL.

Collage class

Had to show you this photo - it's a collage that will be taught at Doll Street next month by Linda Misa of Australia. I just LOVE her work! I already bought my canvases so I can give this a whirl. It should be a lot of fun.

She uses one of my favorite tools too - sequin waste! Just smaller than what I use - I need to buy some!

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Kiva loan

I made my first Kiva loan today! Kiva allows people like us to make small (think - $25) loans to people in developing nations so they can lift themselves out of poverty through business. I lent money to a woman in Peru who wants to buy embroidery thread and cloth. The money is actually managed through third parties and although there is risk you may eventually get your money back (so you can lend it to someone else!) I read about it through Lisa Vollrath's blog - she is a lender too. Go make a loan today! It will make you feel good!

Knitty stuff

Being proficient with a sewing machine can come in handy - made myself a knitting needle roll yesterday. Had to redo the top binding because it didn't leave enough room for the flap to cover the long needles - this is the before picture. It works much better now. Found a pattern on the net and then modified it. Then I decided to play with clay and I covered these knitting needles. I put the needles in an oven bag before I put them in to cook - when I made the first set yesterday the fumes from the clay and the needles were horrible - and that was in a bag too - just not sealed shut. So today I sealed it with wire. Way better. No fumes. I was worried that the bamboo would warp but I guess the temperature is low enough because they were fine. You can't see it but I stamped the size of each needle on it's top - the green ones have a red center - looks like an olive gone bad, LOL. Too bad I can't sculpt - I could imagine some very cool things to put on the knobs! Ah well. These were fun anyway.

Who is this woman?

... someone who thought it would be fun to make a change in her life ...you should have heard the women in the salon .. looking at all the hair on the floor and asking if it was from one person .. yes, it was ... ME!

sorry about the grainy image .. hard to take a photo of yourself in the bathroom mirror without a flash! The little photo is of me 3 years ago when I had my hair foiled for the first time, but my hair was about that long this morning.

Do you twitter?

I have no idea why I did this - but I signed up with Twitter - it's kind of like microblogging - I don't know how much I'll use it but we'll see. If you twitter you can follow me under JudiW. Add me and I'll add you back.

A little home dec

It's been a while since I posted. I've been doing a few things but nothing to write home about .. or here either. But I figured I'd at least show one thing .. the tablecloth I just finished. It's amazing how even the most simple things take hours to make. I have 6 yards of the blue batik and I'm going to cover the chairs with it too. The orange borders match my curtains and the table runner - same material. I even mitered the corners - had to pull out a quilting book to learn how though. Easier than I thought. The table runner was made for our previous table and it's way too big for this one. I have to decide if I should cut it down or just make another one. I do have a little bit more of the orange/mustard colored batik. Speaking of batik - even though I washed these it still felt like the needle was punching through paper when I was sewing it. Should soften up after a few washes though. I am going to go buy some acrylic felt off the bolt to put under the tablecloth - don't know why - it just make it feel nicer. Plus then I don't have to worry if hot things get put on the table. Okay - I'm rambling now - time to go!

The Knitting Nazi

That's what we were told my knitting teacher is called by her co-workers. I got kicked out of knitting class on Monday night. To go get new yarn. I had 2 weeks of work on this one piece (first I had the patterns on both sides instead of one side so I had to start over - somehow I got the right and wrong sides switched in the middle of knitting) then this week my teacher decided I was having too hard a time with the pattern because I couldn't see it. The variegated yarn made it near impossible to see - so she said I had to get new yarn and start over. AAARGH. NOT AGAIN. You have no idea how many times I had already started over due to dumb mistakes. So I went out and bought a solid pastel green yarn and started again this morning. But you can actually see a difference in my knitting now that I've done this piece a million times over. Plus you can see the pattern. I might just learn to knit! HA!

Not motivated

I have a nasty cold and I just don't feel like doing a thing except hibernating! I find that my concentration just isn't there when I don't feel good. But that said, I finally got the clock in my studio caught up to daylight savings time this morning (yeah, shows how much I've been in there lately) and got to thinking that it needs a makeover. It's just boring wood. I think I could probably handle that in this state! Just have to decide on what color it needs to start out as!

I also realized I haven't made a doll yet this year. Pretty strange.

I told you I'd post a photo of the necklace I'm workin on in Christi Friesen's class on Doll Street ... here it is .. BUT .. as I worked this piece further I found that the green clay I started with had lost it's plasticizers and the leaves kept breaking/crumbling. So I am going to have to start over with fresh clay.

Sock monster baby bib

My sock monster drools. He really makes a mess so I figured I'd better do something quick. I made him some baby bibs. He's quite happy with them and I think he's going to get rather upset when the grandbaby borrows them.

I found the pattern on the internet but didn't follow the directions. I was rather surprised when I went back and looked at them just now. I guess I made my own version - and wasted lots of bias tape! But, hey, my version went together faster, so there!

Me and my little 'art sister'

The photo? It's me when I was about six years old and living in England. I think my Mum used to put a bowl on my head to cut my hair! Linda F - you asked for it, you got it!

But that's not what I wanted to write about today. One of the fun things about blogging is the people you meet via your posts. I have a new little 'art' sister that I met that way. When you're my age you don't need more twenty-something daughters, so you can have little sisters instead! Besides which, they don't need more Moms! So anyway - my little art sister battled it out at a $1 fat quarter sale and needs ideas of what to do with them ... go give Cindi your two cents worth!

Baby, it's cold outside

My friend took this photo today ...

When it gets this cold the moisture in the air freezes and we get ice fog. Which is no fun to drive in.

My friend Natalie convinced me to walk away from the computer today so I can stay sane. I blasted my music, danced around, and then make a couple of ATCs for a swap I'm in. The theme is Vintage Photos. I like one but not the other. Photos soon!

Dec 31st, 2007 ... it's been a good year

This has been an amazing year for me ... and I'm very thankful.. .
&bull I published my first patterns and people actually like them
&bull I got my husband to go on a cruise to Mexico
&bull I taught my first out-of-town class
&bull Both my daughters got married
&bull I had a doll on the cover of a magazine
&bull I am now a grandmother
&bull I got sidetracked into the world of crazy plush toys
&bull I bought Doll Street
&bull I made new friends online and had a blast taking online classes and making art ...

I don't see how next year can beat that but I'm going to try! Happy New Year, everyone ...

Look what was under my tree !

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas. I had the family over today and we had a good time. Had fun torturing taking photos of the grandbaby. He was actually quite a good sport about it, but at 2 1/2 months old he's still not quite on top of things yet.

I've never been .... normal ....

I made this dough ornament 25 years ago ... with my Little Sister when I was in the Big Brother/Sister program in Tucson, Arizona ... it's still one of my favorites .. and I think about my Little every year when I take it out of the box .... it's very ''me' ... don'tcha think?

The Quest for Storage Bins

Ya know I'm always dissatisfied with my storage options. My stamps have been all lumped together in one of the plastic drawers from one of those 7-drawer towers. Then they usually ended up all over the floor when I was looking for one. I've seen lots of options on other people's websites - some are really cool - they look like the displays at the craft shops. Unfortunately I don't have the wall space for that. So at the last 50% off the plastic crap sale at the local craft shop I picked up this piece .. and, hey, it works! At last! I even sorted the stamps! The bottom layer has all my unmounted stamps, the middle has all my big collage stamps, and the top (which has the only dividers the thing came with) has all my little stamps broken up into categories. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sometimes I'm anal about things. I'm amazed at how many stamps I have - and I don't even scrapbook!

On Monday we had our doll club meeting/party - lots of fun - we did a couple of make it/take its. I taught the girls how to make domino magnets and I think the craft store is going to see a run on alcohol inks now, LOL. We also made these cute little snowmen ornaments ... why my camera hates to photograph red I don't know ...

The chair still hasn't been touched .... but last night while I was laying in bed I did come up with my color scheme ... who needs to sleep when you can daydream art!

I bought an iPhone ... and I LOVE IT !

I haven't had a cell phone for about two weeks and it was a weird feeling. I was waiting for AT&T to come ... they finally opened their stores today and I had my iPhone by noon. Now it is nearly midnight and I'm still playing with the thing, LOL. It is the ultimate little toy! It holds 8GB - it's an iPod, a 2 megapixel camera, it does email, browses the Web, has all the stuff my Palm Pilot did (notes, clocks, calendar, calculator) - oh - and it does maps too! For up here in the middle of absolutely nowhere! I can look up how to drive from my house to a restaurant or something. I can eBay from anywhere the iPhone can connect to the web, bwa ha ha. I got nothing done today, ho ho ho. I was plugged in! I'm such a geek!

I can see ...

the top of the cutting table. For the first time. In two months. Absolutely amazing.

Doll Street and Swiffer covers

You're probably wondering what one has to do with the other! Well, I am taking over the online doll club, Doll Street Dreamers, and I am spending soooo much time learning how to run the various types of software and talking to banks and credit card processing centers and just brainstorming that my muse has been neglected. I am starting to have the shakes, yep, craft withdrawals, LOL. I had to break away from the computer and sew. So I decided that since I am officially retired from making Plushies (at least until I get rid of some of the 19 living here now) I would use the fleece for something else. Segue to Swiffer covers! I saw a blog posting about these on the Craftzine blog and figured I could make myself a dozen or so. I really hate having to buy the Swiffer paper covers and then throwing them out. This way I can just toss them in the wash. Save money and feel better about the environment! I cut one long piece of fleece 11" x 5" and then the two top pieces are 5" x 4.5" - just lay them together and sew. The top piece stretches so it can be slipped on. Couldn't be simpler - unless someone else did it for you!

You know, if I was a Martha Stewart kind of a girl I'd probably have CLEANED the Swiffer before I took the photo. Nah. That'll never happen.

Have a great weekend!

500th blog posting !!!

In the tradition of other artsy bloggers and in celebration of my blogging milestone, I'm going to have a drawing for a piece of crafty goodness. I will put the name of everyone who leaves a comment on this posting in a hat and will have my hubby pick a name next Wednesday. Funny to think I've had this much to say. I really appreciate everyone who comes and visits. I hope you keep coming back for the next 500 entries!!!!

Here's the last batch of domino magnets I made for the craft fair.. I do love the faces ...

Happy Halloween !!

Credits: Patti Culea pattern

Moo cards for hang tags ??

I finally succumbed and bought myself a set of Moo Cards. These are tiny little cards that you can buy if you use Flickr as your photo host. They are a bit expensive - they cost me $25 for 100 cards (25 cents each including postage from England). But I think they will be great hang tags. You can have all the same info that is on business cards on the back of the cards too. I have about 5 each of these cards. You have to do some interesting cropping to your photos - some that I would have liked to use just didn't work at all. I think these are fun and will probably last me a while!!

Slump, slump, slump

I'm having a hard time getting back into the swing of things since the grandson has been born. A couple of reasons for this 1) I'm having a bad reaction to some medicine and I cough like crazy so I take cough syrup a couple of times a night which knocks me out and then I sleep late and I'm tired all day 2) I'm bored???

I am testing a pattern for my friend Jacque and that is forcing me to get off my butt and make something! This is the something .... doesn't it look mysterious at this stage?

He's here !

My reason for making all the plushies has arrived! He got here yesterday evening. Everyone is doing fine and Grandma and Grandpa are thrilled to bits.

It's that time again ...

.. and I'm not ready ... I don't want winter to come ... on the other hand it will let me test the 'snow' feature of the new camera, LOL ...

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One of those days

I'm sick with a bad cold. It's really hard to be creative when you feel lousy so all I've been doing is reading books and sniffling. I've been waking up in the middle of the night coughing and last night when I went to the kitchen to take a teaspoon of honey to soothe my throat this is what I found ... at least someone is having a good time!

Sizzix BigKick - my new toy

I have been 'talking' with Mimi Kirchner about how to cut perfect circles from felt. One thing she suggested was the Sizzix punches; but I found they didn't have them in a variety of circle sizes. That left me the option of one of the machines. I looked into the various die-cut machines available locally and decided to buy the Sizzix BigKick. This is made by ProvoCraft which also makes the Cuttlebug. The BigKick can use any other companies' dies plus do embossing and texturizing. So I went to JoAnns and priced it. Went to Michaels and priced it. Michael's was $25 more and their dies were $5.00 more. Ugh. I talked to the manager and asked if he would match JoAnn's price and he said yes. He called JoAnn's and got the price; I used my JoAnn's coupon and ended up with the machine for $60. Then I went back to JoAnn's and used *another* coupon to buy a 4-circle die plus some other stuff. The things I do to save a buck! Okay - boring stuff over with. I tried the machine on various fabrics (after I figured out you weren't supposed to remove the foam from the center of the die, sigh). Here's my report ...
Acrylic felt - awesome!
Wool felt - awesome!
Flannel - awesome!
Fleece - makes a good enough impression to cut out with scissors
Batik - cut some of the fibers but not all. Easy enough to finish off with scissors.

So - $80 later I can cut out perfectly round eyes for my plushies! Now I have to sell some to pay for the darn thing, LOL. Anyone need any plushies???

OH OH OH - I meant to ask - is the cutting plate supposed to end up with die impressions on it?

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!!!

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. :-)

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 ...

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!!!

A wedding procession?????

I took this photo to talk about making the illusion of a hat and it struck me that it looks like some strange wedding procession. I have to admit I do have weddings on the mind - Jeanna got married last weekend, this weekend I had my other daughter's bridal shower, and her wedding will take place in about 3 weeks. I'm actually surprised I haven't made a bride yet! But anyhow - this shows the hat once it has been immersed in fabric stiffy and it is drying. By covering the head with plastic you can mold and pin the fabric in place, creating the illusion of a hat. When dry you just add flowers, feathers, and so on and so forth. Maybe I should make her a little bouquet to hold, hmmm.

This next photo shows what else I did this weekend. We put up nearly 40 cans of wild Copper River red salmon. Each can holds about 1.4 lbs. So that's a lotsa salmon! Gotta love the artistic filters that come with Photoshop Elements. Plain old cans are so boring to look at!

A wonderful day

Today my daughter Jeana got married. It was a lovely day and I am thrilled to have gained a great son-in-law. We had the wedding here at my house. I'm not cleaning a thing until tomorrow, LOL. I'm just going to sit here and finish off the champagne!!! Here's a couple of photos for you to enjoy.

Jeanna & Shane



Yep, that's me on the right. Goofing around for the camera. Don't look too closely.



Don't give the pregnant lady a knife ...

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Photoshop Elements

My friend Kate Erbach turned me onto the Photoshop Elements software and I really like it. It helped me create this little advertisement. Kate told me about this great website where you can find royalty-free photographs for use in your art. That's where the star shaped ice cubes that I use as the background for this piece came from. I think that Anuuk is going to be my little logo girl - she sure fits the bill!

Today's photos

We haven't caught anything fishing and I haven't picked up a pencil yet. Thought I'd share a couple of photos I took today. These two bald eagles are dining on a couple of salmon carcasses. The multi-colored eagle is a juvenile bald eagle - they turn white when they are adults. The second picture is of a pink salmon jumping over a couple of rocks on its way upstream. Click on the images to enlarge.

A little bit of a vacation

I'm away for the weekend ... and I didn't take any doll stuff with me! I did bring a sketch book, some pencils, and some oil pastels. We will see if I end up using them!

My PSA ... the mammopad

Since I'm not doing anything creative lately I thought I'd recommend this new pad that goes on a mammogram machine. It is a special foam and it's awesome for cutting down the discomfort. If you go to BioLucent's website you can check to see if your Breast Cancer Detection Center or hospital uses them. If not - you might want to suggest it ... these really make a huge difference. They say that 3 ot of 4 women experience a 50% decrease in discomfort. It's really true too - I was astounded at the difference when I got to use it! So check it out!

Oh woe is me...

I am trying to make a jacket. I don't usually sew clothes, I'm pretty sure that the last time I did was 5 years ago when I made my daughter's prom dress. I didn't pick the easiest fabric to work with ... a silky print with little stones glued all over it. I am having to scrape the stones off the seam allowance - what a PIA!!!! But it's going together slowly but surely. I have the sleeves left to set in and then hem, hem, hem. Phew. Now you know one reason I've been so quiet. I'm pulling my hair out, ha ha ha.

Too many projects ..

I'm working on a million things at once and nothing is far enough along to take photos of. I'm getting the folders together for the class I'm teaching next week - I have 15 students now. I'm also making the weight pouches and wood bottoms for them. Bought some fabric today and I am going to try to make a jacket - one of those lightweight kimono/duster type things. I am continuing to collect stuff for my new doll .. and I'm refinishing this fish tank ... it is a goldfish tank - supposed to be like a TV .. it's the Fish Network .. entirely too cutesy for me ... .but I've covered it with gesso and a layer of white tissue paper.... next is paint ...

Need a wedding bouquet? Call 1-800-JUDI

My eldest daughter came over today and we made her bridal bouquet. The last time I made one of these was when I made my own. She had a book with the bouquet she wanted but who ever follows instructions! We didn't even use the proper flowers but we did use their basic layout. I did learn to use hot glue on the ends of the stems to help hold the flowers in. Although some did fall out so we had to fill the holes with glue and then put the flower back in. I hope the flowers don't fall out when she walks down the aisle in August. She's happy with it so I'm happy too!

Somebody's junk is now my treasure

Okay, I know that's not how the saying really goes but it works for me. At doll club the other night my friend Karen gave me a bag of old screw-on earrings. The backs on these are usually glued on so I think if I use my heat gun I can melt the backings off instead of trying to cut them off. The earrings will be great for decorating headpieces and who knows what else!

This, that, and the other

No photos today!!! I just finished another set of those wooden charms and since most of the folks receiving them read this blog I didn't want to spoil the surprise. Next up is going to be a baby doll - I have NEVER made a baby doll !! I am going to test a pattern for my friend Rivkah in Israel.

My testers are working on the Stump Sisters. Courtney finished hers and she's a hoot! She came out great. I have to say I really get a kick out of seeing what other people do with my patterns. It's all so new to me.

Art Bras

One of the ladies who is sponsoring the Art Bra Showhad her husband take photos of the bras. You might remember I designed my Stone Cold Troll for this show. I'll be going to see them on Friday and I hope they let me take photos. But in the meantime, you can view them here.

Artful pillow

I got a new camera and I've been trying to figure out how it works. It's a Canon Powershot S3 IS (same as Sherry's). I took this photo from about 10 feet away from the pillow with the telephoto lens and the flash - I'm amazed at how well it came out. My little Fuji would never have been able to do this. This is a little accent pillow that I bought from my friend Kelli Perkins. Kelli is an up and coming artist who is becoming a regular contributor to Cloth, Paper, Scissors. She does absolutely breathtaking work. Look on page 34 of this coming issue to see her article on paper quilts. Don't you just love this pillow! I want to redo all my living room pillows to match these colors, LOL.

I'm still here ...

I'll have lots to show tomorrow! I made this really strange fabric shelf and I'm nearly done with another ..... mermaid! I am teaching the mermaid down at the quilt shop and didn't realize that I only have flat faced ones here at the house. I was making one for a private swap and I if it's okay with my swap partner I will use her as the sample. It's nice to have the mermaid in pattern form - I don't have to take measurements for her sleeves and top.

I Love Crafts: Review of my blog and websites

Linda, of I Love Crafts and Craft Blogs has written a wonderful review of all my websites. She obviously spent a lot of time poking around this blog, my Etsy shop, my photo album, and my newest endeavor, the Ask the Crafter website. She makes me sound like a Wonder Woman! I'm now ready to scale new art projects in a single bound. Oh wait, that's Super Girl (my younger self, ha ha). You know, I didn't even realize I have 14 tutorials on this blog until she counted them for me. Seriously, I am quite thrilled and honored to be recognized this way. Thanks, Linda!

Click here if you would like to read the review.

More Mexican Inspiration

I fell in love with these metal sculptures in Cabo San Lucas. There were two shops selling these and I hadn't seen anything like this in any of the other ports. I really like the mermaids and the faeries. They are about 2 or 3 feet tall so they were a bit too big for the suitcase therefore none came home with me. I don't know if that's good or bad because now I want to make one. My husband thinks they might have been cut with a plasma cutter - which is too expensive for me to buy just to fool around with. So I'm thinking of making one of these with Timtex and fabric. Who knows what it will end up as!