Just another manic craftday

Office Set.
Felted thrift store sweaters on felted thrift store sweaters. 100% wool.
Collection of the Artist...not for long.

Was a heart of felt...

Hartwell gets a heart ornament. In green. Because as of Thursday, at 9:32 am, that's his favorite color.

And you can dance, for inspiration. Come on. I'm waiting...

 Trying to get back into the groove of making Christmas presents. My two rascally boys don't make it very easy.  We spent some time in the basement, with Bee somehow making it messier. And Hartwell demanding I help him with his video game.

I decided to make a little felt box out of my huge stash of recycled thrift store sweaters. It'll probably end up as a gift for someone. Mostly it was a test of my skills.

I think it would make a great vase with a glass tucked inside. The tutorial presented it as an office supply box. Full of pens and pencils.

It was driving me crazy, I was staring at it and went back and added one more flower.

Much Better.

Pattern is from "A Greener Christmas" by Sheherazade Goldsmith.

Sew what? I'm still a rock star...

This weekend I decided I wanted a sewing room. We have a weird little room in the basement that used to be the guitar room. It's got paneling, stairs to no where and a toilet. A working toilet. So I cleaned it out, but kept the guitars, and only spent $20 on a rug. (I'm very impressed with myself). For a shelf I used an etagere that came with the house and the table is a table top I found in the garage. I used a weird cement deal that juts out next to the stairs to no where as a base and for the other "leg" a plastic drawer unit. I also carried my drafting table from the garage, down a very narrow flight of stairs and into the tiny room. I missed my table! Perpendicular lines, here I come! I put it next to the toilet hoping to hide it.

I'm very excited about my room. Now I don't have to stress about finding supplies and clearing a space to work. Which was usually on the floor and I usually had to vacuum first. And no one wants to begin a project by vacuuming.

Under the Cherry Purse

One of my good friends has three girls. Two of the three are pretty close in age to my two. Therefore, we get to go to their birthday parties and I get to make presents. The oldest girl, Maggie, is turning 6 and wants an all girl, super girly party. No boys allowed!

So Maggie sort of gets a bum deal. No cute bag, no sandwich, not even an egg. So I decided to remedy the situation and make her a pretty little thing.

She's super cute and she even chats with me sometimes! I emailed her mom and asked for her favorite color: Red! Second place? Orange! How sophisticated!

I used this tutorial. Which worked okay, but I think it needed more details. Or maybe I'm just not terribly good.

So, Happy almost Birthday, Maggie! Check your porch for details soon!

There must've been some magic in those recycled sweaters

I made more snowmen! They seem to be popular. I really like them a lot, but my love for things hardly translates to the universe's love of things. So I was pleasantly surprised. Which is the best kind.

I included a picture of a snowman before he gets poked full of sweater leavin's. (Spell check never watched Married with Children in the '80s, I guess).

It starts with a snowman shaped sweater piece and the squiggly yarn is poked through with a special needle. Permanently adhering it to the sweater. Then, I use that pile of colorful yarn to make the details. I don't waste anything. You can even see the orange yarn that becomes the nose.

I really hope I end up with one of my own. I don't have hardly any homemade ornaments on my tree.

On a completely different train of thought, I waxed my own eyebrows today. So if you see me, please don't mention that my stage right brow is a little off. I mean, they're blonde, but still.

Maybe I can get this lady to make me some emergency brows.

Toasty the Snowman

I just added him to my etsy page! I really like how he tuned out. I unravelled a sweater and it still had the curly, swirly texture of the knitting. Then I needle felted it to a base of the same sweater cut into a snowman shape.

I made a few but one is reserve for a relative and the other is for a MOMS Club raffle. 

I don't know what I'm gonna make when Christmas is over. I've had so much fun with the ornaments. I wonder if everyday trees will ever catch on?

Cookin' MC's like this...

I've been sewing and planning and sewing and planning. And only the sewing is going as planned. I'm a pretty good seamster, but suck at the planning. But that's what friends are for. And have I got an amazing friend! Deborah, as I like to call her, because that's her name, whispered muse-like into my ear and encouraged me to make my super cute felt food for others to purchase. Brilliant! It was a small unattainable glimmer in my mind until she said it out loud. Or typed it out loud via email. She even volunteered to cut out some pieces for me. That's amazing! 

I remember it wasn't that long ago I asked the universe for friends. And then one day I woke up and realized they were everywhere. I have someone to call about the most inane things, (the perils of buying a hat), someone to swear with at a bar (god, I miss swearing for no reason), someone to google chat with who has known me FOREVER! whom I recently unearthed via facebook, and someone who volunteers, VOLUNTEERS, to help me along in my quest for craftiness. 

I'm just very thankful. It's sort of awesome. 

Now, universe, I'd like some money. And a hat.

Mmmmm, tastes like acrylic.

I was looking for play food for the boys and realized a few things. The plastic stuff is ugly, with bad colors, the wooden stuff is awesome but leaves a mark and the felt food is expensive. Unless you make it yourself. I found some nice sets, a lot of them were gender specific, heavy on the bow and what not, and they cost more than I was willing to pay for food that will probably end up in the dirt. So, I bought a ton of play felt for $6 and went to work.
I think it turned out okay, except that there weren't enough colors to get a noticeable difference between the whole wheat bread and the peanut butter. I was hoping for a folk art yellow, but only found glitter felt.
I took these pictures right before handing them over to the boys. My three days of research, pattern design and construction needed to be recorded before the inevitable.
It took about five minutes before I found one of the eggs in the dog water.

Bibs!

We have another friend who's having a baby! So for her, I made this bib. I got the pattern from Nested. I liked how this turned out, except that sewing the velcro to the bib left a funky stitched circle. So I covered it with a button. A button I stitched on within an inch of its life. That button ain't comin' off.

Everybody can sew it.

I've been working on this all week. It's my own version of a sampler. I needed something to keep me busy at night while I watch The Closer and My Life on the D List, so I decided to do an embroidered cowboy pillow for Bee. But my skills needed some brushing up so I sorta drew this based on some artwork I found. I'm almost done. I learned a lot about what not to do, so the exercise helped.