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orange friday

here’s a little orange shelled turtle for orange friday. now we know who has been lording over this little kingdom I’ve been making lately.

I’m having fun with this colorweek but the lack of sun all week is killing me. I love trying to take cool photos but the effort involved wipes me out. I’m just too impatient. I think of all the things I could be sewing while I’m rummaging around the house for the perfect prop or the best light — like finishing bunnies! I have three new big footed bunnies just barely almost done. I was hoping to put them up for sale today but I’m going to have to push it til Monday. I’ll send an email out to the mailing list when they go up.

I was stuck on this turtle’s headgear all week and then I got a wonderful package of goodies from Claire including a copy of Feltcraft by Petra Berger. What a cute book! That’s where I found the crown idea. There’s lots of cute wizards and fairies and creatures in there, even a snail and a butterfly. Of course if I were you I’d wait for the new Hand Sewing For Fun Patterncard set (that I’m trying to convince Tim we need to do).

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yellow

Not a good day for yellow here in rainy Chicago today but I’m feeling themey so I thought I’d give it a shot. Here’s a possible yellow & white apron in progress for Amy’s new theme and a shot of yellow for Kerstin’s color week (more yellow on thriftcraft too). Why am I knitting? Kay and Ann‘s new book came from amazon on friday and the knitting bug is buzzing in my ear. I don’t really go crazy for knitting. I’ve had my moments…stash building obsessive months of dreaming about yarns every night, making snap decisions at elann, buying up old Rowan and Rebecca pattern books as if I’d ever actually knit myself a sweater (!).. but these wear off pretty quickly. Mason Dixon Knitting is making me all knitty again. It is so fun to read about their love of knitting and their great imaginative approach at making original patterns. And I LOVE the quilting/knitting thing! I really want to knit a log cabin blanket some day. But in the end I’m still all about the fabric so what grabbed me the most were the delecatable photographs of rag balls in the book. I went right at my thrifted sheets and made some to play with.

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creeping along

holy hotdogs! (one of the new toddler friendly swears we’re trying out) thanks so much for all the HILARIOUS comments on the butterfly. some of the best comments ever! sorry I’m so pokey in posting a big fat thank you but I’ve been working at, well, a snail’s pace over here.

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stay where you are sky

Things have been a little bit up in the air around here lately. I’ve been trying to make some tough decisions and I think, with the help of Alicia’s goldilocks theory, I’ve finally got things settled in my mind. (speaking of goldilocks – cute!) Trying to decide what’s the right size/fit for me right now is super tough. Hopefully the decisions I’ve made are truly ‘right fit’ decisions and not
‘ruin your life and regret it forever decisions’. I think I’m on the right track though because the immediate result of these tough calls is that I had a free unfettered weekend to work on stuff I’ve been wanting to work on for quite some time including this little gal.

I was able to dig back into all my inspiration books and revisit things I’ve been dying to work on for months. This little chicky was inspired by a bit of a japanese childrens book illustration I’ve had on my boards forever.

 

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ruffle that!

I’m loving my to-do list today. It’s all nice and scratched out. My list has been a formidable challenge for me lately. I’ve been very fortunate and was asked to contribute projects to three different books – a modern quilt design book, a softies book and a general craft book. I’ve been working on these projects on and off for months and today I’m a few photographs shy of being All Done! All Done! In reality this just gives me a brief moment to breathe in before I jump on to the rest of my list but I’m very happy to have that moment. I thought I’d take the opportunity to ruffle it up. I made a ruffled carrysmall from some of my newly thrifted fabric. I’m happy with it but it still needs a lining and maybe a ruffle on the back too. And I need one of those rufflers. Manual ruffling is for the birds.