crafty mcgee

my little forest

- with monkeys, of course. Here are the ornaments I made for this year's swaps (both Amy's and Cake & Pie's). I think I caught most of the critters in this picture. In addition to the monkey's, there are squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, owls and several other birds. They're gocco'd & embroidered, and are suitable for standing or hanging. Here's a shot of what the set-up pieces looked like:

I'm really happy with them. There's a close-up  on flicket. Since I made so many, there are two left over that are not spoken for. Let me know if you'd like to trade. Geez, you guys are speedy! I do have some unsewn blanks, so it is not out of the realm of possibility that I could stitch up a few more.

What should I call this post?

Maybe...."Think Fast"; "The Importance of Contingency Planning"; "Holy @#$*/!"; "Adventures in Chemistry"? It's so hard to choose, they all apply. So here was the top of the quilt - finished.

Looks good, no? But not old enough.

I sacrificed a pot of coffee (decaf) and soaked the top for about an hour. Then....(insert ominous music here)

Like I said, holy *^$@<! The background fabric looked fine, but everything that had Stitch Witchery behind it stained, and sucked up the coffee like dye. After my initial shock, and disgust with my need to be a smart aleck, I did wonder whether or not the reaction would have been the same if I'd used cold coffee - but I don't think I'm curious enough about it to do an experiment. After an afternoon with a sponge brush and a bottle of bleach, I had this:

Well, that wouldn't do, so after a couple of washings and some fabric paint I ended up with something I really liked, and finished it up.

I am sorry that the pretty patterns I picked out got lost, but now it looks really, truly old, and like it has a good story to tell. The amazing part is that I'm finished on time, in spite of a very hot day when nothing got done, and what shall now be known as "the coffee incident". I hope my swapee likes it, I know that some folks don't appreciate my "creativity".

"....found at the the bottom of an old cupboard"

In an attempt to get back into the swing of things, I joined Round 2 of the Doll Quilt Swap. The phrase above is how my secret swap partner (I'm pretty sure she doesn't visit my blog) described the kind of quilt she likes. Also "not too keen on brights". So a challenge for me!

The quilt pictured above has probably spent its share of time in the bottom of a cupboard, but it's actually just a very old baby quilt that's been in my family since before my birth way back when. I have not manipulated the photo in any way, it looks exactly like this. I'm using it as a point of reference for my quilt. I don't have (and couldn't find) any suitably old-looking fabrics, so I used beautiful, vibrant Japanese prints from the great "Petit Pattern"  books (I'm the proud owner of the whole series), washed them out in Photoshop, and printed them on some Printed Treasures inkjet fabric. Here's what I made:

Another unmanipulated picture...you think they are pale enough? Here's a start of the quilt -

I have a few other cunning plans to make it look even older. It has to be mailed in about a week, so check back soon for the final product. I'm also really excited about joining Bethany's fabric swap, which also has to be done soon. And I'm still doing admin duties for A Month of Softies and this month's theme is "Outer Space"...so this space will be active at least during the month of July.

I tried to answer most of the comments, but I apologize if I missed anyone. Things have been kind of flaky lately.

A hedgehog for St Patrick's Day

Only a day late! My apologies for my lack of posts lately. I had a very cool stuffie almost completed for the latest in my "Asian directors" series, when my cat unraveled it. Then she chewed up a couple of my vignette figures. So my swell toy collection, one of my favorite things in my house, has been packed away. I've been grumpy, to say the least, and not in the mood to work. Add to that some late winter health problems, a ton of work at my day job, and you have no blogging or answering emails from me. Sorry to everyone who left me messages! I do sincerely appreciate all comments. Then my grandma died last week, two days after turning 90. My cousin has blogged very eloquently about it over the last couple of days, and said almost everything I'd like to say. Thanks, Di.

Strange as it may seem, this event seems to have kicked me out of my funk, and I was almost able to finish this picture by yesterday. It still had to go into the box, though.

Taking out the dog(s)

I've been thinking of a boy & his dog vignette for a while. I thought it would be appropriate to post it today for the last weekend of the Year of the Dog. The other dogs are from my grandma's collection of stuff that she passed on to me a few years ago. She had a dog, but I don't think she was ever particularly fond of them. She just had a bunch of small ones.

This is the first piece that I used Stitch Witchery reprodepot carries it) and it works great! Much better than glue, the edges don't fray anymore. I remember having this stuff around as a kid, but I thought they had stopped making it.

Sprout

It's this week's Illustration Friday topic, but it is also the first piece I've made for an idea I have. I have some old embroidered hankies, some pieces of my grandmothers, some  things I've gotten in swaps, as well as some interesting old iron on patterns (which I'll show on a different day), all with a botanical theme. I would like to put them altogether in a hybrid crazy/pieced quilt. I've never seen anything quite like what I'm imagining, but that's never stopped me before. Right now it's just a sprout of a plan.

Valentine Preview

It's not one of my favorite holidays - and it's nearly two weeks away - but I stilled joined Amy's swap and have spent the last few days working on it. I decided to make ATC's that look like little envelopes. I wasn't sure if the horizontal format was OK, but went for it anyway. I embroidered some handkerchief fabric that I got from Reprodepot. It was a little pricey, but I had a gift certificate (thanks Dale!) so I didn't feel so guilty. I like the way they turned out. Check out the flickr set if you want to seem them all finished, as well as some other folks great submissions. We were also tasked with sending "treats" for this round, so I embroidered still more valentine fabric and made these button sets:

7/8"! I'm thinking I need to make something extra large soon, lest my work get so tiny that I have to ship out magnifying glasses to my readers.

How do you like my new bland blog look? I was getting real tired of the old banner, and couldn't think of a new one just now. The fancier one may come back....someday.

Measuring Up

A few people expressed surprise over the past few months about how small my vignettes are in person. Others have asked me to explain the process of how I put them together. Today I'll combine the two. (You can click on any picture to see it larger).

   

Step 1. Transfer your drawing to the fabric. I like to use dressmaker's transfer paper. The yellow works well on white, I use the red for everything else.
2. I add the applique pieces with glue. I use one drop and smoosh it over the whole piece, then press it between a couple of pieces of wax paper for a while. I noticed that Reprodepot has started to sell "Stitch Witchery" - which is an iron-on adhesive - I'm thinking of giving that a try. The glue is really tricky to embroider through, though, so keep that in mind. Now your image is ready to stitch. I find it useful to keep a blue Clover washable marker nearby to draw in missing or pale bits as I go.
3. Embroidery done, use a bit of mild soap on a washcloth and gently rub the image to remove the drawing, and let it dry.

 
4. Make a sandwich of your embroidery, some quilt batting of your desired thickness, and a suitable background fabric. Cut a wide margin around the image, and turn everything upside down and pin gently. Be sure to leave the batting on the outside! (Sorry if that seems obvious, but I've made that mistake more than once...) Pin gently within the image, and sew around it to your desired image width. I usually use about the width of the standard sewing foot.
5. This is the part I'm still looking for a better solution for. I make little stands out of pieces of popsicle sticks. I glue a piece as wide as the entire sewn piece to the fabric, and then cut the fabric to fit on the bottom, and sew it to the piece by hand. It doesn't always work quite right. I've tried sewing the base on first, and then glue the stand, but that can get floppy. The quest for the perfect base continues....

And here's the finished giraffe, along with a handy ruler for measuring purposes. As you can see, the stand was a little too small for such a tall piece. Hope you have fun making your own!

Friendly Family Crafting

Here's a present for my brother that I was working on while I was unintentionally away. They are, of course, the main characters from his show Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. I'm really happy with how they turned out. Craig liked 'em too. The beautiful background is by artist Carol Wyatt. You can see more versions of the house here. I'm partial to the black one, but I thought the snow was more appropriate to the season.

Here's another family project I was working on.  Yes, it's only a tiny vest, but it's the first knitting pattern I ever designed on my own!

Farewell to fall

It was great while it lasted, though it actually ended here about three weeks ago. It's already the wettest November on record, and it's looking to be the rainiest month EVER....in Seattle...I'll say no more.

This little set was fun to make. The branches of the tree are made with spray painted paper cups. They don't bend gracefully outward as much as I would like, but they take the weight of the fabric just fine. I was concerned that they wouldn't. The kid is another "stick figure" like the shark.

This is also a brief farewell from me. I'm off on my super vacation to New York City and Pennsylvania. I'll check in on folks and check my email, but I won't be doing any posting. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!