crafty mcgee

echidna power!

Echidnas - like hedgehogs, but better, 'cause they have a funny nose! Like many goofy animals, they're Australian.

This fabric is just a test print of the stuff I'll have up in the shop. I managed to lose 9 yards of Kona cotton. It's somewhere around here, but I spent a day looking for it to no avail. Must be the leprechauns, because my house just isn't that big. The print above is on bleached muslin, which looks OK, but isn't the sturdiest fabric in the world for quilting and such.

I've got one more new fabric design to finish, and then I'll start into production for the shop. I also have another idea, but need to do some tests before I show it off.

Politics has been keeping me busy (or busier than usual, I guess). I didn't make it to the next delegate level, but given the fact that there were only 23 people chosen out of about 218 that wanted to speak for Obama, I can't say I'm surprised or particularly unhappy that I didn't get picked. Public speaking is not one of my strengths, and he'll be well represented by others. There's still plenty to do nevertheless.

I got a couple of solid working days in my garden, too, until - get this - it started to SNOW this weekend. Rassin' frassin' climate change...

Which is all just my roundabout way of saying thanks for stickin' around, there's more to come - and if it's not too timely, it's just because there are more things to do and ideas in my head than waking hours in the day. See ya soon!

the most wonderful day of the year

that's right, Pangolin Day is here again! Though I only received the usual number of comments for that post (I'm sorry to say I forgot about it last year), I received a whole bunch of emails from folks who'd seen my pangolin stuffie saying that pangolins were their favorite animal. Who knew? I guess that's why they have their own day .

I used non-gocco fabric inks for the first time on this print. (The gocco fabric ink color choices are extremely limited.) The Versatex (on the pangolins) worked fine, but the Pebeo ink on the leaves was too runny. I will print a better batch to sell in my etsy shop when I open in January - yes, you heard it here first!

Have a swell day, everyone. Reflect on the greatness of pangolins, and if you're in southeast Asia, perhaps you can take a neighborhood pangolin out for a nice meal.

Flying Squirrel Jamboree!

After last week's little adventure, it was a real treat to have a project turn out exactly the way I planned. Here's the fabric I printed up for Bethany's fat quarter swap. The base is gocco printed, and the colored dots are from a sacrificed sponge brush. I've always found it a little tricky to print fabric with the gocco - the fabric tends to stick, and you have to put consistent pressure on the stamp printer to get the image even. But then I had a real light bulb over the head moment -

my knitting blocking board! I lay down a couple layers of newspaper, pin the fabric down, and stamp away! The board is made of fabric, so it has just enough give that the image always comes out even. Another plus, it's 48" wide, so it's simple to print an entire yard of fabric lengthwise. To finish the width, I just slide out the top layer of newspaper and move the fabric. It's the perfect printing surface. I love it when I find multiple uses for things. I've always felt a tad guilty for buying that board, since I only use it a few times a year. This will no longer be the case!

And because the gocco is so great, I was able to clean off the screen and print up some more colorful cards. The fabric ink doesn't come in so many colors, and I really wanted the graphic element of the circle in the fabric design. So far, the only other fabric I've seen for this swap is Mimi's (you need to scroll down a bit), but if hers is any indication, some great stuff is on the way!

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.

secret identity

I got all of the printing done that I wanted to do this week. The piece on the bottom is some fabric I hand stamped for Moki's swap. I'm happy with the design, but the thin vinyl that I used had drastically unpredictable ink retention properties. As you can tell, some of it came out fine, and other spots faded away to nothing, all with the same ink application to the stamp itself. I like this technique, but I'll try to find something a bit more porous to use in the future.

The other items are some labels for my knitted items, and my fall calling cards that I use for swaps and such, both done with my trusty gocco. (This is the standby ribbon. The ribbon I bought special never showed up.) I thought this would be an appropriate post to talk about my "logo". It's been on my banner the last few times, it was on my spring/summer cards, and I use it for my Flickr badge. It's part of this image:

It comes from an old children's book compilation that I bought in England many years ago. Unfortunately, even though the artist's initials are on the drawing, their name is not listed anywhere that I can find. Too bad, because I'd love to give them credit. I use this picture because it reminds me of me when I was a kid.

it's....it's.....

the....pony....quilt...[insert sounds of gasping and sputtering here]. Geez! This took long enough - it's been hanging over my head like a big pink cloud all year. As you can see, I didn't follow my original plan at all. Not only did I have a heck of a time finding fabric, I got all inspired by Lisa's pillows, and then discovered that the printed piece itself was very uneven. I spent a while thinking about how to even in out, but about a week ago I decided to throw precision to the wind and just go for it!

I wanted to put a paisley on the back to suck up some of the weird quilting on the front, but ran into the color problem again. So I chose tone over color, and found this great seventies-inspired Amy Butler print:

It doesn't match at all, but it blends. The stitching and piecing are really wonky, but after seeing a mini Gee's Bend exhibit, and reading Kim's post, I don't mind that a bit. It's finally done, and I like it a lot. It looks like a fairy tale.

illustration friday: jungle

I had originally wanted to print the drawings on fabric, and sew it together as a little quilt, but decided it would take too much time. So I scanned the fabric, manipulated it slightly, and added the drawings. I think I like this better than my original idea.

fabric friday: the end of "in the beginning"

As most of you Seattlites know, "In the Beginning" one of the greatest fabric stores around, is closing their doors on April 8. As a birthday present to myself, I went shopping at the big clearance sale. I made an effort to stay away from greens (I've got too much), and picked things that I hadn't seen at the web shops or other stores. I got half a yard of everything here - too much for one picture, so they are sorted loosely by color.

The last picture is a couple of sets of fat quarters, so there were some unavoidable greens. It makes me happy just looking at this fabric and thinking up things to make! Here's a bonus munki munki fabric from Reprodepot - I love this fabric so much I'm going to design something around it!

I don't know....a quilt, maybe? Pillowcases? Something with a "Team Zissou" vibe? I'm thinkin' about it. Have a great weekend everyone!

fabric friday: made by me!

 

Here's my first foray into fabric printing. I used my gocco fabric stamper and made some fabric for my pony quilt. I'm pretty happy with it. The colors are not exactly what I wanted, but it was tough with only five colors of fabric ink in the palette. I got all overzealous and cut the strips for my quilt before I had photographed it. D'oh!  But that helps me present an object lesson in what can go wrong if you don't think out your printing pattern ahead of time. As you can see, there are a couple of strips where there is almost nothing. Very wasteful! I got about a quarter of a yard printed before I ran out of ink, for those of you thinking of trying this yourself. I've already got some more fabric ideas floating around in my head, with a few lessons learned under my belt.

FREE STUFF! I made about a dozen patches from the test fabric and the other odd bits. I'm giving them away on a first come, first serve basis. If you'd like one, send me an email  (there's a link on the top left sidebar) with  your snail mail address and I'll pop one in the post to you! Be sure to put "pony patch" in the subject line so I can spot it!  The patches are all spoken for and off to good homes. Thanks everyone!!