crafty mcgee

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.

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.

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.

Year of the Golden Fire Pig!

Happy 4704! I knitted this guy based on a pattern in this book, out of some out of some yarn in a fiery colorway that just showed up in my stash. I added the wings because not only is this a Fire Pig year, it is also a Golden Year, a most auspicious event that turns up every 600 years or so (like, when pigs fly). I learned this from a commenter on Stephanie's pig post about a month ago. I did a little research on Golden years, and there seems to be a bit of controversy as to whether this is actually one or not. I guess it's easy to lose track after 4500+ years, but it still sounds dramatic! The Pig  force is strong in my family - I am an Earth Pig, my brother Craig is a Metal Pig, and our dad was a Wood Pig. In yet another series of cosmic coincidences, our mom, our brother, Craig's wife, and my son are all Tigers.  It's supposedly going to be a great year for them. Hope so, and hope you all have a great one, too!

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.

Full Moon on Groundhog Day

I could have sworn that's what the calendar said when I blearily flipped over the calendar to the new month this morning. What an evocative phrase! It conjured up visions of true groundhog romance, so I spent the day at work (multitasking while actually working, we're very busy) planning this little image. The guy with the flowers was from last year's post, but I stitched up his sleepy paramour this evening. Shadow or no, they will be sailing away together under the full moon.

Here's the part where I promise (again) to be a better blogger. I realize I'm part of a pretty big crowd caught in the post-holiday slog, but still... Ann Wood made a promise to post every day, and stuck to it! I know better than to set myself for that sure failure, but I hereby pledge that starting on Sunday, and for at least the rest of the month, I will post every other day. I got a new camera and have been itching to put it through its paces, so I can show some photos if nothing else.

One thing I've discovered while blog slacking is that it is impossible to do any kind of detailed work while catching up with Lost on DVD. The story is convoluted, but I can watch foreign films while stitching and keep up! The problem must be the other distractions.

It turns out the calendar only said "full moon" with a moon sign, and "groundhog day" underneath it, and my sleepy eyes added an "n", but it set off an inspiring day (lots of other ideas coming soon). Here's to occasional misreading!

Happy Christmas from a Bad Blogger!

Whoops! I certainly didn't intend for weeks to go by without posting but my trip really threw me off my game. I promptly caught a lingering cold, was trying madly to get the holiday together, and basically just collapsed at the end of the day without even looking at the computer or responding to comments (sorry....). But the image above a big reason why I still keep blogging - it's my Tree of Craft, filled with ornaments from fellow crafters in swaps and such. It's one of my favorite decorations, and I hope it continues to expand until one of these years I'll need a second one. Thanks especially to everyone who I received things from in Amy's ATC and ornament swaps. I got so excited when the box arrived that I hung everything on the tree without first checking for emails. I love everything!

My cousin Di (you'll see why I totally dig my family if you check her post and see what her husband got her for Christmas) tagged me for a "5 things you don't know about me" meme, so here's the holiday version:
1) I still write a letter to Santa every year - on Christmas Eve, and then I burn it (gets there faster that way) It works! That's all I'm sayin...
2) The melancholy Christmas songs: "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", "I Wonder As I Wander", "We Three Kings" (the list is pretty vast) put me the most in the Christmas spirit.
3) The only thing that can make me grumpy this time of year are the people who kvetch about how much they hate all of the decorations and such.
4) I really, really miss snow at Christmastime. In the 25 years I've lived in the Northwest, I've only had two white Christmases.
5) I wish all of you and your families whatever kind of Christmas you dream of in your heart of hearts. OK, that's cheating, you knew that already....but I mean it!

Back to Crafting

Right back to business with no real vacation update, except to say I had a marvelous time. You'll just have to take my word for it, because I forgot my camera!!!! I couldn't believe it either, but c'est la vie. While vacationing I worked on these eight tiny reindeer that I printed with my gocco before I left:

They are embellished with embroidery, and can either be hung, or stand (my preference) with the aid of the little cards. Five of them were sent of to Amy's fabulous ornament swap. I've got a couple left to trade for other ornaments, so drop me an email if you're interested. Gone already! You guys are fast! Amy was concurrently running a Christmas ATC swap, and here's my contribution:

I like to refer to them as "how to turn felt into cardboard". After I embroidered them, I printed the swap info on inkjet fabric, and glued them together with some watery glue. After a night on the heater vent they were nice and stiff. I should have tested it first, because I actually didn't know if it would work, but they turned out fine.

Thanks to everyone involved in and visited during our trip. It truly was a wonderful time.

Happy Halloween!

Here are the only two creatures I finished of the big monster mash-up I had planned. Even more than usual, I am suffering from too many ideas and not enough time. I think there's a bit of cache overload happening in the ol' brain. The shrinky dink skeleton took three times as long as I planned, even though I knew going in I was shrink plastic challenged. I envisioned a whole chorus line of these guys. The mummy is good - I got to use up more cheesecloth. But I will leave it to all of your wonderful imaginations to add in all of his monster pals. With that thought in mind, have a great holiday, and don't eat too much candy!

Hurrah! Or, more crafting on the way

I haven't fallen off the planet yet! I'm working on a couple of Halloween-type projects (I know, it's only a week away), doing lots of knitting (more about that later), gardening (great weather), and to top it all off, works been really busy, so I've been needing more veg time in the evening. Good thing I thrive under pressure! But first of all, look what arrived in the mail today:

This stunning selection of bird ATCs from Kristen's swap. The artists from the top left are Michelle, non blogger Jaci (the rest of the set can be seen here), Mimi, Theresa, Dorie , and one from Kristen herself!  I couldn't be happier with them, they are all so beautiful! Thank you Kristen!

Knitting? Well I spent most of the weekend on a design project that I may be able to show in the future.  It was the first pattern I ever made myself. Yay for learning new things - it came out really well. Also, I am trying to knit a couple of sweaters and a hooded scarf in time from my Thanksgiving trip to New York City, so I can be both fashionable and warm. Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, my brother's show, will have a float in the Macy's parade this year! So we are all going back to see it in person, and I'm hoping to hook up with some friends from school. Then we are going to PA to visit family (like my cousin Diane). I am so looking forward to this trip!

I also gocco'd up my Halloween cards. They didn't shrink for the blog so well, but they are my first registration prints ever! I cut a few them down into ATC-size pieces for Amy's swap. I am especially fond of the squirrel of doom in the second card. So you see why I haven't had time to post!