Subtle Circles

I’ve been working on a small quilt that is intended to become a wall hanging. I’m trying my hand at subtle. I’m now patiently waiting for those who know me to stop laughing. For those who don’t know me, well, the word subtle and Susan are rarely if ever said in the same sentence. Wishy Washy or gray is not who I am. As Meg Ryan said in When Harry Met Sally, “I like what I like.”

I’m not sure what I’ll do next with this little quilt. Maybe do a little machine work on it with white thread? Tootie wants me to embroider cursive letters as I did on the pillow. Maybe I’ll do both…

I have been fascinated with office supplies as long as I can remember. I designed this pattern using Tootie’s 1st grade handwriting paper and have made 2 versions of it. One is very subtle and slightly on the pink side (pictured above). I didn’t like it at first at all because it IS so subtle especially next to my other fabrics. However, after working with it I’ve grown to really like it. The other I just got the proof of and it is pictured below. I want to make a skirt or a tote bag/laptop sleeve out of this bolder one.

But wait, there’s more. I made a pattern out of college ruled notepaper as well. It’s a subtle too. I really want to make a shirt for myself out of this.

What else should I do? I really really want a pattern made out of newspaper print but there are all sorts of copyright infringements that would come along with it. Maybe I could find a royalty free newspaper? Or newsprint that is over 75 years old in The Commons?

Wandering Around

I seem to have lost a bit of my focus lately to do some work. Instead, I have been wandering around the internet. Here is what has caught my eye.

Paper Pie

Elsa Mora’s miniature paper scenes.

Fab wooden toy.

The Internet of Things. Whoa. It’s hard for me to wrap my brain around this, of course it wasn’t really that long ago when I thought changing the TV via remote control was magic.

Jesus is my subcontractor?

When art goes wrong.

…and the always reliably funny cake-wrecks.

Cute!

Oh. My. Goodness. Is this not the cutest thing in the world or what?! I got a comment this morning from Erin who made this lovely outfit for her daughter (I’m guessing it’s her daughter). She had bought this fabric from me awhile back when I had it available on Etsy. It was so kind of her to let me know she had posted photos of what she made. It really made my day. I love it. She was also gracious to let me post her photos.

The fabric can be purchased directly from my Spoonflower shop. I have made the dolls a wee bit smaller than in the photo. They are @ 3 inches tall.

Gray Days

It’s cold and I’ve got my thrift-find Land’s End comfy sweater on. It’s 2 sizes too big but I can wear at least 2 layers underneath without it being tight around the arms. Not the best look, however. I sorta look like a gray Michelin man.

I decided to throw this pin together this morning using the proof print of my kite fabric. I must have windy Spring on my mind.

opine o’pin

Happy Valentine’s Day! Happy Chinese New Year! Both on the same day this year. We don’t do anything for each other on either day but say Happy (insert holiday)! Monday is Presidents Day! Happy Presidents day! whoo hoo! Go buy yourself a mattress or some towels to celebrate.

Tootie, now that she is a big 1st grader, is into the Valentine thing. She was planning her box 3 weeks ago. She handed me a drawing she did of a dog with arrows pointing to how she wanted the mouth to open to insert the cards. We worked together I made it for her while she played the Wii, ahem. I get a little enthusiastic when it comes to crafty projects. She loved it, although she was a tad embarrassed carrying into school.

Besides working on Stun!Dog! I manage to get a little work done for myself. I just updated my shop with some pins I made using my Spoonflower fabric. Tootie is sporting one of them in the photograph above.

There are 4 available now and I will be adding several more this weekend.

Whoa!

As you can see I changed the template. Although I thought the 4 columns I had before was cool and designey it didn’t work well as a format to showcase the most important stuff…photos of art and Tootie. I wish I could change the size of the fonts but I need to pay for that privilege and alas, I’m cheap. I also don’t know how to remove the sidebar item “places to go!”. It doesn’t show up in my widgets. If I have to have something there I would like to change it since it’s redundant and duplicates the tabs at the top. Hmmmm. I’ll have to redo the header too.

Overall, though, I think this is better. Sometimes more is not more and less is more, right? Simple is good.

Stitching

Another work in progress. This is a shot of my end-table today. I’m making pins to stock the shop.

Wait

A peek at what I do while waiting in the car rider lane for Tootie to get out of school.

This is my newest fabric design, Elementary Handwriting, which is a part of a series inspired by school supplies. I’ve edited the design that is for sale by darkening the background and punching the color up a bit. You can view it here.

3 Up

3 new designs available to purchase in my Spoonflower shop.

You’ve seen my kites before. This is a large print, view it in 1 yard to get a sense of scale.

These last two were inspired by my love of paper and office supplies. I could see having a shirt made of this:

Who doesn’t like Elementary handwriting paper? I got the idea for this while Tootie was practicing her sentences. I think I’m going to embroider a cursive monogram on one of the circles and perhaps make a pillow or leave it in the hoop to hang.

What would you make?

Spinning Wheel

I wish uploading was faster.

The photo above are the proofs I threw together onto one yard of fabric. I’ve spent the day editing and re-uploading. I have a couple more to do but I’ve finished editing Watercolor Chinese Kites, Fish Bowls, Elementary Handwriting, and College Ruled. I’m waiting for a reply from Spoonflower so I can open these designs up for public sale. I’ll update here once they are available.

This is just the beginning. I have several more designs from my proofs that I still need to edit and re-upload. Someone should write a snazzy tune to sing while the upload spinning wheel-o-fortune goes round and round. The tune needs to include a line about the potential 404 ERROR – which I always interpret as “You LOSE! Loser Lose-a-lot”.

Tootie likes her Stun!Dog! fabric (bottom left corner in photo). She wants me to make something out of it for her. I’m thinking pencil case or maybe little bags for her lunch similar to what WeeWonderfuls made.

I also have some photos to process and embroidery to do. Grocery shopping and housework? That too. Time to skedaddle if I want to get what I want done.

Totally unrelated, Jeff Vader is a hooligan. Oh, he pretends to be innocent but I know better.