Catch up and breathe

My goal of finishing is.... well, not finished. This weekend was one of those weekends where you cover your head and hope the ceiling doesn't fall on you because hey, everything else is shitty so it only makes sense that the house will implode all over your face in a shining example of "Eff you! Love, The Universe."

Okay, I'm being dramatic just a tiny bit. But it was still a fairly stressful weekend. Dane went on the beach trip that our group of friends goes on every year. I couldn't go last year because it was scheduled for the very weekend of my wedding shower (which ended up sucking ass anyways because only four people showed up. I was feeling very loved that day).

This year, I was very prepared to go, and at the last minute felt like crap in a flaming bag on someone's porch being stamped emphatically with no concern for staining of the loafers. However, as I understand it, the beach this year was incredibly windy, the zipper on our tent broke, and Dane woke up covered in six inches of sand. They all had to dig out their shoes, and Tanya told me last night that getting sick and not going was the luckiest thing that's ever happened to me. I don't have sand in unexplainable orifices, which is always a plus.

So, here is the finished owl art quilt. Isn't it beautiful?


(Go here for a larger picture.)

I clipped the wings down, since they were a little overpowering when they covered most of the lower body. I used free-motion embroidery to "paint" in the eyes and feet (here's a freaky little picture of demonish owl eyes) and to detail the quilt. There was no batting used in this quilt, just a backing fabric, since I knew the stitching would get rather heavy. I also intended for this piece to be frameable.

Also, below are the scans I promised from the book I made for Tanya's birthday. I very simply decorated several pages of a blank journal with pages from an old Biology book, images of some of Tanya's favorite things, some pictures from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee since Tanya likes those comics as well, watercolor crayons, stamping, and some other random decorating techniques. A bit of monoprinting, some stitching, a bit of white tulle, and a very lovely drawing of a human skull on the cover, and she got her book and loved it. The idea was that she could get inspiration from, and add to, the altered pages, then do some creative exploration of her own on the other blank pages in the book.





So, after such successful projects, I have little squirrels and hedgehogs running around in my head, and I shall have to immortalize them in fabric as well. But, alas, that is another day, or possibly another century.

I'd love to hear what y'all think. I welcome praise, criticism, insults, and small furry mammals in cages (possibly a guinea pig).

So, it's about time I posted my first doll, made about six months ago. I must admit, I'm really not that happy with how this doll turned out, but I know that this is a learning experience, and already I've learned loads from this first creation. I know a lot of stuff that I DON'T want to do next time.



I like the fabric I used for her lower legs and how well I matched up the stripes, the fabric used for her skirt and the green lace trim, and the beads used for her joints. I don't like the type of joint used for her elbows and knees, and the fabric used for her bodice and overskirt.



I don't like the fabric used for her entire body. It's too washed out and that's why I had to paint her face so she wouldn't look like a vampire, and that's why her face doesn't match her body. I also think her eyes are way too small, and I know the face sculpting is really crappy.



This is probably the only thing I do like about this doll. I came up with a really nifty way to give her Shirley Temple curls. First, I sketched her hairline directly onto the muslin, then stitched down a length of yarn, coiling it around from the center of the back of her head, and covering her scalp up to the sketched hairline. Then, I strategically stitched long lengths of yarn in specific places so the curls would cover most of her head. For the last part, I cut lengths of very thin copper wire, attached to the top of each length of yarn, wound the yarn around the wire, covering it, then securing the end of each one. After that, it was just a matter of curling the bits of yarn-covered wire around a skewer and pulling on the resulting curls for the appropriate length. I feel quite proud of this little method I cooked up, and that's probably one of the few reasons I haven't gotten frustrated and thrown this doll out.

I know, I should learn from mistakes and keep my early work around to remind me of my progress, but I often have a sense, going into a project, that I will naturally excel, since I kind of DO naturally excel in most things. And when I produce something less than what my brain thought it would be, I get rather discouraged and embarrassed.

But then, George Lucas was unhappy with more than half of the original Star Wars.