Artisania

Being sick really seems to help my productivity…

Liam had asked me to make him a stuffed toy a few days ago, and specifically asked for a crocodile. Aaww, this was the first time he ever asked for mommy to make him anything so of course I’d make him one! We sat down and drew out some crocs, and then we both chose the leftover strip of super soft green minkee (from the backing of the sailboat baby quilt). He picked out the eyes, and Maya helped sew the feet.

It was so cute making this with him. He sat right next to his sister as she sewed, and then he insisted on putting the stuffing in by himself. I finished him up as the kids were in bed and Liam found him on his pillow in the “big bed” (aka mommy and daddy’s bed) in the middle of the night. He loves him. His name is Crackers.

I also knitted a hat. One of my aunts is a hataholic and every now and then when I get the urge to knit something instantly gratifying, I’ll knit one up for her. Liam is my hat model, as this woman has the smallest head! LOL!

It’s the spiral hat pattern from the Berrocco free patterns directory. I did pretty well until the decreasing rounds. Ah well, it still looks alright! It’s made from this lovely super soft baby bamboo yarn. I’d take a pic of the other ball I bought if I could remember where the heck I stored it…?

Let’s see, what else?

Oh yeah, I made some progress on that snail stitching I started.

It’s one of the completely adorable free patterns from the Badbirds website. I just love this one! I was inspired by Ezri B’s crayon on fabric technique and dug through the kids crayon pile.  It still needs something over the machine stitching before it get’s the final quilt treatment.

And remember John’s quilt he sent me? Well it has a new permanent spot in my home. 

I just love this quilt! He really has such attention to detail, and it is so well made! Since there was a little bit more light today, more than there’s been in a while, I shot some more pics of it, and the lovely extras he sent along with the quilt.

Aren’t these tags just amazing? I can’t wait to use them!

Ahhh, life is good!

I happened across this lovely meme over at kootoyoo, and even though thursday has come and gone, I’ve decided to play along too!

So here’s  what’s on my desk tonight:

Let’s see…. there is the gorgeous handmade linen bag from Katy, which is full of her delicious liberty fabrics for her Sew Connected 2 block.  Then a little piece of embroidery, a trial for what might turn into a mini quilt for another swap. Oh yes, I’ve been playing around with designing fabrics lately and you can see a bit of what I’ve been mucking about with on my laptop.

And in behind it all is a glimpse of my favorite painting by an artist whose signature looks like “grantu” . It’s a tad strong to hang in my living room at the moment, so it sits on the windowsill for me to savour every time I sit at my desk. I love it!

Sick.  Fortunately, I don’t get sick often so I’m trying to find some way to be one with the golf balls in my throat.

Last week was full of crafty, creative fun however!

John received his swap package – hooray!! I had so much fun with this project and I admittedly I got a tad carried away with the extras. Well look, the man has 3 children and a crafty wife – from whom he’s commandeered the sewing machine – how could I not put a little something for everyone?

So this is my portrait of John. He’s really been in to Japanese fabrics, and quilting techiques so I went with a Japanese theme.  I researched the proper Kanji symbols for his name and drew them out in Corel draw, along with my rendition of one of the funny faces he posted on his blog a while back, in the ancient suibokuga style Japanese brush painting.

I used tiger fabric in the border because he was born in the year of the tiger, and then I chose the prettiest Japanese fabric I could find for the backing to reveal his passion for beautiful, feminine fabric.

Kanji translation:

Black – “John” “King of Kindness”

Red: “Artist Sonja”

The flower pin is my very first attempt at a kanzashi style Geisha flower.

Lets see, I made the robot for his son, the two flower bracelets/hair elastics for his twin girls, and then I folded two fat quarters of geisha girl fabric origami style. Then snuck the rest in there!

 And then I received his package! So much fun, I love it all! The quilt is already hanging in my bedroom.

Thank-you so much John!!

And now the project that was all consuming last week and finally came to fruition on Sunday. We shot all the footage for Mom’s video! My first directing experience and I have to say it went really smoothly! I’m still in shock over the whole thing and now there is a terabyte hard drive sitting on my desk. I’m literally squirming here, dying to see the files, but I need a certain software which the hubby has yet to purchase and install. Oh, the suspense is brutal!! All I can get in to see are these itty bitty super low res icons of the footage….must…be…patient…..oh GET HOME ALREADY DEAR!!

Don’t you?

I’d just like to thank all of you for all of your wonderful comments in my previous posts! I truly hope each and every one of you has a new year of wonderful moments and most excellent luck!

I’ve been trying to respond to everyone, but holy heck I’m already completely swamped with the kid’s school starting and deadlines looming for my first  video directing project, but more of that later!

I love new beginnings. There’s nothing like standing at the precipice of a whole new adventure!  Ready to go places you’ve never been, meet new people, and try new things!

Like piping for example *grin*

Isn’t it purdy? It was my first time making and sewing piping. This is a sneaky peak of  the mini quilt I made for John in the mini quilt swap on flickr.  The theme this round was words. I’m just finishing up the little extras and it’ll be on it’s merry way to North Carolina.

Here are a few more snickity sneeks:

I also have beautiful plans for the  drool worthy batiks I’ve recieved in the Sew Connected 2 swap. It’s just calling for something deliciously feminine.

Another new thing I’ve already tried this year is making a body double paper tape sewing form of my future sister in law.

Introducing Anna Llama the body double. She isn’t stuffed or properly finished off. I’m actually still contemplating doing it over again. You see it turns out that I bought the entirely wrong kind of paper tape. What I wanted was the packing tape that you need to wet and as it dries it turns nice and hard. This stuff was laminated and is still having one heck of a time staying stuck to itself. It also didn’t get her shape as bang on as I’d like it to be. *sigh* This was 3 hours of wrapping on New Years Day. I’m still undecided as to whether I need to inform my brother’s fiance that I need to wrap her up again. *giggle* It was  totally a “getting to know you” moment for us LOL!

For those interested I used this tutorial.

Oh right, the video project. On January 18th, we are shooting an educational video for my Mom. It’ll be my first go at directing, art directing, and editing. I’m nervous and excited and I really need to get those storyboards done this weekend! Ack!