Wee Wonderfuls

Thanks Kim!

My flickr group co-admin Kim and I did a little vintage fabric swapping. I hope she's as happy with her package as I am with mine. She sent me so much amazing stuff!

this beautiful vintage apron

pretty buttons and vintage fabric - what could be better!

I love these little prints so much. They're so delicate and the slightly muted colors are beautiful. This is why I love vintage/antique fabric.

and Kim was so thoughtful to indulge my current obsession with folky prints

These German/Dutch/Folk prints are so appealing and comforting to me. Guess they remind me of imagery from my childhood. Not that I grew up in the Alps or anything but they remind me of my wooden music box, the wallpaper at my Grandma's house, the illustrations of my Betsy Tacy and Tib books by Lois Lenski and my favorite christmas ornaments. I'd really love to make a quilt out of all the folk art style prints I've collected. Something traditional and homey as well as modern. Something equally at home in Carl Larsson's house or a Neutra house. Maybe something with this great yellow. Need to get my sketchbook out!

Thanks Kim!!

Chicago in HO scale

What a fun day so far! Oscar and I got to go downtown to the Museum of Science and Industry with a neighbor. It was so exciting to watch Oscar discover the model train exhibit. We're a model train family so we've been especially excited for him to see this amazing exhbit, The Great Train Story. Oscar is his father's son and was shaking with excitement to see all the little cars and trucks and buses and TRAINS. I had to hold him up so he could see and he kept trying to kick off my body with his legs and hurl himself into the exhibit. It was a relief to take him over to the interactive kids exhibit where he could actually touch things. They had so much neat stuff we didn't have time to see, the robot toys and a new video game exhibit and the super creepy Body Worlds. Need to get back there soon!

Hopefully his escape efforts wore him out and he'll take a big fat nap. I'm in the middle of pressing and cutting fabric to send out. And when I'm done with that I need to be getting back to my bunnies. Of course after checking in on all my weblogs I have a sudden urgent need to drop everything and make myself a new wallet like the super SUPER cute one Molly Chicken made (even cuter than the kkomegii inspiration she pointed to!) um Kim, would this be a "softies pouch"?  ewwwww

Lilian

With her finishing touches (her belt and shoes) complete, Lilian was ready to hit the town today. Of course, if you're hanging out with Oscar and I Oscar and me (sorry Mom)that means going to the playground. Thought she was going to sit the whole morning out on the bench watching but it turns out she's a tree climber.

She's white flannel with some of the japanese fabric Molly sent me as a dress and a wool felt belt and collar. Lilian is sporting the latest in Wee Wonderfuls footwear - the new button up mary janes. Ok, on to the next bunny doll (and a few bears too). Hopefully I'll have better luck with tutorial photos this time around.

The Modern Japanese Print--An Appreciation

I found this beautiful book at the library a few weeks ago, The Modern Japanese Print-- An Appreciation by James A. Michener. Some brilliant librarian had pulled it and put it up on the display shelf for me to spot on my way running through the nonfiction floor with Oscar. Here's the scoop on the book from the inside flap...

"Originally published in 1962 in a limited edition of 475 copies, The Modern Japense Print--An Appreciation soon became a collector's item. Included in the folio-sized volume were ten original woodblock prints by contemporary Japanese artists. The idea for this unique presentation had originated with James Michener who hoped to assist this little known group of dedicated men achieve wider recognition."

This reprint from 1968 has the original prints produced in full color plates. Each print has commentary by Michener, artist bio, technical details and an artist commentary.

Lamp by Maekawa Sempan


artist's comment: "Autumn is my favorite season, particularly early autumn when the first cool days come around. In this print I fetched from my childhood memories of autumn days one of the lamps that we used to use and then perched an autumn insect on it."

Mountaineer in Snow by Azechi Umetaro


artist's comment: "Here I tried to express not only the natural beauty of mountains but also the relationship of man and mountain."

Winter Composition by Iwami Reika


the print: "Four plywood blocks of basswood and launan. Printed on torinoko paper in three japanese-style pigments plus sumi ink, with mica and gum arabic mixed into the black and red. Two impressions for the gray background and one impression each for the black, the thick red, and the thin red."

up and running...ragged

Ok, back to normal...the whir of 3 a/c's and 4 fans, the wailing of a baby who was completely thrown off his schedule and refuses to nap, a near empty fridge because everything melted. Thanks ComEd. I'm sure this little break will be reflected in my monthly bill right?

When everything crashed to a halt on Sunday I was working on my bunny doll tutorial. I thought I was doing well but have since realized my photos did not turn out well...

Also my pattern needs tweaking and I had to resew the face because I forgot to allow for 3D. That'd make for a great tutorial.. "sew on eyes, sew back to front, stuff, get your seamripper out, carefully remove eyes, rub flannel so you can't see where old eyes were sewn on, start over, get frustrated, take a chocolate break, reposition facial features and sew on again." So I'm going to start another tutorial doll. Soon I hope. First the finishing touches on this one and maybe photos tomorrow? I'm also working on a little eye candy for this afternoon. I'm hoping Oscar takes a I-haven't-had-proper-sleep-in-two-days super long make-up nap!

ka-PAM

that was the sound our transformer made as it blew out last night taking away our electricity. we've taken shelter at an air conditioned refuge (grandma and grandpa's). thanks to everybody who emailed about buttons! I'll get back to y'all as soon as I'm returned to my normal connection.

buttons

Tim took some very cool photos of some of my buttons last night for the flickr group. (see rest of photos here)

Pulling out buttons for Tim to photograph made me realize how woefully low I'm running on cool buttons. Anybody have any fun buttons they'd like to trade for fabric? If so shoot me an email (hillarylang at gmail dot com).

Christmas in July

Look at the fun package I just got in the mail from Dawn. She's got my number! I was just remarking to Tim that it's July -- time to start buying ornaments. We have a deal, we can get 1 in July, 2 in August, 3 in September, etc. And now these fabrics have me dreaming of Christmas quilts.

You may think I'm crazy but it is going to be 101 degrees in Chicago tomorrow. So excuse me while I go sit directly in front of the air conditioner with it on high and play with my new Christmas fabric.

does anyone remember this book?

I had a major flashback when I spotted it at the library. Caps for Sale told and illustrated by Esphyr Slobodkina, original copyright 1940. I totally remember reading this book as a kid. It's an odd little story about cap swiping monkeys. What I really love are the illustrations, especially the colors. (no surprise there).

Lewis, the monkey of sock

Here's my monkey for July's Month of Softies. I had a good time with this guy. Sock Monkeys are fun! Thanks Claire!

I picked out the socks in the mens section at the Target. There are pretty plain but I liked the gold stripe. I noticed later that they have Ls & Rs on them. The L ended up behind his left ear and that's how he got the name Lewis. I made him a little t-shirt from some cowboy Munki Munki jersey fabric. The collar is from a vintage toddler's shirt that I had cut up for the fabric. His stylin cord short pants have a hole in the back for his tail and an elastic waist. Sneakers are wool felt, embroidery floss and elastic and his socks are an old pair of Oscar socks modified to fit.

Oscar, of course, is not very interested in Lewis. Although he did say "monnka" and gave him a kanga kiss.

All Lewis needs now is a little cowboy hat!