Wee Wonderfuls

Amy, it's perfect!

Oscar's new fall ensemble arrived today from Amy. He was so excited to be opening his own package, but then a little less excited to actually model the contents.

This hat is so flippin cute I can't take it! And I'm a mean mom because I think this is even cuter!

ha! I definitely need to build his halloween costume around this hat! Because you know the first rule of the halloween costume is it has to ellicit this response.

Thank you so much Amy! The pants are super cute too. I'll send you a picture of him in them soon. And don't worry, he'll definitely wear the hat. He's not a fan of hat wearing for just hat wearing's sake but when it's cold & windy outside he gives in. Thanks so much for the beautiful handmade outfit. Now I just have to have a girl so I can get one of these too! ;)

WR-1138

A new model of the wee robot, WR-1138. Fully equipped with the latest technology. Impenetrable exterior made of felted wool sweater, state of the art control panel is beaded knitting, button on button eyes for superior vision and floppy i-cord arms with glass ball buttons for pincher gripping. Communications-wise his floral wire wrapped in metallic embroidery floss antennae picks up robot signals from around the world.

His first assignment: go out and be swapped for Japanese contraband.

I was as girly as my boy is boy-y

I found this book on paperdolls last week at the library. I brought it home thinking it'd be a great resource for doll clothes designs. What I didn't expect was that it'd be a fast track flashback to the mid 70s. Playing paperdolls was one of my favorite activities when I was a girl but I didn't realize how deeply etched into my brain they were until I saw this catalog of paperdolls. I could immediately identify which sets I had and then specific outfits started coming back to me. Such fun! It's all I can do to keep myself from running over to ebay to recreate my paperdoll collection. Actually if I was going to recreate I might veer a little from what my mom always bought me. For example I had these

but maybe this time around I'd get these!

that's not to say I didn't have my share of barbies, I had this ballerina barbie set

but we had more of Barbie's friends than the superstar herself. Like Dusty, the Sabrina-esque sidekick

What we had the most of were the Gingham Girls. I think we had all of these.

So I guess I'm a Holly Hobbie type of gal on the outside but deep down I want to have shiny shiny curls....

Quilt Projects

I picked out some more fabrics for my Modern Quilt-Along quilt, Book Club. I'm going with a lot of reproduction prints (with a few japanese guys thrown in) in earthy colors. I love these types of fabrics and I'm so happy to have an opportunity to use them now. I also picked out a background fabric that I really dig from this collection, Jo's Vintage Collection by Andover. Unfortunately though I didn't buy enough of it at the quilt shop and I've been hunting all around trying to find it online. I am not having much luck with online fabric shops. I'd really like to be able to find everything I need at one place. I've been back and forth between virginia quilter, equilter, reproduction fabrics and hancocks of paducah trying to find one place to order everything I need with no luck whatsoever. Why is shopping for crafty supplies still so difficult? Where's the long tail for crap's sake.

I've had much better luck with the fabrics for my Christmas quilt. I gave printing onto fabric another shot, this time using the bubble jet set and rinse. It worked really well! I'm using illustrations from a Lois Lenski Christmas book I have. And then to go with, I picked out these 2 yarns dyes, a solid dark red and 2 prints from the Maison de Noel collection. I'm going to use this awesome vintage Christmas fabric Dawn sent me for the background. Now I just need to come up with a design. I was thinking maybe something like this Gee's Bend quilt I really love.

Projects projects!

projects

this was my morning project. what is it? a mop. a mop in a bucket! unheard of around here. I thought it actually looked pretty, all blue and red and bubbly so I thought I'd take it's picture. also I can print it out for the scrapbook with a "see, I clean!" caption

last night I needed an in-front-of-the-tv project and was sad I didn't have any of my mastercarve block left so I got our my new interweave crochet magazine that has an article on deciphering crocheting diagrams and started on this..

and look what Tim unearthed from the basement for me! it's fun to have an ex-art major as a husband.

I've also got 2 quilt projects I'm about ready to start. I think I'll put pics up of those today too. I'm still coming down from the cute off mulitiple posts in one day thing.

Cute Off! over & out

yay -- thanks for playing with me Amy! I definitely feel recharged. I've got a new hobby -- whittling, and I've finally taken the print on fabric plunge (with mixed results) now all I need to do is get out my craft paints and some wood. I think while I'm feeling industrious I'll start working on a list of christmas projects. hopefully all this will be enough to keep me in the craftroom over the next few days instead of sitting in front of the tv fretting.

Karel Capek

Google says Karel Capek is a "Czech author and playwright who popularized the term robot in his 1920 play, RUR: Rossum's Universal Robots." The Japanese shop, peewee seems to this it is a line of super cute illustrated goods. good either way!

japanese linen tape

here amongst other goodies...

Nancy Lorenz

I've had an article on the painter Nancy Lorenz (more here) clipped out of a magazine and up on my inspiration board for forever. I love everything about her paintings. The sparkle and shine, the organic forms and especially the use of an unexpected material -- the mother of pearl. I'd love to someday find a way to do the same to fabric. Wouldn't that be so cool to hae a glimmery shimmery art quilt hanging on the wall. Is my inner 70s disco-child showing?

"Nancy Lorenz uses mother-of-pearl, pigment and, often, layers of shellac in her work, creating a highly refined surface. Gradually shifting in tone and color, her abstractions relate to the Asian landscape painting tradition in their ability to evoke endless space. Lorenz lived in Japan for five years and later worked as a restorer of lacquer antiques. These paintings combine the artist's interest in Asian craftsmanship and materials, while also allowing a more gestural and incidental approach associated with abstract oil painting."

parkhaus

of all the over-the-top cute zakka I see, things like this really stand out to me. I found this bunny, um, tea cozy maybe? in a zakka catalog and then squinted to read it's tag, parkhaus and then was able to find a few more things online here. I just love how simple it is and the thick thick wool.

another simple beautiful wool shape I saw today, this elephant from Sunni