Wee Wonderfuls

Coming Soon... a Make-A-Long Tale

As I've mentioned before, I'd love to some day do a childrens book with my toys. It is so much fun (with a little frustration and anguish thrown in of course) creating personalities and props for the dolls and then staging them in their own real/fake world scenarios. So I had this neat idea for a book that would be part children's book/part craft book. The protagonists are dolls and the tale is told in photographs of the dolls staged in adventures. Sort of a less creepy (you know, with no spanking) Dare Wright type of thing. That's the first half of the book. The second half is comprised of the patterns to make all the things that are in the story -- the dolls, outfits, etc.

I'm loving this idea so much! It's everything I love doing all wrapped up in one big dorky bow, making up stories, plotting tiny props, making patterns. So I thought I'd give it a whirl here on the blog and see how it goes. For this next foray into self publishing we're going to try the PDF route. As much as I love printed matter, this way we won't be held back by turn around time and the installments can flow naturally. So it will just be a paypal and download deal. No reprints necessary! Although... there will be perks and benefits for early adopters :)

I'm really really excited about all the possibilities. Every installment of the story will have a new project or projects that is featured in the action. The first pattern available will be for our hero and heroine and then from there we'll see where the story takes us. There will be outfits, knitting patterns, embroidery design, accessories, hats (that's why no buns), sidekicks, versions of the projects that are for doll and kid both, like matching quilts, oh the list goes on and on. I'm so relieved to finally have the dolls the way I envisioned them so I can share with y'all. I've been jumping all over Tim the past few weeks in an agitated excited sort of way -- how bout this! and then we could this! and wouldn't that be cool! we need to find a tiny thermos, get on that! -- and I think I'm wearing him out.

Please meet our leads, Olive and Archie...

We're aiming for the week after next for these first patterns and have given ourselves a deadline of September 15th. You can sign up on the mailing list to be notified when they're in the shop.

stitchin

It's a rainy chilly day. I think I could actually put on a little sweater. Hallelujah! Perfect day to work on the Fall Stitchette designs. I've got the first guy done.

Stan Studies

Summer Stitchettes are popping up in the cutest ways.. Melanie's quilt, Blair's pillow, Vicki's doll, Carrie's all framed up. I started a Stitchette flickr group here if you want to add any pics.

flea market

We went to the all night flea market last night with some friends. It was pretty disappointing, not many vendors, lots of crap. It was more disappointment to my friend who remembered it's heyday. Oscar was happy though with his right-inside-the-gate purchase of a Tonka Winnebago camper and was very pleased that "there are cars everywhere!" By the end of our shopping he was a slaphappy goofball stomping around with his camper to his ear yelling into it "Can You Hear Me! I'm calling you on my phone!"

Tim took some cool photos (whole set here)...

5 photos from the craft room

trying to figure out the colors for my protagonists

on cloud 9 with orders arriving yesterday from fat quarter shop

and superbuzzy (congratulations mariko and kelly!). here's an answer to a frequently asked question for ya - where do you get your hands on japanese fabric? superbuzzy!

a kitty all my own so when I look up on my shelf for sunshine and buttercup for the one gazillionth time I won't be disappointed

and some old wallpaper found by a neighbor

I had the camera in the craftroom trying to see if there was something I could document and submit for what you make it's next issue documenting artist+process+studio but I came up with nothing. I don't think my process is all that interesting. maybe if I can clean off my work table I can think of something...

and puppydog tails

the prototype for the partner in crime...

the boys

hey thanks for all the great comments on the dolls yesterday!! although now I feel sad for all my rejects. I'm feeling guilty for all the ill-sewn half-made doll bodies that were sacrificed for their stuffing. though, truth is, there's nothing all that cute in my cast off pile right now... just an arm here, a too flat head there and lots of badly sewn bunnies. these two dolls were exceptions in that they were almost finished and almost just how I imagined. the new doll will be very close to these. but enough about the girls, here's the new boy.. space boy.

here is with his goggles on.

and more boys are coming. I've started on a much requested boy embroidery pattern and am working on a little guy version of the doll from yesterday as well. but there I'm kinda stuck. I have this fabric picked out from my stash but I don't have enough of it. I think someone sent it to me but I can't remember and I've searched all over online for the same fabric to buy more and can't find it. if anyone had a lead for me I'd really appreciate it. I have my heart set on these damn dots!

near miss cuties

I had a flurry of sewing activity on Saturday and finished up the doll from Friday. Then I decided she wasn't right and tried something else which turned into this second gal. Her giant hair is awesome (thanks Lyn for the hand dyed wool!) but her body was all wonky. I could tell at a half-finished point that neither of these was what I was going for but I was bound and determined to finish them up anyway instead of just add them to my growing pile of cast off rejects. Now that I have Maggie I'm more motivated to actually finish up the not-quite-right dolls.

ok, back to the drawing board....

in progress friday

working on making some of my 2D ideas 3D...

space boy for the robots and space toys pattern book

new doll to star in an upcoming project

thanks for the well wishes on yesterday's post! and hopefully my real-life mug hasn't scared anyone away. maybe I should make a stuffed toy version of myself to send instead. hmmm...

jinxes and fabric

Ok, here are some more of those photos I mentioned. First, here's my haul from the thrift store yesterday. First lucky thrifting day I've had in a looong time! You can see the latest additions up close in my vintage fabric set on flickr.

And here's one of the self portraits I took yesterday. There is an unsettling amount of me staring out at me from my iPhoto now. yikes. So what's the picture for... I'm going to try my best to not give in to my superstitious nature and actually mention something *before* it happens and not be one bit afraid that I'm jinxing it. (yes, of course my fingers are crossed and crossed hard) What I'm so excited (and nervous about) is that Cutting Edge Magazine is doing a little article on me in their Winter issue. I'm so thrilled about it! And there's gonna be a fun holiday project in there too that I'm really excited about. I hate not being able to talk about things I'm working on because of fear that they won't come to fruition. I'd for sure get online and cry in my soup about it if anything did go wrong so I might as well mention it now right?  So anyway, they wanted to include a picture of me as well so I was working on it yesterday. Tim says they all suck because they're obviously shot by me with my arm out. yeah, yeah. So now we're going to try him taking my picture. This hasn't worked out so well in the past, wish us luck!

oh yeah, and thanks modish for leading me to my new favorite shirt by Sigrid Astrup!

just the one today

I took one gagillion photos today. Scarily most of them were of myself. yikes! And I have many many more pictures to take... had a great thrifting trip today and have a ton of new-to-us kids books to click through. But Boxcar's awake now so I can just get this one up today - thrifted polka dot fabric, finished mini quilt and cutie Polish Joli doll from Joy. I love her so much, thanks Joy!!