Bird and Little Bird

The Random Post (Part Two)

We had a pleasantly busy weekend, filled with all kinds of the good stuff: walks in the woods, a trip to the library, lunch out, the aquarium with friends.  And, perhaps most importantly, some solid pajama time at home.  I did get in some good crafty time as well, but didn't get anything finished in time to get decent day-lit photos. 

A few other things:

- I am loving the art from Amy Blackwell, most especially this.  I know that the "no more room for art" discussion is ongoing on this blog.  It is perhaps second in frequency only to "I eat too many cupcakes and like it a lot" as a favorite topic.  But... I just so happen to be hatching a plan to address this problem and thus be able to buy more art.  More on that later this week.  

- If you or yours are at all inclined towards the enjoyment of birds, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website is a virtual smorgasbord of birding fun.  We just so happened to have a strong need to know the approximate size of cardinal eggs around nine o' clock this morning and found that information and much, much more here.  An awesome resource for teachers as well as parents and of course, nerds like myself.  

- I keep stumbling upon the pattern for the Village Frock (from the talent behind Sugar City Journal) but it always seems to be sold out.  I checked again this evening and scored; in stock and now on it's way to me!  Of course, it only goes up to size six and since I normally avoid garment sewing like the plague, Mariam may well be six years old before I actually get the thing stitched up.  She's on the small side for her age though, so I think we'll be good...

There it is.

I will preface this by saying that I know that the polka-dot obsession probably represents some lack of mental flexibility on my part, or something of that nature.  That being said, I will also be honest and just out with the fact that part of pretty much every day of mine is spent doing a mini-search via the internets for the elusive and much loved Lecien polka-dot fabric.  Just a few minutes here and there, but all in hopes that I'll come across some, even if it's just scraps.  This is good stuff, folks.  Probably the best. 

It was readily available about this time last year, and I bought a bit, thinking that I could always get more later.  And then when I needed more?  You guessed it.  It existed nowhere on the planet other than maybe Australia and then the shipping costs were enough to make even me think twice.  So, when I opened this week's update from the Purl Bee, I let out a little audible sound of happiness.  It's back.  In many colors.  With different sized dots.  In large quantities.  My patience (let's call it that, shall we?) has officially been rewarded.

Caught Up.

As of today, I am officially caught up on shop work.  I finished up this fox for a custom order over the weekend, using some scraps of Amy Butler fabric that I had left over from some projects I did a couple of years back.  I had forgotten about them completely but they were rediscovered during the process of digging through my fabric stash looking for something that might fit the color scheme of the nursery that this fox is going to live in.  

Now I just have to work on getting all these baby gifts finished.  So, tonight is all about camping out on the couch in my p.j.s and getting some serious slipstitching done.  Yeah, I might have to throw a bit of leftover Halloween candy into the mix too...

Printing Fabric.

The list of projects on my "to do" list may now have officially exceeded my ability to find the time and energy to get them done.  This actually turns out to be a positive thing because it somehow motivates me to find little pockets of time during the day to do a bit of crafting, even if a bit is all that I manage.  So, this morning, between fishing Mariam's stuffed animals out of the bathtub and stopping by the farmer's market in order to continue supplying the new family obsession with roasted cauliflower, I did some fabric printing.  I used the stamp attachment for my gocco and some ivory colored linen that arrived earlier this week.  The image is from this book, which I should say, I like very much. 

This is another project that needs to be gender neutral (read: it is baby related so you won't get to see the whole thing until after it's been received on the other end), so I decided to use yellow ink.  The yellow gocco fabric ink is pretty bright, so I mixed it with some white to give it a slightly softer color before printing. 

The original template in the book is a lot larger than the size that I used.  I needed to shrink it down to make it fit on the size screen that the gocco uses, which definitely got me thinking about the idea of printing on larger screens in the future.  It is at this point in this post that we can all scroll back up and reread the part about how I have way more project ideas than time...

 

I did a simple repeat of the image across the bottom of the fabric.  I didn't overlap the flowers at all, but in retrospect, I maybe wish that I did.  I don't know.  My whole vision of the finished project revolves around having it be very clean and simple, so I wanted the printing to be minimal but bright and colorful. 

I'm hoping to have the fabric happily sewn into its destined project by tomorrow or the next day.  If I can get it mailed off this week, I'll post pictures as soon as it is opened on the other end. 

Unintended Uses.

Even though I've done it a number of times before, I still kind of can't get over the coolness that is freezer paper stenciling.  I'm aware that Reynold's seems to think that I should wrap large slabs of meat (for freezing indefinitely) in their fun plastic coated paper.  I, however, am using it to apply rows of little elephants to a quilt top that I'm making.  I used a craft punch to make the first row and ironed it on.

A bit of fabric paint.  I debated the color (perhaps excessively) because I want the quilt to be gender neutral when it's finished.  Then I decided that light blue can be gender neutral.  Especially when the rest of the quilt has a good mix of color; pinks, greens, oranges and a little yellow.  

 And there you have it.  Small elephants in a line.  They still need to dry (the color will be a little different after they do) but you get the idea. 

 

Foxes for Girls.

I received a custom order recently for a fox that would be suitable for a baby girl recently born into a family full of boys.  You know, something with a bit of girly-style pink.  I gave this just a moment's thought and decided that Mr. Fox is absolutely comfortable with his stylish masculinity and that he is probably also totally on board with the fashion industry's push to bring back pink for guys.  So, here you have it: Semi-Fantastic Mr. Fox in pink and purple, with a bit of the customary blues. 

Echino.

My sister came for a visit this weekend and brought along a few yards of home decorator weight Echino (she lives within easy distance of Purl on public transportation) with the idea of making one of the gum drop ottomans from the Amy Butler pattern.  I immediately began lobbying for possession of the leftovers, and managed to score enough to make a few new  covers for the throw pillows on my couch.  I know for a fact that the last time I made new pillow covers was June of 2008 (because I blogged it here), so I think it was time for an update.  I went pretty basic with these; just using some simple patchwork so that I could incorporate a few different fabrics while still getting a finished product fairly quickly.  I do like a project that I can finish in just a couple of hours.  Plus, it's good to have a little something that I can show here to represent all the time that I've been spending with needle and thread.  I have been doing a ton of sewing lately, but much of it has been either custom orders for the shop or things that are intended as baby gifts and thus, must be kept secret for the time being.  I've been digging deep into the craft book archives for some of the baby things that I'm working on, so when I do finally get to do some show and tell, it should be fun.  Well, for me at least. 

Some of What We're Reading...

 

There have been a few new additions to our bookshelves over the last month or two, and I thought that at least a few of them are worth sharing.  First up, Sew Green by Betz White.  I was a bit late to the party on this one; I saw any number of awesome projects from this book documented in the blogiverse before I committed to buying it myself.  It's kind of spectacular, actually, and although I haven't yet made any of the beautiful projects, I spend a lot of time flipping through the pages of this book and thinking about how I'll distract the hoards of college students in the local thrift shop so that I can score the good sweaters for felting.  I really want to make the draft busting tree stump thing.  It's genius. 

Apples for Jam is another book that I had my eye on for a good long while before I bought it.  Actually, it was on my Amazon wishlist (which I basically just use to help me remember what I'm interested in since I have no attention span) for a couple of years, and at some point Amazon seemed to think that someone had bought it for me so it disappeared onto the purchased list.  But, no one did.  Or, if they did, I never got it.  So, I guess if you are one of my family members and you did buy me this book and I never gave you a proper thank you, you now know why.  Anyway, we've been cooking out of this book fairly regularly for the last month or so and I absolutely love it.  There are a stunning number of recipes in this book and so far, everything that we've made has been delicious as well as unique and creative.

This book is still in the "eye candy" phase.  It just arrived a few days ago, and I haven't had as much time to look through it as I'd like (we've had a pretty busy few days and I've been absolutely falling into bed at night) but it is a lovely book full of gorgeous projects that I can't wait to get to. 

This is one that I ordered for Mariam when she was home sick from school all last week.  It's apparently part of a series introducing kids to natural habitats and the creatures that live there.  It's a cute little book, perfect for small hands to hold, and has beautiful, colorful illustrations paired with thorough descriptions of animals and insects.  My kid does love thorough descriptions of animals and insects.

nido.

A few days ago, Abby mentioned in the comments on another post here that there is a new fabric and yarn shop here in Burlington called nido.  I made pretty much immediate plans to check it out because, let's face it, I'm a total fabric snob and I have yet to find any place here that comes close to meeting my needs in that department.  I've been continuing to subsist on a diet of Purl, generally via UPS. 

Anyway, in what I think happens to be a really great coincidence, I was having lunch with a friend on Tuesday and making plans to visit nido this afternoon when I got an email from the owner of the store (via the joy that is my iphone).  Funny, no?  So, I went this afternoon to drop off a batch of Bird and Little Bird patterns for her to sell in the shop and to take a look around. Please take a moment to note that you have been spared comprehensive photo documentation of the printing and packaging of the big stack of patterns which went late into the evening last night.  You are welcome. 

I'm currently kicking myself vigorously for not having thought to take my camera along to get pictures of the shop because it is so cute and well put together.  It's in a great old building with brick walls and shiny hardwood floors and there are beautiful sample projects everywhere you turn.  The fabric selection is perfect; lots of Japanese imports and some really lovely upholstery weight options as well.  It's kind of the fabric store of my dreams which is either a really good thing, or a very dangerous one.  I really need to use up some of the fabric that I've got stashed in various corners all around this house if I am ever going to feel remotely justified buying any new stuff.  That being said, I did pick up a couple of mixed fabric packs because I told myself that they were small, interesting, and that they had color combinations that I wouldn't have created on my own.  That makes it okay.  Oh, and I bought some fabric markers, which pleased me to no end because they are Clover fabric markers (my favorite) and I haven't seen them anywhere else locally.  

So, this is a good find.  Very good. 

Shortening My List.

Another custom order for the shop, stitched up, photographed and ready for boxing and shipping (this time to Australia).  Last week was a big shop week and I have definitely been very busy sewing in order to meet deadlines for custom orders as they've been coming in.  Not that you will ever hear me complain about this kind of busy.  No way.  Because it's awesome. 

Dan says that this Ms. Rabbit "looks Australian" and I do not know what this means.  I do know that it is a compliment, however, so I'll take it.