Oops!- See ya next week.

In all of my excitement to go to the cottage for a week, I totally forgot about WIP Friday. I will make up for lost time when I get back. I'm bringing many in-progress projects with me in hopes of making them all a bit more complete.

Until next week. :)

my WIP was a WIP

In honour of Work In Progress Friday, I am now posting my WIP on Saturday. Is that allowed? I've always got a million projects on the go. This something I just started working on. A WIP in every sense. It is the beginning of a wallhainging about food. Not just any food though, all the foods that I should steer clear of or avoid completely. I've got digestive problems and this little quilt is my way of working through it. Some inexpensive therapy. At the moment he food is just construction paper(it will be appliqued fabric in the completed piece), I was testing out the idea of all these foods emerging from the bowl. I'm still not sure where it is going yet.



This is the border for the quilt.

Obsessed? or Insane?

Thursday near the end of the day at work I decided that I wanted to make myself a mouse pad. After putting up my sewing shrine, I felt like my desk needed even more jazz. The package I received from Kim couldn't have come at a better time. She'll notice that in the picture of my swapping goodies, I didn't include everything. And that is because I used some of it that night.

The colours of my favourite pieces in the package got me going on this design. It finally gave me an idea for using some of this very neat penguin fabric i have. I might go back and get the flamingo stuff too. :)



Because I have an optical mouse, the little bit of texture to the mousepad makes no difference at all. Now we need one for our computer at home. Perhaps a bit more subdued.

Swapping Goodness

I participated in my first swap with a fellow creative blogger and I am so happy with the results! After oohing and ahhing over items received by Kim of Dioramarama in a swap with Stephanie from Little Birds, she suggested we do our own swap. We set some criteria, (which neither of us followed) and sat patiently by the mailbox waiting for goodness. And boy was it worth the wait. Such beautiful fabrics, nothing like what I already have, but all wonderful. It is so neat how someone else can pick fabric for you and even though it is nothing you would gravitate towards in the quilt shop, you absolutely love it.

Yet another ode to sewing

Last week was absolute mayhem, I was having trouble focusing on the simplest of task, breaking everything and just overall having a rough week. In hopes of regrouping I made it a long weekend and took today off. Got some cleaning done in the sewing room and made this for my corner at work. My workspace is very bland, so I’m trying to inject some of my weird quirky craftiness. Not sure what my coworkers are going to think. Hoping they get the intended gaudiness :)

I really like making these things. The best part being that I get to make use of all of the embellishments I’ve been hoarding but not using. Not to mention they take a lot less time than any of my quilting projects. :) I have this cool sectioned wooden box with a glass lid that I’m thinking of using for the next one. It is much bigger so I think I’m going to have to plan it out.

A finished project or two

I realized that I never posted the finished baby quilt. This picture isn't the best (ignore the cat parts) but you'll get the idea.



I have been listening to Craftsanity on my ipod while in the sewing room (although the sound of the television is good company, it can also be a HUGE visual distraction). The podcast featuring Violet Clark a folk artist from BC got all of my bright coloured creative juices flowing. Swirling around in my head were the images I'd seen of her home years a go when she was on the TV program Weird Homes, accompanied by the funky shrines I' have seen around and was reminded of when I stumbled across Retro Revamp while digging through my pile of craft books. I had also been thinking about the bright colours of this beautiful sun ornament I bought when we were in Cozumel this past winter.



Since all of these colourful ideas came at me all at once, I figured it may be a sign from the crafting gods. Time to pull out the paint, plastic gemstones, buttons, and all the other forgotten crafty supplies. A shrine for the sewing and quilting gods. For guidance in hand quilting, putting on binding, trying out a challenge, and using my fabric. We'll see how effective it is. :)

Focus

I’ve been having a hard time staying on task lately, I’ve been bouncing around, and not really getting much work done one any one project. Hence, not any pictures of finished projects. I always blame it on my interest in such an array of crafting genres. But seriously, sometimes I can’t focus to save my life, and that leads to this defeated feeling.

Maybe I’m just trying to hard to focus, and I should just go for it and be pleased with any progress, no matter howlong it takes to finish something? Just make stuff, be creative, and if you finish something-good, and if you don’t, well it was fun to work on. Maybe that’s exactly what I need to do. Switch my focus from the finished item, to the process of making and creating.

I might be on to something here.