buzzville

Settling down after Easter madness...

It's been nice to try to settle back to a semi-regular schedule today after an extremely busy Easter weekend, filled with egg hunts, feasting, family visits, and general chaos. The Easter bunny was very generous with Brynne this year (could it be because she's actually using the potty?!?), and hid her basket in the dryer at the end of a trail of jelly beans. The bunny was also in cahoots with me on a little side project for the basket - he requested a handmade soft toy to match Brynne's bonnet. I had the perfect inspiration from the spring issue of Cotton Friend magazine - the pattern wasn't included, but with Jerry's fantastic sketching skills we were able to collaborate to make a bunny pattern based on this picture:

I used the same vintage yellow floral and orange fabrics from Brynne's bonnet, and I added a green cotton for the bunny's dress. The main body of the bunny is made from super soft 100% wool felt and I embroidered the facial features with brown floss. This little one (still awaiting a name!) was hiding in the basket on Easter morning:

As you can see, she really likes carrots, so we're working out a plan to keep them in regular supply. This bunny has already been seen having conversations and play dates with other local bunnies, so we think she's settling right in to her new home. She's enjoying the warm weather that has suddenly appeared on our doorstep, and lounging with Brynne in the back yard appears to be her favorite pastime at the moment. Welcome little bunny!

A new member of the family...

... arrived on St. Patrick's Day. I've held off on mentioning our new arrival just because I wanted to be sure that everything was going to work out for her to stay with us. A few days have gone by, and we're still working out some issues, but I think we'll figure it all out!

We first saw Lucky in our back yard in a small patch of clover. She was friendly and inquistive, and Brynne took an instant liking to her.

She immediately showed us her many talents, like climbing trees:

After a lot of goofing off, we chatted about her future for awhile next to the lavender:

We all got along beautifully from the start, but we knew Lucky would have to make a few lifestyle changes when we found her next to an empty bottle of stout.

Despite this, we all agreed (Lucky included!) that she would make a welcome addition to our family. It was even more fortuitous that an Irish kitty like herself managed to find our rather Irish homestead on St. Patrick's Day. Welcome Lucky!

(Special thanks to Hillary and her prototype for making all of this possible! See Lucky's cousins.)

On the bandwagon at last...

I'm sure I'm probably the last person to make this particular discovery, but I'm writing this post just in case there's one other person out there who has yet to discover the amazing work of Jean Ray Laury. In particular, I've just snatched up several of her older books (published in the 60s and 70s) that have me completely bowled over. Although these books are long out of print, they are available used for nothing on Amazon or through eBay - I've linked to the Amazon pages...

Quilts & Coverlets: A Contemporary Approach is a fantastic book filled with great inspiration for modern quilt designs and techniques. Here are some of the color plates:

look at those cute apple, mushroom and whale blocks!

great 70s color scheme!

Applique Stitchery is also full of incredible projects. Some of these just make me squeal!

I can hardly stand this gorgeous color palette - I've always been a sucker for blue, green, and purple!

I particularly like the botanical style of the one on the right...

Finally, A Treasury of Needlecraft Gifts for the New Baby has some cute craft ideas for little ones - from quilts, to bibs, to carriers, etc. She has some great examples of childrens' artwork being adapted for quilt blocks (are you reading Amanda?!?):

I keep meaning to make a fun soft book for my nephew...

Sugar baby quilt!!!

I know that was a lot of pics, but I hope you found them worth it! I'm definitely going to check out some more of her books because I've found these to be incredibly inspiring...

Pink Lemonade it is!

First off, I'd like to extend my sincere thanks to all of you who left such supportive comments and fabulous recommendations to my last post - what a wonderful group of people you all are!!! With support like that, how can I even think that I might not be able to keep going with my jogging program?!?

Now on to more crafting! It's been such a hectic month for me that I doubted I'd be able to participate in Tie One On or the Month of Softies. Well, I'm happy to say I've had *some* success... A while back I purchased a big box of reproduction 30s fabric scraps on eBay. The scraps were remnants from fabric bundles this woman puts together, so the scraps were neatly cut and most were long strips or smaller rectangles. I love these sweet, retro fabrics, and I thought that the "Pink Lemonade" theme might lend itself perfectly to these scraps. So, I picked out pink and yellow fabrics from the scrap stash that I thought worked well together and pieced an improvised apron front. Since my quilt project for the Modern Quilt Along involves improvisational piecing, I figured this might give me some good practice. Here is the front:

I don't know if you can see the tiny pink rick-rack that is sewn to the yellow border...

I purchased a coordinating repro 30s fabric for the back and ties:

Here is a close-up of the front so that you can see some of the fun fabrics:

The apron is reversible, but of course I like the pieced front best!

As for the Month of Softies, I came close, but not quite close enough! This is Nell (named after my grandmother and also sporting my grandmother's beautiful, pale blue eyes):

But, I'm embarassed to show Nell naked... I had intended to make her a beautiful dress and submit her for the month of July, but alas, I have not had time to clothe her. So, I'll just share this with you so that you can all keep me on task to get her dressed!

PS - there's a funny little aside to this monkey... I hadn't planned on even attempting this month's theme because I've been so gosh-darn busy, but I stumbled across 4 pairs of Rockford Red Heel socks at my local thrift store for $1.29 a pair (score!). I figured this was the crafty gods mocking me for even considering not making a sock monkey. Of course I snatched up all 4 pairs (one can never have too many sock monkeys!) and got straight to work. If only I had discovered the socks a week sooner, Nell might not be introduced in her birthday suit!

Snail's Pace...

No matter how much I get done every day, I still feel as if I'm treading water - barely able to keep going with the bare necessities! So, I thought the snail metaphor would be appropriate for my crafting as well! Amanda has received her surprise, so I thought I would share the details here. I crocheted a round snail cushion as part of a swap for one of her beautiful purses.

close-up of the snail:

and the back:

Some of you may recognize this project from Kid's Crochet. I modified the pattern a bit and ended up doing some blocking because mine had the tendency to pucker in the center (and we certainly don't want snail cushions with nipples, do we?!?). But, overall it worked out well. I used Lamb's Pride Worsted Bulky and a size K (6.5mm) hook. It was really refreshing to use such a bulky yarn and large hook after so many projects with really fine gauges. I stuffed the pillow with a ready-made 14" round insert and used the tiniest little buttons I could find for the snail's eyes.

You may also have seen some peaches popping up here and there (more are en route as we speak!). I made a batch of these up as little gifts to send out. I'm hoping that Claire doesn't think my peaches too similar to her pears, but I have to admit that she was certainly an inspiration! Here's a basket of the little guys:

They're made of Minkee, a fabulously soft and silky fabric with a relatively long nap. I found a really good deal on this peach colored minkee and instantly thought it would be perfect for a fuzzy little peach! I hand embroidered the eyes, mouth, and freckles (still need to work on my embroidery!) and hand stitched wool felt for the leaves. I also cinched up the back of them to create a "peach butt", but you can't see that in this photo. Each peach comes with a little tag that reads "You're a real peach".

Oh Yes! We Have Bananas!

For those of you who wince each time you visit buzzville and find another monkey party related post, I promise that the monkey content will subside in one week! T-minus 5 days and counting until the big party.

For the rest of you who either have genuine interest in the monkey shindig, or are feigning interest for some unknown reason, I have more fun for you today. Stephanie was the genius who suggested we have a bean bag toss for the little tikes at the party, and we were happy to follow her suggestion. So, this weekend I made banana bean bags for the bean bag toss, and Jerry was assigned with making the monkey. Here is Jerry's beautiful monkey holding a hoop, painted on a large piece of cardboard using tempera paints:

and here are the bananas I made, using yellow ripstop nylon fabric and brown rayon thread for the satin-stitch detailing:

The ripstop nylon is pretty sheer, so I had to fill them with something white. I found Thai-style sticky rice that has grains that are almost round (rather than a long grain rice), and this worked out perfectly. I recommend a very silky thread (like machine embroidery thread) for the satin stitch detailing. All in all, I'm thrilled with how these came out, especially given that I totally made up the 3D pattern and just forced it to work! We've decided that rather than a toss competition (since toddlers can't really be told where to stand and be expected to stay there!), we'll do a timed competition. They will have 60 seconds to get as many bananas through the hoop as they can; parents can encourage and root, but can't help out. This should be pretty entertaining to watch!

As an unrelated side note, I thought I would let you know that saveoncrafts has these wonderful little birds on sale for $11.99. I don't have any yet, but I've heard they're quite amazing and realistic - the songs are actual high quality birdsong recordings from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and apparently the movements are quite realistic as well.

Bigfoot is a Breeder!

Jerry and I have agonized over this post for quite some time. The fact is, we've decided to remove a great burden that has been carried for a long time by our neighbors living in the Pacific Northwest. Sure, I know you've all heard of Bigfoot - there's nothing new there. But, what you probably don't know is that Bigfoot has been desperately trying to produce offspring to carry on the family name. Bigfoot knows his time is limited, and would really like to start a family. The problem is, Bigfoot's offspring aren't terribly bright; it seems they all end up wandering onto the street and meeting an untimely end.

Now, you may ask, "how is it that Jerry and Kelly know this secret? They live in California?"  The truth is that we've spent quite a bit of time up north, and on a trip to the Hoh Rainforest we saw first-hand one of the Bigfoot Jr. victims. We know how hard it's been for our northern neighbors to keep this a secret - the unusual insurance claims, the sadness of it all... It's so hard to explain to the kids! So, we're hoping that this post will alleviate the stress of keeping this secret and may even help to establish some protection guidelines. (Plus, we'd really like to keep these people away from these little guys!)

But, because we know there is a doubting Thomas or two amongst you, we are here to show you the truth. This is Satchy, a lovable little guy who has been adopted by Brynne as her very own Roadkill CuddlyTM.

We were also privileged to catch the final words of wonderful little Satchy; we're sure he would have grown up to be an impressive Bigfoot, had he not met that car at such high speeds...

[Note: the preceeding post is purely fictional. Satchy is presented as a collaboration between Kelly and Jerry for the April Month of Softies: The Recycled Monster. Satchy is made of thrifted faux fur, with appliqued felt eyes, mouth, and "tire tracks". His eyes and mouth are embroidered for detail. The concept of Roadkill CuddliesTM and preliminary sketches of Satchy belong to Jerry (the darker side of the two), while the assembly and embroidery is courtesy of Kelly. We hope you have enjoyed this tale.]

Emergency Peng Peng Post!

For those of you who can catch this, today's episode of HGTV's Crafters Coast to Coast (episode 220) features the amazing Peng Peng creating one of her gorgeous bears! Catch it if you can!

I was an International Model

Ok, before you burst into hysteric laughter, I'll give you the whole story. When I was a kid, my mother and I spent about 3 years living in Mexico City. I was a reasonably cute (albeit extremely fair) blonde haired, blue eyed American girl. This had the tendency to get me a bit of attention because blonde hair was considered good luck. I was approached at my elementary school to see if I was interested in doing some modelling. It sounded great to me, as I would get out of school periodically to go do photo shoots, and I had a makeup man! Long story short, I ended up doing a shoot for a new housing development as part of a little nuclear family: father, mother, son, and daughter. Here is the full sheet spread (with apologies for the quality - this is newspaper that is over 25 years old and has been folded for a long time):

Yes, that's me pretending to fish:

me squinting my eyes on the speed boat:

and me playing ball with my "family" on the lawn:

I was too young at the time to understand the social/cultural implications of them choosing an extremely white, blonde haired, blue-eyed model for a Mexican advertisement. I apologize, long after the fact, for having been a part of supporting an unatainable physical appearance for most Mexicans - Barbie was bad enough!

So, all of this to introduce my submission for Loobylu's March's Month of Softies. She is based on the photo of me wearing that awful bikini (haven't worn one since!).

Her body is made of muslin, with embroidered facial features, worsted wool hair, and a cotton stripe bikini with green ribbon ties. Her arms and legs are joined with buttons and heavy cord, so there is some poseability. Here she is posing in a tree:

I have enormous admiration for doll makers after having attempted this. She was, without a doubt, the most difficult crafty thing I have ever attempted. I have definitely learned that my sewing machine, although a very good one, does not like to sew pieces of fabric that are the size of a postage stamp; rather, it thinks these are a snack and would rather eat them! I also wonder how doll makers stuff their dolls so well (Rosa: how do you do it?!?). Here is another shot of her playing ball:

Overall, she doesn't really look quite like what I had envisioned, but now that I know how hard she was to make, I'm ok with the end result. Things to work on: embroidery, sewing tiny things, better yarn hair. I'm most proud of the way her arms and legs were attached, because this was quite tricky, but they turned out great.

Another Great Mail Day!

Wow! I could really get used to mail like this! Yesterday, this arrived, packaged in a hand decorated envelope from Portugal:

 

Yes, it is indeed number 144 of Rosa's beautiful handmade dolls! I love the amazing Alexander Henry fabric (must find some...), and she's appliqued the flower eyes and a soft red heart. If you don't already know of Rosa's beautiful creations (and who doesn't?!?), please go check out her blog. Although it's written in Portuguese, the pictures of her creations speak for themselves.

As you can see, Brynne has already adopted her new doll and is showing her the love:

Now, we just have to come up with the perfect name... What do you think of Sophie?