December 13, 2024

ATC WIP...

They're not finished yet, but I'm going to share my idea and how it's going so far. This is taking a little longer than I thought it might and it's a little fiddly, so I wanted to share a bit of the process.

My interpretation of "Pen and Ink" isn't a real reach - even if the execution might be. I'm literally creating a pen and inkwell on fabric. I have a pile of turkey feathers (the smaller, fluffy ones), some vinyl, cork fabric, blue swirl fabric (remember how I do adore swirl fabric? I have in in multiple colors), and the gold thread.

I spent waaaaay too much time cutting out vinyl in tiny bottle shapes. Dang! See-thru is really hard to see to cut. sigh But I persevered and got them all cut out. Then, I drew cork stopper shapes on natural cork fabric, and cut out those shapes. I have small squares of silk fabric that I'll sew to the background fabric that has writing printed onto it, and those feathers will become quill pens. The gold thread is to just stitch a small "v" on the end of the quills to mimic a pen nib (even though - technically - quill pens didn't have them). 

The components of the bottle are all secured to each other, but I'm going to do an outline stitch around the whole thing to secure them to the bases. I'm also doing things in steps to layer them correctly. It all takes a bit more time.

I'll work on them again today to see if I can get them done. Yesterday's work was squeezed in between bread rises, as it was also a baking day. I wanted to make better progress on the cards, but this was as far as I got after a false start with something that didn't work out. We'll see if I can do better today.

I'll share my progress tomorrow. Hopefully, they'll be "envelope ready" by the time I need to leave for my three-hour shift at work. I'm heading upstairs right now to get back to it. (I'll take my cuppa with me.)

December 12, 2024

Can You Guess?...

Today is bread baking day, but I'll also be working on the December ATCs I need to send out this month. I pulled the elements I'll be using to create my "Pen and Ink"-themed artist trading cards. I was just tickled to come up with this idea.

So - the first person to figure out what I plan to do with these elements to meet the theme Jan prompted will receive one of the cards. I'll make an extra one if someone figures it out. Leave your guess in the comments.

Oh. One thing. I may switch out the blue fabric for black. Does that help? hee hee Good luck! (Remember, the theme is "pen and ink".)

December 11, 2024

Shipping Day...

First on my agenda today is to ship out orders. I'll get that finished, and then I have to re-clean my studio. It's a wreck since preparing for the Touchmark show. Before I can do any holiday sewing, I need to reclaim my work space. 

Now that I've reorganized the attic, I'll be able to move a few things upstairs until after Christmas and New Years. After I've done my mailings, I'll be working on my December ATCs for the swap. I'd like to finish those by tomorrow to mail.

Once the ATCs are on their way, I'll be turning my attention to Grammie's Jammies and a special project I'm working on for Handsome. I'll be busy with those things for the next week or so. I really don't want to be right up against Christmas, so this schedule should help avoid that (and leave a little buffer if I need it). Here we go again!