Art from the Needle

I realised this evening that it's been a really long time since I visited the craftgrrl community on Live Journal, so I went over there to check it out.

I'm so glad I did.

Miss Maya (LJ username "missychacha") draws linework on fabric with her sewing machine, fills in the basic colors with gouache, then brings the whole piece into the third dimension with various beads. My favorite of the pieces shown in the above linked post is the first one, titled "Love and the Ocean," but I also love the more sombre "Hal," and there isn't a single piece there that I wouldn't love to have mounted and hanging on my wall!

Miss Maya also draws and paints in more conventional ways. Her work can be seen at her Deviant Art account.

Been a While

I haven't posted in a while, but I have been (and still am) busy crafting. Here's just a tiny hint:



More on that later.

I'm also getting really excited about 42 Magazine's first issue coming out next month! Serene has been wading through tons of submissions, and she says there is some incredibly good stuff in there. I've seen a couple of the pieces, and I can't wait to see more!

I've added a section over on the left side of the screen, for links to Useful Things. Right now it's only got one item in it, a website for measurement conversions. The site even has a place to convert volumes of various cooking ingredients (tiger lily blossoms?!?!?) to weights, and back again! I plan to add This to That as soon as I get or make a button for it. What website are you always referring to, when you need to know something? Let me know, and maybe I'll add it to the list!

The Imbolc '09 Issue of the AntiCraft is Up

My latest published work, Timeless Tunic, went live today. It's instructions for how to measure, draft, and sew your own custom-fit T-tunic. That handsome viking shown wearing the tunic is my best friend and long-suffering husband, James. No need for envy, ladies; I might be persuaded to share. ;)

The aftermath

So, the tie silk scarves were a big hit. I gave one to my boss, and both his wife and his son tried to abscond with it. The guys in my family were impressed with them, too. I still have a couple left, and I'll probably put them up in my Etsy store, as soon as I get around to photographing them. I'm thinking $30-$35 is a good price for a flannel lined silk scarf, yes?

I haven't completely finished any of the purses, though a couple of them just need the linings sewn in place, and the bead pulls made for the zippers. I have until Easter to finish them now, but I can't let myself procrastinate based on that. It just means I don't have to rush and panic over it.

Aside from having my car wrecked by someone who didn't look before they turned into my path, this holiday season has been pretty good for me. How was yours?

Waving the White Flag

I surrender. There is no way I can complete the sewing on 4 more purses and do the hand-work (sewing the lining to the zipper) on all 7 in the next 2 days. Not even if I don't go to work or sleep.

Instead, the ladies will be getting cards with scraps of the purse fabrics sewn onto them, explainging the situation, to be redeemed at the family Easter gathering.

Ah. That feels much better.

I've got *how* many days left 'til Christmas???

I am freaking insane.

I've got the gifts for the guys in my family-of-origin made: scarves made of tie silk, lined with flannel. Warm, but classy.

But, like an idiot, I decided to make purses for the ladies. Views C and D of this one, from Butterick. That's a little more involved than a scarf. And I only got the last of the materials today last night. (I'm typing this at one in the morning, after washing and pressing all the fabrics, before going to bed.)

My family does Christmas on Christmas Eve. If I can make one purse a day, I'll get the gifty ones done just in time. If I can get at least three done over this weekend, I'll be able to make mine before then, as well. If I don't get mine done along with everyone else's, it will never get made. I know this from past experience. I make a dozen of something for gifts, and get so sick of looking at the same project over and over that I just give up on my own.

Wish me luck, and a lack of gremlins in the sewing machine.

You'd be melancholy, too...

...if you were a lambsquid.

Melissa Sue Stanley is a crafter after my own heart. She paints, crochets, embroiders, and finds interesting ways to put them all together. She calls her creations that have yet to find new homes "free-loaders," adjuring them to "go out and earn a buck, you bastards."

Surely, you need a free-loading melancholy lambsquid monster in your house!