Let it snow...

All this talk of snow dyeing is making me even more eager to get out there.

Look what I have to look forward to:

This is taken from sitting with my back to my sewing machine, looking over my ironing surface.

This is taken standing looking a bit to the left.

We have had an abundance of snow this year, a fair bit more than normal.  But a sunglasses case has been added to the handbag order and I think I will tackle that first.

The snow will have to wait, I understand it will be around for a while~~this is Manitoba after all!

Git 'er done!

That is my 'word' for this year.  Around here it is all run together and said like one word anyway.

DH and I managed to be invited to three complete-with-all-the-trimmings Christmas Dinners over the weekend!  I am still suffering from Turkey Torpor!  Mind you, my idea of The Compleat Christmas includes a turkey with cranberry sauce sandwich for breakfast on Boxing Day, so it was all good.  Just got home from my DH's sister's home and a buffalo roast dinner.  Nice change.

As to my 'word'  I have so much commission work to do, so I really must overcome the turkey and get busy.  I have been pulling purple ties to audition for the handbag, and have discovered men don't like purple very much.  Only about 12 out of my monumental collection!  And their wives don't like purple either!  I have a huge selection of upholstery samples and none of it can really be called a true purple, at least not a big enough piece to be of much good.  I have had some help doing some more purple tie hunting.

Some of these ties are a bit of a stretch to call purple, but I should only need six or seven so I should be able to find something that works.  And that pink and black number will certainly find its way into something else for sure!

I am sketching bag designs, and have yet come up with the perfect pattern.  I am thinking along the lines of a very modern type of crazy quilt with lots of bead treatments; and fancy yarn....I have lots of that in purple.

I will keep you posted (pun intended).

My Year Is Booked!

My dear patron has filled my year with projects, the whole year!  She loves my work and wants me to do a purse for her, one for her mom, a large wall hanging, an 18" doll, a Christmas tree Angel, and six fairy ornaments, and possibly a sculpture.  These are to be VERY elaborate and extensively embellished (read encrusted).  I am looking forward to doing these varied projects.  She has only one condition....there must be some purple in everything. 

Also, she has a Guatemalan quilt she wants me to repair.  That Guatemalan fabric won't take vigorous machine washing! Some of the blocks need replacing.  This is not such a very exiting project.

I am having to polish up my bag making skills, it has been a while since I have made a pattern of an existing bag that cannot be taken apart.  Just how do you get that zipper in there and then turn it right side out??  Beats me...I will have to fiddle some more.  I used to be able to do this, and even taught classes in it.....I have my notes somewhere.  It is the zipper that is befuddling me, never done that before.

It is also Christmas....DH and I are into baking cookies to take with us when we show up for Christmas dinner at the two places we have been invited.  So far I have done two different kinds, one is the most delicious oatmeal cookie.  I have been searching since childhood for the perfect oatmeal cookie, I think I have found it.  I got the recipe a couple of days ago from a friend.  DH so far has baked none....and it was his idea in the first place!!

Both families have lots of children,  Christmas Eve 3 boys and 2 girls from 15 down to 5 and Christmas Day four boys from 22 to 17.  We will be awash with torn paper and laughter, and even some interesting conversation.  University boys are fun to talk to, so full of confidence, with none of their shiny sharp edges knocked off by life yet.

If you haven't got grandchildren for Christmas, borrow some!   hehehehe

Merry Artful Christmas to you all.

Way ahead of my time!

Oh my, I just got a call from my Gallery owner that my Handbags and Credit Card Cases are selling apace!  She wants more.  This is timely as I make the Handbags with ties.  These are all items I made three years ago and was never able to sell.   Now they are hot!  I am just simply several years ahead of my time.

I have been hustling to make more and have just done some card cases and an Eyeglass Case and a Passport Case.  Since foreign visitors are advised to wear their Passport on their person in most countries.

 It is a bit disconcerting to find one's self reflected in a piece of one's work!



I am using upholstery fabric on these as the small samples are exactly suited for the small cases.  Some are quite tricky sewing (I am beginning to dislike velvet, but it is oh so pretty), but I am quite enjoying embellishing them.  I loved doing corsages in the Flower Shop as they were just itty bitty arrangements and I treated them like little works of art.  (Have you ever seen a corsage with a matching ring attached?  Or a corsage that starts at your wrist and goes all the way up to the top of your shoulder?  That one wasn't so itty bitty!)

We used to love seeing the young men come in to pick up the flowers for their girls.  They clean up so nice! lol

The Credit Card Case idea was in Quilting Arts quite a few years ago.  I can't remember what issue, but then I rejigged the pattern to suit the materials I have, upholstery and ties can often present problems with the mechanics of whatever you are making, some need more taming than others.

When I get some Tie Di Bags made I will have more photos.

I gotta get back to work, I am going to deliver to the Gallery tomorrow.

Have a great day.

Happier Hips

My dh suffers so much when I am in pain (he would never have made it through childbirth!) asked me to ask the chiropractor what he could do to help me.  I don't think the doctor is in the habit of giving away his secrets though.  Last night my dh called me over to look at a video with him and as I bent forward in my chair the ice pack in my tight pants pushed the bad hip into place!  Praise the Lord! 

 

So apparently all my dh has to do is watch videos with me!!

 

I am much better today, but still sitting with an ice pack to reduce inflammation.  I am going to get into my studio and plow through some more of the stuff,  I have only about 18 more bins to sort through.  I am finding strange things....a blouse I made 25 years ago...still fits!  At my size I am not sure that is a good thing!  lol

 

Better days ahead!

Total Block

An old injury to my hips (done at age 17) has been acting up.....huge pain intermittantly (between chiropractic visits)....and it has brought me to a complete halt in my studio. 

I am in the middle of sorting and cleaning, and since my one major work table seeems to be the place to put anything you don't know what to do with around here, it is getting ahead of me!

There is actually a project I am working on under all that stuff.



I am thinking of getting a guy in here with a bulldozer!  Does anyone else have this prolem?

Two more Tylenol 3's and to bed, things will feel better in the morning.