Shock and Awwww

I have been working on The Bag some more. I have decided on a Faery and would you believe I have made a second try at hair as the first try was too big!?!?  And I know that the green vintage turquoise jewellery face is making you go Aaaack!! Ptooy!   But I am not finished yet!

I want to take a poll of readers.  Should I just stuff her bodacious boobs a bit more and leave them, or should I do a bit of discreet bead work netting over them. After all She has to carry this out in public.  I will be watching for your comments.  This is a very early picture as I have about another half pound of beads and ribbon to go on there yet.

I have help here every day.  When Buddy and Sundae are not rearranging my spools of thread on the floor (they love it when it unwinds), they organize my cupboards.  This is the one that holds all the fabric inherited from my mom and my great grandmother.  They are exhausted, it was a very big job.  They are resting, something they do for about 93% of every day.

Sundae snores, you can hear her from the far end of the Studio.

DH has gone into his egg studio and Sundae has gone with him, she is his cat and sticks to him like a barnacle.  The two of them have to have us in sight at all times.  I don't know if they are insecure, or just like us!  hehe!

Remember, bare boobs or beaded boobs, I need to know.

Bye-bye.....

Now The Fun Begins!

Remember that art bag I am working on?  The construction part is done:



It is a shoulder tote-type bag.  I opted for satin stitch finishing as it was far too stiff and thick to have folded seam allowances...the corners would have been an inch thick!  lol

 It has a zipper closure as requested.

 Inside is a zipper pocket and slots for a cell phone, a note book and a pen.

 Swarovski Marguerites, hearts and butterflies, large Amethyst chips and a magnificent strand of faceted Amethyst beads with silver spacers which I am to take apart and use on various projects.

 Faceted Amethyst square beads, Amethyst Go Go beads, Rainbow Fluorite cylinder beads, Amethyst teardrops.

 Various and sundry!  lol

 Mille Fiore beads, cats eye glass chips, Lapis hearts and chips,

Turquoise chips, Pietersite squares, vintage Turquoise jewelery and Amethyst beads.

To this I am going to add silver lined seed beads, coloured seed beads and freshwater pearls, some lovely shiny white novelty yarn and whatever else that strikes my fancy.  This lady likes encrustation.

I have an idea to do a representation of a Faery (she likes Faeries), or I might just stick to something more Art Nouveau-like abstraction.  I have not decided yet. 

Auditioning what I have to choose from has gone a long way to inspiring ideas.....or do I just like fondling my stash?

News and a giggle - some QR

In spite of DH and I both dealing with the flu (I'm ok, DH is still pretty sick--he is letting me hover and fetch things and hold his hand...he usually calls me Florence Rottengale and shoos me away!) we have been having fun.

The lovely people at the Flower Shop, where DH spends some time just to keep his hand in. made me a delightful, stylish Christmas Hat.   Isn't it just too too?!?!?  (Creative minds gone awry!)  I am still laughing.

DH, bless his heart, had a craving for Portzelky (pronounce por-TSEL-tcha around here) then after I got the dough made (Florence jumping to his every whim) he started nausea again and didn't want them any more. Portzelky are the traditional New Year's Cookie in this Mennonite area.  I have been giving them away as much as I can, because I certainly don't need to (nom, munch, crunch, nom, nom....) eat any more of them.  I have a few to go yet; anybody want one???

On the bag front things are going well.  I am always amazed when things work out right.  I have had to make my own pattern.  She wanted me to copy a commercial leather bag she owned, but make it bigger.  This bottom is going in just perfectly.  Wow, how nice!

She wants a bag she can "wear every day and will last a hundred years"!  Consequently this thing is so stiff you could take it into battle and use it as a shield!  All the embellishment is to go on the quilted front.  It is to be 'encrusted' ( Enough to frighten the enemy!) with mostly Amethyst, Swarovsky crystal beads and some Turquoise and gemstones...She may not be able to carry it every day, she is just a wee bit of a thing!

Next I have to figure out how to do the lining as the bag is to have a zipper closure...hmmmm...?

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.