Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Crafting up a storm

While I was on Internet hiatus, I not only got my studio and garage under control, but I also got quite a bit of crafting done. This was mostly due to the generosity of Corey, Codie's fiance, who has a massive collection of videos. Since I couldn't blog or play with my Webkinz, I pretty much sat on the couch, watching videos and stitching. Here are some of the results.


I got a start on my first canvas-sized art quilt. The background will be the turquoise dot fabric in the photo background. The color calibration is a bit off. It's a vivid greenish blue. To the background, I'm going to embroider dozens (hundreds?) of 1" and 1/2" yoyos. I got a couple of those Clover yoyo makers, and they are the coolest tool of the year. Yoyos are so easy! No more marking, trimming, ironing, fretting. They just slam together, and they turn out perfectly every time. It may not be obvious from the photo, because I just dumped the yoyos out in a pile, but they all are predominantly orange and/or lime and/or cream. I'm excited about the color scheme. The quilt will be a wall piece, literally slipcovered over a canvas. I'll post more as I make more progress.



I also cranked out a few miniquilts. The one on the far left is my first adventure with yoyos. I'm not sure if I like the green beads. I'm living with it for a while before I frame it. Some of the others still lack focal doodads, but they're all close to being finished. The frames are chipboard shadowboxes. You can see them in the studio clean-up post, sanded and primed and ready to be painted. (Speaking of the studio clean-up, when I looked back at the photos this morning, I realized that the after pictures don't look much better than the befores. You'll just have to trust me on this: It's a lot easier to get in there and work now.)



Finally, I got a start on valentines. These micro quilties are made from a gorgeous bit of fabric that Annie brought back to me from her vacation. I used only half of the 50 motifs. I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do with the other half. I just couldn't bring myself to part with the whole swatch. The photo is my usual iffy quality, so let me point out that I embellished each 3"x3" motif with some silk-ribbon roses and faux pearls. Then I bonded the fabric to quilt batting, pinked out the motifs, and quilted them here and there with gold metallic thread. I think I'm going to stamp valentine greetings on the offcuts and then machine sew the motifs and greetings to cards. That's today's plan, anyway. We'll see how these actually turn out.



I've started posting some framed micro quilts in my Etsy shop. You can see them in the right sidebar. Just click on the images to go see the full-size listings. I like how these are going. It makes me wish I'd bought a few more of the little double shadowboxes. Oh, well, la-la.


By the way, my Women on Quilts interview has been moved to April. Thank goodness. Hopefully, I'll be a little better prepared by then.

7 comments:

idyll hands said...

yo yos!!!! you should sell them as supplies in your shop.

I can't wait to see the finished product!

Janna said...

I'm intrigued by the yo-yos. I don't know what a yo-yo maker is or how it works. I have no clue what you're going to do with those, but I'll bet it turns out to be as fabulous as all of your other work! I love the Valentine's prints too! Your embellishments don't show up well in the photo, but I'll bet in real life those are to die for!!

Junque Rethunque said...

I'm hearting the roses in the valentine collection. :) And I agree with you on the green beads... just don't seem to fit or something on first glance. (not that I'm critquing!!)

Anne said...

I LOVE what you're doing with the valentine fabric!!! The fabric itself is less than spectacular, but you're turning the individual pieces into tiny works of art. And speaking of works of art, I've seen all of these mini-quilts all up close and personal and there's no way a photo could do them justice. I want to fondle every single one of them.

Lisa_in_AR said...

Dang Denise! Not only are you a crafting goddess, but as a tie in to Anne's post, I think your super heroine name should be "Crafting Woman" (imagine some really impressive background music when you say that, it positively rolls off the tongue!).

Unknown said...

I can't wait to see everything finished! And I'm a yo-yo junkie. They are so cute!!

Oh Mandie said...

whoa thats alot of yo-yos!