croque-choux

6x4 Postcard : January

I decided to get my act together and make a fabric postcard for this interesting journal type project that Sharon started: 6x4 lives. This piece was an accident and started out as an ATC, which you can see ended up cut into 3 pieces and stitched to this card. This month I think I was basically feeling cold (it's f-freaking f-freezing outside!), confused, and like I was going aroung in circles, which explains why this looks the way it does! I get cold just looking at this card... I tried out a little fabric foil on this, and am happy to say that the stuff works. The circle I attached with a bit of floss is cut from an old CD, and was going to be stitched on shi-sha style but I had to give up on that idea. It actually looks better this way I think. Check out the other 6x4's on Flickr. I am in awe of the dragonfly card that Sharon made!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Banners seen in Chinatown in Paris wishing you happy Chinese New Year.

Miles and Pixie say "happy Year of the Dog" too.

Robots on the brain

NB: My finger is much better but then last weekend my head decided that a migraine would be fun to take Pain up to the next level (or two), hence the lack of posts lately.
Anyway this very cool felt robot I saw on BoingBoing today made me start thinking about robots again, so I thought I'd post this robot photo I took last Summer at the expo dedicated to the late Belgian comic book artist Franquin. I don't know what comic book this one appeared in though.

My son Miles loves robots so I decided to check out his cyborg name and I might have known that something like this would come up... how fitting. Funnily enough, my robot name compliments his quite nicely.

Les softies sont partout

I saw these for sale around Christmas time at the Publicis Drugstore on the Champs Elysées, and whipped my camera out for a quick photo. My gut reaction when I saw these was: "ohmygod! somebody is knocking off Rosa", but a few days later I thought "well if that is so, I guess it is the sincerest form of flattery as they say". These softies by minilabo are very cute, but I totally prefer Rosa's unique whimsical dolls. At least you can now find artoys and softies for sale on one of the most happening streets in Paris. I should get out more often!

This is going to be a quick post, as it looks like heavy sewing or typing is out for me until further notice. I pinched a nerve in the middle finger of my right hand and it hurts like hell! I can't bend it without cringing in pain, so probably the only thing I'll be able to do really well til it gets better is flip people off... ouch!

A T see

This is an ATC that I started late last night, and finished this morning. You can find out more about Artist's Trading Cards here, unless you'd rather google ATC, or search photos tagged "ATC" on Flickr. They are a specific size by the way: 3 1/2 inches x 2 1/2 inches. And I said I was gonna make something big... phfffffftt! Yeah well, maybe so, but it's still bigger than a Japanese thimble. I'm pretty pleased with this little thing though, because it came out exactly the way I wanted it. Holding it in my hand it looks like a doll sized fabric post card!

creative materials

I started pulling things out of the various shoe boxes and drawers where I squirrel away my fabric stash and craft materials, and then I didn't use any of this stuff to make anything- other than this rather colorful photo. I ended up making a little trinket for my daughter (hint: as seen in the current issue of Quilting Arts magazine) out of a piece of silk instead. Since it's part of her birthday present I'd better not post a photo of it just yet though in case she checks my blog! Stay tuned...

Driving myself crazy in 4 easy lessons

There is a Japanese thimble project in the book I got for Christmas, and they were so darn cute an colorful that I just had to make one. But for something this small and quick to whip up, the frustration level was pretty high- but that's not the book's fault. You can tell I was stressed by checking the upper left hand photo, a tell-tale sign of having a death grip on the needle because it is bent. While making this I realized 4 things:

- I should never ever attempt to embroider anything again without my glasses, and I should get new ones.
- When trying out an embroidery stitch I haven't done in ages, please test drive the needle on a fabric scrap first.
- French felt, which is cheap and thinner than cigarette paper, is a pain to sew and does not mix well with chirimen silk.
- This was cute and different to make, but I should stop messing about with small stuff and make something bigger.

Come on, get happy!

One of my best friends sent me this great article on the 10 Keys to Happiness, which was a thoughtful New Year's greeting and a very interesting read, so I'm passing it on. Thanks Teri!

1er Janvier 2006

I'm sure I'll be writing 2005 on my checks for the next 5 weeks, so I couldn't resist typing the date here in French as practice :o) Anyway... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I wanted dedicate this first post of the year to my daughter Ombeline who made me this cute collage bookmark. She also made 2 larger collages for her room, which came out really nice and go well with all the happy pinks and purples in her room.

I saw this great collage cubie idea over at Meggiecat last Summer and promised myself I'd make one later, which is what I did a few days ago when the kids and I were making collages. I like working small so besides the cube I made a spirella. Both are fun and easy instant gratification projects! Working with paper was a nice change from working with fabric. I've mentioned this here before, but if you check out Lisa Vollrath's wonderful site you will not only find instructions for making spirella but you will be blown away by her altered art, collages, atc's -and the list goes on.