Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Fun with clay
I am now on my 2nd 25 lb bag of clay for my ceramics class. This feels sort of glutonous to me, but I guess it's all for the sake of being productive.
I took the last of my 2nd bag home to play with making some tiles and other things from slabs of clay, and I wanted to try my letterpress stamps with the clay too.
Results are mixed, I think. This is a sneak preview of my "Missouri" print! I guess I'll use it as a trivet or something.
I carved a little rubber stamp for this one.
Then I made a tiny house which made me realize that the Art Dept.'s houses are REALLY worth the money. It's hard! And takes tons of time! I don't know how they do it! I love my Mother In Law for getting me this one for Christmas!!
So tonight is the last official pottery class. Of course, I have tons of things in process, so I'll have to go back to glaze, etc. before the end of the summer semester.
Labels: creative acts, obsessions, printing
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Let's try again
I scheduled this post yesterday, but forgot to get around to writing anything in the text. How lame!
So last weekend I got itchy quilting fingers. I still have tons of scraps left over from this quilt, so I thought I'd make a little wall hanging to put up for sale on Etsy. (Not to shamelessly promote, but you can go see it on Etsy if you wanna...)
It was so nice to just sit in the studio and run my little sewing machine and piece things together. I'm not sure what is so alluring about the putting together of little pieces of fabric, but I love it!
I freehand quilted it, then handstitched the binding. I also love the feel of needle and thread in my hand, so I really satisfied all kinds of cravings.
Labels: handmade, obsessions, quilts
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
I'm just a tag-a-long
I became somewhat obsessed by the Grandma's flower garden craze a month or so ago. I say "became" because I no longer feel the nagging urge to make more ridiculously tiny hexs. I made my piece and that's pretty much it for me. This project served it's purpose in being a great small take-a-long project for my long long, no-sleeping cross atlantic flights. And I spent at least an hour every night working on them while in Barcelona. And my mom even had to chip in some time, too.
I was inspired by the Craftzine link to Sunshine's site. She made it super easy. I didn't even have to read the destructions. There were plenty of pics to go around. Now I think there is even a flickr pool dedicated to the Flower Garden. Liesl from Disdressed posted this week about the torture of doing tons of work for such a small outcome.
The fact is, sometimes I like to really dig in and indulge my perfectionist, neurotic need to do really teeny tiny things. I love itty bitty things, as I believe I've mentioned before. Now I'm done. I feel no need to do any more of these. I scratched the itch, and that's all I need. I think I'll just paste it onto something else.
After I started doing these hexagons, I started seeing them everywhere. Here is a pice of tiles designed by Gaudi that were all over Spain. I really wanted to buy one, but I didn't want to haul it back.
I'm including another bad photo of the stinkin' birdcage. I just don't have the right spot to shoot it, I think.
p.s. See those handy little yellow scissors up there? Yeah, they made it through my carryon luggage at 7 different airports' security counters. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but I was happy not to use my fingernail clippers to cut things with.
Labels: handmade, obsessions
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Another little obsession
Here' something I should have written on my list of "6 weird things"from a couple of weeks ago: I Like Really Tiny Things. For those of you reading this who have had the pleasure of being in my physical presence, you know I am not a tiny or delicate person-- I always longed to be dainty, but ain't nuthin' dainty about a 6 foot tall girl. No way round it. So I guess maybe I love really tiny things because I myself long to be tiny. I loved miniatures when I was a kid. you know, like a 2 inch tall gum ball machine that had actual sprinkles in the globe. Oh! I wish I knew where that thing was.
I recently got the 3rd issue of Adorn Magazine and it featured a necklace with Shrinky-Dink beads. Of course, I have a packet of shrink-sheet in my collection of obscure craft supplies. So I whipped them out and drew my favorite designs--leaves, swirls, my logo, and of course farmlands. 2 minutes in the toaster oven (as a side note: I ditched my regular toaster for a toaster oven. Why does it take 13 minutes to toast toast? I don't really get it.) Anyway, I watched it curl up, and sure enough, it shrunk to about a quarter of it's original size right before my eyes! Amazing! I have my very own little tiny landscape. I'm thinking about maybe a small metal framed pendant---Oh Freshie....Maybe you could help out here? 
Back to work. 2 days till the big switch over.
Labels: a little something, obsessions
Monday, November 06, 2006
Finito!
At last! All my blocks are completed for my round-robin quilt. You've been watching these blocks progress oh-so-slowly, and now the whole family of squares is complete. I need to go on the block control pill now to stop me from making any more. Once you start...
When I got to my mom's house on Saturday, she immediately put me to work planting trees in their yard (a hilarious continuous fight between my parents, usually ending with my dad cursing. She wants trees, he doesn't.) So I got dirty within 10 minutes of getting out of my car from a long drive. That's okay, though, because we did a little labor trade, and she helped me sew the remaining 9 blocks. And so did my sister, for whom I spent an hour on the phone with some guy in India to try to resurrect her iPod.
So now I'm going to go about getting them sewn together. It's going to be some work to even up all the squares, to say the least. I'll keep you posted.
Labels: obsessions, round-robin
Monday, October 09, 2006
Painting with Friends
I've finally completed my commission painting. it's of the last mountain in the Appalachian Trail in Maine. I did it for a co-worker whose 10th wedding anniversary is coming up. According to legend, he carried the ring with him the entire time they were on the trail, then proposed at the end. I'm not sure if my sources are correct, but it's a great story none-the-less.
I realize that this is supposed to be a blog about sewing, so I promise the next post will be about sewing. I'm running around in circles to say the least lately. My fab friend Julia was in town for the weekend to see John Mayer (OMG!!! He is so...so...so... indescribable!!) and Sheryl Crow. Here's hoping I can pull off a completely leather outfit and a "stop draggin' my heart around" duet with Keith Urban when I'm 44. Wait, i can't do either of those things now! Well, a girl can dream. i can tell you that much.
Now my middle sis and her friends are here for a few days on their break from med school. They're going the fall tourist route and going to the Jack Daniels' Distillery, which is about 1.5 hours from here. It's my favorite fall activiity. A beautiful drive and a great country town. Love it there. Let's all take a field trip!
Labels: a little something, obsessions, try again
Thursday, September 28, 2006
True Confessions.
Here are some fantastic antique store finds. I have a secret. I &hearts old photos. Don't know why. I have a ton of 'em. It was all I could do not to buy this entire box.
I have this great photo of a baby in 3 different poses. It's from the 20's or 30's I think. Who knows. Some day I'm going to have a lightning bolt idea of what to do with all these old photos. For now, I'm just going to enjoy sifting through them when killing time before actually getting down to work. 
And this is some sort of skirt-shortening apparatus. Hilarious! I shoulda bought it. Oh well.
Must go. Just found out today that I am indeed doing Franklin's Pumpkinfest. Okay I must go spaz out right now. Bye!
Labels: obsessions
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Inspiration..
Listen up, people! i've got a new digital camera, and I know how to use it! I'm going to be taking much more lovely pics from now on. Here is an example.
Doesn't everyone just love zinnias? They're abundant and easy to grow. I'll have to incorporate them into a painting, quilt, something. 
I'm between projects right now. I should say I'm betweens inspirations right now. I guess I could work on those darn quilt blocks for my ole' round robin quilt. Actually, I did hand-piece my very first block yesterday.Jason and I took a little detour to Crossville, Tennesse to visit his lovely grandmother. Also a quilter, I must add. So we chatted around her kitchen table for most of the day, which I adore. Most people's real life and their history is much more interesting than anything you could read. And she's got some great insight into the lives of those around her. Enough gushing!
Here's a pic of myself & Jason today at the the local greasy spoon. It's on Hermitage Ave., near downtown. I swear I moved to the south for the biscuits!! One of those open 10pm to 1pm place. Delectable. Definitely greasy, but with a 98 health score rating!! Very important!
Labels: obsessions, sharing
Thursday, August 17, 2006
If it's stinky and slinky, it's probably double-knit
Ah, man! I just wrote this message, only to be a total dunce and exit out of it. Now i have to re-write oh well. Call it a 2nd draft.
My boss recently gifted me with a literal carload of fabric from a neighbors' garage sale. What a great gift!! But then I had to go through all the boxes. And man, were there some "beauts" as my cousin Kim would say. (Hey, Kimmie!! Hey!!) I'm pretty sure that this woman had a late 80's teal and peach wedding. You know the kind. I found large amounts of teal tulle and peach faux silk/satin. Any takers? Halloween is just around the corner!
On the other hand, I found lots of lovely cotton lawns, cotton solids, and calicos and maybe feedsacks? from the late 70's. And i mean lots. And I'm designating 3 trash bags full of misc. fabric for a yard sale. Maybe we could have a huge fabric sway here in Nashville? I know we've all got fabric out there we'd like to free ourselves from.
My fav by far of the lot is the art-nouveau of the woman. also the pepsi and 7-up prints. But look at the 3rd pic! Seriously good stuff!
I'm working on tinkering with the site. Have a really hard time chooseing colors, header, etc. Please bear with me and check back ofter--pretty soon I'll have something tasteful and semi-permanent. At least until i change my mind. Again.
Labels: obsessions