An image of Vincent Van Gogh as a child. I did this a few years ago for a Vincent swap.

crochet projects.

I've been mad for hats lately. Not to wear, but to crochet. I attempted a cloche. It's ok, but not at all what I expected. It's up for a home if anyone would like it. It's got the cute little crocheted "ribbon" detailing at the brim. It was a pattern I found, but when I tried the pattern , using gage measurements and everything, when I got almost through the whole hat I realized that it was going to be about the size of a doll's head. Not what I was looking for. So I frogged it and made my own attempt at the idea of a cloche. It didn't turn out too bad for my first attempt.


Then I attempted a different kind of hat. Now that I had an idea of the basic structure that a hat should have, I tried a skull cap of sorts. I made it much more girly than a general skull cap, giving it an open mesh feel and adding the little scalloped edge to the bottom. Then I added the pink flower. A tad much too girly for me.
I also did a little baby cap. Kind of pill box hat shapped. It's in country blue though and everyone I know has baby girls. Perhaps I should just add a few tiny pink flowers and give it to my niece. Hmmm maybe that's what I'll do. So....who wants a hat?

KLIMT and Me

I've been working on self portraits this week and this one really grabbed me. Granted it doesn't look like me much, but i had fun doing it. I love Gustav Klimt. Especially his really detailed works. I patterned this after Judith 1. I love that picture.

Now I'm having a hard time parting with this one. I've made plenty for the portrait swap, ones that look more like me and less stylized. I'll probably hold onto this one for awhile.

I'm off today to spend time with my friend Lois. She and I have been having a great time getting together for art dates. We go to each others houses and sit and talk the day away and art. It's so much fun.

I'm thinking of taking more time to do Sharpie versions of Masterpieces. I had such a great time with that challenge for the Sharpie Scouts. I cannot wait to get my book! I'm so excited. Our fearless leader put a little full color zine out with submissions from the group. It looks really cool, but I can't wait to get my hands on it and pour through it! here are a few of the ones I did for the masterpiece swap.

Coffee Cartel book pages

My pages for the Coffee Cartel book. I worked for hours staining and layering more staining and even more layers of staining to get the pages a lovely coffee color. I was almost sad when it came time to decorate the pages. It seemed almost a sin to ruin the beautiful markings left by the coffee. I decided that instead of covereing up the coffee stains, I'd use them to my advantage and create from the shapes left by the stains. We play this game in my family, something my parents started when I was small to keep us busy while we waited in restaurants. Someone will make a scribble on a sheet of paper, then the next person will take that scribble and make something of it. That is essentially what I did here, used the "images" i saw in the coffee stains and created something out of them. So the front of my pages are the "Coffee Stain Scribble Game" and the back has my psyeudo hot sleeve with my contact info , the chemical breakdown of caffeine, a small Coffee Love and a small quote.

My newest success.

LOOOK! I MADE A TOTE!

Now I'm not a seamstress by any means. This is a basic simplistic tote. I am feeling quite pleased with myself however. I can sew, but it's usually the basics, you know, patch a hole here, sew a button on there. Nothing spectacular. I've been just itching to try my hand at more serious sewing. I remember in home-ec we had to sew a pair of jams. Hmm I could be dating myself here by mentioning jams. But that, other than the random stitch em up here and there was about the extent of my sewing skills. Sure I can use a sewing machine, but that means nothing unless you actually MAKE something. So the last time JoAnn fabrics had a sale on patterns I decided it was time I break into the world of sewing.

This first attempt at following a pattern since I was about 15, was a little harder than I thought. It's not like riding a bicycle where once you get used to the balancing again you're good to go. I had a few minor mess ups, but over all it turned out pretty good. It took me about two hours to actually finish it all up and get it together. That includes a mistake while cutting, three mistakes while stitching together, having to revamp the pattern slightly to make it work since I screwed up the cutting yet again, and figuring out which was the best way to actually stitch the corners with a single side/bottom piece. I love the all over pattern. The lightest blue of the fabric pattern is like a cornflower blue and it darkens right through to navy blue. I did the lining with navy blue and the thread I used is just slightly off color as to show some of the stitching. I succeeded in getting a nice tuck in each of the corners. Pretty impressive, they all actually almost match exactly.I'll probably give this very first one to my sister. She likes purses, and I'm hoping she'll test run this one. It's approximately 10 x 12 and should be rather study and hold together well. I'll most likely be perusing the fabric sections of the local fabric haunts to look for more good fabrics and interfacings to play with. This interfacing was a little too thin and floppy and didn't get enough of a rigidity to the bag. I'll be looking for a more rigid interfacing, and one that is double sided. I didn't use double fusible interfacing. It only fused on one side (which actually worked to my advantage because I misread the instructions the first three times I read them. Not very good instructions mind you...but what can I expect from a 4 dollar pattern.

LOOK OUT I'M ON A SEWING STREAK!