angry chicken

quilt monday

It's been a long time since I posted a quilt Monday. I have a backlog of images and here the first- this amazing vintage quilt top was purchased by Grammie last year in Bridgeport, Indiana at a festival. She  put on a batting and back, machine quilted and bound it-and wow, boy, it's a real beauty.

She didn't wash it, so it has this wonderful worn/stained look and the irregularity of the blocks are amazing. I asked what the block was called and she couldn't find it anywhere--but she did say it is a hard block to do, with the miters and all.

When she was ironing it before she machine quilted it-she found a little appliqued piece of fabric on the top, which had a dine sewn behind it. She took it out and it was from 1939. How cool is that? She has never heard of coins being sewn into quilts, but we are assuming this is the year is was made- I want to start doing this on my quilt now. A few more photos of the amazing quilt and the amazing machine quilting job Grammie did on it is here. . .once again she blows my mind.

happy arty stuff.

Thanks you guys for the really really nice comments about my podcast-it was fun doing it, but sort of nerve wracking knowing it is going to be out there. . .

A super genius friend of mine directed me to these giclee prints done by the uber-talented Jen Corace. There are 3 of them and they are available at Art Star as a limited edition, so I moved fast. Some of the original paintings from this series are here at motel. .

I freaked out about these (a huge understatement) and got all 3. I missed the Tiny Showcase Jen Corace print this last time do to an family emergency (literally, an emergency room style emergency) so this more than makes up for that.

Art Star has other lovely prints by several other artists. This whole giclee print thing is so cool. The prints are beautiful and so very affordable, I just love them.

**updated- don't forget your tie one on apron for june/july! You have until Tuesday-the perfect weekend project!

a dyed dress and a podcast-

I really liked this dress I made a bit back-that one there, in the lower left. . .but the light yellow and pink just didn't seem right. It was one of those articles of clothing that would make me think "huh. Not quite right." It was too nice, too light, and really just washed my already pale complexion out even more. So out came the dye and I couldn't be happier. Well, I take it back-it's not what I would have bought from the fabric store-but it is a ton better and feels so much more like me, so there you go.

I really love overdying becasue you just never know what you will get. I did this in a ballsy way-becasue if it had gone bad, all the labor of making the dress would have been in the toilet too-but I have dyed a lot before and was willing to take the risk. I got really even coverage on this except a blotch about the size of the dime on the skirt that looks like a blueberry stain, so that's what I will thnk of it as from now on. I used the tub meathod of dying with the directions here and I'd love to tell you that I just used RIT dye and it worked great-but I think that stuff is for the birds and I was so into dyeing all my fabrics for my quilts before I was pregnant and/or breastfeeding that I have every dye and chemical know to man in the basement and use all of them when I dye. toxic-o-rama. So I do really follow these direction and use all the additives and all that-but I have had such great success doing it this way, I hesitate to cut corners. . .

And, I am excited and nervous to announce that over on CraftSanity you can hear an interview with me, thank you Jennifer, and I am talking a lot. And it's long. I apologize in advance for offending anyone, which I surely have, cause you get the real Amy here! Except I don't swear, which is a miracle. And, at the end, you will hear the talented Pete on guitar who wrote a piece especially for the podcast. I have a little redwork project posted there as well. Enjoy! And I hope it makes you laugh, cause I was laughing a lot!

it's too hot to be doing this-

Wow! Thanks you all for the box bag love! I forgot how fun it is to paint on wood (except when it's not fun, if you know what I mean)

Here is box bag #2. She still smells like varnish. It's so flippin' hot here I'm amazed these things are drying. This is a dutch inspired type of design and I'd love to do one in black next, instead of the orange. I am still thinking about trying a stencil (freezer paper?) but my first attempt didn't work. I think the paint was too thin-so maybe a freezer paper stencil with thinker paint. I don't want it to look like tole painting, I am going to smooth even color. . .the pin cushion box that matches this is here, along with other photos. . .and I am happy to report that I am now the owner of my first Enid bag (en route) I have been trying for the last few days and finally got one. whew! that was a hard one!

I wanna be enid.

So, in a nutshell, I was possessed again this last weekend by the discovery of the not so secret-but secret to me (because I am the last to know) vintage Enid Collins box purses. I was minding my own business on flickr when I found this group-and I was struck-STRUCK with the urge to get a box and paint my own. And I did, and another one is drying right now, with another on deck, I can't get enough!

The original Enid bags are amazing, but the potential to make my own is also so compelling and all I needed was at Michael's, the ubiquitous craft emporium. The paint, varnish, and the jewels (why do I have these?) I already had. I stained the unpainted boxes with acrylic paint with a ton of glazing liquid, then painted the design. Then I varnished with a clear oil (toxic and smelly) and then glued on the jewels with tacky glue and put the hardware back on. The purse hardware is also from Michael's as well-who knew!! I am thinking sewing boxes here, and I have a smaller one started to go inside as a lidded pin-cushion box. So excited! I am dorkin' hardcore on these!

These have taken way too much space in my brain (it could be the varnish) and Sadie thinks more jewels are needed-as do I! I will show the other one when it dries. I am experimenting with a stencil for the next one, I can't decide if this would be easier or harder. . . to be continued!

upside down, boy you turn me.

I got this topsy turvy doll for the girls a few weeks back and can't stop playing with it. I loved them so much when I was little and the girls are really getting into it too, but I had one of those icky "I should have made one for them" feelings when I bought it. I think this is so dumb because really, I will go crazy if I do that to myself, but after making raggedy I have been thinking even more about topsy turvy dolls and then I rediscovered this site, cloth doll supply,  that sells copies of vintage patterns-which is what all these images are from.

Can you do this? Just copy vintage patterns and sell them? Well, I guess so after a certain number of years, huh? And I am really happy because these are cheap and wonderful and I can't wait to get some and try them out.

And while digging about for these I found out the American history of topsy turvy dolls were that they  usually were made by salves, either for their own children, or for the white children the women slaves took care of, and they always had a white doll and a black doll-more info in this link.

closed market

Awhile back my brother was telling me about a friend of his who spends his full time job combing e-bay for "lots" of items, and then breaks them up into small groups, re-photographs them, and resells them. Like make-up, and jewelery-you name it. The thing is, then he the turns around and spends the profits on another "lot" and starts again, so all the money just stays in the small pool. I realized for the last year, this is what my paypal account has become, for the most part. I sell stuff and then buy stuff-all from this magical bank in space. . .and this needle felted Eugene, pulling his ducky, had to come live with me because he seemed too distraught to stay where he was. I adore him. By the talented Jenn Docherty, who I believe is having a baby any second now. . .I think she is having another sale before then, busy girl. . .

And the these lovely Decole items from a favorite Decole haunt of mine, Loloko. Always a dangerous place for me to visit and I just love her graphics on her main page, so very simple and cool.

So, I do realize I am a bit like this friend of my brother's, but I think actually buying stuff from craftspeople and artists is wonderful. I love swaps and trades and all that for sure, but there's nothing like cash to make you feel like your efforts are worth it. . .and I do realize the basis of this theory also allows me to continue shopping guilt free. . .

cover the world in bonnets

There has been a recent increase in bonnet pattern requests from mailorder #2, so I am making more available, because I can't really turn down a request for the making of bonnets, right? What I am most pleased about is the influx of adult bonnets, like this amazing one here, so I say bust out the corduroy or soft cotton flannel and make your bonnets for autumn now! Or sew a summer one in a light cotton, we still have a lot of summer left, thank the lord!

So, the bonnet pattern comes in 3 sizes, baby, child, and adult and it's $12 ($15 outside of the US) and I will be just re-printing mailorder #2 for this, so you will get all that comes with that, the gifts tags, recipe card, etc. Update: the pattern includes the 3 sizes, so you get them all, and see what the other sizes look like over here at the mailorder club group on flickr-

And in a fit of unprofessionalism, kingpod is still not updated, so if you would like this pattern please use the handy buttons below and thank you!:

sold out-sorry and thank you!!

dress and a piece of pie

I made this dress yesterday.Sadie helped cut it out (by covering herself with rubber stamps while I worked and Delia slept) then stitched during the day here and there, ending at 1:30AM hand-sewing the bodice lining in. It's McCall's 5042 - a simple shell in another civil war repro fabric. This dress is way nicer than I am. Like I should not be swearing when I wear it, I meant to accessorize it with some bold jewelry for the photo, to balance the sweet, but it's one of those mornings where I am lucky to be dressed at all.

I have decided dresses are my new uniform-they are so easy and simple, and feel like I am cheating when I wear them. I need to sing the praises, again, of the invisible zipper (I know Mellisa is crushing hard on the lap zipper right now and check out her lovely dress!) but this is so easy with the right zipper foot-it's like going though an automated car wash-once you get the tire in the groove you are all good! There a great tutorial here.

Pie pride. I had to shoot this because of the pristine nature of the filling. It's blueberry pie here (the mailorder recipe is from the funny money) and with the miracle of refrigeration, it looks like a perfect slice of pie! I like my pie room temp, so I discovered this by accident, when somehow, we didn't eat a whole pie in 48 hours and needed to pop it in the fridge.

On a unrelated note, Pete went out last night and came back with a funny algorithm (he's programmer, you know) so, to find the age of the youngest person you can date that is still socially acceptable you take your age, divide in half and then add 7 years. I find this terribly entertaining, I am not sure why.

redwork. . .sleeping flower

I needed to get some redwork out of my brain. I have added needlework to the piles of projects to be done (still working on this one too) and I can't get enough! I am thinking all sorts of things here about this redwork block-including a series of 4 as fold-over cards to sell? I want to do another card set that has imagery of stitching (like the small quilt cards) but not postcards. .  and then the original blocks can go toward a quilt (next up, a clone.)