Look, an actual completed BEAR!!

I know

you were beginning to wonder if an actual finished BEAR would ever appear here again

well, here's the story on bears -- there's a lot more work to finishing the face of a bear than there is on a bird, so they tend to get shuffled to the end of the work order as they go through all the processes

(and truth be told, I've been in a "been there, done that" thing with the bears of late, so this little critter and the other 3 that are in the que right now are the designs of the DH -- I'm just "smithing" with these)

This is a relatively little bear - only about 8 inches tall. His lower jaw is the really unusual thing about him -- its applied after he's all stuffed almost like attaching an ear -- and it has a wire in it for posing.

In the past I have always used pipe cleaners/chenille sticks for wiring things, but after my daughter's wedding I have some floral wire on hand that ought to get used for something, so I decided to try it out.

I like the stiffness of the floral wire better than the pipe cleaners -- its great stuff! Needless to say, I will be going to a different section of the craft store for future wire needs -- no more kiddie stuff here!

So, now that "Pinkie" is finished, its on to a larger bear today.




It may not look like much, but this is the beginning of the next quilting project

When I started thinking about the angel panels, I had originally thought of doing them in a "stained glass window" technique, but I decided that the pieces were a bit too small for all that black bias tape stitching.

So, I decided to try to make it look more like a Renaissance painting, which meant a lot of use of batik fabrics to get that "brush stroke" look.

Since I now have all of the pieces set up to begin working on this, I needed to get some yellows for the wings and halos, and something to use for the armor on Michael.

Imagine my surprise when I was wandering through the fabric area and discovered that metal looking gray fabric in with the quilt cottons -- and it was on sale no less!! I'm excited about getting started on this project.



No doubt you're looking at this picture and wondering "what the...?!"

This folks is where the fact that I've done a lot of fiber arts begins to create fused techniques

This is a needlepoint frame. Its original use was to hold a large needlepoint canvas while working on it to keep it from doing that diagonal pull thing that needlepoint tends to do (does anyone needlepoint anymore? is it another of the "antique" fiber arts (like tatting) that I know how to do but no one does anymore?)

Anyway.....when I do my pieced/appliqued quilt panels, I use a thin muslin backing that has the entire pattern drawn out on it. I like this approach because I always have a "map" of where I'm going, but its a continued struggle to make sure there's no "bunching" when pieces get stitched to it.

Viola! the needlepoint frame! I'm thinking this will work for these panels anyway. At least I'm going to try it.

I'm also going to be using acohol based fabric markers (Copic) to do shading and such on this one, and there has been some random discussion about having the ends of the feathers in the wings be "free" from the backing -- I'll keep you posted (also notice, the new working "ticker" has been added to the side bar for this project)



this is Mittnz #6!

A more sedate color and a larger size

nice soft wool



and while I was in the store picking up the stuff for the quilt, I saw this lovely stuff in a sale bin, and I thought they looked just like Mittnz #7, so I brought them home and last night I started the first of that pair


And under the catagory of either "Knitters will try anything" or "Playing with your food until its too dirty", my sister (bless her!) sent me the link to this clip that will instruct you how to knit with raman noodles.....

raman noodle knitting

I know, I know, its a little nutty, but trust me, it's actually possible! Go check it out

Ok, enough fun for this morning -- time for me to get busy designing a flyer for the show I'm doing in 3 weeks and some other things......

y'all have a great day!!