I have some stuff to show, woo!

"Bubble Candy," my second legit go at spinning. Definitely not perfect, but fun! I think it looks like a cross between cotton candy & bubble gum. It's a single right now, but I'm going to make a hat for a coworker with it, so once I figure out what I'll need for the hat I'll somehow ply it. Superwash merino, ~96yds


And this is super exciting for me, I learned how to do a whole bunch of stuff at the alpaca farm this week! I got to take some red-dyed alpaca, pick it, run it through an electric drum carder into a batt, then blend it with the white merino. Then I learned how to diz it off into a nice roving! It's about 3.2oz & I'm planning to spin it up rather lofty, set the twist in a bath with peppermint essential oils & then make a holiday stocking. For now it's decorative on my bookcase.


Right now I have an avocado green Peruvian wool on my spindle, but I don't have in progress pics of it. Hoping to finish it soon so I can start spinning up my peppermint roving!

Jexxican - I really love the colors in the copper mine!

Wooo! First time posting yarn! After months of ogling the yarns in this forum & spending hours researching, I finally learned to spin on an adventure to a local alpaca farm a few weeks ago! With traveling, I haven't been able to do too much, but am really excited to do more with my shiny new drop spindle!

"Frankie M." ~40 yds

The name comes from that it is the fleece from a llampaca named Frank mixed with a little bit of merino. It's not incredibly even, somewhere around a sport & a worsted? But I don't think it's bad for a first full go (I had only done a couple short learning lengths before this one)! I'm going to knit it into a mug warmer as a part of my sister's Christmas gift set.

Blue Mohair Plying ~133 yds

I don't really feel right naming this one because I didn't spin or dye it. As an extra gift while I was learning, the gal who owns the farm gave me a ball of blue mohair she had on hand so I could learn to ply, it was a practice ball someone else had spun & dyed that had been sitting around for a while. It was great practice! No plans for this yet.

And because I'm stoked about my next project, I need to wash & prep these, like, 10-12 lbs of alpaca fleece I bought recently (for, like, $25, score!) so I can start spinning them! Also waiting on getting some sheep's wool from one of my husband's coworkers! Woo!


oK, well, sorry for rambling! I'm just so excited!!

Got the wedding gifts done! And I am very happy with them! As I said, they didn't really have a registry or ask for gifts, but she did mention that she is redoing their home in a vintage/rustic style & that her favorite color is purple. So I did some antiquing & some shopping & put together a couple things for them! It actually worked out well that I procrastinated, lol, because I was able to incorporate an image from their program into my painting work on the coffee grinder.

Mason Jar Bouquet


Coffee Grinder



I posted another thread for them here, Bouquet/Grinder Thread. It includes more detail shots & info about what went into them, so I don't bog this thread down too much, lol.

So my sister- & brother-in-law recently got married! Yay!!! They've been together for over a decade & have a home together, so they didn't really do a registry or ask for gifts. But being me, I had to make them something, of course! After talking with her, I found out that she is redoing their home in a vintage/rustic style, & that her favorite color is purple.

After an afternoon of adventuring to antique & thrift stores, I had a vintage blue mason jar, a purple & blue handkerchief, vintage lace, four tarnished serving forks & a coffee grinder. Also picked up some lace, pearl-like beads, floral foam, silk flowers, a paper mache box & some acrylic paints & ribbon from my stash. After a few crafting sessions, a nice big cut on my finger & some help from my mom, I got these!

Vintage Mason Jar Bouquet
Includes the mason jar, handkerchief, laces, beads, ribbon, forks & flowers in an almost scuptural layering under a bouquet of flowers & curled forks.


Closeup of the jar


Closeup of the forks & flowers


Altered Coffee Grinder
Includes the coffee grinder, paper mache box, floral foam, flowers & paints. The grinder was missing the drawer, so I added that with the box & handpainted it, including their names & wedding date.


Closeup of front (the name & date are on the top above this)


Side view, luckily, a time crunch (& the exciting event of having to fill out paperwork for a new job!) delayed this one until after the wedding, this tree is based on the image they used on their wedding programs


Hope you guys like them as much as they did & as much as I enjoyed making them! C&C always welcome!

For the recent Disney Swap, I was crafting for the wonderful Amigurl55. One of her favorite films & themes was Alice in Wonderland, & she asked for a pillowcase. So I whipped this up for her! I'd been ogling the technique of sketching with a sewing machine, & even though I don't have a cool free-motion foot, I decided to give it a go! I've also been on a macro-image kick, & thought it would be a fun way to re-imagine the Alice themes in a cool way.

Side A, going down the rabbit hole. Light blue & cream for Alice's dress, & three shades of gray & black for the spiral, gray for the lettering.



Side B, I'm late. Red for the white rabbit's coat, black for his tail & the letters, & a gold metallic thread for the watch.



It's all stitched through two layers of the white fabric & then pieced together into a pillowcase with french seams. It was a fun piece to work on for Amigurl! I hope you all have fun looking at it, too! C&C always welcome!

For the August Birthday Swap, I claimed the lovely lovesclutter for a dotee, or two. Well, I ended up making three. When I am see the phrase, "I love cuss words," what else am I supposed to do? lol I tried to make them all fun & fit into other themes & likes she has, I think I did a reasonably good job with these!

First, for her love of her cats & all things red, a "Cat Who Gives a Sh**." Red fabric with embroidered features.

And, the back, get it? lol Chain stitch there, can you guess what the brown beads are suggesting now?
 
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Second, for her love of flappers, a beautiful flapper gal with a bit of a risque side. Black satin, feathers (from her headband, you can't see them too well), beaded trim, strung seed bead "pearls," some felt & ribbon.

And her risque side, embroidered in backstitch.
 
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Third & last, for her love of rainbow, I wanted it to be totally in your face & so much rainbow it could make more color-sensitive people's eyes bleed. Embroidered with stem/lining stitch on fabric, the back has nothing special, just more of the overwhelming rainbow circles. lol This is "B****, please," possibly the best swearing phrase ever!
 
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I'm really, really pleased to have been able to make these for lovesclutter, since it gave me an opportunity to have some good old-fashioned fun, & especially because it gave me an amazing chance to make something really special for someone that could really make her smile & laugh! Hope you all get a kick out of them, too! C&C always welcome!

For the recent Disney Swap, I was crafting for the wonderful Amigurl55. One of her themes that she listed was the Tiki Room. In my initial research I found a wonderful Tiki Room image here that was just begging to be embroidered!

I picked up an 8" embroidery hoop, cut up the image & re-arranged it to fit the hoop & this is what I came up with!


The flowers & baskets are satin & stem/lining stitch.


And I really wanted to make the birds have a feathered texture, so they are long & short stitch, but I changed the lengths of the stitches so that when they would have longer feathers, the stitches are longer & shorter stitches for short feathers.


I was trying to work mostly out of my stash, so I ended up taking some scrap fabric I had that I loved the pattern, but not the tone, & tinted it using some watercolour. Here's an image of the pre- & post-watercolouring fabric.


I was very happy to make this for Amigurl, & I hope you all like it, as well! C&C always welcome!

For the recent Disney Swap, I was crafting for the wonderful Amigurl55. She listed one of her favorite characters as the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland As soon as I saw that, I knew what I had to do! I had to do that moment where he's just a floating head with these levitating stripes of his body. I felt crazy at first, because polymer clay is definitely not my area of expertise, & trying to sculpt something hollow? Yea, seriously, I must be crazy. But, I think it turned out really well!

I started with a wire & aluminum foil skeleton & head. I forgot to get a pic with measurements, but he's about 6"l x 4"w x 3"h.


The face took me about 4 1/2 hours to sculpt because I had to keep going back over it to get it right.


Then added the "ribbon" of his stripes around the wire. This is the part I am probably least happy with, but I was having trouble getting it smooth without squishing it, so it's a bit lumpy. 


Oh well, though, after he was all baked & gessoed, I painted him with acrylic paints & finished him with a clear coat. Overall, I'm really happy with how he turned out! I'm quite pleased with him, especially the combination of sculpted & painted face.



I hope you like him! C&C welcome!

Received a wonderful & amazing package from lovesclutter today!! She was so amazingly kind to me & sent me not only the beautiful poppet she claimed me for, but a bunch of extras as well! (I love being the recipient of stash busting! lol)

First, the incredible haul of extras that just seemed to keep coming out of the box! Toole, ribbon x 2, trim, rubber band ball, super cool owlie earrings, bamboo knitting needles & notes in a cat envelope...

..and two sizes of curly hair, a heart box & inside that were half a dozen spools of beautiful thread! I love the two slightly variegated embroidery threads (two non-green small ones)!!!


And the beautiful Rapunzel poppet she made for me! She stalked me so well, in a previous swap I had mentioned liking strong, independent Disney princesses, Rapunzel included, so she sent me a Rapunzel to join my Pocahontas!! Yay!!
Front, you can see the hair clip detail in her hair & the top of her beautifully crocheted dress, & all that hair!!!

Back, you can see her tail, the beautiful clip in her hair & a bit more detail of the crocheted dress, which, I love how lovesclutter gave her a non-traditional dress, I love the purple & black together!!

And Rapunzel & Pocahontas hanging out on my bookshelf!


Thank you so, so much, Lovesclutter! This is such an amazing package & I really appreciate that you offered to put in the time to make me such a splendid poppet! Thank you!!!

Oh, & another pic of the flapper dotee I made for Lovesclutter!

Yep! It was waiting in my mailbox when I got home from an appointment!!! And it is beautiful!!!

Wow, just, wow! She sent me this amazing & stunning peacock hoopla! FeliciaSlay, your adventure to the zoo definitely paid off, the feather is so beautiful & adds so much! Seriously, everyone, look at this beauty!!


And detail of the beautiful peacock!


And the floral print fabric she sent me as well, so wonderful!

Thank you so, so much, FeliciaSlay, this is some truly beautiful work & it already has a place of honor on my wee hoopla wall!