Another Mystery

On my way to Mina's - can you guess what these are? Answer after I return.

Yes, my commenters are correct  - when I saw this

I had to come back with these

We are going to have an Easter parade in the window.

My first cinematic tribute in felt

Can you identify the film and character?

The Bad Seed

Japan Earthquake Aid

People on Etsy are all over quake relief and donations, items ranging $1.00 on up in price. Here's a link to the search page for Japan Relief:

Japan Relief on Etsy

You can modify the search in any way you like, of course.

Above photo of my Etsy Japan piece.

Dude!

Above, a photo from the Barbara H. Donnelly book "The Crewel Needlepoint World", published in 1973. If middle-aged ladies needed yet another reason to craft, she advises "Vests showing your man's hobbies will be a favorite with him". Imagine the possibilities...A vest lovingly embroidered with little motocycles for HIM to wear at the Harley Davidson Clubhouse on Saturdays. Can you think of more?

He likes it, really.

I am contemplating linkage here, as in April 2, posts of raw materials or work in progress (as long as it's not too far along). I would link those up, then May 2 link to the finals (as always, I would add in to the post as people posted their own).

TFE, before you ask, I don't know if the needlepoint world is more unkind than any other.

The Thrilling Denouement

Things Etsy have gotten off to what I would describe as leisurely start (no sales so far) ...so I stopped making little things for a few days to concentrate on this. It's essentially a continuation of my mosaic sculpture work, except I used felt instead of broken dishes. The armature was our friend the styrofoam head. Since it was smaller than an actual head, I moved the architecture around quite a bit, pinning it in various ways at different times. If you want to see more views of this veritable feast for the head, see my Etsy shop at right.

Why so melancholy, styrofoam head?

It looked this way before I started sticking pins in it, honest.

More on this tomorrow.

Reader, I ate it.

Like a window at Chartres, I think -

But there you go,

The flesh against the spirit,

We know how that song goes.

Work in Progress

I made a paisley....now it is going to be part of a corporate entity.

Don't think this counts as a craft tip, but I am learning that the photogenic quality of the model (thank you, Faith) does not compensate for the operator's deliberately limiting her knowledge about equipment. As in, read the manual for the camera. As with most creatives, this falls for me into the area of following the recipe and is met with much resistance and agonizing.

But photos are not clay, or felt...

Rain

Hi guys. I've just been sewing and shrinking sweaters in the wash like a posessed fiend. I seem to be going over to the crafty side. And trying Etsy once again...before, I was trying to sell mosaic plates, somehow I seemed to lose the profit with the shipping. Felt is lighter! Also doesn't break! Also smaller!

My plan is to show you what I'm working on now and then, along with some crafty hints. I will also be breaking out the craft blogs and posting them at top on the sidebar.

Anyway, let me just start with one tiny thing. In forcing a needle through several thick layers, you can use a wide-ish rubber band where the point of the needle is sticking out to pull it the rest of the way through the fabric.

See you tomorrow, when I will start visiting.

At right, a link to my etsy shop. Heh, if you visit there, let me know if you recognize the cinematic reference (reviewed here a while back).