Finished!... Almost!

Okay, well, two things. One is finished, the other is almost.

First up is the weaving project. I finished, in time, and everything was perfect, and than it was not... for whatever reason at some point between Sunday night and this morning I switched times and thought that our final critique started at 11 (normal class time) instead of 10. I'm just hoping that my project kicked so much butt that it won't affect (or is it effect?) my grade too much and I will still get an A. I got 100% on my first project, so i'm hoping for the same on this one. So here are a few pictures:



You can see more of it before being burnt and while being burnt here.

And then there is the other project, you might remember when I started cleaning out that suitcase inside I got back in March. Well, it's clean now, and I starting making the lining for it:

The liner is actually an old vintage skirt that my friend in Indiana gave to me last time I visited. Thanks Deb! You rock to a super neat beat!

Here is the front image again that the artist Brett Whitacre painted:


I think I was stressing out too much about making the liner perfect, so now I'm just jumping in feet first and it's actually working out really well! Yea!

I think I am going to get some quilting batting so I can quilt the bottom and top sections of the suitcase. I'm also going to make some pockets with the elastic tops like they usually have in vintage suitcases. Oh to have a quilting machine, I could do some super cool things.

Oh and an update:
Here is the information on the performance piece I will be participating in Friday night/Saturday morning:

"Sleepless Labor
Installation/performance
177 North State Street, Corner of State and Lake
8-12 labor practitioners will participate
Performance is 14 hours – the duration of Looptopia event

Commemorating Chicago's history of garment production and recognizing
the sleepless night shift worker, I propose a 14-hour performance that
will occupy a display or storefront window. Becoming a garment
production facility for three laborers, working a rotating three-hour
shift for 14 hours. The laborers are participants from the
Synchronized Sewing Squad, a volunteer community from Chicago of
unskilled and skilled textile workers who perform garment production
in public space. During the 14 hours of production the squad will
construct uniforms symbolic of the night shift worker. As each
garment is completed it will be displayed in the empty windows."

My shift will be from 11pm - 2am... then some sleep in the back room until the trains start running, then class at 9:30 in naperville... there will be some train sleeping going on that morning. I'm going to be getting around the area at 8pmish to check out everything that is going on before my shift. The whole looptopia chicago event is going to be really great. Lots of art, lots of shops, lots of food, all open for 24 hours! Woo! Hopefully my body will be able to handle all of the over stimulation. Art Chicago about did me in.

Oh I am making progress on my knit/crochet tank, but I will show you pictures once I hit the 8 inch mark, it's coming up soon though!

Boo hoo!

So the sale is off, I just got an email about it today. I'm so disappointed. There was just a lack of vendor response, I understand, we can't just have an Ars Nova Art and Craft Sale with just 3 people... the president, the vice president, and one member. It's so annoying too because we had such a good response last semester... it's okay though... there will be more sales. And on top of that, I now have 34 catnip pillows made, 12 crocheted head wraps, fabric cut for 15 pencil clutches and 15 travel tissue holders, 10 dish cloths finished, and it's all going to go into the store once I get pictures taken. I'm still a little sad though, I was really looking forward to having a physical craft leftovers presence. Ahh... so it goes.

In other news, I have pictures up (finally) of the finished craft leftovers pattern for this past week. There are more pictures on the blog.
Oh, there won't be any pattern this week because of the Chicago performance I'm helping out with at Links Hall, I'll post pictures of the performance though on Saturday if I'm able to get any.

Have a good night!

Running at Full Throttle!

Gearing up for the Ars Nova Art and Craft Sale is in full swing! I have all of the small/child sized head wraps done and will start working on the med and larges today. I have also sew 34 cat nip pillows and am going to start filling them tonight. Right now it doesn't look like much, but it will when they are packed full of rice and catnip. I'm also going to cut the fabric for the pencil clutches today and if I have time some travel tissue holders too. I'm still trying to figure out display ideas. I want to try to make a step display made out of paper pulp from junk mail and paper scraps, but I have to make the form first which will be tricky for me.

I also have an old create that I'm going to fill with fabric and put the pencil clutches and tissue holders in. And then there is this swanky "take and Read" display I got a long time ago. I'm going to put kits for the pencil clutches and travel tissue holders along the bottom, pattern print out (they will be $1 ea) along the center, and then business cards and "about craft leftovers" pamphlets in the top. Perfect right. I love this little rack so much, I'm so glad I finally get to use it. Oh and then, I'm going to put the crocheted dishcloths in my dishdrain (which is bright red) and prop that up. I thought that would be kind of neat. I have a Styrofoam head that I will put one of the head wraps on, but I'm honestly not sure what to do with the rest of them. I'm sure I will get it figured out... Maybe that is what will go on the paper pulp stair form! Ha! Thanks for letting me chat this up with you all, because I think now I do know what I'm going to do for my display!

Now you may be wondering... how is she doing all this sewing if her machine is broke? Well, because of the generosity of others that's how. Thank you to everyone who donated, you have really made this little crafty lady happy! This is my new machine, isn't she beautiful?
It's a brother CE-4000 computer... she sews like a dream. If I would have known that sewing was so easy with a fulling working, not having to hold the foot control in your hand to make it go and only having one hand to guide things, no button hole function, bad tension, out of alignment, gets smelling like burning rubber when I use it machine, I would have bought one a long time ago.

And with that I'm going to head into the studio. Even though I have today completely off class, I have a lot to do... I'll show you what I've been up to in my studio at school in my next post.

Have a good day!

birds of a feather flock together

...or something like that. Point is, I made another little bird! I thought the boys needed a lady friend. She does have a little catnip in her belly and will go play with Molly later next week. I changed my mind about selling them as cat toys.... the idea of it kind of cracks me up now. Before I was a little horrified to have the little birdies in a cat's vicious claws. I guess after making two I got over it and realized that although they have their own personalities, they won't come back to haunt me if they split a seam.



Here is some shots of just her:


Okay so something pretty fricking cool happened yesterday! My other blog Craft Leftovers was mentioned on the Craftzine blog! I've had something like 500 hits in the last day! That's more than I usually get in a whole month. I know it's not going to last more than a couple of days, but for the time being it makes me feel pretty neat. The same post, the reusable tea bag along with the needle wrap, was also mentioned on the CraftyPod blog too! Thanks sister D! What the heck am I going to make this week that will make people want to come back.... too much pressure! I guess, just what I was planning on making, no reason to change it really. I just hope you all like it!

Oh yeah, another neat thing that I've been doing, related to school, is a woven tapestry based on an ancient culture. I chose the Anatolians for as my research topic and developed this pattern for my kilim tapestry. We had to do something based on their weaving tradition.
There won't be any grid lines in the finished product, they are just there to help me know what I'm supposed to be weaving. It's going to be about 4" x 6." I am going to use naturally dyed wool for the weft to better reflect on the culture's traditions. I have some walnuts left over from the sock yarn, so I figured I would use that. I'll show you pictures when it's finished.

Another school related: I've been cranking out about 12 little color studies every week since the first week of school and now have 50! It's not nearly enough.... I've decided that there needs to be enough to cover all the walls of a gallery and I think it will be my senior show... or a show this fall, which ever comes first. I'll take a picture when I go into the studio tonight. I'm also making a lot of progress on the endangered species project and have made some headway with the printing technique I'm using. I almost have the results that I want. I'll take pictures of that too. I'm shooting for a show for those works at the end of the summer... maybe at the botanical center in Chicago. Maybe I could donate them and they could auction them off to help with their conservation program... hmm... that might be good to look into.

Well, I need to get some rest before I head to work, I feel so fricking sick right now. Have a good day!

Fiber Stuff

Well I've finally started weaving in my weaving class. It took us the first 2 weeks to make our lap looms, but now we are off to a running start... doing plain weave. Which is okay, good practice, but I really can't wait until next week when we start doing tapestry stitches.

Here is my little loom, isn't it swell? I think so. I have done the first inch of weaving on it with 4 rows of twining to get things off to a good start. It's actually a two harness loom which is really nice, makes things go a lot faster than they did this summer. If only I had known, but I suppose now I do!

Also, that sock that I started knitting around the time of the last post is also making some headway. The cuff is actually about half way done! I'm very excited, I hope I actually finish the pair. I think I will though, there is a bit more motivation because it is yarn I dyed myself and I want to be able to wear them around and say "look what I made! Isn't this neat!?"

I was feeling a bit down and then realized that it was January and I was most likely feeling the winter blues. So I bought myself a pretty plant! Pink pedals and everything, she brightens up my apartment.

And good news all the more! I recieved another order this morning! So the first one wasn't just a freak acciedent after all! That is exciting. I'm working on a new type of catnip toy, hopefully by next weekend there will be a few for sale. This weekend I'm going to put up some more items for sale, I will post an update on the blog if I do.

Oh on a sad note, I'm going out of town tomorrow afternoon so there will be now Craft Leftover pattern this week. I'm very sad about this, I really like doing them every week. I think I'm just going to have to work on those submission guidelines to help fill in the weekends I can't write one. Or I might just have a once a month scheduled off weekend for out of town purposes.

Anyway, I'm super tired and still need to pack so I better head out. Have a good night!