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If there is one thing I know it is how to rock a summer. Obviously, there is nothing cooler than teaching yourself how to quilt off Youtube. I did have some motivation, Eden got chicken pox and we have been in quarantine for the last two weeks. If you can't go out, you may as well learn something new at home.
The first picture is the back of the quilt which MAY not appear to be a stunning or revolutionary view but hot d*mn! it is a thing of beauty. I quilted it on my regular home Janome and there is not one pucker. Seriously, what are the odds. I meant to go get a walking foot for my machine to make quilting easier but with sick kids and exhaustion I never made it out. So this is a double miracle in my books. Now, on to the flashy side...
I think these blocks are called Amish Star blocks. I learned to make them and a ton of other random blocks from Missouri Star Quilt Co. on Youtube. There are some mad geniuses at work in the quilting community. I had no idea. The ladies break down scary, intimidating blocks like these (scary to me anyway) and actually make them so simple that they become monotonous to make. 
I also realized that I have had a rotary cutter for about 6 years that I had never used. I don't know why I am so slow to embrace new tools but I can be stubborn that way. The rotary cutter has CHANGED MY LIFE!! sob, sob, sniffle... I'm ok. It is pretty cool and saves so much time and headache that I feel a bit stupid for not using it for so long. Those days are behind me now though, onward and upward. 
It was just a quilt waiting to happen in my studio. I had all the fabric ready and purchased for someone who had told me his preferred colour scheme but I just couldn't see how to put them together. I will be giving him his quilt next weekend so for now it is a *secret* ssshhhh.
Each block is 11" so the final quilt is just over 4' x 5'. It should be perfect to throw on the couch for him and his lady to watch movies all snuggled up.
It seems weird to me that I could make this. I am after all not Amish and not a grandma and it was secretly really fun. My next quilt for my own couch is a Bento Box quilt made with a Moda Honey Bun (fancy quilting name for set of pre-cut 1.5" strips of fabric) that Dark Cloud sent me and some fabric from my stash. It's pretty ugly but I'm glad, I won't be as upset when Eden and Arlo spread jam on it and make it into a quilt sandwich.
**edited to add that the Bento Box quilt is not ugly because of the fabric sent by Dark Cloud, her fabric is awesome. I however did not think the design through all the steps very well and the end result, to put it mildly, is incredibly buzy.
Here is a quilt that I powered through in the last week. It is for friends that have had a tough time. They need some love. And since I am too far away to go into a mad cooking frenzy (like I usually would) I hurled myself into a quilt project for them. It is truly a scrap quilt, all the trees are made out of bits and pieces left over from Grandpa N's quilt and assorted other green things I have made. I have made an astonishing array of green things it seems.
The top photo (I don't know why it is sideways, blogger issues) is of the back, Captain Obvious, which I decided to semi-piece for added loveliness. This was inspired by the gorgeous work of Red Pepper Quilts. She makes the greatest quilts and all of them have been given extra spice on the back, not to mention some really beautiful long arm quilting. As a novice quilter I am in deep awe of her mad skills.
It was raining cats and dogs yesterday so I let the girls rot their little brains a bit and watch a movie. While they turned into mini couch potatoes, I came up with a new bag. It's the biggest bag yet and is verging on luggage. I reinforced everything with heavy interfacing and quilted it. So it will hold everything and keep it all safe.
It has an interior zipper pocket and two deep leather pockets on the front. 
I found an old leather coat like one Bad Babs had when I was little. It had some great leather buttons that I saved and used one on the front flap though I opted to use Velcro for the actual closure. I fought against Velcro for a while, but in the end decided that it won out for practicality. Next I will try a zipper AND the Velcro, just in case you have stuff that needs to be EXTRA safe and twice as hard to get at in a hurry.
It occurs to me that this would only be the case if you did not have kids in tow, as all my purse has in it are gum wrappers, cracker crumbs and last weeks art projects from story time at the library all marinating in leaking sippy. Hmmm. Foul, I know.
And the little critters who left me alone enough for a few minutes each night to let me finally finish it. PH and I have often lamented the sorry state of women's handbags. There are too many rhinestones, studs, gold latches, useless-decorative pockets, extra handles and patent leather parts for me to feel comfortable with. I don't want my purse looking like a cheap hooker. Not even with my new hair, it still is not me.
So I decided to make myself a test purse and then, if it worked, make it a flagship purse, one I really wanted to carry around flaunting it's happy existence without all the standard purse-deco, clutter garbage. The front panel is hard felted merino in blues and greens and silvers with a lot of sashiko mermaid stitching. The pocket on the front panel came from the leather coat I used on the back panel. This is truly and unsale-able item due to all the hours of stitching involved in it's subtle decoration.
The back panel is an up-cycled suede leather coat, and the inside is a fantastic flannel print with old cars and the appropriate accessories for traveling around in such ancient vehicles. I wish I had taken a photo of the fabric before it went inside the bag.
This is a close up of some of the stitching and (shame on me) my logo embroidered on in flashy red and white. I am a fame whore just waiting to be recognised :)
When I went to school for ceramics I would have called this red and white mark my 'chop' and stamped it on the underside of all my works as a signature of sorts. Somehow, even with the switch in mediums I still feel like this makers mark is important. Maybe even more important in a world filled with cheap, mass-produced goods where the items aren't even seen by the people whose names appear as the chop or brand.
This post isn't much to look at, but it is big news!!
Little brown badger has an Etsy shop. Indeed, now there are two places to catch the latest in LBB happenings and crafty outpourings. For the moment the Etsy shop is focused on bags and purses, wet felted merino wool and re-purposed leather goods. Come on over and check it out. There are still many things to be ironed out and many more items yet to be listed so keep checking back!!
Somehow, while I was changing diapers, encouraging little people to eat their veggies, potty training and infinite other mothering chores I forgot I had a head.
I know, I feel bad for every single person who has been forced to look at my head for most of the last 5 years. I just didn't know I was rocking such a sad, sad, SAD head of shaggy, neglected dog hair. I am officially sorry. And it is with a sigh of relief that I introduce you to my new hair.
I have a lot to learn about doing my own fabulous hair. I really underestimated how much product I should be using and this morning after doing my hair myself I looked much fluffier. Note to self: pile on the gunk for sleek, shiny hair. I feel like I should have known to use more product. When I woke up this morning, the morning after the great hair revolution, I felt like my head had been buttered. Gross yes, but lovely, oh sooooo lovely.
I was hoping to upload a few more pics of this quilt for you, but for some reason, blogger would only like you to see this one. All the others keep getting uploaded sideways or upside down. Crazy.
Anyway, I know I seemed like a lazy poster here for a while and I just wanted to show you all what I was up to. Boss Hog, the kidlets and I are heading down to Vancouver tonight for my little brother's wedding. Yes it is true, my little baby brother is getting married (and I am getting out the Kleenex for the wedding already). Him and his lovely lady will be wed Feb. 20th. The patch on the back of the quilt says their names and the date and has little interlocking rings sewn onto it with my free-motion foot. If blogger would stop spinning my photos I would show you.
I got the idea from a book I took out of the library. It is full of great quilting ideas that run the gamut from super simple to complex, mind boggling (to me anyway) designs that I will never have the guts to attempt.
I had to photograph this one draped haphazardly over the futon in the guest room because the light hitting our bed was not great during the ten minutes I had to photograph it between clipping off the last errant threads and packaging it up to stick in the car. Meanwhile, Boss Hog was roaming around innocently suggesting that I had embroidered the date wrong on the patch.
Helpful? NOT SO MUCH @#%^&*\
I am no longer feeling all-cappsy but I have taken a few painkillers to keep my head from exploding en route.
Over the holidays we were visiting friends. Somehow diluting red wine with water was mentioned and out of the recesses of their cabinets came this bottle. They brought it back from Europe 25-30 years ago.
It seems these split bottles were common as many women liked to mix their wine with water. I had never seen anything like it so I made Boss Hog pose with it so I could show it to DCBS who has a bit of a thing for bottles.Never one to miss an opportunity, I made him take off his sweater too so you could all see the shirt I made him for our anniversary. It is another freezer paper stencil. I am no longer OBSESSED with stencilling everything, but I do still hold the freezer paper in high regard. 
But as you can see, I'm not a huge fan of ironing. Can't win them all. When PH and DC were here this winter--together! at the same time!--they gave me the rundown on how my whole life would improve with the addition of invisible zippers. Of course they were right. I haven't looked back. I've made five things with invisible zippers in a month!!
This dress is one of my favourites. I bought the green linen in Vancouver this summer and have just been waiting for time to sew it into a new dress. I know the dress is not flashy and linen wrinkles like a son of a gun, but I just love it. This is the second time I've made this pattern and I did a really good job following instructions. The first time there were a few things I couldn't puzzle through in the instructions that I thought I could figure out on the fly. Hmmm. Not so much.
This time I trusted the great sewing gods at Vogue, did their bidding, et voila! it is a testament to mankind. It is lined and fits perfectly (I did have to take in the back a bit and I left off the giant bow, blech) and it's linen, so why waste time ironing it anyway?
Boss Hog and I did a collaborative project this year. It went really well. It's not often we can work together and still end up happy with each other and pleased with the results. This project was perfect in its division of skills and labour. He took a stained glass course and knows how it all goes together. I have a fine arts degree and large paper. This was Boss Hog's second piece of stained glass ever, and it's about 2feet by 3 feet. Yup, 'go big or go home' is often our motto around here.
He said he wanted a tree in this window.
I obligingly sketched one out.
He took it away and thought about it.
He said it would work and took me to the glass supply shop to pick colours.
Then he, the sheets of glass and the sketch paper disappeared.
Boss Hog returned one night with a roll of copper foil and stacks of labeled rectangles of glass. I was allowed the menial chore of rolling the foil around the edges of the rectangles and squares while we watched a movie.
Then the squares and BH disappeared again.
When they finally reappeared, the window was finished and framed with a lovely and ingenious frame that hangs IN FRONT of the actual window (so we can take it with us if we move!).
So, by working alone on parts of a collaborative project where we never had to be working together AT ALL we managed to complete this window and stay married.
After cursing and fiddling with the darning/free-motion foot I picked up for my sewing machine a month ago I finally had time to get it to work properly. The manual for my machine offers no insight and the package the foot came in has nothing printed on it other than the name. I assumed the best way to work this thing was without feed dogs to allow for the implied free-motion. HA HA! Silly me. I also assumed that using an inverted embroidery hoop would give me more control and allow for more even tension on the underlying fabric (wool felt in this case)I found a diagram to this effect. Again HA HA!
The stitches weren't catching and the tension was way off on the bottom. My frustration levels were rising and so was my blood pressure.... then I walked away (in an uncharacteristically grown-up fashion). I came back to my machine days later and pretended not to have any clue as to how free-motion sewing SHOULD work.
As it turns out, my machine would like the feed dogs up and engaged with nary an embroidery hoop in sight. Who knew?
Now that I do know though, I will likely need to buy thread in bulk. This free-motion stuff is fun and hypnotising and burns through thread like there is no tomorrow.
I had some scrap pieces of felt from making larger things and decided to make more cuffs. I love wearing big jewellery and mostly can't afford it. I have some issues with all the leather cuffs out there too. They are a bit boring. In any case, I sweated over making this felt and I don't intend to waste any. So I went out and found some glass beads and shell buttons and did my best to blind myself sewing into the dark of night to satisfy my craving for felt that sparkles. Imagine satisfaction in blinding yourself. I should be locked up!
I am participating in an art fair this December. It's the second time I've done this fair and I really enjoyed doing it last year. Since it's in a gallery they make you go through the whole application procedure. I think it's worthwhile just to keep up practice jumping through gallery hoops. I re-wrote my bio and justified my practices on paper. Being forced to think that way about what you make is dull but usefull.
This is one of the felted wall hangings I made for the show. I used some of the new techniques I learned this summer from Jessica at her excellent felting workshop. I also went out and invested in a darning foot for my sewing machine and spent two afternoons trying to make the thing work (it came with no instructions and my sewing machine manual was no help at all).
It was worth it though. That is a fun attatchment. I can burn through the thread in no time.
My mom and dad were up for a visit and Bad Babs photographed nearly the whole procedure on her camera from roving to rolling and cutting. She had to leave before it was dry so she missed the sewing machine part but it looks like she has the makings of an excellent documentary on the fabulous skills of her daughter. I expect nothing could be more rivetting than an expose on felting.
Yeah, who knew. I was asked about a year ago to make a felted stag costume for my step-father in law. I said sure. The deadline was not for a year, LOADS of time. Naturally I didn't think anything more about it until the mad halloween scramble hit our house in September. At which time I also needed costumes for two small girls. Luckily for me the girls found princess costumes at a thrift shop and were quite happy for me to do nothing other than their make-up. I was pleased enough to be a witch for the third year running. Sadly for me (though a relief to him) I didn't have time to make or find Boss Hog a costume. I was thinking of Sherlock Holmes for him but will have to save that for next year.
I did manage to drag him outside to pose in the stag hat before we sent it off. It was about three degrees outside and the only white shirt he had was thin linen. Boss Hog was a soldier and let me pose him for about 15 minutes before the camera battery died and I let him go back inside. I am a cruel and unusual task master, no?
Here we are harvesting our first crop of potatoes. We are not farmers. We have no idea what we are doing and planted them WAY too late. I think we may have just tripled what we actually planted. Not a wildly successful harvest. But we learned a lot and got our hands dirty and promise to do better next time. Arlo wanted to pick potatoes in her pj's because they have farm animals on them and she thinks she is a farmer like grandpa K.
Grandpa K (who is a certified organic farmer) hooked us up with some seed catalogues. Apparently we're meant to plan our yard just after we clear up from the chaos of Christmas, not in spring, who knew? Not I.
Next years garden will be as many purple and pink veggies as we can cram in to our wee plot. The princess veggies rein supreme around here, obviously.
***Editors note: I crassly forgot to mention that the stunning hat I am wearing in this photo was made for me by the lovely Postmodern Hausfrau. A thousand appologies. It is knitted and, while I didn't ask, I wouldn't put it past her to have invented the pattern for it as well. Delightful as always.
There has been a lot of quilting. It isn't something I thought I would like but as it turns out, it's pretty addictive. I really enjoy that they always keep you warm and you don't have to worry about making them flattering. Quilts fit everybody.
And some non-felted art for the same show based on the very amusing novel Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters.
And all the while teaching myself how to do my own eyebrows and make myself look like the undead. A girl only has so much time to perfect these critical things.
I know I could have spread these projects out to get the maximum air-play from each of them but time marches on. There will be more in the future but I am leaving you for now with this charming picture of myself at Halloween.
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