fourteen

i am finally putting together an etsy shop! i have taken quite a few pictures and am now writing up a few descriptions and pondering prices for the pieces that i will try selling. hopefully i will have my shop online in a day or two. i haven't been up to much recently, but did finish a little pin the other day. it is quite small, but falls nicely.
i have been having trouble deciding on a color combination for this blog, so don't worry if it seems to be a different color every other day. i am sure i will eventually settle on something.

thirteen: in need of inspiration

my mom asked me to make a couple of pillowcases as a present for a friend, but i am having the hardest time thinking of what to make. the one parameter i was given was that it should be white or cream colored, since we aren't sure what the person's house is like. i think my biggest problem is that i am over thinking what i should be doing rather than just going with the flow (which is what i usually do). i have start to embroider some little designs that i think i will incorporate into the cases once i decide what i am doing. fortunately, i am have until july or so to make the cases, so i will keep on thinking about what i should do...

twelve: my love affair with shrink plastic continues

i still can't get enough of shrink plastic! every thing i scribble on plastic sheets look so good once they have shrunk, which is great since i am not a very good artist. i like using colored pencil rather than permanent markers, the colors in the pencils become much more vibrant once they are shrunk. the other day, i tried to print something on one of the plastic sheets, but they were not compatible together because the sheet melted a little in the printer. oops. luckily, i didn't break it.
the earrings above are studs that i made. i used a spray polyurathane over them so that the color pencil would not fade or rub off.

eleven: i hate measuring

i really hate to measuring out my fabrics and materials when i am sewing, but i think i need to start doing it. i have been getting around measuring out fabrics, by making my different projects obviously asymmetrical or completely different sizes. however, i think it is now time that i bite the bullet and force myself to make things more uniform. i tried to make the two pillows below the same size, without measuring and i unfortunately failed. so, in the future, i am going to measure everything!
with these two pillowcases i tried to experiment with weaving. the woven center gives it an interesting dimension and i don't have to worry about sewing everything together, which is always a good thing.

i made this pillow as a showcase for a piece of embroidery i made a few months ago. i did all the colored embroidery on the patch by hand and then used the machine to sew around it. i think it looks pretty good, almost like it is fused together.