Fall inspiration: apple picking!

Yesterday I spent a fantastic afternoon picking apples at Larriland Farm in MD. What a great autumn activity!

Stayman and Braeburn apples were available to pick yourself...and yes, I did get on a ladder. Other types of apples (Golden Delicious, Jonagold, etc.) from local MD orchards were available in bins as well.
 

 

 

I was inspired to create something apple-related so I started work on an applique purse.

I'm keeping the stitching minimal on this one to emphasize the apple's shape and color. So cute!

My next creation? Some delicious apple crisp or pie to use up the bag of fruit I bought! 

Fall is here...and projects in progress

Yay fall! The leaves are just starting to change and it's getting cooler finally (man I hate the heat). Other things to love about fall:

• Boots weather! I can finally wear all the awesome boots I bought this year.
• Halloween. Jenny and I purchased some crazy costumes online so we can at last go as ABBA...although I'm not sure if we'll get any guys to agree to dressing up as Bjorn or Benny...
• Candy corn season! I always forget how much I love candy corn until it hits the stores again in the fall. Along with some coworkers, I ate a whole bag of candy corn this week and it was delicious!

This inspired me to finally start on a project I'd had in mind for at least a year--a candy corn purse.. Here's the purse in progress...I decided to go with a variety of candy sizes.

Picking out the fabric for the lining should also be interesting. I'm thinking either a black/white print or something with both yellow and orange. I want to finish it this week to have it in my shop for Halloween.

I finished my second felt cockatiel softie in time for Bill and Allison's wedding a few weeks ago...

This one presented a little more of a challenge as I was trying to make it look like a pearl cockatiel. I used sticky felt to make the white spots on the back.

I also managed to stitch a bunch of new pins this week (while watching lots of bad tv, of course--current favorites are Say Yes to the Dress, What Not to Wear, and Millionaire Matchmaker).

I should have the new pins available in my etsy shop shortly!

Octopurses!

Today I finally finished my two new octopus purses!



I love how glam the blue/green one looks with the sequins. The orange one is just kind of plump and cheerful.

It reminds me of when I was in middle school, and we had the opportunity to get pen pals in French class. My best friend asked for a boy pen pal from France. When he first wrote to her (in English), he said, "My name is Sebastian and I am quite plump." I love this.

I just listed the purses on etsy as well, go take a look!
 

More exciting news--now at VisArts Too!

As of last week, my crafty items will now be sold at VisArts Too! in Rockville Town Square. The VisArts space is really cool, I explored a little bit while I was dropping off my artwork. It's a brand-new space filled with lots of light and fabulous art! VisArts Too! is the retail store on the round floor. Upstairs, they have great studios, and you can walk around, explore, and ask the resident artists questions.

The shared studio of a group of 8 fiber artists upstairs was particularly interesting...they had great woven, dyed, and printed fabric pieces of all kinds. Definitely inspired me to go to December's meeting of the Potomac Fiber Arts Guild. My friend Krista went last month and had great things to say. I've been meaning to go for some time, and at the December meeting they're having their annual sale/auction/brunch so it should be fun!

This all came about because I went to Strathmore's Museum Shop Around this year and fell in love with pretty much everything at the VisArts booth! I bought a few things, including a gorgeous floral ceramic tray for my parents, made by Wandering Trail Ceramics.

Anyway, some of the items I have at the VisArts Too! shop are my handwoven chenille scarves, owl pins, felt tags, leaf coasters, flower barrettes, and felt purses. So if you're in the Rockville area, go check it out!

Octopus purse in progress!

I'm working on another custom piece, an octopus purse for Gleb's other niece, and came up with a few template options. I'm still trying to decide what to put on the back, along with her name. Ideas?

Gleb and I both liked the tie-dye one best...although the orange is more striking. The blue one was my first try, and I think it would look super-cute with some green tentacles!

I'm also thinking of doing a orange-yellow version, that would be striking as well on the purple background, and could have orange tentacles. The tie-dye one is probably a bit busy for tentacles.

I cut these out freehand, which was way harder than I was expecting. I am now the friggin octopus MASTER. The first one I cut out of light blue felt ended up being 2 inches too big in each direction to fit on the bag! However, it's super cute so I'm saving it for a wall piece or something. Gleb said, "I may have other uses for a large felt octopus. It is just the kind of life I lead." I think perhaps it would be a good piece to keep my felt Whaley company.

This also made me think of Doctopus:

I don't remember how we found him, but is he not fantastic???! In the good ol' days at Kaplan, we printed him out, colored him with crayons and hung him on the wall. Ah I miss that sort of ridiculousness!

Owls and updates...

I've moved on to purple owls now...just posted a few of them to my etsy shop. Take a peek:

Dark Purple Hoot Owl barrette ('n friends)

Purple Hoot Owl barrette

Dark Blue Hoot Owl pin

Helen suggested I use more photos of the backs of the pins, so I'm trying to do that consistently again in my etsy shop. I guess I got lazy about it somewhere there...

I have two new requests for pieces, one is an octopus purse for Gleb's other niece and the other is a piggy collage (or several small piggy artworks?) for my friend Emily for a baby girl's room :) Exciting!!

More hoot owls--now in blue!

Ok so I've been working on these owls for like 3 days now, and surprisingly, I'm not tired of them yet. Today I worked mostly on blue owls, making both pins and pendants.

Next on my list to do:

1) Finish sewing princess purse.
2) Make felt cupcake pins & pendants. I couldn't find any I liked on etsy, which is shocking. Clearly this is a void I must fill.
3) Something holiday or winter-themed for the Washington Post Holiday Crafts Contest. I'm thinking something featuring images of either snowflakes or candles. I'm not really much of a snowman person though...can you see me carrying or wearing anything with a dang snowman on it?

Help me pick fabrics!

Ok I've finished all the embroidery on the sides of the Princess Purse and now I'm trying to select a fabric for the lining. I've narrowed it down to my three favorites, a light pink with tiny hearts, dotted yellow, and dark pink with swirls. But I cannot choose! Please help by adding a comment below to tell me which one you like best!





Usually what I do to select fabrics for the lining is I narrow it down, and show a selection of 5 or 6 to my friend Brie. She picks one and I usually end up doing the opposite of what she suggested! Haha. She says the space purse was the first time I actually listened to her on my fabric choice. So getting the feedback really does help!

Votes and other notes

The results are in! It looks like I got some late voters yesterday on my "next craft project" poll...we had a tie between Solar System felt tags and something containing owls. The percentages don't add up to 100 for some reason though. I will have to brainstorm something good with the owls on it. Some options:

• Felt purse
• Coffee cup cozy (not that I drink coffee)
• Eyeglass case (Brie has been telling me to make one for months)
• Necklace pendant
• Hairclip or pin

In theory I could make all of those. In other news, Glebby has requested a princess purse for her niece, who likes girly things! :) I had this purse already designed in my head so it was quick to start--here it is with the pieces cut, while I was still playing with sequins:

The front will have a crown and Gleb's niece's name embroidered on it, the back will have a magic wand and some more sparkly sequins, of course. I finished stitching the front last night:

Love how it turned out but stitching words freehand in cursive is NOT easy!