Two new purses!

Whew, two bags done, except to sew the buttons into place. These will be for the Jonny Z Fest.

#210, Panda news, Dove update, and my asemic book.

 This card went off to a mail artist in Chicago, who has one blog focused on fish. I found that the entry for poisson was still in my old Larousse (that I cut up) and this fish image is from an old drawing (like 1708) of a sturgeon fish that existed in Jamestown, Virginia when it was first settled. The background is an oyster farm in southeast Asia. See Adamandia here.

 Here's Ace with the second to the last Panda Pocket. The last of the 1970's era Panda Pockets was sold and sent to Michigan. That's all folks. I saved a tiny piece to make into a tiny pillow for N. It was the fabric I purchased at his request, to cover his nap mat for school. It's exciting to see people enjoying my Pockets and especially to know that the Panda fabric (made in America, now a piece of our history) is being used. I've put up a few other Pockets in my Fritzi shop.

 I'm participating in an Asemic book project. Here is what I've done for it. I made 8 collages using strips of text cut so that they can't be read, made compositions using flat color grounds on black background. I individually glued down each strip of text, which took more time than I thought it would. I couldn't create 16 books (x 8 pages.) I copied the work two per sheet double side. It's on heavy stock, which worries me as I hope it won't interfere with the binding process. I like the way the compositions turned out. Now I'm added a letter form to each and every collage, so that no two books are the same. Rather none of the books are the same. I'll have the first 8 ready to mail by the end of the week. The rest will be send by the deadline, 22 July. I know this would be a challenge when I took it on, and I felt stretched by it, but that's a good thing. 

Here's our dove, as of yesterday. See her little eye looking at me?

Now back to work on my asemic project.

Fritzi, my Etsy shop

Skull-a-Day fabric

 I've let Fritzi, my Etsy shop go bare for a bit, while I concentrated on my Mail Art.

Vintage tea towels

Today, I decided to re-stock with some of my small purses, which I call Pockets.

I started making them because most of my clothing doesn't have a pocket and I needed something to keep my phone in while I went between my studio and the kitchen or garden, voila, a pocket, aka small purse.

I am making these a bit bigger than my original pocket, so they can hold more when I go out to the grocery store, or take a walk. Check out my shop and see what's there. I'll be putting more on when I get back from my brief holiday.

A little birdie Pocket

 This is a Pocket that I named "Henny" for some reason. I can't remember why! It used to be in my Etsy shop but now it'll be in the Bizarre Market Holiday shop, which I'm excited about. The shop is going to be in the little room upstairs of our wonderful Indie Bookstore, Chop Suey. It'll open up 26 November, which is the day after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, and will stay open until 24 Dec. I've been busy making lots of Pockets out of Ikea cotton and vintage fabrics, including tea towels. It's fun for me to do this but I hope I sell some stuff so I can make more stuff. There's just so much storage space, if you get my drift.   If you're in the neighborhood, stop into the shop.

These are two of the many Purses for Change that'll be in the BZM Holiday Shop.

Sewing

I've gotten back to sewing, in preparation for participation in Bizarre Market for the month of December. I sew up my Pockets and Purses for Change, on the sewing machine, only hand sewing the buttons for closure. However, I was asked to donate a one of a kind little item for a fundraising auction to proceed the market. I decided to make a small wristlet, based on my Purses for Change pattern. I used some really nice velvet-y fabric (high end upholstery sample) for the outside and a nice sateen cotton for the inside (high end upholstery sample) and then for pizzazz tried my hand at some handsewing. I was inspired by my friend Bridget, who hand makes beaded buttons that are extraordinary. Wish I'd taken photos of them while visiting her. Next visit, I promise!

It was so time consuming to do the beading. I had no idea since the last time I played with beads was on my old beading loom, a long long time ago.  The wristlet is about 5" x 5" (12.7 cm x 12.7cm)

My older sister sent me some cool old packets of needles and pins a few weeks ago. I couldn't carry them back with me on the plane since I was doing carry on luggage only. Even though I'd seen them in L.A., I was delighted when they arrived. The needles are nice and sharp and the packaging is terrific.  You can see my other sewing projects here.

What happened?

 I forgot to put these images on yesterday's post! I mentioned them in the title, but then forgot about them. I was so taken by the little "Oh, No" face, I guess.



I've been enjoying my tuned-up sewing machine sooo much. I can't stop making Pockets! Here are 2 more from the Panda fabric, the last of it. One of these is going to L.A. for one of my nieces.



These black and white Pockets are made from a heavy weight Ikea fabric. One of these will make the trip to L.A. for another of my nieces. I have more of this fabric, which is fun to work with because of the way the print is laid out. I get different placement on each pocket so no two are alike. I like it that way!

Vintage Tea Towels and Pandas.

My younger sister sent me some tea towels that had belonged to our mom. I was able to make some cute Pockets out them. I like these Pockets so much that I went to look for more Vintage Tea Towels on-line and my goodness, the ones that were nice like these were $20 (usd) each!! I'm only charging $20 (usd) for each Pocket. I might have to start going to flea markets (which is not something I particularly enjoy doing.) $20!!!


I found some red panda print fabric. It's a heavy 100% cotton, made in USA (rare) stashed in a trunk. It's from the 1970s. I put it through the washing process twice and the musty smell went away. I think it made a cute bag. The pocket on the inside has a panda image on it, too. Cute!

These will be for sale at the street fair on Saturday. Whatever doesn't sell, I'll put into my Etsy shop.

Sewing, lots of sewing.

I'm getting ready for my participation in the 3rd Annual Johnny Z festival on 7 August. (I've linked to an old bit of info about the festival.) I've got 10 Pockets, 17 Purses for Change, and 9 sunglasses Pockets ready. Whew. I sewed up everything I had cut out so my next task is cutting our more pieces. I have new fabric (from Ikea) and new buttons. It's the first time I've purchased buttons since 3 years ago in Paris. I've been using buttons from Mom's collection mainly, but really wanted some bigger ones and some colors that I didn't have, especially for the Vintage Tea Towel Pockets.  I'm really enjoying this. Since it's still quite hot here, staying indoors is preferable and having something to make is delightful.

New stuff.

The other day we drove down to "the bottom" and as we passed under the interstate, the setting sun was reflected on the support. I liked the way this looked, including the curve of the highway.

Today, because it was just too darn hot at 103F (39.4C) I stayed indoors except for the few moments spent photographing items for Fritzi. I was able to get a couple friends to stop by and model Pockets for me. Besides preparing for tomorrow's mail art workshop, I made a few more Sunglass Pockets. I'm very pleased with how they turned out. I'll take them by Quirk (the craft gallery on Saturday.)
Wish me luck with tomorrow's talk. I found out that 17 people signed up to listen to me!!!

My birthday week! ¡Feliz cumpleaños! Joyeux anniversaire!

This is the week of my birthday.
 Because of my birthday, I'm having a sale in my Etsy shop, Fritzi. I put the Skull Pockets on sale!

I love my birthday. I don't plan any big celebrations but I always feel so great on my birthday. I do only the things I want to do, which this week includes attending my Spanish Meet-Up group, having lunch at Amuse, the restaurant at VMFA, with some friends, and pizza for dinner with my husband, son and nearly daughter-in-law. I'm so excited about MY day. No joking, I just love it! It's MY day, though I did find out last week, that Jessica, another student in my Spanish class, shares MY DAY! There were only 4 students in the group that day and two of us have the same birthday. We found that really interesting. I'll bake a cake to take to class, but someone else plans to bring cake to the Meet-up. Grateful me, grateful me.

I don't have many photos of myself as a very small child. I treasure this one.   I wonder what is in my hand? What am I playing with?

Little Girl Pockets

I had some short lengths of cording left over so I decided to make smaller pockets for the little girls who live down the alley. The ones who helped me bake cookies during the snow storm this past winter.  It's the first time I've used my Lego buttons on anything. Perfect!

I brought them over to the girls last night, and this evening, the 9 1/2 year old came by, looking so ready for a party, with a lovely sparkly dress, hair in neat braids, and the little Pocket. She took out something from her new Pocket and presented it to me. A wonderful drawing of her with the pocket on, a thank you note! It promptly was posted on my refrigerator.   Lucky me to have my Pockets appreciated like this!

New Birds, New Clogs, and a New Pocket.

Here's a photo of the baby doves that hatched in the nest by our side window (which is made with glass blocks) near the young magnolia tree and our air-conditioner.  They are SO big. The mother and  babies are still, very still when we go over to look at them. My niece captured this view with her 'phone two days ago. I'll go take a peek shortly to see if the babies are still there. They may have left the nest already.

My birthday is coming up shortly and these are the clogs that my honey got me. We only saw them in pictures so had no idea that the fabric would be kind of velvety.  We thought they looked more summer-y that my usual python patterned clogs. These are vegan Sanita clogs. I love that the fabric pattern falls in different places on each clog. What fun. I'll start wearing them on my birthday.


This image was sent to me by Babs in Chicago, who ordered a bag like the one I made for the person in my Spanish Meet-up group. I have more of that vintage upholstery fabric, so I was able to accommodate the order.  I'm happy to hear from a satisfied customer and get this photo.

I, also, sent the Skull Pocket to the winner of the random drawing on Skull-a-Day. I hope she sends me a photo, too. I'd love to see her with her bag.

Pocket in use!

J stopped by after going to the farmers' market and she had on one of my Pockets. It looked so great that I had to whip out my 'phone and grab a photo before she left. She said that she likes that she can attach her keys to the strap. She "fancied" it up with a little metal button up at the top corner.  I was delighted to see the Pocket in use!

Now to make some more!

A BIG ball and a new pocket.

My Spanish Meet-Up group meets at the cafe in the science museum and today I had the opportunity to snap a photo of the big beach ball out front. I couldn't believe this when I saw it. I had to go close and touch it. It's a nylon cover over this BIG granite kugel. To find out more about kugels, http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kugle. Hopefully you can read Danish! The Science Museum of Virginia had this on it's site:
January 2003. Mary Morton Parsons Earth-Moon Sculpture “the Kugels” dedicated. Features the Guinness World Record-holding 29-ton solid granite globe of the Earth. Hopefully, the woman sitting nearby gives you and idea of the scale. It's BIG. When not covered with nylon, the kugel sits on water in the base and can be easily rotated. Even a little child can do that. It's a globe so you can touch the earth!

My amiga, Anna, requested a customized Pocket for her Spanish immersion trip this summer. This Pocket is a teeny bit wider than my usual pockets. Anna was able to choose her own fabric combi. She picked a striped fabric for the inside.  If you look closely, you can see my "python" clog on the left.

Totes and Pockets

I'm having the best time sewing these days. Staying indoors, out of the heat, playing with fabric, is such fun. I used more of my Ikea fabric to make a new tote, which will eventually go into Fritzi, my Etsy shop.

       I have been making small bags, which I'm calling Pockets, because most of my clothing doesn't have a pocket for me to carry around my cell phone or iPod while I'm in my house going upstairs and down, and out in the garden, and in from the garden, or at the gym. You get the picture (I'm needing to be attached to my stuff.) I'm always putting the phone somewhere and forgetting it, thus a pocket is needed. I made one for myself, one for one of my sisters, and several from the remaining Decorative Skull fabric from Skull-a-Day. I'm pretty excited about them. I've also started to make my Purses for Change again, to help me raise a bit of change for Art180. Their slogan is "Change through Art," which I whole-heartedly agree with.  This is all so satisfying. Lucky, lucky, grateful me!