Curious Bird

meet norma

Finally, after way too long trying to find an adjustable vintage dressform, I really have searched high and low, I finally found one. Her name is Norma after my grandmother who so kindly and patiently taught me to sew way back in the 1980s. I hope I don't creep anyone out by naming things. It started with plants and has evolved from there.
Norma, not my grandma, the dressform, now resides in my studio and wears (for the time being) an apron I recently finished. I swear that Ebay, although often times scary in the way it makes time jump ahead and quite addictive if you're in to knick knacks is really the bees knees for finding long searched for items. It's funny...occasionally I'll have a thought about some random thing (be it a specific color coat, shoes or vintage tea set) just wondering if it exists and the very next thought is, what about Ebay?
I don't suppose I'm alone out here, am I?

Here's the apron, in case you were curious. The lovely mav is taking weekly studio self-portraits. I think I'll count this as mine.

Be well,
L.

:orange: day 5 of a week of color

Throughout my childhood, my grandmother always had an orange and yellow kitchen. I loved helping her cook  in that colorful, cheery space. There's even a story about me as a toddler pulling all the plates out of the cabinet while trying to "help". When I was about ten, I remember chatting with my grandma about her choice of kitchen colors and her admitting that she was mostly smitten with the orange aspects of her kitchen; the yellow was thrown in as an afterthought. Nowadays her kitchen is rooster themed. I miss the orange and yellow quite a bit.


Recently I did a trade with my friend Laura. I made her an apron for one of her fantastic drawings. I really like how it turned out -- the vintage apple fabric is some of my favorite. I think Laura will look great in apples.

:mellow yellow: day 1 of a week of color

My lemon yellow kitchen walls.
Mecozy came up the brilliant week of color theme where each day is being dedicated to a different color. If you happened to have read my recent post about color, then you probably know how excited I am about this theme. I'm going to use the photos from this week here, too.



This is one of the many projects I worked on this weekend. I hadn't made stuffed creatures (other than owls and baby owls) in a while, so I went to work on this family of  bunnies (not really because of Easter, more because of Spring). I like how they turned out, especially the fact that they look like busts being from the shoulders up and all.

 
Last Saturday was the birthday of Dustin's mama, Patti, and the above apron was one of her gifts. She had being eyein' this fabric for a bag, but had also slipped in hints of her desire for an apron, so I combined the two wishes. I really like this fabric--I purchased it a while back from Equilter, one of my favorite online fabric retailers.

Have a great day.

the Yeti has landed...

for those of you that are new to my ramblings, about a month ago I purchased a painting at my fabulous friend Kat's art opening. I was super excited about her show, and even more thrilled with the idea of having one of her paintings in my home where I could look at it every single day. here's some exciting news...this weekend the Yeti painting was released from the grips of the gallery walls and brought home by yours truly. Isn't he the best yeti ever? am I crazy or does he make you want to eat a bowl of cereal too? That Kat is an amazing artist, one of my favorite pen pals, and an all around wonderful lady. if I ever have any children, I already have plans of commissioning her to paint the little critter's room. I can see it now...cereal everywhere.

I hope your weekend was fun. It was downright cold here, but that didn't stop me from getting lots done. pretty proud about that actually. This month's Tie One On apron was finally completed--I'm really happy with how it turned out. And for those of you who aren't in the know (yes, I'm talking to you Zig), this month's assignment/challenge was to make an apron from clothes you have on hand.
here's a before apron shot:

this sweet Vested Gentress dress was purchased a while back for super cheap ($1) while thrifting. Upon first seeing this dress, I fell in love with the fabric, I mean kelly green anchors, geez! Although, when I took a closer look, I noticed this:

Stains! gross, right? Well, I bought it anyway. I loved the fabric too much and wanted to salvage some of it.
Here's it recycled for this month's Tie One On:

my new cafe-style apron.
ahoy, matey!

more soon...

lions and tigers and owls...oh my

   
a few entries back I showed off a painting I gave D as a christmas gift.  laura, the super talented creator of that lovely painting finally got her curious bird goodies as payment which allows me to show them here without ruining her surprise. She requested a bag and an owl pillow, but I added in a Jill Bliss/Saelee Oh calendar and some hand-painted clogs I found while thrifting back home. it was a lucky break they ended up being her size. I like lucky breaks.

here's a close-up of the bag. I made it extra spacious and Laura seemed to be down with that. I love that she wanted a bag from this fabric because it happens to be one of my current favorites-- it simply doesn't get much better than lions, mod shapes, AND nice colors, right? 

Speaking of vintage fabric, I'm working on a bag for myself out of some very lovely fabric my friend Liz gifted me. I'm trying out a new design, so I'm taking my time with it. I'll post a photo upon completion.

Also, the Tie One On gallery is up now. Check out all the lovely holiday themed aprons--there are some really creative ones. Of course mine is the one with the birds...

more soon.