Sunday, May 19, 2013

In the Workroom Recap : Week 288

Hello everyone! Happy Victoria Day or 24 weekend to you Canadians!

When last week ended, I let you know about Uglycon, the Ugly Dolls convention in LA, but before I sent my doll out, I put together a little Ugly Doll-esque tag! Which of course involved a little doodle first.







And a little story for her! Since she was based on the Babo Ugly Doll who is a bit nervous and loves cookies, I thought Babette should have a similar personality. It was fun to write a little story and make a tag for this little one. Some of you may (or may not) know that when I first started making Needlings back in 2007, they all had little stories on tags. Unfortunately it became difficult for me to keep up with it when I started focusing less on my one of a kind items. I miss it! It might be something I bring back in the future but there might be another written element for me to work on as well. We will see, I guess! For now, these little fun changes of pace will have to do.

I spent the next couple of days working on a secrect gift project that I won't share until I'm all finished and the recipient has recieved it but I will say it is for one of my favourite people in the world and her coming new addition to it. Ok ok that's all I'll say!!

I also had a pile of fabric I planned on making some skirts for myself sitting around that I decided to work on. Only one skirt made so far but I'm quite happy with how it turned out - I heart heart pockets!



I might change a few things about the process if I ever make these pockets again but I'm really happy with how they turned out! This fabric was an old one I believe my mom purchased at least 15 or so years ago in Iowa as part of a never realized quilt project. I'm so glad she kept it! I think I'm pretty picky when it comes to floral prints but I always thought this one was quite sweet.

So, in the midst of work, gift making, skirt making, and enjoying the nice weather lately I do have this coming week on my mind where I will be out of the workroom again to spend the week taking care of my dad. Luckily I'm able to bring a few things to work on, handsewing travels well for the days at the hospital and evenings ignoring the hockey games on tv.



Since I will be away starting Wednesday, the shop will be closed for the week and I think I'll probably also put a hold on next weeks' workroom update until the following weekend when I will be at home again and back in to the regular work flow. Hopefully I'll have a few things to show you then after the month, and Spring, is finished! 



See you then lovely friends! 

Sunday, May 12, 2013

In the Workroom Recap : Week 287

Happy Mother's Day everyone! I hope you're all as lucky as me to have an amazing mom like mine!



She's why I am who I am and a big part of Needlings too! She's there at almost every single show and I could never thank her enough for everything she does for me and her family. She's the best! 

I finished the week up making a few little handmade goodies for her...



But before that, I had lots of Needlings work to do!




I sent these guys off to Wholly Craft in Columbus then got to work on my next to-do.
About a month ago I was asked to provide a piece for the art show associated with Uglycon, a celebration of Uglydolls, put on by the creator of Uglydolls andGiant Robot gallery in Los Angeles. I was quite honoured to be asked to participate!
The task I, and the other plush artists, was given was to make a sort of collaboration of our own plush styles mixed with the "Babo" Uglydoll! After a little brainstorming, I made a Needlings dolls/Babo hybrid with a little touch of owl of course.  So little Baby Babette B. Babo will be headed off to Giant Robot in LA and available at Uglycon on June 15th! I can't wait to see what everyone else makes!







In addition to the art show featuring the artists' spin on Babo, you can also make your own Babo (although no outfits, prints, or edits) to participate in Uglycon as well! And apparently even watch along on Google+




Fun stuff! I will be in Welland on the 15th at another show but hopefully will catch a little bit of the excitement via the good old internet later on in the day.

Well that's it for the week! Hope you are all having a lovely Mother's Day! See you next week!

Monday, May 6, 2013

In the Workroom Recap : Week 286

Another week for Needlings over. 285! That's 5.5 years if you can believe it. I can hardly.

I still wasn't feeling too well at the beginning of the week (don't worry, I'm back to normal now!) so I took a couple more sick days and decided to do some drawing. My plan is to do illustrations of all my one of a kind art dolls. This week I finished Olivia, one of my first dolls made for the Plush You gallery show at Schmancy in Seattle a couple years ago, and Violet, my first doll sold at the One of a Kind show.









These were two of my favourites to make so I think they were also two of my favourites to draw so far but we'll see how the future ones go. They'll be available as prints soon. I also have some more plans for them once I do a few more but for now, sewing calls.

I had a custom order to work on for the rest of the week based on a customer's own lady skull design he calls Skully-Chan! I don't normally do too many custom orders through the year but I know Pete, through twitter and he even tracked down one of my robots at Kid Icarus in Toronto while he was vacationing there from New York awhile back so I was quite honoured to have been asked to work on something as personal as this. 



He even gave me free reign on the body design and little outfit which was fun for me of course!




And she's on her way to Pete in New York! This was a bit of a rush order because he is going on a two month trip to Europe and plans on taking photos of her in fancy landmarks and such. Exciting! 

So that was it for the week! I did a little bit of work on a stack of cell phone sleeves that will be added to a bunch of things that will hopefully finally be heading out to Wholly Craft in Ohio this week.

Have a good week guys!