In the Workroom Recap : Week 293

Happy Summer! It feels like it's been here for a little while now but it's official now and today especially felt like a steamy summer day! 

I, of course, spent some time in the workroom this week in addition to some fun out of doors activities but my week started out with scouring the internet for photos from Uglycon which took place a couple of weekends ago at Giant Robot in Los Angeles! Thankfully the gallery posted some photos for the artists that weren't lucky enough to be able to accompany their work - yay!



So there's my little Ugly Doll inspired gal on the gallery wall among some great pieces from other plush artists from all over! I feel quite honoured to have been asked to do it and pretty excited to see the photos pop up from the show. You can see more over on Giant Robot's website here.

I then spent the rest of the week finishing and getting together a big restock batch for Dots & Loops in Lunenburg which is finally ready to be on it's way to them! Finally! 





And off they go!

I am lucky enough to be starting a custom doll for a customer very shortly as soon as my materials arrive but I whipped up a very quicky rough sketch for layout/idea hashing purposes first.



It's been too long since I made a new doll so hopefully there will be more of them sooner than later once my supply shipment comes in and I have lots of furry hair colours to inspire me!

But for now I have some side jobs to take care of this week in addition to preparing some supplies and such to start thinking about restocking my own inventory for this year's busy big shows! Eee - so much to do!

And that's all she wrote - I'll see you next week lovely friends!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 292 AND Show Recap : Heirlooms

Hey guys! 

We're in to week 293 here but after a week of preparing for Heirlooms show in Welland over the weekend and spending some Father's Day time with my dad, it took me the day to get back in to things.

Because my display has changed a bit and I'm still getting used to it, I did a little mock set up at home during the week that I added to as I finished up some last minute goodies for the show and finished tagging and prepping everything for the show.

Here's how it turned out!

I still need to figure out a good way to prop up those Owl Mama faces so they aren't so tucked away when it's all loaded up but it did the job and I'm happy to use my trunk again for the first time after One of a Kind show!

So after a wrong turn and rushed morning, we made it to Vermeer's Garden Centre and set up inside the greenhouse just in time! The setting was beautiful and despite it being quite warm in that greenhouse, it was a lovely show.

Here are all the vendors outside! It was a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky, and it was nice to see some familiar faces and meet some brand new ones too!

My mom was there too of course! We put out some of her cowls and despite how warm it was in there, lots of people did some early Christmas shopping and we left with quite a few less. I shouldn't be surprised seeing as I have about ten myself and love them all (when it's a little cooler out obviously). 

One of the familiar faces was Gillian of Pip Robins, who was outside with her beautiful belt buckles and bags! We had a nice little chat and I look forward to seeing her at the Christmas One of a Kind show in December (and I'm sure our crafty paths will cross before then).

And another familiar face was my dear friend Lisa of Nerdbiskit of course! We had a fun time as always laughing and chatting as well as spying on the resident kitties of the garden centre. One even stopped by for a bit to play with one of Lisa's catnip mustaches - who could blame him?

So precious! Also take a little peak behind the scenes of the mess that's hidden behind the tables...

I usually manage to refrain from spending too much on myself at the shows I do now despite there always being so many amazing things from other vendors that I'd love to own, but this time I couldn't help myself when I saw a few booth of amazingly priced little hair flowers. I couldn't decide on a colour so I had to buy three!

I wore one the very next day for some Father's Day visits and I'm sure I will be getting lots of wear out of them!

So that was it! I'll be spending these upcoming weeks on some store restocks and general building of stock for my own shows coming up later on in the year. So many exciting events I can't wait for, Locke Street Festival, Supercrawl, and of course One of a Kind!

I hope you're all enjoying the great weather! See you next week!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 291

Hi friends! 

I had a busy week working on a few batches of things to stock up for Heirlooms show in Welland next Saturday and general store restocks - this time for Dots & Loops in Lunenburg. I'm still not quite back to the usual pace after my week away but I'm getting there. I had a few other things to get out of the way but managed to continue work on some display stuff as well.

First, though, I finished up and packaged that batch of keychains I was working on.


They haven't been bagged up yet but will be tucked away soon to come along to the show on Saturday. This is my favourite colour combination and seems to be everyone else's so I decided to stick with it for the time being although I can always make a variety of colours on request. Mint and hot pink for now!

After finishing up the keychains I was working on stringing my pompoms in to some garlands for my display. The show on Saturday is a one table display so luckily I won't need too many to start but my goal is to brighten everything up inside my tent display for the later summer shows. There is something about those little puff balls that makes me want to put them everywhere. I even have plans to put them on some shoes. Too far? Nonsense. 

I've also been doing a little brainstorming for a special project that I hope will be able to come together sometime this summer or fall...



More on that later but for now, back to more Needlings stuffs...

Next was the ever present phone sleeves. These guys keep me busy year round that's for sure! So of course I needed some to bring to the show and also have to send out to stores that are getting low.




Almost finished! I'll be getting back to them tonight after a day off to visit my dad and enjoy the sun. 

Hope you are all having the best week! I'll be back next week for a workroom recap and recap of Heirlooms too. Don't forget to mark your calendars if you're close enough to visit!

In (out of) the Workroom Recap : Week 289 & 290

I'm finally home and back in the workroom after my week away filling in as caregiver for my dad. I managed to get a little work done while away but spent most of my time hanging out with him at his dialysis treatments at the hospital and generally spending time with him.

I am, of course, a little late to get back to things here which is why I'm a little late with this recap but in the coming couple weeks I will be preparing for my first summer show and getting caught up on things from my time away so will hopefully fall back in to the schedule sooner than later.

The first show of the summer is a brand new one for Needlings; Heirlooms in Welland, ON. I'm excited to spend the day with crafty friends at the flower filled Vermeers' Garden Centre. It's a two day one but myself and a few other vendors will be attending just the Saturday date so if you're planning on coming to say hello, I'll be there on the 15th only!



It should be a great show - there are tons of particularly amazing vendors coming so if you are able to make it either day, I definitely recommend it!

So back to the recap:
Before I went away I brought some keychain parts and littles to stock up on for the show as well as some supplies to make more pompoms that I plan on using for my craft show displays in various ways. They were a good sort keep your hands busy job to do while my brain was otherwise occupied so I definitely added a nice amount to the pile by the time I came home.




So I added them to the pile when I got home!



I finished the handsewing on a small batch of keychains that I will be back to work finishing up this week, among other things.



So that's it! I'm still in the process of getting back in to things and remembering my to-do lists and all that so hopefully I will have more of the usual Needlings work to show you next week.

See you then! xo

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! 

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!

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!