May 6: what I want to be....

May 2: Bubble pouch

Last Friday, Michelle over at Michelle Patterns announced that she was discontinuing quite a few of her patterns and was offering a special deal if you bought all of them.  I liked a few of the designs, and I knew my wife would love some of the others, so I decided to just buy them all!  I printed off the patterns for the Bubble Pouch, the Pleated Pouches, and the Box Wallet.  I grabbed some scraps - some of Carolyn Friedlander's Architextures line (I'm getting near the end of this - my favorite print from her line in what my co-workers would call "Phoebe green") and a piece of Kaufman's Essex cotton/linen blend in Grey.  I experimented with the interfacings and used woven fusible interfacing (Shape Flex) and Dream Cotton's Select-weight batting (my favorite!) - next time I think I might just do the woven fusible interfacing.  The final result:

A darn stinkin' cute bag!  It's about 4" x 3" x 1.5" - a little on the small side for me, so I'm not sure what I'll use it for.  Oh well, I enjoyed sewing it, and the pattern was great, which at this point is all that really matters!

Sorry for the not-so-nice pictures.  It just wasn't going to happen any better today, and I so wanted to show it off!

April 29: self portrait #2

I'm finding photography to be a truly great thing for me.  Right now, if I'm doing anything at all remotely creative, chances are that it's photography.  One of my goals before my 26th birthday is to have taken at least 100 self-portraits.  I thought it would be scary, in a good way.  Plus, I have very few pictures of myself.  So you may be seeing more and more self-portraits here.  I've even created a set on flickr just for my self portraits.  I think this one might be #4, but only technically #2 in my year of self portraits.

I feel like this picture shows where I really am today - contemplating life, the universe, and everything as Douglass Adams would phrase it.  Trying to figure out the conundrums of what interfacings to use in my bags, what to do about meditation, what book to read next...  I have no make-up on (not that I usually have a lot on), just sitting in the little bit of natural light from this rainy day.

And here is what I see:

April 26: wordless

April 17: a day in the studio

.. just not my studio!  Yesterday I had the opportunity of helping out my friend Suzanne in her lovely studio.  She's doing several shows in the next few weeks, and needed help getting everything together.  I mostly just stuffed bags, but it was wonderful to be in her calming studio, looking at all of her lovely things.

All artwork in these pictures is copyright Suzanne L. Vinson, and was photographed with permission.  You should check out her wonderful blog, or her etsy shop.  And, if you're in the RVA area, she will be at the Spring Bada Bing this weekend!

And the one that made it home with me - "find your voice and use it."

April 16: in the morning light...

Some things look sweeter... But other things do not.  Last night the only thing I could do was sew.  So I whipped up this cute little guy from one of the newest Mollie Makes (issue 25).

This morning, in the light of this new day, I am thinking of and praying for those in Boston, Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan.

April 15: From Russia with love

"Handmade Portraits: From Russia with Love" is an Etsy video shared under the Creative Commons License.

This is how I want to feel about what I do.  And I still haven't found that yet.  This is why my etsy shop remains empty - for lack of that something that I am so passionate about that I could do it everyday.  I guess the only way to find out is to try.