Hairy Fairy or Hare’s Angel? She’s coming along nicely though I botched her bottom join up a bit. Made a sweet pair of bloomers to hide the untidiness. Her clothes are pinned on at the moment.
Bits to do: make her a necklace, maybe add some leg warmers (those tubes of finger bandages will work well, I think) stitch on some claws with embroidery silk, crochet a head band, stitch a button on to close the jacket, ditto for the tutu. More layers to the tutu needed, I think. The Ruffler Foot on the sewing machine made quick work of gathering the tulle together so not a big job. Waiting for some sheets of wool felt to make some wings, then attach and all done. Mark 1.
Since making her, I’ve cut out the templates in thin plastic, received more calico and tiny buttons from Amazon so am going to make another and finesse all the bits and bobs that could have been done better. Practise makes progress.
Apart from the calico, I have loads of trimmings and tulle, thanks to the sweet fairy frock in a charity shop costing just 7 euro. Took me a few hours to unpick the seams and get the pieces together.
There’s loads. It made for a smashing haul.
She’ll be ready for Christmas and will sit on the mantlepiece with a matching drawstring bag and be my ‘stocking’.
Repurposed a wooden frame by painting it with gold acrylic. Looks very honeycomb toned. Lustrous and warm. The cross-stitched ‘K’ is complemented very nicely. Ooh, you’re nice! Wrong spelling but fun to play with words. Came across a new word today. As Deprecate is to depreciate, so appreciate is to apprecate. Apprecate! Saw it in the Blossom word list. Chambers dictionary doesn’t recognise it. But neither does it accept reposelessnesses… If you play, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Just waiting for Amazon to deliver some picture framing tape to finish it off.
Anyway, fingers crossed K likes it.
Well, it’s Friday and the weekend is nearly here so can start to chill now that this little project is out of the way. Few things on the go to finish before Christmas but no urgency. Easy Osey, God-send-Sunday.
Christmas is looming and still gives me thrills. So, am loving all things Christmas related. There are two Christmas cakes (fruity fruity!) being given a weekly dose of brandy feed in the traditional poke-it-with-a-knitting-needle-and-pour-a-good-capful-of-brandy-all-over-the-top kind of way. The plan is to keep one for Easter but we’ll see how that goes.
Also making a Tilda hare Christmas angel. Tilda hares are my favourite Tilda make. Made a few some year’s back so am giving one a makeover and making a new one.
Gathering shiny trimmings is glorious. Amazon delivered a spool of white Tulle; plan is to make a tutu gathered around the tulle rose trim in the pic. Amazon also delivered a spool of really shiny gold metallic twine. Thinking about potential with the sewing machine cording foot on the wings.
Stuffed and ready for stitching together.
Using haemostats to grip and push the stuffing into the little spaces makes the tedious job of stuffing a little less laborious and boring.
Last Christmas I got a box of wool felt pieces, perfect to cut some wings from. Tried out a few ideas… metallic thread with inbuilt decorative stitches (hard to follow a path as the stitches are somewhat unpredictable (as in the needle moves forward, forward, back, side, middle, other side, middle, forward, forward or some other variation). Tried the cording foot with some gold thread. Tried Angelina Fibre. Not hugely happy with the results:
Have some other ideas to have a go at… and more felt… so will maybe have a play later today.
Have been busy with other things that have gone much better. Made this little fella for the local Shoebox Appeal:
Sweet little fella! Hope some little one somewhere loves him to bits when he gets shipped off for Christmas.
A lady at the Wild and Woolies crochet group is organising the appeal locally. Not that Wild and Woolies is our crochet group’s official name – It’s what I call it.
Another lady there makes hats and blankets for the neonatal unit in Crumlin hospital. I’m just working on a baby blanket to donate. The hat is already finished:
The blanket is about three-quarters done.
Delighted with myself for spotting what I think is a beeaauuttiful pottery teapot in a charity shop. It was twenty euro so not a cheapy-cheap find but worth every cent.
I did a Google Reverse Image on it; apparently it’s a Mucros pottery from Killarney. Why would anybody give this away??!! Am now looking at a Honey and Blue teaset from the pottery shop… The shipping would be expensive but so would the cost of fuel, tolls and, no doubt, parking if I went there by car … hmmm
Beautiful but a bit bonkers is the new lightbulb in the lounge lamp:
It’s Colour-Me-Happy and I love it.
Finally, must finish a vintage cross-stitch embroidery initial:
It’s to be framed and is a present for somebody I’m visiting next weekend. Nearly done.
It is done. Unpicked yhe blue flower and the scrappy leafy things and restitched them.
It needs a press, I didn’t hoop, you see. I didn’t want to. Then sort a frame out. I have a wooden one that is perfect. Needs a colour wash and maybe a dry brush of gold acrylic to lightly szuzh it up.
That’s a job for later on.
Love my life! Me and my fab shoes are off out later, DMs if it’s wet, (new and gorgeous) shoes if it manages to stay dry!
The recipe. Better than Baileys. Substitute brandy or Southern Comfort for whiskey, if you prefer.
It’s as nice or nicer than Baileys and about a third of the cost. The only downside is that I’m not sure how long it keeps for. I’d say use within a fortnight; that’s how long I’ve kept a bottle for and it was still perfect.
On the plus side, it’s so easy and quick to make you can make more in no time.
The way to enlightenment within Affinity is paved with many paths. If you use the Designer app, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
All of the motifs above were cobbled from other vectors from Craftsmanspace with A LOT of work to clean them up and get them right.Composition should be dominated by the label … I know. Pure indulgence on my part. I’ll post the recipe later.
The fudge ganache is freshly poured in the pic so still looks shiny but it dried down to a gorgeous matt colour. It’s very rich but every bite is full of flavour. Am giving it five stars (or the 5 arse inches rating in every slice).
Made two small Christmas cakes and have poked them with a knitting needle and started the weekly brandy feed. Got a few months before they need marzipanning so they’ll be good and rich by then.
What else have I been up to? Went to see Sarah Millican at the Gaiety theatre. Third time but still makes me laugh.
Joined a crochet gang about 2 months ago and enjoy the weekly hooks ups. Pun intentional. Currently crocheting loads of little crochet granny flower squares. I drew up the symbol pattern for it (just visible in the pic) in Affinity Designer so chuffed with myself on many fronts there:
I need 99 squares. Still about 30 to go and the sheer tedium of pattern repeat has me totally demojoed. Then there’s the thought of sewing or crocheting the squares together… and crocheting a border … all very daunting.
Have two other baby blankets on the go so have other projects to pick up and alternate. My intention is to have all three done by Christmas and maybe on Etsy.
Onto yet more fresh stimuli. Have always loved art nouveau and the resurgence of Art Nouveau designs and graphics have got me going. It’s brilliant to feel passion igniting my creativity but am kind of concerned that burn out will follow. Totally self-induced. So the reference books are out on the table full of bloody gorgeous designs and an online Liz Kohler Brown ‘Make sellable graphics’ course has fired me into taking action by presenting a new challenge… can I come up with a compilation of Art Nouveau-inspired spot graphics, borders, repeat patterns, etc, etc, etc? Yes I can. With Affinity Designer, that I’m still learning. On a Mac and an iPad. The interfaces are not exactly alike, not least is not having a keyboard just ‘there’ for the shortcuts.
Let’s not leave things there. Let’s up the ante. Cross stitch patterns. Recently got a book of vintage cross stitch alphabets. Have cleaned them up digitally and created a clean grid and replicated the pattern. The grid is now a template and the design below is to fit a frame specifically for it. The available space to surround the initial with corners, borders and fillers clearly delineated so it will have some breathing space in the frame:
As you can see, there’s a lot of dead space around so have started bringing in some little graphics like the flower. So far have only got one petal converted into cross stitches… it will be a big job.
Of course, I have cross stitch books to look at for inspiration for borders and doodahs. Therein lies yet another avernus. They’ve inspired me to do another two cross stitch pictures. A sampler… to be designed first (why keep things simple?!) and a gorgeous design from an Emma Congdon book.
On top of all this is the 30 day Glyphs trial. Make your own fonts with Glyphs. Am keen. It’s right up my street and Skill Share have a course on making fonts with Glyphs. I’m on it.
Let’s not forget the sketchbook club… or a big bit of serious academic work… year 2. Did finish a one-years remote art therapy diploma so have that under my belt. Doesn’t mean the list of to-dos gets any shorter.
My plate is overflowing and I need at least two new sets of teeth for the biting off more than I can bite, let alone, chew. The feeling of what is set out for me to do is overwhelming yet I WANT to do them all.
Some minor setbacks along the way are to be expected. Remember that pic of the crochet squares above? Charlie thinks it’s a very good box for a chap to grab some shut eye in. He’s having a groom and getting his pyjamas on as I type.
Been using Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign for over 20 years. Admittedly, I did get cracked copies and was very much a pirate in the early days until I became proficient and loved them. Then I bought the programmes. But, my love affair with the suite finally came to an end and I kissed goodbye to the ever-flakier and capricious software just last week. The Adobe suite licence came up for renewal and I cancelled all but After Effects. Adobe had p*ssed me off once too often a few months ago and that’s when I bought the Affinity suite. Is Affinity awesome? Nearly. It needs a lasso tool and the curve layers… so, so many get generated. Gah.
I’ve been working on a collection of art nouveau spot graphics and other elements using Procreate on an iPad. Trouble is, the graphics need to be vectorised. Inkscape trace works well enough. There’s Adobe Capture (free) but is also a bit of a PITA. Then they need to be taken into Affinity Designer. AD then presents a list of Curve layers a mile long. Grouping elements together takes forever. There has to be a better way. So, awesome? Nah. Is Illustrator? Nah with knobs on. Caught somewhat in the devil’s bargain, but there you go.
I’ve also got myself onto a Blender course and given myself a year to see if I can live without AE as well. Love After Effects. Dear God. It’s like crack cocaine.
So, depending on how it goes, I might go back to Adobe or I might not. A year will give me time to decide.
Meanwhile, scammers are just everywhere. Like herpes! I posted something on Done Deal and within minutes had two messages saying they were interested in the ‘item’ I’d posted and could they talk to me on WA. Apparently, this is a known scam strategy… get you off the DD private messaging… then what they do if they’re successful I have no clue. Both got refused and blocked.
Then listed some crocheted baby things on Moffymakes
Within 5 minutes got a message to say my account had been blocked, please contact the Etsy security team… but , amazingly *ahem* was able to carry on happily listing a few other things…
followed by another message asking me to contact the Etsy support team… apparently, a potential buyer tried to make a payment but their payment couldn’t get through… please contact Etsy to verify my banking information …
Both reported and blocked. Very annoying.
They give me a sore head.
Go stick the boot in, Ted!
Found a fabulous vintage collection of cross stitch alphabets on the Gutenberg site. Pretty crappy state but cleaned them up and can use them fairly easily:
The set above still need cleaning up but have two sets done already and tried out a pattern:
Also very excited to have a book of Art Nouveau cross stitch on its way from a private seller on Amazon so not new, but seeing as the book is out of print, I don’t care. Just loving the potential.
Lots to be busy with. Sketch book group, crochet group (several crochet projects on the go… ), academic work, digital artwork, motion graphics and planning on some Tilda sewing before Christmas as well.
Oh, also trying out Glyphs – font making software. Free trial for 30 days (I think) then decision time. It’s 300 euro so not cheap but have a course on Skill Share on font making with Glyphs so worth taking a deep dive before parting with a substantial chunk of change. Bottom line is no chance of getting bored.
Posted the Call the Midwife blanket (above) on Moffymakes. Not sure if I want to part with it… we’ll see if it or anything gets bought. The traffic on Etsy is immense. Listings are only something like 36c a month (though you have to pay 17 euro to register) so costs are fairly minimal. It’s the online equivalent of stack ’em high, sell ’em cheap. My site will probably never get noticed.
Sounds like I’m full of gloom and despondency but am pretty sanguine. Once it’s listed, it’s put away and forgotten. I’d like to get enough to be able to donate a nice lump to the KWSPCA so fingers crossed.
Really getting to grips with Affinity. The Shapebuilder tool in Affinity Designer is fun to use. Illustrator somehow made theirs very heavy weather and also made to app liable to crash.
Another lovely function is the ability to combine/subtract/Intersect, etc, as a Compound Shape.
Made a quick screen recording so I don’t forget how, here it is demonstrating the Add function:
So the recording cropped off the Layer menu…. still, the text directs me where to go so all is clear.
I finally got round to opening an Etsy shop to sell my crochet work. A momentous day as we are, apparently, experiencing (according to Met Eireann) a hurricane. This is unheard of for Ireland but we are hunkered down and keeping an eye on the window should we see our favourite locals, aka, The Flying Handbag and Shirley Valentine, get swept up into the maelstrom, fly over the rooftops and be the last sighting we’ll ever have of them. They were out there earlier defying the elements, angering the weather gods with their boldness.
Anyway, the shop is called Moffy Makes. I had a brilliant morning designing the shop banner and getting more familiar with Affinity Designer. I love the banner and am loving Designer.
The Affinity suite is proving, so far, a terrific alternative to Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop and InDesign. I still have the Adobe suite subscription until November so have time to use the Affinity apps and then decide what to do about Adobe when the time comes to renew the Adobe licence.
So p**ssed off with Illustrator crashing. Misaligned alignments, Bézier curve giving the app a full death spiral spasm, unresponsive drop-down menus… bug after bug after bug. And despite frequent Saves (I have RSI from twitchy Save fingers) the ‘recovered’ documents always lost work. $*&@*&%!
If Affinity does the job. I’ll only subscribe to After Effects with Adobe as Affinity don’t (PLEASE Serif, create an alternative) have a motion graphics package. So,stuck in the Devil’s Bargain until such time or maybe learn Blender.
Anyway, back to the shop. Listed a couple of things; this baby blanket:
With free ‘matching’ bonnet and booties:
And a lovely baby bonnet:
Hopefully, I’ll be able to make enough to keep me in yarn and donate some profit to the KWWSPCA. The local shop does a good business – completely manned by unpaid staff but every bit helps.
Talking of charity shops, I found the loveliest, wooden bread bin in St Vincents for 5.00 euro. Needed a good cleaning and is now in bits and being painted red to fit in with my kitchen. Can’t wait to get it finished.
Another great find was a frivolous little beady bag:
Not quite so nice as my gold one but very lovely:
And, they’re useful:
Just perfect for crochet hooks.
So, providing we survive the hurricane of 2024 (currently causing the Egg chair covers to bluster in a most terrifying manner and already blown a small, but substantial, plant pot over) I’ll be posting pics of the shiny red bread bin soon.
Very glad to have stumbled across No Sleep Creative’s tutorial ‘Master Study Wavy Trails’. I added some Bezier stripes and created a star (using the Repeater function’ to the leading orb.
No More Mondays 