Wednesday, April 28, 2010

A little more Fabric Art please.



So, I have been trying to push myself to create more fabric art, which is what I love to do. Don't get me wrong, I love sewing in general - aprons, snack bags, zipper pouches. But I feel like so much more goes into one of my "wall - hangings". I even made up a crafty little fabric house last week - photos to come. This blue with an orange heart art quilt has been "in-progress" for about 2 years. I just never took the time to complete it until this week. It's on sale now in my Etsy shop. I made 5 of the heart background blocks at once and I am slowly figuring out what thoughts to put on them, and how to embellish them. So now I still have a pink one to make - gotta think of the words for it...

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

New Pincushion - Crafty like a Fox



This week I told myself I was going to create something new - with a new pattern and everything. I am so into Japanese fabric right now and I had this piece of fabric that was floating around my craft room and it needed to turn into something. I thought it would be cool as a pincushion, but I could not use my regular pincushion pattern or the fox would get all cut up. So, I came up with a new one that featured the crafty little fox and purple polka dots. I think I'll have to make myself a scissor sleeping bag to go with it.

Monday, April 19, 2010

On Mondays I never go to work...




Since my Etsy shop has been so slow, I've been finding new things to do to keep my creative juices flowing. I cannot believe I didn't know about Swapbot! What a fun thing - a large group of creative people who like to make things and send them off and get a fun package from a another artist in return. There are all kinds of swaps out there. The first one I signed up for was an Owl ATC swap - perfect for me. I can't wait for the zipper pouch swap.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Snip Goes Zebra




So, when I wasn't busy up-cycling my neon tee shirts into "rad" outfits for Mindy, I was sewing up a storm. A storm of red and white candy-striped fabirc, and mostly in the shape of a square or a recatangle. This included: pillows for Mindy, pot holders, and a soft spot to rest my scissors so they would not scratch up my beautiful new sewing machine. To this day, I still use this candy-striped scissor pocket. I even started selling them in my etsy shop - my craftmanship has since improved, and so has my fabric selection!

Friday, April 9, 2010

The wind cries Mindy.


When I was about 12 years old I got a Singer sewing machine for Christmas. I had no idea how many hours I was going to spend in front of that baby. One of the first things I created with my machine was a dress for Mindy. See, Mindy was my doll that I took everywhere. She had cute blonde curls, 2 arms, 2 legs, and probably about 30 eyelashes. One day she fell into a duck pond and she was never the same. We went for a walk a couple of days later and we crossed a stream that runs off the duck pond. There was Mindy floating by and my cousin dove right in and came back with Mindy. I don't remember this, and I suppose we are not one hundred percent sure the doll we found a few days later was Mindy. But I can feel the excitement of the reunion of a two and a half year old girl whose doll came back to her after slowing bobbing away in nasty a nasty duck pond.

I'm not sure when she lost her legs, but before I had my sewing machine Mindy spent most of her life as a "mermaid" - she wore a long purple sock to cover up her leg holes. Then one arm broke off and I had to cannibalize another doll for a new arm and then she had 2 arms, each with a different color. Then the dog chewed up her other arm. At this point she was down to 7 eyelashes and in need some fine new threads. I fashioned the coolest dress for Mindy with my new toy. It was upcycled from a T-shirt of mine that had neon pink and black stripes. It was just long enough to make it look like she might have legs. I don't mean to frighten you with the photo, but I thought it was time for the story of Mindy to be told. She inspired my first sewing creations. (photograph 2010 with a Zemphira headband)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

I fought the blog and the blog won.


Baby & Me
Originally uploaded by Zemphira Creations
I have been resisting the blogging community for sometime now. I am much better a speaking with creations than I am with words. So I started out by exploring different blogs - I got inspired. There are so many beautiful artistic blogs out there. So, now I am viewing my blog creation as an art project. I have so much to learn - but I have to start this blogging journey somewhere. If not today, when?