Hopefully at least a pop fly good for second. The Stitch and Pitch entry is submitted with 13 minutes to spare. Laura was inspired by what I came up with yesterday and made a little felt wallet to go with the ball. She says, "I have distinct memories of looking at, sorting, and trading your shoe box of baseball cards with Mandi. I have relished the brown and orange color combo of the Padres(?) with a 'so bad it's good' sentiment since I was a kid, plus I had these naturally dyed scraps around."

Since I mentioned in my previous post that a driver's license wouldn't fit in the little bag, she made a wallet that looks like a pack of baseball cards, and I must say, we are both pretty tricky, check it-

I think the Padres were actually just yellow and brown, but they always were my definite least favorite team, because of their colors. Yellow and brown certainly do NOT have much panache for a baseball uniform, but they look great here, and her "pack of cards" has the feel  of my baseball cards from the 1980's. Here is a shot of the inside of the ball, with the super-magnets enclosed in felt scraps:

Those magnets are really strong, they kept pulling my needle out of my hand as I was sewing! The first time I sewed them on, I just tacked the felt pieces in place since I wasn't sure it would work, and the pull of the magnets pulled the stitches right out- yikes! I used a leather shoestring for the strap, as it reminded me of the lacing on baseball gloves. (Props to Strider for the idea!) It's just right, not too fussy. Here is a shot of the ball by itself.

We'll see how we do in the contest, but we may have to make more crazy deadlines like that for ourselves, it was fun to work together and get a project done so quickly, and the  creative synergy is awesome once we get rolling. I named the project, "Double Play" and it's pretty corny, but not nearly as bad as some of the other names Michael and I were coming up with. Once you start thinking about it, baseball terms are a rich source for bad word play!

Well, I haven't exactly been a belly itcher lately, but haven't been getting much crafting time in the last few days. Inspired by the Craftzine and TNNA Stitch N' Pitch contest and the last minute deadline- tomorrow at midnight, I got down to business this afternoon. I am not totally done with it, it needs a fastener and wrist strap, but it's a little baseball bag.

The project guidelines specify the projects must "center on the theme of baseball." I was brainstorming ways to make something that represented a baseball, but then had the idea to use an actual baseball for the project. I have always wanted to cut open a baseball to see what's inside anyway, so the project was satisfying in more ways than one!  (It looks like it's just a lot of string wrapped into a ball, but I didn't investigate further....) After I cut it open, it was two figure eight pieces. I added felt for lining and stitched it back up.

I am thinking about using those snazzy super magnets for a closure and not sure how to do the strap, I want something simple and not too girly. I may skip the strap and just have the "ball" be for make-up or smaller stuff in a purse. I originally thought it could be a little bag to hold your license, some cash and lip balm, but a driver's license won't fit in there anyway.

The ball is lined with Laura's felt which works perfectly as it doesn't need to be hemmed and it gives and flexes with the leather, instead of wrinkling and gaping like cotton might. I used two different colors of embroidery floss that I waxed by running over a chunk of beeswax. The ends could be tied off a bit more neatly, but over all it looks pretty tidy. I am pleased with it.

I have to go into town to get the super magnets, so I am going to move onto finishing the tulip air-freshener for my car tonight. I bought some pretty gold jingly things (like the silver ones I used on the star) this afternoon and all I have to do is stuff it with herbs and attach the leaf and tassel. Here's where it's at right now:

I am thinking about borrowing a swivel from Michael's tackle box to attach the leaf and tassel to the tulip. I am not sure how much I like that light pink addition on the  tulip, but it needed something else there. I am going to use some gold foil from a candy wrapper or something for the top of the tassel, because I call upon the wisdom I gained in eighth grade from Sarah Buchanan- that gold and silver most emphatically DO NOT match. I wonder if that is still true today. Anyway, we'll see how it looks all together when it's done.  

The stars that I was working on in the first post are knit up, felted and dyed. They look ok but not great. I was too cautious with the dye and rather than looking variegated and cool, they look insipid and blotchy. Plus, I plunked them in the washer with a blanket for friction and didn't realize it was a dog blanket, so now they are also embellished with dog hair that has been felted into the surface. Lovely. I couldn't get the stars out of my system and decided to work with a different medium. Originally, I had in mind something crisp and colorful, with mirrors and embroidery. I drafted a pattern for a piece that is sewn wool felt and I am very pleased with how it looks.

I was planning to make a mobile with a bunch of little stars, but ended up with this bigger, say 6 inch, star with tassels.  I cut out five diamond shapes and blanket stitched them together. I stuffed the points firmly with wool and then sewed on the mirror surrounds. After making a few flower fairies a while ago, I am a blanket-stitching fool and will work it in anywhere I can. I like the felt tassels and plan to use them again soon for another project. For the foil top, I cut a foil to-go container into bits. Learn from me, don't use your "good" scissors for this kind of work. Those little bead looking things are little bells that I found at the bead store. They are sweet, and I like the belly-dancing, Middle Eastern flavor they bring to the piece, but don't actually add a lot of noise. For the mirrors, I was going to do shisha stitching, but besides the fact that it looks like it would take forever, I really like the extra depth an additional layer of felt adds (plus, more blanket stitching!!). 

In bigger, more fun news, Laura has an awesome batch of felt ready to list on our Etsy site.

It is premium, 100% wool felt that she carefully dyed with (from the top) Madder Root, Onion Skin, Osage Orange, Osage Orange exhaust, Black Walnut and a double-dip of Madder and Black Walnut. The colors are so rich and "go" together in an awesome way. Since she has been dying fibers naturally for more than 10 years, she has such a wealth of knowledge I am not even interested in trying to keep up with her in that arena, I just like to admire the outcomes and make stuff with the pieces she dyes. We will be selling collections of 6 complementary colors, and I think they will have seasonal names. This certainly looks like "Autumn" to me. Here is a snap of one each of the 6.5"x9" pieces, bundled up and ready to be mailed off to other friendly crafters.

I have been fiddling in Photoshop to get the colors to look just right and this is as close as I could get. We have more felt on the way and are going to get an Indigo vat fired up, so look out for cool shades next.  We have been long-hoping to start selling some of our designs and wares, and are both hoping for a warm reception on the web. I am an accomplished blog lurker, and feel like I know some of the cool women already on the online crafting scene. However, I am such a virtual wall-flower, promoting out stuff is going to be tricky. We are hoping that people will be drawn to the authentic, lovely colors, as we are, and I want to make an effort to get involved in the buzzing conversations out there. We'll see.

Anyway, I am using some of these colors to make an ornamental piece to hang from the rear-view mirror in my car. For a starting point, I am using a tulip motif that  is a part of a larger paisley print. To me, it looks both Indian and Pennsylvania Dutch. I am working on the final embroidery, and it looks pretty good. Here's a peek of the first step.

It's going to also be blanket stitched and stuffed. You think that if I stuff the whole dang thing with lavender it will combat the smells of old happy meals and banana peels that persist in my car? Nah, I don't think so either, but it will look pretty slammin' and I am hoping it will bring some of the nice aesthetic of my home and art to my hell-hole of a car. More soon.

I am fresh back from a trip to our family's farm in Pennsylvania. Laura and I and our passle of kids stayed with our parents and I attended a conference for my job. Everything was very green and lush, different from dry and crispy Kentucky. I was strangely obsessed with the wheat growing everywhere, as we don't see many wheat fields where we live. I thought it would be an inspiring craft material, and finally sister Abby and I busted it all the way to the top of the hill and cut some.

The hill is my parents', but it is farmed by a neighbor. Even though I was sure Brian Trexler would not care if I cut a handful of wheat, I felt like I was stealing and the whole affair had a sneaky, slightly nervous pall. But I ignored that pesky conscience and eventually had to restrain myself from cutting too much, because even though I didn't know what I was going to do with it, I wanted big armfuls. The wheat was about 18 inches tall, getting just yellow at the bottom, and when I popped a wheat berry in my mouth it was milky, chewy and green-tasting. I think that means it's not quite ready to be harvested yet. I twisted a few stems together to tie the bunch and here is what I got:

The hilltop field was the very same one that we hiked to as kids to get to my Pop-Pop's from my cousin's house, and the view is the same as it was twenty years ago. Even though I was still out of breath from the walk up the other side and the furtive, wheat-stealing mission, I wished I had hiked up the hill every day of the visit just to check out the view. It's so pretty it makes my heart hurt in a good way.

Back to the house, I had to figure out something to DO with that hard-won sheaf, and I knew eventually I wanted to make some Waldorf-style Christmas stars, so I started with that. First I stripped off the leaves and then I cut the stems into sections at the nodes. Based on photos of the completed stars, I knew that the stems were flattened and cut, but couldn't think of a good way to flatten them without tearing the stem. My brilliant Mom suggested that I try the pasta maker that Abby bought at rummage sale. It went swimmingly. Now, I didn't really know what I was going for since I didn't have my book with star directions, but I think I can make  it work with what I have. The material is so appealing, golden and strong. The little straws (and they are straws-little perfect tubes!) are sturdy and clink together in a glass-like way. They, appropriately, smell clean and grassy like a good, new straw bale. I cut and flattened some, and left some intact as tubes. 

Now I need to research weaving and maybe dying straw. My Dad talked to the Trexler's the next day and he knew how I felt about the wheat, so he asked them if it was ok that I took a handful. They laughed and said we were welcome to as much wheat as we wanted.

I remind myself of the wisdom of this age old saying when contemplating a two dollar ziplock bag of lengths of ribbon, seam binding, old zippers and other untold wonders at thrift stores. You can't make something out of nothing, I think, snatch that bag of "art supplies" right up! I guess you weren't asking me to help justify your supplies, you need a storage solution. OK, I'll get to that, let me answer some of your questions first...

I must say that I adore my studio. Since we (and by we I mean Strider) actually built the room onto our house for a dining room, and I took it over in a bloodless coup, it is not the studio of my dreams.  It is a room of my own, which is a heck of alot more than I used to have. The struggle to keep it tidy is ongoing. I have the big cabinet from the Berea College Surplus auction full of small boxes of odds and ends; acorn caps, glitter, empty film canisters (I know you mock my film canisters, but they are so handy and soon to be obsolete.), beads, old zippers, and on and on... I have the shelf rescued from the clutches of McMahan's dumpster that is overflowing with fiber, supposedly current project stuff only. Under my big work table, other than my filing cabinets, it's anyone's guess. The majority of my fabric collection is in totes in the attic. Some areas of my studio are very tidy.....

 (My desk looking out over our patio and backyard. I envision myself sitting here working contentedly, pausing to wave at my kids as they do some really imaginative play out there...this has not happened yet.)

Others, not so much...

 (This shelf is supposed to hold materials for current projects ONLY. OK maybe it can also house appealing things that I want to use sooner rather than later, after all I can't remember everything I have squirreled away in the attic, right?)

I think you do need your own space, both to store your sizable collection of fiber, and to have your own dedicated work area, even if you do end up knitting in the hammock. It has got to be very frustrating to have to dig every time you need to find something! One room would give you the space you need to have it all together.

 Now, onto what I did today. Blithely ignoring the crunchiness under the high chair, I needle felted this little guy, a gift for Michelle's blessingway. (With Eli's help I might add. Thankfully, he quickly moved on to other things. )
 

Please forgive me, I just had to photograph him on my shoulder. His eyes are beads, and his beak is watercolor paper, I stitched them on and then hid the knot on the back of his head under a little more blue wool. his legs are made of brown thread wrapped wire for flower arranging. I was inspired by the birds on bitter betty's blog, and just happened to have the lovely rainbow palette of peace fleece and felting needles just lying around. I am totally bringing the materials to do more needle felting on our trip. We are going to be fighting over who has to drive so the passenger can work on projects. I am sure you pack your knitting needles first.

I know this post has a photo sideways, and I couldn't figure out how to link directly to bitter betty's great blog, but it still represents a tremendous leap in my technological aptitude. I am determined to get involved in the  blog community come hell or high water, so please bear with me!