Now I know how Santa's elves feel

It's been a busy month in my studio. In past years I've stopped taking commissions in December so I can focus on making things for my family and preparing for the holidays. This year though I took on every project that came along, and they kept coming. Consequently, there are kids all over the country that will be getting personalized kokoleos for Christmas and Hanukkah and my kids will be having a fabulous Christmas as well thanks to the cash I earned in the process. Here's my latest batch of personalized pillows...

 

Those last two were a last minute project I accepted this weekend. A return customer who lives in Seattle emailed me to ask if there was a possibility I could make a pillow for her by Monday evening. She was going to be in my neighborhood visiting a friend's new baby and wanted to be able to take her a kokoleo pillow, and if I could squeeze it in she wanted the Jonah pillow for another friend's kid too. We exchanged a few emails to determine the best fabrics and I sewed like a banshee and literally snipped my final thread as she arrived at my door to pick them up. It was nice to meet her in person and see her reaction when I handed them to her (she loved them). Usually I just package my work up and send it out into the world and pray they arrive safely and the recipient is happy. 

Another return customer contacted me to make Hanukkah gifts for 4 little boys. She wanted personalized capes like the one I made for a friend years ago. Here's what I came up with...

Modeled by McKenna...

 Then an old friend from Peterkin, our church camp, called me to ask if I would make banners for each of her family members with the Peterkin "Halleuiah Kids" symbol on them. After a few days of exchanging emails with fabric combination options, here are the 4 we came up with:

And now I'm done with my commissions for the year. Last night I made these chocolate pretzel trees for the staff at my kids' school...

 

After teaching two preschool Mother Goose classes plus improv acting classes at 2 different elementary schools the past few months, I remember what it's like to be a teacher. And after what happened in Connecticut, I remember why it's important to tell people you appreciate what they do for your kids. 

For my kids' teachers I made these tiger print totes - one for Sage's teacher, one for McKenna's, and one for the teacher who found this super soft luxe tiger print fabric (their mascot is a tiger) at a yard sale this summer and bought it for me.

 

She knows I collect fabric because she's seen the PTO displays I've created in the front hall of the school. Here's the one I did a few weeks ago:

 Whew! That's a lot of kokoleo for one month. I wonder what I'll make next year..

I never saw a hot pink cow... till now.

My latest custom plush commission started with this drawing by a little girl in Oregon.

Its name is "Marly" and it's a cow. I immediately thought of the old nursery rhyme:

I never saw a purple cow.

I hope I never see one.

But I can tell you anyhow,

I'd rather see than be one.

When I went to the fabric store though, the hot pink fleece matched the color of the drawing better than any of the purple fleece, so I went with the best match. Fast forward two weeks and here it is in huggable form:

Sometimes it's tricky interpreting the back of a child's drawing. The difficult tasks with this one were figuring out a way to make supportive legs and devising a skinny, yet supportive neck.

I did it by giving the cow a triangular rump and inserting a sewn tube of vinyl that extends diagonally from the base through the neck and into the head, then hand-stitching the back part, front legs, and head together.

Soon it will be sitting on the bed of the little girl who designed it.

I never saw a hot pink cow

But now I'm glad I did.

I took a drawing, flat and small

And made it plush and big.

Summer Games and Baby Names

Oooo the summer is flying by. I haven't posted since April! Sheesh. Where does the time go? For me it's gone into entertaining the kids, organizing a neighborhood bike parade and picnic, gathering materials for a community mosaic in our park, and teaching a craft class at happy delusions every Thursday:

I've also been busy with a steady stream of personalized pillow orders lately. Here are some pics of the ones I've done in the last few months:

 

 

Such great names!

Raggedy Barbie

Yesterday, inspired by a call for submissions for an Altered Barbie art show at happy delusions, I spent a rainy Seattle afternoon holed up in my studio making this:

I call it Raggedy Barbie.

I printed the face onto photo transfer paper, ironed it onto canvas material and using McKenna's Raggedy Ann doll as a reference, cut out all the body parts like this:

 Then stuffed it, sewed on yarn hair, and made a patchwork print dress and ribbon belt.

Here's a close-up. 

I probably spent over 6 hours making it. Minus the Barbie face, it looks a lot like a rag doll I had when I was little - her name was Minneapolis and she had yellow yarn hair and a patchwork dress. In college, I made several rag doll-related works of art including a 3-dimensional fabric collage atop an antique quilt titled Annabelle Lives in A Patchwork World. It was a girl (composed of my clothes) with yellow yarn hair leaning against a fabric tree. I also made a painting of Raggedy Anne all grown up and stuck in a toy box.

 It hangs in McKenna's room now. I suppose rag dolls are a theme for me, which is why when I thought about how to alter Barbie I instantly thought of making a her into a traditional rag doll. Barbies are usually sexy and stylish. Rag dolls? Not so much. The juxtaposition of the two is a wee bit off-putting. When I was nearly finished making it McKenna walked in, looked at it, screamed! and said, "That's a creepy doll mom!"

 Ha! She warmed up to her though.

And now they're friends.

Made with Love

I know Valentine's Day is a consumer-driven hyped up holiday that ends up making some people feel lousy, but I have to admit I always end up getting swept up in the love. A few years ago Sage started a tradition of making all his Valentines for school friends (see my previous post) and now McKenna is following in his footsteps.

She drew 6 different Valentine-themed pictures and I printed them out on card stock and she embellished them with hearts and suckers. One the back of each one was this printed this message:

I tried to get her to write Happy Valentine's Day but she insisted on "I LOVE YOU," which seems like a rather bold statement to hand out to people willy-nilly, but she didn't care.

While we perused the Valentine aisle at the grocery store she oohed and ahhed over all the stuffed bears and monkeys and whatnot decked in red and white and holding hearts. I couldn't bring myself to buy her one though.While she saw a goofy, fluffy, Valentine stuffed animal, I saw a cheap, Made in China sweatshop symbol of ridiculous American consumption. And besides, her bedroom is beginning to become one big symbol of ridiculous American consumption and I don't want another stuffed animal to have to pick up off the floor, so I made her a pillow instead:

It's soft and furry and has an even furrier M stitched on the front. I love the feel of that fabric but holey moley my studio now looks like I murdered a Muppet.

For Sage, I took this too-big Super Mario shirt I found at a thrift store,

and turned it into this:

It's not a pillow, but a "pipe":

It's super cozy like a big long muff. He was a tad perplexed at first but I showed him how he could put his Super Mario Bros. figurines through it and send them to different levels just like in the video game, or he could use it as a muff to keep his hands warm, or as a single leg warmer, or an elephant trunk warmer... the possibilities are endless!

I didn't make anything for Erik this year, but I did get him an IUD, well I got me an IUD, so we don't make any more babies. I have enough things to make and people to love in my life right now, I don't need any more.