Cats and Meat

Cat prints galore!!  Featuring classic black & white and some fancy spring colors for the Spring/Summer 2013 season as well as some sneaky cat details that will be conspicuously placed on some future products.  Get ready!  Also included in the lineup is a juicy meat pattern because, whynot?

Mixed Fabric Mini Quilt

I was recently inspired by a men's sock ad in a magazine (weird).  I have been milling over making another quilt for some time but that ad just pushed me over the edge.  I made a mini quilt because who am I kidding that queen quilt took over my life and ain't nobody got time for that.

I wanted to use a mix of fabrics to make the quilt look like it was taken or reused from other garments, to give it that quintessential 'heirloom' look and feel.  I incorporated the classic quilting cotton as well as linen and wool in a variety of colors all of which I just happened to have in my fabric storage room (yes, it's a whole room now).  In the photo below I was in the beginning stages of placing the quilt squares and figuring out which ones to put where next & trying super hard to keep Teeny off the table so she didn't mess up my arrangement... challenges!

Some in progress shots of 2 of the squares that made it to the finished quilt.  I made a bunch of squares that didn't fit visually and they got canned (so sad).  Better luck next time squares!

Here's the quilt squares all arranged and ready to be sewn together!  Now that the creative thinking part of the process was over it was time to do some mindless sewing, yay!

Sewing one of the columns together:

Shazam, just like that the whole quilt top was sewn together.  I also cut out the batting and quilt back ready to go for some quilt magic.

A back image of the quilt top of all of the sewing and serging I did for each square, good times.

Then I quilted the 3 layers with vertical lines along the columns in the square seams with invisible thread (it's seriously invisible try threading a machine with it, lol).

Phew, now that the stress of sewing quilting lines was over I sewed the quilt binding to the edges and hand stitched it to the back.  I used a tiny quilt binding because the quilt is so busy it only needed a simple border.

And, done!  Here you can see the front and quilted back of the quilt.

Feast your eyes!  The full finished quilt!!

Here it is on the bed, it just blends right in.  Clearly it was meant to be.

Writing this blog post felt like telling a bedtime story.  Having a children's book explaining how to make a quilt would be awesome, just saying.  I would've loved someone to read that to me at bedtime as a kid, I'd be dreaming about clouds of puffy batting!

Color, Arrangement & Form

When I get really busy with work it's always nice to take a break to explore the internet for what everyone else has been up to while I've been working away.  Here are some awesome images/video from different artists/creators that I thought were super neat and inspiring! Enjoy!

Fredrik Paulsen Prism

PJADAD Food Campaign

Salao Coboi- The 9 Worthies

P Williams- Clusterfuck

Sara Lundkcist- Aura Cluster

GF Smith Print Test

Adi Goodrich Cast and Combed

Oh Yeah Studio

And this video gem: Stuff & Things from Jack Cunningham

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Goosebumps: The Horror At Camp JellyJam Plush

I am going to be in an all-female powerhouse group art show presented by Hello Giggles where the theme is 90s Young Adult novels, classic!  We could choose from Nancy Drew, The Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley High, or Goosebumps for our inspiration.  I wasn't much into most of those books but I have literally read every Goosebumps book at least once, I used to love those stories (still do).  I decided to do plush art because it's so fun and unique since there is only one of the works so they are truly one of a kind.

The opening for Young Adult is at Gallery 1988 Melrose in Los Angeles on Saturday February 2nd from 7-10pm and it will run until February 23rd so go check it out if you're in the area!!

I chose my absolute favorite Goosebumps book, The Horror At Camp Jellyjam.  If you haven't read this riveting novel or need a refresher the plot goes like this: sister and brother Wendy and Elliot bored on a family vacation ask if they can ride in the trailer that the car is pulling.  Trailer becomes unhitched and they roll away and end up at Camp JellyJam where they are greeted by Buddy, the head counselor at the camp.  He assures them he will look for their parents but in the meantime they should have fun at the camp.  All of the kids are very competitive because if you win you get a gold King coin.  If you get 5 gold coins you get to be in the winner's walk that evening.  The camp's motto is, "Only the Best". Wendy starts to notice some fishy things happening and campers disappearing once they get 5 King coins so she exploring.  She finds a stairwell down to a cave where Buddy is hypnotizing the other counselors.  She goes further down to find the giant blobby gross smelling King Jelly Jam who sweats black snails and "only the best" winning campers are enslaved there to wash him since his smell is so bad and his arms are tiny so can't wash himself (get the dude some deodorant, am I right?).  Wendy helps to free all of the campers and take down King Jelly Jam who had been hypnotizing Buddy.  They all escape safely, Wendy and Elliot's parents are found, and all is right with the world.

While this story bring up some interesting questions about why parents would send their children to this camp when other campers seem to have gotten lost there forever it still doesn't make it any less awesome.  I made 3 plush pieces from the story: the trailer that started this whole mess, Head Counselor Buddy, and King Jelly Jam.  Check out the work in progress!

Head Counselor Buddy complete with mini Camp Jelly Jam branded 5 panel hat, camp tee, white regulation camp shorts with real working back pockets, and camp colored shoes all made from scratch by yours truly.  He stands at 27" tall!

King Jelly Jam complete with King crown with jeweled jelly color gems, the most amazing sleepy/confused/angry expression, and the black snails that he's always sweating (probably doesn't help with the smell) with embroidery thread swirls in three different shades of purple, and a giant weird amorphous body shape with tiny arms.

Say hey to these guys if you stop over at the gallery show, they are very excited for their first appearance!