indiscreet rag dolls, a colonel, two mischievous cats and expressive feet

July 21, 2017
by annwood
rag dolls : expressive feet

The five day – doll every day challenge: I was great at starting them. Less great at finishing them.
They still aren’t done. I made the executive decision to go with “substantially, but not quite finished”.

naked rag doll : nora

Here is who turned up – the first was nora who you met last week. She didn’t get any happier but she did get more naked. I decided to give her all the lady details. She is a little smaller than the original immodest dolls and I also made a lot of progress toward turning her into a pattern.

naked rag doll : nora

A steady hearted Colonel. I like his turned out toes and expression – and I found a new way to make hair easily. I think I’d like him to be a sewing pattern too – what do you think?

steady hearted colonel doll

steady hearted colonel doll

rag doll : fancy stockings

rag doll : fancy stockings

Next – a lady with fancy stockings. Same pattern as nude nora. She and the Colonel both have expressive feet. I try to give everybody expressive feet.

rag dolls : expressive feet

mr. socks rag dollmr. socks : sewing pattern

And the last two were a mr. socks and a mrs. spots (find the sewing pattern here). I never get tired of making the mischievous little cats.

It was a good exercise for me.  My brain got moving again – I generated lots of ideas and found some energy. I made things I might not have otherwise – things I like. And containing projects in a day made me see more clearly how long things really take and how consistently I underestimate that. Still. The week ended up with too many things crammed into it- next time I do this I’ll clear some days completely.

I’ll put all the dolls above and a couple others in the shop next week. You can sign up here if you’d like an email when they are available.

onward,
a

PS – there are a few new paintings in the shop:

               

rowing out of the doldrums with a doll every day

July 13, 2017
by annwood
nora : hand stitched doll

For the next few days anyway.
Doldrums. Who ever invented the word deserves a prize. It sounds like what it is, what it feels like: a warm inertia, an unpleasant stillness, listlessness. Apparently I am not a summer person –  productivity wise anyway – I always find myself here mid July-ish.

Or maybe it’s coincidental. The mid summer almost always finds me working on larger – longer term projects – christmas – workshops for the fall etc. Projects that it can be hard to feel progress on.
And sometimes the stagnated feeling means I need a break. Not this time though – this is a restless stuckness. So I am busting out. Rowing hard until I can catch a breeze and some beautiful momentum. For the next few days I’m making – starting and finishing – a doll everyday. Experiments and some of the usual suspects like mr. socks and tiny rag doll. It’s the kind of sewing I feel like doing, the kind of thinking I’m in the mood for.

nora : hand stitched doll

elegant rag doll sewing pattern

 

I began today with Nora. A mysterious dark eyed girl. Im still deciding on her  degree of anatomical accuracy and outfit.  I’ll spend the rest of the afternoon and evening finishing her.

Get the elegant rag doll pattern here.

nora : hand stitched doll

Working on shorter term projects gives me a sense of forward motion and satisfaction. I can feel the shape of the day again. Hopefully I can bring some of that energy into the larger projects in a couple days.

onward,

ann

3 ideas to try : paper lanterns, end of day baskets and collage experiments

July 6, 2017
by annwood

paper lanterns by oh happy day

Everything I’m doing this week would either not be remotely interesting to you or is top secret so it’s the perfect time to share a few good ideas I’ve come across lately. Stuff I’d like to try. I love paper lanterns, I like things that hang and play with light.  These have so many possibilities. You could use fancy paper, or found paper – mixing in some wax paper and or fabric could be interesting. I love the way they look hung together. Find a tutorial for four different styles on Oh Happy Day.  And lots more photos too – all beautifully styled and charming.

susies scraps basket

I’m a fan of finding ways to use the littlest scraps – especially little bits of fabric I love to much to part with. You’ll find a complete tutorial for this “end of day” basket here. It seems pretty straight forward – clothes line rope, fabric scraps and a machine with a zig zag stitch. I particularly love the black mixed in with bright color on this basket. It also occurred to me that a tiny – doll size – one might be interesting.

julie hamilton collage sketchbook

And the sketchbook collage work of illustrator Julie Hamilton. I discovered her work through the Brown Paper Bag Blog – there is a post with lots of Julie’s work and more about her process. It’s such a good way to experiment and an easy place to start if you’re feeling stuck. Make some marks. collect some paper, cut stuff up and mess around.

If you try any of these I’d love to hear about it – you can let me know in the comment section.

sketchbook 6/18 – 6/24 and current obsessions

June 30, 2017
by annwood
sketchbook : 6/21

The sketch book posts don’t usually get included in the blog page but I made an exception this week for a couple reasons. Mostly because I had a good week – I liked everything I made last week – that hardly ever happens. There’s even a naked lady.

And I wanted to tell you about my current obsession with Staffordshire Pottery and how that came about. I love looking at other people’s stuff. I want to look in your windows and open your drawers. I want to stop by when you are not expecting guests and look at everything. I came across this blog lately: The Bible of British Taste.

And I love everything about it – the houses, the art, the stuff, the textiles- on and on. This house in Scotland is my favorite post. That’s where I came across Staffordshire and there is just something about them – formal, sweet and quirky – all at the same time. You’ll also find some Chinese portraits there that have inspired.

Check it out – I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Also – For the next few weeks any way – I’ll be adding little paintings to the shop each Thursday.

a fortuny ragdoll, a little brown owl goes to sea and new things in the shop

June 30, 2017
by annwood
fortuny ragdoll : josephine

hand stitched owl

I like this little fellow – amazing what turning buttons a little can do for an expression.
I’ve made him a boat and he is going to sea alone – perfect for him – he seems pretty bossy.

owl and sailboat

He is made from the small size of my little owl pattern and the boat is made from this pattern (both patterns are on sale for subscribers through the July 4th holiday – you can sign up here if you like– you’ll get the code shortly after).

owl and sailboat

I’m making more over the weekend. I want to bring a couple to the Squam Retreat with me in September. I’ll be at the art fair on September 16th with sewing patterns and art work and some surprises. I hope you’ll come say hi. It will be only the third time I’ve done this sort of thing in the 11 years I’ve been in business – I am generally pretty hermity. But it’s the last year for the retreat and the art fair and the first time I have print patterns to sell (there are more on the way – I’m drawing the mushroom pattern illustrations now) so I am showing up. I will kind of dread it for the next couple months and then end up having a good time, proving my wise mother right again – her advice around anxiety producing situations was always “ You’ll be fine once you get there”.

fortuny ragdoll : josephine

And please meet Josephine and some curious birds. Her dress and silver slippers are made from Fortuny and she has Edwardian lace unmentionables.

fortuny ragdoll : josephine

teal nuthatch : stitched songbird

stitched songbirds

Have a lovely long weekend – I’ll be here – making lots of things.

suddenly a billy goat appeared and the space between ideas and action

June 22, 2017
by annwood
billy goat rag doll

billy goat rag doll

Suddenly a billy goat appeared. A very distinguished goat. It was not my plan, he is not on my list or schedule and I probably should have been doing something else. But I felt a strong spiritual directive to make a surly goat. I had the impulse and I followed it immediately, that hardly ever happens and I think its a good thing to do. I usually have quite a lot of time between my ideas and when I do something about them. Sometimes they get stale – resistant to action. Maybe too much time lets doubt creep in or I get stuck in an endless circle of overthinking. There is huge value in diving right in, creating the first iteration, maybe making a mess but also getting a feedback loop going. I’m pretty sure there is some actual brain chemistry around this but I haven’t looked it up yet – I was busy making a goat.

billy goat rag doll

I made my gray goat rag doll from an Edwardian skirt.  I’m working on another in black now.

billy goat rag doll

small art

Goats have been on my mind, turning up in my little paintings often. I love their expressive, humany faces. They always look like they are silently judging you.

This goat  be in the shop next week – I’m thinking Tuesday – with some other recently finished things including some Sri Threads songbirds.

You can sign up here if you’d like an email when the new things are available.

bird, hand stitched from japanese textiles

bird, hand stitched from japanese textiles

Update: If you’d like to try making your own songbird you can find the sewing pattern right here.

my new favorite paint and songbirds on my work table

June 15, 2017
by annwood
mosquito painting

mosquito painting

I’m particular about paint. I like very flat color. I’ve been using Holbein acrylics for a while and the last time I went to pick some up I discovered something new – or new to me – from Holbein to try – Mat Acrylic.

They come in big tubes and the colors are flatter than flat. Very opaque too. They flow beautifully on paper and the finish of the paint when dry is almost paper-like itself. They are unlike anything I’ve tried before – the closest comparison I could make would be gouache which I find difficult to work with. Also – in case you are wondering – I paint my little squares on hot press watercolor paper. I like fluid 100 and Arches.

And lovely Sri indigos and teals. Teal is the color that is on my mind lately – smokey and mysterious.  I’m working on things for the shop and will add these as soon as they’re finished – possibly tomorrow , more likely Saturday.  I also have some rag doll experiments in the works, including some Fortuny rag dolls I’m excited about.

stitched sri songbirds

indigo sri songbird

Thanks to everybody who entered last week’s book give away – the winning number (chosen by a random number generator) is 330. I’ll be sending an email your way Annie L. for address info. If you would like to order a copy of Stitch-Illo you can find it here.

stitch illo