change of plan

I decided to change my Spoonflower zombie plushie cut and sew design so that the dolls would have arms sticking out.  This involved a lot of faffing around on my behalf, and I spent 3 hours on photo-shop one evening, only to mess up my evening s work with my own incompetence.  Anyway, I then realised that the only way I was capable of doing the change was manually with scissors and glue, and then onto photo-shop and begin at the beginning again.

 You can see they still have their arms behind them, and I cut off the tops of their heads.

I drew new arms and cut them out and stuck them on and then scanned them, and then spent some time fiddling around with them until I was happy with the result.

This was my first design.  I decided to remove the black outlines so that it would look better when sewn up (more room for error). it's hard to imagine it would take so long to make so few changes.
the original design is still on spoonflower, but i entered the new one in the Zombie Plushie competition.

dawdling and doodling

I have been rather slack on the blogging lately, and hopefully will soon have more stuff to put on.  I have been relying on other people and their lovely creations, as I haven't got any of my own.  But some creativity is bubbling away hopefully ready to surface at some point soon.  A few random ideas in my sketch book.

 above some card ideas, christmas decorations?! whatever.

 above  Lace ideas taken from some old lace, some old medals, and some books from the library on textiles/old fashion.

this rose was on a chinese top I recently aquired.  I thought it was very pretty so I drew it.  I have a mission this year to get the rose drawings sorted, as I do love roses so and I want to be able to draw a fine lot of them.  Not happy with my efforts so far sohopefully will be some more posts on these later in the year, once the roses come out, and a good excuse for rose stalking around the neighbourhood.

Zombies on photoshop

I have managed to make a small inroad into my previous photo-shop ignorance, and battled with seemingly un-logical technology to make-up a pattern for another Spoonflower fabric contest.  It isn't until October and I do not expect to win as my taste and technical know-how seems to vary wildly with the usual winners, but still I do it because I want to, and I like doing it.  So this is my latest offering.  Ahem!

zombie party girls is  a cut and sew pattern for stuffed zombies, with an extra bit of zombie inspired ( eyeballs, hearts, dripping blood etc) fabric on the side, for anything that takes your fancy.  I had fun designing their dresses, so I hope they look glam enough if not a little dishevelled.

I have just had to change the colours on my entry as informed by my 13 year old that the green was not so good.  I think she is right too, so now it is purple.  also the name is lame, apparently, but I will just have to leave it for now.  Note to self "consult 13 year old before doing anything first."  I already use my 9 year old as my stylist, when I get dressed to go out of an evening.

zombie dolls

Been doodling some zombie party dolls, nice frocks in a little state of disrepair.  I went through my selection of saved fab frock photos from the web, to find the sort of dress any self respecting zombie party girl would be happy to wear.  I feel a little limited on my repertoire of zombie style facial scars etc.

Million Dollar Design

I have just come across Million Dollar Design, they are an illustration duo from Amsterdam who love to mix different materials like paper, fabric, photography and drawings to give their illustrations a rich and layered look.  They have some beautiful fabric designs which I have my eye on.  Pretty fabulous I do think!  Also other news is that my computer is messing me around and hence the pictures are not lining up properly and are being like naughty children and ignoring my commands and just going where they feel like going.  So I apologise for the slightly dodgy layout.

Some fabric of mine for sale.

My Spoonflower swatches finally arrived after getting a little lost along the way.  These were little 8"x8" swatches.  I was happy with how they came out, the colours are really lovely in real life.  And they are now for sale on Spoonflower at eat my sweet dust.  They are patterns from photographs I took on a sunny day, so lovely sky blues and bright yellow lichen and softy green grass and trees.  I think they are well cool.

above print is big scale.  This image is on a yard (42"x36") I would like to make skirts and dresses and bags and curtains and cushions and lots of stuff out of them.

craft party results

Well the votes have been cast and I have not won the craft contest.  I have taken my 56th placing in very bad grace, and grumbled rather a bit to any-one who would listen, or not.  but I don't know what I expected.  I have had some sweet comments from other spoonflowerets about my design.  I did in fact vote for the winner myself, I like bird mobiles quite a bit.

Pot belly bears (above)

(above) are two others from the top ten

I liked this one and her tattoos.

 and Mr voodoo and Fido was cute, there are photos of this project made up at the link. 

I think maybe my complete non-technical approach makes my designs a bit amateur but I will not give up and carry on regardless.  One day I may make it, and if not I will have spent some time (not) doing it.

it never rains but it pours

Oh my the rain just never stops around here.  I am trying to get the house painted outside and this weather makes it a bit tricky.  It has rained and rained for weeks.  We live in the sunniest town in New Zealand (2011) I dread to think what the rest of the country is like.    so I have found some happy rainy fabric on the web to put a positive spin on it all.  I fear there will be some flooding. 

rain or shine by Endemic

New Moms "rain clouds" at etsy

Vo aka virginiao

A rather lovely rainy post on Heart Felt.(above)

little green frog

fabric hunting


 
Tessa Hall

Katrina Whitsett

We have looked at an old wreck of a house this weekend that we really like, possibly it needs pulling down but it is big and sunny, and has fab 70s wallpaper some in pretty perfect condition.  I could see it as a fashion shoot location.  We seem to have an uncanny desire for homes that require work.  

Birthday today.

Today is my birthday and I am 43.  Good lord that sounds frightfully old!  My oldest girl made me breakfast in bed at 6.30am, egg, potatoes, beans and mushroom.  Yum!  I got cool pressies and cards from friends and family and today I will escape house painting and painting clothes for a couple of hours and go to town to spend some birthday money.  And tonight i am going out with some lovely girlfriends for beer and curry.  Hooray! 

So I found some images with the no. 43 in them.

above gorgeous graffitti cake.  

Annie Baird

Brodmann area.  Part of the brain related to cake I think.

Being 43 I don't actually know who any of the artists on here are.

Wonder woman. I know her.