you did WHAT? with that pattern?

Soft Dolls & Animals Magazine used to have this feature called "You did WHAT with that pattern?" that was really fun. Readers sent in photos of how they uniquely interpreted patterns that the editors provided. In the previous two blog posts I stayed fairly close to Missy Ballance's Silly Girl pattern. Recently I ventured further...

and created this art doll. The flash has just wiped out the details of the body fabric--I think I'll need to do that shot over at some point. Also it's difficult to see the thin wire that i wrapped around, though some of it comes through on the face. Here's a closeup of that:

the eye and heart beads are both glass; you can see more of the black fabric details in this photo.

this silly family is growing...i don't think it's over yet!

TWO Silly Girls

Two days ago I blogged about the doll that I made using Missy Ballances free pattern and I was eyeing some green fabric to use for a possible friend for her. Last night I made her (I love it when I have an actual learning curve after having done something once before. In sewing especially, that isn't usually my luck.) I went for vintage buttons for her eyes instead of felt and I used fabric strips again for her hair. The thought of doing an army of Silly Girls, tone on tone like this, in different colors crossed my mind ...

Two gals enjoying a summer morning. Truly, this makes me feel good.

Silly Girl

I've been itching to make a stuffie. It's a state I'm usually in. And this weekend I was really feeling like something/someone was missing. That feeling of, "Wasn't there somebody else here with us?" 

I went through some of my folders and found the FREE pattern that Missy Balance gifted the world with here on her site. (Thank you to everyone who ever gives a free pattern or tutorial. That's an AMAZING gift.) I just finished her moments ago and whisked her outside for some photos.

Instead of yarn I used strips of fabric for her hair and I can't wait to do that a lot more on other stuffies. I was too impatient to do the coffee dye bath on muslin, but I used a yellow patterned fabric that holds up pretty nicely. Maybe I rushed through the facial features too much--maybe. I'm eyeing a piece of green fabric that I think would make a great alien friend for her...there are still some hours left : )

The Doll in Lili Mieli's Window

 The shop Lili Meili and Beau currently has this rag doll in their window. 

Just three straight stitches intersecting make up each eye; a small piece of felt with one small stitch is the mouth. That one stitch keeps the mouth on and divides it into lips. 

So simple and so nice!

 The hair looks like layers of recycled pieces of knit with straight stitches here and there to keep it in place. I really like that.

When I got home today after taking these pictures,  I found this photo of some other dolls from the same maker.

The Licensing Show 2012...Or Who I Saw in Vegas

Who did I see in Las Vegas this week?

Not Celine. Not Donny or Marie. Not Criss Angel. 

Here is a small sampling of who I got to spend time with.

This is me and Ugly Doll Ox! 

Yes, I saw Dora!

Clifford? Hello, I saw him!

Things got smurfy

And they weren't the only blue creatures around either

Om-Nom from Cut the Ropes was there

I met three guys that looked like this. I don't know who they are but they were really fun to hang around with.

I saw this car and I'm thinking it might be just what I need to change my image.

Though this will do, too.

I saw this.

And I saw this.

I saw a lot of these, all at one time.

What happens in Vegas doesn't have to stay in Vegas at all!

2 guys trying to play 1 game for 54 hours

Before going to work today I stopped off at a pub on 33rd St. No, that's not one of my problems. Two guys from Minnesota are there, even now as I write, trying to beat the Guinness Book of World Records for longest time playing a board game non-stop. 

That's Brett Carow on the left and his friend Sam Hennemann on the right. You can read maybe too much about them and the whole thing here.

I got to Foley's Pub ("The Irish Bar with a Baseball Attitude")  around 8:15 and they were almost a full day into playing. Guinness allows 5 minutes break for every one hour of playing. By this morning they had only used up 15 minutes and were "banking" as much time as they could.

They are avid Strat-O-Matic players and 54 hours is enough time to play every MLB team.

I can't tell you how much sports memorabilia is at Foley's. TONS and TONS of things, floor to ceiling. They have an insane amount of baseballs...

Boxing gloves...

 They have stadium seats...

But what they do not have is ANYONE singing Danny Boy! This is from burpandslurp.com:

Another fun fact: See that anti-Danny Boy sign? Foley’s made news for banning that popular song for the entire month of March 2008. Foley’s lists several reasons for the Danny Boy outlaw: it’s depressing, it’s misused and overused on St. Patrick’s Day, and the lyrics were composed by an Englishman, for Hail Mary’s sake.

Outside of Foley's. It was a nice bite of an adventure. Good luck to Brett and Sam!

UPDATE: CONGRATULATIONS Brett and Sam for breaking the world record for continuous board game play!

4X6 Cushie Critter--Gloria

soon after participating in Craftster's second round of 4" X 6" Art Swap
( gallery here) i made this 4" X 6" she-monster which i just named gloria, after glory, after old glory.  i like how she turned out though  a follow-up that i made soon after wasn't that good. so i'm crafting some friends for her this morning and expect that one of them will be sent out as my 4" x 6" piece of art for round three. not her, though. i feel like i need to keep her around.