My muse has decided she needs another vacation....hopefully she exhausts her yearly vacation time here pretty quick and I can manage to get a few things done. I haven't been completely unproductive since my last post, just not nearly as productive as I would like to be or as I usually am this time of year. I know last time I posted I promised pictures of some of the wonderful arty things I got for my birthday (over a month ago) , but yeah it hasn't happened!
I have worked on a couple of non-sewing projects since my last post.
One is my re-purposed cabinet door. A friend is totally remodeling her house that was built in the 30's, one of her latest projects was a total gut of her kitchen. My sometimes creative husband asked if he could have a few of the old cupboard doors to use for photo art and then they sat (he has wonderful ideas but not always the best follow through) and I realized one of them was just the right size for a message center for my studio. I have several cork boards that I tack drawings and such to but no real place to jot down reminders other than the margins of my project journal. I decided to strip off the old paint, decoupage the border with fabric scraps and buttons and such and then turn the whole inside into a chalk board. This sound pretty easy right? WRONG!!! Did I mention that these were the same cupboards that were originally installed in the house in the 1930's when it was built.....After an entire day of scrapping paint off a layer at a time (for anyone that knows anything about kitchen fashion I have scrapped away the white, the ecru, and the beige. In some places I have also made it past the goldenrod and the avocado green) I came to 2 conclusions. The first one was that this was going to be a lot harder than I thought and the wood that I found underneath the layer of paint was to pretty to cover up with fabric scraps. I have decided that I will only take the paint off the frame and the top have of the door interior, the bottom half will be cork (that means I only have to sand it down enough for hot glue to stick) and the top half will still be chalk board.
I worked on a second non-sewing piece as well. This one will have to remain hush hush for about another month. My oldest friend and creative cheerleader Mila Bowman at Encourage Creative will be reaching a milestone of not only completing one creative act everyday for 365 days, but also blogging about it on June 15th, because I won't be able to attend the celebration I have created something special to commemorate her accomplishment. After she has received it I will make a point of posting for all to see! (Sorry Mila NO HINTS for you!)
I also completed a 4 piece collection. The customer was happy, but because everything was done by static measurements between 2 states the tops were exactly what she wanted and the bottoms were to small. She assures me she doesn't hold me accountable and has even tried to pay me for the shipping or material costs of a replacement garment. NOT gonna happen, I believe in fixing my mistakes and doing whatever I can to make the best of the situation and keep the client happy all at one time. Now if my pesky muse would settle down so I could get to work!
My Facebook page reached a new milestone since my last post....we have reached 50 likes! It took a little over a year but we've done it and had a fair amount of traffic ever since. I am in the process of finishing up an apron for the winner of my first person so be 50 contest.
I have also been contacted about the possibility of doing another wedding. Thankfully this one is more of a laid back beachy theme and I will only be doing a bridesmaid dress and potential the brides dress, but they have yet to set anything in stone.
I have also taken a few minutes (ok a couple hours) to rearrange all of the Quilted Elephant photo albums by collection. I'm hoping this makes them easier to flip through for those of you that are interested. If anyone is interested let me know. Work has slowed down considerably and I think I'll have a little more studio time than I have and I'd love to have new projects!
Thanks for reading!
xo
C
