Happy Friday! This week I've been diving in full force and working on my book, and I've just made a happy discovery. I love painting with gouache, but with the kinds of illustrations I want to create I need a lot of control and the flexibility to change things on the fly. The beauty of traditional painting is the lovely unintentional effects that can happen. The not so beautiful part is the permanence of a painted line when mistakes are made -- no undo button! Enter digital watercolor painting. ... Read more
Sewing for Me (sort of): Take Three
I'm having all sorts of server issues again. As a result, I've been dealing with tech support, and I'm incredibly sad that I seem to have lost a few comments - so sorry! Things have been wonky in general, so I'm playing catch up with responding to comments and fixing some backend stuff. It's Murphy's law, because I actually had posts prepared early in advance this week, which is something that never happens. Poof, they went, up into the ether. It turns out that procrastination is a handy trait ... Read more
Pretty Pouches
After yesterday's brain dump, I thought I'd lighten the mood a little so here are some pretty pouches. I made these for a couple of friends as holiday gifts. I've used the yellow fabric for K's top here, and the indigo one for a dress for me. I referenced the excellent open wide zippered pouch tutorial by the fabulous Anna of Noodlehead. These are so easy and handy to have. My friends loved theirs! I'm dying to make her road trip case for sewing. Genius! One for me, and one for ... Read more
What’s Your Cutie Mark? (Or, How Do You Find Your Passion?)
I'm mulling. You know how I get into that mode, the one in which I go round and round just...brooding. A little while ago, K went through an intense period of wanting to know what her singular talent is. "What am I really good at??" she kept asking me. I finally deduced that this newfound interest was because she'd been binge-watching My Little Pony and became fascinated with the idea of a cutie mark. "Mama," she told me, "your cutie mark would be a sewing machine and a paintbrush. And your ... Read more
Monday Outfit: Fanfare Jammies
Good morning! How was your weekend? Were you sewing frenetically for KCW? Me, not so much. I had all my sewing books out, I referenced what I said I was planning on making, and then I suddenly heard the background noise that I had been ignoring. It said, "Mama, mama, I want more jammies. No, underwear. Wait no, jammies!!" So I made jammies. And that pose up there is so, "yo, homies --what up?". That's it: one pair of pajamas for all of KCW week if you don't count last Monday's outfits. ... Read more