Hedwig

It so rarely happens that the thing in my head comes out in any recognizable way. I knew I wanted to make the owl white like Hedwig--since the nephew thinks he is Harry Potter. But I had no idea how to pull it off. Then little by little things fell into place. When I was in a Joann's-induced daze, I found the fluffy felt. Then I was looking at white owls online, and the face came to me, but how to make a face on felt. Felt. Felting. Needle felting! I had it sketched out, when Melissa sent me this link to a very sophisticated white owl pillow. It made me think I was right on with the felting idea.

Today I brought him to stitching so I could sew up the stuffing hole. The old ladies loved her.

More on them later because we had our Pollyanna, and I've got something new to make.

Check out the wings! Ignore the ironing board.

We Need a Little Christmas, Right This Very Minute

I've had a few finishes that I haven't shown you. Here are the boys' sorting hat boxes. I used the directions from Blackbird Designs for the interior. Sort of. I got the idea to xerox the book jackets from them. You can see that at the bottom of the box, the boys have been put into Gryffindor. I couldn't find PVA glue, so I used Aileen's instant decoupaging medium

A Couple of Finishes

I'm still not sure about this wreath. I saw a fabulous scrap wreath sometime last summer and raced right out and bought a wire wreath frame. I finally decided to try it. After two rounds--orange and beige--I thought I'd really fucked up. But that was around 11:00 on Saturday. (I know, lots of swinging evenings 'round these parts.) It looks a lot better during the day than it does at night. How many people are going to be looking at my door at night? It's a pretty quiet neighborhood...after all, we're all at home in the evenings knitting and crafting and baking bread. (Actually, I don't know what my neighbors are doing.)

In the daytime, I think you can see the rusts and oranges and browns and it does give a feeling of fall. I am pleased that I was able to use up some really hideous beige fabric that I moved across the country. But I did need to fill in the browns and rusts. Fortunately, I only had to get six quarter yards. Yup, this took a ton of fabric. Maybe next time, I'll really do it with scraps...

I also managed to finish the Sorting Hat for my nephew. I'm trying to figure out what to do next. Should I stitch the first verse of the sorting hat song (You might belong in Gryffindor...) or his name (Last, First--like the book) and Gyffindor underneath it? I'm leaning toward the latter but if I do that, should I do the same for both of them? This took me longer than I thought it might but the Gryffindor crest will take much longer, definitely. Man, it's hard to make decisions about gifts for boys you see every other year for, like, a day. And well, boys, we don't really have many of them in the family. A little help*?

* The boys in question are 8 and almost 6. The younger is on the Asperger's spectrum and has fantasies that he is Harry Potter. Both totally dig the Hogwarts business.

Other Crap, Part 2

Usually when I hit etsy, I think, "I could make that." (But that's pretty universal--I think I can make things I see in stores, at art shows, at the Sunapee Craftsman's Fair.) Now I have whole new things to think. Follow regretsy. I nearly peed when I read about the vulva portraits. I'm sure there are women who are that into their own twats. I'm just not her. I think there's nothing better than laughing at the Vagina Monologues. Now you know why they made me leave the Center for Feminist Research. (I kid.)

So I gave my word I'd post some photos. And I'm perfectly happy for you to make fun of my shit.

Workbasket, Mermaids Singing
Called for WDW flosses and Caron Watercolors
and Limelight fabric from Liberty Street
Comma from original poem added, because I am that pedantic.



Sorting Hat
c little mojo
found at the Leaky Cauldron
Called for DMC on random fabric

To read Other Crap, part 1

Celebrity Face in Cross-Stitch The Harry Potter Edition

Sweet! Daniel Radcliffe as imagined by our friends at the Cross-Stitcher. They do not let me down, people. (Still where's the Morrissey?)