April 29, 2009

Makin' Faces - HM WIP part 3







Once I had all my colors organized, chosen and cut I started in on the faces of the ghosts. The quilting class I took a year ago has come in really handy for these projects. Although I have to admit I HATE having to iron down all these seams...but it really helps to make them match up. *sigh*
I'm also doing a lot more hand sewing on this than I anticipated, but I'll do whatever works in order to get it done. :)
Back to work...

April 26, 2009

HM WIP part 2






Okay, so after a really busy week of sewing, here are some more WIP pics. I finished the wallpaper faces, ironed them on, and then went about constructing the door frame and baseboards. I used quilt batting to stuff the framing and baseboards to pop it off the "wall."
After I got them made I cut the floor fabric into strips and pieced them together to look like floorboards. I sewed vertical lines into each row at random intervals to make it look like seams in the floor as well. (Not shown in this pic.) Once that was sewn together I attached it to the bottom of the wall. I sewed down the black fabric for the door interior, and then sewed down the baseboards and the right side and top of the door frame. I have to leave the left side of the frame open to slip the door into place. Unfortunately I didn't remember to take any pictures of the door fabrication, so you'll have to wait to see how it turned out later. :D I used a brown striped corduroy for my "wood" and cut it into panel pieces (changing the direction of the grain to make it look like the wood grain was going in different directions) and then sewed them together. I made a backing for the door, then inserted a piece of quilt batting into the door, and then quilted each panel of the door to fasten the quilt batting down and give the panels more dimension.
The last couple of pictures are my attempt to organize this insanity so that it makes sense when I'm cutting out/sewing the ghosts. With all their transparency, it was the only way I could think of to do it. Sort of a "sew-by-number" process.
Okay, now back to work! Have a great week. :)

April 20, 2009

HM Work in Progress part one





So, first things first. I had to get all the background elements done, which meant A LOT of finicky cutting out of the faces for the wallpaper. I found a great black crackled cotton, and I ironed fusible web onto the back. Then I made a stencil for all the face parts and traced them all out onto the fabric, then did the same thing for the eyeballs. I ironed on the eyeballs/pupils to the eyes and then to the faces. Now to spend the rest of the day figuring out the spacing and getting them ironed down.

April 17, 2009

New project sketches- Hitchhiking Ghosts



These are the very rough pencil/color sketches for one of the plushed wall hangings I'm working on for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion 40th Anniversary. It will be about 3 feet wide by 5 feet tall when I'm done. I'm using mainly cotton for this, with corduroy pieced into panels for the door. If you can see it in the color sketch, I'm using tones of blues to indicate the transparent aspect of the ghosts as the interact with the door frame, etc. It will take me about a month to finish, including sketching/patternmaking time. A big project, but a fun one! I'll post more WIP pics next week. Have a great weekend, I'm off to the sewing machine!

April 12, 2009

Happy Spring!



I thought this was too cute to pass up when we were at one of our local thrift stores yesterday. A steal at $2.50. Now that spring has (I think) arrived, what better way to usher it in than with a needlepoint of cute woodland creatures? :D It's hard to see in the photos, but the tails of the skunk, fox, and bunny are puffed out into the 3rd dimension, and so are the ferns on the right side. I love the way they did the twigs in the bird's nest. Happy spring everybody!

April 4, 2009

Spring bunnies




Parker and Penny are best friends who occasionally enjoy dressing up and heading off to a nice brunch at their favorite restaurant, Lettuce. When the weather is nice and sunny Parker calls up Penny, puts on his best bow tie and tells Penny to wear her favorite dress, and they go and sit outdoors at the cafe, talking and laughing and enjoying a long brunch.
For more pics, head on over to my flickr.

Penny and Parker will also be making an appearance in my etsy shop.