Fluff Project: July/August DONE

I did a double up on the Fluff Project again.  July and August together.

I made five mermaids and six snails.

Ladies first!

All the single ladies. . .all the single ladies!

(this is a free pattern from Blue Whimsy

Selfie time!

I wish I'd been brave enough to set the pony tail higher on more than just this blue haired gal.  It's a great look.  But maybe it is better that only Blue got it.  It makes her extra special.

Purple was the first mermaid I finished.  She's just so matchy/matchy.  Very prim and proper.

Green hair is bright and fun.  Her tail/body color just reminds me of goldfish.

Brown/red hair is super cute (I have a weakness for the redheads, I won't lie).  It's not just her reddish/brown hair, it's her body/tail fabric.

Peek-a-boo, I see you!  With just a bit of fussy cutting you get a walrus on your tail.  Koo-koo-ka-chu!

NARWHAL Y'all!  See why I really like my redhead girl?  (and what about that wee birdy on the back of her tail, too freaking cute).

Last but not least is the fanciest of the group, Blondie.

Yeah, her fabric is styling!  Look at that octopus peeking out on her tail!

There it is again on her back.  Blondie looks all sweet and innocent, but piss her off and she'll unleash the kracken.  LOOK OUT!

I really like this pattern.  It's fairly simple and makes a nice sized toy, not too big so you can use fat quarters to make it but not so small you get annoyed sewing it by machine.  My only problem (and it's mine, not the pattern) is with the light colored skin fabrics.  I think I need to put some stabilizer on the back at the face to help block out the stitching.  The really light fabrics show the floss tails (even when I keep the tails tiny).  Live and learn on that one.  (I'll have to try using a double layer of fabric or putting a stabilizer, next time)

Next up. . .snails.

Another free pattern.  I've made this pattern before for a swap, so I knew it was easy.  I wanted easy this time around (so I could mass produce).

These little buggers are small enough you can use scraps on them.  In fact, most of the fabrics here were from my scrap bucket.

Blue shell and love snail were from scraps.  The middle snail's shell was from the same fabric I used for the orange tail mermaid.  It was a large scale print that looked hand dyed (might have been) and had a lot of large patches of different colors.  I got it in a remnant/scrap box and it turned out to be perfect for a lot of projects.

Orange shell was from scraps (and the body was from the same fabric as green shell snail and orange tail mermaid).  Guitar snail (aka Slow Hand) was from scraps (body) and some gifted fabric from Kristy (who runs the Fluff Project).  Flower snail's body is scrap (yes, same as Slow Hand) and so is the shell.

It's actually two different floral prints.  I didn't have enough of either of them to make a full shell but they work very well together.  I was worried Flower snail would look too "old lady" but once I slapped the google eyes on that feeling was long gone.  Google eyes make everything fun and kiddie centric.  The original pattern has the face all on the body (with the nubs as horns) but forget that noise.  Snails need eyes on stalks.  End of discussion.  So, these snails are NOT baby safe but screw the babies.  They get everything.  Lets make toys for kids who know better than to gnaw on everything, right?  Right!  But if you're all about the babies (poo on them!) you could make this without any face at all and it would still be cute (but not as cute as google eyes, so take THAT, you spoiled "gonna choke on that!" babies).

Ok, enough baby bashing (for now).  What else am I up to?  I'm finishing up my quilt for the Pets on Quilts contest (my cats are "helping" a lot which means I have a very hairy quilt, not that I'm worried about it, it's going to get hairy no matter what if it's in my house).  Then I need to focus on some swap items (which includes an art doll where I just might paint on fabric--reading up on that process now) and then make some medical belts for my pops.  That's a super boring project (what? it is!) so I'm not super interested in it.  I know once I get into it I'll be interested but it's just not interesting in the beginning (and I have time sensitive items to get done first).  Then I need to start thinking about the next round of Fluff items.  I'm thinking candy corn and. . .crap, I forgot the other idea I had (good thing I wrote it down on my chalkboard at home).  And I promise I will get that bacon and egg tutorial up someday (maybe after the quilt and a few swaps. .. so maybe this month).

For swap: Two stuffies

Two stuffie swaps out the door!

First up was a swap for an animal stuffie in a wild color.

Watermelon guinea pig!

It's a Dolls and Daydreams pattern I've used before for the Fluff Project

Happy coincidence, the ears ended up having green on the backs and pink inside.

Ice cream tummy!

Next up was a swap for a mythical creature stuffie.

Alien mermaid, y'all!

I couldn't decide if I wanted to make a mermaid (since I was already using this Blue Whimsy pattern to make mermaids for the Fluff Project) or something different.  So I just made an alien.

Just free-hand cut out some eyes and put a pair of french knots for nostrils and one stitch for a mouth and you got yourself an alien.

What else am I up to?  Well, I'm finishing up the last of my Fluff Project contributions for August (I think it's for July and August, I have to check on that) and then I'm going to get my quilt done for the Pets on Quilts show.  And I have a few more swaps to do and then start on the next Fluff Project contribution (have my idea all picked out, it should be good!).

Painting: Work in Progress: Mermaids

It's been a while since I showed off my painting.  Class started back up last week so it's time to keep myself motivated by showing off the progress report shots.

Before:

After:

This after is actually two rounds "after".  I just forgot to do an update on this painting in a while and then class broke for the summer and. . .yeah, I paint slowly too.

It's coming along nicely and I think I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel on this one.  Like I mentioned, I paint s.l.o.w.l.y.  Like painfully slow.  Like I'm using an eyelash on a toothpick to make every stroke, slow.  Slow.

This canvas has taken over a YEAR.  And that doesn't even surprise me at all.  But I'm ready for this canvas to be done.  I was really hating it at the close of the last semester but not looking at it all summer definitely made me more fond of it when I looked at it again.  I'm not exaggerating, I hadn't even laid eyes on this canvas in MONTHS.  So I had completely forgotten how awful it is (it's not really "awful" but I felt that way about it before--I always hate my paintings at least once in the process, and a few I still hate even though they're "done").

I'm working right to left on this one (just turned out that way) so I'm really feeling the gray haired mermaid is very close to done.  I might need to shade the dots a bit, since I put them on the tail after I had the tail shaded.  I'm still debating if I'll put the details on the hair or not.  I'm leaning toward no right now but when I start playing with the canvas again I might change my mind (or the instructor will gently push for me to add them--he's good like that).

I'm really liking the detailing on the blonde mermaid's tail.

I was worried it would suck royally but it's coming out fairly decent.  See, it's details like this where being a tediously slow painter comes in handy.  These swirls are slow work with a small brush which is basically how I work an entire canvas so I'm right at home (with my eyelash on a toothpick!).

The middle mermaid's hair needs a lot of work.  The details aren't there just yet.  They feel very. . .flat?  Not matching enough?  Something.

The background is pretty much where I want it.  It might morph a bit as I work the mermaids, especially if I have to clean up their edges at all.  Though I'm trying to make all the edges a bit more blurry so they look more like their underwater.  That's a struggle for my anal retentive painting style.

I'm excited to get this canvas done because I'm more than ready for something different.  I think the next canvas will be an abstract.  Not a full on abstract, but one based on a photo.  A full on (no pic to work from) abstract would make my head explode.  I'd just stare at the canvas and then have a complete breakdown.  I really envy the folks in class who are abstract painters.  They just sit down in front of a big ass canvas (like the size of a small wall, big) and just start glopping on paint and when it's done it looks GOOD.  I love watching them paint when they just squeeze paint right from the tube onto the canvas and then just mash it around with a palette knife.  How can they be so freaking FREE?  Clearly they aren't worried they are "ruining" the canvas by making mistakes (ie painting) on it.  I really need to get over that hang up.

In Progress: Painting: Mermaids

I don't have a cutesy name for this one (yet!).

I started a new painting a few weeks ago but kept forgetting to post about it.

So now I'm remedying that.

The top pic isn't exactly what it looked like before last night's session.  I think that's from two week's ago.

The bottom pic is how it is right now.  I decided where the light source is and started darkening some areas.  I'm really liking it being very dark on that right side.  I can foresee a LOT of shading on this one.

For the background I'd like to make it kind of wavy/rippled. I'm also toying with blurring the edges on the figures so they look like they're under water.  That's going to be hard for me because I love crisp sharp edges.  It's good to challenge myself so I think blurry edges is a good idea.
 

Close up of the turquoise mermaid.  You can't really see it in the pic (it's subtle anyway) but I did start darkening the flesh color.  Clearly it's not enough!  But that's kind of how I work.  Slow and tedious.  The instructor even jokes that I'd get done faster if I'd use a bigger brush.  I use a pretty small brush (it's about as wide as your pinky fingernail) but last night I used one that was about a wide as a thumbnail.  I joked back that I felt like I was painting the side of a house with that GIANT brush.

This painting is loosely based on three mermaiden dolls I sewed for the Fluff Project.  I have a pic of them in the ivy in my backyard but (this was my hubby's idea) decided to change up their positioning and all that to make the painting more interesting (not just three dolls in a line).  So that's new for me, too.

New stuff is fun.

I'm going to be working on this bad boy for a while.  I'll have to post updates more often.