original hem

Okay, so this isn't very creative or anything but it was a revelation for me so I thought I'd share... I scored some jeans on sale but as usual the short lengths are too short and the regular lengths are too long so my only option is to ignore lengths and count on hemming. The first pair I did like a regular hem - snip it off and fold under twice and sew. It worked okay since the jeans didn't have a lot of built-in wear - the wash was a fairly even dark blue. The other two pairs had pre-worn hems, so I looked up original hems on google and followed these instructions. It actually seemed to work, and was shockingly a lot less hassle than regular hems. You don't notice too much from farther than 2 feet away, and since they're at my ankles I'm assuming most people won't notice. I just hope they don't hang weird or flip up...

sculpture for a show

This was the last sculpture I worked on in 2008. I put this one in the employee art show at our holiday party, so it's more "finished" than most of my sculptures. I think I overworked parts of it more than necessary, which often happens when I try to "finish" a sculpture.

amigumuri octopus

I made this little dude for a friend's birthday last month. I found the pattern online... it's a great beginner crochet pattern.

christmas cthulhu

christmas cthulhu
Originally uploaded by cignoh

i knit a cthulhu doll for j for christmas this year. it's from creepy cute crochet, which lanaconqueso showed me, and i ended up buying, despite the fact that i'm trying not to buy anymore craft books until i make at least one thing from each of the books that i own. i'm not that good at crocheting, so he is a little misshapen in parts, and his wings aren't really wing-shaped, but that's ok, it makes him one of a kind, i guess.

to photograph him, i experimented with a makeshift light tent with some success, but i'd like to work with it more. i was getting double shadows on the ground, plus, i couldn't get good shaping, which i guess is part of what happens if your subject is evenly lit from all sides. also, the top of my setup is open and exposed, which i think isn't supposed to be.

also, i mentioned this in a comment on sukogirl's flower washcloth post, but am saying it again in case not everyone saw---amy noticed that we have hit our 100th post---yay! happy holidays to everyone, and may the new year bring more creating, posting, and happiness for all!

Orange flower washcloth

Flower Cloth
Originally uploaded by sukogirl

I decided to knit a lot of my x-mas presents this year. Here is a flower washcloth from Weekend Knitting. I think it would be neat to learn how to make soap. Has anyone done this before?

First Baby Quilt

first baby quilt Originally uploaded by sukogirl

yeah, I've finally tried quilting and found that I really enjoy it. I took a Quilting 101 class at the Creativ Festival in Toronto. This was a machine quilting class that showed us the basics of cutting out the pieces and sewing them up. I had to refer to online tutorials on finishing the quilt. I found that fabric (color/pattern) choice is very tricky. I really liked these two pieces of fabric, and I thought it would be okay together, but the completed piece is a little drab looking.

photo backlog

it's been FOREVER since i posted, i'll try to be better about it. i don't really have anything crafty to document, but i had been trying to keep up with my photo.a.day project for the last 5 months. i hadn't been posting those either, but last night, i caught up from sept. 7. here are some samples:

july: photography workshop continued, shooting 'red' things
august: alligator clip and korean melon
september: art gallery patron and parking lot light
october: international rose garden in portland, OR
november: pomegranate seeds, toddler eating pomegranate seeds

i missed a few days here and there and am trying to come up with a way to make up the photos, does anyone have an ideas? i thought about trying to think of something significant that happened that day (although i may not remember)---either to myself or something that happened in the world, and trying to recreate or take a photo that is reminiscent of it. or maybe picking a theme like letters of the alphabet or numbers or colors (either a single color or different ones), etc.