The quilt

This is me standing in front of the strips I've made so far for the postage stamp quilt.

Graphics by me

I'm going to be opening a new etsy shop for making banners, avatars and ad boxes just as soon as I figure out what to call the shop. I know many people either don't have the software, the skills or the time to make their own graphics. And I love doing it. And with thousands of new people joining Etsy I think people may need them, even though there is already tons of competition. But nothing ventured nothing gained eh?

Squidly

I've been working on my crocheted squid. It has so many parts it's taking a long time. Soon he'll need his own box to camp out in because his parts are covering my keyboard.

Graphic Arts

I'm seriously thinking of opening a graphic arts shop on Etsy. I told my friend I didn't really want to do it unless I had Paint Shop Pro 9, so he got me psp9. He rocks. I really missed having the kaleidoscope feature and the twirl feature. I'm so excited but it's after 1 AM so I have to wait until tomorrow to play with it.
I'll be making Etsy banners and business cards and ads for other people in the sizes for Project Wonderful. Please consider giving me a shot at making your banner or avatar. I've been doing my own graphic arts since the '80's for my performing arts businesses. And of course for my websites and other places a person uses avatars. Oh I'm so excited.

About the photo: I drew this with watercolor pencils. Then I used the antique mosaic feature on PSP9.

Give Away Box

I need to make a give away box. Pretty regularly I find myself in a situation where I'd spontaneously like to give someone something I made. And usually I have about five minutes before the window of opportunity closes. So I want to make a box filled with crafts I can bear to part with. Things that haven't sold on Etsy, things I have too many of, things that were experimental prototypes or 'one-offs'. You know, all that cool stuff that clutters up your apt.

A few times I've been at craft fairs when a vendor wanted to trade. But I never had anything on hand. So the box will also be used for that. Now I just have to sit still long enough to make the thing, and then get in the habit of keeping goodies in there. Perhaps I will put my business card on each one as well.

Free Head Wrap Pattern for beginners

Today I am knitting a head wrap out of Homespun that is 2x2 ribbing and 14 stitches wide. You can make one too.


Supplies:
Pair of knitting needles in a size you are comfortable with
Yarn that feels soft against your face
Yarn or tapestry needle.

Stitches you need to know: Knit and Purl
You must also know how to cast on and cast off.

Cast on 14 stitches.
Knit 2, Purl 2 until you reach the end of the first row.
Turn
Purl 2, Knit 2 until you reach the end of the 2nd row.

Repeat rows 1 and 2 until the piece is long enough to form a tube around your head.
Cast off.
Use yarn needle to sew narrow edges to each other using an overcast stitch or your favorite joining stitch.

Optional: Sew on an artificial flower or decoration.

Put head wrap on, take photo, and send me your picture and I'll add it to my blog.

Pattern copyright 2008 by Fayme Harper
For non-commercial use only.

Need help learning to knit? My favorite site is http://www.knittinghelp.com.


Update: http://craftaday.blogspot.com/2008/11/vintage-book-and-knitted-headband.html

Gouache

This is a painting. Sort of. It's gouache on posterboard. It's going to be the background for an oracle card deck I'm designing.

Advertise your Etsy shop here on my blog

See my ad boxes to the right that say "Hypnotic"? I am now accepting sponsors for my blog and that ad could be yours for just pennies. Just click on the link under the ad. Right now you can literally have your ad there for less than a nickle a day. But once the word gets out, I'm sure I'll have more sponsors. You win and I win.

Happy Autumn Equinox

I made a garland to celebrate and to remember this ancient holiday.

quilt wip

I had a major migraine today so I wasn't able to do much. But tonight I did work on my postage stamp quilt for a bit and will probably do more on that before bedtime.

Squid2

I'm almost done with the first squid leg but it's 2 AM and my eyes are too blurry to finish. Today was awful. I'm lucky I got that much done.

New Toddler's Hat

I finished the hat I used in the Knifty Knitter tutorial and put it up on Etsy a few minutes ago. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15404566 It should fit a toddler. The circumference is 16". It's too big for a baby and I know it won't fit the 8 year old upstairs, because I made her one once and it was too small. That's the tricky part about selling hats through the mail. I do like the way it came out though.

Collage Tutorial

I had to split my collage tutorial into 2 parts so I could upload it to youtube. So it took me most of the day. My computer keeps running out of memory (ruh roh) so I'm guessing I'm going to have to start saving my videos to disks instead of leaving each and every snippet on my hard drive.

Squid

Most of today I've been working on advertising and marketing. But now it's time to get out of here and have some fun. I want to crochet a squid. Did you know squids have 8 legs and 2 tentacles? I love the quirky research that being an artist requires. I never know what I'll need to look up next.

Squid

Mostly I've been working on advertising and marketing today. But I think I want to crochet a squid. I haven't crocheted in a while and I miss it. And I really need to get off this computer, so I may drive to an eatery to crochet while I have a relaxing dinner. Did you know a squid has 8 legs and 2 tentacles? Being an artist requires constant research but its so much fun too.

Etsy Items Currently for Sale

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade Pigglewiggins.etsy.com

Etsy Challenge

I'm very excited about the Etsy Challenge. I'm also running a banner ad on that page if you hurry over before someone else outbids me. I voted on all the little orange boxes. And I've emailed them my first entry for next week's challenge. How fun is that!
Here is the banner ad I am running through Project Wonderful.

The Prayer Shawl

Today I started knitting a prayer shawl for an aunt that has cancer. I have so many mixed feelings. My mom died of lung cancer, and I think working on this shawl may be too depressing for me. From what I hear, my aunt is in pretty bad shape so I don't even know if I will finish it in time. We all like to believe that people will get better from life threatening illnesses. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. My aunt and I are not close. This is all so confusing.

Collage We Think Too Much & Feel Too Little

Today I rolled out of bed and started straight away on finishing the collage. It is challenging to video and make art at the same time. Now I understand why art teachers so often just give away the demo piece to a student or don't sign their work, because you really can't do your best work while trying to talk and record at the same time. You'd need 6 hands and 2 brains.

The collage is drying right now. I am at a loss as to how to hang it. The wood is too thin to hammer a picture hanger into. And I'm not sure I trust a hanger fastened with glue. Any suggestions?

So while I'm finished with the collage, and I've gotten all the footage I need, it's still a long process to string all the bits together into a tutorial. So maybe that's a project for another day, as I still want to work on my book today and also on my patchwork square quilt. Even if I just sew one strip a day it will keep the energy alive. Forward progress and all that.

Working on a collage tutorial

This part had to dry. Will continue on tomorrow I hope.

Working on a collage tutorial

This part had to dry. Will continue on tomorrow I hope.

Inchie Art Tutorial

Inchie Art Tutorial

I started this tutorial in July but it was way too long. I finally finished it.

Stenciling, Video and More

I had a busy crafting and writing day. I finally finished the Inchie Tutorial that I started in July. What an unweildy project that was. I made it four times too long and it needed massive editing. Whew, glad that is done with.

After watching a quilter on Youtube, I took her advice to heart and started working on my postage stamp quilt again. I didn't want it to become another 'lost' project.

Then I took a snowflake I cut out yesterday and used it as a stencil to decorate some scrapbooking paper for future use.

And I made a new writers blog so I could talk about the story I'm writing. So yeah, it was a full day.

I just signed up for Tagfoot. http://ping.fm/lfV6m Come see all my links and comments and my wishlist.

Making Terrariums

Even though I love houseplants, the cats I have destroy them. So I stopped having them years ago. Unless you count the ones in the aquarium. Then I realized the solution is terrariums, so my goal today is to get over to the .99 store and if they have some houseplants that look fresh, get some and set to work on making 3 terrariums using existing glass and plastic containers. I have one glass vase that has candles in it that is looking old and dusty. I have the container my hermit crab used to live in that is now clean and empty, though a bit scratched up. And I have some kimchi jars we had saved for recycling that I may 'borrow' from my bf. And it may be too far gone but there was a groudy glass jar in the back yard which may be usable after some scrubbing. Where to put the terrariums is a bigger issue than making them. I'm pretty much out of space here.

Little things excite me

I'm so excited. I have my first You-Tube subscriber! Whoopie.

Knifty Knitter Tutorial Video

I made a new tutorial on the Knifty Knitter last night. Hope it helps some of you to get started.

Dagger Project

Dagger Project

More about the dagger I'm making.

Spiral Necklace

I just finished a beaded necklace with white confetti lamp glass beads and shiny black beads and blue seedbeads and a blue spiral glass focal. Too tired to take photos now but hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow.

Queen of Hearts

I never could figure out what to make out of this plastic foam stuff and then this idea popped into my head when I got tired of taking the same old self-portrait. Sometimes you have to be your own cheerleader, or at least do something to make yourself smile.

Epiphany earrings

I wanted to make some cluster earrings and I tried the good old trial and error method and stumbled upon a genius way to make holding on to earrings so much easier.

To start with I wanted to build the earrings on a piece of chain. I found one that used to be a long necklace, and I was just about to cut it into workable earring length bits when I had an epiphany. I hung the chain around my neck and started building the earring on the end of the chain. Usually when working with small earring components I drop them a lot. On my lap, on the table, on the ground. Those little bits are squirrely. But with the chain around my neck, I gradually built an earring on each end.

Then I realized that I had not only made a matching pair of cluster earrings, I'd also made a lariat necklace if I chose not to cut the chain. I actually think the chain is long enough to clip off the 2 earrings now and have enough left over to make a matching lariat necklace!

So I named the earrings Epiphany. And when I write a book, I'm definitely going to include this tip.

Shopping for supplies at Joanne's

After swearing I wouldn't get too carried away at Joanne's today now that I had my Google Adsense check in hand, I did get a bit carried away.My main goal was to get a mini quilting iron for scrapbooking. To my shock they were $30 and up, so even with the 40% off coupon that was more than I wanted to pay. But I decided to check the notions dept. too and found the coolest little traveling iron in designer colors for only $9.99. They had color choices of pink/white, translucent red, translucent blue, and black. So I got the red one. It says on the label you can use it for collage work so I think I'm good to go with the beeswax collaging projects. Can't wait to try it.


I don't know about you, but every time I sew my cat walks all over me, the machine, the sewing desk, and the surrounding boxes. He knocks off the scissors, pins, scraps, you name it. So the other thing I've been looking for is a cork board or something to hang behind the sewing machine. I didn't even know Joanne's carried such a thing but saw in their ad a cork and dry erase board with magnets. It was on sale too so I got 2 of them. I can use push pins to hang up pattern bits, and get magnetic hooks to hang up my scissors, seam ripper and so on. That should make sewing a lot less aggravating and frustrating.

Then just for fun I got the Blue Moon combo pack of beads and faux pearls called Frosting to make myself some Steampunk inspired cluster earrings. I loved all their color combos and was torn between the red, blue, purple or the one I got. Hopefully I'll get to make those today though I'm pretty tired because I stayed up until 3 AM last night. Why oh why do I do that?

The Knifty Knitter products were also on sale so I picked up the flower loom I've wanted for a few years now.

I hope the rest of you in the USA had a good 3 day weekend.