chimesblog

I wanted to blog about this on Monday, but I’d already posted something and my Tuesday was taken with a pre-Christmas tutorial I wanted to share. SOOOooo …

Today I bring you MY submissions to Handmade Ryan Gosling.

For those of you who don’t follow the internets very closely, this is a newish meme that I’ve been chuckling at. Ryan Gosling is apparently attractive and the meme makes him sound like he’s a handmade craftster’s dreamy mcdreamboat dream man — not only because he’s hot*, but because he’s super sweet and winds your bobbins.

So here he is.

*For the record, I don’t think he’s that hot. He’s not UNATTRACTIVE, but for one, he’s blonde. Not my thing. Two: He looks like my 10th grade history teacher. Or at least reminds me of him. Also, as we all know, I have rather odd taste in men. MARLON BRANDO FROM 1950 FTW.

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The time has finally come for me to have FINISHED A PROJECT.

Although, “finishing” this project involved tearing out a few blank pages …

REGARDLESS, I am mailing my sketchbook in tomorrow, which is the postmark deadline. Which means hopefully I can make it to work tomorrow with the weather being this crappy because I left my sketchbook at work over the weekend assuming I would mail it from work over lunch tomorrow. KEEPING MY FINGERS CROSSED.

Here are a few selections from my sketchiebook. Enjoy.

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(who ya gonna call? bill murray)

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I don’t paint. Other than walls anyway.

But, today one of my twitter friends saw that I was going to be painting this afternoon (for work) and said “Oooh paint me something.”  I didn’t have a chance to explain before he DMed me and asked for a commissioned piece. Soooo I couldn’t turn him down. After all, he IS one of my best twitter friends. I would only do it under one condition: that he didn’t pay for it. He’s been a good friend from afar for a while now and has done a lot for me.

Well … guys … his twitter name is @nerdboner.  Yes. NERDBONER. Because he geeks out over comics and all things nerdy. Which is actually why I started following him in the first place. He seemed like a cool guy — and is.

SO — what better than a comic book inspired painting for him?  Not to mention, I could limit the colors that way and basically draw it out and do a paint-by-numbers sort of thing.

I decided to do a triptych because I looove triptychs.  And instead of attempting cheese by doing characters, I used typography and went sort of the Lichtenstein route (but in no way am I claiming to be half that awesome).

Anyway … hope he likes it!

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I made this cute baby blanket for a friend. It was really easy. I actually just used my method from handmade napkins but used larger pieces of fabric.  I sewed with fleece for the first (and hopefully last) time. That was an adventure! Fuzzies everywhere.  I almost poked my eye out finishing this thing too! My needle busted in half on the very last few stitches, flying up in the air and BARELY missing my eyeball. I should maybe think about wearing safety goggles?

Anyway, here it is! One side is fleece and the other side is cotton. She’s having a girl.  I know she likes pinks and teals together so I picked a fabric that I thought she would like.  It seems like something she would wear on a bag, scarf or another accessory.  I hope she loves it!

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Finally finally finally finished my wonderland quilt (ie. the first quilt top I made ever).

I had it professionally quilted with a butterfly pattern in yellow thread. The back is pink.

I LOVE this fabric line. It’s sold out pretty much everywhere though.

Anyway, my camera died when I was taking photos, so here’s all I  have:

I got photos professionally taken!  I had been asked to send some photos of my work to The Nest magazine, so I had a local photographer take some photos of my work to send them.

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I recently started sewing again (my machine had been broken for a year or so) and I’ve been making some bags. I’ve been trying to make a bag based on this tutorial. So far, I’ve been unsuccessful because I have such a hard time sewing the fabric on the handles and getting it to stay.  This is what I came up with for my mom for mother’s day:

inside of bag (with pockets)

close up of stitching on handles.  You can see where the fabric puckered out and didn’t stay put.  Also, I don’t like how I can’t get a clean circle on the handles.

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At least not yet.

I’ve been TRYING to make this purse, but haven’t had any luck getting it just right yet. My biggest problem is the handles. I’ve made 2 bags so far. One was for my mom and the other was originally for a birthday gift for a friend but I decided it wasn’t good enough and gave it away as a non-b-day gift to another friend (who hasn’t gotten it yet, but should today).

Anyway, the issue is the handles, like I said. I can’t quite seem to get them sewn right. I have to tuck the fabric in and it never seems to stay. It gets all bunchy and angle-y and in some places it just plain comes out and the raw edge shows.

Here’s my latest venture. I haven’t put the handles on or attempted to SEW handles just yet because this is the best bag I’ve done so far. I am thinking I might do something different, like add a zipper and a wide band of pink fabric around the top that goes into a handle off the side (like a clutch). I just don’t know how to go about doing that.

Kinda scared to try to add handles of any kind.

Kinda forgot to add pockets... oops. Next time: pockets.

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