helping

I get lots of help when I finish a project. Tsia knows that once it's done we need to take a photo or two. Sometimes she doesn't even wait for me but takes things into her own hands. For example, this photo that she took on Saturday while I was otherwise occupied. I'm just wondering how she learned to operate the flash by herself?


So I've learned that I need to wait until she's at school or with Todd before I start setting up.


Today I was all excited because I happened to be at home and the afternoon sun was creating a nice light.


I even had enough time to try two different set-ups for my photo fix.


But I hadn't counted on my other helper. The one who doesn't care to be behind the camera; just in the middle of the subject matter.


I'm not sure which helper is really more helpful.

postscript: Oh, the quilt! Sometimes I get so carried away with the stream of consciousness, I forget what I was writing about. I wanted to use my scraps of Liberty lawn and started this doll quilt just before Quilt Market...last May. Yes indeedy, even the little projects take a long time these days. But to be fair (to whom? me or the quilt?), that's mostly because it sat around waiting for hand quilting. And then when more hand quilting wasn't forthcoming, it sat around waiting for me to do laundry. Those bed-sizes quilts I want to make? Not happening for a loooong time, I'm afraid.

coping mechanisms

True confession: I'm fully aware that my compulsive need to clean closets stems from a deep-seeded desire to gain control over my life. When everything seems to be pitching wildly out of order, I pull apart a cupboard and carefully re-organize the contents. Once I've restored order to the chaos and found a few items to discard or relocate, I feel an enormous and disproportionate sense of accomplishment. And I can carry on the with rest of the mess that may be awaiting me elsewhere.


Well, someday when all the closets are completely organized (which may happen soon, judging from the events of the past few days), I've found a new control-freak activity to occupy me: cleaning silver.

It's the coolest science experiment ever. You line a pan with aluminum foil, pour boiling water into it, add a teaspoon or so of baking soda and salt. Then drop your silver into the mixture and watch the magic: a chemical reaction occurs that removes the tarnish from the silver and transfers it to the foil without removing any of the silver itself in the way traditional polishing does. So it's totally safe for delicate silver plating and doesn't harm the environment, either.

Last night I wanted to polish my favorite sterling earrings and ended up polishing the entire silverware drawer. Which wasn't very tarnished to begin with, since we use it every day. But I just couldn't stop; each piece instantly turned brilliant when I dropped it into the pot. An obsessive-compulsive dream come true.

Now I'm just wishing we had more silver in the house. Because I'm still waiting for Verizon to grant us internet access at the studio after more than six weeks. And UPS misplaced a very important package.

So I hope I don't run out of closets now that our silver is very shiny.

mini her

Tsia and I made this project together a while ago, but I don't think I've ever shown it to you.


I purchased a magnetic sheet at the art supply store, and then we enlarged the Oliver + S paper doll (which she knows is modelled after her. She and Todd were looking at the website one day when she pointed to the Bubble Dress and said, "I have that dress. Size 3. Fits me now!") and glued it to the magnet. Using tracing paper, I drew the outlines of clothes and copied them to the magnetic sheet. Then Tsia selected fabrics and papers for the outfits, and we glued the patterns to the clothing outlines, cut them out, and decorated them with trims and hand-drawn details.


We discovered that tissue paper makes great pleats and gathers, and we used little scraps of paper from magazines and catalogs for many of the clothes. Tsia likes to look through the scrap bin at the studio for fabric pieces, so she enjoyed selecting her favorites for dresses.


Once the clothes are made, you can layer them to create fun effects as well. Tsia likes to put the purple skirt underneath the red dress for a petticoat appearance.


I think it would be fun to make magnet dolls using photographs instead of the illustration. You'd just need to take a full-length photograph in good light, probably against a solid backdrop so it would be easier to cut out once the photo is enlarged and mounted on the magnet.

Tsia has obviously played with this one a lot; maybe we'll use a photo for the next one. Which, since the original is losing her head from so much handling, may be quite soon.

Instead-of-dinner crafts

I just love that Amanda is making Before-Dinner Skirts with the Lazy Days Skirt pattern. Tsia and I have adopted the model to our own needs; we're making Instead-of-Dinner Shrinky Dinks.


Yesterday was a very long day, so on the way home we stopped for slices of pizza.

When Todd arrived a few hours later, we were happily crafting at the dining table. No room for dinner, thanks very much.

We started with houses. Then I moved on to apartment buildings.


We collaborated on some robots with "pointies" (also known as antenna).


But my favorites are the ones Tsia drew by herself. I'm surprised we didn't get any solo robots with pointies and belly-buttons, actually. In fact, I'm determined to get myself a few before we set this media aside. They've got lots of character.


Must schedule more replacement dinners. The melty plastic is calling.