Whats on your Worktable Wednesday: Fabric!

Whatever Inspires acquired a beautiful older sewing machine from my mom (thanks mom!) and we have been busy coming up with all the different ways we can use it.  We recently hit on something that puts both of us to work, Erik doing a lot of the original designing, me sewing and adding details, and both of us picking out fabrics!   So this week, we have lots and lots of fabric on our worktable:

If you know us, you can probably tell which ones I picked and which ones Erik picked, although we only bought ones we both agreed on.  My favorite though is the left most fabric in the bottom picture.  It reminds me of the book "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak (my favorite children's book ever!), which is good, because what we are making is stuffed monsters:

I haven't sewn in a really long time (probably since I was in high school school).  My mom loves to sew - we always had the best halloween costumes, and she often made us clothes, bags, stuffed animals, etc, but she was really great at was quilting - and she was always trying to teach us.  I learned the basics, but I just wasn't that into it.  I would rather help my dad build our swing set or fix the toilet, I was just that kind of girl!  But I always helped mom when she was making stuff for us, that was kind of the unwritten rule - if you asked for something, you had to help.  So, I did a lot of turning things right side out, stuffing things, hand sewing and the all important watching.  I learned a lot more from mom that I ever thought I did, because even though I have never made a stuffed animal before the little guy above was my practice one, and I only called her a couple of times during the process.  So far, we have finished one monster, he was a gift to the cutest little "monster" I know, and of course I forgot to photograph him before I gave him away, so they're not the best pictures, but check out how cute he came out!

I just love this fabric and I just love his little wings in the back.  We stitched everything down completely because I didn't want it getting pulled off by little hands, but I think it actually made him better instead of being a compromise.  I'll probably end up making myself one of these, because he's so darn cute! We have a bunch of designs ready to go, so hopefully in the near future we will have a bunch more monsters to add to our collection! They are really fun to see come together.  

What's on your worktable this week, and which fabric do you want to see us make a monster out of next? 

What's on your Worktable Wednesday

I can't wait to wear this one! Keeping on my ocean and tropical theme, I pulled out this flamingo charm that I bought a while ago at a bead store in Las Vegas, called Bead Jungle.  They have an awesome collection of charms, and I have picked up quite a few there when we go visit the hubby's parents. To go along with my flamingo, I pulled out all the tropical blue rounds that I have, and some pink & turquoise cubes, just for a bit of variety, as well as the matching blue and pink Swarovski crystals.

I originally thought I was going to do a double stranded bracelet, since the cool flamingo charm is much bigger than I normally work with, but when I started working on that, I didn't really like the way it was looking. So I took that apart, and started working on something else. I'm pretty happy with the way it's turning out, although I can't decide if I like both colors of the little rounds, or if I want to switch one of them out with a similar color of Swarovski crystal.  What do you think, any suggestions?

What's on your Worktable Wednesday

This week I'm working on a piece that I have been working on for a while.  It's called "Where the Blacktop Ends" and it's actually named after one of my favorite songs (that link will get you to the official video, please don't judge the look! He was young and mullets were still in style).  Keith Urban has been my favorite artist for a long time.  His music is often a source of inspiration to me, and this particular song has not only been my favorite, but it was the first KU song that really caught my attention so many years ago.  Not a day goes by that I don't listen to some KU song, sometimes to help keep my focus at the office, or to help make the long drives in LA traffic easier or just to sing along at the top of my lungs.  I've been lucky enough to meet him twice now, and he is one of the nicest celebrities I have ever met.  I could go on and on, but lets just say, I'm a proud Monkey!  Anyway, back to my worktable & "Where the Blacktop Ends"...

Gonna kick of my shoes and run in bare feet

Where the the grass and the dirt and the gravel all meet

Goin' back to the well, gonna visit old friends

And feed my soul

Where the blacktop ends

I've always had some specific ideas in mind when I listen to this song, and I was hoping I could convey some of them through the stones I chose for this bracelet.  I started out by finding some African Jade rounds, Brownsite cubes and Labradorite chips representing the grass, dirt and gravel.  I compiled them all into what I thought was going to be a cool bracelet, but something was missing.  I knew for certain it wasn't right, when I found myself not wearing the bracelet very often.   It looked something like this...

Pretty, but just not really working for me.  With things not looking quite right, I thought I would add a little sparkle.  I picked up some crystals the other day in Jonquil (a light yellow) and Azore 2AB (a light blue), and started trying to weave them into the design without taking the whole thing apart.  It's looking like this now:

I got about half way through, and while it's definitely better, I'm still not sure this is what I want it to look like.  I think these beads just may need a little more "breathing room" so to speak than most of my designs, so I think I'm going to end up taking the whole thing apart and starting over.  That's ok, though, because I've recently learned some new techniques that I think I can implement that will make this bracelet even better.  I'll for sure post the final piece when I'm done with it.

Are you working on anything interesting?  Who is your favorite artist, and have you ever made something inspired by one of their songs?

What's on your Worktable Wednesday

(even though I'm writing this on Thursday, and you're going to read it on Friday... sigh). 

So I wanted to start this new thing, something I could do every week, that would help me both make more jewelry and have one less day that I have to come up with an idea for a blog post but still have something to post.  I saw this one on one of the blogs that I have been checking out lately, and I hate to say I have no idea which one, but I don't.  I apologize to who ever I stole this idea from, and I would give you credit if only I could remember who you were.  Anyway, it's called "What's on your Worktable Wednesday" - you know, 'cause it's all W's - where you share take a photo of what you're working on right now.  It would help me make more jewelry since it would be lame to be working on the same things 2 weeks in a row! I'm actually working on something tonight that I wanted to share with you - but I can't share the finished product yet, it's a gift!). So I'm going to share it as the first post in my series of WWW's (that's less of a mouthful than What's on your Worktable Wednesday, don't you think?  We shall call is WWW from now on) even though it's Thursday already (and you're not going to read it till Friday...)

Here's what I've got out tonight... 

...black wire in 24 & 20 gages, 4mm & 6mm Swarovski Crystals in Capri Blue and Crystal AB & some jump rings with a gunmetal finish.  I'm still debating between the 2 heart sizes I made here, but I think I'm leaning towards the smaller ones.  Hopefully I can finish this in the morning - I'll post the finished product after I give it away! 

What are you working on this week???  Anyone have a good weekend project going?