June has been a flurry of family actives. Early this month my husband Terry and I made our way down to Houston from our home in Chicago to visit his folks. We were there for about a week. How I do HATE the heat. I get nauseous and head-achy. I sprinted from air conditioning to air conditioning. And last weekend my sister had a gorgeous outdoor wedding in my parents’ house. They have a beautiful backyard with lots of trees, greenery and flowers. They even have a nice sized goldfish pond. It made a wonderful backdrop for the ceremony and the party afterward. On top of that it was the nicest weather we had all week.
And now I am back in the studio and man is it hard to get back into the swing of things. Yesterday I MADE myself work for 3 hours. It was tough. Which always surprises me in a way. After all, this is what I love to do. But on the other hand, working for yourself with no one else keeping track of the time you spend takes a lot if discipline. It is tempting to cheat and say “Oh my gosh I spent SO much time working today” when in reality you spent about half that time browsing the Internet. (I blame you Ravelry!)
I think today I will work on the fox pattern, which I fully intend to put in my shop. No promises on release date, however. I am sure the summer will hold many more distractions.
Oh, and as per the many requests I have received…My husband has volunteered to take pics of me wearing the clothes I made recently . I think I have gotten over my fear of the sewing machine. It is really enjoyable and compared with knitting it seems like instant gratification 
I am still alive, just very busy. My sister is getting married tomorrow! I am so excited. Things should be back to normal next week and I will get the chance to be in the studio again. See you soon
Man this next month is going to be CRAZY. I am afraid I won’t be able to get the fox pattern done until July. Sorry about that! My sister is getting married at the end of June. I am throwing her shower this Sunday. Then the second week in June my husband and I are visiting the inlaws out of town. AND for some reason I decided to make my outfits for both the wedding and the shower. Which involves sewing 2 skirts and knitting 2 tops. I think I must be nuts.
Howdy folks. I have posted a photo tutorial explaining how I make fabric appliques. Here it is :
Applique tutorial
It will be helpful for the fox pattern which is to come
This is the color scheme that I have chosen for the fox I am making to double check and edit the pattern for my shop. I am making some more tweeks, so I think I will make a couple more before it is ready to go out in the public.
Thanks so much to everyone for the sweet comments. They made me blush like crazy.
As promised here are better pics of the foxes…
This is “Ennui”
Originally she was going to be green and purple, but once I got going the purple didn’t look right. So I changed to blue violet stripes that suited her mood better.
This is “Bemusement”
He is the first fox I made for this project. I was messing around with ways to add more texture and different techniques and I stumbled upon needle felting for the eyebrows. I know very little about how to needle felt. For this guy I tried poking the felting needle through lengths of yarn and trying to get that to stick to the face. This didn’t work too well. I don’t think the fibers were soft enough?? Anyway, for the rest I used the fuzzies I got from combing out their tails with the mohair brush.
This is “Smugness”
Not a great shot. He has much more attitude in person.
This is “Dejection”
I think she is my favorite of the bunch. Which makes sense, I guess, since she was the last one I made. I like to think that I got a bit better with each one. I will definitely be using this color scheme again (if I can figure out how to dye that cream color again 
)
They are each signed on one paw with my initials “ED” If they get into the show I think I will mount each on an oval shaped canvas or embroidery hoop. I plan on embroidering their name/emotion on denim and stretching that on the canvas or hoop and them sitting them on top.
I really learned a lot making these guys. It was great seeing how little changes here and there effected the outcome. I have another one started already
After I make a few more and get the chance to take “in progress” pics I will be putting the pattern for these guy in my shop. I am playing around with ideas for a few variations as well, like a bunny and a bear.
The mortal plush group is all finished and man am I brain dead! Better pics to come. I’m taking the rest of the day off to go antiquing
Mortal Plush progress! These little foxes are coming along quite well, if I don’t say so myself :) I think that 3 be May 1st is pretty realistic.
Here are bits and pieces minus the body.
And here is the empty body before stuffing. The markers are for finding the center on the rnds where I attached the arms and legs so they line up with each other. There is nothing more irritating than a cockeyed toy : P I always find them pretty funny before they are assembled, so sad and discombobulated.
And here is the first fox all finished keeping the headless one company. (I’ll take better pics of the first one later) In the background is my stubborn cat. She likes to sunbathe under my desk lamps and lay her head on the keyboard. She would lay on it if I let her.
A few of you have asked how I plan to display them. A good question. I am not sure at this point. I think they will be fine sitting up on their own. If they get in to the show the gallery will have their own display stands so I don’t think I’ll need to send my own. But when they get back it might be fun to make little shelves for them that have the emotions written on them. Just a first thought.
Thought I would share how I am going about making the fox’s tail.
First I crocheted a 5 1/2″ long tube 6 sc around with G hook, a few sizes larger that I usually use, because the tail should be more flexible than the body. Then I inserted a pipe cleaner with the end poking a few inches out from the end the I am going to attach to the fox’s body. That way the tail will be pose-able and I will be able to use the pipe cleaner to help secure the tail to the body. I am going to stitch it in place with yarn as well.
Next I cut a bunch of smaller lengths of yarn using the tassel maker on the left. I used the small hook to attach these to the tail the way you would a tassel. With this completed I used the mohair brush on the right to comb out the tail so it would be nice and fluffy. I think I may have made the tail a bit too fuzzy, though. Next time I think I’ll use my plastic mohair brush, it doesn’t frizz the fibers as much.
I have decided to share my ideas for the amigurumis I plan to enter into Mortal Plush. It can be hard sharing works in progress. Getting feedback is great…but sometimes, when I am in the middle of the process it is hard to keep my thoughts straight and remember my goals for the piece I am working. Having people peeking in at my working process can be a bit distracting. But it is also fun and I think I’ll give it a go.
So here are my ideas for Mortal Plush. The concept behind the show is to make toys with obvious emotional expressions. A very cool idea, I think, and well suited to my work. Anyway, over the last month or so I went to a few gallery shows and was reminded that one of the key elements of sucessful art is the presention of a unified body of work. Something that hasn’t occurred to me to do with my amigurumis. I mean, I have made a bunch of snails, for instance. But I haven’t made a large group of more complicated toys meant to be viewed together and compliment each other. Up to this point I have seen my amigurumis as one offs. I realize now that I want to make a body of work that relates to itself, not just odd pieces here and there.
For Mortal Plush I have decided to make a bunch of amigurumis like Gilroy and give them different expressions. (I don’t know how many I wil be able to finish before the entry deadline, but if I like how the project is going I’ll make more that just those I enter) I chose 5 colorways to start and I’ll decide which ones to use as I go along. You can see them here. I picked my favorite to work on first.
(the colors are frustratingly off) 
I hope to finish this little guy today. He is turning out to be “bemused” I think.
