THE PROCESS TO COMPLETION CAN BE LONG!

I have been spending a lot of time up in the studio working on orders, and I am getting a lot done... which always make me so happy.

The order for the shop in Selkirk should be finished by the end of this week, and yesterday I finally started to work on their special request that one of  "The Ladies of Summer" be a gypsy.

My Ladies of Summer mug rugs are ladies with hats... it is the Hat that is front and centre, the star of the show.  My ladies don't have eyes or noses, they only have a face with lips, and they also don't have hair.

So my biggest concern with designing a gypsy was her face.  Gypsy's wear a scarf or a bandana on their head, and it rarely covers their eyes.  And if I make a scarf that covers the top of the head and comes down one side of the neck - what do I do with the other side of the neck?

I drew out a bunch of different shaped heads on paper and the scarfs to go with them, but when I tried to adapt it to fabric, it didn't work out.

After a bunch of wasted material I think I might finally have the basic head and scarf - and yes - hair!


But I am still am in a bit of a quandary about the eyes.   I think what I might do is add some beads and bangles hanging down at the front, low enough to cover any eyes that should be there.





I will also add lots of decorations to the scarf, such as this idea...

At the moment it is all just playing around with ideas, but I will get there, eventually.

But then I got bored with mug rugs.   I have been embroidering a bunch of nice sayings on some scrap material that I have laying around.  I thought I would start putting some of them on mug rugs, and I might do that, but on the way to that idea I ended up  fooling around with a little wall hanging design that started with this. 

and has progressed to this - with the shooting star to be embroidered on.  

This still has a ways to go as far as I am concerned, the moon needs work, but it is progressing nicely!

And then the idea came to me - wouldn't it be cute to have a tree with an owl sitting on it, looking out over the night sky, seeing a shooting star... 

And sew (pun intended) it goes!

Today I am heading down to the small village of Plumas to get some much needed fabric.  I have not visited this particular quilt shop as yet, so I am looking forward to seeing what they have to offer.  Hopefully I will be able to pick up some supplies so I can finish my current orders.

So with that I leave you all to enjoy this lovely first day in August!

Bye for now!