Becka's Project Journal

Wednesday, March 30th

an abundance of bags

bags (44k image)
i made these bags for my sister and her friends as a happy spring present. first, an irish theme for an irish friend. it is stenciled with celtic knots and it has the over-dyed leprechaun fabric (from a few posts ago) as a lining. polkadot flowers for my sister. the lining is deep brown with peach and cream polkadots. the flowers are appliqued corduroy and wool felt with velvet ribbon stems. and finally a cowboy bag for my favorite cowgirl. lined with denim and machine embroidered. you can see close ups a few posts ago, too. i am planning to make another one for myself with some lime green textured cotton and this fabulous print by alexander henry fabrics.

becka on 03.30.05 @ 06:59 PM CST [link]

Tuesday, March 29th

additions

i added some more blogs to my sidebar. i like these and wanted to share.
becka on 03.29.05 @ 08:55 PM CST [link]

thanks for the scooby snacks

easteregg (15k image) lucy with her easter egg.
becka on 03.29.05 @ 01:24 PM CST [link]

Monday, March 28th

Monday's "Illustration Friday": Crowded

crowded (83k image)
becka on 03.28.05 @ 04:56 PM CST [link]

hope you had a nice weekend

easter (28k image)
becka on 03.28.05 @ 07:52 AM CST [link]

Thursday, March 24th

fun stuff to explore

Jan Brett
Ed Emberley
Sandra Boynton

wandering around the other day, i came across a great website for author/illustrator jan brett. i was curious and started to explore more. here are a few websites for some of my favorite illustrators. they all have lots of games & projects. what fun!

becka on 03.24.05 @ 11:50 AM CST [link]

Tuesday, March 22nd

Illustration Friday: Bloom

bloom2 (65k image)
becka on 03.22.05 @ 09:03 AM CST [link]

Saturday, March 19th

craftiness galore

crafts1 (70k image)
(clockwise from top left) an ipod/gameboy cozy for andy to travel with. he was carrying his electronics around in a plastic shopping bag and i just had to remedy that. next is "filbert, the easter owl", which i made for my nephew james. andy is visiting james and his mommy and daddy this weekend. filbert was inspired by some really cute stuffed owls i saw someplace (i don't remember where!) and he looks kind of like he fell in to some easter egg dye. next is an experiment with dying wool. i have a felting class on tuesday and i wanted some richer colors than i can get with my standard koolaid dyes. this time i used the same dyes i use for cotton and silk. i was told that they don't work well with wool, but i beg to differ. the color is a little variable because you can't stir or the wool will start to felt. and the wool seems to take color differently - the deep blue on the right and the lighter blue on the left were from the same dye bath, but with different rovings. i am curious to see how colorfast it is. i am planning to felt a little sometime tomorrow. and finally the elephant quilt. i started this in the fall and then had to put it away in the holiday art sale frenzy. i pulled it all back out and i am trying to figure out what's next. i did not take notes, so i am trying to remember what i was thinking. right now, i think i need 5 more elephant blocks...
becka on 03.19.05 @ 04:44 PM CST [link]

Friday, March 18th

Illustration Friday: Fragile

fragile (33k image)
i missed out on getting my entry posted to the i-fri site this week because they changed the rules. now the new topic is going to be posted friday instead of monday.... hmmm. so now everyone will be posting throughout the week with a new topic every friday. you can still see "fragile" if you click on "view previous entries".
becka on 03.18.05 @ 07:58 AM CST [link]

Thursday, March 17th

manatees celebrate too!

PATTYS (12k image)
becka on 03.17.05 @ 05:36 PM CST [link]

enchanting

gmayli (31k image)
i am going to have to quit bad-mouthing the guthrie theater's productions of shakespeare. andy and i have been to see several shakepeare plays at the guthrie and we are always disappointed. theater companies seem to have a need to modernize, add to and just plain mess with shakespeare. while i am not a purist, i really don't enjoy a production that has an added greek style chorus, extra characters or musical numbers. so when we got a flyer in the mail for "as you like it", we were skeptical. i had never seen the show on stage before, so i really wanted to go, but i was afraid of the teaser line - "experience this unconventional production of As You Like It, a romantic comedy with a Sixties vibe". ugh. we debated and decided to get rush tickets, so at least we weren't paying an arm and a leg. so we got there, stood in the rush line, ended up with some of the best seats in the house and proceeded to spend 3 hours absolutely enchanted. it was a delight. we walked out of the theater with big grins on our faces. here is a little article with a couple of photos from the show. the set was genius. the costumes made me smile. what a lovely way to spend a wednesday night.
becka on 03.17.05 @ 05:06 PM CST [link]

Wednesday, March 16th

wombat

wombat (37k image)
i made this for a friend who is a big wombat fan and just got a really cool new job yesterday. who knew wombats had fans? embroidered denim with fun flowery lining and vintage button.
becka on 03.16.05 @ 07:15 AM CST [link]

what vacation would be complete...

craftyfabric (44k image)
...without a little fabric shopping. very nifty little fabric store on the island called "three crafty ladies" carries a ton of fabric prints, patterns and stamps that almost all have to do with the ocean - fish, mermaids, turtles, shells. it was such fun to browse through.
becka on 03.16.05 @ 07:12 AM CST [link]

Tuesday, March 15th

coming soon...

cowboy (26k image)

working on a couple of little projects today but they are gifts, so all you get is teasers. first is a little bag using cowboy fabric and denim. it was such a cute combination that i had to show it. next is some st patty's day fabric. i wasn't crazy about the leprechauns on white background, because it looked a little too "crafty" for me. so i overdyed a piece of it in several shades of green. much cuter and more subtle.
becka on 03.15.05 @ 12:26 PM CST [link]

more pictures....

sanibel2 (219k image)
becka on 03.15.05 @ 07:33 AM CST [link]

Monday, March 14th

Sanibel Island

sanibel (65k image)
we are home from vacation and here are a few pictures...
becka on 03.14.05 @ 10:57 AM CST [link]

Friday, March 4th

Illustration Friday: Jazz

jazz (39k image)
... inspired by the "broadway melody" scene in singing in the rain, one of my very favorite movies. i love the style of the 1920s.
becka on 03.04.05 @ 07:35 AM CST [link]

Thursday, March 3rd

love this

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn" -John Cotton Dana

had to put it here so i wouldn't lose it.
becka on 03.03.05 @ 07:06 PM CST [link]

south for the winter

sanibel1 (25k image)
in just a couple of days we are flying south for a week on sanibel island. since i don't really have any photos of projects from this week, i thought i would share a few pics from our last trip to sanibel 3 yrs ago.

this has been a busy week. our very favorite house and dog sitter is coming to stay with lucy while we are gone, so mostly i have been cleaning and organizing. i started a major clean out of the sewing room/ studio a while back and this was great incentive to get it done. it is really nice in there now and i managed to organize and, more importantly, get rid of a lot of stuff. i taught a purse making class tuesday night to an enthusiastic group. tomorrow i am on-call for a "stylist" who provides props and set decoration for people making commercials. she needs some items of clothing dyed brown to match another something. i don't have many details but i will let you all know how that turns out.
becka on 03.03.05 @ 05:09 PM CST [link]

March 2005
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