we need whimsy

I'm working on editing my craft life.  I've spent the past 18 months crafting with some purpose and no purpose.  Doing what I love as much as I want--chasing shiny things--planing--playing--having a ball.  I'm planning a big transition in life next March when I officially take early retirement.  I've let the idea set for more than a year, and what started as a dream morphed into a maybe and finally became a plan.  Now I can't imagine turning back.  I realize that my chosen career wasn't so much a choice for me, but a default.  Here I am I guess I'll do this.  Some of it was great, some not so much.  I'm choosing to retire and do what I love. 

My official line is that I'm retiring to be a stay at home mom.  Two teenagers with special needs need me as much as they did when they were 5 or 6.  Or so it seems.

The truth is that I'm retiring so I can spend every spare moment in my sewing room.  My favorite place on earth.  Especially when I can hear happy sounds in the rest of the house.   Or when the rest of the house is quiet because the boys are at school. 

Creating is such great therapy.  But either I need a LOT of therapy, or I'm getting carried away.  I've tried to do everything that can be done with wool:  knit, crochet, felt, needle felt, sew, stuff,  bears, monsters, kitties, mittens, slippers, hats, scarves, dogs, mice, baskets, rugs, flowers, hair pretties, birds, owls--  You name it, I've either tried it or thought about trying it, or bought something at a thrift store so I can try it.  Then I got interested in cotton silk and linen...  quilts....   fabrics...   pillows...   oh my...


As the weather starts to hint at fall, I'm tempted to make some more mittens and hats.  But maybe not this year.  Maybe this year I'll stick with the things that bring me the most joy as I make them...   The stuffed creatures of all types, and the flowers.  The whimsical.  We need warmth and necessities, but we also need whimsy.  And recycled, reclaimed whimsy is the best kind. 

I just had a great meeting with a young woman starting a new shop  (Ecoflora  her webpage and her facebook  She is carrying my stuffed creatures and my flowers.   All the things I love to make.  I'm hoping she has great success.  She has a great location, a huge shop, and a lot of energy and enthusiasm.

I'm also looking forward to visiting Judith from Bloomsbury Loft at the Columbus Country Living Fair.  She has many of my things with her.   If she sells everything, I'll make a tidy sum to put in my rainy day fund for after retirement!  I browsed some of the vendors...  Great stuff but high prices.

Monsters

New animals

Late 19th c four-patch variation fascinating design

I have a new hobby.  Looking for interesting quilts at auctions.  I've always loved quilts, and I've had some great luck lately.  I don't really have room to save them, so I've been experimenting on Ebay.  It is a very different marketplace than Etsy, but it has some advantages.  Here is a quilt I found a few weeks ago.  It was FILTHY.  I gambled that I could clean it up, and I've been rewarded with a really great find...  What do you think???  The price will have to be fabulous to get me to part with this one.

Here is an interesting four-patch variation, where two four-patch blocks are combined with two triangle (half-square) blocks to form the main block for the quilt.  The sashing utilizes four-patch blocks as well in each intersection.  This is where it gets interesting.  The maker combines the triangle blocks and the four-patch blocks in many different ways, almost at random.  Sometimes the triangles mirror each other, sometimes not.  Sometimes the light dark patterns in the four-patch blocks mirror each other, sometimes not.  Was the quilter lazy, tired, stressed, or a genius?   I like to think she was probably all of these.  The pieced border and the great variety of fabrics used in the blocks indicate a quilt using leftovers, so she was probably financially stressed and tired.   I can imagine that she may have been in a hurry and sewn the blocks together without checking to see if the pieces lined up and didn’t want to take the time to rip out her stitches and fix it.  (I can relate!)  But the result--the visual delight that results from her efforts--enchants me.    I can imagine this quilt where all the light and dark pieces were set the same way and the regular geometric pattern created was pleasing, soothing, and interesting.  However—what this woman did creates visual dissonances that I absolutely love. 

Owls are a hoot

I stopped making these guys for about six months. Why? I love them.

What I made today

someone copied ME!!!! : )

Well, it finally happened.  Someone on Etsy copied me.  The other person used part of the item description for my felted wool sleeves--several sentences, word for word--and used part of my layout. 

I'm a tiny bit miffed, but mostly I'm flattered.  Does this mean that others look at my shop as a "model" for how to do it right???  What a hoot!!!  I certainly have spent my share of time on Etsy getting ideas from others and I do the same at shows and in stores.    But if I my product ends up too much like another product on Etsy,  I usually don't try to sell it on Etsy.  (Except for mittens--so many people are making wool mittens that I don't even know who I would be copying.)   I try to be careful not to copy others too closely,  but to use the work as inspiration and make things in my own way--even the language in the listings. 

Bottom line,  I don't really care.  I don't make enough selling sweater sleeves to make that my focus--it is just a good way to keep wool from taking over my world.   But this kind of plagiarism  is an interesting and thorny issue.  Is there an unwritten honor code?  I think so.  Do we all interpret "honor code" in a different way?  Yes.  Would I be mad if someone made sweater kitties just like mine wearing the same kind of recycled sweater sweaters?  You betcha!  That would be a whole different thing.  But I get inspiration from Etsy that helps me create my kitties:  how to sew cute faces, funky color combinations, different ways to make ears, what kind of buttons make cute eyes, do long legs look better than short legs, etc. etc. etc. 

I still feel like a rookie--so it is fun to see that someone thinks I know what I'm doing.