Archive for February, 2010

Day Twenty-Eight - Page Spread

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robayre
on February 28, 2010
in General Update, Projects and life
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It’s the final day of Thing-A-Day. This month was just sooo busy, and I am glad to welcome March.  If you hear a loud sigh, that would my exhale, letting go of a lot of stress that has built up this winter. I am so excited for spring, and the month to come AND for the madness of February to be behind me. Good things are ahead. Very good things. I can feel it :D

I woke up this morning ready for March, and it wasn’t until the day was well on it’s way that I realized “oops, you are jumping the gun Robyn, you still have one more day left of February”. With that in mind, today I present to you another page from my mini book. The left page is cut out of the fabric paper I made a few days ago.

It’s been so mad these last few weeks that I honestly haven’t even been able to keep up with everyone else’s posts. I look forward to doing that this next week. I hope everyone had a very productive and inspired month! I had a great time contributing and completing my third Thing-A-Day.

See you again soon!

Day Twenty-Seven - Quilt Pieces

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by
robayre
on February 27, 2010
in General Update and Projects
. 3 Comments

Today my sister, mom and I went to my aunt’s house where she taught us how to do a quilt pattern called “scrappy nine”.

This is how far I got today.

Each block is a foot square, so 3′x3′ in total right now.  You start with one square of 9 different fabrics and end up with 9 completely different squares. They look pretty random, but everything is actually very organized and calculated. I have more fabric and more colors that I plan to incorporate. I want to make a whole huge quilt eventually.

After finishing our blocks, my aunt took us to Quilter’s Heaven. It was an Ahhhmazing quilt shop with more beautiful fabrics. It was so hard to resist going crazy and buying a little bit of everything. I will definitely be back.

Day Twenty-Six - Zippered Pouch

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by
robayre
on February 26, 2010
in General Update and Projects
. 3 Comments

Today’s Thing-A-Day project is exactly 6 months overdo.

I have Fridays off, so I spent more time working on today’s project than I have on a lot of the projects this month. In fact, I made the pouch once, decided it might be a good time to finally look up a “logical” way to sew a zipper in, and then remade it. I am soooo pleased, and so glad I decided to try it again. I used this tutorial and it was a breeze. It worked out perfectly and I have no ugly seams showing like when I’ve made zipper pouches before. Now, I’m going to want to make a bunch more.

The first one I made was solid red with the stripes for the lining, but when I remade it I decided, why does the fun fabric always have to be hidden, so I put the stripes on the outside.

The image is from a crab drawing that my best friend draws and the pouch is for her birthday, which was six months ago. Tada! Happy Birthday Erica!

Day Twenty-Five - More Pages

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by
robayre
on February 25, 2010
in My Artwork
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One thing I’ve been thinking about this month is how I wish that Thing-a-Day was in the summer, when there was plenty of sunlight and hours to work in daylight after I get home from work.

Day Twenty-Four - On rings and how we spent our evening yesterday

Published
by
robayre
on February 24, 2010
in General Update, My Artwork, Projects and life
. 2 Comments

Today I received some new ring blanks I purchased recently. I was very excited to make some paper wrapped spiral rings, like the pendants I’ve made and had success with before. They will take about 24 hours to harden and then if everything goes well, I’ll be adding them to my Etsy shop.

Once they were all assembled, I was so thrilled with the circle ones that I almost gasped at how beautiful they were.

Onto last night. (Mim and Rachel, you might want to brace yourself)

(picture by roll_initiative on flickr)

My brother, sister and I went to go see Neil Gaiman speak at a nearby high school.  If you are not familiar with Neil, he is the author of Stardust and Coraline, as well as many other books, graphic novels, his blog and even twitter. I love seeing and hearing creative people talk. It always inspires me to much that I just want to rush home to my studio and start working madly at my own art. Listening to him talk filled my inspiration well.

He first read from Stardust (which I read some years ago) and then Anansi Boys (which I want to read now after hearing him). Then he did a Q&A with the audience. I just want to share a couple things from last night.

(Let me preface this by saying that it might not have really played out like this, but it sure sounded like it to me)
Audience Member: What is your favorite thing?
Neil Gaiman: What is my favorite thing or theme?
AM: Thing
NG: I’d have to say my favorite thing is Amanda Palmer
Audience: Erupts, goes wild
AM: Actually, I said theme
NG: Oh, I really liked that question, what’s your favorite thing
hehe, I just found a twitter referencing it :)

He spoke of how, growing up, people like to do things until they are informed by others that they can’t do those things. It’s a topic close to my heart. One of my favorite quotes is “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” Pablo Picasso. Neil shared an anecdote that each child is born with the ability to be a tight rope walker, and it isn’t until people tell them that they can’t, they wouldn’t be able to do it.

I could have listened to Q&A with him forever. Girls, now I can understand your crushes. Plus, I just read he’s a bee keeper. sigh.

Day Twenty-Three - Mini Scrapbooks

Published
by
robayre
on February 23, 2010
in General Update
. 1 Comment

I’ve had exactly a half hour to myself today. It is 11:46 p.m.  and here I am posting my thing-a-day. I didn’t make these today, but I couldn’t really share them before because they were a surprise favor for a baby shower I gave last weekend. So, I’ve been waiting to share them on a day such as today when I didn’t have a moment to make something. We made 30 of these little books (I think) and they were filled with pictures of my brother, my brother as a baby, my sister in law and my sister in law as a baby.

Okay, I’m really tired and can’t think straight. But I posted my thing-a-day gosh darn-it! Time for my head to hit the pillow. honk shnu.

Day Twenty-Two - CD and Fabric Paper

Published
by
robayre
on February 22, 2010
in Fun, My Artwork and Projects
. 3 Comments

Today for Thing-A-Day I finished a mix CD I’ve been working on, tweaking and refining for a long time. I burned the first copy and listened to it to make sure there were no skips and the music all flowed properly from song to song. I am still brainstorming for ideas on the album artwork. I sat down at my drawing table to begin working on the artwork when I remembered a post I saw earlier today.

I saw this tutorial post on iHanna’s blog about making fabric paper and it seemed like fun.

The first one I made I really liked, but then I wanted to “tint” it and added some acrylic paints and I wasn’t thrilled with the outcome. That is more than a light tint, wouldn’t you say? I wanted it to be light yellow with “barely there” touches of green and orange, and instead it became red and green. Go figure.

I had fun though, so I decided to do another one. This one (all the more “white” images above) I left alone. I chose more neutral colored paper bits and I think I might come back over it later with a very watered down wash of white.

What will I end up doing with these? Who knows, but I thought I might scan them in and do some digital work over it for the album artwork.

Day Twenty-One - Spinning

Published
by
robayre
on February 21, 2010
in Fun, General Update, fiber and life
. 1 Comment

Today, for Thing-A-Day, I spun for a couple hours. I’ve been working on this super thin yarn that will be plyed with another to make a crazy sock yarn. Normally I spin barefoot, but I just got home so I still had on my shoes. Normally I’ll just spin from a long roving, but because I want the colors to alternate a lot, I’ve been pulling bits the staple length and spinning from those. There are a total of 17 different colors and they are all a really nice merino wool.

I posted an animated gif file I made while spinning earlier this month, but you really can’t see much of a dent on the two hours more I’ve added. It’s so thin that it just doesn’t add up quickly.

The colors may not look that great right now, but once plyed, the finished product will look closer to this other yarn (below) that I spun, only all of that was dyed with kool-aid and it’s a much chunkier yarn.

Tonight my best friend and I went to go see Gaelic Storm (for the second time) at the Historic Egyptian Theatre. We had a really good time and now I’m in a St. Patrick’s Day mood. I always love going to concerts like that because the audiences are so energetic. Mostly, I think it’s the Irish crowd, because it’s the same vibe when I’ve gone to see Black 47 and Irish Festivals.

Here is a quick snapshot of what it looks like inside the theatre. We were sitting on the balcony.

The band performing. One thing that was REALLY cool was that the lead singer told the audience that he met his wife for the first time at Eduardo’s (a well known local restaurant). She was a grad student at NIU. How cool is that? Singer from Ireland, tours the world over and he met his wife in my own town.

And finally, the gratuitous shoe shot. I had to use the upstairs restroom and just loved the checkered flooring in there. Someday I will have black and white checkered floors in my home.

Day Twenty - Onesie

Published
by
robayre
on February 20, 2010
in General Update
. 9 Comments

Today my sister and I threw our sister-in-law a baby shower. This will be my very first niece or nephew and I am soooooo excited! As a creative activity at the party, guests chose from onesies, blankies, socks, bibs, shoes and a bag, to decorate and give to the mommy to be. This was my piece (pictured above). I was just thinking about how cute baby bellies are and so I painted concentric circles like a target right where the belly would be, drawing attention right to the feature. It’s a shame to have to cover up that “belleh”, but if you do, do it in fashion.

I worked as a nursery supervisor for 11 years (just one day a week) and gained lots of invaluable information such as being able to recite The Runaway Bunny, Guess How Much I Love You, and Cookie Monsters Little Kitchen by heart, all children will settle down and stop crying just moments after the parents leave the room but getting the parents to understand that is another problem, change the diaper - change the disposition, and of course, baby bellehs are irresistible!

Day Nineteen - Framed YoYo Quilt Set in Pink Gingham

Published
by
robayre
on February 19, 2010
in General Update, etsy and shop update
. 1 Comment

Today I was inspired by an Etsy front page that had all pale, soft pinks, whites and naturals. You can see the collection here. I immediately went up to my studio and grabbed this pale pink gingham and made one of my framed yoyo sets. I’ve been making yoyos (a quilt, vests, jewelry) for 17 years and making and selling these framed sets for 5 years. It was perfect because I actually had two other sets finished, but I just had not taken pictures of them yet, so finishing this set got me into action and now all three have been added to my Etsy shop here.

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