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Showing posts from August, 2018

Archive of Our Own

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE FANFICTION. I started reading and writing fanfiction in middle school, and even participated in a massive role playing/fanfiction message board for years. (Shoutout to my VH peeps!) I still read and write fanfiction on fanfiction.net, livejournal, and most recently A03. I am strongly of the opinion that fanfiction, fanart, etc are transformative works; they take what was published and transform them into a new work, and also that fanfiction is an essential way for consumers to respond to our culutre. Fanworks are social commentary, they are community building, and they are legitimate art. Some fanworks have gone viral and for good reason--someone's imagining of the Disney Princesses as real life women says a lot about how we view women in our society and the changes that we wish to enact. I also believe that once a creation has been released to the world, it belongs to the world. Not like, literally, but that people will respond to it and r

Make a Wish Doll sized Quilts

I've been doing some major scrap busting to clear out space in my closet between bigger costume projects, and this past week I finished up two doll quilts using scraps leftover from Rosemary's Make a Wish baby quilt. I was originally going to make a scrappy binding for the baby quilt, but decided against it, so I ended up with a bunch of small strips. The backing for each doll quilt is a fat quarter that came in the pack that I decided not to use in the quilt top, ditto the binding on the strips quilt. This one was bound in plain white, and is made up of leftover quarter-square triangle pieces. I bound it in white quilter's cotton and quilted it in diamonds. No way was I going to stitch in the ditch again, after breaking 5 needles on that previous quilt!  I gave this one away as a birthday gift for my friend's little girl Marigold. I'll definitely be making a ton more of these to give away! The strips one I am keeping for Rosemary, so when

DIY Minecraft Steve Head

He's been played with and worn a lot, so he's a little beat up.  The head is made from five 8x8 squares of foamboard that I cut with an exacto knife and hot glued together. This was very messy and the foamboard wanted to warp, so I did a little bit of filling in gaps with the hot glue and then painting over it. The black squares of the eyes I cut out for eye-holes.  After they were glue together, I used a ruler and drew a 1 inch square grid on each side Inside, I glued a piece of foam to the underside of the top piece to get it to the right height for his eye-holes, and then two pieces of foam where his nose rests. The elastic strap keeps the head from sliding around while he's wearing it. 

Purple Doll Sized Quilt

Another quilt! This time a mini-quilt. I saw a pack of 2 inch squares at the fabric store and wanted to see how it was working with such small pieces. My mind went right to doll quilt, and a few days I had a finished doll quilt. It was fun and quick, and I've made a few more out of scraps and blocks leftover from other quilts. They are so cute and easy!    I bought this old American Girl doll rope-strung bed off of ebay because it reminded me of Little House on the Prairie. The quilt totally doesn't match time period wise, but it looks cute on the bed anyway.  I used scraps from this project to make some matching pillows, of course. Waste not! The back, which I forgot to take a picture of, is leftover purple minky from Saoirse's quilt. I always buy way too much backing! James helping me with photos. Thanks James! 

Youtube Spotlight: Colin Furze

Check out this crazy inventor guy Colin Furze on Youtube. He inspires me to create and invent. I'm a little jealous of his workshop and his underground bunker. Someday... My favorite project of his that he's done is the hoverbike: But all his projects are pretty cool! -John