Showing posts with label fairy tales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fairy tales. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair...

Or the art of letting go and actually cutting into your fabric!

A funny thing happens when you start to sew - you start to accumulate fabric! And then you start looking for inspiration which leads you to blogs, which leads to pinterest and instagram. Lucky for me, I haven't been sucked into the last two but I do love me some blogs!
Finding quilt/craft inspiration blogs inevitably leads you down the path to favorite fabric designers which, of course, leads to hoarding said fabric designers fabrics.
Again, lucky for me, my house and budget are pretty small so I tend to hoard just the things that are just soooo cute that I couldn't possibly live without them...I would just wither and die!
Which leads us to the Rapunzel fabric from Heather Ross.
When the fabric came out, I bought one little tiny yard of miss rapunzel in the sweetest pink color. (I also bought the owl and pussycat, sleeping beauty and the suns - apparently i was flush with funds that day!)
And there she sat, in the little fabric bin I have under my sewing table. Every couple of months or so, I bring out the bin, look through all the "good" fabric and think, oh i should really do something with this...immediately followed by
"no, it is soooo precious, i can't possibly take my scissors to such cuteness!"
Then, I would fold it back up (the other way so as to not have the creases all be in the same spot) and back she would go into the bin.
Until one day, I decided enough was enough! and made my way to the giant fabric store and found some coordinating fabric to make me the cutest rapunzel quilt!
And then...mom saw the photo of miss rapunzel and asked for the smallest bit of it for her birthday - no problem, i thought, i'll just go on etsy and get some!
HA!
Apparently, miss rapunzel and all of her counterparts are going for a gazillion dollars!
Oh no!
I cannot cut into rapunzel now - she is worth too much money - A whole yard!! Why, that's worth like a hundred dollars!
What am I doing, what am I thinking?
And then I saw other heather ross fabrics for sale on etsy and
OH MY GOD!
What was I thinking cutting into those cute matryouskas and the stripes and making a quilt and why, why, why, did I put the VW van material in that window and now it is faded!!  Am I a fool?
A day passed...(no cutting into rapunzel)
And then, I walked by the shelf with the little pile of fabric and I thought, "Why yes, i guess I am a fool!"
A fool for wanting to live with the cutest fabric!
To have a cute quilt of smiling stacking dolls to pull out of the cupboard and put on the couch and make me happy.
And, yes a fool to put the van fabric in the window but it makes me smile every time i walk into the laundry room.
And, what about miss rapunzel?
Well - see for yourself!

She is no longer entombed in the fabric bin but is free to mill about with the other quilts.
Everytime I see this sweet little quilt, I will be happy to know that I was brave enough to cut into the "good" stuff!
Do you dare cut into your favorite fabric? Did it give you heart palpatations? Or are you happy that you can now enjoy it in some way besides sitting all lonely in a bin?
PS - as you can tell from the photo, I didn't get too crazy with the cutting, just the stripes to keep as many little rapunzels intact! Bravery does have its limits, you know!

Get out there! JCoy

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

In a land far, far away

Alex and I are huge Netflix fans and we tend to watch full television series all at once. We’ve gone through:
  • Lost - loved it but hated the ending
  • Sons of Anarchy – bad boys on bikes? And strong women? What’s not to like?
  • Psych - goofy as all get out but fun – Gus is my favorite character
  • The Walking Dead - soooo good but hoo-wee, not something you want to watch all at once – all the despair will bring you down
  • And, can't forget BBC's Sherlock, Luther, and Dowtown Abbey
  • Now we’re watching Once Upon a Time and we are loving it
Just because we watch a lot of TV though doesn’t mean we still aren’t creating. I usually have a least a couple of projects going to keep my hands busy while watching the tube – knitting or embroidery.
 
Jessie was kind enough to gift me some embroidery patterns for Christmas and the “Matryoshka Nesting Doll Woodland Friends Bear Bunny Fox pattern” from Sewjenaissance was the perfect accompaniment to watching the entire goings on in Storybrooke!

Here's my work in progress:
 
My “Once Upon a Time” Favorites:
Favorite characters: Ruby, Jefferson
Favorite villain: Rumplestilskin
Second favorite villain: Cora
Favorite hair: Regina when she’s in fairy tale land – in the episode we watched last night, her hair was reaching the sky! (Queen of Hearts episode) 
Favorite costumes: Snow White’s white pearl coat; Red’s hood; Frankenstein’s coat
Scariest costumes: Evil queen’s henchmen helmets – super scary!
Favorite jewelry: Aurora’s crown – when they left her at the jail cell, I kept thinking, take her crown!
Favorite room: Regina’s mayor’s office is pretty cool. I love how they’ve woven woods, trees, forest-y wallpaper into almost every room
Favorite place you’d want to get lost in: Mr. Gold’s Pawn Shop, of course! The treasures never end in there now do they???

Stay crafty my friends - JCoy