There is a game kids play ...

by the name of "Ich packe einen Koffer und tue hinein ..." - "I'm packing my suitcase and I'm putting in it ..." the first one says one thing, the second repeats it and adds his, the third repeats the first two in the correct order and adds his ...

Well, we're going on holiday to Italy and I'm packing:
- fabric and things to fix Entie since I am the Duck Mender Extraordinaire
- same to fix Iaio (read: Lion, Paula's cuddlie)

- beads and small projects to fiddle with

- my cameras, one digital, one analog filled with random film in strange ISO (3600 colour, 1800 b/w) plus lenses and gorilla-pod. Plus laptop, card reader and literature on b/w digital photography

- my journal, acrylic paints, brushes, rags and canvasses

- a ton of books.

One should think I'm going away for a decade ...

I must be mad! - Recurring Theme here

Instead of doing what I'm supposed to be doing (working on my marketing projects) or not supposed to be doing (quilting and embellishing and planning new projects), I'm sitting here working for my main client. With a system so slow it makes me want to pull my hair out.

Which causes to me phantasize about a life where I can do artsy stuff all day. Which would probably cause the artsy stuff to lose its attraction. But for a year maybe? But then, the Prussian blood in my veins will never let me.

Edited to add: I just realised - I stated my suspicions before. Only now it's not a good mad but a bad mad.

The Madness continues: Re-Constructing the Dragon

Paper cut-outs for the tail and main body on the corresponding fabric



Cut-out and pinned, ready for appliquéing



Checking the colours for legs, dots and those pokey bits.



Moving right along - and currently feeling rather pleased with self.



More pokey bits to do ...

(And no alcohol in sight ...)

De-constructing a Dragon

These are my master copies, ready to be cut apart and serve as patterns.

(I must be mad!)

Embellishing my UFOs

I'm finally getting the hang of embellishing ...



This is a little sample I made back in Manchester in 2002. We cut out really cheap sweet shp paper bags in shapes we liked (hearts, very inventive there) and using a steam iron transfered the colour onto white cotton fabric. Since I purchased an abundance of beads and pearls and such at ebay ...



I thought this would be a nice little project to do when sitting on the patio, slurping strawberry punch.



Turning Twenty will have to wait, I guess.

Plotting the Process

OK, so now that I've measured and copied and measured and copied ... I came home with about $45 worth of over-sized copies for my pattern. That was about ten days ago and I have since spent my time plotting the process so that once I cut apart my pattern to use it for a sort of paper foundation appliqué, I will have established a way to reassemble the whole thing. Quite daunting, especially given that I have never worked with fabric at such a scale. Yikes.

Keep your fingers crossed for me, there should be photos of the process at the end of the week.