Roman arthurien

I'm working on a pattern of knights battling each other. I wanted them to look medieval so I did a little research. I found a wonderful illuminated manuscript from 1201-1300 on Gallica; The Roman arthurien.
It has loads of medieval bats, rabbits, and grotesque figuers, as well as knights.
Curious thing about all the knights;  they are usually huddled up in gangs like any thug you would find out on the streets today.

  I love the horses too. They have such cute and beleaguered expressions!

Lastly, here is one knight that I have partially done. Hopefully, I will finish it in the next few days, depending on how much time the kids, husband, and pets give me. XD

One warning about leafing through this massive text; it's over 800 pages and contains a LOT of text. It's a good thing to look at while waiting at the Dr's office or airport. So maybe save it for a long holiday Layover in Chicago or some similar incident.

Spoonflower Advent Calendar Contest

I've entered the Spoonflower Advent Calendar Contest!
I worked on it up until the entry deadline. I wish I could have done more for the presentation layout but I did not have time. Last weekend was entirely consumed with Lily's school project, Her school's Family fun Day at Great Wolf Lodge, Her Birthday Party at Speed Zone, and then another child's birthday party we had to attend. With all the events I lost 4 whole days of work on my entry.

I wish the Spoonflower  website showed better images of my advent pockets. You can't zoom in on any of it or provide thumbnail details. So I'm providing some detail images here and leaving a link on my Spoonflower description for people to follow from there.

I had a hard time coming up with a consistent idea to begin with. I wanted a Quilter's Advent that featured fat quarters or cheater quilt squares but the size constraint (42"x36") was very limiting. So I decided to make pockets shaped like sewing tools. Except sewing tools are not easy to hem unless you put an uninteresting square border around them. I went ahead and made 12 thread spools with Christmas themed colors and decorations and decided to come up with something to accompany them as I worked on them.

 

 Then I decided to use Illustrations from 'Easy Steps In Sewing For Big And Little Girls'. My original idea was to make 12 trade cards ore needle books featuring the cute little characters from the book. The book was published in 1902 and is written by Jane Eayre Fryerand illustrated by Jane Allen Boyer. The book is loaded with sweet little illustrations on every page. Unfortunately, the scans I took from my copy are very dirty and neede lots of cleaning in order to be usable. Cleaning and coloring one image takes me roughly 2 to 3 hours (with occasional interruption of children and husband). Despite this I managed to get 6 images cleaned and embellished for my needle books. Here they are in detail:

The borders also took a lot of time to create. I couldn't find any copyright free borders so I ended up making my own based upon the borders of Christmas themed vintage and antique linens. The holly border is my favorit. I's actually a bracelet design from the early 1900's.

To fill in the extra spots in my advent calendar I made 6 snowflakes at Make-A-Flake. With practice you can get some really fantastic results from Make-A-Flake! 

I'm sure the competition for the contest is just as good as the last contest! The contest starts later this week. So go have a look at the wonderful work done by the other Spoonflower designers and vote for your favorite!

Mysterious Walt Disney Micky's Garage Cutouts

We found another treasure in Jo's boxes! Unfortunately, we can't get a finite identification on it.
Anyone know where these Micky's Garage cutouts came from? My mother is guessing a cereal box ca 1930's (she dates it in the 30's because Donald's beak length).
The cut lines are squarish, but uniform in length instead of rounded. So they might be hand cut.....maybe.
They measure 3.5" high by 3.75" wide. The folded end has been folded before but then flattened between papers in storage. There are some horizontal lines across the top of  2 pieces that look like they could be glue marks.
Here are some more detailed pictures. Click on them to zoom in.

If you know their origin please leave it in comments! We really want to know where these cute cutouts came from!

Jo's Ceareal Box Premium and Spoon Flower Tea Towel Contest

Ive been helping my friend Jo off load some of her departed father's items on Ebay and Etsy. While sorting through one dusty wooden crate we came across a Post Toasties Cereal Box Premium picturing Captain on the front (see above image). We were delighted to find that finding them in the original wrapper is rare. You can see more of it and possibly place a bid for it on her Ebay listing (click the link above). She's also listed a Lily Pinkham mechanical pencil,

 and a Carson Gloves advertisement/compact mirror;

All are really cool! she has more too. I will be helping her list things all this month on Ebay and Etsy.

I also entered the Spoonflower tea Towel Contest !  I mentioned Spoonflower in an earlier post. They sale custom designs on fabric. Im in the process of creating a shop on Spoonflower to sale my own fabric designs.  My entry features a dandelion for each month. The seed puffs spiral out from the center and each is labeled with the day/ day of the week. The dandelion colors are representative of the birthstone for each month. Leaping frogs and flying/jumping insects serve as a daily reminder that 2012 is a leap year. Go sign up on Spoonflower and vote for your favorite!

Social Media and other Changes

Bear with me as I make several slow changes around here!
Ive finally got a facebook page! Ive been putting it off because I dislike most social situations. I would prefer to stay home and quietly create things and sale the anonymously over the internet. It's not that I don't like people, but I find too much social interaction very distracting to my creativity. I end up chatting and friending people instead of working and making new things. My ADD nature makes it hard enough for me to be organized and focused. Now I have to find out how to customize it :(
I'm also on Twitter! Lol, I still don't know what to do with it.
Lastly Ive opened stores on Meylah, Spoonflower, and Society6, and another store on Etsy just for clipart. It will be some time before I have anything for sale on Spoonflower. I need to proof my patterns first. But please go have a look at all three! Links are provided.

As I get around to it......Some things are going to change on this blog too. Be patient though I'm a very disorganized person.