On the way to the nerd prom

I'll be away from my blog for a week due to attending the San Diego Comic Con. I might be able to sneak in a couple of blog posts, who knows? I did bring the next work in the weekly series with me to sew on the plane ride. See you in a week!

Kokeshi madness

I have a lot of pages in my notebook dedicated to Kokeshi designs. They are so cute and easy to do with their legless, armless body. It's all about the head and hair with these dolls. I almost made her a "Cute but Evil" doll, but that was not the theme. I also firmly decided that the beautiful soft yellow chrysanthemum batik (of which I only have a fat quarter) would be the background for all this month's themed quilts. It's so pretty.

I watched "Curse of the Golden Flower" and loved the costumes in that movie.

Went to see "Wall-E" this weekend with my dad. Bring a hankie. I needed mine! But I cry at tissue commercials, for what it's worth. There's a quilt somewhere in that EVE design....

Kawaii Hina Matsuri

What Japanese doll theme would be complete without Hina Matsuri dolls? This set of dolls of the emperor and empress are brought out for Girl's day in Japan. I could not find a "kawaii" or "cute" version, so I was on my own for this one. After a few sketches, I found a design I liked. I added sleeves to the emperor because he looked like a shmoo otherwise.

I have lots of vintage kimono fabric, mostly "chirimen" or a rayon material made for kimono and crafts. I fused these down, and was happy with the results. The material did not get hard or stiff as I expected.

So cute!

Tough decision

I made a difficult decision on a juried quilt "call for art" last night. I am really disappointed with myself for not paying better attention to the entry dates, and I won't have my entry done in time.
With San Diego Comic Con next week, I won't be able to finish it. It's a tough decision for me, since I could spend every waking moment from now until I leave for the show to work on it, but rushing it will not be my "best work". And, I would be ill prepared for the comic show, which is the "nerd prom" and kind of a big deal in the industry. I'm even doing something super secret (for now).
I have the design sketched out, but no time to make it. I had really thought the deadline was Sept 1. My husband and I discussed it, and he has had similar painting deadlines he has let slip by for similar reasons, so it was very good to talk this over with him.
We both agree I still need to make the quilt this year by Sept 1 so that I can still accomplish the finished work. I wanted to focus on getting entries into shows this year, and this is one opportunity that I was really looking forward to.
I could write a whole blog post about "best work" and juried shows (and magazines) showing the same few artists over and over, and the downside of wanting to be an artist but working a (admittedly cool) full time job. Some other time perhaps. Later this weekend I will have a slew of art to show. That's positive, right?

I have a PHD in Horribleness