My summer of arts and crafts

It has been so long since the last time I blogged about my crafty life but that does not mean I haven't been keeping busy.  I moved out of my sisters and found a fantastic little place to be my artsy haven.  But in doing so I also didn't have the internet for several months.  A variety of life things have kept me from blogging but I am back.

So what HAVE I been up to??:
-I was the production designer on a kids production of Beauty and the Beast this summer. It was a very fun way to be crafty and clever all mixed in one.  I loved the day when my boss sat me down in the office and said "so I have a problem...I need you to figure out how to make kids in to forks and spoons"  Yes!! This is my kind of problem.  Dishes, folks, spoons, creamers and sugar dish, enchanted roses, a candlestick, a dancing clock and a beast mask.  It was great.

   

 After Beauty and the Beast I spent the summer teaching various dance camps.  Dance camps are great because it combines my favorite things...dance and crafts. There were lots of clothes pin dolls, mickey headbands, pipe clearer bracelets and other kids friendly things.

Speaking of kid friendly projects my sister and I took on a craft that has been very popular lately the melting crayon thing.  It was fun HOWEVER I do not suggest breaking the crayons in to small pieces and we did.  The pieces moved around and went flying off the canvas.  It wasn't the best.  I came out of it with some fun art work to hang on my wall.  Later I have tried this with whole crayons glued the the canvas with much better success.  Lesson learned.



My other really big project this summer has been my quilt.  My mom is an awesome quilter and I have long admired quilts and wanted one of my own.  So when my mom came down to NC this summer for a visit we hit up the fabric store and I picked out a collection of happy yellow fabrics.  While my mom was here she assisted me in bringing my vision to reality.  She was a huge help with the cutting because I did not have all the good cutting tools really needed for quilting (I have since invested in a large cutting mat and rulers and such)  We had a one day "Power Quilting" session where I sewed the top of my quilt under her close watch.  If a seam didn't pass the test she would hand it to me with the seam rippers with a smile.  It came out just like I had wanted.

With the top finished I had to wait until I went home to CT to visit at the end of the summer to continue the project.  Using the fabrics from the top and still with a close watchful eye from my mom I pieces together the bottom.  The bottom was much easier because it was squares rather than triangles and soon I was ready to put the pieces together.  We took the quilt down to my moms church where we could lay it out on the big table to bast the layers together.  It was at this point that I really started to feel why quilting bees have always been so poplar. There is a lot of work for just one person to do.  I am sure glad my mom was helping me.

  

So now the next big step in the quilt project is the actual quilting.  I am hand quilting not machine quilting so it will be a while before it is all finish.  My mom is coming down to NC in December to see the production of the Nutcracker I am working on so my big goal is to have the quilting done so we can put the binding on.  We shall see if that happens with all the projects I have to get done for Nutcracker.

Last major project of the summer was the t-shirt rug that I made.  I saw a "pin" about using a hula hoop to weave a rug.  So I took this and decided to use some of the t-shirt yarn I had already cut to make a fun colorful rug for my house.  It wasn't very hard and my pup Huxley loves is new napping spot.

Those are the highlights from my summer of craziness.  I still have a bunch of projects that are in the works that I will post as I finish them up.  I am really excited about some art work that I have been working on and will try and get some pictures up soon. 

And Nutcracker season for me officially started yesterday so I will be very busy making all sorts of costumes, props and set pieces (as well as choreographing some dances) for that over the next few months.  Expect pictures soon :)