Hoffman challenge 2009

Hmmm......this years Hoffman challenge fabric didn't get me very excited.
I know there are many people who love it, but it just didn't do much for me....
So I had some serious doubts about entering........but decided to start playing with the fabric to see if I could use it in a different way.

So I ended up making beads and those beads reminded me of a picture I had seen on our recent trip to the United States in the Navajo reserve.
And that's how "Tatanka" came to life.
On our trip we learned that tatanka means buffalo, so the name seemed fitting seeing as his shirt has got a buffalo applique on the back and he's wearing buffalo horns on his head.

Besides the fabric beads I've used 15/0 miyuki seed beads, it takes about 350 beads to cover a square inch! I don't think I've ever spent this much time on a shirt in my life. Will you believe there is almost a fat quarter of challenge fabric in this outfit? There's only a few snippets left.
However I'm not quite sure if they will accept this as a recognizable amount.
But I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I have to apologize for the pictures. I couldn't get all the detail in his sculptered face to show up properly. I would have tried again in daylight if I wasn't in a hugh hurry to get him posted.

Creations in Fiber 2009

What can I say about the Creations in Fiber conference in Albuquerque?
It was the most fun I've had since.........well since Cifi 2008 I guess.
The people where fantastic, the teachers where the best and to top it all off this happened:

This years theme for the challenge dolls was musical.......
So somehow my, admittedly strangely wired, brain came up with a street musician.
Will you believe that this doll won judges choice and had a 100% score..........it left me totally gobsmacked.

 

Below is a slideshow of some of the pictures I took. You'll see Arley Berryhill's dolls, he gave a fantastic presentation and brought in so many of his fabulous dolls. Challenge and Show-and-Tell dolls and ofcourse our class dolls.

Tony's present

It's Tony's birthday next week and he already had all of his presents, but I hate not having anything to give on the day. So I decided to make him a present, mind you.....I've never made him anything before.......so I might get the dreaded "yeah-nice-look".
And I'm not a quilter.....so real quilters look away now.....I'm not hindered by any knowledge about the art of quilting, so I've probably broken every rule in the quilters handbook.

Anyway I decided to make a fabric action photo of his new found love, cycling. He goes on these incredibly long cycle trips and always takes pictures along the way. But he's always complaining that he doesn't have any action shots of him on the bike. So I could do two things.......1. I could go on these long bike rides with him and take pictures.....or 2. I could retreat to my hobbyroom and make one myself...

Can you blame me for choosing the second option?

Anyway I decided upon a tour de France style picture, where he's climbing the mountains.

All the decorative stitches on my machine came to good use, little leaves in the greenery and about a gazillion french knots on the mountain. The snow on the mountain isn't quilted through but only stitched on the top layer so it puffs up a little.
I replaced the sunset with an English flag. This is for a man who's got "Made in England" tattooed on his shoulder!
The face I printed on fabric, but as my printer isn't really suitable for printing fabric this gave me only a faint outline. So I coloured the face in with pencils (like I've done with Frida below).
Then I bordered the whole thing and stuffed the border, so it would look like a picture frame and I decorated the frame with some old lace which I coloured with a gold Shiva-paintstick,
So now I can only keep my fingers crossed and hope he likes it!