Month: April 2024

in the woodshed with the french circus

April 26, 2024

by annwood

circus rag dolls and lacey scraps in a basket

The circus has been rolling around in my imagination for a while. It got mixed up in the scraps and fabrics I brought back from France with me. It bumped into an obsession with bicornes and cats and became a collection of rag dolls, a french circus.

My friend Mickey introduced me to the term woodshedding – in a nutshell it means a period of intense creating, refining, practicing – you can find more here.

The woodshed is my favorite place to be. Completely immersed, making tons of mistakes, failing forward in relentless pursuit of what is already real in my imagination.

They are rag dolls in their truest form. Simple, spare and playful with an inherent woebegone quality to them. I can’t wait to share them and plans for patterns and a circus workshop are already happening – scroll to the bottom for more on that.

I’ve been working on the mechanics, taking them from ideas to drawings to stitched and stuffed things and feeling for the vibe.

the vibe: A box with a dusty lid, undisturbed for decades, “CIRCUS” scrawled on the top in pencil has almost faded away. You open the box and find them, sleeping in crumpled paper, frozen in time. All at once you get a full sense of the world they lived in as loved things until the box lid closed a century ago.

Synchronicity

Everything I needed for my circus folk kept showing up – a friend sent me a scrap of red silk fringe a little while ago, another gave me a worn linen duvet in a remarkably elephanty color and a box of fabric and trim I got in France a couple summers ago all seemed like they had been waiting to be circus folk.

And the space between the idea and execution was almost nothing. I had the thought and started working. No one heard from me for days. It was glorious. It got me up early and kept me up late. There is so much there to play with – mood and color and sparkles and patterns…

There will be sewing patterns for all these for sure and we’re already putting together a french circus workshop in Los Angeles in October (stay tuned!). I’m looking forward to shopping for supplies in France this summer.

There are more circus dolls on my worktable now – I’m playing with a giraffe and more costumes. I think the elephant is may favorite so far- how about you?

the 2024 hundred day stitch book – day 99!

April 26, 2024

by annwood

A large variety of stitched collages on my work table.

The 100 day stitch book project ends tomorrow!

Tomorrow you and I will complete page 20 and move on to phase 2 – assembling the book. Congratulations on showing up for that process.

What happens when you stitch creatively for 100 days? What happens when you show up consistently even in a small way? You watch yourself think and work and you get insight into that process. That insight teaches you how to access your magic. You start a feedback loop and you give ideas a place to show up.

Creativity is showing up and trying again and again and again. Getting it wrong is part of getting it right. And by right I mean something that sings to you.

slow stich collage panel with shades of blue and teal - a white swan is centered and there are diamond shapes and a fleur de lis

day 99

The 100 day stitch book works because it builds on small, consistent effort. Those efforts compound and become something greater, both in terms of process and physical result. The daily practice builds on itself and gains momentum. You know you can show up because you’ve been showing up. The muscle keeps getting stronger. And the pages, all those stitches, the accumulation of many days, become a book. A substantial reflection of your efforts, a record in marks of 100 of your days.

assembling your pages

The directions begin here– they are in 2 parts – please read both completely.

I’m opting to leave my page edges raw again this year. It’s super simple to do and there is just one change to the assembly directions:

At step 11 in the making the sections tutorial you pin the fabric with the wrong sides together. And hand stitch around the edges. It takes forever. I’m hoping to get started on it this weekend.

Before I start to assemble I go through each page and look for anything I might need to fix- a loose stitch – I accidentally scorched a couple spots – stuff like that. Then decide the order I want the pages appear in, number them and use the page chart in the afore mentioned instructions to lay them out for assembly.

100 days flew by! I’m very curious about your experience. Was this your first time trying a daily practice or is that already part of your life? What did you learn? Will you miss it? (I will). Are you relieved it’s done? (I have some of that too). Let us know in the comments.

how to make a tufted titmouse

April 5, 2024

by annwood

We are using the songbird sewing pattern. And the modifications to make a titmouse follow.

Today we’ll get into the steps for making the tuft – the defining feature- and a couple body details. First let’s talk about some other tufted titmouse features to consider:

the beak is smallish, black, short and symmetrical
the eyes are black
the tail is pretty short
the dominant colors are snowy white, soft grays, a little black and there is an orange patch on its flanks.

Make the bird body from snowy white fabric. For the tuft, wings, feathers etc. you’ll need a little black, a couple shades of gray and maybe some orange (more on that below). All the fabric should be light weight. It’s also handy to have a fine black sharpie.

download the tuft templates

1. Make your bird in white and add a little black beak. Pro tip – make a few beaks and pick the one that feels just right for your bird,

: 2.

: 3.

2. Mark the center tail 3/4 inch from the edge.

3. Trim to a point and stitch closed.

: 4.

: 5.

4. Cut out the crest and head cover pieces from gray and the little beak tuft from black. If you’ve made the cardinal this process is mostly the same with a couple details adjusted

5. Use the head cover template for the tufted titmouse. Pin and then whip stitch it in place.

: 6.

: 7.

6. Fold the pointed end of the crest 1 piece.

7. Pin in to the top of the head and stitch around the edge.

: 8.

: 9.

8. At the back stitch the sides of the opening together – just at the base.

9. Pin the crest 2 piece the same way – on top of crest 1 and stitch around the edge. Again – at the back stitch the sides of the opening together – just at the base. Feel free to stop adding layers here if 2 feels like enough for you – or – carry on with layer 3.

10. Add the third crest piece.