ann wood

If you were on Union St. in Brooklyn around rush hour this afternoon you might have seen a crazy person out on a window ledge taking pictures of a little stuffed bird. It was me. The bird was William. He’ll be in the shop on Monday around noon with a few other birds and at least a couple ships.

This is my friend Judah

Judah is three and he’s smart and funny and already good at paper mache. He’s fun to make things with and for; this was for him and so was this. Next I’m going to make him some version of a beanbag toss game I found in a McCall’s Needlework and Crafts magazine from 1970. You lay it on the floor and try to toss the frog to the lillipad, fish in the water, the bird in the nest and the ladybug on the leaves.

I’ve posted the pattern and instructions here .

These were the last two birds to leave the shop, Ada and Margarita.

I’m working on new birds right now and they’ll be in the shop by next Monday, 10/2. There will also finally be ships for sale. I intended to put them up last week but work interfered, so sorry to anybody who inquired last week, it’s next Monday the second for sure. I’m working on some new ones and the others are hanging in the window at JOHNSON on Orchard St. this week to help celebrate the fifth anniversary of the shop. Mrs. Johnson and I hung them today. Here she is checkin it out.

My one hundred cardboard horses are done. I started, I finished and it was harder and way more work than I expected. It was frequently inconvenient, but no matter how much I sometimes didn’t feel like making one, it got my hands and brain moving in some sort of creative way, and for me, like a lot of people who work for and mostly by themselves that can be half the battle. So I’m glad I did it, I’d do it again, and I’m glad it’s finished. 100 is enough cardboard horses. I’m still not sure exactly what to do with them, but I’ll figure it out in the next week or so. In a couple weeks I’ll get myself on a new self inflicted program of some sort.

horse #100 quilty

And here’s the whole group, in sections unfortunately, due to the hugeness, but you can click on the images for a larger view.

And a really lousy little movie of the whole bunch, It’s pretty blurry and I think the sound is a little out of sync but here it is anyway. I love the youtube.

Technorati Tags: horses, youtube

I’ve been on fire all day, not sure why. Maybe because I had chocolate cake (really good chocolate cake) for breakfast or because I had no wisdom tooth (which has been a big distraction and bother lately) pain at all today or that I got a lovely package in the mail or all those things combined with what a perfect September day it was - for whatever reason I had an exceptional day. The package was from Lisa ( her fabric give-away) and I love it. It’s all great. I’m going to build a ship around the flowered piece on the left. Thanks very much Lisa, it’s perfect.

And I did finally finish my ship, The Carolina.

Because I am a banana here’s a grainy little movie of it in action. Not much happens it just spins around.

My friend, and until very recently neighbor, Craig up and moved to Egypt (for the next 9 months anyways) last week. I’m pleased to see that he took his little plaid friend ian with him. His priorities are obviously in order. This is ian on Zamalek Island on the Nile looking across to Cairo.

There will be a new ship tomorow, there should have been one today but I was a little bit of a slacker for no good reason. Here’s a little sail preview.

For Work In Progress Friday.

A little while ago I was in Cherry Valley Massachusetts, where I grew up, sorting through the mountain of childhood stuff that’s stored in my brothers attic. I found some things that I made as a kid, including this red ceramic thing

and some old craft magazines from the seventies. This is from McCall’s Needlework and Crafts 1973.

There’s some good stuff and some funny stuff in the magazines and I’ll post more soon.