Cute Animal Week: AstroCat Completed!

AstroCat Complete!

Yay! Let's go to space! The cuteness is a pretty good payoff since I spent a lot longer than intended working on this (because of sewing machine hassles).


Owly!

For those of you who don't know, they debuted the Owly animated short at Comic-Con this week!

So far, it hasn't been leaked onto YouTube yet, but I'm sure we'll eventually get to see it! More info over at Owly creator, Andy Runton's blog

Cute Animal Week: There was Another Trouble!

My Nemesis

So, I know I keep taunting you with this "astrocat" business, but it's an unintentional tease! Yesterday, I spent three hours taking apart my sewing machine attempting to equalize the tension between the upper and lower thread. I was getting what people term "birdnesting" or "rat's nests".

It turns out the reason the upper thread tension wasn't working was because if you thread the machine when the presser foot is down the upper thread tension just won't work. This is not mentioned anywhere in the manual, but fortunately, the internet provided.

I did some maintenance while I was in there, and I won't even getting into the laughably unintelligible directions in the manual for where to oil.

THIS IS HAPPENING

In happier Leah Riley & Animal News - I gave Jason (the writer over at Indie Squid Kid and personal pal) my mixed media piece "Three Hearts Beat as One" for his birthday, and he made a whole post about it! Totally Airwolf!

Cute Animals: I'm having Troubles

Money Eating Trow

Sometimes, when I try to make cute things, they come out weird. Like that! I was just trying to use up some scrap fabric and voila! Some sort of money eating troll thing! Hooray!

Seriously, I'm going to concentrate on this cute thing and get back to you tomorrow.

In the meantime, you should click here and see a baby bear and baby lion hilarious interacting (from Korean tv). Thanks to Will for that link!

Cute or Weird

Platypenguin Outside Enjoying the Flowers


I attempted to make a stuffed animal from this sketch of mine. I'm not entirely sure how successful I was in terms of resemblance, or cuteness, but I like him anyway.

He's just a prototype, so he's mostly made from scraps (old sheets, a button that fell off of some pants). He really likes flowers, though. Poking his beak in them all the time, like he's a hummingbird instead of a platypenguin.


Tune back Tuesday or Wednesday for a Real Life AstroCat
(Well, real plush.)

Stuffed Animals & Weekend

SpaceCat Sketch: Where All Stuffed Animals Begin

After some intensive painting last week for a commissioned project (pictures soon), and then a painting party over the weekend (I forgot my camera - but Michelle had hers!), I'm ready to settle in and do some sewing! (Besides the commissioned piece, I'm working on a few other side projects. Secret projects! Not as exciting as these exclamation marks indicate!!!)

First off, I will be attempting to make a sweet skirt for this Friday's upcoming Clockwork Ball in Chapel Hill. The skirt will be my first attempt at making a proper piece of clothing, instead of an accessory (or altering) so it also falls into the "prototype" category as well. It's scary cutting into fabric you really like, already shaking off the feeling that you're just going to screw it up and waste... ok, just cut it.

Secondly, once my new fabric tags come in from BellaMental I'm going to be sewing together some new prototype stuffed animals. Including Ol' Spacecat that you see there.


Speaking of stuffed animals:
Jason and Ryn of Random Signal (I designed their sweet cephalopodic logo) just finished up the Great Random Signal Name Our RoombaTM Contest. The winner is Paul Fischer, of the Balticon Podcast, with his winning submission 3-Sweepio!

Paul's prize? A plush robot handmade by me! My robot is a prize for a robot namer!
P.S. Robots!

Studio Cleaning 2009: Mostly Done!

Northwest Wall of My Studio

After a few weeks of intense work, I think I'm done cleaning my studio for this year. I have a very satisfying box of stuff I'm getting rid of. Plus, I've created a few storage solutions that I'm pretty proud of. Of course, I have a few storage failures that I'll share with you, just so you know that I'm a human, and not a robot.

Storage Solutions!
Plush Animal & Robot Corral / Storage
(click on the image for instructions on how I made this)

I'm making more and more stuffed animals, as I think they're really cute, fun to design and... well, anyway, they were all over my studio. And when you spend a lot of time painting and other stuff, you can't risk your stuffed robots, kitties, platypenguins, or what-have-you getting ruined.

I wanted floating shelves, but I knew they'd have to have some sort of corral-like action to keep these top-heavy friends from flopping right out. Taking cues from various stuffed animal storage I've seen (like plate shelves) I decided to make these. They do what they're supposed to: cutely store the stuffed animals out of my way!


Embroidery Thread! Finally off the floor!

I know, it's not exciting or innovative to actually store your embroidery thread on the little winding cards, but it took a lot of episodes of "The Wire" for me to finish this, and the colors are just so pretty that I had to post a picture of it. Mmm, satisfying!


Storage Failures!
Ribbon Storage FAIL

I thought that ribbon and trim storage was a simple thing. I cut an old wire hanger and put all my ribbon on it, re-connected the cut with tape and hung it up! Hooray! Problem solved! Ten minutes later the tape popped and the beribboned metal hanger hit me in the head. Boo.

For the future, does anyone have any storage ideas for storing ribbon or trim? What about polycotton stuffing, where do you keep it?


I'll post some more of the goodies I've found that I want to get rid of - perhaps we'll have a giveaway! I still have a huge pile of paper to go through. Oh, and I guess I should post pictures of the other side of the room, just to prove there's not piles of stuff hiding over there (here's a secret - the piles are hiding in the hallway).

If you want to see more detailed photos of my studio, with tons of notes, head on over to my flickr photostream and check it out.