The "lady" process and 2014 gang!

Say "hi" to the 2014 ladies.  (Not many last year for some reason.  Probably because I was reading my head off instead of sewing like many of you thought I should be doing.  lol)

Above, from left to right we have:  Delia from the UK, Olga from Brazil, Margaret from the UK, Pat from the UK, and Beverly, Diane, and Judy all from the USA.

Every week I get inquiries about how to become one of my "ladies" so I thought I'd explain the process for any of you interested in the possibility.  All portraits are done on a commission basis.  I draw each lady from a photo provided by the client and retain my original drawing just in case the fabric portrait would become lost in the mail……..(let's not even discuss that!!!!  EIKES!!!)  My charge is $125 USD for US residents, and $140 USD for international clients.  This includes priority shipping for US residents and 1st class shipping for international and gets you an approximate 14" by 18" fabric likeness wall hanging with sleeve, dowel, and O ring, all ready to hang.  My turn around time is usually 1-2 weeks.  Payment can be made by check drawn on any US bank for US customers or Paypal for anyone, but not until you have discussed the job with me.

From the client, I require a front facing photograph sent to my e-mail address (listed on my sidebar), along with knowledge of eye color (since it's not sometimes apparent from the photo), knowledge of favorite colors, hobbies, likes and dislikes.  Sometimes ladies don't want pins in their mouth…or have other specific requests.  I once did a teacher who loved cupcakes, two art teachers who wanted art supplies on the portrait, and even two knitters……although quilters are my favorite, I must admit.  I also require the full name and address of where the finished portrait should be sent.  Sometimes I have two or three orders at the same time, and by getting addresses right away, I can keep everything straight.  (So far, I have not mailed the wrong quilt to the wrong lady, thankfully.  Yeah!!)

If you are interested in seeing all my "ladies", click on the colored picture of the buildings on my sidebar which will take you to my Flickr account.  From there, click on Albums, then click "The Ladies Series".  Scroll down and visit many of my ladies with themselves.  You can then click on each one, if you want to see it larger.  AND…..if you really want to waste time, you can visit my other albums too. lol.  I have sent portraits to Australia, Brazil, South Africa, The Netherlands, Spain, Norway, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and of course, many states in the USA.  Maybe some of my ladies will comment and let you know if they were pleased with themselves????

So, that's it.  I must interject here and tell Robin, Ana Marie, Lenetta and Ellyn that I will honor my quoted prices to you since we have recently e-mailed.  Thanks!  And for the rest of you……I would be honored to add you too to "The Ladies Series".  I was only going to make 100 ladies, and I'm on 73 now so who knows???  What number will you be?

A break in our saga for New Ladies.......

I've been a busy girl and have two new lovely ladies to introduce to you.  I hate to break up our Halloween saga, but Annie still has not received #8 envelope, nor 11, 12, 13 or #14 that I've sent, so who knows where they are?  I'm thinking some post office employees are getting the same entertainment out of them as we are, but I wish they'd get a move on so I can finish the story.  So, in the meantime, I thought you might like to meet Ladies #58 and #60.  There will be more!  #61 is flying home to Australia, and #59 and #62 are Christmas gifts and will be introduced in a few months.  

First off is Lynda.  Lynda is lady #58 and hails from the good old USA.

See the "real" Lynda below.  She was kind enough to allow the use of the original photo she sent to me.  Thank you, Lynda!

Next, we have lady #60, Deena.  I must admit that Deena was quite a challenge for me and I was so hoping I could do her justice.  It's not often that I do "young" women, and that alone is difficult.....but Deena was my very first African-American lady with Egyptian heritage.  She wanted her "portrait" to use in her booth for music festivals to promote her business and sent me "her" fabrics" to use for her shirt and binding, plus beads to add to her quilt to reflect who she is.  Thankfully, I did okay!  

And here are the photos that Deena sent me to use.  Once I was done, I almost had a heart attack thinking that I had made her hair the wrong length when I again looked at the first photo, but then realized that the dreads belonged to her friend and not her.  Whew!  Good thing she sent me two photos!  Thanks, Deena!

So there you have it!  Two more lovely ladies to add to the ever growing collection.  If you are thinking of having a fabric portrait done, here is the blog post showing the earlier ladies of 2013 and telling the procedure.  I'd LOVE to add YOU to the ever growing group too!

Now......say a little prayer that Annie gets her envelopes so we can continue the saga of Walter and his costumes.  Until then, have a great week...........

The "ladies" of 2013

I thought it would be fun to do a mosaic of the "ladies" of 2013 so far.  I was surprised that I did so many blonds.  Although you've met them all before, please say hello to:  Cathy, Maria #1, Dee, Silmara, Maria #2, Anita, Olga, Jan, Tammy, Paula, Charlotte, Sandi, Justyna, Stephanie, Dr. Sil, Alia, Jan, Mrs. Joy, Meg, Terry, Marilyn, Anita, Chris, Bea and Karen.



And that doesn't include #55 - Noel from Spain, #56 - Mari from Norway, and yet to be introduced (but flying to her owner) #57 - Bonnie from the US.

Every week I get inquiries about how to become one of my ladies so I thought I'd explain the process again for any of you thinking of the possibility.  All my ladies are done on a commission basis (unless I decide to be generous and do one for a swap like, #44 - Dr. Sil).  I draw each lady specifically from a photo provided by the client.  I retain the original drawing just in case the fabric portrait would become lost.  (Let's not even discuss that......eikes!!!)  My charge is $110 USD for US residents and $125 USD for international customers.  This includes shipping and gets you an approximate 14x18" fabric likeness wall hanging, with sleeve, dowel, and O ring, all ready to hang.  My turn around time is usually 1-2 weeks.  Payment can be made by a check drawn on any US bank for US customers or Paypal for anyone but not until you have discussed the job with me.

From the client, I require a front facing photograph sent to my e-mail address, along with knowledge of eye color (since it's sometimes not apparent from the photo), knowledge of favorite colors, hobbies, likes and dislikes.  Sometimes ladies don't want pins in their mouths.....or have other specific requests.  If you note above, I even did a teacher who loves cupcakes.  Her fabric portrait is hanging in her classroom and as she explained to me, one little student even wanted to know if it could talk.

So, there you have it!!  I am just about ready to start the Christmas orders.  Last year, I was working until the middle of December and it got to be a real hassle.  This year, I will be cutting off production the first week in December for US customers and the last week in November for international clients so that the portraits get delivered in time for Christmas.

So now only one questions remains...............what number lady will YOU be???

The most expensive lady yet......#33!

A week or so ago, a wonderful lady from Portugal, Ana, contacted me to do a fabric portrait of her dear friend from Brazil.  She and I discussed price, as is normal, and she asked that I send it registered so that she could track it with a number it once it was finished.  She said she'd pay the extra postage.  In all my ladies, and sending quilts all over the world, I have never had this request, so I was flabbergasted when I got to the post office and was informed that the package had to be in a brown box, or wrapped in brown paper, or brown tape in order to go registered.  E-gads...............what?  I buy boxes specifically to ship my "ladies" and they're white!  I write the address with a Sharpie so that it is permanent, and will not run, and I tape with clear tape over it so that it has no way to get lost.  (At least so far nothing has gotten lost.......knock on wood!  lol)  So.......now I'm standing there in the post office with a line behind me, wondering what to do. So the clerk informs me that I can send it EXPRESS and the white box will be fine and a number will be assigned.............so I'm happy as a clam until I hear the price...............$45.45.  (And this is for something that normally would be sent for about $15 BEFORE the rates went up this week.)  So I look behind me, see all the people staring at me to hurry up and agree to the exorbitant cost.

So when I got home, I immediately e-mailed Ana and tell her of my plight (and ignorance of the brown wrapping) and she (such a sweetie that she is) Paypal-ed me the extra $30.45.  The only good thing is that the package would arrive in 3-5 business days.  So we wait!  And we wait!  And we wait some more!  Now, it's well over a week and finally Ana hears that it made it to Lisbon ..........BUT.........it is hung up in customs.  (And the number that we were supposed to use to track it, only went as far as the US border!!!????  Hello!!!)  E-gads.....what's next?  So, poor Ana, contacts customs so that they don't wreck the quilt (since I pack it in such a way not to crease it), and we are both worried to death! Finally I hear from Ana that she has the quilt, but that customs demanded an additional 23% cost besides the cost I declared on the custom form even though I told them it was a gift.  This costs Ana approximately an additional $20 USD.  By now she is just ready to get the darn thing home, I'm sure!

So..........please let me introduce, Lady #33 (who has seen herself, but doesn't have it in hand yet), the lovely Silmara:







You can see her work on her blog:  http://quilters-studio.blogspot.com.br

I did get a picture of Maria with herself from last time that she wanted me to show you:



So that's it for today!  I wanted to mention that if you have questions about me doing a portrait of you or friend, please contact me through my e-mail address on my side bar, and not by your comments.  Many of you have no-reply blogger addresses and I can't get back to you.  I go into your blog, but you have no e-mail address listed either and I don't want you to think I am ignoring you.  More on costs next time.  I am working on #34 and #35 now and they are international.  I haven't mailed since the costs went up last week, so I'll let you know what I find out.  Until then, have a super weekend!

The "ladies" of 2012

The other day I decided to make a list of everything I sewed in 2012 and I was overwhelmed!  No wonder I never had time to even read a book!  I did have my favorites and in another post I'll recap some of those, but for now I must recap my marvelous bunch of 2012 ladies.  I enjoy making them sooo much that if I could, I would do this all the time and make nothing else...........(I'm thinking that it might get boring after awhile though, huh????)  No matter!  For now I am having a ball and for all of you who have employed my services for a fabric portrait, I thank you tons!!  Each one of you is very special to me!!!  XXXOOO!!!!  So.......bring on the drumroll......here are my 2012 ladies......numbers #20 through #29.



Presently, I am working on #30, #31, #32 and #33 (if you can believe???) and I am having a ball!  Believe it or not, one of them is not a sewer but had specific requests on what she wanted as embellishments on her quilt.  Just wait until you see it!!!  Such fun!  Just this week, I mailed out #30 and #31 and since they are outside of the US, it might be awhile until I can reveal them.  All in due time!

So, for now, I must get back to my "ladies".  I sure hope you enjoy them as much as I do.  If any of you are interested in commissioning a portrait for yourself, e-mail me at the address on my sideboard and we can talk.  I'd LOVE to add you to my 2013 group!

Ah......duh!!!

 As I promised in my last post, I must show you the items I received from my last two swaps.  First is the package I got from "mollyjolly" AKA - Maria in FLIPS (which stands for FAb Little Pincushion Swap:

Maria nailed me to a tee with such a gorgeous colorful mug rug (although it's almost doll quilt size) and the cutest little pincushion you ever saw!  I love both!  Thank you so much, Maria!

Then, (as if she and Maria were trading information), I got my "pick" quilt from "The Little Swap -Sew, Vote, Swap group.  This was made by, "Fun and Comfort Quilts" AKA as Karen.  It's another colorful beauty:

I just love rainbow anything I guess and always seem to gravitate to them!

Now I MUST show you the little surprise from the Post Office I received recently on an envelope that was returned to me for more postage.  This is the little "love note" that was on the back:

Well, duh.....what the heck does that mean???  Thankfully, my good buddy, Annie, enlightened me in record time.  Lately, I have almost exclusively been using 6x9" envelopes for my fun mail art.  As I prefer, I draw them in the portrait style rather than landscape.  Well......HELLO......IF you address them in the portrait style, it costs you another 20 cents because the machine can't read them that way!  How do you like that?  SO............if any of you requested an envelope and haven't gotten it, guess what?  In the beginning, all I was using was mostly ONE forever stamp of one kind or another.  Needless to say, I have had to change my artistry to now include two, unless I become creative enough to incorporate a 66 cent stamp of one kind of or another.  Duh!  I suppose I could draw and address the envelope the other way, but so far, I haven't.  Who knows why????  (Us creative people are so goofy....is there ever a good reason for anything???)  So, if you are viewing the following envelopes that have been sent and you want to do this too, don't think YOU can get away with one stamp either (although many of these photos were taken with one only)!!!  Oh no!!  Just FYI!!! So, here are the envelopes that have been sent since last time:

























Whew!!!!  The ones I sent to my dear great niece, Audrey, I will show you next time!  Incidentally, I'll have you know that with your requests, plus my normal mailings, I have sent out 35 fun envelopes within the past two weeks.  I could hardly keep up!!  Thankfully, I had some in reserve that I could use.  I hope I made you smile!!  Have a good day, my friends and keep drawing!!!

OH.........one more thing!  Lady #56 is flying her way home to Norway as I type!  Keep your fingers crossed that she gets there safely and you get to see her real soon.  She is a beauty!

Another full week…..

Lots of pictures this week….and YES, I am a day early!  Usually, I post on Saturday, but I have a full day tomorrow, so thought I'd do it today.  Hope that doesn't confuse you too much.  lol

First off we have (again) Lady #76….Barbara, the tea party lady, with a great photo of herself and her fabric portrait.  I LOVE it when my ladies take a picture with themselves!!  I smile for a week!!  Thank you so very much, Barbara!!  I LOVE it!  You both look marvelous!!!

And next, let me introduce you to Lady #75, Marilyn.  One of my former ladies, Robin, commissioned me to do her friend, Marilyn, as a gift.  Apparently, Robin hung the portrait in Marilyn's house so she saw it when she got home from being out of town.  How fun!  Love yourself, Marilyn, and enjoy your great gift from your BFF, Robin.

And here is the "real" Marilyn from the USA:

Next, I have to show you the swap quilt(s) I got from my partner.  Remember me telling you that I was in that swap?  Well, Pattiann out did herself.  Note the 4 Tobys!  Each of the quilts is 9x9 and she wanted to show them like Andy Warhol art!  Amazing!  Each quilt was made from 50 pieces of fused fabrics and must have taken her FOREVER!!  She made up the pattern from a photo that I had posted of Toby some time ago, (see below).  WOW!

Then, naturally, we have the envelopes I sent out this week to my girlies:

I have been reading too…..in fact, I have at least 4 new releases here that are from the library (after being on hold) that all came in at once yesterday (don't you hate when that happens???) so I have been reading like a mad woman!!  More about the books next time!  I think I'm up to 59 books I want to read on my Goodreads list now.  Yikes!

So, you all take care and enjoy your weekend and next week.  I'll be back on Valentine's Day (if not sooner).  Love ya!

#13 is all well and good!

Whew!  There for awhile I thought my #13 lady wouldn't make it.  It seemed like an age since I sent it, but it FINALLY arrived and now I may show you all.

The lovely Kat, from here (in Australia...thus the long postal trip) asked me to do a portrait of her.  She told me to do what I wanted, but there definitely had to be a butterfly somewhere on the quilt since it was her trademark.  Kat was the lady who was my swap partner in DQS10, so I got to know her pretty well.  She sent me three or four pictures, but the finished product is usually different.  (Probably since I don't quilt teeth.  LOL)



Note the hair difference.  When I first drew it, I thought her hair was shorter than it was so I had to lengthen it a bit...thus the double line.  (Perhaps I should have made it longer yet.  Although it probably grew while the quilt was traveling since it took almost a month for her to get.  :D)





And here's a picture of Kat with her quilt:



For sure you can see the resemblance, right?  Even though the real Kat doesn't have a butterfly in her own hair?

I do a have a few other ladies to make, but I'm taking a well deserved break from them for a week or so to recharge my batteries, so to speak.  I'm kinda "ladied" out and need a breather doing some other stuff for a bit.  (Don't worry all you who spoke to me about yourselves......I haven't forgotten you, really!!!)

In the meantime, I made these two blocks to go to a Flickr friend who is going through some wicked cancer treatments.  A bunch of us decided to send her blocks of a certain size and design so that she gets some "mail love" for a month or two, and when this horror in her life is over, she will have time to put them all together and remember all the love and prayers that were sent to her.





Can you tell that we're doing birds and windmills?  Duh!

Lastly, I joined this swap and I have been wracking my brain to come up with something marvelous.  Last year I went through the same crisis, so I'm thinking this might be it.  I hate it when something stresses me out to the point where I even dream about it.  Ornaments aren't as simple as you might think. (Especially when you're a high achiever, like me!)  UGH!  I did do a prototype of this mouse, but it needs tons of tweaking yet.  (Don't look at the messy stitching.  I didn't have any grey pearle cotton.)



Poor thing couldn't even stand on his own, although he is fully jointed.  I think I have it figured out though, so stay tuned.  This and other cute felt things will be my main project this week.  I am having such fun doing hand work for a change!  Perhaps I will even make more than my required 3.  Who knows?

Happy Mini Monday

Naturally I had to come with something super cute for my first mini swap, right?  Well, here he is....at 5 1/2 inch square, but with a nice O ring so he can be hung immediately in some sweet corner.

Now doesn't he just make you smile???? Have a happy day!!

Carol

3 Missing ladies plus more

Yeah, today you get to meet the missing ladies.  They were all commissioned some time ago, but were gifts so we had to wait.  First, is Delia from the UK (actually they're all from the UK, if you can believe, but I'm not sure they all know each other.  lol)  Delia is Lady #66

A friend of Delia's asked me to do her portrait as a gift.

Then, not long after, Ailsa wrote to me from Japan and asked me if I could do both her mother and aunt who were not sewers, but knitters and visiting her from the UK.  She wanted to surprise them. I had never done a knitter before, so I sort of "winged it", but she told me they were pleased.  First, meet Ailsa's Mom, Margaret…..Lady #68:

And here is Ailsa's Aunt Pat, lady #69:

And YES, I did knit that tiny earring!

Naturally, I sent out envelopes.  The bunny was sent too late for Easter, but the thought was still there.

Of course, I read some books this week too.  Believe it or not, three were from the library (although I still have stacks of soft covers here to read.  lol)

"Silence for the Dead"                           by                      Simone St. James
"Without Warning"                                by                      David Rosenfelt
"Vintage - a Novel"    (Debut)               by                      Susan Gloss
"The Good Luck of the Right Now"     by                      Matthew Quick

The last three were the best in their own right.  "Without Warning" was a thriller, "Vintage" was a contemporary and "The Good Luck of the Right Now" was laugh out loud funny and all three are available at your local library.  They're recent releases and all hardcover books.  I love reading different stuff!!!

So, that's the news!  I did sew this week too (if you can believe????)  I joined two swaps, and had time (for some reason) to browse through my favorites on flickr one evening which gave me tons of  inspiration.  Who knows, I just might start sewing like a mad woman again?????   Have a super week, my friends!!  AND….if you have time…..jump over to freeze-frame's blog on my side-bar and wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!  It's Monday!  Have a happy week, Annie!!!