Hillary and Amy are having a “cute-off” to inundate each other with cute (japanese) inspiration. They’ve been on a little hand carved stamp kick.

Now, this is cute:

The printmaker in me is itching to cut some stamps. I’ve got the carving tools and some speedball safety-cut, and now I want to find some fabric ink. I’ve got a project in mind…

UPDATE:
I drew little pictures and got all ready to make them into stamps, but I have no lino cutting tools. None. This printmaking major, the one who spent two years in the printmaking lab cutting things up to print them has no cutting tools in her newly reorganized art room. So back-tack buddy. This is a good idea after all!

I’ve had the idea for “quilt books” rattling around in my head for months now. There’s nothing like a good deadline to make me productive. I cut and quilted and bound and tore pages late into the night last night, and after enlisting Barry’s help to stamp tags and do finishing touches, we were able to slip into bed around midnight.

I toted my new creations to the Wool Gathering today. It was fun. I sat by some alpacas and a funny old man named Harry who was wearing a three-cornered hat while spinning on a spinning wheel. I chatted with friends and peddled my wares and had a quiet day spinning (and not chasing kids!).

Monday I will be photographer extraodrinaire and post my leftovers. Quilted sketch books for sale! Everyone needs a quilted sketchbook!

So, I thought I’d give my back tack buddy some ideas of what I’d like to try.

The one thing I’ve really wanted to do, but haven’t gotten around to, is making a Waldorf doll. This book looks good and there are kits at Magic Cabin.

Crewel looks fun too.

I really like to embroider, and doing it with wool would be even better than cotton, if you ask me. Here’s a new book about it.

And, I have never learned to crochet. I do need to crochet a flower or two to try to salvage my eaten clogs

Scrapbooking is also something I should get to and I have a very, very meager supply of scrapbooky things. Maybe having some cool things would inspire me to get working.

Anyway, I hope the person I’m gifting will drop some hints, because if she doesn’t she’ll be getting a spinning kit!