Progress on the Rubber Duckie Bathroom

It wasn't a pretty sight when I bought the house a year ago. In fact, truly creepy. I'll spare you the before pictures. The tile around the tub was too far gone to resuscitate. What looked like a problem turned into a great opportunity, so I discovered when I found those light aqua bubbly round glass tiles. Perfect!

Tub done, it was time to address the floor. Too many of the white hexagon tiles were goners, so off tile shopping. Why not make the floor bubbly wonderful too? Juan the tile guy and I played with it and came up with this configuration.

A few duckies have preceded the gang. (Old sink, new Toto.)

But boxes and boxes of duckies remain, waiting for shelves to be built. It's almost a rubber duckie bathroom!

She's SO CUTE!

I don't know when I have anticipated something as much as I did the notice I received from designer Martini Discovolante in Second Life that the first edition of my 3D virtual rubber duckie was ready for me to see and meet. Hum, how does it compare to getting that first copy of one's book from the publisher? Still a thrill even after 30 of them! Or when my Quilting Rubber Duckie arrived from China. My excitement must have to do with the plans I have for this duckie. And being visual, getting to see her and then become her makes that vision become clearer and boosts me on to the next step.

Isn't Martini's Dodo bird wonderful? When I saw him I knew I had found the designer for my rubber duckie. And what a sense of humor!

Martni is the Dodo in this picture, putting the Duckie into a box so she can give it to me.

And here I'm the Duckie!

Now this is CUTE! The Duckie is looking up at my friend Althea. (BlueRose Fairylady in Second Life.) Althea was with me in Second Life as Martini demonstrated and then gave me the Duckie to become myself.

Here Martini is the Duckie working out some issues and Althea (center) and I are watching.

Here we are, from Colorado, Oklahoma and Georgia all together, conversing, and working on a project in real time, visually. That is Second Life!

Back to playing with the Duckie,

(a green screen in Second Life is up next)

~Jodie

My Virtual Rubber Duckie Me!

Watch me, as my Jodie Davis avatar in Second Life, meet the first rendition of my new Rubber Duckie avatar in-world, in Second Life.

I met Second Life designer Martini Discovolante in the virtual world and commissioned her to create a 3D virtual Rubber Duckie avatar designed after the real life quilting Rubber Duckie I had made a few years ago.

In this video, first Martini demonstrates the duckie and then gives me the duckie to try myself. It's a strange feeling turning from human into a rubber duckie. Even my perspective changes. It's a different view from the floor! And I, er, waddle.

~Jodie

Dimples and Duckies Quilt

Ernie (the rubber duckie's #1 fan and my hero) has, of course, brought duckies to PBS for years on Sesame Street. As a quilter I brought duckies to the Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting set on PBS in the form of a rubber duckie quilt project. Does that bring me closer to my dream of meeting Ernie?

Here I am with Marianne Fons on the set. Marianne is such a joy!

(Note that the Oliso iron is appropriately yellow. It did NOT just happen to arrive home with me, though I was tempted.)

The duckie fabric is my own design. I created it in Corel Draw and then uploaded it to Spoonflower for printing. A week or so later a package arrived at my door and voila! my very own rubber duckie fabric!

The half square triangles are made from Andover's Dimples line. They so look like water!

I hand sttiched a simple running stitch with embroudery floss around the edges of the duckies.

Master quilter Mavis Rosbach of Quiltbird Studio worked her magic on my quilt with custom quilting which she designed on her Statler Stitcher and stitched with her Gammill long arm quilting machine. It sure came out cute!

Mavis stitched umbrellas over the half square triangles and galoshes in the border. And bubbles around the duckies–naturally!

The pattern is published in the 2009 issue of Baby Quilts. And you can buy a kit for the quilt, including the printed rubber duckie fabric panels.

Squeak!

~Jodie

Moonlighting Duckies

Here I am working away at my computer having a few Dove chocolates. I happened to notice that there is writing inside the wrappers. Sayings. The chocolate spin on fortune cookies I suppose. Can you believe that I'd notice this when I have this one in my hand?

Has to be the work of my duckies. I suspect the one on the left is the culprit! This one:

~Jodie

Hooray for Spoonflower!

I don't know when I have last been so excited. I arrived home from Des Moines to find the package I had been anticipating from an online company called Spoonflower. To say that I tore into it is an understatement.

But let me start at the beginning.

Several weeks ago I squeezed some time out of my day to use my Sunbonnet Sue Rubber Duckie designs to create designs to be printed on fabric. I had heard about Spoonflower over a month before, and was invited to participate in their beta stage. I simply had to try it. I've been using Corel Draw for years, so I created a design to fit yardage for duckie cheater cloth and possible border designs. My design spans an entire yard; most designs can be tiled, so you only need a small part of the design for the final yardage. (There's lots of helpful info on the Spoonflower site to explain all of this.)

I then logged into Spoonflower, uploaded the TIFF file I had saved in Corel Draw, and paid for my yardage. Two yards for $36 plus $3 shipping. A deal!

Isn't this amazing how it turned out? And best yet, it is printed on high quality 100% Kona® cotton from Robert Kaufman Fabrics.
To see other fabrics Spoonflower designers have created go to their Explore function and click your way through, or visit the Flickr site. I'm blown away by the designs I see! The idea is that someday we can buy other people's yardage.
Spoonflower changes everything. Designers are having their fabric designs printed and then are sewing the fabric up into true original pieces. I'm excited about what this means for books and patterns. Oh so Web 2.0, Spoonflower makes anyone a fabric designer. It's a beautiful world!

~Jodie

Rubber Duckie Applique Class

What fun to see my Sunbonnet Sue Rubber Duckies come to life!

I taught an invisible applique class at the inaugural Georgia Quilt Show a few weeks ago.

In just four hours most of my students had all but completed their blocks. Wow!

Nothing is better than the sound of a classroom full of humming sewing machines.

Now I'm super-excited about pitching a book to a publisher. The patterns were a great success. Duckie Fever!

Kimberly also took my Soup to Nuts Paper Piecing Class. A hat and eyes and this duckie is done.

My Quilting Rubber Duckie approves of this message.

~Jodie

P.S. You can get on the list to keep up on the duckie patterns by going to my web site and signing up for my newsletter. When I get time, I design new ones and make them available for free for a limited time.

Sunbonnet Sue Rubber Duckie in Invisible Applique

The Sunbonnet Sue Rubber Duckies are a blast to sew up!
In getting ready to teach a class in invisible applique, I'm stitching up the four blocks I've designed. I've enlarged them to double the size from those I designed for satin stitch applique. The larger size makes it easier to turn the edges under. Plus, the larger size makes a nice size block for many projects. In my book I think I'll offer both sizes. As I design them I'm offering them for you to try for free. Sign up for my newsletter and you'll know when new ones are available.
~Jodie

Artist Rubber Duckie Applique Pattern

The Sunbonnet Sue applique pattern collection is growing with a new character; an artist. She's all dressed up and has her palette of paints ready. Bet she paints great bubbles!

You can find this pattern at Jodie and Company.

~Jodie

A Quilted Rubber Duckie for Bernina

What do you make for the president of your favorite sewing machine company when you are off to Switzerland to film a show at his factory? A quilted rubber duckie of course!

The sign is a take off on Bernina's ad for their revolutionary machine with BSR: a stitch regulator for free motion sewing.
The waves are quilted, and she's swimming on white cotton pom poms.

So what was the reaction? "Is there meaning here, like lame duck?

~Jodie

P.S. We won a Telly award for the show! Members of QNNtv can watch the show here.