yesterday i finished my two altered ancestor pieces i was working on, as well as a new chunky page. the chunky swap is taking a break after 2 more mailings, which is sad, but probably good. i've got so many swaps i want to join or organize lately, 3 different atc ones, and being in two long running swaps like the chunky one and the ancestor one was making it kind of stressful. plus, i really need to concentrate a bit less on the altered art stuff, and do some sewing, because i'm really missing that.
plus, i realized the other day that i very rarely do just plain "crafting" anymore, everything's always specific - sewing, papercrafts, embroidery and crochet. sometimes it's fun to just haul out the spray paint and glue and glitter and just make something random! i played around with some shrinky dinks the other day - those things are so damn cool, i don't know how i forgot that! i bought the "big ass book of crafts" by mark montano and there are some kickass ideas in it, i need more time if i'm ever going to be able to do any of them!
tonight i needed to chill in front of the tv for a bit, and i don't have any specific embroidery projects on the go, so i hauled out my crochet hooks and a new book i bought a few months ago of creepy amigurumi patterns. after a bunch of mis starts, i have half a head done! i'd forgotten how hard tight crochet could be on my hands, and how confusing crochet patterns can be!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
chunky 4x4 pages and altered ancestor pieces
here's a chunky page from back in march! it went to australia though, so it took a while to post!
kind of a hodgepodge... i'm not sure what language the background is, but it's something middle eastern... and then i found the stamp from pakistan, and decided they went together. i like the varying colours of the metal, and i did the foil transfer with double sided tape, which i'd never tried before.
i like this random frame. it's not framing anything, but that's okay!
for someone who loves clocks and the imagery of time
i was really stuck on this one, because the recipient had commented on this page i made, and like it, but said she wanted colour... i knew i was going to do the clocks, and i ended up having a ton of ideas, but i couldn't decide which one to use. once i remembered the playing cards i'd bought with the clock gears on them, it all came together!
i tried to do a packing tape transfer with the playing cards, but that failed! it did allow me to scrap off the majority of the card though, so the circles on the front are much thinner than they were originally. and then i tried desperately to make the little embossed gold wings move, but that failed too, and i eventually gave up. i did leave them unglued, so if she's displaying the page on the wall or something where it won't be flattened against other pages, she can bend the wing edges up a little bit.
the backside is paint and ink and clock stamps overlaid with a contact sheet transfer of the "time" entry in a children's dictionary. the little clock came from alphastamps.com - i ordered it for this page, and then forgot all about it until the last minute!
i hope the clock pieces stayed okay in the fibers - they were so tiny, and the fibers were too chunky to really tie them around them, so i glued them on with glossy accents.
and for someone who appreciates sacred hearts as much as i do!
i'm SOOO in love with that heart! i finished it weeks before i got around to finishing the page, and it sat on my coffee table the whole time. everytime i saw it i had to pick it up and look at it! my family was getting soooo tired of me telling them how much i loved it!
i cut a heart shape out of cardboard, and then wrapped the red velvet around it, sewing across the back to stretch the velvet. the background is paint and this really cool acrylic medium with eensy little glass balls in it, very cool texture. i cut vague flames shapes out of chiffon and lining fabric and singed the edges, causing the fabric to curl into itself and become flame like, and then i tacked the flames onto the back of the heart. i glued the whole thing onto the backdrop with silicone sealant, since my dad has stolen and lost my goop AGAIN.
the word ART is stamped on the backs of asian game tiles of some sort, i liked the organic feel of them, and the fact that they're black. (duh!) i drilled holes in them to thread the wire through. i really love that wire too, it's got very subtle colour changes through it, but i didn't get to use enough for this piece for it to actually show.
i cut long strips of the flame fabrics and burned them as well, they're the fibers hanging off the side of the page, along with some black velvet rickrack, but you can't see how long they are.
and i've also joined a new swap called altered ancestors. we all e-mailed out photos of our ancestors, along with little bios, and every two weeks we make up a new art piece for someone in the swap. it's really neat, i didn't truly appreciate how difficult it can be to make art using a specific person - you feel as though there's such a need to be accurate! sure, that stamp of the eiffel tower might look cool... but did that person ever leave north america? it's been really fun though, and i'm working in a 6"x6" format, which is a nice change from the 4x4 size of the chunky page swap.
these were the first two pieces i did.
this is the swapper's grandmother, mom and uncle. her grandmother married at 15, and was widowed at 17, when she was 5 months pregnant with the uncle. her husband was 30 when he died of TB. hence the word "strong".
i've been DYING for a project to use one of these glass pieces in! they're exactly 4x4, so they don't work for chunky pages as easily - the edges are kinda sharp, so they need to be surrounded by something. i coated the sharp edges that aren't hidden with glossy accents, that shit works for everything! the base is super thick cardboard, painted dark brown, you can see it peering through the holes. the background is player piano paper, and i stamped it with punchinella and ink, using a make up sponge. that's partly why i'm so excited, i can NEVER get punchinella to work the way i want it to when i use paint, but ink works fabulous!
and the back
very simple. i don't even know if we're supposed to decorate the back or not, but i didn't want to leave it totally bare. the ribbon and the metal thing are positioned to help hold the glass in place. it's not actually glued, just held in by various pieces on the front and back. it's pretty secure.
and the second piece -
i was all worried that it wouldn't be as cool as the piece above, but i really like it. i LOVE the photo she sent me, it's of her great grandparents on their wedding day. they were polish immigrants, and the picture is about 90 years old. it has water damage on it, but i think that just adds to it!
i was in love with the bits of blue caused by the damage, so i went with a blue and brown page.
the background is a slightly mottled blue, then i stamped it with plastic lace and one of my nick bantok stamp pads. it didn't work as well as i wanted, so i added swirly stamps in another shade of the nick bantok inks, and one of the tim holtz ink pads (old photo, i think). the big swirls are grungeboard, in the polkadot pattern. i painted them the same shade as the edges of the base, matched to the backing paper, and then added ink (tim holtz old photo again). the photo is printed on transparency film, and there's a piece of cream cardstock behind it, and then an oval of white tracing paper between the people and the cardstock, because i didn't want them to be too yellow/creamy. the corners are pewter, stamped with staZon saddle brown, as is the charm at the bottom that says "cherish". the twill tape was stamped with staZon as well, the other shade of brown. i used glossy accents to glue the metal bits down, it works better than regular glue.
i'm working on my next two pieces tonight. i bought the book "collage discover workshop" by claudine hellmuth and i'm trying out some background techniques from it, but everything's taking FOREVER to dry!
kind of a hodgepodge... i'm not sure what language the background is, but it's something middle eastern... and then i found the stamp from pakistan, and decided they went together. i like the varying colours of the metal, and i did the foil transfer with double sided tape, which i'd never tried before.
i like this random frame. it's not framing anything, but that's okay!
for someone who loves clocks and the imagery of time
i was really stuck on this one, because the recipient had commented on this page i made, and like it, but said she wanted colour... i knew i was going to do the clocks, and i ended up having a ton of ideas, but i couldn't decide which one to use. once i remembered the playing cards i'd bought with the clock gears on them, it all came together!
i tried to do a packing tape transfer with the playing cards, but that failed! it did allow me to scrap off the majority of the card though, so the circles on the front are much thinner than they were originally. and then i tried desperately to make the little embossed gold wings move, but that failed too, and i eventually gave up. i did leave them unglued, so if she's displaying the page on the wall or something where it won't be flattened against other pages, she can bend the wing edges up a little bit.
the backside is paint and ink and clock stamps overlaid with a contact sheet transfer of the "time" entry in a children's dictionary. the little clock came from alphastamps.com - i ordered it for this page, and then forgot all about it until the last minute!
i hope the clock pieces stayed okay in the fibers - they were so tiny, and the fibers were too chunky to really tie them around them, so i glued them on with glossy accents.
and for someone who appreciates sacred hearts as much as i do!
i'm SOOO in love with that heart! i finished it weeks before i got around to finishing the page, and it sat on my coffee table the whole time. everytime i saw it i had to pick it up and look at it! my family was getting soooo tired of me telling them how much i loved it!
i cut a heart shape out of cardboard, and then wrapped the red velvet around it, sewing across the back to stretch the velvet. the background is paint and this really cool acrylic medium with eensy little glass balls in it, very cool texture. i cut vague flames shapes out of chiffon and lining fabric and singed the edges, causing the fabric to curl into itself and become flame like, and then i tacked the flames onto the back of the heart. i glued the whole thing onto the backdrop with silicone sealant, since my dad has stolen and lost my goop AGAIN.
the word ART is stamped on the backs of asian game tiles of some sort, i liked the organic feel of them, and the fact that they're black. (duh!) i drilled holes in them to thread the wire through. i really love that wire too, it's got very subtle colour changes through it, but i didn't get to use enough for this piece for it to actually show.
i cut long strips of the flame fabrics and burned them as well, they're the fibers hanging off the side of the page, along with some black velvet rickrack, but you can't see how long they are.
and i've also joined a new swap called altered ancestors. we all e-mailed out photos of our ancestors, along with little bios, and every two weeks we make up a new art piece for someone in the swap. it's really neat, i didn't truly appreciate how difficult it can be to make art using a specific person - you feel as though there's such a need to be accurate! sure, that stamp of the eiffel tower might look cool... but did that person ever leave north america? it's been really fun though, and i'm working in a 6"x6" format, which is a nice change from the 4x4 size of the chunky page swap.
these were the first two pieces i did.
this is the swapper's grandmother, mom and uncle. her grandmother married at 15, and was widowed at 17, when she was 5 months pregnant with the uncle. her husband was 30 when he died of TB. hence the word "strong".
i've been DYING for a project to use one of these glass pieces in! they're exactly 4x4, so they don't work for chunky pages as easily - the edges are kinda sharp, so they need to be surrounded by something. i coated the sharp edges that aren't hidden with glossy accents, that shit works for everything! the base is super thick cardboard, painted dark brown, you can see it peering through the holes. the background is player piano paper, and i stamped it with punchinella and ink, using a make up sponge. that's partly why i'm so excited, i can NEVER get punchinella to work the way i want it to when i use paint, but ink works fabulous!
and the back
very simple. i don't even know if we're supposed to decorate the back or not, but i didn't want to leave it totally bare. the ribbon and the metal thing are positioned to help hold the glass in place. it's not actually glued, just held in by various pieces on the front and back. it's pretty secure.
and the second piece -
i was all worried that it wouldn't be as cool as the piece above, but i really like it. i LOVE the photo she sent me, it's of her great grandparents on their wedding day. they were polish immigrants, and the picture is about 90 years old. it has water damage on it, but i think that just adds to it!
i was in love with the bits of blue caused by the damage, so i went with a blue and brown page.
the background is a slightly mottled blue, then i stamped it with plastic lace and one of my nick bantok stamp pads. it didn't work as well as i wanted, so i added swirly stamps in another shade of the nick bantok inks, and one of the tim holtz ink pads (old photo, i think). the big swirls are grungeboard, in the polkadot pattern. i painted them the same shade as the edges of the base, matched to the backing paper, and then added ink (tim holtz old photo again). the photo is printed on transparency film, and there's a piece of cream cardstock behind it, and then an oval of white tracing paper between the people and the cardstock, because i didn't want them to be too yellow/creamy. the corners are pewter, stamped with staZon saddle brown, as is the charm at the bottom that says "cherish". the twill tape was stamped with staZon as well, the other shade of brown. i used glossy accents to glue the metal bits down, it works better than regular glue.
i'm working on my next two pieces tonight. i bought the book "collage discover workshop" by claudine hellmuth and i'm trying out some background techniques from it, but everything's taking FOREVER to dry!
the last of the tip in pages!
this page was for the same person who received the nesting doll vinyl atc - i knew she loves nesting dolls as much as i do, so i couldn't resist making her tip in page themed around them as well!
the background is strips of a russian/german dictionary. i'm not super happy with the faces on the dolls... i think they look juvenile. the flash card in the upper right is russian/english. it flips up, so that you can see the definition "antique"
and the back, which i really like, because you can see the strips better, along with all the shades of brown.
this page came together really randomly, but i really like it. i painted the background, and then realized that i'd put too much texture in it, it would be hard to finish the page. so i started thinking about images that would flow with the texture, and would match the colours, and i remembered that the recipient loves mermaids. the mermaid is a vintage nude that i turned green, and her tail is vintage vinyl. and the letters were a fluke, i bought them the day before i made this page, with nothing planned for them.
the back is very simple. layers of green and blue paint, with a green design stamped on. i like it, though it does seem really simple. the thicker parts of the green paint weren't completely dry when i painted over with the blue, and the colours blended really nicely.
this page makes me really happy, even if it is rather simple... i LOVE the woman in the photo, i have a whole series of her saved, they're fabulous!
(i want to emboss EVERYTHING now! and i really hate my big bite crop-o-dile, it seriously screwed up those grommets... damn, stupid expensive piece of crap!)
(i love flocking too)
this one was an angel page for someone whose partner flaked part way through the swap
the little birdie is cut out of various shades of textured "handmade" style paper
the back paper is the same as the bird's wings, and i used a mask to leave the bird/branch image. i'm slightly obsessed with makeup sponges, they just work so well for things like this! i used makeup sponges on the page above as well, to tone down the paper on the back.
(THESE grommets look good because i used the smaller crop-o-dile!)
microfiche, with staZon ink (red, grey, white)
it says "check your numbers" in red on the microfiche and then it says "lucky" in white on the green piece. there are dark grey antique style glasses printed on the microfiche, and lots of red little numbers.
this was my very last tip in page, though i didn't realize it at the time. it's a rather fitting last page though, because i love it! i'm sad that the swap's over though... we've been doing it since october! i need to gather up all the pages i've received, finish my cover, and put my whole book together....
the background is strips of a russian/german dictionary. i'm not super happy with the faces on the dolls... i think they look juvenile. the flash card in the upper right is russian/english. it flips up, so that you can see the definition "antique"
and the back, which i really like, because you can see the strips better, along with all the shades of brown.
this page came together really randomly, but i really like it. i painted the background, and then realized that i'd put too much texture in it, it would be hard to finish the page. so i started thinking about images that would flow with the texture, and would match the colours, and i remembered that the recipient loves mermaids. the mermaid is a vintage nude that i turned green, and her tail is vintage vinyl. and the letters were a fluke, i bought them the day before i made this page, with nothing planned for them.
the back is very simple. layers of green and blue paint, with a green design stamped on. i like it, though it does seem really simple. the thicker parts of the green paint weren't completely dry when i painted over with the blue, and the colours blended really nicely.
this page makes me really happy, even if it is rather simple... i LOVE the woman in the photo, i have a whole series of her saved, they're fabulous!
(i want to emboss EVERYTHING now! and i really hate my big bite crop-o-dile, it seriously screwed up those grommets... damn, stupid expensive piece of crap!)
(i love flocking too)
this one was an angel page for someone whose partner flaked part way through the swap
the little birdie is cut out of various shades of textured "handmade" style paper
the back paper is the same as the bird's wings, and i used a mask to leave the bird/branch image. i'm slightly obsessed with makeup sponges, they just work so well for things like this! i used makeup sponges on the page above as well, to tone down the paper on the back.
(THESE grommets look good because i used the smaller crop-o-dile!)
microfiche, with staZon ink (red, grey, white)
it says "check your numbers" in red on the microfiche and then it says "lucky" in white on the green piece. there are dark grey antique style glasses printed on the microfiche, and lots of red little numbers.
this was my very last tip in page, though i didn't realize it at the time. it's a rather fitting last page though, because i love it! i'm sad that the swap's over though... we've been doing it since october! i need to gather up all the pages i've received, finish my cover, and put my whole book together....
embroidered atcs,
d is for day of the dead
from sublime stitching, though smaller to be atc size
e is for embroidery
i LOOOOVE this card. honestly, if i'd had time, i'd have made something else to send and kept it! i used so many diferent stitches - chevron stitch, double herringbone stitch, raised fishbone, crossed blanket stitch, mille fleur, chain stitch, open chain/ladder stitch, lazy daisy stitch, couching, french knots, pekinese stitch, fern stitch, running stitch, satin stitch and ramble rose stitch. 15 stitches! the E is copied from a dover book of decorative initials that i borrowed from my sister.
f is for fox
the image is from an old kid's colouring book, i found it on the doe-c-doe blog. i kinda wish i hadn't made the chest a diferent colour, but oh well, i don't have time to redo it. it photographed wierd - the cotton looks wavy, but it's not at all. odd.
that's the last of my recent embroidery projects, but there are lots of other stuff i still haven't posted! like papercraft stuff....
from sublime stitching, though smaller to be atc size
e is for embroidery
i LOOOOVE this card. honestly, if i'd had time, i'd have made something else to send and kept it! i used so many diferent stitches - chevron stitch, double herringbone stitch, raised fishbone, crossed blanket stitch, mille fleur, chain stitch, open chain/ladder stitch, lazy daisy stitch, couching, french knots, pekinese stitch, fern stitch, running stitch, satin stitch and ramble rose stitch. 15 stitches! the E is copied from a dover book of decorative initials that i borrowed from my sister.
f is for fox
the image is from an old kid's colouring book, i found it on the doe-c-doe blog. i kinda wish i hadn't made the chest a diferent colour, but oh well, i don't have time to redo it. it photographed wierd - the cotton looks wavy, but it's not at all. odd.
that's the last of my recent embroidery projects, but there are lots of other stuff i still haven't posted! like papercraft stuff....
more prego tops, pj pants and vinyl goodness!
updating finally!!
what a backlog i've got!
i'm going to split this into a couple of posts..
back in april i made a couple more prego tunics for my fabulous friend angie, who's having speckster in early august. speck's getting so big, i can't wait to see them in person, hopefully in july. i made her a pumpkin coloured one a few months ago.
angie wanted exposed seams this time, so the olive has exposed seams that are serged, and the red has exposed seams that are just trimmed (and i washed it once, so they'd roll nicely for the picture!) i didn't want them to be identical, so i added the bust detail on the red.
i hope the seams were exposed enough for her - i HAD to finish them at least a bit, i'm such a control freak! i'm terrible at that style because i need the details to be perfect! even for the red, with the unfinished edges, i ran them all through my unthreaded serger to trim them all evenly!
i also did a custom order for my friend dawn. she wanted one of my wristlets to give as a gift to her sister at her book launch.
her sister is a writer, and the second book in her series came out in april.
dawn left it pretty much up to me, the only stipulation being that the image be the logo from the series.
i ended up making two - one for the current book, with fabulous glitter vinyl, and then one using the logo from the first book, because i hadn't made a wristlet in that style since the owls ages ago, and the vampire smiley was an ideal image for it!
the blue glitter was a bit lighter than the actual logo, but dawn said it was okay - unfortunately, there's not as much colour selection in the glitter vinyl... it still looks awesome though!
it looks as if she liked them!
and since i was mailing her stuff anyway, i made a pair of quick and simple pj pants for dawn herself - i know flannelette season is ending, but i couldn't resist the fabric! dawn's a big fan of betty boop!
and also on the vinyl kick, this is a very simple card i made for my friends mark and pam after miranda and i stayed with them in portland in march. it's so simple, but i LOVE how it turned out!
the vinyl was stamped using black staZon ink, which is just about my favourite thing EVER! i love that shit! the stamp is incredible, it's from www.invokearts.com and i'm completely in love with it. after it was dry, i sewed the black lace along each side, and then sewed the whole thing onto the cardstock. i stamped the lettering on the inside using the staZon as well, even though pigment or water based inks would have worked as well, given that it was just cardstock, but the staZon makes such dark intense prints, i love it. oh, and the stamps used for the "thanks" were from martha stewart's halloween line at micheals last year.
mark and pam were with me when i bought a ridiculous amount of glitter vinyl in portland (see?)
and mark really loved the green glitter. and they were with me when i bought the stamp, at an awesome store called collage, and pam really liked it, so i decided to combine the two things they liked into a card!
(note my fabulous dreads made by Jane Doe that i'm wearing in the pic!
and that's the end of this update! i haven't even touched on the altered art and papercrafts stuff i've done in the last couple of months (that's really how long it's been, hasn't it? at least 6 weeks! i fail at this blog thing!)
what a backlog i've got!
i'm going to split this into a couple of posts..
back in april i made a couple more prego tunics for my fabulous friend angie, who's having speckster in early august. speck's getting so big, i can't wait to see them in person, hopefully in july. i made her a pumpkin coloured one a few months ago.
angie wanted exposed seams this time, so the olive has exposed seams that are serged, and the red has exposed seams that are just trimmed (and i washed it once, so they'd roll nicely for the picture!) i didn't want them to be identical, so i added the bust detail on the red.
i hope the seams were exposed enough for her - i HAD to finish them at least a bit, i'm such a control freak! i'm terrible at that style because i need the details to be perfect! even for the red, with the unfinished edges, i ran them all through my unthreaded serger to trim them all evenly!
i also did a custom order for my friend dawn. she wanted one of my wristlets to give as a gift to her sister at her book launch.
her sister is a writer, and the second book in her series came out in april.
dawn left it pretty much up to me, the only stipulation being that the image be the logo from the series.
i ended up making two - one for the current book, with fabulous glitter vinyl, and then one using the logo from the first book, because i hadn't made a wristlet in that style since the owls ages ago, and the vampire smiley was an ideal image for it!
the blue glitter was a bit lighter than the actual logo, but dawn said it was okay - unfortunately, there's not as much colour selection in the glitter vinyl... it still looks awesome though!
it looks as if she liked them!
and since i was mailing her stuff anyway, i made a pair of quick and simple pj pants for dawn herself - i know flannelette season is ending, but i couldn't resist the fabric! dawn's a big fan of betty boop!
and also on the vinyl kick, this is a very simple card i made for my friends mark and pam after miranda and i stayed with them in portland in march. it's so simple, but i LOVE how it turned out!
the vinyl was stamped using black staZon ink, which is just about my favourite thing EVER! i love that shit! the stamp is incredible, it's from www.invokearts.com and i'm completely in love with it. after it was dry, i sewed the black lace along each side, and then sewed the whole thing onto the cardstock. i stamped the lettering on the inside using the staZon as well, even though pigment or water based inks would have worked as well, given that it was just cardstock, but the staZon makes such dark intense prints, i love it. oh, and the stamps used for the "thanks" were from martha stewart's halloween line at micheals last year.
mark and pam were with me when i bought a ridiculous amount of glitter vinyl in portland (see?)
and mark really loved the green glitter. and they were with me when i bought the stamp, at an awesome store called collage, and pam really liked it, so i decided to combine the two things they liked into a card!
(note my fabulous dreads made by Jane Doe that i'm wearing in the pic!
and that's the end of this update! i haven't even touched on the altered art and papercrafts stuff i've done in the last couple of months (that's really how long it's been, hasn't it? at least 6 weeks! i fail at this blog thing!)
Saturday, May 10, 2008
embroidery embroidery embroidery!
hmm, it's been a while.
i still have lots of catch up stuff to post, and i've been terrible about updating with current crafty stuff.
i've been incredibly sick the last few weeks, for the last month or two actually, but the last 3 weeks have been the worst. i haven't been this sick since i was working, almost a year ago.
so i haven't been able to be on the computer very much, and i haven't gotten a lot of crafting done (i haven't sewn in over a month, it's so depressing!). right now i'm trying to get caught up on stuff at craftster.org, and then hopefully i'll be able to get caught up on here.
in the meantime, i will mention that lisa voltrath is doing another image countdown, this time for mother's day. it ends tomorrow, so check it out quick! the countdown is here.
and i'll also show you what i HAVE been able to do the last little while - embroidery! basically, all i've done is sleep, go to the dr, and sit on the couch embroidering.
i couldn't resist the julie west patterns from sublime stitching, so i did a few of those first.
i'm still irritated by the little drop on the left... but i refuse to rip it out! this one was so stressfull, because it's so symetrical - i ripped out half of it twice, i just couldn't get it!
but the other two were great!
then i couldn't decide on a design to embroider, so i went through my pattern folder and found these. they're designed by andrea zuill, and they're soooo cute! she offers a free embroidery pattern every month or so, and they're so great, i need to stitch them all!
first i did the love bear
he measures about 4" wide and 6.5" tall. he's so cute.
and then i embroidered the pegasus. it always bugs me when fantasy images are all pastels - shouldn't fantasy be bold? that's the whole idea of fantasy! so i decided that the pegasus should have bold hair..
the pegasus is about 6" wide, and 5.5" tall.
andrea zuill also sells embroidery patterns in her etsy shop, and they're fabulous. the gnome embroidery set is incredibly cute, but i LOVE LOVE LOVE the days of the week set! the day of the dead skull is awesome, the cats are also so cute, and the squirrel set is so cheeky (i love squirrels with attitude!) and the stag with flowers is great. actually, they're all great! and i'm determined to embroider the rabbit queen soon too!
after i stopped drooling over andrea zuill's designs, i went back to my pattern folder and found this one. i'm sure i saved it from flickr at some point, judging by the file name, but i have no clue what the link would be.
this is what the pattern itself looked like... i vetoed the deer at the last minute, mostly because i just wanted it to be done, but also because i didn't want to add brown to the piece, and couldn't decide what other colours would have worked!
i embroidered it about 10" tall and 6.5" wide. it took a lot longer than the others, but it turned out so pretty. i LOVE the shades of green stems all together done on chain stitch... so lovely.
i tried to add more variety in stitches than my usual chain stitch as well. this piece has backstitch, stem stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, french knots, lazy daisy/detached chain stitches, a mille fleur, and of course, chain stitches.
i finished a few piece today that are small in size, but fairly stitch heavy, but they're for a specific purpose, and therefore secret at the moment...
and that's it!
i still have lots of catch up stuff to post, and i've been terrible about updating with current crafty stuff.
i've been incredibly sick the last few weeks, for the last month or two actually, but the last 3 weeks have been the worst. i haven't been this sick since i was working, almost a year ago.
so i haven't been able to be on the computer very much, and i haven't gotten a lot of crafting done (i haven't sewn in over a month, it's so depressing!). right now i'm trying to get caught up on stuff at craftster.org, and then hopefully i'll be able to get caught up on here.
in the meantime, i will mention that lisa voltrath is doing another image countdown, this time for mother's day. it ends tomorrow, so check it out quick! the countdown is here.
and i'll also show you what i HAVE been able to do the last little while - embroidery! basically, all i've done is sleep, go to the dr, and sit on the couch embroidering.
i couldn't resist the julie west patterns from sublime stitching, so i did a few of those first.
i'm still irritated by the little drop on the left... but i refuse to rip it out! this one was so stressfull, because it's so symetrical - i ripped out half of it twice, i just couldn't get it!
but the other two were great!
then i couldn't decide on a design to embroider, so i went through my pattern folder and found these. they're designed by andrea zuill, and they're soooo cute! she offers a free embroidery pattern every month or so, and they're so great, i need to stitch them all!
first i did the love bear
he measures about 4" wide and 6.5" tall. he's so cute.
and then i embroidered the pegasus. it always bugs me when fantasy images are all pastels - shouldn't fantasy be bold? that's the whole idea of fantasy! so i decided that the pegasus should have bold hair..
the pegasus is about 6" wide, and 5.5" tall.
andrea zuill also sells embroidery patterns in her etsy shop, and they're fabulous. the gnome embroidery set is incredibly cute, but i LOVE LOVE LOVE the days of the week set! the day of the dead skull is awesome, the cats are also so cute, and the squirrel set is so cheeky (i love squirrels with attitude!) and the stag with flowers is great. actually, they're all great! and i'm determined to embroider the rabbit queen soon too!
after i stopped drooling over andrea zuill's designs, i went back to my pattern folder and found this one. i'm sure i saved it from flickr at some point, judging by the file name, but i have no clue what the link would be.
this is what the pattern itself looked like... i vetoed the deer at the last minute, mostly because i just wanted it to be done, but also because i didn't want to add brown to the piece, and couldn't decide what other colours would have worked!
i embroidered it about 10" tall and 6.5" wide. it took a lot longer than the others, but it turned out so pretty. i LOVE the shades of green stems all together done on chain stitch... so lovely.
i tried to add more variety in stitches than my usual chain stitch as well. this piece has backstitch, stem stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, french knots, lazy daisy/detached chain stitches, a mille fleur, and of course, chain stitches.
i finished a few piece today that are small in size, but fairly stitch heavy, but they're for a specific purpose, and therefore secret at the moment...
and that's it!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
