Embroidered Art for your home!

New embroidery pieces are for sale! These pieces are currently showing in the Sew True exhibit at South Lamar & Ben White Starbucks in Austin. I'm working on stocking my etsy shop with new items and restocks to help with a whole bunch of medical expenses that have hit me all at once, for both myself and my kitty. The latest is a set of tests I have to undergo that will run $800, so I'm trying to save and get on the road to getting healthy again!

I will be listing these on Etsy this week. In the meantime, for my lovely blog readers, an offer of a slightly discounted price. The special discount will be available for the rest of the week (through Friday night).

>Details: If you are interested in purchasing any of these pieces, send me an e-mail and I will send you a paypal invoice. It will be first come, first serve and I'll need to verify that it hasn't been purchased through Etsy, etc. first. I will include shipping in the invoice amount. If you live in the area, I'd be more than happy to arrange for you to pick it up instead. As I've mentioned, these are part of an exhibit currently showing until the end of June. Unless you need your piece before then, it will be shipped at the beginning of July. If you do need it earlier, please just e-mail me and we'll work out a time that will work for you!


"Open Heart" It's a 9x10" image in a black wooden 14x18" frame.
$175 > $160 for blog readers.


Here's me & Misty, to give you an idea of the size of the piece and how it looks in the frame


"The Secret Language of Hands" > 5 1/ x 13" image in a black, wooden 10 x 21" frame. Hands telling stories and deepening of mysteries of the universe.
$125 > $110 for blog readers


"Snip Snip!" Scissor Series > Embroidery Scissors. 4x8" image in an ornate, vintage-style black wooden 12x14" frame.
$40 > $35 for blog readers


"Snip Snip!" Scissor Series > Vintage Craft. 6 1/2 x 7 1/2" image in an ornate, vintage-style black wooden 12x14" frame.
$40 > $35 for blog readers


"Snip Snip!" Scissor Series > Embroidery Scissors. Approximately 3 x 8" image in a wooden oval 5 x 9 1/2" embroidery hoop frame.
$35 > $30 for blog readers

"Snip Snip!" Scissor Series > Stitchy Scissors. Approximately 3 x 8" image in a 5 x 9 1/2" faux boix rubber embroidery hoop frame.
$35 > $30 for blog readers

Scissor Love

I've been working on embroidering even more scissors (hair stylist, more vintage embroidery, diagram, etc.) and have hung up two more in the show still up at Starbucks. I will post the newest additions soon.

In the meantime, two scissor-related crafts that tickled me pink today.

Lauren Levy's show currently at D. Berman Gallery here in Austin, wonderful use of buttons! I just found out about this today and since it ends in a couple days, plan to check it out tomorrow.


And I love this demo display Rachel / Average Jane Crafter made for her embroidery classes and demos she's doing at Maker Faire San Francisco this weekend:

sweet!

science & craft

from Milly and Tilly

Embroidered for a menstrual cup pouch (like The Keeper or Diva cup - I'm a huge fan! "The chemical structure of a heme group. Heme B is the oxygen binding molecule found in hemoglobin, a major component of blood."

Urban Threads : when crafting is used for evil?

Various craft blogs and etsy among others have been posting the news about Urban Threads - a company who poses as an indie, crafty individual - ripping off designers and artists including Sublime Stitching. Feel Stitchy has a nice thorough piece with side by side comparisons that pretty much erase any doubt.

So I was especially disturbed when recently my embroidered embroidery scissor piece was favorited on flickr by Urban Threads. I'm sure they feel free to do whatever they want with any artwork that is out there but I did what I could think of which was to block UT on flickr.

It really makes me crazy and upset that this person/these people are out there continuing to do this crap, using the online communities we use for positive things like support of each other to troll for ideas. I'm not flattered, just disgusted.

announcing Sew True! a lovely stichy art show for you!

This is what I've been working on for the past few week and it is finally done!

you can see more images of the pieces here but I promise they are a lot better in person and worth the visit to see them if you can!

Birthday Advent Calendar Tutorial!

I made this for my friend Michelle / Secretly Crafty for her birthday. I was inspired by some of the incredibly creative advent calendars that were posted on craft blogs this past holiday. I gave it to her 8 days before her birthday so that she would have a gift to open every day until the big day. I wanted to give her an advent calendar that she could use afterwards for something like storage, organizing craft supplies, etc. Instead of using the person's name, you could also do "Crafty Gal" or "Super Fly" or whatever else is appropriate.

1. Cut the background piece: I used some IKEA fabric because that upholstery fabric is so nice and sturdy!

2. Stitch a hem around all sides:


3. Cut out the squares for the pockets. I like to estimate rather than use patterns, so I took the presents I planned to put into each pocket and cut the pocket allowing a couple extra inches for the seam and for the thickness of the object going into the pocket.

4. For the letters of her name, I sketched them freehand on felt using a fine sharpie marker and cut them out.

Obviously I like using a wild variety of patterns. I think this would look good with more complementary fabrics, or alternating polka dots with solids, etc.

5. Lay it all out, positioning your letters in the center of your squares, and pin the letters to the fabric.

6. You might be able to stitch the letters freehand; I found it easier to do with an embroidery hoop. I used bright colors of thread to contrast the color of the letter to show the stitching. I used regular embroidery thread (I think 2 strands).


7. Next, iron and pin the top hem of all the pocket squares (fold over and iron, then fold and iron again):

8. Sew the top hems of all the pockets:

9. Fold and iron the sides and bottom sides of all the pockets:

10. Lay all the squares out on your background piece, positioning them the way you want them and carefully tucking the ironed down sides and bottom in and under.

(you can see here that I actually didn't hem the outside of the background piece until all the pockets were done. You can do it either way, but the good thing about doing it at the beginning is that you will be able to accurately position the pockets on the background).

11. Pin all the pockets to the background:

12. I found it helpful to stabilize each piece by putting a pin in the middle of the square before pinning the outside edges:

Voila!
As you can tell, I didn't attach anything to hang it with. In these photos, I've used clothespins to attach it to my bookshelf. At Michelle's, we put some heavy books on the top edge to hold it up. I'd suggest sewing a loop of ribbon or bias tape on each top corner and in the middle to hang it on a wall on nails or hooks.

more embroidered cuckoos!

adorable, little tiny cuckoos, embroidered on cloth napkins!

spotted on the sweet blog Cider & Faun, Where Ada Likes to Wonder..., created by her friend Kathleen at The Little Nest.

Stitchy McGee

I'm in the midst of creating a set of new embroidery and other work for a solo show at the starbucks where I work. I'm totally in the stitching fever!

To keep some suspense and for effect when it's all done, I'm not going to post work-in-progress photos (but am documenting my process and will post at the end).

Instead, here are some bits to titillate and tease:

I put together this handy chart to help with color planning and remembering

cuckoo love

I love cuckoo clocks! I have a wall dedicated to cuckoo clocks and cuckoo themed crafts.

I designed and stitched this one for my friend Michelle, who loves cuckoos too, for her birthday; hence the M at the top and the time is actually her birth date.

detail

cuckoo wall


I would love to have a plush cuckoo clock! Here are my two favorites:

By Heidi Kenney / My Paper Crane


By one of my most favorite crafty ladies,
doe-c-doe


By Diane Koss / Cuteseybutnotcutesy

report from Acknowledge Me : 2008

On December 6, 2008, a bunch of artists, crafters, DIYers, musicians, activists, ... etc. gathered on a very cold night at the Mohawk.

Thank you Michelle and Johanna who helped me set up and take down, table, kept me company and entertained in the cold !

this guy bought some of my tiny art zines

this nice girl Lani (sp?) traded a wonderful bird screenprinted shirt for a little embroidered hedgehog of mine along with a little polka-dotted tooth plushy. Later, I ran into her at my favorite paper store in Austin, the Paper Place, where she works!

Laura picked out a house collage to take home