it's actually a laid back kinda dragon

the finished piece; stretched, framed, and hung. while working on this, i realized the many positive steps to be found in the making of a japanese embroidery piece versus the western style of embroidery. mostly that drum tight fabric, rice paste starched backing threads, and steaming while still in the frame create a wrinkle and dimple free finished piece. which, of course, this is not. but i like the dragon anyways. maybe i'll apply padding under the clouds, that will take care of the dimpling.

just a tiny glimpse

or not so tiny. here's a peek at what i've been working on the last few days. it's up and framed now, but it's too dark to photograph. i find that i really like embroidery, hand and machine.

repurpose

yes, another skirt. why never pants, you ask? too hard, i don't like them, and when i do they're jeans. but skirts, now those i adore! all the colors, prints, materials, details, lengths, waist band types, pockets, so many delicious things that make up a skirt.

i tried my hand at an elastic waist this time, and it is super comfy, and luckily a little easier to adjust with weight fluctuations. it's making me more aware of tucking in my shirt. and also realizing that most of my shirts are not the tucking in type. somehow i've been buying only loose fitting and flowy tops.

the nice thing about making ones own skirts is that you can add pockets. yum, nice deep pockets. and pockets that hide a fun print. also that you can make a-line and full skirts; especially because pear shapes look so marvelous in them. (it draws attention to the narrower waist, hides heavier hips and thighs, and shows the smaller part of the leg to advantage.)

i added a little button and ribbon detail to the back of the waistband, the color ties into the teal polka dot pockets. because this skirt is not lined i sewed the pockets with a french seam so there won't be any fraying.

in case any of you were wondering where the pretty grey linen material came from, it is apparently an antique crib blanket, with the initials j and a. though, looking at it, the j could be an f or a t. the openwork embroidery on the bottom is what drew my eye, along with the really beautiful silvery color of the linen. i'm really thrilled to be able to use this textile in a new way and to really appreciate the handwork of it as i wear it.

the influence of tv

over the summer i've been sporadically watching a show on tv called bones; it has quickly become one of my favorite programs. the lead characters are really wonderful to watch, the sexual tension between them is very nice to see unfurl over the course of seasons, all of the little changes and progressions. temperance bronner (aka bones) is amazing, i can completely connect with so many of her quirks. the other characters mesh so well into the whole storyline, creating a wonderfully complex and original show. it airs on thursday nights, which is good, as i needed a replacement for my name is earl, which was cancelled.

it's funny how watching a show or reading a book can start to influence your art. when i finished the front of my second wall panel i saw the back as a cross section of a city; with the bones of the dead below, hidden from all, and the living going about their lives in the buildings above.

quilting for the wall

exploring free motion sewing is very exciting; i can merge my two favorite arts, fabric manipulation and imagery. my schooling was in illustration, which sadly i have let fall by the wayside. but using the sewing machine i can draw again using fabric as the surface. this way i can further my use and love of textiles with my own renderings, my own signature.

i really like the linework and containment that patchwork provides, together with the softness, curviness, and free spirited stitches of the octopus. french knots have been one of my favorite embroidery stitches since taking classes in japanese embroidery where i learned a really easy and 99% accurate way of making them.

the lime is a linen material, the light blue is cotton, and the charcoal grey is a felted wool, each has a certain thickness and feel. i love incorporating tactileness in my work; you should be able to not only see, but feel. touch is very important to me, it's a sense that at times is lacking in our environment; human touch especially.

there are studies that have proven that human touch is essential to us, it creates a better balanced and receptive person, helps heal wounds and surgery sites quicker, and eases stress and pain. the human spirit and body become damaged when touch is withheld, it's one of the cruelest things you can do to a person. even if you are not comfortable having others touch you, it is imperative to reach out and touch a pet, animals, the earth, feathers, wool, living things. petting your cat, or dog, or pet lowers blood pressure and reduces pain, be it emotional, physical, or mental; this is an incredible thing!

i wanted the back of this piece to be interesting as well. i think it is just as important an area as the front; i love when pieces of jewellery, artwork, and clothing have creative things happening where you don't expect it. in the case of the octopus, i saw a constellation in the lines from the french knots, so i embroidered silver stars and wrote out the constellations name.

coral colors

i like the print and color combination of this pincushion a lot; even though it's not overly complicated in design, quite simple really. it features some of my favorite textile designers, heather ross with her mendocino line, and an australian artist that works in water based inks and organic hemp, umbrellaprints. the softness of this particular color is very soothing, and it's warm without being too bright.

this is the largest pincushion i've made to date; it's too large for my scale actually and so i haven't listed it yet. i had to move my pincushions from the drawer i was keeping them in as i ran out of room.

purses, pincushions, fabric, oh my!

i adore and am constantly being inspired by the creative work of australian artist tara badcock. her pieces are not only quite aesthetic, tactile, and gorgeous, but entirely useful as her talent takes the form of pincushions, tea cozies, purses, and pillows. her embroidery pieces are divine, excellently crafted and oftentimes bare a deeper meaning of complex social and world issues that affect her.
i've had a photo of a colorful and zany pincushion she created saved on my computer for quite some time, and finally decided to ask the artist if she still had it. luckily for me, she did, and we struck up a wonderful series of conversations. ultimately this led me to acquiring not one, but two of her lovely pieces! i was also able to feed my fabric stash with many soft and cozy cuts of wool from waverley woollen mills of australia.

as you can see, it wasn't long before meiko decided she was going to help me sort. actually, help may not be the right verb here; sabotage or hide may be more apt.

a small milestone

wow! i've made it past 100 posts. interesting; i wasn't sure that when i started this blog that i would stick with it, or even have all that much to say. i've surprised myself. well, happy me! i think this is deserving of a samoas cookie from my last box i've been saving.

i was initially going to post about my butterfly sonata pincushion, before i saw the post #. it's softer in hue from what i have been making. we have a butterfly bush outside my window and it is humongous! it's all covered in flowers now, and attracting quite a crowd of butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. the color scheme is inspired by that as well as the embroidery on the backside.

the brown spots fabric i have been saving for several years now. i kept thinking it would make really nice towels for the dollhouse bathroom, but unfortunately it's just too heavy to lay nicely. i may still use it as a bathmat if it looks okay. we'll see.
i know there hasn't been any updates about the dollhouse for a while now, there just really hasn't been any changes. i have a table in mind for the living room, but it's in charleston and i usually head up that way once or twice a year.
it's funny, now that all of the wallpapering is done, there just doesn't seem to be too much left unfinished. mostly small details and that gaping hole of emptiness in the living room where there'll be a dinette set. i'm still searching for the goods to finish that area.

rain, rain, go away

not that i don't love you, or see the great need of mother earth to have you, but it's been over a week and every day you've visited us. i miss waking up to the suns brightness, it's like my morning cup of caffeine; the day just doesn't go right without it. you've turned the road outside my door to mud, and that's just not fun to drive down. but you have been kind to my hair, giving waves where none usually reside. but still, enough is enough for now. please go away and come back next week, or the week after; my schedule's open then.

the above is my ode to strawberries, i'm calling it "strawberries from space pincushion". the printed fabric is just so quirky, it's like another planet, or a space capsule an herbivore civilization would make, all the circles and whirly gigs. i wanted fun bright colors that remind me of the sun setting on a hot arid day, and strawberries are definitely a sign of summer.

behind the lines

i'm at midstride on another pincushion, and being ever so slightly influenced by the strawberries i've been eating for the last two weeks. they are ever so yummy and red! i don't think i'll ever get tired of their taste, the glossy shine when you cut one open, the delicate linework and contrast of red into pink into white.
i would have been posting the newest pincushion at this moment, but i didn't have a particular shade of green in my thread collection. or much green thread at all for that matter. so, off to the quilting store i shall go tomorrow. before work. hopefully i will have enough daylight to see when i get home. and then i can photograph saturday morning. before work.

pincushion additions

i created another pincushion before work yesterday. i really enjoy blues and greens even though i have other colors to work with. i have to say that red is my least favorite color; but pinks and purples are very near the top of my favorite list. weird. maybe it has something to do with blood and raw meat. i get queasy when i see raw meat in the store.

this pincushion i called "algae bloom". the embroidery is reminiscent of kelp and sea plants and the greens remind me of algae against the watery blue. the olive velvet was a bit painful to work with, it kept moving even with pins in it. i think it has something to do with the length and fluidness of the velvet and its backing. so i had to hand sew it which was fine.

last week i made a pincushion from a variety of grays with a splash of icy blue and this lemony neon yellow silk. the color is just so luminescent and glowy. the herringbone wool and soft grays had me thinking "gramps" so i embroidered a mustache and pipe on the back side.

with every pincushion, i start by finding a fabric print that calls to me, and pair it with 7 - 10 pieces of harmonic fabrics. then i lay them out in a couple of patterns, put some fabrics aside, add others until i get a picture that i like. then cutting, piecing, sewing, and trimming. then i wait for an image or a word to pop into my head to embroider on the backside. i like doing some hand embroidery first, then some machine stitches. add a button tag, then assembly. the fun part.

purple haze

i love purple; be it named mauve, lavender, lilac, violet, heliotrope, or any other. from the softest shade of purple tinged gray to the most intense color found in orchids, it is truly lovely to mine eyes. this is my pincushion ode to such an amazing hue.

and then it was may

where did april go? to work, with only three days off. it's like the little piggies, one went off to market, one stayed home, etc. except this one decided to work two jobs for a little bit. eh, not complaining, it was an interesting change of pace. but definitely one that would be hard to maintain.

well, in those three days off and over bits and pieces of evenings and mornings, i managed to create. i've been sewing, embroidering, stuffing, and pouring; those are the parts that were easy. deciding on which fabrics to put together was a little harder. the fruits of my enjoyable labor are two pincushions. they're from swatches i've been hoarding, along with hand and machine embroidery, bamboo and organic cotton batting, and glass beads. i wanted them to be as eco-friendly as i could.

the stuffing took a moment to decide on. would it be best to use something organic in nature such as walnut shells, rice, or sawdust? no. all i could think of is the time we got a family of field mice in the sewing machine drawers; they ate and destroyed everything that wasn't metal. what would look tastier to a mouse than rice? so organic materials was out. how about sand? too fine, plus what if there were buggies waiting to hatch? i know you're supposed to bake it first, but, eh, no. some websites suggested fabric scraps, wool (for the lanolin), or fiber fill, but there just wouldn't be enough weight to them then. i like a heavy, dense cushion that i can really sink my pins into. another material mention i came across was emery. nice and weighty, sharpens pins, and is a traditional material you find in that little strawberry cushion that partners the tomato. great for way back yonder when pins were expensive, rusted and needed to be sharpened frequently. but now with modern machining, needles have a plating that protects them from rusting, and because of the steel they're now made of they also don't dull like they used to. so using emery would be a guaranteed way to destroy your pin collection and cause them to rust; it's just way too abrasive.

so all this thinking led me to ponder the beanie baby. you know, that toy craze from the 90's? what is actually in those things? well, short of hunting down my mother's massive collection and doing a dissection on one of them (she would not be pleased by this i'm sure), i searched google for a little bit and came across glass beads that one would use as toy filling. glass is ecologically sound, non active, not abrasive, won't hurt the land when the cushion decays (i hope), and won't aggravate anyone who has allergies. yay, problem solved, and the pincushions finally have some body to them!

pillows

the living room needed more orange in the pillow accents, there was a little bit too much pink going on. a floor cushion would work nice, and fill an area that was looking empty. using needlepoint on linen, i stitched out two different patterns on either side of the pillow; one side mostly a soft pink, and the other cubes. i also sewed together a simple orange silk pillow for the couch to replace a magenta one.

the ombre that felt.

so lately i've been playing around with boiled felt, and have discovered certain aspects of the process that are not so fun. one, dyed wool does not retain it's color when boiled for 20 minutes, but natural undyed wool survives the process just fine. two, there is a certain aroma that boiling wool exudes, something along the line of that hair you pull out of the bathtub drain once a month.
i love felt, it is extremely gratifying to create and the texture is lovely and bumpy and just so tactile. ombre is the mixing of lights and darks that blend into each other, sometimes monochromatic and at times multi hued. prada had a lot of ombre felt going on in their f/w 07 collection, it was gorgeous.
i've been planning a cover for my ipod so that it gets less scratches when thrown into my bag. not that it doesn't already have a nice case to protect the actual ipod, but i wanted something soft and colorful. through the blogging process i've run across several very nice felt covers, but i'm a girl of embellishment if nothing else, so none satisfied. but an ombre and embroidered cover? now that's something i could make. here are the results of my felting, sewing, and embroidering:

front, with doppelganger.

back.

front, detail.

back, detail, look at that cute little apple!

a dolly house remake

well, i've unpacked and put everything to right in the dollhouse. as i was going through furnishings i decided to change the layout a bit. there was also a couple of new additions to the place in the way of new furniture, plants, and groceries.

gourds and squash are all the rage in the dollhouse now, being as it's the fall season.


a new modernica chair, i repainted it an oatmeal color and darkened the legs.

the child's bedroom now has a nice bed i stole from the upstairs apartment.

i like this more colorful version of the hallway.

i even managed to make a rough noguchi lamp for the bedside.

for more images take a gander at my flickr page.