Twilight in Paris

In January there was a stitch-a-long on Instagram based on Jenny Hart's Sublime Stitching patterns. I hadn't realised how prolific the craft movement is on Instagram until then so thought it would be a good time to join in. Also, I've wanted to stitch the Sad Valentine pattern for a while now. It reminds me of the Twilight in Paris music video from the 80s cartoon Jem & The Holograms.... Yes, yes I'm a bit Jem obsessed lately.... sue me :-)

So I altered the pattern a bit, pulled out some funky pink and neon threads and stitched along:

I decided to frame it with a fabric wrapped hoop in neon pink, a very Jem colour! It now has pride of place on my wall above my framed Jem posted (see...obsessed!!)

If you want to see everyone else's Stitch-A-Long look up #sublimestitchingsal on Instagram for some stitchy goodness!

Women of Influence

Goodness! It has been a while since I posted but I have had so many projects, crafty and otherwise, on the go that I've got a bit behind. I've been working on family tree research, which has taken up quite a bit of my time and is very interesting. At some point I will have to share some of the best bits here. I have also been doing a little bit of stitching, the first piece of which I will share with you now.

My Women of Influence quilt square will be part of my Feminist Statement quilt.... when I finish it! It's one of those WIPs that goes on forever.... but I digress. Looking back at my childhood I have noticed many things that had shaped who I am today. Two of these things are She-Ra and Jem from Jem and the Holograms. Though both of these women are only cartoon characters I think they influenced my a lot - strong women who know what they want. She-Ra helps those in need and Jem has a fabulous wardrobe haha! So they both had to feature on my quilt. I wanted them to be on the same square as they are from the same era and the same media.

I've had the image of this square in my head and sketched out in my sketchbook for a while but finally got the chance to realise it now. I used a simple back stitch so the colours and the image itself were the main focus.

I used only three strands of thread at the most for the main outlines then striped down to one or two strands for the details and features. I'm always concerned about how facial features come out in my stitching but I think these came out ok.

This was a pretty simple embroidery piece but I think it will be one of my favourites in the quilt when it is completed!

More Jem embroidery to come!!!

Baking with Beer

Alongside this blog I just started a new one about my beer adventures. I started drinking beer in 2008 when I was handed a Samuel Adams Boston lager and realised that not all beers taste the same :-)

Since then I have made a hobby out of trying a local beer everywhere I go on my travels. It's pretty fun! I've also discovered that you can cook with beer... more specifically that you can BAKE with beer! An interesting concept to me. So the other day, for Yule, I tried out Blue Moon cupcakes. Blue Moon is a wheat beer made by the Coors company that is quite tasty and it made the cakes a bit more chewy than usual. Not bad!

You can check out my recipe on my beer blog A Woman's Brew here and let me know what you think!

Expanding....

Well, I've been a bit busy lately and haven't had chance to craft much. But now I'm home from my cruise ship and should have time to stitch and bake to my heart's content :-)

Until then here is a sneak peek of what I'm working on at the moment - I'm building a second section to my beer cap belt:

And here's a photo of how it currently looks:

More crafting soon!

SpiroHazard

The latest Phat Quarter Swap was themed around toys. I was very fortunate and got Olisa aka cocoaeyes as my swap partner. She made me a piece for the food swap so now it was my turn to return the favour!

I knew that Olisa loved hazard signs and wanted to include this in my piece. I then found out from her that she also loves Spirograph. I decided to create a take on the biohazard sign in a hoop for her, but instead of the biohazard symbol I would use a Spirograph pattern!

I found a pattern that I liked and centred it in a black triangle on a yellow background. I thought the Spirography design might take a while to stitch but the satin stitching of the triangle was actually a lot more time consuming - I always forget that about satin stitch before I start it!

I wrapped the hoop frame with some black fabric so the whole thing was a hazard sign and sent it off! I was really pleased with how this turned out and how much it was personalised for my recipient. I think Olisa really liked it too - right Olisa?!

Brand New Day

My piece finally arrived in New Zealand so I can share it with you!

I made this piece for my friend Jo because she donated the vintage linen doily I used for my dirty doily. We are both huge Joss Whedon fans so my piece is based on Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog.

My favourite line fro Dr. Horrible is in the song Brand New Day where he sings "and she may cry but her tears will dry when I give her the keys to a shiny new Australia"... and so here is Billy's gift to Penny - a shiny new Australia! With a heart shaped key and everything :-)

Work In Progress - Surprise!

I have actually had a little bit of time lately to get some stitching done and so have been working on a piece for a friend. Now, I can't show you the finished piece until it reaches her in New Zealand as it is a surprise, but I thought I'd give you a little sneak-peak :-)

Enjoy!