Music makes the world go round...

We're taking a break from my Sketchbook pages this post so I can show you my latest swap piece!

The theme for the December Phat Quarter Swap was Music. Immediately I thought of David Bowie's Aladdin Sane album cover. I have wanted to experiment with pencil tinting in my work and the use of finer stitches, so this was the perfect opportunity.

I used no more than three strands of floss on this piece, and that was only for the metallic threads on the lightning bolt. The outlines were done using two strands and the hair and eyelashes used only one. I used backstitch, satin stitch and brick stitch on this piece. I like the simplicity of it and really liked the way the coloured pencils came out. I'm going to use this technique more in the future for sure!

Work In Progress Shots:

Pencil Tinting


One strand of floss for the eyelashes


Finished hair


Metallic threads for the lightning bolt


Satin stitch for the title

This piece went to Giggly Mama and I think she really liked it :-)

Show Me How You Burlesque!

While I was in Boston I had the chance to catch Burlesque, the new movie with Cher and Christina Aguilera.

As a big musicals fan, I loved this movie! My friend described it as a combination of Coyote Ugly and Chicago. Cher and Christina both sing their faces off and the soundtrack is super catchy. I particularly enjoyed the song that samples Marilyn Manson’s Beautiful People and Cher’s You Haven’t Seen The Last Of Me.

Think the costume designer used Dita Von Teese’s Burlesque sourcebook as his main inspiration for the look of the movie. To me, a bunch of the costumes seemed to be lifted right out of her wardrobe, just tweeked a little for Christina. That’s not to say they were bad, anything inspired by the delectable Dita is of course going to be wonderful.

I was glad that they kept the notion that Burlesque is not about being naked – it’s about the illusion of nakedness. I was concerned they would miss it out, but they didn’t.

Overall a very entertaining movie, great musical scenes and some awesome actors in here – go see it!

I Don't Wanna Be Friends... (Free Embroidery Pattern!)

Another quilt square finished! This one is based on a doodle I did during rehearsal one day. I thought it would work well with a Lady Gaga quote so added it in. I had to add Lady Gaga to my quilt as she is the representation of personal style and theatrical fashion... plus she's a woman who doesn't give a damn what you think!

I sketched out the pattern and added the wording in Photoshop. I wanted to use a variety of stitches on this piece. Backstitch would highlight the wording and outline of the flames nicely, but I needed something feathery for the wings and something stronger for the heart.

I decided to limit the colour palette to purple black and silver to harmonise with the background fabric. I used a whipped chain stitch for the heart and long and short stitch for the wing feathers. It was my first time doing long and short stitch and it was a little difficult within the shapes of the feathers, but I think it came out pretty well!!

To fill the flames I used seed stitch in purple metallic thread. I found Thread Heaven very useful with the metallic threads! My only deviation from the colour scheme was on the crown, which needed to be gold :-)

This piece came out exactly as I pictured it in my head. I had a little accident with it when my room steward (that's a ship thing!) managed to bleach some bits of it with cleaner.... luckily the fine pink speckles are only visible to me....

Gaga is going to make a great edition to my quilt - why don't you give it a go? I've turned to doodle into an embroidery pattern which you can find in my Flickr photostream here - enjoy!

Any Which Way You Can

I finished another embroidered square for my quilt! This one is based on a lyric from the Scissor Sisters song 'Any Which Way' off of their new album 'Night Work':

"I'm gonna find that man the right shade of bottle tan, who smells like cocoa butter and cash"

I really liked the statement, a woman can go find whatever man she wants, be it a millionaire or a nuclear physicist :-)

I decided that I wanted the bronzed torso of a man in sunglasses to be the image to go with this lyric. I used orange cotton for the background to emphasise the image of a 'bottle tan'. I embroidered the lyric in complimentary metallic blue thread.

I stayed quite simple with my stitches to emphasise the lines of the body. I used an off-kilter font for the lyric to add some personality to the speaker. Satin stitching the sunglasses was the most difficult part as I needed the thread to be thin enough that it didn't overwhelm the shape, but thick enough that it filled it. I think it came out pretty well! Let me know what you think...

On another embroidery note, my Phat Quarter swap piece from Vegkat came in the mail today!! It's a quote from Pee Wee's Big Adventure and I love it!! Thanks Vegkat!!!