Stitch or Die

The Phat Quarter embroidery swap from Mr X Stitch moved for its latest instalment to the new stitching community Weave.

 

This time the theme was Beastiary - a book or tome that details mythical creatures. I instantly thought of a unicorn but I didn't want to do a pansy girly one - I wanted a shire horse inspired one!

 

I did this sketch on my iPad and really like the airbrushed quality so thought I'd have a go at that as well.

I played with airbrushing and couching on a tea stained background then outlined the image with a shield shape as unicorns are used in heraldry. I also added a Latin phrase to finish it off that translates to stitch or die!

My swap partner like it a lot and I like the new techniques I played with - maybe some more airbrushing in the future!

 

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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?!

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!

Tiger Feet!

It has been far too long since I posted a blog! I have been super busy at work and haven't had time to do any stitching, but the Phat Quarter had a swap so I just had to find time for that.

This time the theme was the 1970s and rather than go to my usual standby of a piece based on David Bowie I thought I would do something different. As a costumer, and a girl, I really love shoes and as a teenager I was really into 1970s platforms - the perfect subject for my piece!

After chatting with my swap partner, Juline, I based the colours on a story she told me. A combination of blue, orange, silver and purple seemed very 70s to me.

I found the border fabric in a quilt store in Seattle and thought it was perfect for this piece, incorporating the colours and almost a 1970s wallpaper feel.

Not a bad little effort in the time I had!

It's Springtime!

The most recent Phat Quarter swap was themed around Spring. When I heard this I thought of only one thing - Zebedee!

For those who don't know, Zebedee is a character from a children's tv show called The Magic Roundabout. It was on tv in the 60s and 70s but was repeated when I was a child. It was great and groovy and Zebedee was a jack-in-the-box.

I decided to produce a piece in a hoop frame. I've not done this before and I just got given a bunch of wooden hoops exactly for this purpose. I think it suited this piece quite well, in fact my mum liked it so much I have to make her one as well :-)

This is a bit more twee than my usual pieces but it's bright and cheery which is exactly what spring time should be about!

It's Not The End Of The World - Phat Quarter Swap

Continuing with the hearts theme this post, here is my latest swap piece for the Phat Quarter.

December had a fifth friday so that means a swap over at the Phat Quarter Flickr group. This time the theme was It's Not The End Of The World.... and my mind went to musical theatre! The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Tell Me On A Sunday has a song in it called exactly that. Apparently I'm a little bit obsessed with hearts at the moment so this image came to mind.

I wanted to experiment with using my own hand writing in a piece and to use a different stitch than usual. I went with a long and short stitch for the heart mixing metallic thread with regular thread to give it an interesting texture.

I quite like the way the writing came out. At first I thought it was too messy, but after I slept on it I think it puts across the emotion of this piece quite well.

In case you were wondering the background of this piece is rust dyed - it is one of my favourite techniques of late and meant that I finally got to use one of my pre-dyed backgrounds in a piece.

I like the simplicity of this piece but the weight of emotion that it brings. I think I need to investigate this interest in the heart shape as well and see where it takes me..... keep an eye on the blog to see!

No Food For You!

It's here! It's here! My swap piece from Cocoaeyes is finally here!! I got Cocoaeyes as my swap partner for the Phat Quarter Food Swap and my piece from her arrived this weekend. It was a total surprise - I thought it was a box of t-shirts and then I dipped my hand in to find a lovely stitchery!!!

Cocoaeyes is obsessed with hazard signs so stitched me one up as you can see above. Girl, you would be so inspired by my ship - there are warning signs and mandatory signs and hazard signs EVERYWHERE!! Here's a shot of it on my cabin wall next to our no smoking in bed hazard sign, just for fun!!

She also sent me a lovely card full of compliments which was very much appreciated - you rock Olisa!!

Check out Cocoaeyes' blog here at Stitch, Stab & Scrawl, I highly recommend it :-)

Phat Quarter Swap: Books

April had a fifth Friday, so you know what that means... a Phat Quarter swap! This time the theme was books. I had several ideas, some of which I might still do, but I decided to let my partner choose what I created. Mafiosagrrl chose Fairy Tales and so Into The Woods was born!

I decided to look at Little Red Riding hood. I had some fabric that reminded me of bark so after investigating illustrations from the book I decided to do a scene in the woods. I wanted the piece to be from the wolf's perspective but also wanted him to be in the frame.

I appliqued the fabric onto a white background, making Red and the wolf surrounded by ominous dark shapes. I used simple shapes for the trees and Red to give the piece a contemporary feel.

Red was filled in with satin stitch to make her a solid entity. I added in the wolf's snout with back stitch and coloured pencil at the bottom of the frame.

You can see more pieces from this swap on Flickr in the Phat Quarter here

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 :-)

OMG! The Horror!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2011 is treating you well so far!

I am currently on a new 10 day itinerary on my cruise ship which is a bit hectic and I'm also working hard on my Sketchbook Project. Photos of that coming soon!

I did realise however, that I haven't shared with you might latest Phat Quarter Swap Piece!!

The theme for the October swap was OMG! The Horror! Along the lines of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, you had to do a horror mash-up of sorts.... so I did this:

Jubileed!! Vampire showgirls! Jubilee is one of the longest running showgirl shows in Las Vegas, so why not have vampires in it??!!

I used this piece to practice my satin stitch the the sign. I also practiced mixing stitches and using beading on the showgirl. I really like the way it came out and so did my swap partner. I hope you like it too!!

Also, my piece was the first one in the post on Mr X Stitch about the swap - yay!!

Enter the Labyrinth

Last month I took part in another swap on the Flickr group Phat Quarter. This time the theme was movies and straight away I knew I needed to do a piece based on Labyrinth. Labyrinth is my favourite movie OF ALL TIME!! I love David Bowie and always have because of this movie. I even realised in my early 20s that my fashion sense had been influenced by Sarah, the lead female character!

Luckily, my swap partner Lisa's Tea Time was open to me doing whatever I wanted so here is the result. I wanted to experiment with crayon tinting in this piece so created the background using crayons. If you look really closely you can see the labyrinth within the background. The colours were inspired by the movie poster and the sepia tones used for the labyrinth in the movie.

I wanted to express the power of David Bowie's character in the movie, Jareth the Goblin King, so thought very hard about what the main image would be. I chose to do a simple embroidery of just his eyes and the well known shape of his hair. His eyes and hair are really what make Jareth so recognisable. I embroidered this in simple black back stitch. I then embroidered the title of the movie in the font used on all the imagery associated with the movie. I used a harmonious beige to fit with the sepia tones of the labyrinth background.

The piece is backed on beige felt so it can be framed or stand alone. I'm really pleased with how it came out. At first I felt that it might have been too simple, but I think the simplicity aids the impact of the image.

I think I might have to sew a variation of this for myself soon, I love it so much and I know Lisa loved it too :-) Here's the photo she took when she received it:

I ♥ swaps!!

Zen

This is an embroidery piece I made for the Phat Quarter swap on Flickr. I can now show you photos of it as my swap partner received it and loved it!!

I have just discovered shadow quilting and wanted to use layers in this piece. It is made of three layers – the bottom layer is white cotton with a beige spiral pattern based on Zen gardens made from patterned sand. I used a split stitch for this.

The middle layer is white crushed organdy that is shot with rainbow colours. This layer has the Buddha’s halo on it. I used whipped split stitch and whipped backstitch to give colour and texture to the piece.

The final layer is on blue tulle, which had widely spaced rhinestones attached to it. I arranged my Buddha around one of these rhinestones to represent his third eye. I used a simple, thin backstitch to represent the Buddha for good definition. I then sewed all three layers together with a blanket stitch around the edge. I wanted the piece to be self-contained but it could be framed as well.

I really like the way it came out. Vegkat, who got my piece took some great photos of it in the daylight – thanks love!

You can see more process photos of this piece on my Flickr photostream here