Auction for Nepal.

In light of the devastation in Nepal from the destructive earthquakes, I have set up an auction on Ebay for this mixed media art piece. According to UNICEF, right now in Nepal there are 12 babies born every hour without basic healthcare. This means that 18,000 newborns and mothers will be at mortal risk over the next couple of months. As a mother, this is devastating and I want to do something.

Please consider bidding on this art piece or sharing the information with someone that may be interested. Every single dollar with be donated to UNICEF. Together we can help make a difference.

The skull pattern was generously donated by The Quilted Fish. If you would like to purchase it, please click here for more information.

XO

Quilt Alliance - Animals We Love

Every year the Quilt Alliance has a contest and auction to raise money for their nonprofit organization. They were established in 1993 with the intention of documenting, preserving and sharing the American quilting heritage. 

I have participated in their contest every year since I first discovered it in 2010. Creating a quilt based on their theme always invigorates me and brings me back into quilting. This year the theme was, "The Animals We Love." Recently we have frequently watched the Mexico themed movie, "Book of Life". After chatting with my husband, who is of Mexican ancestry, we came up with the idea of a sugar skull bull, a Muerto Toro.

I started the quilts with improvisational piecing of black and white fabric. I wanted the background to be neutral, but also have contrast to the bright colors that would be placed next.

Then I freehand cut the basic shape and large shaded areas of the bull face in bright, fanciful colors.

Once I was happy with the general layout, the large pieces were machine appliqued on with matching thread. Then I freehand cut the small applique accents to the bull face.

The background then became a little too quiet and I needed some color impact. I quickly drew out flying geese on a narrow strip of paper to foundation piece on.

That linear flying geese looked incredibly abrupt placed into the improved back. I did more chopping and moving so that it flowed better. The color shapes became representative of  fans cheering the Toro on in the ring. Since marigolds are traditional at Dia de los Muertos, there is a giant bloom on Toro and petals thrown from the crowd. It is now realized that Toro is no longer a fighting hero, but has fallen and moved into the next world.

All the small applique bits are hand embroidered on with perle cotton in unique touches.

Large Swarvoski beads are couched on to Toro's eye and falling tears.

Bright and in your face graffiti machine quilting covers his face and the crowd. 

The remaining background of black and white are lovingly hand quilted in big strokes with perle cotton.

I love Toro and was sad to see him off, but I hope he raises lots of money for the Quilt Alliance. And I maybe fully intending on buying him back at the auction!

I am entering this quilt and blog post into the Blogger's Quilt Festival on Amy's Creative Side. If this quilt is one that you love, please consider voting for it. XO

The Embroidery - Paperclay Doll

After finishing up a large list of January deadlines, I was able to have a bit of fun and finish this paperclay doll - The Embroidery.

She sits working on her heart embroidery..

The base is foam covered in clay and bits of a sewing pattern.

She is a sweet paperclay doll - approximately 5.5" tall.

I'm adding her to my Big Cartel and I think she is the perfect Valentine gift!
Have a Paperclay Valentine? Link up!

An Experiment With Plaster, Watercolors, Fabric and Embroidery.. Or Fresco Embroidery..

Ever since I dived into Plaster Studio: Mixed-Media Techniques for Painting, Casting and Carving, I've been experimenting with adding plaster to my repertoire. I have absolutely loved including plaster into my work, but I've been searching for ways to marry it with fabric. In the book there are a few projects that use it with burlap to create some beautiful pieces, but it wasn't quite me. I didn't want the fabric to simply be a substrate, I wanted it to breathe and have a relationship with the final piece. I have a number of ideas I want to explore with different fabrics and types of plaster (gesso, joint compound, plaster of paris, etc), but I'm so excited and I wanted to share my first piece with you.

This piece started with a single piece of linen and was frosted with a thin layer of joint compound. Once it set, I painted the background with a wash of watercolors. Then with perle cotton, I embroidered a primitive design of two homes. To add stability and color to the project, the piece was then deconstructed and hand sewn on to another piece of linen. Once it was secure, I free motioned it all together with a flannel batting and heavy canvas back.

It is delicate, simple and thoughtful. This piece is a gift and has a long story behind it.

It is the start to hopefully many more "fresco embroideries". I love the texture and fragility of it, though I hope I can find the right combination that will allow more detailed embroidery without impacting the plaster too much.

Be Brave - Embroidery

The other night while watching TV with my Hubby, I started to miss all my embroidery floss and decided to just create something on a piece of cream linen. Between all the Valentine's day items in the store and our nonstop Brave marathon while the girls were sick, I had arrows on the mind.

This is what I came up with. A quick little embroidery that my eldest daughter instantly fell in love with. Honestly I was hesitant to hand it over to her. I had wanted to do a patchwork bag or something similar to list on Etsy. But her birthday is just around the corner *and* it is a Brave theme. It was too perfect to ignore. I've decided to patchwork this bit into a birthday dress for her.

I am more than a happy to create this into a printable PDF embroidery pattern if there is any interest. Just drop me a comment if you would like it and I'll work it up.

WIPS this week

Near the end of last month it dawned on me that in the space of two weeks I had Baby's 2nd birthday, Sewing Summit, and a big Disney trip. All wonderful! Except I'm that crazy loon that thinks each event needs all kinds of handcrafted items. Gah!

So here are my WIPS for the week, note I have not even started on the Disney stuff ( don't mind me hyperventilating over here..)

For Sewing Summit.. I made my Weekender bag..

My zipped pouch for the swap and my nametag..

What's left? Well I have two days to finish a camera strap and some fun clothes. We'll see what is accomplished..

I've been slowly working on this quilt for a bit. Playing with string blocks and the idea of a deconstructed chevron. In the interest of time though this may end up being a runner or a quilt with *lots* of negative space..

Working on my next collage, which will actually be a series of sugar skulls. P.S. If the skull theme is not your taste, have no fears.. I'll be moving on to my next series in November ;o) I know it's not for everyone, but it is something I've wanted to play with for awhile now..

And lastly, working on completing my second table runner for the holidays made with circle appliques. The ornaments were fun and I love their whimsy.

Starting to wonder how many seasonal runners I will be able to design with just the circles!

What are you working on?

Beauty & the Beast - Part One (The Fun, Artsy Part)

Well if you are friends with me on Instagram, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Yup, I drank THE kool-aid, I made an Amy Butler Weekender bag. Let me preface that I did not originally intend to.. Okay, here's what happened..

I used to live in Arizona and that's where I was first introduced to the mega fabulous Crafty Chica. I fell in love with her style, her confidence, and her desire to inspire. She is such an amazing artist and inspirational, positive Latina role model for my two ankle biters. I have followed her success and am so happy to watch her make it national and with a craft line of her own.

This past month I had the opportunity to work with one of her craft products - flocked decals. Not boring ol' traditional puppies and teddy bears, but really awesome designs that you will want to go crazy with. And I went crazy all right!

I ironed on the flocked decals to white linen - I knew I wanted a canvas-ish base to work off of. For the sacred heart, I used watered down acrylic paints to bring it to life. You could of course use fabric paints or even the Crafty Chica's fabric pens!

For the muertos couple, I really wanted to enjoy some mixed media flavor.. lots of paint with lots of hand embroidery.

There is SO much embroidery that is hard to highlight in the pictures. If you are going to Sewing Summit in a few weeks, come get a closer look! The flocked decal was perfect for this mixed media project. It provided yummy texture and a fabulous base for painting.

Needless to say, quite a few hours went into working on the decals. I didn't want to just frame it, I wanted to enjoy this all the time. With Sewing Summit around the corner, I thought it would be fabulous to create The Weekender bag and include this as the highlight.

And I do have lots to say about the actual construction of the bag.. which I will give you later this week in Part Two.. Until then Click here to see if a Michaels store in your area is carrying the Crafty Chica line.

***

I received this complimentary product from CraftyChica.com as part of the Crafty Chica Design Team, 

 and was asked to share an original DIY project.

Bees and Things

I finally finished Feeling Stitchy's July challenge. I did the the bees twice; they were way scary in a pure black next to all the other subtle colors. Again, I ran to my Valdani thread colors - what can I say, I'm smitten with them! I'm pretty happy with Mrs. Bee, but I'm tempted to redo Mr. Bee for a third time..

This kitchen towel is part of a thank you gift for a friend that lives out of state. Utah (where I live) is the beehive state, so this seemed an appropriate gift. I'm going to fill a gift basket with a number of other Utah treats - chocolate truffles, Polygamy Porter microbrews, and more.

And I stayed up late quilting last night. What? Yeah, the Universe is pretty hilarious. It was really hard for me to confess yesterday about my lack of desire to design. Once I purged all my fears, I was flooded with ideas and couldn't wait to get back to it. More on that later..

I received a layer cake of polka dot fabric from my quilt guild last Thanksgiving. I was afraid if I placed it with my stash that it would be forgotten and never played with. I diced the fabric into squares and circles using my AccuQuilt Studio and Sizzix machine.

When I started playing with squares, it started to feel a lot like Tetris. I loved that game as diversion during my college years! Thought a rainbowific Tetris quilt would be fun. I thought for a minute that I must be clever and then it dawned on me that I wasn't probably the first to think of this. I found this fabulous Tetris quilt-a-long online over at Happy Quilting. I don't have enough squares to do the challenge, but it looks like great fun if you are interested.

I can't wait to finish this one up! I bought a Juki/Grace midarm earlier this month.. such a joy to me that deserves its own blog post later this week ;o)

Charlotte's Web - Embroidered Cover Art

I've been wanting to open Kiddo's literary world beyond picture books. Unfortunately she gets very antsy with chapter books and it doesn't make for an enjoyable evening for either of us. I thought I would try audio books since we seem to always been in the car. Fabulous! Not only do I get a break from the kid's music channel, but we all enjoy richly written classics. I adore "Charlotte's Web"! The descriptions are amazingly rich and the story is so tender.

Every time we would jump in the car, the beautiful cover illustrated by Garth Williams, always made me smile. I loved Fern's pensive expression and the pastoral scene. I wondered if I could create an embroidery that would do it justice. I thought that if it worked out, that I may create one for each my daughters every year.

I pretty much love it and hope you do too. It took me the better part of the last week and I ended up doing Fern's face twice (the first time she was more reminiscent of Samara from "The Ring"..eek!!)

The thread/floss? Lots of lots of my favorite Muddy Monet from Valdini, a few DMC, and the bright glistening white came from a brand called Artiste (new to me...a bit fiddly, but loved the sheen!)

The best part of it, is that Kiddo adores it. She's been watching it transform and is very eager to have it in her room. I'm not sure how I'll display it. Maybe just as a simple hoop art. I went through pains to make it serene, I really don't want to ruin that feel at the end.

I am going to be doing "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See" next for Baby. It's been a favorite board book of hers for months.. Embroidered book scenes.. pretty much the perfect art for this librarian!

And I promise to all my Instagram followers, this is the last of Charlotte that you will see! Want to follow my pictures on Instagram? I'm listed as "allthingsbelle" but of course..

Quick Gift Idea - Embroidered Hand Mirror & Pouch

I'm still working through my list of gifts that are long overdue. This week I dared to take both girls to Hobby Lobby, I know I'm a glutton for punishment. In the 10 minutes we survived there, I stumbled on to a stash of clearance hand mirrors. They had a garish picture that was falling off from old glue. I bought them all; a smoking deal for some "blank" hand mirrors..

I used the garish picture that was falling off as the template for the new and vastly improved focal art. I decided on some Blend fabric designed by Cori Dantini - "Beauty is You". I love the sweet, sassy girls and thought it would be perfect. I wanted to add some dimension without taking away from the fabric's beauty. Just some hand embroidered hair, accent french knots, and a tiny bit of pink to her lips.

With a bit of jewelry adhesive and a few minutes, I transformed the sad hand mirror into a lovely gift. After another 15 minutes or so I whipped up a coordinating cover for the mirror. A bit of sewn in hook & loop velcro will keep the pouch closed and tidy.

A sweet gift with handcrafted details that didn't take longer then a baby's nap!

Vintage Fruit Embroidery

I hope you are enjoying the embroidery kick I'm on right now; I found this pattern from Doe-C-Doe's blog.
I used Valdani's Muddy Monet perle cotton thread and really love the subtle variegation.

With all the embroidery I've been working on, I'm trying to find new ways to use it...there are only so many tea towels and throw pillows I desire. So this sweetness was sewn into a reusable snack pack for a friend. I searched high and low for some sweet fabric that would not compete with the embroidery.

What's next on the embroidery line up? Retro, Baby from Urban Threads. I took the words off though, they didn't quite work for me. And what's it going on? Yeah..I don't know yet =)

I'm loving embroidery and using it as accent on applique that I may even add some items to my Etsy shop. My poor shop is crying for some new fun things!

Puppy Heavens Are Full Of Cupcakes

A few of my most loved friends recently lost their furry babies. Around that same time, Bigfork Bay Cotton Company released "Party Pooper" - an adorable puppy pattern. It was serendipitous and I decided to buy it to make for my dear friends.

The first one is for my Bestie. I altered it just a bit and add lots of fun hand embroidery. I completed it as a mug rug- perfect size for a drink & cupcake. I hope when she uses it, she remembers the amazing life she gave her puppy.

Next week I'll be making the next one for another dear friend that lost her puppy a few weeks later. Maybe I'll make that one into a book cover.. we'll see.

So sad to lose so many furry friends this summer, but I'm sure in puppy heaven there are huge, yummy cupcakes for devouring.

Peek at the Sewing Machine Cover Tutorial

Tutorial & embroidery pattern coming this week!

Summer of Vintage Stitchy Love

I've recently started looking for more projects that I can do with just my hands; Baby is not allowed in the sewing studio since she became a mini tornado of energy. I'm working more with embroidery and love following Feeling Stitchy.

This summer they are hosting a contest with vintage patterns and we know it's hard for me to ignore a challenge. I whipped up this sweet design posted by doe*c*doe and did a little crayon tinting.

I hung it over my window pane panel for pictures, but just loved how sweet it looks up there on my mantle. I think I will need to make a few more towels for a full display.

Are you doing any embroidery this summer? Later this week I will be posting a free patriotic pattern, so be sure to come back!

Stitch - Fall 2012

Yay, I love posts when I can reveal a project! I designed these fun clothing dividers for Stitch magazine. They are easy, fun, and great for school age children.

Even in preschool, I would have daily battles with Kiddo over what outfit to wear that day. Now we decide on the clothes Sunday night and hang them by each day of the week.

Don't want to do embroidery? You could just do different colored fabrics and have fun with it.

I'm considering making this pattern an "in-the-hoop" machine embroidery project in a couple months. What do you think?

So Amazing, It's Scary

I have a love/hate relationship with horror movies. Now if we are talking Hitchcock, well, I love all of his work. He was a genius! I don't think there is a movie of his that I don't madly love. My all time favorite? Vertigo.. I could talk forever about all the psychology of love, loss, and obsession wound in that film. My next favorite? The Birds...

Then last month the fabulous embroidery site, Feeling Stitchy, featured the amazing art of Drop Dead Quirky . How incredible is this depiction of "The Shining"..

and then I had to see more, so I snooped on over to her Flickr page..and saw this...

I was in love. The way she captured the eerie tone with thread was beyond amazing.

And then, and then, and then...

I have no words. Well, actually I do. I told my husband I would marry that fiber art if I could. It's so amazing, I can't take it.

I've begun checking her Flickr site everyday to see if there is a new fabulously scary piece.

What piece do you think she should do next?
I was going to ask her to do the clown from "It", but didn't want to seem all pushy..
Like by magic, it was her next piece!!

How wicked is that?? I never really liked clowns...I'm pretty sure if I bought this, I would have to tuck it in the freezer each night so I wouldn't be afraid of it all night.

I'm just utterly amazed and inspired by her work..

I'll have to think some piece I could commission that wouldn't make me hide under the covers!

(P.S. These pictures are from her personal Flickr page, if you want to Pin - please credit Drop Dead Quirky. Thanks!)