I heart cats

One of the best swaps I've done so far on Craftster has to be the I heart cats and/or dogs swap.  The gallery has been full of the most adorable items.

I had lots of fun crafting up items for my partner and best of alls he was really appreciative and liked them.

She mentioned her love of the lion and the lamb.  While I'm not religious, the cause of peace is powerful for me and so I wanted to try and do a hoop on this theme for her. 

I found the design as a silhouette online, and adapted it to make a blackwork cross stitch.  I like how it turned out, and my partner was thrilled.

Next I needlefelted a black cat with white face in a simple stout shape.  She was cute, but somehow needed more.  I tried adding the tail, which didn't help much.  I thought she might be a good pin cushion and then wondered about a more stable base.  Which led me to think of putting her in a mini cardboard box, because cats love boxes.  The box, with paisley tape and "cats <3 boxes" totally made it!

Looking for materials to make some coffee cup cuffs I came across some children's placemats in a kind of foamy rubber at the dollar store.  Turns out super easy to cut and paint, makes a great medium I will use for many things to come.  I carved a little kitty stamp and made these.

Finally, I tried a couple little kitty cross stitch pendants.  They would be better with smaller aida fabric but my hands and eyes don't work for finer mesh lol.

And a couple little cat artist trading cards for fun extras!

Robot treasures

I've been so busy indulging in my new addiction to craft swaps that I haven't posted many of the goodies I sent or received.

In my first swap I got an adorable purple monster cross stitch (see a few posts below), and then my second promised hoop never appeared.  My partner flaked.  But never fear the organizer, TroubleT, stepped in as an 'angel' in swap parlance, and made me a replacement hoop.  Best of all, she made a robot hoop!

I absolutely adore the starry background and felt robot.

Then in my second swap, the 'anything goes embroidery' swap, I once again struck gold and got another robot hoop!  This hoop is so adorable, the robot is riding an elephant (which it apparently helped escape from the zoo) against a city skyline.  'The Raging Sloth' did a fantastic job and this hoop even got posted on one of my favourite blogs, Mr. X Stitch.

Feminist Crafts Rock My World

Yesterday I ran across this post about a brilliant feminist project in the US, sending knit vaginas to Congressmen to support women's reproductive rights and control over our own bodies.  In the era of Republican/Conservative misogynistic attacks on women's rights it seems powerful to use humour and style to celebrate women's anatomy, and autonomy.

http://www.happyplace.com/14939/male-congressmen-now-being-inundated-with-knit-and-crocheted-vaginas

This crafty approach to feminist politics makes me laugh and my heart sing with joy.

But I don't knit.  So, I wondered about cross stitching a vagina ...

I mashed that idea up with an interest I have had in trying some 'blackwork,' the cross stitch technique of using stitch patterns other than solid x's to create texture.  Traditionally done in black thread, but I've seen it done with other colours.

Et voila!

A little arty, a little elegant, a little funny and a little sexy. 

A lot political.

Be vigilant, be unapologetic, stand up for women's rights and reproductive freedom.

Resistance is Futile

Next up in Swapland for me was the Anything Goes Needlework Swap.  I was given my partner's questionaire, with a variety of her interests, likes and dislikes, and pinterest link.

One thing she said she liked was mystical creatures, wizards and dragons and that sort of thing.  I love dragons so made that my first theme.  I had a serious, even scary looking, dragon in mind but some google image searches (which I never tire of) yielded a simple cartoon dragon drawing that I was really taken with.  I reached into my bag of vintage fabric samples and pulled out this striped and flowers piece.  I almost chickened out on the fabric, not sure if it would just look too goofy or busy, but in the end just went for it.

I modified the dragon to make him holding a flower and tried to make it similar to one from the fabric.

In the end I am in love with this piece and it was hard to let go of it.  The fabric rocks and the flower is adorable, if I do say so myself.

Definitely encouraging me to do more embroidery.

For a second piece I went back and forth on a few ideas.  I almost did a felted hoop of an iguana but in the end couldn't resist a geeky Star Trek cross stitch.  My partner said she loves the borg, and I thought a borg cross stitch could be just the thing.  I worked off a picture of Picard as Locutus.  My developing style is not to do completely solid coverage, and I didn't have two different grays so I decided to not stitch the skin but rather add a little bit of paint.

It was a good experiement and I think the paint works well.  The end result is cool but I feel like there's something magical missing, maybe the overall piece needed to be darker. Still, you will be assimilated. :)

My partner says she loves them both and agrees that geeky is the way to go with hooplas.

Cinema Swap

The month of swaps is in full swing! 

Did I mention that after I completed my first official craft swap through www.craftster.com I was instantly addicted and signed up for four consecutive swaps?  Well, true story.

First up, the "Golden Age of Cinema Swap."  My swap partner listed a few of her favourite movies and stars and I picked two for inspiration.

Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's is beautiful and iconic. 

I designed and stitched this hoop, mixing some embroidery and cross stitch techniques.  I like the simple elegrant graphic look of it (with just a dash of cute).

Next I decided I wanted to do a print of some kind, and was inspired by the gorgeous Vertigo poster for Hitchcock's classic film.

For a twist I thought the female figure should come to the fore in my version.
I made a linocut for the background, printed it in red, and then cut a stencil for the figure and painted it in black.

Here's the original poster to show my inspiration.

 

The whole package has arrived in Australia and I am anxiously awaiting my partner's creations.

My part of this swap was definitely fun and challenging.  I like that the swap structure pushes me to create things I would not normally think of or choose.

Now on to the next one!

fishy felty

I have been spreading the good word of crafting, and in particular have started a few friends off on the needlefelting adventure recently.  One friend turned out to be a genius at the felting and love it, even organized a party one saturday afternoon in February where we pulled others into the addictive stab stab stab of needlefelting.

I took the opportunity to work on a little piece that grew out of some curly blue roving I ordered online.  It said to me 'I am water.'  So I started with a watery background.  What goes with bright blue water? A fish of course!  Little yellow and orange fish emerged from the felting fiesta afternoon.

It needed something a little more to be finished, so I decided to paint a small canvas (from the pile of craft supplies cluttering up my kitchen) orange and yellow and spackled blue.

The colours make me happy.

Stitch Trooper

Craftorama led to cross stitch, which led to craftster, which led to 'hoops,' which led to embroidery.  After seeing some very adorable and also cool stitched up illustrations I had to try it.

First step, order some vintage fabrics from etsy, subtle backgrounds.  Then pick a design that's cool and incongruous with the background and medium.  Oh Star Wars, yes, that will do.

I started this once, abandoned my first messy stitches, and started again after a few youtube tutorials.

My stitches are still a bit wonky in places but overall ... success!  And I love how the black Stormtrooper helmet looks on the yellow flower background.