Happy 40th Birthday to me!

Thursday was my 40th birthday! Today is my birthday party. When searching for a theme, my mom & I were trying to find something "me" & cheap. Enter my fabric stash!

Red toile canvas by Waverly

Using my plethora of red toile fabric & a bit of plastic sheeting, we covered all of the tables. 

Basic red toile cotton & Twizzlers

Two redwork portraits of me

Next, we used some of my redwork portraits & pinned them to the Irish lace curtains in the dining room.

Redwork portraits of Gavin DeGraw & Richard Marx

 Then we put out the scrapbook & my senior yearbook. The bulletin board is for book quotes the guests were asked to bring. My best friend is making the cake. I will post that later. Can't wait to see it.

Vintage redwork & portrait of Solomon Northup

Happy Stitching!

Tea Dye For: White & Black

Snow swirling off my back porch

Big snow storm on Wednesday, right? I get a notice on Facebook that my boss has a snow day. That means I don't have to drive over an hour (one way) to work (library). Now about my other job. Well, it's still snowing pretty hard, I can work from home. Daughter is still snug in her bed (her school announced a snow day the night before), so down I go to tell Mom. No where to be found. I throw on my boots & step out the back door to yell to her to stop shoveling...

She is wearing Dad's bright yellow coat & is FACE DOWN in the middle of the driveway. I run out there. She knows she broke her ankle (she was right- in 3 places). I go wake up Fiona, call 911, grab a garbage bag & head outside...

My aunt meets Mom at the hospital. I stay home with Fiona. Now what to do on an unexpected snow day while I wait to hear about Mom. (She had surgery on Thursday & is resting sorta comfy in her own bed.)

Whooped Fiona's butt on D.A.N.C.E. by Justice

Aside from playing the Wii, in which I trounced said daughter in 100 pin bowling, & more than 1 dance on Just Dance 2 & 3, I was able to do some more tea dyeing.

Youthberry & Wild Orange Blossom white tea

White napkins, table runner, & place mats ready for dye

Pouring the hot tea onto the napkins in a heat resistant bowl

Of course I needed to partake in a cuppa

place mats soaking up the white tea, citrus, & berries

Out of the tea, ready for the dryer

Before & after

After the linens came out of the dryer, I was pleased with the result, even if they came came out a bit more purple.

I decided to do the next batch, napkins & table runner, with a bitter black tea, that was a big dud a few tea parties ago.

Black tea ready for brewing

Pouring the tea over the table runner

Black tea dyed linens & white tea/citrus/berry dyed linens

Now to add some embroidery! I'm thinking some pink leaves with dark brown stems for the pink-ish linens. Maybe even some doodles. Not sure about the other. Suggestions?

Now that gifts have been handed out...

I can share some of the things I have been working on this holiday season! 1st up... Owl tea cozy for my friend Julie.

Julie is an adjunct English professor & she seemed very envious when my daughter, mother & I went on a trip to Massachusetts to see the mills at Lowell, the Minute Man at Lexington & Concord, the Wayside house museum, &, specifically, Orchard House in Concord. So, we decided that she & I would take a trip & see Orchard House & bash about Concord. We had a lovely tour of Louisa May Alcott's home, browsed through the Concord Museum, & bashed about the small village of Concord. In one shop, Julie found some adorable cookie cutters that screamed "buy me," & so she did. The owl tea cozy that caught her eye gave me an idea for the Christmas gift I will discuss here.

Fabric, embroidery floss, patterns ready to go

I found this adorable owl fabric at Joann Fabrics one day this fall while I was out shopping with my mom. I thought it would be perfect for the tea cozy, so I bough enough to complete 3 potential projects. Then I chose 3 of the owls & made embroidery patterns based on the designs on the fabric. I made them larger on a copier.

In process of embroidering the owl in orange

Julie and her tea cozy

 

My daughter decided that Julie should get the orange owl. The other two, one redwork, the other embroidered in turquoise, were made in to mug rugs!

Redwork owl is being stitched up

Completed redwork mug rug prior to washing

Having tea while embroidering with turquoise floss

Finished turquoise mug rug

I've created embroidery designs from the fabric I am using many times. For more on that click here.

One Direction quilt project- Harry

Finally... the last one. He happens to be the youngest member of One Direction, Harry Styles.

Harry singing into his mic

To add visual interest I chose this image of Harry. It is very different from the images of the other members. It feels more intimate.

Embroidery in process

After creating the pattern from the Sketch Guru image, & transferring  the image to the fabric, I began embroidering Harry using DMC floss #922. Below shows the finished block. The mic came out a bit wonky, but I love how his face & hair came out.

Finished block of Harry

Harry's name just above Liam's

Harry's lyrics in What Makes You Beautiful

Fiona chose this line because Harry flips his hair a lot & she thought it was ironic. (Love my kid!) I added the butterfly because Harry recently got a butterfly (more realistic, not this girly) tattoo on is abdomen.

With all of the embroidery complete, my mom started helping me on the construction of the quilt.

Cutting the All-Star sneaker fabric

To flank the larger top & bottom group blocks, Mom pieced strips of the various fabrics to create the blocks in all 4 corners.

Ironing the strip pieced blocks

Below is the quilt top laid out on my daughter's bed. Notice all the One Direction posters. (Mom did the colorful strip paint job on the walls last year.)

Pieced quilt top

We will use the rest of the fabric to go around the top, bottom, & sides making a full size quilt. Now we need to find some backing fabric, then take it over to our friends at KC Framing & Fabrics in Saratoga Springs, NY. Maybe we will find some great fabric on our trip to the UK this week. It is my daughter's first trip abroad & she is so excited!

I'll post about the One Direction Quilt Project again when it is finished!

One Direction quilt project- Zayn

If I were allowed to have a favorite member of British-Irish boy band One Direction, it would be Zayn Malik. He's very nice to look at, shy, & (as I stated before) has the best voice. You may ask why I am not allowed to have a fave? That would be my daughter, Fiona. In her opinion, I am too old to like One Direction! (But I do. There, I admit it.)

I digress... This post is about the embroidered pieces I created about Zayn. If you have been reading this blog you must be familiar with my process by now...

1.) Pick awesome image of your subject & save it. (check)

Zayn singing, showing off his swallowtail tattoo

 2.) Create pattern by tracing over a printed copy of said image, or use an app like SketchGuru. (check)

Pattern created and traced out on the fabric

 3.) Trace pattern onto the fabric you will be embroidering on. (check)

Embroidery in progress

4.) Begin embroidering with your floss of choice (in this case DMC #321). (check)

Finished embroidered block of Zayn Malik

 5.) Finish embroidering & iron. (check)

That's it. It is so simple!

Zayn and Niall's names written by me

 Again, I like to use my own handwriting when I letter. I like using cursive more because it feels more like a design, like art. Printing feels like work.

Lyrics Zayn sings in the song Moments

Fiona wanted me to embroider nearly all of the bridge that Zayn sings in "Moments", but that was too many words for Mommy's sanity. I shortened it.

Only one more "boy" left in the boy band. Stay tuned for... Harry!

One Direction quilt project- Louis

The One Direction Quilt Project is advancing quite well...Today I am featuring Louis Tomlinson!

Louis singing

In consultation with my very opinionated daughter (I have no idea where she gets that from!), we chose this image of Louis (twitter: @Louis_Tomlinson).

Creating the pattern

I used the app Sketch Guru again, then using a pencil, I traced out the line drawing/ pattern directly on the bamboo/ cotton fabric.

Embroidery in process

Breaking out my trusty hoop & needle, I got to work (outline stitch, of course). Fiona chose DMC floss #334. You can see the finished block below.

Finished block

Louis named embroidered on a group block

Above is Louis' name that I wrote out directly onto the fabric. I say, make it more personal & use your own handwriting, or create your own font to use.

Below, I used a modified font for the random uppercase letters & my own handwriting for the rest. Fiona chose the lyrics to be featured based on some of her favorite songs.

Lyrics Louis sings from the 1D song Nobody Compares

Stay tuned... Next up: Liam!

One Direction project for Fiona

While finishing up my Master's degree, I am also attempting my 1st quilt for my daughter. Fiona will be 12 soon & I would like to complete this project in time for her birthday. I have already shared some of the embroidery for this project... so I thought I would share some more.

Niall Horan is the only member of One Direction from Ireland. Fiona chose green as his color. Niall plays the guitar, so I chose an image of him playing.

Niall of One Direction playing guitar

 Again, I used the Sketch Guru app to help create my pattern. I am trying to get the best possible image for the creation of the pattern because I want the lads to look as real as possible. Light box & HB2 pencil were at my side to help transfer the pattern on to the fabric.

Let the embroidery begin.

 In case you are wondering, I am using DMC floss #904 for Niall. The fabric I am stitching on is a 200 thread count 50-50 Bamboo-Cotton blend. It is pleasant to work with and a little softer than Kona cotton.

Niall's guitar came out nice.

Borrowed mom's quilting tools to cut my fabric.

Stay tuned for more about this exciting project. I may actually put it all together myself.

Little Sistar present...

3 cousins circa 2005

This is based on a photograph I took of my nephews (brother's sons) & my daughter one Christmas at my brother's house. L-R Zachary (almost 6), Fiona (4.5), Schuyler (7). I usually just make a line drawing straight from the photograph, but in this case I had played with some software to create a coloring book type image. Don't ask me which one because I cannot remember, 7 years ago & all...

Below you can see I used my trusty light box & a #2 pencil to trace the image on 100% cotton- Kona. My little sistar has a rusty colored kitchen, so I used DMC Variations floss #69, my spring hoop & an I-have-no-idea-what-size needle. It was completed using only one stitch, outline.

Tracing image on Kona cotton

 

 

Embroidery in progress

The framing process

I put some Warm & Natural batting between the embroidered fabric and the mat board, then folded the fabric like an envelope using hot glue to secure the edges.

Below, I cut out a piece of acid free card stock (the kind used for scrap booking) & attached it to the outside of the frame using hot glue. I wrote a note on the back for my sistar using an acid free pen.

"TO: My amazingly talented little sistar! The best P.A.N.K.* my kid could ever have. Love Tisha (Ba-tricia) & Fiona 12/2012 aprilsongstress *Professional Aunt No Kids"

Backing with acid free paper

 The completed embroidery project ready for wrapping & shipping to Las Vegas, NV.

Project complete

P.S. She loved it!