One Direction Quilt Project: The Finale!

For those of you following the One Direction Quilt Project... it is complete! & it is currently on display at the Washington County Fair until Saturday, August 23, 2014 in the Domestic Arts building (#24). Congratulations to all the other participants & winners. For those of you who can't make it to the best fair in NY, here it is!

One Direction Quilt by Aprilsongstress on display at Washington County (NY) Fair August 18, 2014

Fiona can't wait to finally take possession of her quilt nearly 2 years in the making!

A special "Thank You" to my mom, Tamaris- Just-A-Duck & to Courtney at KC Custom Framing & Fabrics for pounding out an awesome long-arm quilt job while 9 months pregnant! You rock girl!

Close-up of hand embroidery & machine quilting

For those of you who are seeing this for the 1st time, check out my previous posts:
1.) 02/03/13
2.)  03/12/13
3.) 03/27/13
4.) 04/19/13
5.) 04/26/13
6.) 05/08/13
7.) 05/15/13
8.) 05/20/13


Happy Stitching!

Holy shhhh! It's August!

Wow! It's August. That means I need to get my stuff together for the Washington County Fair. Hoping for another ribbon or 2 this year. The One Direction Quilt Project should be wrapping up this month. I will keep you posted!

I have my first craft fair of the year coming up too! It is more artisan/ artist based & the organizers want us to focus on demonstrating our technique! Very exciting.

LocalFest event page on Facebook

LocalFest is in it's 3rd year & focuses things made here in the greater Glens Falls, NY area. I am thrilled to be a part of it this year. For the Facebook event page- CLICK HERE! There will be artists & artisans- selling & demonstrating, food, music, history talks, author readings, kids activities, performances, and more.

Check out what I'm making... Adirondack Guide, Noah John Rondeau lived in the Adirondack Mountains as a hermit for 37 years. A true individual, and self-educated man, he is just the sort of person I like to render in redwork embroidery.

Redwork of Noah John Rondeau

I hope you can stop by LocalFest at The Shirt Factory on September 6, 2014 & see me & all Glens Falls has to offer.

Happy Stitching,

Batman Imagined: Embroidered portrait for Batman Day

Did you know that Batman Day is July 23, 2014? Well, it is. & one of our local libraries decided to do something about it. Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls, NY has a bunch of cool events lined up for Wednesday. Checkout the schedule on their Facebook page HERE.

OK, so what does this have to do with me as an embroiderer? Glad you asked. The Folklife Center sponsored a Batman art contest called Batman Imagined. I decided to enter an embroidered portrait of a Batman character. I chose Batgirl (aka Barbara Gordon, Commissioner Gordon's daughter) because 1.) she's a woman & 2.) she's a librarian (just like me on both counts).


My co-worker Dan thought this image would be great for an embroidered portrait. So, Using my typical method, I figured out the best lines & created my pattern.

Batgirl embroidery pattern

Next up, tracing the pattern with plain ole pencil onto white cotton muslin.

Tracing Batgirl onto white cotton muslin with pencil

Once the embroidery was complete, I tired a different technique for framing in the hoop. Using a 14" embroidery hoop, I backed the embroidery with purple felt & placed the entire fabric sandwich into the hoop. I like the effect much better than my previous method, however the felt is a bit thick. Maybe I will use flannel next time.

Finished portrait off to the show

Here is Batgirl, Superhero Librarian on display with some of the other artwork submitted to Batman Imagined in the Folklife Center Gallery of the Crandall Public Library. I went to check it out today with my daughter & a friend. Apparently, my piece is rather popular with the librarians!

Batgirl, Superhero Librarian in Batman Imagined exhibition

I didn't do it for the art contest. I did it to have one of my pieces on display in the exhibition. Awards will be handed out on Wednesday during Batman Day. I wish I could go, but I have to be a superhero librarian at my own library that night. (I'll let you know if I win anything..)

Happy Stitching!

Reblogging things of interest...

I found a couple of things on Facebook that I thought some of you might also find interesting...

From Mastered blog. Find the entire article HERE.

There are always going to be people who don’t understand the amount of work you’ve done and one of the most important lessons I’ve learnt (and am still learning) is that if someone doesn’t see or respect the value of my work they’re not the right client for me

This is so true. I think we all could use a bit of thicker skin when it comes to our creative endeavors. I love my embroidered portraits & if I never sell another one, that's OK. I still love making them. I still envision new designs in my head. I'll just keep creating...


From Design Boom: matthew cox: embroidered x rays. Find the entire article HERE.

The above article is from 2011, but it is a fresh & interesting idea, even 3 years later. I definitely appreciate the creativity of embroidering on x-ray film. It's an intriguing compositional idea that I never would have thought of. 

 I've been thinking, & I believe my sistar is right. I need to create a website to showcase my work in a different way. Etsy has gotten so large, that it's difficult to be seen. If anyone has any suggestions on web hosting, please feel free to post in the comments.

Happy Stitching,

La Catrina for me!

So, I LOVE my La Catrina pattern so much, I decided to embroider it on something for myself. I bought this shirt at K-Mart & thought it would be a good candidate for my embroidered shirt. So much easier tracing this pattern out on white cotton, than the turquoise jeans from the charity project.

Pattern traced out on ready-made white shirt

This year I kind of got in to watching the FIFA World Cup. So that was my #MovieToStitchTo for most of this project.

Embroidering while watching the World Cup Quarter Finals

The wrong side of the embroidery

Oh, floss! I used black DMC #310, red DMC #321, & turquoise DMC #3846. I love how this came out. I want to wear it all the time. LOL

Me modeling the finished product

Happy stitching!

La Catrina for charity

My amazing older sistar, Emily Dolton, does fabulous murals & room make overs for kids with special needs in the San Diego, CA area through an organization called Cecily's Closet. They are currently working on a charity auction called “Style in Motion” to benefit the Rady Children’s Hospital Down Syndrome Clinic and DS Action on June 28, 2014. My mom & I decided to help out.

Calling all artists/ artisans

I believe they are still looking for artists & artisans to help out. If you are still interested check out the post on the Cecily's Closet  Facebook page.

Me as La Catrina

La Catrina is the beautifully dressed skeleton symbol of El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). My sistar thought she would be a good subject for me to embroider. Since I do portraits, I decided to use one of my own self portraits as a basis for the skull. I then added some of the typical elements, the spider web forehead, the flowers for eye sockets, the skeleton mouth...

Transferring the pattern onto the jeans

Because the aqua jeans were so thick, I had to score the pattern in order to transfer the pattern onto the pants. This process was a bit time consuming, but worth it in the end.

La Catrina pattern transferred on to the jeans

Final embroidered portrait of La Catrina

The jeans are a size 18W skinny jean by Lane Bryant in aqua. The embroidery is outline stitch in black cotton floss (DMC #310). The fundraiser is set for June 24, 2014.

Modeling the finished product

This is an original pattern. Please do not use without permission. Thank you.

Happy Stitching!

Happy 1st Birthday Alice!

My SIL & brother's first grandchild (well, only) turned 1 this week. They came up from New Orleans to celebrate that along with Father's Day, & my dad's 68th birthday.

I decided to embroider an adorable picture of Alice that her mother posted on Facebook. I copied the photo in black & white & then traced right on the copy. I did a mirror image & photocopied it at 150% to make the pattern larger.

Picture of Alice & the pattern I made

Let the embroidery begin

I decided to use purple  because it is one of my SIL's favorite colors! Below you can see the embroidered portrait compared to the original pic.

Picture vs. embroidered portrait

My mom made the embroidered portrait into a 11"x12"  pillow sham! I love it & so does my SIL.

Embroidered portrait of Alice Eating a Lollipop, 10 months

Happy Stitching!