Pages-in-Waiting

Three finished pages just waiting to be paired up and bound into the fabric book.  Mostly playing around with patchwork and stitches.  I find cloth from the scrap pile, and they tell me what they want to happen.  Sometimes, they're not very articulate.

posted by: cat

Fabric Book WIPs

Two recent Works in Progress for fabric book.  Still working on making without overthinking things.  So hard!


posted by: cat 

Z's Pouch Bag

Or: The Innocuous Pouch Bag That Nearly Did Cat In.

Gods!  Everything just went wrong in the making of this pouch.  Such a simple thing, too: lined, with a loop-and-button closure.  This bag is evil.

This is hand-embroidered in stem-stitch from a drawing made by Z.

posted by: cat

Second Post for Summer-Craft-a-Week

Ok, we're lying liars who lie, 'coz it's been more than a week since the last challenge.  Whatever.  Here are the projects:

cat's Blue Patchwork

It's the first finished 'page' of a planned fabric book.  My take on Japanese boro.

m's flower rings (crocheted of course)

I've always wanted those giant star rings but I was too scared I'd poke my eye out with them.  Then I found a nice flower pattern and decided to try and turn it into a ring.  Viola.  Big yet harmless ring.  Washable too.

 

 And can also comes in rainbow colors.

posted by: cat & m

Abandoned Red Sampler

Poor, poor sampler.  It never turned out right.  What I don't understand is this urge to sew when I hated doing this when it was required in school.  




posted by: cat

Craft-a-Week Revival

It's back!  After mustering enough courage and will power we have decided we can revive the craft-a-week and we will post on or before our deadline!

The first Craft-a-Week for this summer.  The challenge was pretty simple: finish a damn project! 

Here are the results:

cat's Brown Fabric Box

Project started out as extra material from kids' jeans.  Got turned into a fabric container with lining and some chain-stitch detail.

m's Mini Dress-up Doll Keychain

Now you can bring your doll around with you and dress her up to match your bag too!  The extra dress didn't make the deadline though.  Boo.

posted by: cat & m

I Couldn't Help Myself!

Right after chatting with m about new projects and embroidering, I couldn't help but try out a name sample.  (Eh, the 'i' is missing the star dot.)

 Then I tried out this little character.  (The head is from an old Japanese embroidery book.)  This could maybe get turned into a pocket, or patched onto a bag?

Then I realized that I would need fusible webbing or something similar for the tiny cloth bits.  Coz eventually, that piece of cloth is gonna come apart, especially if it's going to be washed often.  And since there's no fusible webbing to be had in this country, I thought: paint!

Yes, I used fabric paint.  Yes, the misprint (color out of the lines) was intentional.  Yes, the design is another nephew Z original.    Yes, I'm assuming it's a bird.  No, I'm not sure if it's right side-up or whether it should be rotated 90 degrees to the right.

Yes, I will be doing more of this until: a) I get bored and do something else; or b) My tendinitis will make my wrist swell up like a sausage.

posted by: cat

Last Week...

Got creative block with my collages.  Sidetracked myself with embroidery instead.  (I think I'm starting to like the stem stitch.)  This one is of a drawing by nephew Z.  Bouy?  Boat?  Floating island with a tree on it?


posted by: cat

WIPs, or I Stayed up 'Til 2am Getting Crosseyed

Work-in-Progress from a few days ago.  Lettering using circus and carnival fonts.

I saw a picture of some woven reeds that looked so sculptural and I just liked them,  and the idea of them, so I made a quick sketch. 

 From there, I had the urge to use the design of the basket things by stitching it on paper.  The idea was to try and weave the threads in a similar manner as the sculptures.  Yeahhhh, no.  As you can see, I only managed to do it this way and this is as far as I got before I realized I was crazy.

More stitching on paper.  I also did some stuff with paint, but nobody needs to see those.

posted by: cat

Christmas Means Carnage!

What's the percentage of suicide amongst elves at this time of the year?

*SIGHHHH*

I'm trying to come up with seven playmats from old denims. The front parts look like this:

(Don't mind this first one; I made a mistake with the center seam

and the outline of the roads are too sharp.)

(This one looks better. Just started the stitching. Four more to goooo...)

And there's supposed to be a reverse side. Patchwork of sorts. Which is a whole new level of hell for me. There're no photos yet coz the patchwork part are still just pieces of cloth strewn all about the room. (Strewn, I tells ya! Like a cyclone went through a fabric store and dumped cloth bits here. Only messier.)

Wish me luck. And maybe some elves of my own.

posted by: cat

Getting Worse

I'm still trying out ideas I've seen online, like using the design on the cloth... (And, hey, the chain stitch looks like knitting, don't it?)

Looking for designs as well. Here's one found from a vintage book on Persian rug patterns. (Yes, it's sewn on card. Because I didn't have any red cloth suitable for embroidery. And no, I couldn't wait until I had a batch dyed.)

So, this sewing thing seems like it's gonna get worse before it gets gone. *sigh* Sometimes, getting obsessed sucks.

posted by: cat

Blackwork and Kinda Satin Stitch

Maybe if I give in to it, I'll get it out of my system? More stitchery experiments. Blackwork design on the right from kincavelkrosses.wordpress.com.

posted by: cat

Stitch and Bitch

My nephew kept bugging me that he wanted to "do sewing like you," and after 3 straight days, I finally caved. I figured it would be a good thing to unplug the boys and teach them a useful skill at the same time. Simple running stitches weren't challenging enough for the 8-year-old, so we ended up doing cross-stitch.

This is the 8-year-old's work. (I did the eyes and backstitch outline for him.) He's the one with good hand-eye coordination and refined motor skills, so: minimal supervision, and I've never seen him so concentrated on something that wasn't a computer game.

Which brings us to the 7-year-old's work. The one who kept bugging me to do this. His motor skills? Not so great. This is his unfinished, constantly re-worked, heavily supervised, done with much whining project. It's supposed to be a dinosaur, in case you can't tell. It's not cross-stitch, it's just half-cross stitch because having to add the extra step to make the X seemed to be beyond him. *palmface*

This is mine, from that drawing in the previous post. I started trying to cross-stitch those folk art birds and trees I'm obsessing over right now, but uh, my cross-stitching skills equal that of the 7-year-old. It brought back the horrors of grade school sewing class. *shudder* I might stick to embroidery instead.

Embroidery? Oh holy gods, I'm turning into my mother!!!!

posted by: cat