18 posts tagged “embroidery”

These are my brother's Christmas present. Heh heh... oops.

paisley pillowcases

embroidered bandana wip 3

<-----I reached the halfway mark on my embroidered bandana.

night traffic 02/01/08 #2

I take a lot of blurry night traffic shots... I just really like light trails. When I drove I used to take them from inside the car; now I usually take them while I'm waiting for a bus.

visual diary #2

<----- I started a "visual diary". Nothing so fancy as a scrapbook, just a catalogue of the detritus I litter in my wake as I move through life.

City hall

I got an email from Schmap, they want to use my photo of City Hall in their updated San Francisco guide. That's funny: They're using one of my brother's photos for the New Orleans guide, and I'm pretty sure one of my aunt's for Austin. There's no money involved, just the glory of knowing a free online travel guide trawled flickr, decided my photo didn't suck, and appealed to my vanity enough to get a free photograph out of me.

flowered bandana wip 2

This same design repeats on all 4 sides, and there's a little flower in each corner. I may eventually add something in the middle, but I haven't made up my mind yet.

Saturday: First was the procurement of a Visa gift card. Those assclowns at LJ still haven't processed my money order, even though I mailed it a week and a half ago, and it was only going like 20 miles. Note to self: From now on only pay for paid account service with a Visa. Anyway, whenever they stop swilling vodka and eating potatoes long enough to do some work, I'll have a whole year's paid service.

Tiny tibetan jukebox

I bought a $25 card. 6 months of paid service + 6 months of 100 extra userpics = $21, so I bought a tiny jukebox that plays Tibetan Buddhist chants with the leftover $4. I remembered seeing it on BoingBoing last week and couldn't believe it was only $4. I suppose this violates my 6-month "No crap" moratorium, but what the hell. It's only $4 and it's small enough to fit on a keyring.

Then I went to Borders, because over the course of 2007 I racked up a lot of Rewards Dollahs (or whatever the hell they're called) and they needed to be spent before the end of this month. I'm currently reading Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Murder of Lord Darnley, but I'm getting a little burned out on British royal history so soon after reading Queen Isabella. So I picked up some fiction that's been on my list for a while: Nightwood, The Remains of the Day, and Snow Crash.

Cherry hardwood jounral

I also got a lovely journal with a hardwood cover, and some nice pens, a couple of Pilot Varsities and Pilot G-2 Minis. Pilots are the bomb. There's nothing like a really good pen, it's one of life's simple pleasures.

waiting for my bus

I took this photo while I was waiting for my bus to go home.

walk in's what?

Sunday: Nothing special, just the typical boring laundry, cooking, and cleaning. However, I did see and document this typical example of Newarkian fuckuppery. I swear to dog, it's like they rounded up every illiterate hillbilly in the Bay Area and herded them all into Newark, instead of shipping them to Arkansas where they clearly belong.

Monday: Cloverfield, baby! It was AWE. SOME. I actually gasped aloud at a few points. There isn't really anything new to do with the monster genre--it's pretty much flee, escape, hide; lather, rinse, repeat--but it was pretty damn scary and effective. I like that they used unknowns (I didn't know any of them anyway), because it made it seem like you really were watching a home movie. It's funny, but being able to see NYC get torn to pieces on screen without wincing is a return to normalcy of sorts: For the first few years after 9-11 I'd never have been able to watch that without getting ill, and I suspect I wouldn't be the only one.

I also saw the Iron Man trailer. While it doesn't look different or unique, in the context of comic book movies, I still really want to see it because I heart Robert Downey Jr.

Then afterwards I swung by Rasputin's and picked up Hary Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Bender's Big Score.

embroidered bandana wip 1

I haven't done any needlework since I got home from Louisiana. I've felt totally cruddy and just not inspired. I still feel cruddy, but I miss it, so yesterday I started a small embroidery project. I still have Christmas presents to finish, but I wasn't in the mood to work on something I HAD to do. So I used some of my transfers to start an embroidered bandana.

blue & green floral picture frame

It's a frame within a frame! 8 X 10 matting inside 11 X 14 frame, little frame inside is 2.5 X 3.5 and is sewed onto the design. The whole thing can be easily taken apart to put anything inside the little frame.

moleskine #1

Eyelet stitches, hot glued to the inside front cover.

Spam art

A while ago I saw a post on BoingBoing about an artist who turns spam into hand-lettered signs. I was inspired. I think if I ever get done with my Christmas presents, I'm going to do a palate-cleansing project of embroidered spam samplers. And maybe I'll finally have a reason to open an Etsy store. I've wanted to, but most of the stuff I make is someone else's design, and profiting from it is in a very gray area, legally.

So, to that end, I've stopped cleaning out my spam filter every morning. Yesterday I combed through 650+ messages, gleaning the most amusing subject lines. Of course, most of them are penis-related. That's just the nature of spam.

Say goodbye to your diseases!

The Perfect Package For Your Morning Cup

You won't need to furtively put socks into your trunks anymore!

Your girl doesn't admire to do it with you by reason of your instrument size.

Thank god it's scratch & win day.

As seen in german porn

Grow an anaconda out of your trouser snake!

Your number is up.

Our warm greetings!

300 doctors were hunted down to provide you with fresh Canadian pharmacy

Ever been drunk and get with the girl?

I'm making 3 handkerchiefs for Phil for Christmas, and I did nearly all of the stitching this weekend. I just have to finish one corner of the third one. I'm making each one with a design in 2 diagonal corners. You don't really want to be blowing your nose right on elaborate stitchwork, so they aren't supposed to be densely stitched.

I don't know if he'll ever actually use these. I can just see Mom yelling "You can't blow your nose on Sarah's needlework!!" and never taking them out of the drawer for him. Even though I've told her again and again I don't make stuff just to look pretty. If something has a purpose--pillowcase, handkerchief, dish towel--I make them expecting they'll be put to that use. Otherwise, what's the point?

handkerchief 1

The stitching on this one is a little loose, I think I had the fabric too taut in the hoop. But it will tighten up after a couple of washings, it always does.

handkerchief 2

handkerchief 3

This design is pretty fancy and it's mostly just for fun, I don't know if Phil will ever use it. He could, though; since the designs are just in the corners it's not like he'd be rubbing his nose on seed beads, which probably wouldn't be very comfortable. Especially if he had a cold.

butterfly pillowcases wip 2

I am going to finish this pillowcase before Thanksgiving if it kills me. I'm out of one color, hence the empty spots on a couple of the butterflies, so I have to get to the craft store. (Well, they all have empty spots, none of them are solidly filled in; but a couple of them have empty spots where there should be color.)

water lilies wip 6

The only thing left to do is the backstitching; however, that will have to wait until after the holidays. I decided to make a lot of my Christmas presents (again) this year, so I'm going to be working on that for the next several weeks. (And even then I might not finish everything; luckily my family members are used to being shown a halfway finished piece--or just a picture--and being told "You'll get that in March.)

butterfly pillowcases wip 1a

First up, a pair of pillowcases for my grandmother. When I'm done, I wash them, and the stamped pattern washes out, so all that's left is the thread. Satin stitch used to be one of my least favorite stitches, but I'm getting better (and faster) at it.

butterfly pillowcases wip 1b

The entire design.

I got 2 more pairs of pillowcases, one would be good for any of the girls in the family and one would be good for any of the guys--it's a paisley pattern in blue and green, so it's not girly. And I got a blank monk's cloth afghan, which I could use for pretty much anyone and let them pick out the pattern. And some embroidery transfers. One of them is a set of letters and I was thinking of making my step-father some monogrammed handkerchiefs, but the letters turned out to be too big for that, it would cover the entire handkerchief. I'll have think of something else to use them for. Any ideas?