Need more stitchy goodness!

Holy hell it's been a long time since I updated this blog. Child rearing is time consuming. And messy. And expensive. Also, antidepressants really sap the creative urge. That explains why all artists are crazy.

I have managed to squeak out another piece for my video game series, finally. I loved loved LOVED this game when I was in high school!! Thanks to new and awesome technology, we downloaded this on the Wii. It never gets old. I give you Toejam & Earl.

Sorry for the watermark, but in the age of Pinterest and people blatantly ripping off your work, it's a necessity.

So this is the second in a series on video games, except my Galaga piece sold at the county fair. So I need to make a new one! But before I do that, I have a couple of other projects to finish. So until their completion, I bid you adieu. Or tschus. :)

Bex vs. The Solicitors

This past year we've had a lot of people coming to the door to sell this and that. I hate getting stuck talking to them and a couple I've had to almost argue with to get them to realize NO means NO. NO also means GO AWAY. I've seen No Solicitation stickers on people's front doors and they look so unattractive. But I need something to get these sales people to stop coming to our home. So I decided to make something Bex style.

Here is what I made to advertise our "no solicitation" policy. I need to get an appropriate frame and hang it on the front door. The biggest problem with displaying this on my door is that the front of the house faces west. In the summer, the heat and light is very intense on that side of the house. It would only take one season for the fabric and threads to fade considerably. So I guess I'll keep it by the front door and if someone rings the bell, I'll just shove it in their face. Maybe bare my teeth too.

I hope you like it! I put it in my Etsy shop just in case anyone wants one. I'll make them to order instead of creating several to have on hand. Thanks for stopping by!

Galaga is here!

Finally! I worked like crazy on this piece and it turned out so well! The pattern took me days to fine tune and my gamer husband critiqued the details. Stitching took a while but it was worth it. What do you think? I am not sure what I'll do with it right now, but eventually it will be for sale. I'm already working on another gamer pattern so stay tuned!

Pups and bugs!

My friend's baby shower is over so I can post this!

This only took about two weeks for me to stitch on and off. My friend loves her Boston Terrier and she also recently added a bee hive to her property. I used three patterns to create this for her on a baby towel.

She is due a few weeks before I am so it has been really helpful to trade stories with her. It's nice to know someone else who is going through this along with me! I was really happy to be able to attend her shower and give her this personalized gift. Hope you all like it too!

Halloween stitches!

Wow it's been about a month and no posts! What have I been doing?

I decided to switch gears and get ready for fall, whether or not the weather would cooperate with my mood. Just as the heat wave broke I was able to finally put up two pieces that I think are really cute.

Both patterns are from The Stitcherhood and you can find her website here. Her designs are really cute and she has some free patterns there for Halloween, which is where I got these. I am thinking of buying some from her though because they are really fun and easy to put together.

I chose to put both of them on 14-count, oatmeal colored Aida fabric. The cemetery one I modified slightly from the original because I messed up some of the spacing in the design. I think it works though!

Now that the baby's room is painted, I can see how things will go on the wall. Next up is one more puppy to fill some space. I'm going to make this one to fit a 8 x 10 inch canvas and then flank it with the two 6 x 9 inch canvases.

I hope to make a bunting for one of the walls too but we'll see if I ever master my sewing machine!

Until next time, tschus.

Mish mash finished

I have a few things that I've finished FINALLY that I can share with you!

First the puppy is now stretched on canvas and has a loop attached for hanging. I plan on doing one more similar puppy to match.





The back of the canvas. I stitched and glued a pink gingham ribbon to hang it. This was super quick to make. The reason it took me so long to post this was because I didn't have a canvas on hand. I made the image 5 x7 on my printer and bought a 6 x 9 canvas so it would be just a bit bigger than my finished image.



This is my first baby onesie that I've stitched on. In fact, it's the first tshirt material I've ever used. The stabilizer and patterns are from Sublime Stitching. It's a little plain; no embellishments.



And this dragonfly was a pattern I obtained from About.com! The lovely Connie G. asked for some stitchers to do some of her patterns and this is the first one I chose to do. I added a fourth color to play with the wings a little. I'll hang this in the baby's room too.

And this piece is part of a larger project in the UK. Each stitcher has a phrase from the definition of the word "fractal." You can see the entire phrase here.



This was the phrase I was assigned. It actually looks very pretty in person but the mobile phone photo is pretty washed out. It's royal purple for the letters and then a rainbow to give it a little flair. I really like the font.

Finally, I finished and framed my Fido movie quote:



This is available for sale in my Etsy shop if you are interested! I loved stitching this one up as I enjoy brains and splatter.



Whew! That's it for now. Next up include a vulgar meme, a puppy, a lady bug and another Boomstick for my first sale on Etsy in about four months! Good thing it's too hot to do much else other than stitch. :)

Tschus!

Stitchin' status

I have been in a huge funk, so forgive me for not posting. Depression can go either way: it can be a great inspiration and outlet or it can be creativity killer. In my case, I haven't been doing much of anything, which has elicited feelings of deeper depression, guilt, restlessness, etc. The cure? MORE COWBELL! I mean, MORE STITCHING!

So let's not concentrate on what hasn't been done, and see what HAS been done.

I did get a book review completed for Connie G over at About.com for a book entitled "Blackwork." You can read it here. It's definitely for a more advanced stitcher but I am looking forward to using some of the stitch patterns to create some of Connie's patterns in the future. You can't perfect a technique if you never even try, right? Here is a great example of someone taking blackwork stitches and putting them to use in a contemporary image of a bird. (Sorry to link that instead of inserting an image, but I don't want to use this person's image without permission first!) I think this is really well done and would love to be able to do something similar, maybe in a flower pattern.

I've also had a few sales, mostly Bruce Campbell related and the latest one was purchased from a person in Turkey. Thankfully, shipping to Turkey isn't as bad as I had imagined. I am pretty excited that one of my pieces is on its way across the globe. There are Ash fans everywhere! We're like the plague.

And finally, I created a pattern inspired by one of my other favorite B movies, "Dead Alive." Click here for the pattern.

And the video clip:



So while that may not be a ton of accomplishments, in the world of Emo Bex, it is a good start. I'm still finishing work on a stitch-for-hire project and have signed up for another Phat Quarter swap on Flickr as well as a project for the folks at Mr. X Stitch.

If you are still reading my blog, thank you for sticking with me. I promise to stay in better touch from here on out.

Tschus!

Stitchy goodness

It's been a very busy time, stitch-wise. I've had some requests to do patterns that other artists sell. I've also done a few custom requests. I love doing the custom pieces a lot because they force me to be creative and figure out how to put someone's idea into a finished piece.

I was approached by the person who runs Evil Dead News to recreate the Home Sweet Home sampler hanging in the cabin from the movie Evil Dead 2. So after watching the movie again and some internet surfing, I was able to come up with a pretty good representation:





For something seemingly simple, it did take a while to stitch up. I can't wait to get another one made and hung up next to our front door!

I also had a request for someone's massage business. She incorporates a wrench into her logo (body repair) and wanted to combine the wrench with her dog, Hank, who is a Boston Terrier. This is what I came up with:



This request was for a penguin and a Fuck Cancer piece, that is actually a combination of patterns by Julie Jackson. I chose to do the Linux penguin and gently censored the Fuck Cancer piece on request.



I also re-stitched one of my more offensive pieces to swap with someone. I love this piece because it's so pretty and so funny. :)



I have patterns and pieces for the Evil Dead sampler and the Ass piece on my Etsy.

So I guess this is what I'm doing now full time. I spend anywhere from four to nine hours a day stitching and/or creating patterns. I finally emailed my family about my career change and sent them a link to my Etsy shop. My dad is the only one who said anything. He told me that he is really impressed with my stitching and said my mom would have been really proud of me. That's the best thing he could have ever said to me. I was worried that he would be disappointed in me but he's so supportive. My mom was pretty handy with a needle and she made me this before she died: (It's the big alphabet sampler.)



That's all I needed to hear to know that I'm on the right path. My dad is awesome and I love him a lot. I just hope he doesn't log back onto my Etsy now that I put up the Ass pattern. Heh.

That's what's up in my stitching world. Next up is an art piece for the Gay for Eagles show in North Carolina. My first art show. I need to get stitching!

Take care everyone...tschus.

PS
I just noticed that someone added the Evil Dead sampler to an Etsy treasury called The Farm House. I don't think they know my cute little cabin is from a horror movie. Heh.

Vee Dee

I've managed to get a few things stitched up.  I seem to have a little creative burst and here is what I have finished so far:







I have some more ideas and some are already in patterns. The above zombie valentines are doing fairly well. They take a lot longer to make then I thought but I like them. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum. Sometimes stitching all day means I don't get anything done around the house and the joints don't always care for it.

The weather is finally freezing and there is a bit of snow here and there. I took a couple photos around town in the last week or so. I've been fighting bronchitis and some aches and pains. It hasn't been much fun but it could be worse. I'll try to take some photos tomorrow when I drive up to The Plaza.



Sometimes I do get up and watch the sun rise.



Gas tanks?



We think those are natural gas derricks.




Tschus.

Shaun of the Dead, in Galaga form

My latest swap piece is finished. The theme this time is a horror mash-up: take something from the horror genre and put it with something seemingly unrelated, like Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter.

So if you've never played Galaga (seriously?!), then I suppose you need a frame of reference. Click on the hyperlink. It was an old arcade game that I used to play when spending hours at the mall. It was the only game in the scary, dark arcade that I played well. I'm still addicted to it and will happily play when it's available. The old game is pretty pixelated.

I had some help to come up with the pattern idea. Mr.X Stitch suggested using Shaun and Ed for the shooters when I threw my idea of a zombie/space shooter at him. Ron helped me with little details, such as including "red" on Shaun's shirt. I took my old Bruce Campbell pattern and changed the figures into Shaun, Ed, Mary the zombie and a generic zombie from an old Nintendo game. (I'm not sure which one but when I googled 'pixelated zombie' it came up.) I checked a bunch of screen shots from the movie to come up with basic colors to try and match the characters.



It didn't take terribly long once I made myself sit down and do it. I unfortunately didn't consider the size of it when finished so it was a weird dimension, like 8 inches by 7 inches. Not exactly frame-able. So I glued it to a thin piece of canvas and bordered it with some black ribbon. It is drying now. I think it could be popped into an 8 inch by ten inch frame if the person wants to hang it. I believe she lives in Germany so I will have another piece floating around Europe. Cool stuff! I like it. As soon as it is dry and I have some cash, I'll send it on over!

Have a good one, tschus!

“Fleeced” stitch

Didn't I post this yet? Ah well I'm sure you've seen it on my Facebook page. If not, this was the last stitch that I did. It's a quote from the tv series Deadwood. Al Swearengen is one of my faves and I had to finish this piece before I got to the actual town of Deadwood.

I want to make it into a pillow however I've never made a pillow in my life. So I'm considering a small sewing machine purchase and reading a crap load of tutorials. Any thoughts? I'd love some kitchy cowboy fabric for the back.



That's all for now. Pain, tired, looking at some life transition stuff....heh. No biggie!!!

Tschus.

Last couple of stitches

I just realized that I hadn't posted the last couple of stitches I did!  The griffin was from a very complicated pattern I bought.  The pattern numbers were odd so there were odd irregularities here and there.  Drove me crazy!  I had to compensate for some of that on my own so it's definitely not perfect.



That was given to my best friend from high school for Christmas.  I am completely late on her birthday present.  D'oh!

Bender was a pattern I put together in PCStitch about a year ago.  The Phat Quarter (on Flickr) swap theme this time was for a cartoon or comic with text.  I was ecstatic that I already had the basic pattern ready so it was a quick stitch.  I haven't received mine yet but I have no doubt that this time I will receive something during the swap.



If you have PCStitch and want to swap patterns, leave me a comment!  This is obviously not something I can ever sell due to copyright issues but I can definitely swap the pattern for free.

I bought some transfer pens and need to get some energy to work up a pattern on some muslin.  I'll be sure to put in a post after I do!

Mas besser

Here is my cross-stitch that I referred to in a previous post.  The recipient received it so I was able to make the photo public finally.  I kind of miss this piece.  It looked good sitting in our living room.



I did a piece yesterday for a Craftster challenge and I'll have that posted by Monday.  I'm also working on a piece I patterned after an obscure 1898 calendar.  Hopefully that will be done soon.  I've got to stitch something together to trade with a woman at work who makes and fixes jewelry.  I've got some things for her to fix!

That is about all I can think of for now.  This is a busy month so I'm sure there will be more blog posts to come.  Tschus!

Things to do to pass (waste) time

We hit the jackpot this weekend at Game Co.  It's like Game Stop only more vintage, and they pay a lot more for your games.  We got a nice credit with them and picked up several used games.  I was pretty geeked to find two Evil Dead games on XBox:



I haven't played A Fistful of Boomstick yet but I did play Regeneration for over an hour today.  It is HILARIOUS.  Ted Raimi does the voice of your midget Deadite sidekick and Bruce does Ash's voice, of course.  There are a lot of catchy one-liners and general hilarity.  The best part?  You can lock on your enemies and punt the Deadite to attack them.  I love it!    Since having an XBox is relatively new to me, I didn't pay much attention to these games before.  I now have all the ED games but not all the games with Bruce's voice.  Which is ok, as I'm not sure how much of a geek I want to allow myself to be.  Here is a link to the games: http://www.bruce-campbell.com/group.asp?grp=49

Crap, I just noticed this as well: http://www.bruce-campbell.com/pilot.asp?pg=action_figure It's a BC action figure.  Crap....$60?  I may be a geek,  but I'm a cheap geek.  Damn.

The other thing I did this weekend was finish up a book called Shadow of the Wind.  It is one of the best novels I have read since The Historian.  The author, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, writes very descriptively.  The setting is 1940's and 1950's Barcelona, set in the aftermath of Spain's civil war.  It's a mystery and very well woven.  I'm sure I could have figured out some of the twists and turns if I had let myself think about it, but I really enjoy just letting a story take me along.  I can't write a good review on it but you can find some great reviews on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zafon/dp/1594200106  Apparently The Angel's Game is a prequel that just came out in English only a year ago.  I'll have to grab that up soon.



Long story short, read it.  I was dubious at first but I went from summer beach reading to this book.  You have to get your brain in the right mode to really let the story suck you in.   If you read it, let me know what you think!  I should really join a book club but am too damn lazy.

I also finished another cross stitch but will have to wait to unveil it until after I send it.  I made it for a swap for a photo group I participate in on Flickr called Phat Quarter.  After the recipient receives the piece, I'll post photos of it.  It's actually very lovely if I do say so myself!  I also finished an embroidery not long ago that is for a breast cancer awareness challenge on Craftster.  It's another photograph-to-embroidery piece:



This photo has over 12,000 hit on Flickr, but that's probably only because my boobs are partially showing.  I hate that pervs are looking at it but the photo has done some good.  I've had some people contact me to ask about the reconstructive part of mastectomies.  I personally feel better having talked to someone who has gone through this before me, no matter what it is.  So I keep the damn picture up for others to find, in case anyone else has questions.  The contest on Craftster starts in a couple weeks and I'm eager to sumbit this.

Rowdy is shrieking/whining for his supper so I better go.  Dogs do not like to wait for their supper!  Tschus!

Oy vey, long time, no post!

I have meant to blog, I really have.  I think I've been overwhelmed and lazy.  I also have hesitated in posting because I am aware an old internet stalker-type is back on my track.  I didn't want to post because I'm sure he's reading my stuff again (why, I don't know.)  I can't stop being me just because of someone else's actions.

Since my last post I've kep myself busy with various stitching projects.  I've had to order some supplies to finish framing but otherwise they are done:





I started another photograph-to-embroider piece and am busy with that.  I'm hoping to get it done before Breast Cancer Awareness Month starts up in October.  I've also got to clean up another pattern for a stitching swap I'm participating in.  I'm hoping it will turn out well!!  If anyone wants, I can start posting patterns.

Craft-a-frickin-roonie!

Here is my little recap for the last week or so:

My Etsy hasn't sold anything yet however I think I have a few interested in "Ass, the other Vagina."  I have a couple private requests also that I need to get started on.  I'm excited about that because it's fun to make these but even more fun to know that people are going to put it in their homes soon.  As soon as payday gets here, I am off to the crafy store again to get supplies.  I'm geeked!

Speaking of stitchery, I finished my first photo-to-embroidery project.  Here is the result and a comparison of the original photo to the cloth and thread result:





I felt pretty good about the overall end-product.  This has been a complete learning experience for me and I see what I need to work on now.  I have ideas for the next embroidery project already!  I like the idea of taking my photography and doing something more with it.  My ultimate goal is to get a gallery show.  I think I'm on my way as *enter drumroll* I'm going to be featured in the near future on Stitchgasm.  ACK!!!!  This is exciting to me although most of you probably don't know what the fuck I'm talking about.  See the following website: http://www.mrxstitch.com/  I am not sure what day it will be, but one of the people who works on this newsletter is a woman known as Beefrank.  She is a witty, creative genius and her work makes me laugh a lot!  You can see her work on Flickr by going to http://www.flickr.com/photos/beefranck/.  If you appreciate humor, talent and witicisms, please check out her stuff!  Also, subscribe to Mr. X Stitch via the site or Facebook.  (He is also megacool and a Brit!)  This stuff absolutely feeds me inspiration as well as making me laugh.  I can't believe how creative people can be and it is freakin' awesome to see so many talented people out there producing so much stuff.  Ok sorry, I got a little carried away!!

Add that to a confirmation email I received about enrollment in a free digital photography course and I'm about to implode!  Whoopee!

All right, enough of that crazy shit.  As always, I hope everyone is well.  Catch ya later, tschus!

Craftism

General brain befuddlement has prevented any new creativity as of late.  I did however crank out a couple of things about a week or so ago:





I have a set of Hitchcock stamps that I collected years ago that I want to frame.  That is what inspired the Hitchcock piece.  The Super Bitch came from a book of cutsey patterns I bought.  I also happened to find small frames at Wally World and this was an experimentation with small designs.  I'd really like to put it at my desk at work but don't think it would be wise.

Lately I've been looking at embroidery and wanted to try it.  Again I'm lost as to what to stitch.  However I woke up last night with an idea and spent the day looking at the internet for tutorials on how to make the images in my brain come to the fabric.  There are a few photographs I've snapped over the years that I really like and I've decided to make embroidery patterns out of them.  Thankfully there are people out there in the crafty world who blog and make how-to videos for the internet.  Here is part of the pattern I put together:



I'm afraid that I might start filling up the spare room with projects so I put up an Etsy store finally in the hopes of getting rid of some of them.  You can find the store here:  www.ndbex.etsy.com.  So far I haven't sold anything but there is still hope in me to get rid of some things.  I made them pretty cheap!

That's my exciting life this week.  Tschus!!

Creativity keeps the Devil at bay

I've been keeping calm and distracted from work by doing more stitching.  It's been a nice way to keep my sense of humor alive.  Here are my two latest:





I'm going to finally cave and set up an Etsy shop.  More on that later.


I leave you with a photo my friend Summer sent me the other day.  It sums up my feelings from the past two weeks PERFECTLY:



Have a good Saturday!

new cross stitch in progress!

I'm working on a new cross stitch.  It's a good way to keep my brain focused and my thoughts off of how I feel.  It's not done yet but here is what I have so far:



I started stitching Tom Servo last night.  I'll post a photo after it's complete.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th!