Fapping Meme

WARNING: The following depicts masturbation humor.

My husband loves Failblog and even more, he loves the Meme page on it. I had to laugh at one of them and promised to stitch it for him. Before I post pics, you can find the meme stuff here. It's fun to do something kind of gross and silly.

Note to self, work on embroidering words.

I present to you, the fapping meme.

He's taking it to work, by the way. Good thing it's a small company.

Hope your days are cool, calm and full of humor!! Tschus!

The Sinister Stitch Chronicles

My friend Victoria Crowder Payne has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund her work and upcoming exhibit called The Sinister Stitch Chronicles. I can't describe it as well as Victoria has, so here is a summary from her Kickstarter page!

"Sinister Stitch is a mixed media embroidery project composed of two parts: the Exhibit (which will debut in October 2011) and the Chronicles (airing July through November 2011, with the feature film compiled at year's end)."

The exhibit will be "a mixed media embroidered collection consisting of 13 ancient poisonous botanicals anchored by a central personification of the Mandrake Root’s fabled consort: the Womandrake.  (Additionally, the Sinister Stitch poisons are Monkshood, Wolfsbane, Foxglove, Poets Narcissus, Black Hellebore, Snakeroot, Moonseed, Angel’s Trumpet, Rosary Pea, Hemlock, and Oleander.)" I love that she is using dangerous, beautiful plants and humanizing them. It's like a modern day fairy tale.

And the second part of her campaign is the documentary/webcasts: "The Sinister Stitch Chronicles include the web-casts beginning July 2011 that detail creating the exhibit and the documentary film project (scheduled for release in December 2011)."

Please jump on over to the Kickstarter page to read more about how to donate and get involved!

And here is one of the episodes available on Youtube. Victoria was so kind as to include a couple of my little pieces along with our other amazing, talented friends to illustrate different types of embroidery.



I love this episode so much because you can see the artist in her space, how she organizes herself, her beautiful family around her lending hands and paws to the project and just get a feel for who she is as a person. Her first episode was amazing as it described her inspiration for this project. I am a big believer in the subconscious influencing us, especially in our art. I've woken up in the middle of the night and connected an image to a feeling that I wanted to express in my embroidery. Those instances have always pushed me out of my creative blocks and the feeling when it happens is so very cool.

To get up to date news on this project with even more details, photos and inspiration, please see Victoria's blog here.

I hope you will take the time to get to know Victoria and her awesome art work. I am so excited to see this in person in the fall! Good luck Vic!!

Current faves

I've enjoyed visiting my mail box lately. No, not bills. Who enjoys those? However my mailbox has been regurgitating some lovely things I've purchased or been fortunate enough to be gifted as of late. Take a peek!

I was given these by a friend: a screen print baby onesie along with an adult zombie book cleverly disguised as a children's book. I love it!



Check out her Etsy store and see the other awesome things she makes!

This is a whimsical, clever brooch my friend Bascom made for me!



It makes me smile! Kind of reminds me of the ancient fish that decided it wanted to stop eating in the water and live on land. So it grew legs. This fish looks like it's got a great idea and gearing up to start walking! Smart little bastard.

Finally, here is a quilt I bought for the baby's room. I think it will fit our crib nicely.





You can find this gal's store on Etsy as well!

I love the happy dogs and the colors. There were a lot of puppy quilts on Etsy but I was in love with another quilt with the same kind of fabric and color, however the seller raised the price before I could purchase it. This quilt fit my budget and I will purchase a blue dust ruffle for the crib and a breatheable bumper in blue also. We're thinking chocolate brown for the walls and then all the handmade goodies we can make and find for decoration. I don't care if things don't match. It's almost better if they don't because then the baby will have tons of colors to look at all the time!

These are my favorite handmade things right now. What is on your list currently?

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!

Whatchoo workin' on?

First of all, thanks to those who took part in the "guess the sex of the baby" poll on my baby site. If you haven't done so, please click on over and also register to win a free bookmark. The details are all on the previous post!

Second, I finished up another zombie themed piece but will post pics as soon as I get a nice frame for it. It took me a few weeks to do because the font was a little larger than what I normally do. I hope you like it!

Third, I just started a cute puppy piece for the nursery. This is a free pattern from a gal at French Knots. So far I have only transferred the pattern to a piece of muslin, so it will finish in a size of 7 inches by 5 inches. I may frame it or stretch it over a canvas. This is the first time I transferred a pattern using the Sulky iron-on pens. Normally I use a washable pen and transfer the pattern using the window as a light box. However it has been cloudy all day and my shoulders ache terribly.

So far, so good! This is very easy to use. Just read the directions first, like how to get the ink started the first time you use it. When I printed the pattern, I reversed the image first. Then I traced it.

Then I laid the pattern, ink side down, onto my fabric and ironed it at a high heat setting. Be sure to turn the steam off on your iron. You don't have to do it for long. Sulky suggests just 30 seconds, gently moving the iron around the pattern. It also says you can use the same pattern a few more times before it won't transfer anymore.

The directions also state that you should wait a few days before you wash the fabric. I usually wash things out after I'm done stitching.

I decided not to be anti-feline in our nursery after digging out a couple pieces that hung in my own bedroom when I was little. My mother did these for me and they are a bit stained but so dang cute. I've decided, boy or girl, that a nursery with blue accents is just fine by me. I had a blue room and turned out fine! (I think.)

I don't know how to make the cute little ruffles around the hoop like she did but maybe I'll figure that out someday.

And finally, I won a giveaway from my friend Lisa on her blog site. She sent me some divine French Chocolate Mint tea and the cutest little stitch to help keep me smiling. For those who don't follow my personal blog, my dog Sadie passed away and I've been self-soothing with ice cream. Bust my head open and soft serve will come pouring out.

Isn't that cute? What a sweetie!

So what is everyone else working on? Leave a link to your blog if you have some works in progress going on!

Thanks and happy fourth!

Tschus. :)

Time for a Giveaway!!!!

In just one week we will find out the sex of our baby. We are so excited, it's insane. We don't care what it is, but just want it healthy and happy! (Pssst we kind of want a boy.) So to have a little fun in the remaining week of guessing, I thought I'd do a fun giveaway.

Up for grabs is one Laugh My Ass Off bookmark.



Here are the rules:

1. Visit our baby site and scroll down to the poll box. Vote "Boy" or "Girl."

2. Click on the Guestbook link and sign your name. I don't care if you only put your first name and last initial but you must leave me a valid email address.

Winner will be chosen at random after we find out the sex next week. Now, I hear sometimes the baby won't cooperate but we're going to plan on this baby lettin' it all hang out!

Please cross-post and thanks for having a little fun with me!!

Seen around town and new swap piece

I really need to work on my blog titles. :) Anyways, I thought it would be neat to post some photos of embroidery and fiber art pieces that I see when I stop at museums.

It's amazing how much stitchery you can find when you really stop and look for them. Normally I see them at antique and thrift stores but I rarely have my camera on those trips. This time I made an effort to look for them while at the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop & Historic Site in Olathe, Kansas. It is the last working stagecoach stop and living history farm on the Santa Fe Trail.



This is a fantastic quilt in great condition. I'm not sure what type of quilt style it is, maybe one of you know?



Friendship, Love and Truth. I saw chain and satin stitches for sure but it was a little far away so I was unable to examine it further. Plus, flashes are a no-no on these things.



These two were way too far away for me to get a good photo but they were very pretty.



The staff work on all kinds of needlework and knitting while they wait for visitors to tour the home. Here is a sample of some of the on-going work they are doing now. It's kind of fun to look at the hoops and be able to identify the types of stitching being used.



And finally, you'll remember my previous post about the little pigeon for the Phat Quarter swap over on Flickr. This is the awesome piece that I received from FiberArtsy. This is a quote from the book World War Z, by Max Brooks. I think this is one of the best zombie books I've read so far. Phalanx was a drug mentioned in the book that was created so people didn't develop "African Rabies." Brilliant!! I think her ability to envision a small segment of the book into such a clean, crisp and beautiful embroidery is amazing. I could never hand draw something like this to begin with and then to stitch it so well. Well maybe after loads of more practice! So thank you FiberArtsy! I can't wait to hang this up!

Please head on over to Phat Quarter and join the group if you haven't already. You don't need to be an experienced stitcher to join. Just join, start making stuff and people will help you with advice and inspiration. :) Once you post some photos to the group, you can join in a swap. They have them every time there is a month with five Fridays. Or if you are looking for a broader based crafting community, please go to Craftster! There is literally something for everyone on there: bakers, painters, knitters, stitchers, sewers, etc. And they often have swaps and stitch-alongs too. I can honestly say that I've met (online) some of the nicest, smartest and most wonderful people through these craft groups.

Are you oozing with love and creativity yet? :)

Hope you all are having a great week, tschus!