I made this pincushion for my fabulous partner in the pincushion swap.  I hit the vintage store and scored this aged metal umbrella, likely it's first life was as an ashtray.  It makes a nice heavy base.  I felted up some swirly blue water and a little yellow duck.

happy easter!  i had a little time this long weekend, and so decided to try a 'junker jane' style inspired scrappy bunny, for a surprise gift for a friend today. (my friend and i are both union activists, so when I saw the word union on a scrap of wordy fabric i decided to include that).  I think it turned out messy and cute.

Here's the hoop I made for the recent hoopla swap, incorporating something other than thread.

I wanted to try something really different, and had the idea to incorporate metal of some kind.  In the end I decided to try cutting up a pop can and it worked great.  The material is softer than you'd think, and the edgers weren't as razor sharp deadly as I thought they might be.  I cut out the shape I wanted (bird inspired by the fabric), then poked holes using a thumb tack, and sewed it on using a kind of blanket stitch.  I was really happy with the result and want to try more like this.

I went to the vintage show this sunday morning and bought a few pictures to use for this challenge.  This one of a simple forest of trees spoke to me most.  I wanted to fill it up with woodland creatures. 

I chose to do two wolves, and with a dusty orange thread.  I like how it doesn't totally jump out in colour and tone.  Stitching the photo turned out to be a bit messier than I imagined, and where I put the holes too close the paper tore.  I didn't know how to finish it, and decided to glue it to a matt board and roughly paint a black frame.  I'm not sure that was a great choice, but overall it was a fun experiment and I like the results.

Here's one picture of the whole piece, and one closer up.

I find myself more and more interested in trying blackwork (or versions in other colours) projects with xstitch.  So when my partner in the book lovers swap picked Orwell's 1984, a book I love, I got to thinking what could I do.  I thought the graphic style would work for him.  So I designed this hoop.  In the middle is the door to Room 101 (terrifying), and all around the blackwork pattern is made up of eye shapes to suggest the smothering surveillance of the authoritarian state.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and my partner likes it, which is most important.

A few atc's I made in January in the ongoing swap (which I was so happy to rejoin after a few months away)

my favourite was learning this new technique for altered text (which I saw googling around the web, used by someone named Altered Silver), the 3d look in the result is cool and making poetry out of text strikes me as interesting, I'm thinking of trying some bigger picture pieces incorporating this approach



Susurrus - a beautiful word that means whispering, rustling



brownwork xstitch owl, did the pattern myself



hello kitty as r2d2 (the hello kitty as theme is hilarious)



And did you know a group of flies is called a business of flies?

In the 4x6 swap the piece I was planning for two weeks fell apart into a mess, and the night before the deadline I had to do something new, so I pulled out a wood 4x6 base I had and tried something new.  Acrylic paint, a book page, and watercolour crayons, for a little mixed media robin.  I was thrilled how it turned out and must do more in a similar style.

I was just looking at phizzychick's great pieces based on photos and thought hey that would make a great swap idea, art pieces based on photos.  You could pick an old photo (person, animal, place?) and then alter it in some way, like collage, embroider on it, work it onto an art doll or sculpture.

Thought I'd share the idea, I do not have time to organize a swap.

I made this hoop for my best friend, we were fans of Akbar and Jeff back in the day

Although my embroidery is really basic and stitches a little wonky, I'm happy with the result.  The fabric turned out well and the idea makes me happy.  Hope she likes it!

This is my second project combining cross stitched words and fun fabrics into a pillow cover.

Made this for two close friends for an xmas present.  It's a little loose, good lesson for next time, but overall I'm really happy with it.  The back is plain black.

For my Rebel Homos