A bit more than a year ago I started a new job and in the beginning I had a real rough patch with some other women on the floor.  My boss introduced me to Mona, who does admin work like me, but on the "other" coast. Since then she has been a mentor, inspiration and release valve.

I love how inspiration happens sometimes. After a conversation we had that morphed somehow into what would happen if we came into the office wearing a crown, (I admitted I would get questions, but would be left alone otherwise; while my friend boasted that no one would dare ask her why or comment on her wearing a crown to work.), came the thought to make her a crown. It bounced around in my head for a while and I toyed with several different ideas (mixed media, beads, office supplies) until I remembered a card a dear friend gave me many years ago. On the front it said, "You are the Queen of Everything." Perfect! Despite my interest in exploring other mediums, in the end I fell back on my first love..embroidery.

The crown is heavy cotton fabric painted with watercolors, embroidered onto felt to give it the stiffness it needed to stand on it's own. The design is my own and each symbol has it's own significance.

Front 1 - The crown reads "Queen of Everything" in the center, with a paperclip chain running across the bottom.  Here you can see the "rays" radiating from the center of the crown. For the energy that my friend puts off at work. I added some bi-cone crystals in light yellow and aurora clear to give it some "sparkle."


Front 2 - More of the "rays" and paperclip chain. The rays were embroidered onto a double layer of felt. It gives the front a bit of a "quilted" look and helps keep it standing tall. Yes. She *is* the queen of everything...on her coast. On my coast it's definitely my title.


Side 1 - On this side you can see a hen perching on one paperclip, denoting her "mothering" attitude towards me, the butterflies floating above a symbol of her wonderful spirit. The CG emblem had to be there somewhere, as we both work for the CG and she is a CG spouse.


Side 2 - On this side I put the most common "rates" we work with and support.


Inside view - I picked the paisley cotton to back the crown with because of the rich colors and "regal" look to it.


Over the course of about two months I put in about 20 plus hours of work into this, including design and execution.

Mona comes into town next week and we finally get to meet in person for the first time. I can't wait to give her the crown!

Two years ago I was blessed to join in a Christmas ornament swap and had so much fun designing my ornaments that I've made it a habit.

This year I did a quick private swap with one of my favorite people, spookshowbaby77! We've done several swaps over the past couple of years and I love making new things for her and know that I'll always get awesomeness in return!

I ended up designing two new ornaments this year, (another one made it to the cutwork phase but was never completed), and wanted to share.

Monster Christmas light bulb 1
I'm still not sure why this guy is pissed. I figured because either he got left off the string of lights this year, or because he doesn't want to be on the string of lights this year? Regardless, boy is he irked!

Monster Christmas light bulb 1
No matter how much I fiddled with this guy's face, he looked bored. I think that he was angry for so long his face froze like this and now he's just bored of being angry.

WIP - monster light bulbs in cutwork phase with their inspiration piece. I made this brooch last year and while perusing my material for ideas he caught my eye. I thought he'd make a great ornament!

I saw an ornament on flickr using *real* scrabble tiles and thought it would be cool to do a couple in felt. I have one in a baggie spelling out "peace" waiting to be sewn together and stuffed.


Ornaments from previous years:
House Ornament - 2008
Etch A Sketch Ornament - 2008
Barrel of Monkeys Ornament - 2009

For a while, at the beginning of the year, I lived with my brother and family.  During that time my nephew, Kyle, got me hooked on the cartoon Ben 10.  He's a little kid that finds a watch that can turn him into different aliens. We're both a touch obsessed with it and watch it together on a regular basis. As a matter of a fact, they save them until I can come down and watch them with him and my brother. We're a bit of Ben 10 geeks and obsess over the tiniest details! LoL

So, I had the idea of making Ben's watch for him.  It's made completely of felt with a velcro closure and is 3D.

I gave it to him for his birthday this year and I'm told he wears it pretty regularly.

Good Lord I haven't been here in fo-evah! Last swap was Jan of this year and I've missed it! But...the trade off was getting a real job and making enough money to move back to the SF Bay Area. In the end, the trade off is worth the time away.

I realized though that I had been doing swaps here but haven't been posting my work over here to share once it is all done and over with. I love sharing over here as I enjoy seeing everyone else's work and hearing what others who do what I do think of my work.

I'm sharing a piece I did for a IYP swap here in December. spookshowbaby77 invited me to be her partner, of which I was eternally grateful. I have swapped several times with Kerry and have enjoyed each time. She's my all-time favorite swap partner.

I posted this on my Flickr, so the below is excerpted from that posting:

Embroidered piece of artwork done for craftster swap (IYP with spookshowbaby77). Crayon and watercolor tinted, hand embroidered. It's probably my first piece that wasn't mostly traced and then embroidered.

While the artwork is true to the original iconic painting, because I used Blythe's face as the base I had to completely rework the entire thing to look proportionate. I am not an "artist" so doing this is not my forte usually. Note: My brother reworked the hands as I was having a dicken of a time reworking them to look "correct."

Kerry, my partner who is receiving this, loves dolls and had many on her "favorites" here on Flickr. She also had a couple of Lady of Guadalupe statues in her favorites as well, so as I was perusing all of her information to come up with an idea of what to do for this swap I had a flash of...well, I hope it was brilliance..because the idea came together perfectly at that moment.

If you look closely you might note that the angel below Blythe's feet was reworked slightly to make him look like Elvis. Sacreligious? Absolutely I'm sure.

The piece was sent to her as a raw piece of artwork for her to do what she wants with it. I hope she likes it as much as I do. :-)

IP pics

It makes perfect sense to me that this swap would turn out some amazing work. Amazing craftsters inviting other amazing crafsters to swap? What else could it be but amazing???    I love most everything I've seen so far! The poppet with the snail? Beautiful spider scarf? Several amazing and beautiful knit and crocheted projects? Wonderfully colored yarns and rovings? The pirate bags! Altered books! Resin jewelry! So many other beautiful projects!

I was lucky enough to have spookshowbaby77 invite me to swap with her and I will be forever grateful. We had done a couple of small swaps with each other both on craftster and flickr, and I think we've gotten pretty good at making things each other will love. I've enjoyed each swap we've done, but this round was particularly wonderful. I recently had some hard changes happen in my life, and doing this swap kept me focused on something positive and creative. I will be ever grateful to Kerry for the invite.

Then, on top of that, she went and sent me the most AMAZING package of stuff EVER! I received like a week ago and Kerry has been so patient with my situation (it's taken 3 days to get the pics uploaded), so I'm SO happy to show you what she sent me!

It would be almost impossible to take one picture of this swap package, so you are forewarned that this is pic heavy.

My one request made was for a tote. I asked for a very large one with handles long enough to throw over my shoulder. Boy did she deliver and then some! I love Professor X!


These two brooches were attached to my wonderful tote! I keep crossing my fingers that my teenager will not realize that they come off.


An adorable clothes pin doll with a cute cardinal perched on her head and cuddling a moose in her arms.


A saucy angel ornament that reminds me of Pinky from Grease. She’ll be hanging out in my car that I just bought to help keep me safe. She has a beaded halo and sparkles on her dress. I love her!


A great jar pincushion that I’m already using! It was filled with little bits of whimsy that I love.


Here’s the whimsy I was talking about.


This group shot shows a handkerchief embroidered with Kermit (my favorite Muppet) and a crocheted edge, some peace sign fabric and a bulldog named Semper Fidelis.  I’m not sure if she crocheted it herself or if she bought it vintage. I love the colors though. I’m also not sure if she knows (but I’m guessing she does) that the bulldog is significant to me. I’m a former Marine, so Semper Fidelis is the perfect companion.


The package actually came with TWO owl ornaments, which I had previously admired on Kerry’s flickrstream. Unfortunately my daughter saw them and snatched one right out of the box!


An old Snoopy book that I pick up at least once a day to get a giggle, a MS felt flower kit (I LOVE MS), and a handful of trading cards.  Cards include everything from old school Battlestar Galatica, Star Wars (Han Solo!!!), XMen (Storm and Nightcrawler!!!), Powerpuff Girls, Batman and some others I can't remember off the top of my head. I love trading cards! My daughter thinks I'm a dork for getting so excited about them, and I'm okay with that.


Amazingly enough, I’m almost positive I’m missing something! Thank you SO much spookshowbaby77, for inviting me to swap with you and a HUGE thanks to Superduperhooker for organizing this herd of cats..I mean craftsters!

This guy was made for a swap on Flickr with my friend spookshowbaby77. We had mutually admired each others foray into the dotee doll, had swapped twice before, and decided to do another swap for a dotee doll.

I originally had the idea to come up with a doll idea that would at least match my last efforts and be something I know Kerry would like. After muddling along with some ideas that were decent, but not awe-worthy...I had a light bulb flash when I was moving around some felt pins I am making for an Etsy shop I hope to open soon.

I figured that while he would be 3-dimensional like the pin, I could make him into what would be the accepted format of the "dotee" doll, which was the original intent of the swap, right?

Well, as I began to work on them, the felt and ideas sort of took over. I truly don't remember when he turned into a fish, (let alone a space fish), instead of a monster; but I'm glad he did!  And I'm sure you recognize Bud, or at least recognize where he's inspired from anyway. 

They are hand-stitched entirely of recycled felt, with Alistar's eyes made from two buttons and Bud's eyes are glued on googly eyes. He is stuffed with polyfill.



I absolutely love his belly. Originally it was just going to be flat but something called to me and I just had to make a ridged belly for him.


To see more pictures of Alistar and Bud, check out my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatewineroses/

I wanted to give a big THANKS to PirateColey for being my Angel on this swap. I love the beautiful lady you sent me. 


And thanks to Smmarrt for organizing!

Two of my partners have received and one has disappeared.  I really wanted to share what I sent out though, as I really enjoyed the creative process.

This is Steve the zombie. Until pretty recently Steve was a member of his high school's basketball team. Died in a high speed chase on a lonely road outside of town.  His craving for brains began soon after he dug himself out of his grave. He tried to be "civilized" and eat only animal brains, but he found them unsatisfying. So now he just tries to go as long as he can between feedings and picks the best brains he can find for his meals. At night, after he feeds, you can see him speeding down that same lonely road, flipping off the police as they chase him across the countryside.



Steve's brain that he keeps handy in case of an "emergency."


This is Tyche. She's the Greek goddess of fortune. Personification of the Fates Tyche was one of the most popular gods to be worshiped by the Greeks.  She wears a crown with a ball on her head to show the unsteadiness of luck, carries a cornucopia symbolizing the plentiful gifts of Fortune and holds a rudder showing how she guides the Destiny of man.  Wings are shown sometimes signifying Fortune's ability to wing us high. Inside I placed a money prayer, to attract wealth.


Her wings.


And finally Rebecca. She's just a mom who lives on a farm. She's happy and content with her life and loves being a mom.


Close up of her apron

I am participating in the most recent dotee doll swap and had a lot of fun stalking my partners to come up with something that they would really love. I love the creative process. While my partners have not posted yet on the swap thread I know that two out of the three have received their dolls and so I can't resist posting the two that have been received.

First up is Steve. Until pretty recently he was a member of his high school's basketball team. Died in a high speed chase on a lonely road outside of town.  His craving for brains began soon after he dug himself out of his grave. He tried to be "civilized" and eat only animal brains, but he found them unsatisfying. So now he just tries to go as long as he can between feedings and picks the best brains he can find for his meals. At night, after he feeds, you can see him speeding down that same lonely road, flipping off the police as they chase him across the countryside.







Next in the line up is Tyche. She is the Greek goddess of Fortune. Personification of the Fates Tyche was one of the most popular gods to be worshiped by the Greeks.  She wears a crown with a ball on her head to show the unsteadiness of luck, carries a cornucopia symbolizing the plentiful gifts of Fortune and holds a rudder showing how she guides the Destiny of man.  Wings are shown sometimes signifying Fortune's ability to wing us high. Inside I placed a money prayer, to attract wealth.







As usual, you can find more photos on my Flickr photostream.

I am disappointed that since joining this swap I have been unavoidably occupied and thus unable to join in with the banter on the main thread and gallery.  There have been such a plethora of wonderful dolls (the little bunny! the cats! the monsters! Dumbledore! oh my!) and I'm enjoying seeing each and every one of them.

Like others I am unsure that my dotees are quite the right size. I think I might have supersized my dotee dolls.  Regardless, I am still looking forward to seeing if my partners enjoy them.  I know I enjoyed the creative process of coming up with just the right theme for each of the dolls I sent out.

And finally, I am happy to report that I have received 2 out of 3 of the dotees I have been expecting.

sweet_sweet_little_ ramona sent me this cute little raindrop dotee. He's tiny and cute and I really like him.

This little cutie was sent to me by lauraann_E. She has a wood face and, although you can't see it clearly here, the most intricate bead dangling below. She's very beautiful and I truly like her.


I'd like to thank both sweet ramona and Laura Ann for the dolls they sent me. I hope they like mine as much as I like theirs!  Oh, and a HUGE thank you out to Smmarrt for organizing this swap.