I just completed this for a personal swap and I'm really pleased and relieved at how this turned out. I was unsuccessful at using carbon paper (how the heck did Aimee Ray do that towel in Doodle Stitching?) and only got the vaguest shadow of the parentheses-like parts of the "M" so I mostly had to wing it using the print out of the font.
Close-up:
Not-close-up:
Back: I had to add a few stitches to that to make it look a little nicer, since there's really no hiding it. I'm not completely pleased with the back, but it's a lot better than it could have been had I not been paying attention.
In progress: The more I worked this the more I saw a stylized hairdo (with widow's peak) in this part of the "M".
The font that the monogram was based on: Mine is not an exact replica, but I'm pleased with how close I could get.
UPDATE! She loved it! WHEW! I was most worried about the color of the towel, but she likes it enough to be asking where I got it. YEY! I was pretty confident about the style of the monogram, but you can never tell until it's all said and done if you've been understanding each other - especially w/o the benefit of hand gestures, facial expressions and tone-of-voice.
So this topic (http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=238843.0) totally reminded me that I haven't posted my latest bathtub project yet! I'm a decorative painter by trade which means I put "Custom & Artisan Finishes On Most Interior Surfaces" - usually that means walls and ceilings, moulding and cabinetry. But sometimes that means, floors, counter tops and... claw foot bathtubs. I have a partner in a side business who reglazes bathtubs and together we have about 22 old claw foot tubs that have mostly been rescued from pastures where they were troughs. This one is going into a Morroacan-inspired bathroom on the southern coast of Oregon - the photo was taken in my partner's paint booth in SW Washington State.
From the faucet end:
The color is off on my screen - it's actually just like terra cotta, not too orange, not too red.
Close up:
The pattern is taken from a tile the owners sent me. I scanned it, enlarged it and then used several prints to make a 2 GIANT stencils.
The product is a hybridized cement that I custom tinted, so the pattern is in relief.
More kitchen-related items, but this time the cowboys are for me. Guitars for a male friend's birthday. I copied an Ikea mitt in a style that I find more ergonomic than the mitten shaped style. The palm part is Insulbrite, they're completely lined with a pre-quilted cotton.
My good friend is dragging her husband down the path to redecorating their house and trying to update the kitchen/dining area, which is really more his territory as he's the cook in the family. She plans to use 2 shades of green; one for walls, the other for cabinets and is stuck with orange counters that really aren't that bad now that orange is kinda trendy for interiors. So being on a budget and being one of the shoulders she leans on during this process (and the one who may well be doing the painting) I decided to make her some napkins for her birthday. Both of our households are non-paper napkin types since before we became friends - and that's about 15 years now.
Unfortunately, I lost my camera and had to use my phone for this. The colors are much more spring-y and cheerful in person.
I used to make napkins by double folding and mitering the seam, but I decided to use 2 layers so you can't see the back side of the fabric and decided to use 2 different fabrics for added cuteness. I topstitched the edge with the orange from the leaf pattern because it made me smile AND topstitching was an easy way to close the opening that I turned them right-side-out with. I hope she likes them!
They're about 16" square, 1.5 yards of each fabric yielded 6 napkins.
Okay, I know it looks more like an ape, but it has a tail and "monkey" is more fun to say than "ape", especially when talking to the dog. Anyway, standard operating procedure for The ManFlesh's dog is to pick up a somewhat floppy stuffed animal at Goodwill for her to cuddle and eventually eviscerate. So, I had an opportunity to pick up free, barely used stuffies from a friend. This was the only somewhat floppy one available and when I got it home I realized that it was a puppet. That's my hand in its, uh... cavity, before the transplant surgeries.
As I find it hysterical how the dog both cuddles and disembowels her "babies", I decided to fill it's cavity with fabric guts.
I used all scrap fabric and the stuffing from the head and legs to stuff the brain and bones which all went back into the head and legs, respectively. The stomach-like piece is made from the puppet lining fabric.
The brain is my favorite. I haven't told The ManFlesh about this project, so when his dog tears it open it will be a surprise for them both!
The pics are with my phone, because I can't find my camera anywhere. Sorry they aren't so hot.
I can't believe I'm posting on the needlework forum! I've been wanting to take up embroidery again for years and finally started a few projects last autumn. This is my first completed project since I did some kits in grade school many many years ago. It's an initial "C" on two mismatched napkins for part of a swap package I sent off last week. The outline and fine lines are backstitch; it's filled in with long and short stitch.
Front:
Back: I'm kind of proud about how tidy the back is, actually. I went old-school and didn't use any knots, which helped a lot.
The mismatched pair: I'm not nearly so enamored of the purple one. It's nice enough from the front, but the back is not at all tidy. I sewed a circular patch of the same fabric over the back to hide it. Interestingly, it's the second one I did.
Any helpful tips n tricks or constructive criticism are welcomed!
Is it possible to have a multi-winner challenge? I suppose it will take more kind donations to do a multi-winner challenge, but I'm just dyin' to see what people would come up with and have been pondering it for months. I'd love to see what all the creative craftster could/would make cozies for. There could be winners for several categories like "Best Cozy For Something That Now Seems Like It Should Have Had A Cozy All Along" and "Most- and Least Practical" "Most Dangerous" "If It Holds Still, I'll Cozy It", etc.
Wee! For xmas I made my ex MIL and my mom these http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=211202.msg2266008#msg2266008. I had asked The ManFlesh if he wanted a pair for his mom and he said "If they had fabric with cowboys." Well, I knew that Alexander Henry had a cowboy beefcake pattern (is that redundant?), but I could never find it at my local stores. Well, yesterday I found it! And here they are:
Appliquéd onto a double-thick flour sack towel:
Sewn to Insulbrite, that quilted, insulated, silver-on-one side stuff:
I included with all of them a paper wrap that said in a kitschy font, printed in ink to coordinate with the specific fabric. I threw together an example because I love the font. The real ones said, "...who's handy in the kitchen." Not "... that's handy in the kitchen." I'm not objectifying them that much.
So, I like to give my special vendors and businesses that refer clients to me a little something to show my appreciation. They are often loaded down with sweets in December, so this year I decided to give them Valentines.
I made labels with PhotoShop and covered Hershey's Nuggets with them. There are 6 styles of labels randomly placed on 4 flavors of Nuggets.
These are pint-sized, unused paint cans purchased at the hardware store. The paper wrap is actually opalescent and the lighter-weight version of the paper my business cards are printed on and is attached with 2-sided tape. I got lucky that the diameter of the can is 10.5 inches so I could get 2 wraps out of letter-sized sheet. I made these clear labels with Word using jpg files I'd already made in Photo Shop and regular word processing.
I punched a small hole in my business card, ran some red curling ribbon through it and attached the ribbon to the can lid with 2-sided tape, then topped it with a red bow. There are about 30 chocolates in the cans, at least enough for the whole crew at any of these businesses.
Some friends of mine have a whole bunch of chickens of various kinds that they are quite fond of. I saw a wall sculpture thingy kind of like this that was out of my budget, but couldn't get out of my head as a gift for these friends. So, I decided to reinterpret the idea in craft felt.
The only things that aren't felt are the chicks' beaks, eyes, combs, the loose feathers and the dust kicked up by the pick up. Those are hand embroidered with DMC embroidery floss, 2-3 strands, if I remember correctly. All the felt is machine sewn. It's in an inexpensive frame; I just used spray adhesive to attach the finished product to the glass that came with the frame, trimmed the edges and put the frame back together.
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