Week 1

I'm posting my Progress Notes and pictures for Week 1 of "28 Weeks of Creativity 2012."  It was a good week creativity-wise.  I met my goal for the week, which was 6 Dutch Embroidery birthday cards.  That was pushing it however, as the stars take me about an hour to do and the comets 2 hours, plus time picking out the DMC embroidery floss colors and background cardstock.  I need to either better estimate the time involved or not put a number on the craft (or writing or art) projects.  Should I post more often or just once a week when I take pictures?  If you have an opinion, let me know.  :)

6/18/12

I really have missed doing Dutch Embroidery.  That's why I picked this to do first.  I'm going to make 6 birthday cards.  These are not my patterns.  They are from 2 discs of patterns given to me by a friend of a friend.  I have no problem using other people's patterns in my crafty/arty stuff.  It's what you do with an idea that counts, color choices, etc.

I'm doing the Star and Comet design cards based on friends and family's favorite colors.  I know, I could go with an over-arching color scheme, but I think I'll just go with favorites and colors that appeal to me.  I lost my pinking shears that I do edges with, so I have just straight-ish edges cut with scissors.

6/19/12

I decided on variegated thread and solid backgrounds for this week's projects.  Some of the birthday cards are for specific people, some aren't, just depends.

6/20/12

I started out with a white background then did a gold star on a dark blue background.  Whatever looks good!  Fun!

I was looking at cross-stitch patterns for future projects and realized that most of the patterns are very time-consuming.  My new criteria is, can I do it in a week?  Not much fits that criteria especially at the skill level I'm at with counted cross-stitch.

6/21/12

There is a prejudice for complicated time-consuming art.  The gesture, the art that takes little time isn't as valued.  At the same time people who aren't artistic may  not appreciate your time-consuming art.  It will be interesting to see what I can come up with in a week's time.  :)

6/23/12

Extras:

I did 3 drawings tonight.  The idea was from "Art Lab for Kids" by Susan Schwake.  It's not about being an artist (or a writer) or whatever.  This is just about expanding my skills and enjoying myself.  I had a hard time sticking to just contour lines.  I wanted to add detail!  This was from Lab 1-Contour Drawings:

I've also been doing some learning how to draw stuff at:  http://www.drawspace.com/  I'll post pics of those in the Extras as well.  I'll also post progress on my longer projects here (like the U2 jacket).

6/24/12

I made my 6the card today, finishing at my friend's house.  These are the ladies I embroider with.  I gave Mary the card as a housewarming gift.  It has orange variegated floss on yellow cardstock, comet design, the best of the lot.  Too bad I didn't have my camera with me!

A Princess Among Dragons - Framed

I got this framed and it is hanging above my kitchen table.  Love it!

Parable of the Talents - 1st Set of Four Bookmarks

Here are the first four bookmarks for the Parable of Talents project, plus supplies used:

I joined a weekly challenge group on Flickr.  http://www.flickr.com/groups/52weeksofcreative/  I posted this picture for Week 1.

A Princess Among Dragons

For the July/August Challenge in the Art Challenges~ group at http://creativesouls.ning.com/. DMC floss backstitched on cardstock with Far East Matstack papers. Stencil designs by www.spraypaintstencils.com.
What really helped me finish this was Dan Goodwin's suggestion on Coach Creative Space http://coachcreativespace.ning.com/ to work on one project at a time through to the finish.  Of course you can't always do that.  Actually I think it was in one of his blog posts.  This is just embroidery on paper or Dutch Embroidery.  I just printed out the stencil designs and poked holes along the lines in pink, green and purple cardstock.  I used black DMC floss on the dragon and variegated floss on the rose and stem.  After sewing I stuck it all together with double-sticky tape.  I used DCWV papers around the edges.  Here are pictures of the process.

The back.

Coffee-themed Bookmarks

I finished the coffee-themed bookmarks.  Yay!  I plan to sell them.  I'm not sure what I should ask for them.  I still have to get them laminated.  I get them laminated at Staples for a few bucks. Hopefully I can do that on Saturday or Monday.  They turned out very nicely, I think.  I just picked some floss colors I wanted to work with and matched the cardstock to them.  Unlike regular embroidery you just use one strand of floss in Dutch Embroidery.  They don't cost much to make, just the time involved.  These are the first 8.  I will probably make 8 more.  I tape the front to the back with double-sided tape.  You have to do something like that to cover up the thread and the tape in back.  I'm really happy with these, even if there are a few mistakes.

Hello!

I got interested in embroidery in January of 2010.  Yep, last January! I've really taken to it, so decided to start a blog about my adventures in embroidery.  I've done Dutch Embroidery for a few years now, which is just embroidery on paper, a wildly different medium than fabric.  I do other crafts as well and may post pictures of those as well.  Enjoy!

I'm embroidering an apron for my friend, Beth.  I hope to have it done by the second week in July or sooner.  She is having a Grand Opening of her coffee shop and bakery around then.  The apron was dyed with liquid Rit dye and I ironed on Aunt Martha's "Java Break" patterns and cupcake and ice cream patterns from Jenny Hart's "Sublime Stitching" book.  Already started the coffee pot.  It will be embroidered in coffee and pink floss colors.

I don't have any holiday embroideries planned at the moment.  I expect I'll do them far ahead of the holiday in question.  At least I hope so!  I'm going to include my Dutch Embroidery projects on this blog too.