Finished Mandala!

I finally finished it!  Urban Threads design.  Tons and tons of French knots!

New Testament Apron

I finished the apron!

Maiden Monarch Fairy Queen

This is what I worked on this week.  It took four days and about 13 hours worth of stitching.  I made a few mistakes, but I think it turned out great!  This is a free Urban Threads design for an Urban Threads contest.  The idea is to take their original design and use a different set of colors.  I used a piece of fabric from Joann's. I was really intimidated by this design, the hair especially.  I can't believe I finished it!  The contest deadline was supposed to be tomorrow, but they extended it to the end of the month.

More Jean Jacket Progress

I rinsed the Transfer-eze off my jacket yesterday.  I'd been working on it for a few months so I have a lot of pictures.  Design credit posted below each picture.

Peacock Feathers, Doodle-Stitching design.

Cat, Urban Threads design.

French Knot Swirly, Doodle-Stitching design.

French Knot Leaf, design my my friend Heidi.

Constellations, Doodle-Stitching designs, heart designed by my friend Lotus.

Triple Moon, Urban Threads design.

Creativity, design by my friend Lotus.

Madonna and Child

I'm not real happy with the way this turned out, especially the eyes.  With a limited color palette I had to make some hard decisions.  I'm only using lavender, white, black and purple DMC floss on this apron.  My brother said it looks like a Russian Icon, so that cheered me up a bit.  This is for the craft part of my Gospel of Luke homework for New Testament class.  I started a Peace Dove design today for the top part of the apron.  Design by Urban Threads.  Apron Rit-dyed purple.  Hand-embroidered.

Cross & Flowers

This cross is part of my New Testament class homework.  It is embroidered on the pocket of an apron that's been dyed with purple Rit dye.  Urban Threads design.

And some Valentine's Day carnations!

Finished Projects - January '11

Leafy Earth on jean jacket. I used leftover green embroidery floss and new blue floss. Design by Urban Threads.

Star of David embroidered on purple Rit-dyed apron. To represent the "Jewish Gospel", Matthew. Design from Dover's Holidays and Special Occasions Iron-on Transfers by Charlene Tarbox.

What I've Been Up To

I moved around the beginning of December.  I didn't give up on creating.  Here are some pics of what I've been up to.

Embroidered Jacket - Progress

Here are some more designs on my jacket.  The bunny is an Urban Threads design, the Octopus and Crow are Doodle Stitching designs. 

More Good Stuff!

Set of fall napkins for my mom.  Free embroidery design by Carina Envoldsen-Harris found on Flikr.  Just finished yesterday.

Framed Halloween pumpkin:

And some pretty flowers:

Fall Images

Halloween - Stitching the Wheel - Work in Progress

OK, 3 blogs in one day is outrageous, I know!  I've been under a lot of stress this weekend and so have been stitching a lot.  Plus I like to take breaks between doing homework by embroidering.  It takes longer, but I retain my sanity.  5 homework posts due yesterday. 5.  Aaaaack!  Here is the future Halloween decoration for my house.  I'm slightly farther along than this.  You can see the Transfer-eze stuck to the fabric.  Design by Urban Threads.

Fall Failures and Successes: Fall Triple Moon

Well, I tried the Goddess design, upper left on the paper (previous blog post) on an organza bag, but the bag was too small and ripped, so that didn't work out very well.  I had to toss the whole thing. :(

I used Transfer-eze to transfer the small triple moon design onto orange printed fabric.  That turned out nicely.  I think I'll frame it!  :) That was also part of the Fall/Halloween art challenge on Creative Souls, a NING website.  Here is the triple moon design.  It is only about three inches long.

Transfer-eze! I love this stuff!

First thing I printed out some Urban Threads designs and cut them out and stuck them to another piece of copy paper.  Then I scanned those images.  Then I printed them out on the rough side of the Transfer-eze with my laser printer which I figured was less likely to bleed (toner rather than ink).  I used many images because this stuff is $15 for 10 sheets, plus shipping.  Just Google Transfer-eze to find quilt shops to order from.  I ordered mine from Original Creations, in Texas, fast shipping.

Here's a picture of the cut-out's on the left and the Transfer-eze on the right.  I paid for all these designs at Urban Threads, they are $1 each for hand embroidery designs unless there's a sale.  They are PDF files.

As you can see I already cut out the kitty face design. Then you peel the printed side from the blank paper side.  The printed side sticks to the surface of the fabric as you can see here:

Then you just embroider!  There is a little sticky filminess, but that is nothing compared to being able to transfer designs onto any color fabric. Here is the kitty embroidered.  I chose gray which doesn't show up ver well.

Then you soak the fabric in cold water for 15 minutes to a half an hour.  Still experimenting with the time frame. 

Then I let it the fabric dry overnight.  This is the result, a gray kitty face on my jean jacket:

So easy!

Don't try this at home!

I have images on the computer I'd love to transfer and then embroider.  I'm looking for easy ways to do that.

I've been neglecting my dishes, so instead of doing those I tried out a couple transfer methods tonight.  One didn't work at all and the other didn't work very well.  The first was the Acetone Toner Transfer Method.  I reversed an Urban Threads image by scanning it, a lucky clover one and printed it out with my laser printer.  Then I taped it to a 100% cotton floursack towel.  Then your supposed to get a cotton ball wet with nail polish remover and go over it, followed by the back of a spoon.  (for complete instructions send me a message with your email and I'll send it to you).  Well, this didn't work at all!  My nail polish remover says it has acetone in it, but maybe not enough.

The second method I used was the light box transfer method.  I found a clear plastic box, turned it on its side and put a floor lamp sideways on the floor into the box, sans shade.  I don't have a table lamp.  Then I put down my image, not reversed, and traced it with Crayola fine point washable markers on the floursack towel.  Well, the markers bled quite a bit.  (fabric on top of paper on top of clear box)  I should have taped everything down too.  I didn't like how it turned out so its on top of the washer.  I will see if the colors really do wash out!

So now I'm pretty frustrated.  I really want to try Transfer-Eze, when I have a spare $15 or so.  Here is the link to the tutorial: http://zuill.us/andreablog/2010/01/29/transfer-eze-a-new-product-for-embroiderers/ Here is a place you can buy it:  http://www.originalcreationsquiltshop.com/shop/TransferEze.htm

So for now I'm sticking to iron-on transfers.  :(

Does anyone know any other methods that work for you?

Big Ideas

My crafty friend, Fiona, suggested I use rice paper to print out patterns on.  I guess it is a lighter weight paper, but heavier than tracing paper.  I found some on Dick Blick and also found colored pencils and crayons.  That brings me to my next big idea.  I've been reading tutorials and discussions about doing shadings on light colored fabric with colored pencils or crayons and then ironing them so the colors blend well.  You need a hot iron on Cotton. After shading you then embroider.  Here is a beautiful one done with colored pencils by Sew Lovely Embroidery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sewlovely/4647711421/

Here is a tutorial at Urban Threads for using crayons to make adorable shaded pears: http://www.urbanthreads.com/pages?id=448

I want to try this shading some time.  I'm thinking of doing a pumpkin design for Halloween.  Haven't decided if I'll embroider it or embroider on paper.  I wonder if you could melt crayons into paper...