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!

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.

Peace Dove

Craft project for the Gospel of John, New Testament class.  Last homework for the class!

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!

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 - Paisley

Here is the paisley piece that gave me so much grief when I started it. It has white metallic thread which I started to use with 6 strands, but it got all tangly and was very difficult to work with so I went down to one thread, which is doable. The other floss is a light aqua color. The design is from a blog called Pintangle. It turned out better than I thought it would.

Embroidered Jacket - Flower Mandalas

Here are two designs I stitched up.  They are from a design I found on the internet.

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. 

Embroidered Jacket - The Start

I'm going to embellish this jacket.  I've already got a few small motifs from trying out transfer techniques and I just finished the moon phases on the waist.  Moon phase design from Aimee Ray's Motif Collection book.

On Quitting Projects

I quit two projects yesterday that I was never gonna finish.  One, a green tote bag for my Mom, an embroidery project.  I used too complicated of a design on both the front and back and that tote bag canvas is so hard to work with.  Also the iron-on design was too light for the detail involved.  Maybe someone will pick it up at the thrift store and finish it.  The other was a beading project on my loom.  It was too wide and too hard to do.  I just cut it off and chucked it.  It had been sitting for about six months.  Next time I'll do a narrower pattern, although I don't plan on beading on the bead loom for awhile.  Sometimes you just have to give up on stuff!  I feel better since I did that.

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

Creative Mistakes

I started a new embroidery project tonight, twice! I ironed-on the designs on patterned fabric and they didn't show up enough for me to be able to see all the design. So I got out some white fabric and it finally worked. This is a present for a CoachCreativeSpace friend, so I can't go into any more details. :)

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...

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.