cloud reveal #1

as i mentioned in my previous post -- i've gone back to the cloud motif in my cross-stitch pieces. holy cumulus, i have made a lot of clouds over the last week.
here's the first batch: (well, it is the second batch that i did, but the first batch that was ready to be photographed and posted.)


i'm having a difficult time getting photographs of these things that i am happy with...
but yep -- here they are. little fluffy white clouds on a black background. the first time i had done clouds, i was doing silhouettes of black clouds on white backgrounds. (and you can read more about that first batch, and see photos, here.)
i am quite sure that i like this combo better, though.
they still, like all of my other clouds, have the silver lining, but it is extra super subtle on these black backgrounds. that's okay -- i think that unexpected subtlety makes them more special.


here are some attempts of getting a good shot of them all set up on a wall.




i dont think any of these shots is perfect, by any means, but i do really enjoy how they look all grouped together in lots of different ways.



next up in the forecast: even more clouds.

cloud 9, 10, 11, 12.....

i'm on my way out the door to go spend a day with my family... it's my dad's birthday -- happy birthday papa! --- but before i go; here's a preview of the new body of work that i hope to completely unveil later this week:



i've gone back to the clouds.. and i'm quite happy with them.
more later...

blue skied and clear

the sky has been looking bluer and sunnier than usual these days.
i'm feeling good; feeling positve.
and i do believe my heart is learning how to sing again.

mailing letters

another order for a set of custom initials -- going out in the post today.
hooray!

new batch of coral branches

it had been a while since i'd last done a coral branch. i picked up the red thread and needle and went back to it. one branch became three.

e mail

your letter e is on its way to you, erica!

pie heart brooklyn

i've extended my stay in brooklyn a few days longer -- enjoying the culture and the company of my friends just too much to want to leave.
inspired by my peeps ron and jay, and the fresh goodies available at union square greenmarket, i baked up a strawberry rhubarb pie to share with my friends.
mmmmm. thanks for the love, support, and fun, friends. xoxo.

ra ra renegade

wow. what a weekend. renegade was a hoot!
i shared a booth with my friend christine, of wonting, and we both agree that the fair was a great experience.
here's a not-so-great picture of our booth set-up:


and here's one of christine:


and here are a few of my little set-up:





while the weather was not so cooperative, we kept a positive outlook and made the best of it -- heck, what can ya do about the weather? saturday was brutally hot (even i, who am usually cool as a cucumber and impervious to heat-spells, felt more than a little wilted) for most of the day and then, at 4:30, what we thought was going to be a passing shower ended up to be a CRAZY, INTENSE, outta-control thunder and lightning and rain storm. dammit! we were stuck under our tent canopy for two hours, fretting about our merchandise and the fate of our booth. the storm let up for just enough time for us to quickly load our stuff into chad's zipcar and get out of there.
the next morning, we arrived to find that our tent and booth and pegboard display set-up were all still intact, albeit a little soggy. although we had spots of showers and short bursts of rainy rain throughout the day, things were better on sunday.
overall -- i'd say it was a great experience. in all honesty, i had hoped that sales would have been a little better, but really, everything else worked out so well that it didnt really matter.
thanks SO SO SO much to all of my friends who stopped by - it was awesome to see you all and i felt so flattered and happy and thankful and squishy inside that so many of you came to see me. janna and oscar and aunt pat and ding-dong and guy and laura and joe and ron and jay and alex and jordan and sarah and amanda and megan and jack and leila.... (i REALLY hope i didnt miss anyone...) wow! you peeps are great. i love you.
i had the WONDERFUL experience of re-connecting with long-lost friend jess and i am SO happy to hear that she is doing well and to see that she is making such great stuff. she's opening a store soon! hooray! so proud of her! years ago, jess and i took a trip to paris together and had a great time eating crepes and bon-bons and looking for the cool kids.
the other greatest thing about the fair was talking to and meeting people and getting such wonderfully kind feedback about my work. thanks to everyone who i came by and chatted me up!

come and get it

here are some quick shots of some of the new items i whipped up for renegade:

hand-towels (HA HA -- hand towels -- i do crack myself up!)


and stacks of new zippy pouches ready to go:


fingers crossed that the people like 'em...

drone

sorry -- no updates lately. i've been trying to get my act together for the renegade craft fair in brooklyn this weekend.
this is the kind of stuff i've been doing:


workin' on my product and display. (but this, as pictured, is SO not the way that it will stay -- just experimenting with different hooks and stuff.)
it's all coming together swimmingly. tomorrow i'm gonna try to take and post some photos of everything i've got tagged and labeled and finished and ready to go!

alphabetical disorder

although it wasn't part of my original plan of attack,, i decided to put together a cross-stitch alphabet for my display at renegade.


i am loving some of these new typographies that i found on old samplers.
just a few more letters to go...

in the bag

here's the latest to come out of my one-woman factory:



i'm using that fantastic fabric that i found to make a bunch of zip-pouches for renegade. i hadn't made a pouch, or used the zipper foot on my sewing machine, for quite some time, so i whipped up this practice one the other day. oooooh, i love it.
i'm keeping this one, so i put the label on the outside (advertising, you know?). the others that i make to sell will have the label on the inside.
i've got all of the fabric cut and stacked and ready to sew... that's the project of the day.

oeuf, pow!

farm fresh eggs... make for a happy morning.
yet another perk of living out here in the country -- these eggs were gathered yesterday morning, and i bought them yesterday afternoon. all different kinds of chickens = all different colors and sizes of eggs. wow, so pretty, and SO delicious.
i'm working on perfecting my omelette-making skills. with eggs this good, it is hard to tell if the finished dish is so delicious because i have cooked it that way, or because the eggs are just so amazing and fresh that they'd taste good no matter what i did to them.
what a way to start the day.

pat the bunny

i made these guys the other day. hot diggity, i LOVE working with this fabric. i don't know what i can get or use that will be as wonderful to work with as this. when i made the first bunny from this material, i explained that i had "made" this fabric by felting (throwing in the washer and dryer) a merino wool blanket that i had. it is so soft, and thick, and so... yowsers, just great -- i don't think that commercially available wool felt or fleece or anything else can be quite as dreamy. maybe i will have to start searching the thrift markets for old sweaters and blankets.
anyways, here are the new fuzzy bunnies.


they're gonna get packed up in a basket and carted up to renegade, where i hope each one of them gets scooped up and taken to a new home.

side note: yesterday i happened to look at the vendor list for renegade -- it was enough to put me into a panic. i had my first craft-fair anxiety dream last night, in which i forgot all of my cross-stitch pieces, my partner (christine, of wonting, with whom i am sharing a booth) didn't show up, and i sold maybe four things the whole time. ugh.

repose

jumping back to work after a refreshing, relaxing, invigorating (is that oxymoronic?) memorial day weekend. picnic in tinicum county park with five different cheeses, martinelli's sparking apple cider, and my faithful pal, jj = delightful. now i'm ready to rock my sewing machine all week long.

rabbit, run

in an attempt to get my butt in shape and to shake myself out of the never-ending-winter blues, i've been going on walks in the morning. morning walks in my new (old) town are pretty darn great. well this morning as i was walking down a quiet street, a bunny decided to run along with me. seriously, this little thing hopped RIGHT along side of me, maybe the closest a bunny has ever come to me in the wild, for about half a block. it made my morning.
and just yesterday, as i was sorting through fabric, i found pieces that i had already marked and cut to sew up a linen and cotton bunny just like the felt ones i did way back when. these seemed to be signs telling me, "sew that bunny!" so i did, and here he is:



i just dont like the way that poly-fill can look kinda lumpy under thin fabrics! other than that, i'd say he's pretty cute. my favorite part about him is his nose, which is made from a pink button that was handmade out of shell! (not by me -- i'm not that good...)

makes me feel like i'm somebody

hey lookie:


check out this link to foliohello, an art/craft/decorating/design blog kept by jackie in seattle.
jackie contacted me with some questions about my flickr photos of my cross-stitch collections and then wrote it all up into an article that she posted on her blog about tips for displaying a collection. my first interview, hooray! thanks, jackie!

kj and the paycock*

i'm back from my visit to nyc and i've finished the cross-stitch project that i was working on. here it is:


this is my first multi-colored cross-stitch piece (well, unless you count the one that i used as my learning piece, which i took over from what my mama had started years ago).
i got the pattern by taking a photo of a piece that i had seen in a book of german cross-stitch samplers.


then i just counted and copied the stitches. it is a lot of stitches.

as per my usual style, i completed one peacock and then i decided that i needed to do another and make some slight changes. the first one i did was the more brightly colored one, where i copied the pattern almost exactly. i did the second one because i was really interested in trying out the darker color scheme and because i wanted to play with and tweak the pattern a little bit. i actually think i like the first one best. maybe i'll try again... i still think there are improvements to be made. for the time being, however i'll leave it as is. i've got other projects to complete; i have to get my butt in gear to start preparing for renegade!

*title is a reference to a sean o'casey drama (which was made into a film by hitchcock). also, the tale of juno and the peacock is my favorite myth; if you don't know it, look it up -- it's a good one. (this is not the best version or retelling -- i prefer bulfinch's, but i can't find it anywhere on the web.)

break out

i'm taking a little break from the studio and spending a few days in brooklyn.
i brought with me my most ambitious cross stitch project to date:


and, just for fun, here is a photo of one of my all-time favorite pieces of street art.


it's on the side of the garden food-market in greenpoint. i love it.

now in stock

okay, peeps.
the first batch of cross-stitch kits are up in the shop. i'm sharing the love with my pattern for the squirrel silhouette. click on over and check out the listing and details in my etsy shop!

this is why i'm...

...crafty and curious


spent a few days at home (mom and pop's house will always be home) with the family and some friends that i had not seen in almost twenty years (eeeeks!). while at home i remembered to take a shot (poor as it may be) of mama's bookshelf. this is where i get it from -- these are the books, bought by the mom, that i grew up with. "back to basics" -- explains my desire to be a pioneer girl and make my own soap and cheese and rugs and everything else. "hundreds of things a girl can make" -- i brought that one home with me. and then there is the full spectrum of books on do-it-yourself home repair, every kind of needlecraft, quilting, sewing, antiquing, gardening, cooking... domestic bliss. i love that i grew up with this. thanks, mama! i love you.

awwwww yeah.

new product coming out of le chez:
do-it-yourself cross-stitch kits!


i'm ready to share the fun and spread the cross-stitch love.
each kit contains a hoop, needle, aida cloth (cross-stitch fabric) embroidery floss and a pattern -- all wrapped up in a cute little bag that i made with my very own hands.
i've got just a couple more details to iron out and then they're going into my etsy shop.
are people going to buy them? i don't know... we'll see!

stu-stu-studio

okay. i've hung up all of the finished and framed cross-stitch pieces that i've got right now.
here it is -- the new inventory:


and i've put away the cross-stitch patterns and materials and brought out the sewing machine.
i tidied up a bit and i'm ready to start some new projects.



yeeeeeeeah, sewing!

honorable mention

thanks so much to poppytalk for the shout out today!

i've got a lot of new x-stitch pieces completed, but haven't yet gotten around to taking satisfactory photos of them.
here's a preview:





yup -- i've been busy. a recent bout of insomnia has been quite instrumental in helping me to complete this much work, too. i reeeeeally want to put down the embroidery needle and thread and get started on some of those other non-cross-stitch projects, but i can't seem to stop! i still have more patterns that i've developed and am anxious to bring to life. more to come...xoxoxxxxxxxxxxxx

i love your golden crown...

(okay, so mister bolan sings it as "broken crown" -- well this one ain't broke.. it sparkles.)


i was about to put down the cross-stitch materials and start in on the sewing projects that i have lined up, but then i got it in my head to do these.
i busted out the metallic embroidery floss again and put it to use for some regal crowns. the three-strand floss is quite difficult to work with -- it frays, the strands come unraveled, and it tends to break a lot -- which makes for much frustration and a lot of time spent working on what should take about half the time, but the results are rather worth it, i think. i'm happy with the way they turn out.
i like how from far away the crown seems to be made of weird rhinestones or beads, but then when viewed up close, the delicate metallic x's reveal themselves..


i did some in silver, too:


oooh, shiny, shiny.