evolution of the birds' eye

i had been making my vintage-print birdie onesies with button eyes.


and then i put on my hunter's vision -- or my naturalist's perspective-- and i found the hidden eyes in this vintage print. (can you spot them?)


when lined up just right, the flowers in the pattern make such great, subtle eyes -- so far better than the buttons (and it cuts out a step in production!)


the new, improved vintage-print birdie onesies (and newborn shirts)
(they'll be for sale this sunday at my table at the hearts and crafts affair at cafe grumpy in greenpoint, brooklyn!)

would you like to buy an O?

or a k? a j? an f? an l?...


...or any other letter?
prompted by the sweetly supportive positive feedback from friends about my cross-stitch K's, i'm putting the initials up on etsy -- with the option for custom orders.
i haven't had too much luck with etsy yet; we'll see how this goes.





(this post {maybe someday} sponsored by the letters k, s, g, m, and r.)

mushrooms - sylvia plath and meringues.

-Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly
-Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.
-Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.
-Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,
-Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,
-Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We
-Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking
-Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!
-We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,
-Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:
-We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door

That's my favorite Sylvia Plath poem.

The mushrooms pictured above aren't real mushrooms! They're cookies! Made out of meringue! HAHAHAHAHA!
Yup -- that's how I spent my Friday-night-after-Thanksgiving... making meringue mushrooms. What a nerd.

sunday morning

hung up some of the cross stitch pieces... they look kinda cool, right?

stitches in time

you can pin and mount me...

like a butterfly (or a moth).


sweet early-morning late-fall sunlight behind the latest cross stitch pieces

a hand made towel

taking a step backwards from the coral -- this is where it began, really, or where the coral facination stemmed from. (i actually finished these a few weeks ago -- just now posting...) this style of embroidery (which, again, i am not finished with my exploration of) is called "redwork." i first saw it a few years ago at the Folk Art Museum here in NYC, on quilts. It made an impression on me and I have just now gotten around to playing with it.



i really love the red embroidery floss on a white material.



dishtowels.

***my camera is taking really fuzzy pictures! or i am always taking my photos after i've had too much coffee...

inspiration coral-ation

here's my current inspiration board -- and new projects in the works.


i am IN. LOVE. WITH. the new gucci spring/cruise ads and runway looks. ( http://www.gucci.com/us/us-english/us/cruise-08/womens-runway/ ) the first time i saw the new ad, my heart went all a-flutter and my brain was obsessed with red coral.
in the picture you can see the beginning of my execution of the theme (the red-on-white coral cross-stitch pieces)-- and i'm just beginning.

smock around the bunker...

smock around, smock around...


I picked up Amy Karol's "Bend the Rules Sewing." I had been seeing a lot of reviews on it and everyone else seemed to love it. Well, when I leafed through it, I saw why. It really is a great book. There are a lot of inspiring ideas in there and the patterns are simple and easy to adapt and customize. I really appreciate her "bend the rules" attitude towards sewing --- the voice that says, " ah, don't pin it -- that's a waste of time -- just sew!" that is definitely how I work.
I tried the smock pattern first - with little miss Bella in mind.


Typical of me, I never seem to stop at just one. After the first, I decided to enlarge the pattern a little bit.


and then I just kept on going.

I had embroidered this chickie, but didnt have any use for it -- so I added it as a pocket.


If I make another, I think I will change the pattern just a little bit -- maybe make it a wee bit longer -- maybe add some buttons...
That book really is great. I recommend it to anyone who loves a project but needs a little direction. It gives the basic idea and how-to and lets you go from there to make the project "your own." A+++++++++, Ms. Karol.
(she also keeps a really great and inspiring blog, http://www.angrychicken.typepad.com/ )

this enchanted pony

i finished it; it's no longer the disenchanted pony.
i'm definitely not happy with the framing -- that will need to be fixed, but for now, it is complete.


that is a lot of x's....

making bunnies

(i have never quite understood why that is a term for little kids' farts.)*


here's the project du jour (one of them, anyway).
I drew the pattern the other day -- i dont know why or what inspired it -- bunnies arent a common theme for me -- but that day, i doodled a bunny and liked the shape. so i enlarged it on the photocopier and voila -- the bunny pattern was born.
at first i was going to make it of the pink polka-dot fabric that serves as the backdrop for these photos, but then i opted for the fuzzy felt.



i made the felt -- kinda... i had a pure merino wool blanket that moths had gotten to. well, i never really loved the blanket in the first place, so i thought that instead of darning the holes, i would try to turn it into a big beautiful piece of felt. i put it through one (hot) wash and dry cycle at the local launderette and it worked alright! this stuff is beautiful -- soft and fuzzy but strong enough to be cut with scissors. it sews up like a dream. perfect for soft fuzzy bunnies.



i made one, but wasnt 100% happy with the shape, so i revised the pattern and this little guy is the result.
i think he qualifies as a "green" product -- made from a repurposed blanket and stuffed with his own scraps (as well as some fluff).
if you love him and want one, let me know -- i've got the pattern and left over fabric!


(i also dont quite understand why i used that as the title for my post, when i could have instead referenced vincent gallo, or john updike, or the lemonheads.)

this is halloween (2007)

if there were a winner at greg and dana's annual pumpkin-carving party, this year it would have been greg, hands down.
this was his pumpkin. it was fantstic. he even made the spider that is hanging out on the side of the web -- made it by cutting off the bottom of the pumpkin, carving it into the spider shape, and spray painting it black.
good work, friend.

and these, (below) were my pumpkins:


itty-bitty happy and sad.
(i love carving the super-small pumpkins; every year someone says, "you can't carve those pumpkins!" and every year, i say, "i do it every year, watch me." i think that i've carved the very same face every year -- since college.)


and a mustache!

i also made chocolate bat cookies -- because, they're not just for christmas!



(and greg made THE most delicious cranberry-apple crumble. it was so good, i ate way more of it than i should have. i didnt get a picture -- i was too busy shoving forkfuls of it into my mouth.)

kj and the dream of horses

ponies! ponies! ponies!




a little crazy to be working on so many pony projects at the same time (i am currently working on four separate ponies) - and a little premature to be posting about them... but i'm just so excited i had to share some pictures of the works in progress.
i hope that not a single one of these turns into an eternally-unfinished project.

(yeah yeah yeah -- ponies/horses are sooooo three or four years ago. big deal. 1 - since when do i give a hoot about trends? and 2 - i grew up with horses and ponies -- and, i have been bitten by a horse two different times in my life {spiderman was only bitten by the spider once - so what does that make me?} so -- i've got horse-cred; i'll embroider ponies if i want to.)

ruffle my feathers

this is what i had actually planned on doing with the silver embroidery thread -- feathers.
but the silver was too difficult to work with for detail this fine; the strands couldnt be separated and the texture was too stiff and wiry. but this ivory floss is juuuust right. soft and fine.
this is the first time i am working with linen -- and i positively love it.


i embroidered the feathers a week or two ago, and finally got around to hemming the edges to turn this into a handtowel.


i am actually really really pleased with it.

wouldnt you know, though -- the day after i finish this first feather handtowel -- i go out on my lunchbreak and pick up the new issue of Martha Stewart Living, and what does it have in it -- feather linens...
hers(theirs)are different than mine (they are so nice, actually) -- but still!

feathers! on linens! (image of page from martha stewart living november 2007)

AND! cross stitch (image of page from martha stewart living november 2007)

AND! gold leaf! (image of page from martha stewart living november 2007)


it wasnt enough that she painted her house the same pink color as i painted my bedroom a year and a half ago (the may 2007 issue)... i swear her people are watching me...

gold leaf

first there was the silver thread.
and then there was gold.


i bought them both at the same time, but was slightly less excited about the gold than the silver. i'm not much of a gold girl; i guess i usually find it to be a bit garish -- i'd much prefer silver or platinum, please. (then again, i'm not much of a jewelry girl at all, really.)
however -- i've found much inspiration lately for the combination of black and gold.
first -- it was beautiful jewelry chains of sparkly gold and dull black that my good friend janna has been making (and if she ever gets her website up, i will link to them!), then -- it was a black and gold ring worn by sweet miss julia, my new co-worker.


and then -- it was the hues of autumn -- it has enabled me to make another step in the whole cross-stitch kick i've been on..
black tree silhouettes (which i do love so very much - especially when you see them at dusk, with a dark, but still colorful sky behind them -- central park is an especially lovely place to see this...) -- but it isn't quite winter yet -- they've still got their leaves. the leaves may have dried up, but they still have a sparkle to them.


maybe nature's last green is gold, too? (not just her first...)it is the hardest hue to hold...

(hmmmm -- ponyboy -- more foreshadowing?)