Mario and Luigi Chum Chum toys

Here's some paper crafting I had a go at back in May 2011.

These two were really fun to make. They were created from a blank Chum Chum template from Christopher Bonnette over at macula.tv. Be sure to stop by and check out his gallery. He has tons of preprinted paper creatures and almost all of them have a blank counterpart so you can do what you wish with them.

I had to do a little math and customization for Luigi because he is after all taller and thinner than Mario. It took a few tries and a lot of growling, but I finally got it. The hats are also custom. I just tinkered with a Christmas ornament pattern I found on a random website until they started to look like hats. Once I did one, the other was a piece of cake.

I attribute my step into fiber work to these two. For some reason I got it in my head that it would be fun to use quilt like patterns instead of just coloring them solid colors. This is pretty much what my idea of a quilt like pattern was two years ago. Yes, I did, in fact, draw a zillion little lines and measured out the harlequin diamonds and then colored every square inch with sharpies and pens of the like. Something about the way they looked with the different textures and blenders really appealed to me. They might even be responsible for the Bowser quilt currently in progress!

What is the first thing you remember piquing your interest in quilts or other arts? Where do you look for different patterns and inspirations?



Linking into Really Random Thursday @ Live a Colorful Life.

2013 North Carolina Quilt Symposium

I was lucky enough to be invited to go with some ladies from a quilting bee to the 2013 NC Quilt Symposium over the weekend. I've never been to one before so I had no idea what I would come across. I tell you, the commitment, talent, and patience of the quilters competing is unreal.I took a ton of pictures and want to share some of my favorites with you. I'm afraid you're stuck with my candid cell phone photos. Next time, I'll bring a real camera.

Picture heavy post to commence now...

Here is the one that was just jaw dropping. My favorite by a mile. You can't see it in the picture, but there are crystals wisely placed throughout the piece drawing your attention to some of the more amazing quilting as well as giving it a little bling, which of course, I love. The symmetry is perfect, the borders are perfectly measured and the roses are beautiful.

Remembering Alice, Kathleen Stuart

I didnt get a picture of this entire quilt, but I will tell you, all of the squares are amazing as this one. The details are amazing and quilting is as good as it gets.

Friends of Baltimore, Nancy Yondo

This was one of my favorite borders in the show. It was kind of a little surprise. I had paid so much attention to the center of the quilt I didnt even notice the houses around the border at first. As soon as I did, it was such fun to eyeball them all!

Yo Yo Village, Nancy Moore

I'm so mad at myself for not getting a good picture of this one! It's beautiful. Most the pattern and texture is created with thread rather than fabric. It's quite a unique piece that shows you something new every time you look at it.

Goose Tracks at Night, Beth Wiggs

I'm not much of a cat person, but I still thought this one was really cute. Check out those tiny little cat paw prints in the border.

Pussy Footin Around, Mary Louise Parks

This one was really special up close and personal. I love the way she handled the photo borders and each and every section of the images were hand pieced.

Greetings from Fort Bragg, Sana Moulder

This one caught my eye because I had never seen anything quite like it before. The black "lines" are actually the black background the piece is hanging against.  She's used a pillow case finish and put the pieces together with beads between the pieces. Really cool idea and execution.

Feather Fantasy, Jeanette Overmayer

The quilting on this one... amazing.

Billy's Bluebirds, Ellene Place

Here's the last one that is all about the amazing quilting - promise. The full quilt looked to be a queen size and every inch of it was quilted this beautifully. See those perfect TINY circles around the leaves?

A Walk in the Woods, Kathleen Stuart

The last artist, Anne Francis, had a showcase series, with good reason. I understand all of her quilts are done completely by hand. Yep, just scissors, needles, thread and tons of patience! All of the following quilts are hers.

(I found fan art at a quilt show! This made my day!)

I kind of wish I had pictures of some of the others too. They really are special and so much fun to look at. One of the missing ones that stands out in my mind is the one she had made snow out of french knots - on the whole quilt.

I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. Tell me, which one is your favorite? What do you find yourself drawn to when you go to these shows?

(I did attempt to locate web presences like galleries or blogs for each of the artists so I could link you, but was unsuccessful for all of them! If you happen to know any of them, drop me a line and I'll add the links!)

The Sunday Geekery: Yep, I'm still mad after all these years.

We happened into a Game Stop earlier this week. While discussing the upcoming Xbox One with the fella that worked there the topic of publishers and old games came up. It wasn't long until we circled around to the subject of Dragon Warrior and I realized I'm still mad at my brother 20+ years later. We played the single player game together taking turns killing things and grinding experience. When we made it to the end of the game, we had quite different approaches. I wanted to grind some more experience, my brother wanted to just fly in there in kill the boss. He took it upon himself to do so, when I wasn't even home! That's right. He didnt even have the decency to be a jerk *and* let me see the end. I'm positive I've done my fair share of unforgivables, but this one, this one stands at the top!

Ok Ok, maybe I'm being too hard on him. The game did at least create a love of all things Dragon Warrior, aka Dragon Quest.  My three favorites are Dragon Warrior (NES), Dragon Quest V (DS), and Dragon Quest VIII (PS2).

IMHO, These three are the best in series. The first one is obviously one of the defining jRPG games and the others follow suit and stayed true to the style. Would you like confession, resurrections, benediction or divination today, sir? While I'm giving love to Dragon Warrior, here's some pretty great fan art.

Benjibot completed a set of all 40 monsters from Dragon Warrior in cross stitch. See them all on the flickr site.

From Etsy seller, Crystalcat1989, a super cute miniature felted blue slime.

Sephernoose from Sprite Stitch Forums creates pretty fantastic wood sprites by gluing together painted wood cubes. Check out the link for Chrono Trigger and FF sprites too.

I'm having such a busy and wonderful holiday weekend. I hope you all are too! And, Bunk, I love your dragon killing self!

Red Riding Hood Placemats, Complete!

Griswold drum roll please.....



Here they are!

Here's what they look like on my dining room table.

I'm really happy with how they came out considering how many firsts this project represents. First time paper piecing, first time with the new quilting foot, first time editing a pattern, and first time trying to figure out how to get a triangle table in a picture!

I'm quite happy with the pattern from Cyrille @ Bubblestitch Quilts. I bought Red Riding Hood from Etsy and she has a craftsy store with the same patterns. She sent it to me within a few hours of purchase and I had no technical problems receiving it or printing it. Looks like she's just released a outdoors set with a pretty fantastic airstream trailer. Be sure to stop by and check it out. Thanks Cyrille!



If you'd like to see all of the posts related to Red - here is a handy index!


Linking in with TheFreeMotionQuiltingProject. 

Ornamentea Class Review: They let me play with FIRE

I donated cash to the Red Cross relief effort in OK - you can help too!

Look what I did this weekend!

 I took the Stackable Bands class at Ornamentea in Raleigh, NC. 

First off, what a cute little shop! I don’t really do jewelry much (OK, hardly ever), but I love the findings, hardware, and funky beads. I can see a million uses for all of their tiny little things in sculptures, for fiber embellishments, or even jewelry (ha!). The shop has a great local feel to it, is comfortable, and the folks there are super friendly. They had a lot of cute little sample projects that I recognized from the website and blog. I highly recommend my local friends get over there and my not local friends check out their website where they sell all these little things too!

Here’s some candid photos of my favorite shop things –

Big wall of beautiful beads! I didn't buy any - now I have a reason to go back!	Love the details, like book pages in the background and sewing pattern wallpaper.
All these lovely tiny things! There's a miniature crown dying to come out of here!	See those paper mache moose heads over the door? Yeah, me too!

On to the class, Stackable Bands.

Would I recommend this class? YES

Would I recommend the instructor? YES

Would I return for another class? YES

Summary: Great for beginners. GO GO GO!

I might have wanted to cry a bit when walking into this set up. You see – I don’t do fire, or metal, or very small things. I think I may have been as beginner as beginner gets! This is the year of no fear though so I decided to suck it up and give it a whirl.

The instructor, Sarah Tector, gave us tons of info on the metals as well as the tools we were using in that class and why they were the most appropriate tools for the job. She dropped an overwhelming amount of knowledge that I may have forgotten almost as soon as I jotted it down.  Despite the volume of words, I think there is a very high value in hearing the terms associated with the craft to help make it more accessible for beginners, even if it is a bit more than I can take in 45 minutes or so.  Sarah showed us math for sizing with and without hammering and we were off making our rings and setting up the connecting joints.

Now for the FIRE! I just love this picture of Sarah demoing the torch. The expression on the other student’s face is pretty much exactly how I felt and I’m sure I had a mirrored face!

Sarah did an awesome job making it less intimidating and even convinced me I wasn’t going to burn down the cute little shop. It wasn’t long and I was off to the task of soldering.  To my surprise, it wasn’t that difficult. I can see this being something that just takes time to really understand the nuisances and be excellent at it, but it is also pretty forgiving. My joints came together ok without a lot of mess or obvious “I can see that’s wrong from across the room” errors.

After they were all soldered, we cleaned them up then shaped and hammered them to a finish. I’ve made sure to wear them for the last few days and show no mercy in their care and feeding. They’ve been washed, dropped, stepped on, and pinched and are holding up pretty well. The silver ones are by far my favorite. The copper was fun, but I can really see some the newbie errors on those. I’m not sure if it because the silver is more forgiving or the thicker gauge tolerates newb overheating better. Of course, there's always the simple fact that I just prefer silver.

True test of a class - will I do it on my own? All I can say for sure is not right now. I have a zillion projects and a zillion collections of supplies for said projects. It is just not a good time to pick up a new passion and all of the associated peripherals.  In the future - probably. I don't know that I would make rings again, but I can certainly think of ways to use custom findings, buttons, decorations, or other little metal things on fiber or sculpting projects. I am very glad I went and was exposed to something new and managed to be a grown up and not leave with a armload of new toys!

Sarah Tector
While you checking things out, be sure to stop by the instructor's metalsmith work at stectormetals.com. I absolutely LOVE the superhero gallery. It’s so modern, artistic, and just a little bit geeky. Brilliant Sarah! I hope to get by one of Raleigh shops that sells her work in the near future to see it live and in person. I suspect I will be wholly impressed.

 

The Sunday Geekery: Some of my favorite fan art

You've probably noticed I have a healthy respect for all kinds of art. I see art in almost everything that people create from something as simple as a well laid out and organized Microsoft Word document to a fine art piece in the modern museum. While I love it all for its unique story and perspective, my favorite is always fan art. Silly, eclectic, masterful, or crafty representations of pop culture always make me smile and touches the nostalgic button in my heart. As time goes on, I'll show you all kinds of artists I enjoy as regular blog posts and studio tours. Here, in the Geekery though, only funky fan art is allowed!

Here are a few of my favorites -

Jen Yates is one of my favorite bloggers over a Epbot. She has a healthy mix of nerd stuff including Disney geek-outs, maker toys, cosplay, artist features, and con reviews. This woman can do anything with a Dremel and little bit of glue and might be the queen of nerdy DIY house decorations and renovations. You might also know her from cakewrecks, a fun look at when professional cakes go very very wrong.

Her Harry Potter wand holder has always been one of my favorites of her projects. Not so much because I'm a Harry Potter fan, but because it is such a no fear project. It's a perfect example of just going for it and seeing where the project takes you. Sometimes it ends up really banging like hers did here.

There's a blog/forum site out there called Sprite Stitch. Stitchery + Nerdery. Pretty good combo for someone like me! I've seen lots of things I love come through there over the years, but the one I'm paying attention to right now is this Zelda stained glass stitching project by Siva. I really love how the colors pop and seems so rich. I can't wait to see how it finishes up, though I promise to enjoy the journey.

I love the idea of stained glass being mimicked in alternate art forms. Through this project, I discovered Thomas Randby that created the image Siva is embroidering. I'll certainly check back with him and see what develops with his skill. The Maleficent is pretty great!

 
Speaking of Maleficent, my all time favorite Disney villain, check out this piece and related gallery by Shoomlah at deviant art. Putting the Disney Princesses in more historically accurate costuming is genius. I love that she used simple backgrounds and really puts the focus on the character.

Honestly, it almost killed me to choose this one or Maid Marian. I'm still not positive that Maid Marian isnt my actual favorite in this series. I LOVE that Shoomlah made her a fox on four legs. genuis.

I don't have a lot to say about this artist, Matthew Hawkins, because I just haven't spent a lot of time researching him or his other work yet. I loved this the instant I saw it though and it hangs around in my mind when I think of a few of my favorite things.

Awwww yeah. Bugs Bunny in drag with a little kill da wabbit. I love this. Like really really love. Then it just keeps getting better. Check out this deviant art gallery by Tom Whalen. Every page of the gallery is a beautiful, stylistic, set of vector art showing off some of my favorite things. It's all here - Nintendo to Disney in this great style. The only thing that makes me sad is they are limited print runs and I cant buy them anymore. I'm going to have to start paying closer attention, see what comes up next!








So - have you seen any great fan or pop art lately?


Linking with Not Done Growing because nothing makes me happier than geekery!
Ack! Forgot to link back to Really Random Thursday!

Red Riding Hood Place Mats: The New Quilting Foot

Look - a new toy!

When I bought my sewing machine, it was a bit impulsive. I was headed to a class in the mountains and needed a machine that cold do FMQ type things. Since I had no clue what a darning foot was or even what it meant to "drop the feed dogs" I asked the instructor for her recommendation. I knew I would buy whatever she told me because I was overwhelmed by machine choices. I couldnt find one at my local quilt shops and ended up hooking up with a shop in Texas. She told me she could get it to me in time and would "throw in" the foot I needed. Worked for me!

Since then I've been humming along with that foot trying different projects here and there, some more successful than others. There were plaguing problems in all of them though. I could never get the tension right. The bobbin thread almost always pulled through at not so regular intervals. The big plastic piece was in my way all the time. The worst part, the spring has a little squeak in it. I thought the tension problem was user error and the maybe the squeak could be handled with a little oil. I really wanted an open toe though and decided to just try a different one. Since my machine is Janome, I ordered the Janome branded set and hoped for the best.

Remember those I'm a Mac, I'm a PC commercials? (I'm a PC by the way). That is kind of what they reminded me of. It is amazing how different they are. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to learn how to use it all over again! Even looking at them, you can see they are no where near the same in quality of construction. Look at the difference in the springs!

For my 80s friends, this is how I see them...

One of them a little clumsy and counterproductive and the other a master of creation and invention with a lot of room for user error!

My first attempt with the new foot is house place mat. I had no clue how different it would be. It actually puts a little bit of pressure on the fabric and doesn't glide right past seams as easily and the old one does. I really think this is a good thing, but it threw me off my game getting started for sure.  I started with a swirly line thinking it would be cool to mimic the smoke from the chimney. Worked ok, but then I thought - what if I alternated the smoke like lines with some wavy lines. I tried it and I ended up with wallpaper!

I did short cut the trees a bit. I wanted to mimic the lines in the house panel, but not copy them. I put wavy lines in skipping over the green tree parts. I think its fine, though not the most artistic thing ever.

All that is left it to bind up the wolf mat, put them on the table and show them off as a finished set. Be sure to come back by and check it out. I hope to have it up early next week.


If you'd like to see all of the posts related to Red - here is a handy index!

Thanks again to the designer of the block patterns, Cyrille @ BubbleStitch Quilts

Red Riding Hood Placemats - The Wonder Wolf and Evil House

The Little Red Riding Hood place mats are moving right along! I did finish up the wolf mat (minus the binding) and I'm pretty darn happy with him.

I quilted him using a version of  one of Leah Day's patterns. When I saw Leah's it reminded me of rainbows and I instantly found humor in the idea of the wolf about to have a red snack covered in happy rainbows. He would, after all, be a very happy wolf.

I'm pretty positive I love this square. If the truth be told, it might be the whole reason I did these place mats at all! There's just something really cute and really devious about it. I swear, I can see the anticipation in him!

Then, there was the house block. The evil evil evil house block. My internal dialog went something like this:

I hate this block. The seems are SO thick. Ugh. Five more pieces to go. The color red sure *seemed* like a good idea. Great - fussy cutting and paper piecing. This is way beyond my skill level. THESE SEAMS! Maybe I should just stop here. Who cares if the mats are ever finished? There's a cool wolf, can just make another set of trees. The white background is terrible on the house! What is with this stupid smoke - I hate these SEAMS. Just finish it. No matter how bad. Stick it out. My stomach hurts. Just two more pieces. Shit. It's half an inch short in width. How the heck did I manage that? I will finish this house, I will finish this house, I will finish this house.

It had been such a fun exploratory project and I was PO'd that I had ruined it all with this block. I begrudgingly put the grass, sky top, and borders on it and walked away to get something with a big ball of mad and sad feelings. When I came back, an amazing thing happened and it went a little like this...

You know, that's not so bad with the borders and such. Really, it is kind of cute when it sits next to the others. Fussy cutting isn't perfect, but I can see thought went into it. Lets sit it next to the other mats. Hm. Red does pop nicely and goes pretty good with the other reds in the other mats. I cant really see all those crazy seams. I actually kind of like this house. No, wait.. I *DO* like it. Holy crap, it's pretty awesome. 

Without further ado, or more internal dialog - here's the house that gave me so much grief:

Not bad right?? Has something like this ever happened to you? Do you chalk it up to a bad mood or do you think sometimes you just need to see it completed?  I'm excited now! Just a bit more quilting and binding to go and these are done!

If you'd like to see all of the posts related to Red - here is a handy index!

Thanks again to the designer of the block patterns, Cyrille @ BubbleStitch Quilts

Linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday @ Better Off Thread WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

The Sunday Geekery: Now, this is *my* kind of Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day, woo hoo! Ok, so I don't really get TOO excited about days like today. I am, in fact, a mother and I'm lucky enough to have a pretty great kid. She makes me feel special everyday! Even though I don't make a big to-do about Mother's Day or days like it, I'm always looking for an excuse to sit back and chill out.

Here's some of my favorite time wasters these last few weeks.

What I'm watching on Netflix:

House Hunting. Last Saturday was an icky rainy day and I was feeling less than stellar. I randomly picked this movie expecting nothing and was given everything! If I gave you a list of my absolute favorite things in movie (besides campy horror) it would go something like this - 1. Surprise, it goes places I dont expect. 2. Understandable mental deconstruction of the main characters. 3. Ghost/supernatural storyline. 4. small or independent production. Check them all! In this film, two families find themselves in a house for sale that wont let them leave. As it turns out, both families have lots of secrets revealed through the story. This film really hits a home run for me. It's dark with the just the right amount of uncomfortable.

Occupant:  Another beautifully made small production. This film is about a young man who inherits his grandmother's rent controlled apartment. To keep it, he has to squat in it until his residency can be established (or some legal mumbo jumbo). As it turns out, he might not be alone in the house. I'm still not sure if it is the solitude or the haunting, but he goes a little stir crazy. It isn't a happy feel good movie, but a fun ride into dark side of sanity. It started a little slow, but once it got rolling, I was completely engaged.

House of Cards. This is a political drama that is usually way out of my wheel house. For some reason, probably Kevin Spacey, I've actually watched this one. Some of the episodes are deliciously scandalous, others are just kind of slow and tough to get through. Even with rough spots, I'd recommend checking this one out.

What I'm playing:

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS). Nintendo - when you get it right, you really get it right. This game (despite my pet peeves with the 3DS) is genius. Luigi is just adorable. He interacts with his environment in all sorts of fun and unexpected ways. I'm not sure there is anything that makes me happier than when he starts humming along with the theme music. What a great break of the fourth wall! The game play is fun and engaging. They did a fantastic job of balancing reward for exploration. It is really worth your time to look under every carpet, pull on all the wallpaper, check every drawer and explore areas that aren't on the main path for that level. The game is really solid and it replays well. As it turns out, that may be the best feature. I've played some levels upwards of five times looking for those elusive boos and hidden gems and trying to hit the three star award. I've hemmed and hawed about buying the 3DS, but suddenly, I'm really glad to have one!

Where I'm killing time on the web:

Build your own robot @ MyRobotNation!! I spotted this on one of my favorite blogs of blogs, epbot. Jen has been "kind" enough to test the service and ordered her own robot. Looks flippin sweet! I couldn't *not* try the software. I've only spent about 30 minutes with it, but those 30 minutes, what fun! There's about a zillion things to add your your robot with all sorts of styles, colors, and accessories. I found myself directionless, so I didn't get very far with my first attempt. I think I will give it another whirl, but this time, a plan - I need a Bored Zombie robot! I hope I get some time soon to build one. Rest assured, if I do, you'll hear about it on a future Sunday Geekery!

What are you doing with your down time?

So, what say you? Have any Netflix recommendations for me? Did you try out My Robot Nation? I'd LOVE to see your robot, even if you dont have him printed!


(and happy mothers day to all the moms out there!)

Linked to Not Done Growing.

Two Shout-Outs for awesome customer service.

I just wanted to take a minute to shout-out to two companies that have left a positive impression with me this week. 

RedRockThreads.com I made my second purchase from Red Rock Threads this week and these folks are on the ball. Their prices are fair, including shipping. My thread arrived three days after my order, it well packaged, and handled with care. Their website could use an update (sorry – I HATE frames, ie scroll bars, as part of the webpage), but don’t let that deter you. You’ll find what you need, know if it is in stock or not, and be able to easily add multiple threads to your cart. Stop by here and check these folks out if you’re in the market for threads. 

Olfa I don’t think there are many of us that don’t have an Olfa product in our sewing rooms. I have a 6 month old rotary cutter that has a bum lock on it. I sulked about it for a few days until I was inspired to give them a call by a google+ conversation. They replaced it. Just that simple. They did ask a few questions, like where I bought it and what exactly had broken, but it felt more like research to improve their product and not a way to “investigate” my claim. I know there are companies out there that do right by their customers, but I often find myself disappointed rather than pleasantly surprised (go ahead, ask me about Kay jewelers).

Who has impressed you recently? Have any small stores, etsy/craftsy/ebaby sellers, or shops I should check out for supplies?