Singing In the Rain

I've gotten a little behind on my squares, but since I'm using them to countdown the days until I graduate I think it's ok if I neglect them as long as it's for schoolwork. Luckily this next week is Spring Break so I'll be able to catch up and hopefully get ahead. Research Paper be damned!
Today's (ok, Wednesday's, whatever) square hopefully reflects the iconic image of Gene Kelly splashing around a street outside of Debbie Reynolds' house because he's in love with the girl. I love all of Kelly's musicals and aside from the ballet at the end of An American In Paris, this is my favorite scene. Kelly was running 103 temperature while being soaked in a mix of water and milk (the cameras caught it better) and did the entire thing in one take. I think at the time it had one of the longest tracked shots ever. Anyway, I'm loving how this one turned out. I had trouble deciding which details to leave in and take out, but I think it captures the spirit of the original nicely.

Peace, Love, and Stitches.

A tree out on highway 15

This is technically the square for March 16, but I'm running late.

This is a solitary tree sitting out in the middle of a field off the highway to my grandmother's house. I've always really liked this particular tree. It just has a great shape. There's an orchard further on down the road that has a lot of nice trees too, but I've always liked those random lone trees. This was a great chance to work on my knots. I used 3 different shades of green (a kelly highlighted with a pastel and a forest). I made a knot in the tree by using a single lazy daisy stitch. I really like my red flower at the bottom. After I did the yellow ones it just looked like it needed a little extra pop.

Oh, and look at my adorable puppies.
Peace, Love, and Stitches.

Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon

Stuck in the last semester stretch before I graduate in May, its hard for me to think happy thoughts when surrounded by the drudge of poems, plays, and papers. So here I am at day one of stitching myself a magic carpet. I graduate on May 8 (not that I plan to be there, they can mail my diploma to the beach) and every day from now until then I will record all of those things I love here. In 1 inch squares on a piece of fabric I got out of the remnant bin at Hobby Lobby I am going to stitch the things I love, and hopefully remember some of them too.

Step 1: Clean craft room. Crap. My craft room (aka, the spare bedroom at Mama’s house) has become a catch-all, but luckily its mostly my stuff so...

Sha-zam bitches.

I bought a lot of 6 clipboards of ebay last month intending to do a mod of a message center made out of binder clips I found on Martha’s website. But the walls will come a tumblin’ down or something if I nail them to the wall, so I’ve resorted to propping them against the back of my craft table.

Surprisingly, all of Mama’s stuff fit in that one bag at the end. Then there’s a wallet that I’m working on to go with a bag I’m making for my niece, and lastly the product of my recent felt-madness (brought on by a half off sale of course). And every craft room needs a stack of old towels and a jar of random buttons.


I’m keeping track of my daily stitches on my whiteboard 6 at a time so I don’t overwhelm myself. And below that is a lovely Arkansas sunset over a rice paddy for those of you poor unfortunates who live somewhere, well, somewhere. I love cattails. As a matter of fact, I think cattails are going on the list.

Whoops. Oh well. The list is a must. I am extremely forgetful, like what-did-I-walk-into-this-room-for-dear-god-i-was-thinking-about-it-like-two-seconds-ago forgetful. So just in case, I have the list. Its not much, just a place to keep ideas for squares. There’s also the calendar,

which needs some revision, and my lovely drafting paper, where I can plot out my designs before I start working on fabric.

I found this paper in the campus bookstore and it is perfect for plotting stitches. It’s a little thicker than regular graph paper, which is good because I’m hard on equipment and it won’t rip easily when tossed from bag to binder and back. When planning I try to think about what kind of effects I will need to achieve with my stitches and what colors I’m going to use. I keep a couple stitch bibles handy to refer too. I wanted to make sure I got the angles right on this one. Since it's kind of busy I'm sticking with some simple back stitching. I'm going to vary the number of threads I use on the rainbow so it won't look too uniform.


To make the black background for the album cover I’m using fabric pastels. But first I need to wait on my fabric to dry... and done! Isn’t the Internet fun? I drew out a 9x6 grid on my fabric (a white drapery fabric, not as traditional as muslin, but I like that its a little thicker).

Now the fun part. I got this pack of fabric pastels a couple weeks ago and haven't had a chance to try them out yet. I’ve also had a tutorial on freezer paper stencils sitting in my bookmarks forever. Since I’ve been wanting to try both of them out:





A little uneven, but I’m going to go back and frame it with a heavy stitch so I can fill in the lines.

I couldn’t get my cheapo Wally World chalk pencil to draw a good line on the black square so I free handed the triangle and the lines.

I really like how it turned out. Those fabric pastels are awesome; I can’t wait to try them on a larger project.
Dark Side of the Moon is my favorite Floyd album and I wanted something geometric and not too complex for my first square.
Hopefully this post wasn’t too long. I figured since it was my first day and I was trying some new techniques I would go ahead and be long-winded. I probably won't be able to get tomorrow's square up until Thursday, but then you'll just get a two-for.
Peace Love & Stitches.