6.09.2011

Summer!

Summer is here, which means I've graduated [yay!] and have more time on my hands!!! woo!

So, I'm going to tell you about my life a bit here, then we'll move on to some things I've made recently!!

I am a townie. Jon will be a townie with me once he finishes up his summer class and graduates with his MBA... I graduated with my BA in Art History. Graduation was hectic, but I had a lot of fun with my family and later that night my friends. This is what I decorated my cap with:

So. Now that I've graduated, and have a job (we'll see how long-term this job ends up being) I have time and money to be making things!! Yay! Expect to be seeing what I make all summer! Until then though, I'm-a show you what I embroidered for the past while.

I worked on a few projects while I was still in school, mostly associated with the ongoing Hoopla Swap going on in Craftster's Organized Swaps Board. The swaps are really fun, and its nice to make things for other people, and them do the same for you in return!

Each swap has a theme, and you create for your partner based on a questionnaire they fill out and further communication with them in private messages on the site. There are swaps for all types of crafting, but I've mostly done embroidery swaps, as that is the craft I'd most like to hone right now. I've done three embroidery swaps since the owl related/any craft swap I posted about before.

I got into the Hoopla Swap in round three, which was the OTT/One Tiny Thing edition: Requirement for this swap was one hoop of any theme, but it had to be TINY! 4" or smaller in diameter. The smallest hoops I could find for this were 4" and I had two partners. My first partner was a caffeine addict and loved nerdy science, so I stitched this for her:

Hoopla Round 3 - OTT Edition
My second partner for the Round 3 OTT swap liked bikes, and natural looking things, so I stitched her an image inspired by a painting I found on her Wists in an awesome frame that looked like wood (was actually a rubber outer ring).
Hoopla Round 3 - OTT Edition

All I worked in for both of these hoops were backstitch and satin stitch... I've gotten a few books since then that have illustrations and explanations of other stitches, so I can expand on that.

For the third round the theme was Diptych, so for your partner you had to stitch two hoops, but as in diptychs in art, they had to be related. She really liked vintage and creepy horror things.


Hoopla Round 4 - Diptych
Hoopla Round 4 - Diptych
The outlines of the figures were of vintage Victorian line drawings, and I did the skull detailing in white, which matched the fabric in the hoop... You couldn't really see those details at first. They looked like face-less people, until you could see the stitches. I was really very proud of these hoops, even though they were still mostly back stitch and satin stitch, with a bit of split stitch.

For round five the theme was Color Spectrum. The hoops for your partner could consist of shades of a color instead of many colors. One of my partners really liked natural colors and rich browns so I did a few different shades of just that. She liked pin-up girls and reading and such, so I re-worked an old pin-up image to do this.
Round 5 - Color Spectrum
I used back stitch, split stitch, satin, and the heart shaped border I did in what I think was called Peruvian running stitch?

For my other partner, who really liked both Tina Fey and the color turquoise, I did a text based hoop. Here I used back stitch, chain stitch, and long and short (on the smaller what).
Hoopla Round 5 - Color Spectrum

Maybe I'll post what I've received from my partners over time since I've been doing these swaps...

So that's some of what I've done in the past while... as far as embroidery. I did make an awesome stocking for my niece for Christmas, and cooked a whole lot. Hopefully I can find pictures of all that so I can share.

I'm excited to post more. I'll have a lot to be posting for my wedding (that I NEEEEEEEED to start working on again), and things for other peoples' weddings, as I have a few friends getting married too! Yay love and such.







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