More Vintage Halloween!

So yesterday I shared the package I received from the Vintage Halloween Swap on Craftster and today I'll share what I made for my partner!

I tried my hand at someone else's prim pattern! I've made lots of prims, but always drawn my own patterns. I got a great pattern from Cyndi Sue's Prims & Whims and set to work. The skelly moon turned out great, but the needle sculpting was daunting!

I really loved making him and can't wait for him to arrive at his new home! He looks so great on my red front door, I just might have to make myself one! Here is a close up of some of the sculpting.

For a 2nd item I drew up a vintage inspired picture and painted it with my water color crayons and water soluble graphites.

The photo doesn't really do it justice as I was running out of day light and it is framed under glass!

So much fun making Halloween stuff!

Happy Vintage Halloween!

I just received my package from my partner in the vintage Halloween swap on Craftster and I had to share. It totally made my day after a super long day at work.

The swap was only supposed to be 1 large item, but we decided to do 2 items.

First irid3sc3nt made me this amazing embroidered raven in a vintage style frame.

It looks perfect with my Halloween tree! Which is also decorated in spooky Dotee dolls from Craftster swaps.

She also made me a super sweet prim pumpkin garland. I was so excited to hang it up over one of the windows in the living room I didn't take any great photos! Here is one of the cute little pumpkins. They all are different shapes with different faces and all hand sewn!

I'm so happy to have my house decorated for Halloween!

WIP Sunday: Shop Hopping!

I went MIA last Sunday so I could go on the fabric shop hop! That sounds like a fantastic reason to leave my poor blog! We went to a few of the shops last week and finished up our tour today. It is 5 shops total with more than a bit of driving involved, but well worth it. My quilty pals and I saddled up for the day and went a bit crazy! I think it is my favorite time of year after Halloween of course.

I thought I'd share a photo of my crazy haul.

I got some great deals too! This pile includes: 3D peace sign fabric with coordinating stripe for a pillowcase for my sister, an entire quilt kit so I can make myself a Grinch quilt, a coffee themed table runner kit, 2 yards of black Kona, two different versions of the Alexander Henry Day of the Dead fabric that I seem to hoard (1/2 yard of the black, 1 yard of the cream), 2 yards of decor weight Alexander Henry Skullduggery that I hope to get turned into a tailored vest, 6 fat quarters, 2 colorways of the Alexander Henry mushroom fabric for my gnome quilt stash, 2 different 1 yard cuts of Halloween fabric ( my free gift for showing my finished quilt from last year!), and a yard of this wonderful black and white with pops of color stuff that I fell in love with.

Not included in the photo is a yard of some super sweet stuff I bought with a certain cocktail swilling sweetie in mind and all of the fat quarters we got as prizes at the various shops. I also got a couple of really nice pattern books as prizes.

All in all it was a fantastic little road trip with my pals. Lots of laughs and fun (and money spent) by all.

Oh, I'm still working away at plenty of projects. Stay tuned for more updates on those. ;)

Little Luck Bringer

Remember that I took the M3 course on willowing.ning? Well I never did finish the final assignment. I don't know why, but I just didn't, so when it came time to create a piece to donate to the art centers annual Art Fest Auction I knew it would be something fun and different to donate. Our theme for the Art Fest this year is "celebrating culture through art" so I figured I'd put a little Irish spin on it to celebrate my part of my heritage.

It is a mixed media wall hanging. The little fairy and flowers are painted on a piece of unstretched canvas with water soluble crayons, water soluble graphite, acrylics, and collaged book pages. The wall hanging is coffee stained muslin with quilted on flowers made from book pages. I used a bit of water soluble crayon to tint them and the stems and leaves as well. I wrote a little Irish blessing on in ink.

"May the blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow and may trouble avoid you wherever you go."

It goes on auction tomorrow!

WIP Sunday: I Got A Bit Distracted

Yesterday was a fun afternoon of sewing with friends. (After chores were done of course!) We worked on some paper pieced blocks for the quilt guilds raffle quilt. I won't say it went perfectly smooth, but we did manage to get several of our blocks done!

I was given the pattern and directions to make some chemo caps at our guild meeting the other day as well. They will be donated to our local cancer center for people to take home to wear. Some people don't want to wear a wig and these are a nice alternative to wigs. I pulled out a bunch of stash fabric and made myself a goal to make 6 by our next quilt guild meeting! After rearranging the instructions to make it easier I think I won't have a problem. This one was a test and probably won't count towards my 6 as it has a few issues, but it was a good learning experience. Sorry for the terribly blurry shot!

Also an update on the "split decision" quilt. I was having a hard time with the placement of blocks so I called in reinforcements and had help to get them in an order that was pleasing to the eye. Here is a shot on my design wall. The blocks are all stacked and waiting for me to sew the rows together!

I didn't get this posted yesterday because I had to watch the season finale of TrueBlood on HBO! Vampires always get me distracted!

Game Of Thrones OTT Swap

I hosted the Game of Thrones One Tiny Thing Swap on Craftster. I received my package today from the lovely Scuttlebutt. I must admit it was a welcome sight after such a long day at work!

We decided to swap 2 small things instead of just one. Who can stick to one really? lol

She made me a small hoop with my favorite part of the Nights Watch vows cross stitched. I already have the perfect place to hang it on my wall by my cubby of curiosities. All of my fave swap art goes on that wall. Also a pair of dragon egg earrings. The stone is amazing and she isn't even sure what it is!

I can't wait to wear them and I know I'll get a ton of compliments!

I love this! So striking. I love x stitch since it is one of the things I don't do.

Thanks so much Scuttlebutt for making this a great swap!

What An Honor!

Most of you that read my blog know just how much I love www.craftster.org

In fact a lot of my bloggy friends found me through Craftster! I've had a love affair going back for a few years now. Craftster and the people there inspire me everyday to keep creating and sharing what I create with the world. If you aren't a memeber, go over now and join as you will fall in love just as fast as I did. I've met some of the most wonderful friends there, learned some amazing skills, and gotten feedback on things I've created.

I'm featured this month as the Craftster crush! I'm so honored and excited that I was picked as a crush! Visit the link and see!

http://www.craftster.org/blog/craftster-crush-alwaysinspired/

Thanks to all my amazing Craftster friends and swap partners! Each and everyone of you holds a special place in my heart and makes me a better artist.

She Cries Tears Of Color

I was totally inspired when I watch a vid on youtube posted by Tam (Willowing). She did a painting in only black, white, buff, and a tiny bit of pink. I often end up with wildly vibrant paintings so I thought it would be fun to accept her challenge and do something muted. After I watched the video this image formed in my head and I had to paint it.

The tears are stand out a bit more in real life, but they are still very subtle. I wanted to stick to using only black, white, and buff, but I had to add the color!

She is acrylics, graphite, stamping, collage, and water soluble crayon.

I think I'll get her matted and framed!

WIP Sunday: Split Decision

I'm on antibiotics again, for a stupid infection under a cap. The tooth comes out on Tuesday so I won't have to worry about it ever again! Despite feeling like garbage, I've done a few little things.

I started making blocks for the pattern "Split Decision" by The Teacher's Pet on our super sew day extravaganza. I finished up the blocks and started laying them out on my design wall. I'm not sure I'm happy with the placement just yet, but it is close.

Then it will have 2 boarders. The inner boarder a solid color and the outter boarder is supposed to be a solid color, but I think I'm going to do a piano key boarder with left over strips! This is a jelly roll quilt, but I used strips I cut on a friends Accu quilt! (Thanks Betty!)

I'm still embroidering on block #5 for Grama's quilt as well. I haven't stitched for a few days as I've felt pretty yucky. I also am ready to start hand binding on the "Slice and Dice" quilt! I think I'll teach the Hubby how to do it so he can help! LOL

I also joined the vintage Halloween swap over on Craftster so I would have an excuse to make up a new Halloween inspired prim creation. I've always made my own patterns for my prims, but this time I'm going to use a pattern!

I think I feel well enough to do some stitching today! Have a wonderfully productive Sunday everyone!

Dothraki Jewel

I had to make a little extra to go with the Khal Drogo hoop so I set to making a Dothraki inspired necklace. I texted my Aunt and asked her to save me a couple of cornish game hen leg bones from her supper and set to work. I've never worked with bones before, but it was actually fun! I looked up on line how to bleach the bone and found that peroxide is the easy way to go. I had the feather component assembled and the necklace it self ready to go so I bleached the bone this morning, dried it and added the bale and loop.

I had the pheasant feathers in my stash from my Hubby. I combined 2 different feathers to get that look with the clay bead. I really like it and I think I'll have to make myself one! The necklace measures 24 inches of aged brass chain. I think Daenerys Targaryen would be proud to sport this necklace as she rode on her silver mare.