Monday, November 17, 2008

Phew!

I have been uber-busy lately. Lots of craftin' going on. I have been working on my stuff for the 12 Days of Christmas Swap and have only 2 weeks left to craft before sendouts. I'm a little stressed but looking forward to finishing everything and seeing what MissDisney makes for me!

On another note: A radio station here started playing Christmas music. So I guess it begun and this year I'm actually ready!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Chuck Palahnuik Swap

Wow I haven't posted in a while. Colby and I went on vacation and I'll try to post a few pics of that soon but I've been wanting to post these pics of some of the work I did for the Chuck Palahnuik Swap on Craftster. I love Chuck's books and was so excited that this swap finally happened. I had an awesome partner, nostrum, from Australia. So here's what I made for her!

I thought a bookmark would be appropriate--so I stitched this one with a quote from Choke that says, "If you're going to read this book, don't bother." Fitting really. I then added the knife and fork design from the book and free-handed a steak--a t-bone no less. I really enjoy the repetitiveness of cross stitch---seeing the design and lettering slowly take shape. Really enjoyable.


A small embroidered patch based off of the dead bird image on the cover of Lullaby. My partner mentioned that she liked the image so I know I wanted to do something with it. I had originally thought about making it a stamp, but the more I thought about it, I knew the lines of the image would translate well to embroidery. I backed it with felt so she could sew it what ever she likes.


A necklace with images of Chuck's book covers and of him, funky charms and beads. I wanted to make a wild, whimsical necklace that was like the ones he actually makes and has sent to fans. I used small wooden tiles and good 'ol Modge Podge to glue the images down. Then I added a quote on the back of the tiles that I thought best represented each book. I also added charms and beaded items to fill it out. This was so much fun to make and I truly wanted to keep it.

The back side with the quotes.


My partner said that Fight Club was one of her favorites so I wanted to make something based off of that book, but I wanted to do something different. I thought so hard about what to do for this, flipping through the book, looking at quotes. Then one day, it hit me--the haikus that the narrator writes. So I stitched it out in pretty lettering on pale purple fabric and added a queen bee design from an Aunt Martha's pattern and framed it all up in a fancy frame. I even used some metallic thread for the wings and didn't really fight with it that much! I love how it turned out.

The Queen Bee


So now I'm just waiting to receive my package from nostrum. I can't wait to see what she's made for me.