Lets now ooh and ahh over them (while I do my best Stewart "look what I can do!")
These patches represent two finished swaps and one swap in progress. I hesitated for all of one second posting the "in progress" post because I didn't want to spoil it for my swap partner but there is a "surprise" item in the swap that I promise not to show or talk any more about so they won't be totally spoiled.
First up, the finished swaps.
2x and 3x patches.
That's the whole lot. The ones on the left are the 3x set which we shall examine in painful detail now.
Night sky patch.
My partner mentioned liking the night sky so out came my star fabrics. I free motion stitched a (rather fugly) moon on there. Then I added some french knots over a few of the stars using glow in the dark floss. I was tempted to use some of my glittery floss on the moon but I had already used that on another patch in this set so I opted to let the moon just be.
The moon almost looks better from the back. You can see it better. The stars on the back fabric are glittery.
Both the patches in this set are "puffy style" which is more in keeping with the real Teesha Moore style. I like the looks of that style but I'm uptight so having all that exposed stitching makes me twitch. Not the machine quilting stitches, but the hand stitching. I was going nutty trying to figure out how to hide some of the stitching for the french knots. I just could NOT tie off each and every one of them, Tedious as hell, right there. So I fed the floss between the layers for my travelling. That's a big reason I hate showing my work (so to speak) because I'm lazy and like to travel and leave a big ass mess on the back of projects. This back is really freaking neat, considering the style.
My partner also likes owls so this patch was simple. I free motion stitched around the faces and did a bit of free motion zig zagging on a few of the bodies. Then I used some shiney floss to stitch on the individual feathers on the chest of the middle owl. It's a chocolate color and looks really nice.
Note how I was careful not to have too many long ass travelling stitches. I plotted and planned my stitching to avoid it. So this back isn't heinous (but the quilted stitching is a bit fug).
Last but not least, the "best" of this set. Only in quotes because I don't dislike the other two but this patch is so freaking fabulous I'm all like "hell yeah, I made that. Suck it!" (because I'm modest like that).
Baby Groot!!
How freaking excited was I to see my partner noted she loved baby Groot? I mean, who doesn't love baby Groot? (ok, folks who've never seen Guardians of the Galaxy would be very "meh" but pfft to them, they need to see the movie and squee at the adorableness that is baby Groot)
Oooh, come here you cutey so I can pinch your little cheeks!
My baby Groot is based on the POP! toys. I have the dancing Groot one (which is a bobble head) so I traced the pic of him on the side of the box to make my pattern. Cut, glue, stitch and BAM, baby Groot in the HOUSE!
I'm particularly pleased with the stitching and the little new growth on his head. That new growth is total free hand snipping of little scrap bits of felt. See, now I feel justified in keeping just about every tiny trimming of my good felt (good felt is wool blend, I don't keep any wee scraps of crappy acrylic felt--I actively dislike it for anything other than filling for "flat style" patches).
The back. It goes very well with him I think.
Next up, the 2x patch swap.
Different partner. She liked bats so she got bats. Bats with glowing eyes, thank you very much.
Super simple patch, really, but cute.
The back. The puffy style ones get all curled up like that on the edges. I really like that about them.
Last but not least (for this swap) was a totally random patch.
My partner listed green and purple as favorite colors so I just used that as the theme. All the stitching is by hand which was fun. I haven't done a lot of needle work lately and I was stem stitching like a mad woman. I even trotted out the shiny floss (which is a pain in the butt to work with but totally worth it--apparently you're really supposed to just use a few strings of it to enhance a project not totally stitch with it but I'm a rebel without a clue so I do what I do).
The back of this one is super lumpy. But not too bad with travelling stitches. (I did the hiding thing for the french knots--that really works well).
Next up are the two patches for the in progress swap. That swap has a lot of elements to it (I have to make a bag and a plushie and add the surprise item before it's done).
I was in a patch mood so I whipped out all the patches I had on my to do list at one time.
They're both flat style because that works better for the ideas I had and I know my swap partner pretty well and she makes flat style so I think she probably prefers flat style.
She likes Big Bang Theory and hedgehogs (really? who would have guessed?!)
Soft kitty patch using some of the left over BBT fabric I have.
The kitty is cashmere! Soft kitty, indeed! She does have a mouth but it's gray so doesn't stand out very well. She also has defined front paws (kind of curled up under her) but again, dark gray floss on dark gray cashmere doesn't have a lot of contrast.
The back. I'm almost out of this print. I'm not sure I'll buy more of it. Maybe if I was making an order and wanted to round it out I'd get a bit more. I like the "bazinga" print better than the character image print. And I don't make a ton of BBT themed things so I don't really NEED any more of it.
And last but certainly not least. . .
Hedgie patch.
How cute is that button? Wait, it needs a closeup.
I love these kinds of buttons. LOVE THEM. This hedgie was in a back of other woodland animals (owl, deer, skunk, a few others). I had to buy the pack to get the hedgie. I'm excited to find a use for the skunk, too. I'm thinking maybe some glow in the dark floss to make like it's spraying? But I digress.
This is a fairly simple patch. Just some embroidery on the image and a cute button. I even put some sewing thread embroidery on that wee little flamingo at the top. I love thread embroidery. It looks so neat when it's done.
Aaaaand, the back. Same fabric as the front on baby Groot. That's a really cute print that I've almost used up. Scrap busting for the WIN.
What else am I up to? Well, I started on the February Five for Fluff set. I'm very pleased with the result but I'm not going to show that off until all five items are done.
Then I want to get to work on my Book It Challenge item. I've had the stuff sitting since shortly after I got the book so I just need to whip up a project (or two).
No comments:
Post a Comment