For a Swap: Disney Patches JKL

Showing off the patches for the ongoing Disney patch swap.

The whole group right there.  Now for the closeups.

J is Jafar.  I always knew I'd do this patch for J.  I love this line and my sister and I will crack each other up saying it to each other (totally randomly, too).

It's embroidered letters with fabric marker beard.

PERFECT backing fabric.

I've been doing so great with backing fabrics for these lately and it makes me smirk, all proud like of my crazy fabric stash.

In my defense (hoarding wise) that arabian nights fabric came in a mystery fat quarter bundle.  I think it was one of the scrap vomit bundles I bought YEARS ago.  And I used the majority of the two FQs of that print (one was buildings, one was people) for a pencil pouch for a charity thing.

K is for King Louie.

I love the Jungle Book and I was tempted to do Baloo for B but I ended up doing all villains for that group.

Louie is crayon tinting with single strand embroidery for all the lines.  The colors are more defined in person.  (and this time I remembered to put the white crayon layer first. . .forgot that on the last ones I made).

Backing fabric.  Of course I had to do crazy monkeys to go with King Louie.  That and I didn't have any "jungle" fabric (meaning something that looked like palm leaves/jungle growth).  I love this fabric and have used it for other projects (patches and a stuffed toy).

L is for Lumiere.

I was about stumped for L.  It took me a long time to realize that Lumiere was the best choice for this one.  Then when I was scouting for images I got the "oh crap" feeling when I saw how detailed he is.  I wasn't sure I could pull it off with crayon tinting so I opted for felt cut outs with embroidered details.

I cut out the image and used it as a template for the felt.  The yellow is one continuous piece (then I added yellow details--you can't see them that well in the pic).  I glued down the felt then did the embroidery through the felt, fabric, and batting.

I have to admit, I like this patch but I also see the flaws in it like big red flags.  Lumiere's eyes look SUPER drunk, which amuses me more than it annoys me.  What annoys me are the wee smudges on the felt.  That's what I get for using ball point pen to make my not-so-light (it turned out) stitching lines.  It doesn't look horrible, but it irks me because I know it shouldn't be there.  His tongue annoys me a bit, too.  It's not sized quite right or something.  Again, not horrible but irksome (just a bit).

Another backing fabric WIN.  Silverware, of course.

And this is where I have to admit that I'm nuts.  I REMEMBER what's in my stash, to a certain degree.  When I had decided on these designs, I stared thinking about the backing fabrics and I immediately thought of the arabian nights fabric and the silverware.  Nevermind that I hadn't used that arabian nights fabric in about a year!.  I wasn't as clear with the monkey fabric.  I hadn't forgotten I had that fabulous fabric but I was stuck on finding something "jungle" so I hit my greens first but nothing was right (I was thinking about a fabric I had that had big palm/leaves on it but I think I must have used that all up).  Once I gave up on that idea I remembered the crazy monkeys and that was that.

So, what's up next?  Well, the M, N, O round is next for this series and I already know what I'm doing for all of those.  So while I wait I'm working on a Winter/Xmas themed Ninni (have my idea all worked out for it, might need a trip to Pat Catan's for one supply) and a winter/xmas themed art doll (no clue what I'm doing for that. . .right now I can't shake a carousel horse idea but I'm not sure about that).  Then I need to work on some stuffies for Mirabel (a charity in Australia but Spoonflower is taking donations so that would mean cheaper for me to ship so I'm in to make some stuff) and then my December quota for the Fluff Project.  Speaking of, that's my next post so. . .off we go to that.

For swaps: Two stuffies!

These are both going to the same person.  I love when I can do that.

Fall/Halloween theme ninni

Candy corn ninni!

I was still in a candy corn state of mind when I made him.

Stars in your eyes?  NOPE!  Jack-o-lanterns!

Super simple ninni but I like the way he looks.  Simple doesn't automatically mean "cop out".

Next is the stuffie for the Day of the Dead Sugar Skull swap.

BAM!  Made that pic nice and big (yes I did).

Can I just say, I love this face.  It's cute but not overly cute.  It's also just a tiny bit wonky so it definitely has a handmade look to it (his nose is a bit off center. . .hell, everything is just a bit off center).

He's felt with embroidery, sequins, and beads.  The nose is fill stitch as are the pupils of the eyes (the yellow under the flower sequin).  The purple on the eyes is felt held down in the center with the fill stitch and then around the edges with looser stitches.  So the felt does curl and wave a bit which is what I wanted (I wanted the eyes to be very flower like).

And. . .the back.

I couldn't just leave it blank, now could I?

I'm not religious but for some reason I do like the burning heart of god imagery you find on sugar skulls and skeletons for Day of the Dead.  The heart is felt (stitched on) and the flames are all fill stitch.  I'm still getting the hang of getting the best direction when it comes to large swatches of fill stitch.  You can see the orange is a little goofy (on the left side).  Should have gone in the other direction (like the right side).  But I'm still super happy with how it turned out.  I went back and forth on adding something to the heart (you see thorns wrapped around them a lot and sometimes a crown) but I wasn't sure I could pull it off (and have it look like actual thorns) so I decided to quit while I was ahead.

The skull has blanket stitch around the edges and for the life of me I can never remember how to do it.  I have to look it up (sometimes multiple times) every time I do it.  Which isn't often (which is probably why I haven't committed it to memory).

The whole skull is 5-ish inches (bit wider at the widest spot, bit shorter along the narrow part of the jaw).

I think my partner will dig it.  I know I do.

What else am I up to?

Well, I'm traveling this weekend so I decided to drag my Fluff Project items along in the hopes I'll close them all up.  Then I just need to attach the legs to the chameleons and add their mouths and that whole pile will be DONE.  Then I need to work on some swaps that need to go out by Halloween.  Good times!

For a swap: Merit Badge

This is going out in the mail tomorrow.

(and how duhr am I, I have to email my pics to myself from my phone and I was wondering why this email didn't arrive and it's because I sent it to my friend.  DUH!)

Ok, pic or it didn't happen.

It's another merit badge swap (this pic is so bad. . .lord, I just keep failing!).

My swap partner is a fan of Orange is the New Black so I decided to use a great quote from Red (one of my favorite characters).

It's true.  You can't do shit with "I"m sorry".

I love making these badges.  They're quick and turn out so well.

This one turned out even better than the last because I drew a "stitch to" line just inside the raw edge so I could keep the edge stitches more even.  The lettering stitches are a little wonky in places (the 't' in can't is kind of bad) but over all I like the look.  It does look like my printing (which shows me I have lousy penmanship!  so much for all those remedial writing classes I had to do in elementary school.  Come to think about those, I just realized what that really was.  It was trying to force me to write with my right hand, not my left.  Damn, elementary school effed up my chances at being ambidextrous.  So I'm working on that now.  I've been practicing printing with my left hand and I was surprised to see it's not as hard as I thought and pretty legible, too.  It's just weird to write and have your hand rub over the writing.  I thought I would have had more problem remembering to make the letter in the right direction, but my brain is totally ok on making things in the correct direction using my left hand.  SEE, I was meant to be a lefty.  Not surprised, my dad is a lefty)

For a Swap: Disney Patches (G, H, I)

Finally DONE (and about to be mailed this week).

I dragged my feet on these for a while.  I'm like that.  I make a good go at a project then just stop on it (usually when I only have a few steps to go to be done).  What's that about?  That's where swaps help because I have deadlines.

Anyway. . .

These are for the next round of Disney theme patches (for letters G, H, and I).

I'm on an embroidery kick and I'm totally fine with it.

I had a deliberate Fantasia theme for these.

I love Fantasia.

I'm not going to show them off in alphabetical order. I'm going to show them off least to most fancy (in my opinion).

First up is for H.

This represents the ballerina Hippos from Fantasia.  I had an image of the hippo but it was really large and I already had a very large patch in this set so I decided to do a more symbolic patch for this (that and I didn't want to do crayon tinting again and the idea of fully stitching out the hippo made me bored and tired).

So you get a pair of toe shoes (in felt) with vintage ribbon ties and a wee little tu-tu in netting.  (Eugene totally tried to eat it, too.  I was sitting right at the table doing the pics and he jumped up and without missing a beat opened his mouth to give it a gnaw--so bad!  He did not bite it at all because I grabbed him and put him on the floor)

The back.  I knew I had to use this cute ballerina fabric for this patch.

Next up is for I.

Ice fairies from Fantasia.

I took a tiny bit of liberty on this since technically they are always referred to as "winter fairies".  But they are making ice as they skate, so they are ice fairies to me.

I used some winter fabric that had the shiny snowflakes printed on it then made some tiny little fairy type forms next to them (so the flakes look a bit like wings, though that fairy on the left looks kind of like the flake is crashing down on him, poor guy).  Then I added some little icy skate marks using some shiny floss.  I really like how this one turned out.  It's a little bit weird, which I really like.

The back (a different shiny snowflake fabric).

Last is my favorite of the group, it's for G.

The sultry goldfish from Fantasia.

This is pulled from a still from the movie (that I found online).  Not traced, though.  I cut the body of the fish from the image to get the body size/shape right for the felt body.  Then I freehanded the fins (with a disappearing fabric marker) then stitched them.

Varigated (too lazy to check that spelling) floss for the ends of the fins.

Close up time!

Free handed the face, too, which I think turned out REALLY well.  The eye is definitely sultry.  The lips aren't quite as puckery as the real fish, but still really good.

For the end of the body (where the tail begins) I took a metal bristle brush (yes, my cats brush but it was clean) and fuzzed out the felt to get the smudged color appearance.

The body is stitched down (versus glue--I used glue for the ballet shoes).

The back.  How freaking cute is that fabric?  Right!?  So perfect.

I have to admit, I'm really proud of my fabric stash for this set.  All the backing fabrics work perfectly with their subjects.

What am I up to next?  Well I have a few Halloween/fall themed swaps to do and then the next round of Disney patches (I only have an idea for one of them).  I also need to get caught up on Fluff sewing (I have a pile of in progress stuff I just need to finish, but I already discussed how that's my pattern).

Let's Book It: September (and an item for a swap)

No, I didn't forget about the Let's Book It Challenge.  I just had to put it on the back burner because I didn't have time to make random things from books.  I need to be able to double dip for this challenge to work for me.

(wait, I just realized I have been double dipping with some of the Fluff Project stuff but. . .well, a lot of those are "books" but freebies I printed out from the internet so. . .eh, it doesn't matter).

THIS project was from an actual book I paid actual money for so it really fits the Book part of the Book It Challenge.  So I'm feeling all official n'at.

That's the aforementioned book.

Let me just pause to say it is one of the cutest things I have ever had the privilege to look upon.  And I look at tons of cute all the dang time, so that's saying something.  This book made my sister lament that she needed to learn to embroider.  Yeah, it's THAT kind of book.

And when they say "teeny tiny" they ain't blowing smoke up your skirt.

That's the embroidered merit badge I made for a swap next to the image I used (and edited) from the book.

I made my cat into a cool hoola hooping puss.  Because that's how I am.

EXTREME CLOSE UP!

That bad boy is a mere 2 inches in size.  TWO STINKING INCHES!!  See, that's teeny tiny.

The edge stitching is a little rough but I'll improve on that (this was the first time I ever made a badge like this).

What?  You have to wear it so it has to have a pin on the back.

The only downside of this book?  Now I want to embroider every thing in my life with teeny tiny animals.  EVERY THING!

Stuff for swaps: Stuffie and some patches

Showing off two swaps today.  I went right up to the last minute getting these done (the patches I finished last night and I mailed them out today, one day before the deadline. . .last minute for the win!).

First up. . .hmmm, lets go with the aforementioned patches.  These were for the Disney alphabet ongoing swap.  This swap was the D, E, and F group.

The whole group together (like I mentioned, I finished these last night so this pic is a bit dark, I tried to make the rest a bit better but I have little patience for pictures sometimes).

For the letter D:  Dumbo

At first I was going to embroider/crayon tint this super cute image I found of a sweet baby Dumbo in the bath.  But then I had another idea.

It's his magic feather!

This was such a simple idea I almost felt like I was cheating with it.  But I like doing at least one non-literal patch for each group (like the Cruella Deville patch from the first batch) and this was perfect.

Don't fret, it's a craft feather not one I found while out on my walks (I see a lot of feathers in the cemetery but I can only imagine what's crawling on them or how they'd smell. . .guh-ross)

The backing fabric even keeps with the theme.  Aww, mama and baby elephant.

Embarrassing fact:  Dumbo is the only movie that can make me cry just thinking or talking about it.  Not every time, but if I get really thinking about it tears will come.  And not just a simple welling up thing.  I can full out bawl just thinking about it.  And, Dumbo is the only movie I ever saw my father cry over.  That scene when they take away the mother (when she rocks baby Dumbo in her trunk. . .crap, I'm getting misty just typing about it). . .that's some hardcore Disney emotional manipulation right there.  That's the stuff that effs with you as a kid and you carry that for the rest of your damn life.  Disney is good for that, which is kind of dick move.

Phew, I need a second. . .excellent.  I didn't need to grab a tissue but I was very close.

Ok, next up.

For the letter E:  Evinrude the outboard dragonfly from The Rescuers.

(side note:  what is it with typing rescuers?  I want to add another 'er'.)

Anyway, Evinrude is awesome so I had to do him in full on embroidery.  Which led me to wonder why I don't do this more.  I was kind of intimidated by fill stitching but it's not that big a deal at all.

I used single strand for the majority of it (I did use double strand for some of the outline stitching but none of the fill if memory serves).

Varigated thread for the sweater because I didn't have a solid blue that was a close enough match to the pic I was using for reference.

I'm really over the moon about how it turned out.  Even the pupils look good.  I wasn't sure how to do them since they are so small and an outline stitch would make them look jaggy.  So I just freehand fill stitched them and they're not bad at all.

After stitching up Evinrude I was in a total embroidery mood.  But I was having problems deciding on what to do for F.

First I thought I was going to do Fifi, the feather duster from Beauty and the Beast.   True confession, I didn't realize she even had a name it's been so freaking long since I watched Beauty and the Beast.  But that idea was just kind of boring to me, mostly because there's not a lot of color variety on Fifi (all earth tones, *yawn*)

While I was trying to convince myself to just do Fifi and get it over with I started to get this word ringing in my head.  Ferdinand.  Ferdinand.  Ferdinand.  So I hit up google to see if there was something Disney that had the name Ferdinand.

BAM, there was.

F = Ferdinand the bull

This pic doesn't do him justice.  That's Ferdinand just having a sit and sniffing a flower.  He's crayon tinted with single strand outline.  The backing fabric was a scrap from the other swap I'm about to show off.

Guilty Pleasure swap

This swap was a partner's choice swap.  So you had to make something from the guilty pleasure (tv/movie) they listed.

My partner listed. . .well, I think you can guess.

*singing*  Who lives in a pineapple under the sea. . .

This was NOT what I had originally planned to make.  I was going to make an embroidered/crayon tinted (or maybe felt applique) patch of Gary the snail.  But then I got thinking that was kind of a cheap item to send when we had around a month to make this swap.  That coincided with a sudden obsession to make the pineapple house.  I blame Funky Friends Factory for that.  I've been checking out the patterns there and remember she had a pineapple.  And it was a freaking fabulous looking pineapple.  I knew I could probably rig up my own version of a pineapple but I knew it wouldn't be nearly as cool as the one at FFF, so. . .I had to get the pattern and make the pineapple house.

That lead to a whole debacle, too.  FFF is located in Australia.  Now even though I was only buying a PDF download (for a whopping $12.99) my bank shut down my debit card for fraud when they saw the charge.  While I appreciate them looking out for me (they are super on top of the fraud stuff) it did put me in a pickle when, after I bought the pattern in the morning, I went to Jimmy John's for a sub and my card wouldn't work.  I had just enough cash to cover my bill (so I was spared embarrassment) but then I did get embarrassed (a tiny bit) when my auto payment via paypal (to My Paper Crane for my plush of the month box) wouldn't go through and Heidi sent me a nice "oopsie, you no pay-ee" email.  But I got it all sorted out and no harm, no foul.

Did I mention that I decided to get the pattern after I realized I had that fabric in my stash.  I thought I had something that looked "really pineapple" but I didn't want to bother buying the pattern if I didn't have fabric already on hand I wanted to use.  And it was just enough fabric, too.  It was slightly bigger than a fat quarter but since the print is directional I couldn't just cut mamby pampy like I'm want to do (minding the grain, of course).  I had just enough left over that I could have re-made only ONE piece should it get messed up.  Thankfully, I had no issues with any of the pineapple construction.  The details were easy, too.

The scale is kind of wonky (that door knob type contraption there is probably a bit big but it looks pretty cool so I'm ok with it.

All the details are felt and embroidery.

Porthole windows with french knot rivets and a little shine for visual interest.  I only put two window on the house because I couldn't get any good images of the back of the house to know if it had windows back there.  How many windows do you need in a pineapple anyway?  Exactly.

Chimney.  Again, the scale is a little wonky because the chimney is a bit largish but it works.  I noticed (when image searching) that Spongebob isn't super consistent even with something very static like the house.  I found images with only one window on the front and some shots of it were wonkier than other (guess that's because it is "under the sea". . .or the artists are just lazy which I can totally appreciate).

Oh, the chimney.  It has a pipe cleaner and bit of polyfil inside it and the top is deliberately wider than the bottom.  Eugene went nutso when I stole one of "his" pipe cleaners (because any and all pipe cleaners in the house are his, even if they have not yet been officially given to him to play with) for this project.  Cats aren't much into sharing which should shock no one.

I think my swap partner will dig it.  I know I dig it and that's usually a good sign.

I had to laugh when I saw the selvage on that green polka dot fabric.  It's Cotton + Steel.  I follow a lot of quilty blogs and all that and folks were popping boners over C+S and making these big ass quilts and fancy quilty things.  And here I'm using the lone FQ I had of it (which came in my "color of the month" FQ bundle I did for a year) to make leaves for a Sponge Bob house.  HAH!  But I really like good quality fabric and C+S is good quality.  I liked quite a few of the funky prints they had, too.  Not going to lie.  But if you've ever hung out around the hardcore quilty blogs a lot of the writers fancy themselves beyond frou-frou (and perfect) so this is probably far from a "worthy" project for the fabrics they shill.  Especially when it's paired with some no name ass fabrics I got in scrap bundles.  GASP!

What's next for me?  Well, I still need to do that bacon and eggs tutorial (no, I haven't forgotten about it).  First I need to make a Ninni in a Costume (for a swap) and figure out exactly what I'm making for my HallowMuertes doll swap.  But I'll probably finish up my practice chameleon first (just need to stuff and assemble him) and maybe get a few more Fluff items churned out.  I have jelly fish on the Fluff agenda and they're not that complicated.

For Swaps: Patches, patches, patches

It's a patch post, y'all.

Two different swaps, four patches total.

First up is a singleton (for the standing monthly swap)

Hee hee, it's a bee on a bicycle pedaling through the stars.

How's THAT for random, huh?

Yeah, don't ask.  I was just shuffling through my little drawers of supplies and I spied a few leftover bikes (from the Fat Bottom Girls patch I made many moons ago--hee hee, I said moon about a patch referencing butts. . .butts!)

That bee is getting his bike ON!

That's the back.  All boring n'at.

Next up are the first in a series of patch swaps.  It's Disney theme by the alphabet.  This first round was A, B, and C.

The whole set.

Now we'll go in reverse for the close ups.

C is for Cruella Deville.

I just had to use this super plush white faux fur for the backing.  HAD TO.  Mostly because it's fabulous but more because I didn't have any white with black spot fabric (I only had black with white spots, which is not how dalmatian spots work).  In case it's not obvious, that's a cigarette holder with smoke curling out to make the initials.

B = Banzai

The photo doesn't do the crayon tinting justice on this one, though the coloring is very monochrome with him (all differing shades of gray).  I deliberately went easy on the embroidery on this one because I did crayon tinted embroidery for two of the three in this set (and did a lot of embroidery on the other one).  (I'm in love with crayon tinting right now--love it!)

A = Am (of Si and Am, the racially insensitive Siamese cats from Lady and the Tramp).

I love Si and Am.  Their song is so great and they're just so devious (even if they are characterized in a very racially insensitive way)

To be honest, I'm not sure which is which, so I just picked one from the photo I googled.

Close up because I really, really like how this one turned out.  The picture doesn't show it very well, but the cream color of the body is actually on there (it's not just the muslin untouched).

I managed to do all villains for this round, which just happened.  So for the next round I'm trying to avoid any villains.

I can see I'm going to be doing more color tinting for patches for this series.  It's so easy and it turns out so nice.  I plan to do it for at least one of the patches in the next set (D, E, and F).  I have my choices all made for each letter and don't plan to change any of them.  I even have the designs picked.  One of them will be more abstract (like my Cruella patch) and the other two will probably be character images (with at least one of those being crayon tinted).

For Swaps: Embroidery and a stuffie

First up is the embroidery hoop I made for the "negative space" swap.  You just had to make an embroidered design where you focused on the negative space, not the actual image.  Easy peasy.

But. . .boring.

I love, love, love how this turned out but I had a hard time keeping interested in it to get it finished.

I blame the heap of french knots.  They look cool but they are boring as boring can get to make.  But I'm glad I went with the french knots, which was my original plan.  It's worth how dull the project can get for the results.

Next up is a stuffie I made for a kawaii "food with a face" swap.

Cute fried egg!

So damn EASY, too (over easy?  hee hee, egg pun!)

I traced a glass for the circle for the yolk.  Then add two free form cut eyes (just used a scrap of felt).  Attach the eyes and then add the little white stitch to each.  Embroider the mouth (though you could do that at the very end, too).

Cut out a random egg white shape.  Attach the yolk to the right side of the white, stuffing lightly as you attach it (using a zig zag top stitch).  Then sew the cut out white to another piece of white fleece.  With odd ball shapes, I found it's easier to cut one out and then sew it to a non-cut piece versus cutting two identical ones and then fighting with the edge as you sew.  Fleece is stretchy, so having a bit of wiggle room with the non-cut piece of white fleece was nice.  (oh and use a zig zag to sew the two whites together--zig zag and a ball point needle for the win when it comes to fleece).  Turn the egg right side out and then use a straight stitch to stitch around the yolk (to really make it pop).  Hand stitch the opening along the white and your are DONE!

That's a BIG egg right there (that's a full sized dinner plate, not a saucer).

I want to make more of these or the Fluff Project.  But I kind of want to make bacon, too.  So I think I'll have to get some red fleece and make up some nice floppy bacon to go with the eggs.  Or maybe add arms and leg to the egg (and the bacon) so they can hold hands?  We'll see how that works out.

Speaking of the Fluff Project, I'm going to make up some mermaids for May/June, too.  I decided to combine May and June  since I'll be vacationing at the end of June. So I want to get 10 stuffies mailed out before I go on vacation.  Doing eggs (or eggs and bacon) will be FAST.  (the egg I made took about half an hour start to finish, once I had the steps all figured out--I did make a test egg that wasn't nearly as cute--I might give that to my cats to play with).