January 2008 – Page 4 – the long thread

January 13, 2008March 21, 2008

Works on Paper

Works on paper and a couple made from paper. Here’s a quick post about some artists who have caught my attention lately.

Simone sent me the link to the lovely paper dolls by Portuguese artist Ana Ventura. You can purchase her postcards as seen above here (don’t trust me on the euro conversion, but I think you can purchase these for under $7).

Another paper artist, Patricia Zapato of A Little Hut creates wonderful cut paper images like Hiding, above (8″x10″, $35).

Just added the Etsy shop of Creative Thursday to my new Etsy Favorites page. A print of buttercup (8.5″x11″), above, is available in her Etsy shop for $35.

January 11, 2008January 15, 2008

Embroidery Hoop Frames

Since finding the photo of Liberty of London fabrics framed in embroidery hoops at Purl (see post here), I’ve been meaning to try the idea. Here’s my interpretation with some embroidered birds on linen. I painted the hoops matte black. But I think that these would be great unpainted or painted with different bright colors and used in a child’s room.

I simply hooped the fabric and cut the excess, so this was a quick and easy project. I plan to add more to this grouping, mix in some plates or find some flea-market style small round mirrors. I embroidered the birds myself, but I think that vintage handkerchiefs would make a great display. You can find lots of vintage handkerchiefs online here and here.

January 11, 2008March 21, 2008

Hedgehogs

Just a few cute little hedgehogs that I came across recently:

Stuffed hedgehog from Apple and Eve.

Rubber stamp from Craft Pudding.

Buttons from Bunte Fabrics.

January 9, 2008January 15, 2008

Checkerboard Quilt

Since I updated our playroom, I wanted to make something that the girls could use so I decided to make a checkerboard quilt using this flower fabric from IKEA and some striped fabric that I had on hand. I quickly realized that a checkerboard has 64 squares! I cut 3″ squares and made the top. I then decided to make things more difficult by making the reverse side a tic-tac-toe game board. This was a little tricky, so I decided to just use one piece of fabric and delineate the squares with the stitching. There is a lot of math in quilting. Argh.

But I am enjoying my first attempts at quilting. I love to come up with a design and piece it together. I’m having a little trouble putting it together and finishing the edges. You can see on this project I finished with the fabric from the reverse side. I can see why this is not the recommended quilting method because you would be much less likely to get puckering with a separate piece of fabric. But I was too lazy to cut binding.

We went to the craft store and bought some unpainted wooden chips for the checkerboard pieces, which we painted green and blue. We couldn’t find Xs and Os, so we went with hearts and stars instead and painted those as well. I think it would be nice to make a pouch for the game pieces and ties to roll up the board and take it with you.

January 9, 2008March 21, 2008

Bamboo

I bought some bamboo yarn the other day, which was a new find for me. Is there anything that can’t be made from bamboo? Since my knitting projects are stacked up and moving slowly (still working on my three-year-old’s baby blanket), I try to stay away from yarn stores these days. I’d be interested to know how this yarn stands up over time and it looks like it might slip around a bit on the needles. I guess I need to get out my knitting needles.

The image above is from Yarnlust over at Etsy and is a bamboo blend, which I suspect will hold up better. You can find a variety of colors in 100% bamboo here and it’s likely to be available at your local knit shop.

Anyway, since I was thinking about bamboo, here are some other bamboo finds:

I saw these bamboo kids’ utensils on Cool Mom Picks a while back and keep meaning to order some for the kids. Available from Branch for $7. There’s a lot of other great bamboo stuff there, like these colorful bowls.

Bamboo fabric? It might be slippery to work with, but great possibilities for pajamas and baby things.

Bamboo clothes at Bamboosa.

And of course you can find bamboo sheets all over the place.