Latest projects

Over the past couple of weeks I've been in major project mode. Just one right after another, and sometimes a few at once. Here's what I've finished recently:

Finally, some art on the walls of my son's room.

An alphabet sampler made using this tutorial from Orange Flower Sketchbook.

A little applique and embroidery interpretation of this sweet Japanese fabric.

Using fabric to reverse-matte prints and photos is a great (and inexpensive) way to add color and texture to your art. Just cut a piece large enough to cover the frame's back plus about an inch on all sides, then fold the fabric behind the back and tape it down. Add some double-sided tape to each corner of your art and center on the fabric.
This is a pen and ink reproduction I did a couple years ago of a page from a beautifully illustrated book of my favorite poem, "Winken, Blinken and Nod", also reverse-matted on fabric.

I bought this piece of American Jane Wee Play fabric back when I was working on Hakan's quilt and never did anything with it. I finally decided to turn it into a wall hanging for his room.

I added some padding and a backing, then stitched between the printed panels to make it look a little more quilty and bound it. Can you spot the cute little buttons I added?





Just finished this baby girl quilt about an hour ago for whoever might have a girl next at church. Everyone's been having boys lately, so I have no idea who'll end up with it!

Red, white, yellow and green- reminds me of strawberries and summer! (Don't tell, but I wish I could keep it.) The backing was cut from a nice white cotton tablecloth that I found during my last thrift store visit. It was pretty big, so the rest of it may turn into a picnic quilt.

I just had to use some more of that sweet Amy Butler fabric from my wall art, so I covered a panel of cork and put it in a thrifted frame to make a little message board.

The pocket in the corner was originally intended to just cover a hole in the floral fabric, but it turned out to be a handy place to stash note paper.

I'm also working on bringing this antique dresser back to life. I am sooo excited to get it finished!

Here's a peek at my progress. Isn't that wood gorgeous?! Who could paint that?

I've still got lots of work to do on it, but I'll definitely be posting lots of "after" pictures here when I'm done!

Framed and lovely!

Just a quick update on the project I started here: turning a child's art into embroidery. On the 5 hour return trip that we made from Rexburg to Boise a couple weeks ago, somehow I managed to finish these five "drawings" in the car. This in itself is amazing because since childhood I've always struggled with some pretty serious car-sickness issues if I ever tried to do anything like read, draw or sew in a vehicle. We're talking almost instant nausea. I usually can't even read a map for more than a couple of minutes before my head starts to swim. So being able to go the entire time without so much as a turn of the stomach was very exciting! I felt very productive indeed!

Once I got home I was anxious to get my new art "framed", so I scoured eBay for the perfect sized hoops and lucked out when I found a lot of 5 that had 4 of the sizes I needed. I'm still on the lookout for a good deal which includes another oval hoop for the last one.

When the hoops arrived I set each stitching into the appropriate size hoop and trimmed away the excess fabric, leaving just enough to be folded around the edge and to the back. With my trusty hot glue gun and a popsicle stick I worked around the inside edge, laying down a few inches of glue then pressing the fabric into it with the stick.



Here are my 4 finished ones. I'm planning to hang these in my daughter's bedroom as a group once I've gotten the 5th one done as well. I might even have her do some larger drawings for me to stitch which would add a little more variety to the sizes.

I love that I even managed to find a drawing with her "signature" on it. ;)

turning a child's art into embroidery

I came across this idea on another craft blog recently (unfortunately, I can't remember where) and fell in love with the notion that you could change a simple drawing on a piece of paper into something textured, durable and perhaps even functional (a pillowcase or t-shirt maybe?). My 4-year-old's art astonishes me sometimes. Her imagination, creativity and innocence comes through in each piece she creates. I love that she likes drawing, because I remember sketching and doodling constantly as a kid, and still find a lot of joy in it. I am also very big on preserving memories and creating long-lasting keepsakes. I treasure items from my childhood, especially ones that I made myself, and I want my daughter to have the thrill of holding and touching something that came from her young mind and little hands when she gets older. Add to all of this my fierce love of embroidery and this project is perfectly suited to me.

Before I started I did a quick search on the internet to see if I could find a good how-to, then realized I didn't really need one- this is a cinch! Here's what I did:

This part was by far the hardest- choosing which drawings to use! Luckily I had about a gazillion to pick from so I had no trouble finding 5 that I just love and were roughly the same size (clockwise from top left: dinosaur, alien lion, dinosaur/dragon, robot and alien puppy).


I used natural cotton twill for my fabric, and since it's too heavy to see through easily I decided to use a window as a light box. This did the trick nicely. I taped each drawing to the window, then taped a piece of the twill on top of it using packing tape. Some of her drawings were a little faded due to many weeks of sun exposure on our fridge, so I painstakingly re-traced her lines to make them dark enough to show through the fabric.

Then take whatever marking tool you'd like (I used a Mark-B-Gone pen), so long as it'll wash out, and go to work tracing.



If you come to an area where you're unsure of what's really under there and just can't make out the lines, lift up your fabric and peek at the drawing before you keep going.
Just a couple of suggestions if you decide to try this project -
-Iron your fabric first. I was too excited to start and skipped this step, which made tracing over the wrinkles a little annoying.
-Tape down your fabric (securely!) on the top and 2 sides, leaving the bottom open for peeking. --Resist the urge to correct your child's "mistakes". Every little overlapped line, misplaced eye or extra tongue (a la "alien puppy") is an important aspect of your child's artwork. When tracing be as true to their lines as you possibly can and your finished project will just glow with their personality. And that's the whole idea, right?
-When you start to stitch, keep the original art handy and refer to it often. I think I'm going to embroider each drawing in the same color Pyper used to draw them, just so they look as much like her originals as possible.

Here are a couple of awesome quilt ideas I came cross on two of my favorite blogs, Wee Wonderfuls and SouleMama, which incorporate this project. What a great way to use these little pieces of embroidered art!! Man, I can't wait to actually start stitching these! I'll definitely be showing off the results.