My Creative Space

Just a quick update on my secret garden cross stitch.

Over 3/4 of the crosses have been stitched.

Here is a quick reminder of what it looked like 2 months ago.

I'm not sure if I will make my self imposed October deadline but I think it will be pretty close.

Have you been creative this week, head over to the new home of our creative space to share.

-Ky

Cool Pacman Street Art

This awesome street art was found in Milan, Italy. It looks like string cross-stitched over metal mesh (chicken wire?). Hopefully the zip ties mean it won't be stolen anytime soon.

Original Source found via Sprite Stitch.
- Ky

My Creative Space

I started this cross stitch a few years ago now, last year my New Years resolution was to finish it, I failed.

I have had a renewed interest in cross stitch so I have a new goal of finishing this by October so I can go to the Quilting and Craft show and buy the second one in the set.
Here is a bit of an overview of my progress to date (please excuse the dodgy photo quality).

 Progress as of this week (almost 3/4 of the way through the cross stitching. YAY).

Progress as of the start of 2011

Progress at the start of 2010 year (look at how un-wrinkled the fabric is)

I'll try to post another update in a month or so. 

In other news Cloud is learning to knit, photo evidence to come sometime in the next few weeks:)

For more creative spaces head over here.

- Ky

Licorice Allsorts Beach Bag

Here is a bag I made up last night. I have had it cut out since just before last Christmas with the intention of giving it to my little sister. Now that it is finished she may finally receive it. Combining the striped fabric with the black webbing and binding makes it look a bit like a licorice allsort, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The fabric is from a fabric swap game at a sewing guild Christmas Party, not something I would have picked on my own. All of the lining, webbing, binding and zippers came from my stash.
The pattern is from the book "Making Handbags: Retro, Chic, Luxurious" by Ellen Goldstein-Lynch, Sarah Mullins and Nicole Malone.

I have also added in a zippered pocket to the lining which isn't included in the original pattern, there is a great tutorial on how to do this at u-handbag.com.

New Years Resolution, kind of

I know that it is February but I think I have finally decided upon a New Years resolution. I am going to finish the Michael Powell Secret Garden Cross Stitch that I purchase a few years back. It has been sitting in a sewing frame in the lounge room for the past year or so and during that time I have only completed approx 1/6 of the cross stitching.

My interest in Cross Stitch comes and goes, one year I will cross stitch like a maniac and then the next I have no interest in it at all. This year I have a renewed interest in cross stitch.

Here is a WIP shot.

and here is what it will look like by the end of the year (I hope).

Planning a Wedding - Part 2

So of course when my little sister announced that she was getting married and finally decided upon a date I offered to do the invitations. Luckily my little sister is fairly easy to design for, I came up with a few ideas and she picked the one below. The rose design is inspired by the Cross stitch design from her wedding guest book (read more about the guest book here). I saw an invitation design somewhere on a website that had a printed wax seal, so I decided we were going to go one better and use a real wax seal.

All of the stationary was printed double-sided on 200gsm Ivory canson card stock using an A3 Epson printer, my two sisters then had to cut them all out, attach the ribbon and wax seal. I was slightly worried that they were going to set fire to my kitchen but all the wax was melted without mishap.

The full Stationary set included the invitations, RSVP card, Info/wishing well card and a place card.


The invitations are DL size with a piece of 12mm ribbon and a wax seal on the front.

Each RSVP card included a stamp and the name of the invited persons so that when the cards were returned there was no chance of them not having any names on them. We had heard stories of people who had RSVP cards with space for people to write their names on and the cards being returned with no names added so that the bride had no idea of who it was from.

I had to cut out the place cards all by hand, luckily I am pretty quick with a scalpel.

All of the stamps used on the envelopes and the RSVP cards featured roses and were from the Australia Post "With Love" range.

Craft Vault 1

I've been crafting for a number of years now (mainly for friends and family) and have never really showcased my work. Lucky for me my partner is a photographer and has kept a good record of everything for me. I'm finally going to document my achievements and put them up on this blog (or if Cloud says it's 'dark enough' it will go on Voodoo Rabbit).

TY the Tasmanian Tiger is a mascot character who features is a series of computer games made by Krome Studios in Australia. I spent several years working on the franchise, both making the games and marketing. One of the creators of the character was expecting his first child, so I decided to make a baby quilt featuring a x-Stitch of TY as a present for him & his wife.

I created the pattern by taking some character concept art into Adobe Illustrator to trace and colour it. This helped me to constrain the colours to a manageable number. I then took the image into PC Stitch to create the x-stitch pattern.

TY is sewn onto 28 count cloth and finished he was around 15cm x 20cm in size. I bordered him with chocolate bias binding and then added TY as a middle panel for a cot quilt. Baby's parents loved the blanket and didn't want to let her get her hands on it.