Moose Antlers Up Close

Just so you get an idea of just how much sewing I did. This was the most consolidated area of stitching, but it goes on throughout the rest of the antlers.

Moose Antlers Finally Finished

Whew! These babies took me about three months. Now, I now what you may be thinking, they look so simple. I know they do, which is why my next post has a close up. Originally, when I started making these, I was just going to do the cut out shape and call it a day. But they looked so boring with just cream. I decided to add some texture. So I found this nice, dark brown thread I had and held it up to the cream. I loved the way it looked, the colors complemented each other and looked kind of retro together, like a 70's vibe. I began to sew striated lines coming out of the middle of the antler, and coming up the edges of the antler. I made each line different from the one next to it. Some are short, some are long, some are curvy and some are straight. I bunched them real close together towards the middle and spread them out as they got longer. I really love the way the pattern looks. But, when I started doing it, I realized almost immediately I would need to do more of the antler than I had originally thought. And let me tell you, these were a bitch to sew. They took forever! I was going to do the backs and the fronts of the antlers in this pattern until I realized just how long it was taking me. I decided no one should see the backs anyway, so why not just leave them blank? I kept thinking of putting down this project to do a simple one, hoping that would ease my frustration with the length of this one. But I knew if I put them down then I would never pick them back up. When both fron sides were finished, I thought the rest would take no time at all. I was only a little wrong. It turns out the backs were much larger than the fronts and I had to carefully cut them back down to size. After that, I found a nice gold thread and started doing an outside stitch all around the antlers. The three colors really complement each other nicely. I really want to use these babies as couch end pillows but my dumb dog loves to eat all of my sewed stuff! I might give them to a friend or just mount them on my wall somewhere. Anyway, I'm really proud of these. I did take some time to do some drawings while I was working on these but I haven't posted them yet. Maybe tonight!

Next project: Toucan!

Designing a tattwo

When I sent the original drawing, I told him I would move the guy out of the fire to the right a little so it wouldn't look like his junk was burning up...something i'm sure no man wants to have to think about everytime he looks at his tattoo for the rest of his life.  My brother also asked that I take out the detail of the hair and clothes on the people.  He said to keep the fire colored but that he might decide to have it black and white when he gets it done.

I redrew the first one the way he asked and he loved it! Personally, I like the detail of the other one better and I really hope he keeps the color in the fire.  I can't wait to see it on him!

Designing a tattoo

I am on a touch football team with my brothers.  We play every fall and winter.  This year, I started to design our t-shirts.  For the fall, we were Maek Chmura's Hot Tub Horrors.  Mark Chmura is a pro football player who got caught in a hot tub with under age girls and alcohol so I drew a skeleton in a hot tub enjoying a beer with a bra strap dangling from his finger. This winter, we are Najeh Davenport's Laundry Basket Tortes.  Najeh took a dump in his ex girlfriend's laundry basket so I drew a laundry basket dumping out socks.

Anyway, flash forward.  My brother wants to get his second tattoo and he asked me to design it. He gave me a picture of a man telling a story around a campfire and asked for something along those lines where the people were just outlines.  So I came up with this first drawing.

Fixed It

Yay, I fixed my broken heart. What once was nearly ripped to pieces can march along to its own beat. I ended up sewing a few holes in the main section and covering up the larger ones with more blue veins. I sewed the ragged top of the heart together as best I could, cutting away stray felt as I went along. Luckily, there was still a little resemblance of tubular outposts at the top, so I used those as stepping stone for the larger, pink veins to wrap around. All in all, I'm happy with how it turned out. It's always good to have a project go awry once in a while so you can prove to yourself that you can fix your (or your hungry dog's) mistakes.

How Do You Mend A Broken Heart?

Oh Gums, why do you do me like you do? In all fairness, it is my fault. I left my door open and the my heart on my bed. How can he resist a soft plush? And to his credit, he always chews my creations in the least destructive way. He avoided the bigger veins that took hours so I can't really be too mad. Plus, this is a somewhat easy fix. Plus, I hadn't even finished it yet. Plus, I got to reference Al Green in the title so it's all good.

Thanks to my friend Ellissa, I am starting a stuffed organs series. I already have an Organs-in-a-Box series so it is an easy transition. This heart will look fly when its done, with large blue and pink veins at the top.

I know I say I'm starting a lot of series and then there aren't any follow ups, but if weapons taught me anything its that too much of one thing can get taxing. After the heart is complete, I'm going to make a nifty pair of moose antlers.

24 Soaps of Christmas

So for a while there, I forgot that I make soap. I have had a back log of soap chilling in a cooler in my office for months. Luckily, I had labeled them with their ingredients before they were buried in the freezer that time, and Megan, forgot. Anyway, I'm attending a craft fair this weekend and was excited to try to sell my stuffed items. My boyfriend asked "what about your soap?" Of course! It was so simple. After all, people are probably more likely to buy soap than stuffed weapons and various animal parts.

Anyway, I spent the last couple of days wrapping the 24 acceptable soaps in postal paper and bakers twine. I wrote little ingredient cards which encouraged people to enjoy their new soaps. I came up with zesty, goofy, and just plain stupid names for them.

Hopefully I get rid of some of them, otherwise, I have Christmas presents set for co-workers.