Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Stitched Gifts for Mom

I'm just back from Maker Faire and am still in recovery mode, so I thought I'd share some pictures of one of the gifts I stitched this month for my mom. She has a birthday the week before Mother's Day, and this year I had embroidered gifts in mind for both occasions, so that meant tons.of.stitching. and tons.of.fun.


The Mother's Day project hasn't been fully photographed yet, because it still needs to be sewn into a pillow. My sister and I gave each of our kids a piece of typing paper and had them trace their hands and then write their names on the paper. I then transferred those drawings to fabric and stitched them for mom. The result was really fun, because their stitched signatures were each so incredibly different. I loved that! I still need to sew it into a pillow case, but will take pictures once I do.

I also stitched up a set of Mah Jong napkins for mom. As I've mentioned before, we are big fans of Mah Jong. Mom taught me how to play about 10 years ago (eesh - has it been that long!?) and though I don't get to play very often, she has a Mah Jong group that meets regularly. After I stitched the Mah Jong tablecloth that appears in Jenny Hart's Embroidered Effects (her designs, just my stitches) I realized I needed to use the patterns to make something for my mom. I didn't have time to do another large tablecloth, so I decided to go for napkins instead.


We offered the Mah Jong patterns as a freebie pattern on CRAFT last Fall, so I used that PDF to shrink the word "Mah Jong" to fit on the napkins. (the napkins came from Pier 1 and are trimmed in jumbo ric rac - WIN!) I put a tile on each one and ended up creating my own version of a Dragon tile to round out the fourth napkin. I don't have a picture of that one yet, though, as some stitches had to be ripped out.

I rolled the napkins up - not laid them out as is seen in the picture here - and put them in a ceramic Chinese take out container that I picked up at World Market. Mom loved them and said she can't wait to host the next round of Mah Jong so she can use them. If I have time, I'll have to stitch up a towel to match ....

Friday, May 7, 2010

Seriously Awesome Space Shuttle Cuff

A few weeks ago, I received the most awesome gift in the mail from Austin jewelry designer, Christine Terrell of Adaptive Reuse. I first met Christine a couple of years ago, and love her cool tin creations. She has a fantastic way of turning everyday tins into super cool adornments.

It's hard for my friends to ignore my space obsession. Folks who read my blog, follow me on Twitter or are friends on Facebook are pretty much inundated with my space-y blathering. I'm thankful that, rather than being annoyed (I hope) they seem to be very responsive. And it's so sweet that they would not only get excited about space, but also help fuel my love of the subject by generously sharing space-related objects with me.

Christine made this rad tin cuff and sent it to me. It arrived on the afternoon of a particularly grueling day, and brought the biggest smile to my face. I love that. Thank you so much, Christine!
Be sure to check out Christine's web site and shop. Here are a few of my favorite pieces of hers: