So I've moved 90% of my things, and the new landlord has been very cool about the fact that I've been super busy have three tests this week in addition to moving in the middle of the semester.

In honor of the new place, I of course had to get myself something for it! So I was actually looking for an armoire for my TV, and I ran across this fabulous mobile at West Elm. Even better? It was on sale for $11.99 and Free Shipping!

It came yesterday, I put it together and hung it up! It's very shiny and happy (and it was on sale!).

I really do like random-ish emails. Not the spammy/porn type, but the discover a new place to shop, or a book I might not be able to live without type. Some days I think they do nothing but clog my inbox, but then there are other days I discover gems!

Today I recieved an email announcing "I've got Color" from CB2. And since I'm procrastinating going home to move the rest of the odds and ends from the old house, I opened it. CB2 is apparently a modern-ish home decor store similar to things you'd see from Chiasso and West Elm, but owned by my all time favorite of places to spend money Crate and Barrel!

So back to the email! CB2 has teamed with apartmenttherapy to host a "I've got Color" contest, with the winners getting fairly substantial gift cards to CB2 both at the regional level and at the national level. On a side note, the regions are random (maybe associated with CHB2 stores?) but the closest location to me is Chicago I think- they're probably about equal.

The gist is that they want to see photos of your spaces that you use color in, and how you use that color. The only caveat is that you need to be quick, October 15th is the Deadline for submitting photos.

Think I can get unpacked in time?

There are pros and cons to moving your entire house and life.

Pros
1. There's the fact that there's no question that the house you're moving into will actually be clean for a little while
2. You can organize to your little OCD heart's content

Cons
1. You have to move it all.
2. When people help you move, they inevitably think they know how you organize, and you lose things.
3. Your cats are hell bent on massive destruction on their quest to investigate the house.

So- I'm almost done moving, and hopefully this will be the last move for a long time. No bad neighbors (I have yard on both sides), no letting the significant other move in, no landlord selling the house. I'll share some photos a bit later this week!

This is a quick shout out to the folks over at Instructables who have my Color Picking 101 Tutorial as a featured tutorial on the front page! Thanks so much to all of you that have clicked through, or have found me as a result!

So I've finished my tutorial on choosing colors for crafting in general. As many of you know, I work part time in a fabric store and have worked at a half a dozen crafty type stores in the past. I'm always amazed at people who are amazing artists, being afraid of color and afraid to work outside their box.

Many people who come into a fabric store either ask for help in finding matching fabrics, or they buy pre-packaged bundles and kits we put together when the store is quiet. I put it together more to inspire confidence to new crafters more than anything, and I too use this method especially when I'm working out side my comfort zone of colors.

I hope you enjoy it- you can find it here at instructables!

As promised, finished monster dishtowels for a housewarming gift for my brother! I was really happy with the way they came out and he's going to get a kick out of them! coming soon- review of the new creative vision machine!

Several the local southern Louisiana Etsy sellers met with Erin Haldrup at Flora's in New Orleans and talked about crafting post Katrina. Erin's posted the first part of her videos on the Storque, Etsy's new news format! I was there, as were Mallory (Dismantled), Mag (ArtbyMags), Mischa (BakingwithMedusa), Michelle (GreenKangaroo), Kerry (RustChic), Heather (NolaSalvage). We had a great lunch, and met some local characters, one of whom runs the website neworleansbywater.com

So I know I haven't been posting much recently but the school year has started again and I've been in Dallas, Texas all week for the Pfaff convention. (More about that later though) We drove to Dallas on Tuesday night, and got here a day before the convention to make stops at the Moda/United Notions and P&B Textiles warehouses to shop for the quilt shop before we had to go to classes.

We started at Moda/UN at about 7:30 am. First of all, it's a beautiful building, and the lobby is nicely decorated with many of the Moda premade house things and many of the sample quilts are hung off the balcony upstairs.

We of course started in the clearance section, where it almost looks like a normal everyday fabric store. Bolts on racks, flat folds, notions, and fabric headers all for sale (other than you have to buy the whole bolt!). So we did a bit of shopping, picking up some more pieces of the Roman Holiday Collection, and picking a lot of more random fabrics to fill in some holes on the color wall. Everyone who works there seemed really happy, and they all wear thouse cute Moda aprons. Even better several of them were riding around the warehouse on tricycles with big baskets filling orders. We also bought a bunch of great jelly rolls for the shop since they've been so popular recently (Monkeys, repros, and great trendy prints)!

We also hit the United Notions side of the warehouse, picking up lots of odds and ends for the shop, including scissors, books, and Mary Ellen's Best Press (If you haven't tried it you have too- it's amazing and it smells nice. It also doesn't leave crap all over my iron).

Above the United Notions warehouse is their showroom. As one of the staff members explained it to us, it's their idea of a perfect shop, and it's even better because no one messes it up! I've included a couple of photos, but you can find more in my flickr account! They've got one of the coolest classroom spaces I've ever seen, and use it for business meetings and conferences. It seats 12 students, all at their own table and chair with lighting that's independent from the rest of the shop area. You can also see it's in the middle of the area, so everyone shopping can see how cool the class is.

Just off the showroom was possibly the coolest feature of the whole place. They have a Moda fabric library, where they've kept a half a yard of every fabric Moda's EVER PRINTED. It was awesome to look through and see fabrics that I have and love, or remember seeing in the stores or in great quilts. There are literally thousands of pieces, labeled by name and the year and month they came out!

The P&B warehouse was hot, way smaller than the other, and not quite so customer friendly (Though I do understand... it is a warehouse after all). Though the awesome part was that there were people working while we were there putting fabric on bolts from the hug commercial runs! They were working on these big awesome machines that I'm not sure what they're called (Folders?) that take the big commercial bolts, folt the fabric, and spin it on the cardboard ones we all know and love.

More tomorrow on sewing machines and convention!

I've been busy recently so I haven't posted as many updates as I might like. I've been getting ready for the semester to start, and teaching at the fabric store as always. I've been running a monthly embroidery club, where every month we've been working with new techniques and working on projects. This month we worked on embroidering towels since the pile makes embroidering interesting to say the least.

My brother just moved to a new apartment, with his first real job... so I figured I'd do some kitchen towels for him. I debated making something classy and stylish, but then if it didn't go with his decor at some point he wouldn't use them. So I figured I'd be better off to go with ridiculous/fun and that way there was no worries. They wouldn't match anything. Ever. So he'd use them.

I got a cheap set of towels, rags, and pot holders at Target for $6, and figured they'd be perfect. As I sorted through my embroidery designs, I debated lots of options for something fun. I ended up using the Viking #62- Crazy Creatures Collection, and stitched #1, #10, and #14 on the towels. Below is the final color of #14 doing the outline.

So I picked up a copy of Domino Magazine the other day while I was standing in line at Whole Foods and was distracted by all the fun things that I don't really need for my house, or can't afford.

Case and point: They featured this amazing mirror by Kikkerland Design that's free standing on two cast pewter duck feet. The magazine lists it solely as Kikkerland Design and RISD/Works. I couldn't find it at the RISD store, but found it at a fun site called mookiegifts! So... I think I might need it for my dresser.

So Jared, an admin over at Etsy, had advertised a contest a while back to create a promotional posted that would be used to hand out at shows and events and the like. The posters were to be created using a treasury like tool with 16 images, which were sent in a convo to Jared.

The winners were supposed to be posted on the 8th I think, and then Jared let us all know that they had been "crushed" under a wave of entries. I figured with so many entries mine would never get chosen....

And so Wednesday was my birthday, and it was not quite the best of birthdays. Things have been bad in my personal life, and hadn't been helped by what is supposed to be a happy event.

BUT! I woke up to a convo from enamor who I featured in my poster thanking me for using her photo in my winning poster! So I had to go and check it out (you can see the other 59 winning entries here) and has a great time looking! Such beautiful work! And then I got a happy birthday convo from QuirkynBerkley who I made one of my first etsy purchases from (though from her other shop QuirkynBerkelytoo).

It's been outrageously hot here and I've been sick again, so I haven't been posting much. As it's Sunday morning and quiet here with my kitties and I'm checking my usual sites. Postsecret.com has a movie up this week, instead of the usual postcards. Check it out.

There's been a bunch of discussion lately over on the etsy.com forums (fora?) about the new etsytools.com site.

I for one think it's brilliant. I know that's somewhat of a controversial opinion, but I don't think in any way they tried to mislead people into thinking they were affiliated with the main site itself. Nor do I blame them for not disclosing their identities, as disclosing your primary shop's name could be construed as trying to gain publicity... I think the forum police would have gone after them one way or another.

Check it out- there's a lot of interesting information! Though one thing I'd like to see is a list of the top 100 sellers (of all time) like what the sampler used to do. As well as possibly a list of random sellers, or most recent sales.

And I did find my camera... where is inconsequential because I can't believe I left it there.

I've been a busy busy girl this past week and keep forgetting to blog. Now that I'm single again I've been rearranging my house, and when the springs poked through my mattress this past week.... I knew what my birthday gift to myself was going be (two weeks early)! So my friend Heidi and I decided to spend an evening trying out mattresses and had a blast. I discovered that if you're tired enough, thousands of dollar for one of those hotel mattresses seems reasonable but they're sooo comfortable.

We discovered that full size beds are sold in the children's section... why? I don't know. Though we did have a blast climbing around bunk beds, princess beds, and baseball beds to try out the different types of mattresses. The bed pictured above was a Cinderella's carriage bed and was absolutely adorable (and actually the mattress I bought). Every one needs a pretty pretty princess bed.

I moved my bedroom, and put the new mattress in, and have started hanging some of my etsy art on the wall! photos coming soon!

I'm in Tallahassee for a couple of days for work (at a really nice business hotel... do you think I can sneak that mattress out with me?) but the worst part is right before I left I couldn't find my digital camera. I'm in a huge panic that I've lost it....

For those of you local to me you may be interested in the Uncommon Thread Wearable Art Juried Show happening here in Baton Rouge. It ought to be an amazing show and is being juried by Suzanne Perron from New Orleans who makes the most divine custom wedding and debutante gowns and Susan Elizabeth Ryan, a well published Art Professor here at LSU. It's being sponsored by a who's who of local cultural organizations and the showing will be a fashion show, so entries need to be wearable.

Thanks so much to qbranchltd who featured me this week at their blog!

I'm so excited! I'm going to be published! My contributed pages to the etsyjournal project organized by stella and heather has been accepted for publication in the 1000 Artist's Journal Pages book to be published by Quarry Books!

Dawn Sokol is the author/curator of the book, and she runs a great blog called D'Blogala all about journaling.

Getting her email today almost made me forget about the crappiness of the rest of the week!

I just recently discovered leafletter and I may be in love!

If you haven't played with it- it's the neatest little widget program that lets you build brochures (or if you're an etsy fan, something like a cross between the etsymini and the treasury!) So I've been itching to try it out and was inspired today at work. As we drove the fields were filled with dragonflies, and they were swarming and all trying to defend their little space. It was amazing and surreal all at once, and for all I tired to capture it with my camera it wasn't working.

So here's my own little swarm for you!

Happy Fourth All!

I spent the evening down by the Mississippi River sitting on the levee and watching the fireworks. I took tons of photographs and got a few that were really good! The whole show was only about 20 minutes long but the crowds were amazing. I'm not sure I've ever seen that many people downtown. ever.

My personal life has been thrown for a bit a of a loop recently (and part of that is my fault), but the end result is I have the house to myself now. So the ex-boy is slowly moving his things out, and I'm gaining lots more space just for me. The perk is that I'm going to start planning dinner parties again! I haven't hosted one since I lived in Pennsylvania and we used to have them about once a week combined with a movie night.

So... I've been looking for fun dining things. I love the look of handthrown pottery, but the reality is as a graduate student being able to afford food is much more important than having an awesome bowl to eat ramen out of. Though I've ordered a few that were "seconds" but are going to be awesome! I'll take photos when they get here.

On that note I've been looking for some great table stuff that's reasonably inexpensive.

At the top right are some great recycled beer glass glasses (tongue twister!) that I think I'd like to try and make! the pair pictured were made Rachel Sudlow over at Sudlow Jewelry. She makes awesome stuff, and these look like loads of fun. I've been stockpiling printed beer bottles for a bit now... and I think I have enough to finally try it. I just need to dig out my glass equipment.

I also have been very into the table linens recently. I've been drooling over these matching place mats and napkins recently. They're the second photo down on the right. How cool are they? They're from MichelleBrusegaard and would look perfect on my dinner table. I've also been looking at the recycled silver spoon napkin rings from LTCreatesJewelry which would also be fabulous.

I have a series of reusable sacks and bags I use instead of getting plastic bags when I go shopping, but several of them are starting to look a little sad. I have one in particular I bought almost 10 years ago that has a few holes big enough for small cans to fall through. I also have several of the green totes from Whole Foods that look like their paper shopping bags but made from a green material.

Mallory over at MissMalaprop had posted a while back about Envirosax bags... and I bookmarked them to go back to. I had a n olderbag fall apart this week and decided to go and check them out. She really like the graphic series (at right), but I love the bright colors of the flora bags.

They're available individually or in packs of five that come in a pouch. They fold up really small as well (4x2) which is way smaller than any of my other bags (other than the ones I make) and that pouch should fit in my purse I carry! They also carry double what would fit in a regular size plastic grocery bag.

Envirosax is based out of Australia, and is only recently available in the US- both on their website and several small boutiques. They've also been well documented in the Australian media but not so much in the US.

Their company has a great mantra as well, believing in a sustainable future and being ecologically sound in their daily life.

(I ordered the Flora Pouch withe all five bags to replace my bags that are finally falling apart.)

SarahKat convoed me the other days after I wondered who else was posting tutorials for various crafty adventures on their blog. She's posted a two part tutorial on making paste papers on her blog (Part1, Part 2) which looks like it could be reminiscent of finger painting (and loads of fun!).

Gemmafactrix also recently posted a tutorial on her blog on Adventures in Papermaking and creating your own deckle screens in custom sizes!

One more row (the orange) on the blooming nine patch quilt. I'm getting there slowly on this one... and it's growing on me. I wasn't entirely sure I really liked it but I'm liking it more as I get more sections on.

Over at Etsy there lives a conglomerate of several guys (rare enough on etsy) but with a deceptively wicked sense of humor called Mixed Species. They were the featured sellers earlier this week and make crazy awesome stuff.

They're currently all over with their "Brief Jerky," being sold as a custom listing for $139. As you can see on the right, they're not only edible underwear made of beef jerky, but bejeweled and embellished as well. If you haven't seen it, go look at the listing here, complete with more photos. They've got over 10,000 hits and are still climbing.

From their Etsy Interview:

In 2007 a crafting commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the West Coast underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as crafters of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire Mixed Species."

Actually, we are a group of four, one in Washington State, two in Oregon and one in California. In aggregate we are a capitalistic hippie, white trash, former model with four kids who plays a mean bass, does PR for a Fortune 50 company and are a former member of too many bands to count!

Click here to read the rest.

For all of you that are just as excited as me about the fact that gocco might be here in the US... it looks like it happened! Papersource.com has gocco supplies along with the gocco arts kit (the one with the larger printing area that I wanted/have been drooling over!). Now we'll see if they bring back the B5/B6 (small print area) and B10/B11 (small area with advanced registration)

You can also check out this great blog post about the gocco called "Do you Gocco? You Will!".

Well to start with she's one of the etsians I've actually met in real life! As some of you know I work part time in a fabric store, and she comes in and shops. She's got cute kids too :) She makes gorgeous bags out of superfun fabrics, and adorable clothes too. Her etsy shop is located at artsycraftybabe.etsy.com and she blogs here!

ps. I love this bag she made (and Jane Sassaman designs awesome fabrics. She's amazing, if you ever get a chance to take her classes DO IT).

This tutorial is designed to be a step by step guide to making fusible binding for your projects. A fusible binding is perfect for display pieces that will not receive the wear and tear bed quilts do. It's perfect for wallhangings in specific and lots of other small things I haven't considered. It's easy and fast to make as well! I used fusible binding in making a soft backed children's book as well. The patterns are for sale here.

---

Step 1- Selecting your fusible
There are many fusible interfacings available that are double sided. The most common are Steam-A-Seam-2, wonder under, and thermobond. I like Steam-A-Seam-2 better than the other types available (for this project) because there are two sheets of paper and the fusible in the middle is sticky so it doesn't shift while you're trying to work with it.

---

Step 2- Cutting the Interfacing and Fabric
You should cut strips of the fusible interfacing a bit wider than you intend for the the binding itself to be (so you have room to trim if you need).

I cut all of my strips with a rotary cutter. As a side note, I keep one marked specifically for cutting paper and non fabric materials. Older blades that won't cut fabric will still cut paper just fine.

I cut both my fabric and interfacing strips 2.5 inches wide. The strips shown in the photos are short for example's sake. You'd cut your strips the length of the item you're looking to bind.

---

Step 3- Getting Ready
Steam-A-Seam-2 is unique because the fusible interfacing itself is sticky and is enveloped in paper on both sides. When you start this step you need to peel back one of the sheets of paper, and off the interfacing. You should be left with a piece of paper that is tacky to the touch (this is the interfacing) and stick it to the wrong side of your fabric. If you look at the photo to the left, the interfacing has a honeycombed texture, while the paper alone has a similar texture to freezer paper.

The photo on the right shows the interfacing temporarily attached to the wrong side of the fabric, ready to be ironed.

---

Step 4- Ironing (aka don't burn yourself)
Once you have the Steam-A-Seam-2 lined up, iron it to the fabric. Remember, you are ironing paper, so use a medium heat and keep the iron moving. Turn off the steam! The paper becomes almost translucent after being heated to attach the interfacing.

---

Step 5- Decorative Trim
So in reality, the piece of fabric you have in your hands could be used as a fused binding, but it's really not that exciting. I've also found that sometimes a straight grain fusible binding can fray and make a mess over time with a little bit of wear.

I use a wavy edged rotary cutter to give the piece a decorative edge. I trim one side, and then place the ruler line at the two inch mark in the middle of the waves for my second trim.

---

Step 6- You're ready to bind!
So now you have a two inch wide strip of decorative fusible binding ready to attach to your project!

The paper back peels off, leaving a sticky binding that's easy to position before ironing it down! I normally also try to stitch it down after ironing as well... it gives a more traditional look and a bit more polish.

---

All Done!
The photo on the right is of a children's book I made that uses these same instructions to bind soft pages with Fast2Fuse or Timtex. The photo is of the corner of the book, and shows a red fusible binding stitched down with black thread for contrast.

---

You can also find a version of this tutorial at the instructables site or included in my pattern for a soft children's book found here on etsy. The fabric used in the demo is from the Michael Miller Kid's Toile Line.

I've had a series of bad days recently thanks to some hiccups in my personal life. I realized it's been 10 days since I've posted here and now I feel a little delinquent... so I've got some fun things to show you!

One of the local crafting stores here recently went out of business this past week, and the manager offered me a deal I couldn't pass up. I've talked to her a couple of times about selling things on etsy, and enjoying the community and being able to get great supplies as well as great handcrafted things (most of which I don't really need but they make me happy). So long story short she offered to make me the deal of a lifetime if I bought most of the needles she had left. Hence the photo you see in the upper right of this post. That's about half of what I walked away with!

I picked up lots of double pointed needles for knitting in the round (sized 5-10) that are plastic covered brass, Circular needles in both bamboo and the plastic/brass in all sort of sizes, and a variety of straight needles that are bamboo. There are also some assorted other odds and ends including crochet needles, cable hooks, stitch markers and a couple of learn to knit DVDs.

So I've started listing them at my other etsy store, Shootingstar Supplies, which you can find here. I think I've priced them below what you'd be able to buy them at a store on sale for, because I'm all about supporting the crafty ones! (and it's amazingly cool to look at hundreds of pairs of knitting needles in all different colors!).

I haven't posted in a while and I'm sorry- My personal life is a bit of a disaster area right now and I've been super busy with the end of the semester and the start of summer field work.

The uber-fun monkey pillowcase pictured is an awesome fun little embroidery project. The money head is chenilled in the hoop, and then cut afterwards- it was easy and fun.

Because we all need more games to kill large amounts of time.

Crazy Ladybugs

(warning mild profanity ahead)
If you haven't been passed on this link to Locher's you must simply check it out. They fuse deceptively sweet tops with classic styling and delicate embroidery. They jump out as being different because of what they say and how they say it. This shirt is simple my favorite (since I'm a caffeine junky), it simply says, "I really need a fucking coffee." Others says things like "I hate Children," "Dirty Little Lovemaker," and "I don't play nice."

The line was started by a nice little swiss girl "straight out of the sound of music" who discovered a vintage hankie with exquisite embroidery. She realized that the embroidery was special and that work of that class is rarely found today. She became determined to bring back quality embroidery on tops that would be fashionable today and to combine those two spirits. Her current line fuses each embroidered blouse or shirt with a playfully dirty saying. She says her tops are "something mommy wouldn't wear and daddy shouldn't see," calling the line "perversion with a touch of class."

Check them out!

I have to admit that while I love to cook, life gets in the way of making delicious goodies. I had seen a post that gemma made that she had ordered sinfully delicious cookies from thecountrybaker over at etsy. So the other night in a fit of chocolate cravings and PMS, I ordered both a "Three Fudge Sampler" and a "Surprise Box." I came home today and there was a nice box on my porch.... I was surprised to note that even though it was 85 today, the fudge was not melted! (it was soft, but not liquid).

Soooo goood. The "Surprise Box" was filled with individually wrapped little bars, cookies, and fudge. So far I've tried two different types of cookies and some Double Dark Fudge. I can *feel* the pounds packing on...

They also offer packages for troops in service to our country, and if you don't know someone but want to help they maintain a list of troops who are more than willing to receive extra goodies.

A quick additional shoutout to themommyandmeboutique who did a neat little feature on some of my bobbies on her blog.

For all of you illustration types, J.Jill is having a tshirt design contest with a pretty sweet prize of a 4 day artist's retreat and a gift certificate to their chain. They're looking for an illustration inspired by nature, and no more than six colors. If you're interested they stop taking submissions on the 28th of this month.

you can find more information about the contest here.

If you're excited about arts and crafting and the DIY movement- you can now subscribe to this blog's RSS feed via email!

There's a little box to type your email into at the bottom of the limey green box to the right!

I was unintentionally super crafty last night. I tried to lay in bed a read a book, and fell asleep very early, somewhere around 5 o'clock. Therefore, when I woke up at 9 I was WIDE awake. What do you when you can't sleep?

Make Stuff!

So I purchased all these super cool bobby pins blanks a while back and figured I'd start playing. This particular pair are great, they're made from reproduction vintage metal buttons that I cut the shank off and polished flat. For once my dremmel wasn't dead (my boyfriend has a new fondness for it- I'm very close to buying him his own).

I also used it to drill holes and turn some fun stuff in to even more fun earrings! I made brushed copper flowers and the ubiquitous vintage Indian brass charms into even more fun earrings. I made far more than I posed in my shop to day too.

I've got a new goal, to relist or renew 5 items a day. That's $1 a day, or ~$30 a month to stay up in the listings. I think I can do it!

Sales Sales Sales!

JoAnn's is having a 40% off any one item online when you use the code MAYH740 Today!

Hobby Lobby also has a 40% off any one item on their website! You have to print it out and bring it in though... find it here.

I do and I love it. I do hand work too, but there's something soothing and relaxing listening to the machine run. (besides you can start the machine, and sew on a second machine and be twice as productive) It can also be quite hypnotic to watch the needle jump up and down.

I buy many of my designs at the shop I work at, but I also really like being able to buy my designs individually. Unfortunately design collections can be really expensive, and as cool as they may be, if I'm not going to use them all it's just not practical. So here's my reviews of some of my favorite places to get machine embroidery files online. Some of the sites are country specific (I'm in the US) so if you have a problem let me know and I'll see if I can find you the right link.



Embroidery.com is one of my favorites for downloading both packs of designs and individual designs. They're the online vendor for Cactus Punch designs and you can buy them individually as well as the whole package. They also sell lots of smaller vendor designs, and I've never purchased anything that has stitched out poorly. Make sure you get on their mailing list, they've got amazing sales.

I also have a coupons for 5 free designs from them... We hand them out at work for people to try the site and start embroidering on their new machines!
1. Go to www.embroidery.com
2. Enter your sewprize number in the box on the upper right hand corner AFG6K8PC427J
3. You can then download the 5 designs in your choice of formats

Ann the Gran.com

Ann the Gran has lots of designs as well, including large names like Dakota and Vermillion Stitchery. They also have a large section of the website devoted to free designs that can be stitched on items to sell, give, or keep for yourself. The free designs vary in quality as they've been digitized by users of the site and not necessarily an individual company or a professional.

Criswell Embroidery and Design

The Criswell site is full or gorgeous machine embroidered lace. They do sell through dealers as well so you may want to see if there is a store or shop near you that sells them. They're thread intensive, but are amazing once they're finished! My personal favorites are the snowflake lace and the Peacocks 2 CD.

Embroidery Library

Again- lots of designs and well organized. Also well digitized, and they offer various free and cheap designs. They have great sales a well and routinely have 17 cent designs.

Zundt Designs

These are some of the most elegant designs available. They've got religious designs, kids, lace, etc. They're amazing well digitized and again, stitch intensive. I have one of the butterfly CDs and it's unbelievable. They sell hard copies (CDs) and downloads.

Pfaff Software Online

These are a sampling of Pfaff Embroidery Designs online (often including the ones they use in their advertising campaigns). These are the FREE designs :) click on the Downloads sections, and then on "Showcase Sample Designs" for the different groups. It's a random assortment of files, all well digitized, but only available is *.VIP, *.PCS and *.DST. You can always convert them if necessary. Pfaff's home website also has a few free designs available here. The design to the right is from the Grand Elegance Collection by Pfaff (Not Free though, Sorry).

Inspira

Inspira designs have been bought by VSM (which owns Pfaff, Viking, and Singer), and are now available here. They're great for kids, but not so much of it is grownup looking. They're pretty straightforward designs, few color changes, and nice.

Bernina Designs

Bernina designs are in the same quality bracket as Pfaff and Viking. They stitch amazingly and they're expensive. So even better if they're free! Bernina has an inspiration gallery with free designs located here.

Viking Sewing

Viking again are high quality designs, and expensive. They have a selection of free designs on their website here and here.

Whew! That's a lot of links for you to look at- This is just a beginning, I'm sure There will be more to come.

This week the New York Times published an article on Leonard Nimoy that led me to spend an entire afternoon looking up his photography and reviews of his work before I realized what was happening. Now I know you're thinking you recognize the name, but you've probably never heard the name in conjunction with the words artist or photography; and before I get too far you do know the name unless you've been living under a rock. Leonard Nimoy acted in the Original Star Trek Series (with Captain Kirk/ William Shatner) and starred as the original Vulcan named Spock.

Star Trek began in 1966 and stopped filming 3 seasons later, he returned to school and worked toward a degree in photography. He didn't graduate but holds master's degree in Education and an Honorary Doctorate. His photography came to the fore front of discussion in 2002 when he published the book Sekhina.

Raised in Boston by Russian Jews, Nimoy used traditional jewish names and symbols intertwined with the female form. The word Sekhina for example is yiddish for the female side of god. The photographs themselves were of very sensual women, wrapped and draped in phylacteries which are typically only worn by Jewish men. (On a side note the famous Vulcan hand signal is of Nimoy's own design, representing the Hebrew letter "shin," the first letter in the word for God.

On a more recent note, as mentioned in the Times, Nimoy is making waves with his photography again. His new project is entitled "the Full Body Project" and makes some thought provoking statements about body size and perception of that size. The times article quotes him as saying that the series is a direct result of women to be a size 2.

One of the photographs is located at the top of this post, and a scan of the Times article is placed here to the left. Notice the Times page places the article called "Girth and Nudity: A Pictorial Mission) between two department store ads, both featuring Twiggy like models.

His new photographs are showing the at the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Massachusetts through June while a larger show at the same gallery is scheduled with the release of the book of photographs from this series in November.

I found the photos in the series (you can see them here) engrossing for lack of a better word. The photos are explicit, showing large nude women in poses from famous paintings, and enjoying themselves. It's very refreshing to see that not only are these woman large, but they're visibly comfortable with their bodies. As a woman myself, it's also nice to see that the women aren't "plus sized models." They're larger than any other model I've ever seen, nude or otherwise, and they're disproportionate, some with larger hips, and others who are huge on top. There's significant variation in the women in the photographs, just like real women.

On a side note, he's apparently over the years published two books including one of poetry (I am Spock and You and I), and recorded several albums: The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy, The Way I Feel, Mr. Spock's Music from Outer Space, and Space Odyssey.

I also had to give a quick shoutout to Tonyabug over at Etsy, who made me these AWESOME daisy decals for my car in a trade. I personally think I probably got the better end of the deal, but she really likes her pendant too :)

I put them on this past Thursday since I had the car serviced Wednesday, and they washed and waxed it before I got it back. The decals came with specific instructions that the car had to be CLEAN (which it never is) so I took the opportunity and finally put them on the car. I love them!

Her shop has all sorts of other cool car decals (all hand cut from 6 year vinyl) and magnetic bumper sticker type things :) check her out!

Life has been a bit nuts recently, as evidenced by my lack of posting. I'm sitting here actively procrastinating my final exam for statistics this afternoon (whomever decided finals should be on a Saturday was EVIL)

This weekend is also the shop hop of quilting shops here in southern Louisiana! (which I'm missing most of because of said final). I did successfully complete the pattern I wrote to make this adorable children's book from the 5 Funky Monkeys fabric panel from Moda! I wrote up a pattern with lots of photographs and directions for fusible binding techniques.

For the book itself I used a coordinating fabric from the same line for the inside and back of the covers, and did a fusible binding for the edges. I 'bound' the book with eyelets and yarn and tied a cute bow on the back!

The patterns were a big hit the first day of the shop hop, we sold several which is always a happy event to know that people like your patterns. They're also available here at ShootingStar on etsy, my second shop for supplies and destashing. I'll slowly be making more of my patterns available online...

If you're at all interested in fiber arts involving yarn at all, you simply must buy have a yarn ball winder. This is the one I have and it's great... I like to buy old tacky sweaters at the salvation army and take them apart for the yarn. This gadgam-gig pulls the yarn from the sweater/scarf and winds it into a ball, without knots!

It's ready at this point to be reused and made into something else beautiful, It goes easily from a know free ball into whatever format you'd like to have your yarn in (if you're going to dye it etc.)

Life's been super busy recently, but I've been working on things for you! I'm almost finished with a tutorial on binding (several types)... it should be awesome and exciting! I'm also going to go home this afternoon and work on my blooming 9 patch :)

I've been tagged by fellow etsian Sing Yee at Kawaii~Neh to do this...

• Start with 7 random facts/habits about yourself
• People who are tagged have to write their 7 things on their blog
• Then choose another 7 people to get tagged and list their names
• Don't forget to leave them a comment to tell them they have been tagged and to read your blog

1. I'm an entomologist by trade... I spend lots of time playing in the swamp and looking for little tiny weevils. I collect insects and have a whole set of boxes filled with dead bugs on pins...

2. I have three cats and two dogs, and most days my life is like a circus. There's always one pet getting into something they're not supposed too, especially with my crafting stuff. I have one cat (roxy) in particular who is very into anything shiny and small, one who loves thread (hannah) and the last one (calpernius) who wants to do nothing but find the biggest pile of stuff and push it over so she can sleep there.

3. I don't like ham and didn't eat it for years, even at family functions because my cousin and I would trade... he'd eat my ham and I'd eat his green bean casserole.

4. I pay an outrageous sum of money to get the magazine selvedge by subscription sent from the UK, and I don't feel guilty about it at all because I drool over the magazine.

5. I love perezhilton.com and read it every day regardless of the content, not because I care, just because it gives my brain a break and makes me smile.

6. Stripes make me happy.

7. I wish I were more organized... my life and house are the epitome of chaos.

TAG- other etsians who might just do this are

1. Gemma at Love, Gemma

2. Mosaico

3. Tara at Jewelry by Tara

4. Jen at RedInstead

5. A Rose by Name

6. Amy Keith

7. and anyone else who's like to fill out the survey!

I ordered more of these beautiful fairy filigree wings in both silver and gold and they make me so happy! they're all spread out on my desk waiting to be made into beautiful things! I also received some art deco inspired wings with simple classic lines that I *LOVE*. One pair or each will definitely be for me!

I though I was caught up on all of my orders, both for etsy and for bookmooch, and they I was thrown for a loop today. One of my neighbors came and knocked on my door and handed me the dame bag I left out for the post man the other day.... full of packages that had been opened and rifled. The left the books (though I'm going to have to reprint/repay for mailing them), the DVDs were in there from netflix though the envelope was gone, and some of the jewelry was there but not all. So, I'm remaking orders this evening and desperately seeking components I know I have more of somewhere...

Ugh. Why? Do you have nothing better to do than take my mail going out? come on now. Sorry I'm frustrated and venting this evening.

I'd like to give a huge thanks to Featuring Etsians (aka sewingsimple on etsy) for doing this great interview with me. She's got interviews with a bunch of other sellers up as well, and uses the etsymini feature to show everyone's items!

I am and I admit it!

I love books, possibly as much as crafting supplies. I love to read, and I love to feel a book in my hands. I'd guess that almost 90% of my collection is hardback, so they live all over my house in little stacks and piles. I've recently started organizing, and trying to get my books back in some semblance of order. They *were* in subject and alphabetical order before our move, but they didn't get to the new house that way.

I've been cleaning like crazy, and I have a stack to list on my etsy supply shop. I've got lots of paper crafting books to list mostly, card making and scrapbooking. I do have a couple of fun odds and ends like a book on how to make the real-deal teddy bear. It's an amazing book, great patterns, and cool project but I've come to terms with it- that I'm never going to actually *make* a teddy bear.

I've also been listing noncrafty books on bookmooch.com or registering them with bookcrossing.com and leaving them places. They're both awesome sites, with the same theory about passing on books to others for free. Bookmooch runs on a points system, and you can import an amazon wishlist and "mooch" books as they become available. I'm getting rid of all sorts of odds and ends, and acquiring cool new books in the process. It don't totally get rid of the books, but there's less around? Does that count?

Check them out- they're both well worth the time.

I've decided I think I need a gocco. Well, not really like I need, but I want it really badly. So... I've been doing a bit of research. The Goccos of course are no longer being exported to the US, and they're reasonably expensive on ebay. Savegocco.com has hints that a mjor US arts and crafts retailer may be carrying them later this calender year.... but I feel the printing urge NOW.

The B5/B6 seems to be the most common system, and the most common size around. I think I'd like to be able to print a little bit larger than 4x6 ish, but it's all up in the air...

Mini Survey:
Do any of you have one?
What size do you have?

Well I've done it and taken the plunge to open a second etsy shop purely to destash myself. I came to the conclusion that I have more crafty stuff than I'll ever use, and that someone else could be using these things and I won't feel wasteful If I pass them on to someone else to use.

In addition I often buy in bulk when something inspires me, and then something happens.... or I get distracted by something else... and I've got a lot left. So nothing in the shop is junk or trash, they're all things I've bought to use myself at some point, and just didn't. Or I'll just never use the quantity I have.

So check it out.
Shooting Star Supplies at Etsy



:)

I've been working on this great quilt at work for a shop sample, and I think I've finally figured it all out.

These designs are Huge which leads to my first problem. I'm doing them in the 'grand hoop' which requires that the machine sews one side of the designs, then you turn the hoop 180 degrees and it sews the other side. In addition there are almost 60,000 stitches, which leads to puckering and all sorts of other problems with the fabric. I'm using silk dupioni (which is amazing by the way for embroidery) so all I needed was enough stabilizer to make it happen.

I stitched one of the other designs out previously and had a lot of problems, so I doubled up on the heavy duty (Inspira - washable sticky back) stabilizer and it worked! so the design with some puckers will most likely become a pillow, and I'll redo that one for the quilt.

one a side note: These designs are from the Pfaff Grand Elegance collection, which has 10 of these huge floral designs. You'll be seeing more of them as I get going. The designs take about 3 hours a piece (with no thread breaks or problems etc).