Cast Your Vote!

Last week you saw all of the finalists banners in action and learned about each of them (thank you Jessie, for interviewing everyone!) Now it's time to cast your vote in our sidebar - you have one week to vote! The winner and finalists will receive some wonderful prizes.

Thank you to everyone who contributed designs to our competition, and even if your design was not chosen - please leave it in the pool! I have a surprise related to that which I'll reveal soon... :)

Here's one last look at the 5 finalists chosen by Jenny Hart (and their interviews):

Flossbox - Emily (interview)


PlanetCoco - Kirsty (interview)



Shebrews - Eydie (interview)


Maraland - Mara (interview)


Early Bird Special - Amy (interview)

Good luck to all of our finalists!

Finalist #2: Kirsty Neale

... a mini interview with Kirsty Neale, aka PlanetCoco


Kirsty, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I live in London with my boyfriend and work full-time as a freelance writer and designer. It can be tough (skin-tight deadlines, eighteen-hour days), but I wouldn’t change what I do for anything. I mostly write children’s books (fiction and non-fiction) and I design all sorts of creative projects for magazines.

Have you always been crafty?
Yes. I remember learning to sew when I was five. The first thing I made was a simple orange A-line dress for my Sindy doll (sort of a British version of Barbie). It had a very unsophisticated neck-hole cut at the top and the stitches were bigger than her head, but it was all my own work and design!
I also loved drawing, and at around the same age, I had a picture featured on a children’s TV show called Take Hart. It was of a snail, and was made from plasticine and lentils. I won a book, and I haven’t really stopped making stuff since.

Do you do other crafty things as well?
I love working with fabric – embroidery and appliqué especially – and have recently been enjoying drawing and creating little pieces of mixed-media art. I spent a big chunk of last year making cards, scrapbook pages and mini-books for a papercraft project and I contributed to a couple of books which were based on eco-crafts and recycling. I also do quite a bit of crafting for children, which is great fun. My partner often comes home to find the weirdest things drying around the house, from disembodied fake limbs to a dead rat made out of old socks (yes, really!).

Where do you find inspiration?
This is such an obvious answer, but really – everywhere. Books of all kinds, films, going to the theatre, walking in the park (I live opposite a beautiful Victorian park which has a maze, sphinxes and giant vintage dinosaurs) and, of course, the internet – Etsy, Flickr and more blogs than I probably have time for.

Please tell us about your banner design submission...
I love how clean and uncluttered the Feeling Stitchy blog looks, and the variety of different types of embroidery it features, so that was really my starting point. I wanted to do something quite contemporary and a bit different, but very stitchy (obviously) in fresh, clean colours.
I started off with the words, and didn’t actually get much further than that! I love typography and really enjoy playing with letter styles and fonts in paper and paint projects, but had never tried doing the same with fabric. I doodled the words onto plain paper, then realised that if I used different types of stitches and techniques to apply them, the stitchiness and detail would be built right into the title.
To put it all together, I traced the blocked letters on to Bondaweb, ironed to fabric scraps, then cut them out with embroidery scissors. I used white linen for the backing fabric, and traced the whole design through before stitching. The border gives it a more ‘finished’ look, and the buttons were added for a little bit of extra dimension.


Kirsty, thanks so much for sharing a bit about yourself with us. Good luck with the banner contest!

Finalist #1: Flossbox - Outer Space banner

... a mini interview with Emily, aka "Flossbox"



Emily, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’ve lived in Sweden going on 8 years. In my former life, I was an organic chemist and lived in Boston, DC, Chicago, and Orlando, but I am still just a Midwestern girl at heart! I also have a degree in clinical lab science. Despite all the lab training, I decided to move towards web programming and database design with a side business of making patterns.

You blog under the name "flossbox" - could you tell us how you came up with that name?
I needed a name for my blog when I moved over to my own domain, and “The Floss Box” sounded good. I use it for all my user names now on crafty sites.

Have you always been crafty?
Yep. My mom did a lot of different things with us, mostly using textiles. I got my first cross-stitch sampler at age 9, a project abandoned by my sister. My mom attempted to teach me to sew, but I resisted till I was in college when I got my own machine and took off making clothes and stuffed bunnies. Stitching-wise, I did counted cross stitch exclusively (for 10+ yrs) until last fall when I decided I needed to branch out a bit. I do a lot of surface embroidery, and I am madly trying to learn raised embroidery techniques, so I can make interesting figures.

Do you do other crafty things as well?
During my college and post-college years, I branched out into polymer clay, jewelry-making, acrylic painting on wood, quilting and some other things. However, there isn’t time or space to do all the things I’d like to do, so I decided to focus my energies on stitching, but I still love to mix in a bit of sewing and other things here and there.

Where do you find inspiration?
I read on someone’s blog (I don’t remember where ☹ ) recently that if something is a good memory, then stitch it! I thought that was great advice. I also look for things that have made a strong impression on me that might make an interesting project. I look for inspiration for ways to convey my ideas everywhere: blogs, Flickr albums dealing with all types of crafts and arts, books, magazines, people, nature, etc.

Please tell us about your banner design submission...
I wanted a design with the little thimble guy in it. I made over 5 versions before I found the right combo of motifs. One half is supposed to be day and the other night, and I wanted it to make you think the little guy just stitched it all. The bee and snail are padded a bit, although I think more thread ended up on the back of the fabric than the front! ;) I chose a more informal font for the letters and did those in whipped chain stitch so they are really defined. I was playing with the little green guy for some other designs, but I thought he might look cute in this design. Mostly I just wanted to make something bright and cheery.

I don't know, the actual piece looks a little softer and nicer in RL, but I have such a hard time getting nice pictures. They all turn out so dark, so they need to be lightened in photoshop which makes them brighter but not always nicer.

Emily, it's so nice to learn a little bit more about you. Thanks for the interview... and good luck with the banner contest!