Love ninjas

awesome love ninjas by soraia_bejinhos

I think I can deal with Valentine's Day if it involves ninjas....

Have a Heart......will ya?

This I found on Betsyjean79's flickr.

I know that's Wisconsin talk.....my husband keeps reminding me, it's "you", not "ya", it's "yes" not "yup".......anyway, while freezing here in "Up North", I decided it was time to find some embroidered hearts for that Valentine feeling. Here are some beauties I found on Flickr.

I found this lovely on Creative Breathing's Flickr. What a sweet loving heart! I like everything about it.

I found this lovely on MarieLynn's flickr. She has lots of hearts on her photo pages that are interesting.


This neat little pair I spotted at Heartfelthandmade's flickr. Gosh, she has some lovely things there, too.



So this is from a flickr artist who is called Thinkoutsidethebox2008. There are alot of fun hearts in her flickr collection, too.

Are you inspired yet, for Valentine's Day?

Heart Overload

by Rakka

This is how I feel near Valentine's Day.... This little gem will be at an embroidered art show in NYC called Forget Me Not.

Manbroidery!

Hey people, sorry to have disappeared for a while. Life sorta got in the way. Y'all know what that's like, eh? ;-)

Well, a little while ago I stumbled upon the embroidery (manbroidery!) of one Mr. Xstitch (on Flickr) and he just ticks all the boxes for deserving being in the Feeling Stitchy spotlight: he's a dude, he embroiders, he makes his own patterns of cars, pop culture figures and graffiti (yeah, baby!) I had to know some more so I asked him a few questions. Thank you, Mr Xstitch!

Why did you start doing cross stitch?

It all began with a trip to Canada - I wanted something to do and found myself in a haberdashery shop. I bought a pattern of an art nouveau head, and found it surprisingly enjoyable to do. After I finished that piece I wanted something different to do, but found it hard to source patterns that really tickled my fancy. In the end I settled for the Kiss by Klimt from the Cross Stitch Collectables site. But it sparked off a desire in me to make patterns that I wanted to stitch.


Can you tell us about your subject matter?

I've always been a fan of graffiti and street art, but have never been brave enough or artistic enough to actually do any myself. However, within the pixellated world of cross stitch, things make more sense for me, and having spent some time researching different graffiti pieces I decided to turn some into patterns and have a go at stitching them. The only flaw in my plan is that each of my patterns is about twelve inches wide and takes several months to complete. So periodically I’ll do some smaller pieces – ironic samplers or blackwork – as a way of making things interesting.



What reactions do you get from other people? (being a dude embroidering and all)

People are kinda surprised that I do stitchery, especially as I’m six feet tall with a bald head and look like I should a doorman rather than an embroiderer. But I extol the virtues of needlecraft, how relaxing and contemplative it is, and before long they can understand where I’m coming from. I do like to take small samplers onto the train when I go to work sometimes, just to provoke reactions in people.

This whole “manbroidery” thing is part of the inspiration for my patterns – I want to make patterns with subjects that men can feel comfortable doing. From supercars to superheroes, I want to make cross stitch more palatable for men, so that they can appreciate it as a more relaxing alternative to Gears of War or Halo3. That’s my main aim, and I’m feeling confident!


Where do you find your inspiration?

I spend a lot of time wading through RSS feeds from graffiti and contemporary craft blogs. There’s so much brilliant stuff happening out there, it’s terrific to see. I’m really interested in the political aspect of crafts and how they empower people to fend for themselves – I feel inclined towards more political work as time passes. But there are so many inspirational artists out there, I am humbled. I’m just a pattern maker really, I feel guilty considering myself as anything resembling an artist. I’m just glad to be a part of the craft revolution.

New Year, New Feature Project from Craftster!

Hi All~
I hope 2009 is going well for everyone! Each month, I like to feature a Craftster that really stands out and who's work is amazing. The featured artist is picked by fellow Craftsters by hitting the "this rocks" button. We have had so many amazing pieces of work. This month's featured artist is SnueGliffer. Her Alice in Wonderland piece is amazing! Take a look!




Let's find out more about this amazing talent, shall we...
1. Tell me a little bit about the project.

Previously I'd been using Sublime Stitching transfers to practice stitches,because I'm fairly new to embroidery. I thought the next step in learning would be to experiment with methods of transferring drawings of my own choice onto fabric. I decided to use the Tenniel "Alice'sAdventures In Wonderland" illustrations from a colouring book I'd bought a few years ago. I've always loved the illustrations, & because of this I thought a series of them would be good for a first major project because I wouldn't become bored with stitching Alice & the other characters.



2. Tell me a little about yourself

I'm 39, & I share my flat in Manchester, England with so much stuff I've collected over the years (nun dolls, books, vintage car models, kitsch religious bric-a-brac etc. etc.) which makes housework very difficult. In fact, I rarely do it (good excuse!). I love nature & animals, & dream of one day inheriting a fortune (don't we all?) & buying my own animal sanctuary. I'm very much a night owl. I have terrible insomnia, but I like the nighttime/early morning best. The silence helps me concentrate on my needlework better. I dabble in a variety of crafts, but embroidery & knitting are my favourite.


3. What/who inspires you?

I have a long list of projects I'd like to begin in the future because every day I see a picture, painting, illustration in a book that I'd like to stitch. I'm partial to old illustrations, particularly in children's books & anatomical drawings in early 20th century medical texts (a future project!). Of course the Craftster forums are a source of huge inspiration, as are craft blogs.



4. How long have you been stitching and how did you get started?

I've been embroidering for around seven months now. Before that I was a cross stitcher, but I began to feel cross stitch can be a little bit restricting. I didn't want hard pixelated edges on particular things, such as portraits. I was actually inspired to take up embroidery after looking at the Sublime Stitching forum at Craftster! I bought the book, & sent for some transfers & I was immediately addicted.


6.What's your favorite word and least favorite word....

favourite word: Higgledy-piggledy. (sounds cute & sums up my life & thoughts perfectly )

least favourite word: Mathematics. (summons up the dread of maths classes at school & the near-phobia i have of numbers)

Rocking the Stem Stitch

awesome stem stitching by ~glenda

Isn't Glenda's stem stitch out of this world? Made with Sublime Stitching Pirates Ahoy pattern. And a bottle of rum.

Hi Bears Cross -Stitch Pattern

The minute I saw these cute bears in Penguin and Fish's photostream, I was in love. Now you can stitch them too! The PDF pattern is on sale in the Penguin and Fish shop. Woo-hoo!

Credit Crunch Sampler

made by bugsandfishes by lupin

There's been so much gloom and doom lately about the economy - it's refreshing to see a positive take on things from a crafter. I love her felt creations and think it's genius that's she's celebrating a return to craftiness. Woo-hoo!

Stitch Spectacular - Savannah Georgia - Tonight!

Link

Dear Deer by Amy

I managed to stumble across Amy in Berkeley's little blog, A Paint Brush in Mourning this morning (heh) and fell in love with this wee little deer she had stitched up. I don't know if she used a pattern or not- it looks to be an original composition. So sweet!

Link

Sweetheart tie

from the lovely fieldguided

I am completely loving these handmade ties by Anabela - she makes them to order and adds a sweet hand-embroidered name on the back. And okay, I don't wear ties, but I might need one.

More loveliness in her Etsy store and on her blog.

Good fortune for the new year!

sweet fortune cookies from lova revolutionary

Happy Holidays!

eensy-weensy gingerbread house by kikimonkey

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has shared their holiday traditions on our last post! I've decided not to close the thread like I originally planned - please keep contributing your traditions, (blog address optional) and commenters, please keep visiting bloggers who have already commented. If you're curious, my holiday traditions can be found on my blog. I'm so thankful for all of you - believe me when I say that your creativity continually inspires me and your generosity blows me away. I wish you all the best this season!

FYI: Comment Spam Alert: I'm assuming these comment spammers are human because they enter in the "captcha" phrase and have Google/blogger accounts and "blogs." One "blog" is just a collection of links that hawk car insurance - (Susan). Sometimes they go out of their way to say something that seems related to your post, then throw in an unrelated link to a site. They get what they want when you click the link: every click increases their search engine ranking.

So FYI, if you see any odd or spammy comments that include a link, don't click on them!

Holiday Comment Expedition!

Or, as they say in the genius commercial I adore: Happy Chrismahanukkahkwanzaa!

Our group has grown so much over the past couple of years, and I'd love for us all to get to know each other better, so I devised a new holiday edition of our (highly successful) blog expedition!

How to "play":
1. Please leave a comment telling us about your holiday traditions: it can be silly, funny, weird, or serious: however you choose to celebrate the holidays.
2. At the bottom of your comment, include your blog address, (important!) or if you don't have a blog, a link to your Flickr photo stream.
3. Now, look at two people who commented above you and leave a comment on their blogs. (commenter #1 and #2 leaves a comment on my blog:unafloresita.blogspot.com)

I will leave a comment on the blog of everyone who comments on this post (preferably a crafty blog). So every person who leaves a comment here will get 3 new comments on their blog (I'll leave extra comments on commenters #1 and #2)! You're more than welcome to comment on more than 2 peeps - I'm sure everyone appreciates visitors!

Special note to spammers: Don't even think about it. Especially if you're a spammer named Susan and you hawk car insurance. Have a heart, spamming peeps! If not, thimble guy will talk to Santa and you'll have a big ol' lump of spam coal in your stocking.

Does this sound good? Yeah? Then bring on the holiday traditions, people, and let the Holiday Comment Expedition begin!!!!

It's cold outside!

from sewhipbaby

That is, unless you're one of our stitchy friends in the Southern hemisphere... and speaking of, there's a stocking stitchalong at Meet Me at Mike's you should check out:

from edwardandlilly and michelle

There are 2 free embroidery patterns and a stocking pattern, and Pip walks you through everything you need to know to make your stocking. So even if it's not cold outside, curl up with a little stitching this holiday!