china and love at first sight

this past thursday i headed out bright and early to an estate sale.

it was the last day of the sale and no photos had been posted online so i had no idea what i was going to find. but, the estate sale gods did not disappoint!

i spotted this amazing china and it was love at first sight. then i saw the price tag of $35 dollars, quickly calculated the last day half price discount and i knew it would be a lasting love. i took home 38 pieces for $17.50. pretty good deal in my book. especially after a quick internet search, i discovered the lidded sugar bowl alone is going for $24.

the pattern is "golden glory" by harmony house which i believe was sold through sears in the 50's, but i can't find any more information than that. any way, I LOVE the artwork - the gilded stylistic floral pattern is soooo anthropologie.

owls and envelopes

owl you doin' today? this mini owl card and envelope is my newest make-it, also featured on the may arts blog. the template for the owl is a stamp i inked onto a piece of canvas to use as a template for my embroidery. thanks for the inspiration jenni!

click here to download the card/envelope instructions and don't forget to check out my make-it page for more tutorials.

roots and growth

this piece had been lying around my studio for months and i just recently finished it. i currently have a love affair with vintage pics - they are inherently anonymous, but somehow, deeply personal.

thread and patterns

have you checked out the we love french knots website yet? if you like fabric and stitching, you will definitely find some eye candy. bari j. has been highlighting various embroidery pattern designers and they are all so varied in their designs. this got me thinking about my own work and how my botanical drawings would translate to thread.

this image is a scan of my first attempt to bring my drawings to life on fabric and i think it turned out rather lovely. i used a vintage sheet as the background to bring in some more interest and detail, then went to town sewing. it came together really quickly and i think because i outline all my flowers in black ink, that they could translated to this medium very well. what are your thoughts? would you be interested in seeing me offer downloadable pdf patterns in my shop?

up next? my tiger lily...

canvases and frames

inspiration struck this weekend and i created this fabric wrapped, embroidered canvas picture frame. the photo is a sweet black and white pic of my brother when he was a toddler playing in a field of flowers. i loved embroidering flowers on top of the real flowers and bringing them to life. to finish, i added some color with watercolor pencils and a 3-dimensional fabric flower.

now my obsession is taking over and i am scouring family photos to find more captured moments!

loveliest and beauty

this week has blissfully been filled with embroidery, sewing, and shipping etsy orders. all of which has put a huge smile on my face. i managed to photograph 2 of my new hoops and put them in the shop this morning. i just think they are the sweetest things ever! (no modesty here ;)

i love, love, love using the vintage hankies as a background for my embroidery. you also get great discoloration in the fabric since they are so old. tea-staining can't touch what nature does on its own!

beauty and life

the sun has popped out of the sky today, but for the past week, it has been unseasonably cold and rainy. it has been the perfect weather for some embroidery, a blanket and a movie. due to my estate sale habit, i have an overflowing bin of vintage hankies that i absolutely cannot pass up. they are the perfect size for my small wooden and metal embroidery hoops and i love making little pieces of art with them.

how cool is the above oval hoop??? it is very old and uses a tiny spring as its tightening mechanism. truth be told, it took me more than a few minutes to figure out how to work it!
i am working on a batch of 10 of these sweet vignettes and will have them in the shop soon.

i wonder if square embroidery hoops were ever made - has anyone ever found one?

hoops and hankies - round 2

i am hooked and obsessively searching every thrift store in town for more miniature embroidery hoops! seriously guys, this project is so fun and quick, but gives you huge satisfaction. i'll whip up a tutorial sometime in the next few months, but really, grab a vintage hanky, a hoop and some embroidery floss and go crazy. for the hoop above, i stamped "remember the little moments" around the edge and love the sweetness of how it all turned out.

i didn't get a good side shot of this hoop, but i finished off the outside with some thin grey and red ribbon attached with alene's tacky glue.

if you are wondering how i embroider text onto my pieces, i will let you in on the secret - a disappearing ink pen found in the sewing section of your local craft store. they are fantastic! you can doodle on your fabric as much as you want til you get it right, then stitch on the lines you like. then, give it a little time and all your doodle lines will eventually disappear.

have you made some of these? i wold love to see what you came up with :)

hoops and hankies

vintage hankies have always been a weakness of mine - i think i inherited the obsession from my mom! you can generally find hankies at estate sales or thrift stores for a buck a piece and they have the sweetest floral prints on them.

my friend jenni showed up the other day and gifted me eight 4-inch embroider hoops and i knew immediately what i would do with them. hankies are typically very thin fabric, so i layered them on top of some white muslin i had in my fabric bin for extra stability and then stretched them in the hoops. my next step will be to embroider embellishments onto the flowers and maybe add a word or two to each. in my head, i can already see how sweet they are going to be!

what is your thrifting weakness? and do you reuse your finds, or put the in a drawer for safe keeping?

pretty and pink

here is another new piece that will be getting a frame shortly. (still haven't gotten around to that task :)

the background floral is a vintage sheet wrapped onto a 14x11 canvas frame and is already very cherished by yours truly. i think this is the true test of whether or not you are on the right track with your creative life. the more you dread selling a piece is directly proportionate to the fact that you have finally found that one thing that has been in you all along.

a big thanks to everyone who has cheered me on with this new endeavor. your words of encouragement are exactly what i need.

rain and shine

this past week has been one of those where yuckiness has rained down on me. i have a graphic design client who is trying very hard to drive me nuts, nuts i tell you! but i have to remind myself to push on through the rain. if i let the rain roll off my back, i can shine right on through.

the above image is the second piece i have done since my breakthrough. this time, i experimented with canvas and couldn't be happier. the daffodil is my drawing, appliqued onto fabric which is then wrapped around a sturdy canvas frame. the top is a cream, rain filled sky with a speckled brown muslin for the dirt.

next on the agenda? a chunky white frame so that when someone buys it at my next show in may, all they have to do is put a nail in the wall and hang it. i am actually quite excited to start on the frame, i think it will complete the look very nicely. i have the wood all picked out - all i have to do is get out my miter saw and nails and i will be ready to go!

dreams and life

good morning! remember last week when i talked about all my sleepless nights? well, the above piece is the product of my "likes" list. i just love it so much, i love the color, i love the composition, i love the process. everything - love!

the flower might look familiar to anyone who reads this blog regularly because it is actually one of my colored pencil drawings (and seen in my banner above). i transferred the image to fabric, then hand appliqued it to the stretched canvas. of course, the flower wouldn't be complete without a sweet little milk glass vase. i went a bit crazy with the french knots, but i ask you, what better way to depict a hobnail pattern?

thank you to everyone who cheered me on with this creative break though. i am so inspired that now i cannot sleep again - only this time, it's for a much different reason. all i want to do is make!

sleeping and dreaming

i haven't been sleeping very well lately. i try to go to bed early, but then before i know it, 2 hours have passed and i am still awake. thinking is my problem, i can't seem to tell my brain to be quiet!

for a while now, i have felt like i am on the right path in my life, but that maybe, maybe i haven't found that one bitty step that is missing. like i am almost to a place where my art can be recognizably mine. where someone can see something on a blog or at a show and know that it is something that i have created. but what is that one little step? what have i been missing? these are the questions i ponder.

during one 2 hour stretch of sleeplessness, i listed in my head all the things i am drawn to. at the top of this list was...

1. flowers
2. colored pencils
3. fabric
4. buttons
5. embroidery
6. graphic design
7. bright vibrant colors
8. ribbon
9. milk glass (of which i have a huge collection)
10. black ink drawing pens

that's it, this is what i think about at night when i can't sleep. i ran through many different creative ideas and think i have finally settled on something which has me so excited. it is something that incorporates all of my loves above which means i won't get as bored with a technique as i usually do. you see, i don't want to create one product and mass produce only that one product. i never want to take the creating part out of the equation.

i feel like my studio has been a little testing space all week. i cannot wait to get started in the morning and hate to stop in the afternoon. i am even pulling out paints, which if you know me, you know that is a rare thing. i am working on finishing my first idea and then i will put it out in the world and cross my fingers that you all will love it as much as i do. because i really do, and i can see it taking me far, far down my path :)

embroidery and a threesome

my embroidery cravings have gone into overdrive here on linwood avenue. this is currently the view behind my computer and i love it! as i said in a previous post, i had a few vintage embroidery hoops lying around from a yard sale which i thought would be a great way to showcase some embroidered artwork.

this piece centers around a photo i took of a tulip magnolia tree last spring. these trees are beautiful and will always remind me of the south! i printed the photo onto transfer paper, ironed it onto canvas and went to work. i really didn't have a plan for the embroidery - just wanted to highlight the flower bits. this might be my favorite one, mainly because the composition of the flower/background turned out so right.

this daffodil is 8" circular and is created from a photo i took of a daffodil garden. this one took a bit of experimenting. i first tried to do the transfer onto some yellow and white polka dot fabric, but it didn't take the transfer too well. next, i tried transferring the photo to some oatmeal colored muslin. this just turned out too dark. in the end, i used the muslin piece for the background and cut the daffodil head out of the polka dot fabric and stitched it on top. the top flower is left loose at the end of the petals which turned out to be a great affect. in the end, i really love how it turned out - even if it is a bit too dark. just goes to show me that yet again, accidents can be a good thing.

the last hoop to round out the trio began as a lovely embroidered tea towel. i really had no business buying another tea towel, but i couldn't resist the cute ducks! to this fabric, i embroidered the word "Spring" and added little freehand flowers in hot pink and tangerine.

with spring just around the corner, i am dying to get some great floral photos so i can make more of these. they are the perfect project, because they don't take too much time, but make such a big impact.

petals and thread

lately, my fingers have been itching to do some embroidering and i have been more than happy to oblige.

remember this piece i did for the postcard swap i participated in last november? i still really love this image and since i sent the first piece off, i decided to make one for myself. only this fabric is much larger at 8 x 8. i have some old wooden embroidery hoops lying around from an impulse purchase which i am using to stabilize the fabric. when this is finished, i think i will leave it in the frame and maybe stamp a sweet word or two on the side of the wooden hoop. i pretty much wing the embroidery by using whatever colors i have in my stash and alternating the direction of my stitches to create more movement in the finished product.

i am so ready for spring to come so i can photograph more flower vignettes to embroider. maybe i will end up with a trio of embroidered garden scenes on my wall!

postcards and new friends

the great big stitched postcard swap is over. i sent my postcard off to travel half way across the world to christchurch, new zealand. the theme was "home" and after much thought, i decided to base my postcard around the tulip magnolia. this tree is very prevalent where i live in georgia and is absolutely beautiful during it's blooming period. such beautiful white flowers with pale pink and orange accents. 

i iron transferred a photo i took of the blooms during a walk last spring onto plain canvas. then i roughed up the image so it would look a bit weathered. next, i went about embroidering - and of course i had to add in a ton of french knots which are my favorite.

 

for the back, i did the same iron transfer process of an image i created with our addresses and a faux post office stamp. then i embroidered a little message to my postcard pal. finally, i sandwiched a piece of mat board between the two layers for added stability and the postcard was finished.

i think i am officially hooked on blog swaps. they are such a great way to meet new internet friends and be exposed to different creative techniques. sign me up for the next one!

postcards and progress

remember when i talked about entering my first online swap a few weeks ago? well, my postcard is finished and about to be shipped off to the other side of the world. it was really fun to make and i am actually a little sad to see it go. hopefully the person who receives it will love it as much as i do :)

once i get word that the package has arrived, i will post full front and back photos. for now this little section is all i can show you :)

a hard day and a smile

this was found while junking with my friends at "my favorite place" in atlanta this past week. seriously, that is what the store is called. if you live in the area, you must check it out! my friend jessica picked it up, but was debating about buying it, so i said i would buy it for her as a birthday gift. the text reads "be nice to me, i've had a hard day". isn't she so endearing?

the stitching on the front is flawless. i took it out of it's frame to clean it and the back is equally flawless, not a stray thread or knot to be seen. growing up, i had it drilled into my head that embroidery needed to be an almost exact replica on the back and to be very, very neat. sometimes it is really hard to do! anyway, whenever i see custom artwork like this at thrift stores, i have to wonder how it ended up there. i think about how long it takes to do embroidery work and then someone simply tosses it aside or it gets abandoned in a move. shameful ;)

maybe i will make it my personal mission to rescue every cast off piece of embroidery i find!