Pencil Holder of the Gods

I fabric collaged a Norse mythology pencil holder using an empty tea tin. Vikings, trolls, ravens, runes....it's like a desktop mini-Valhalla!
The fabric was attached with heat fusible web. turns out you can iron it onto metal- who knew?? (pro tip: don't try to hold a piece of metal while you're ironing it!)
Finished with glued on embellishments. quick, simple and fun. Not all fabric projects have to be sewn!

Oh Helloween!

Another XXXmas gift I made is this lap quilt for a dear friend whose favorite band is the German power metal pioneers, Helloween.

Again, I used a fabric band flag as the center panel. I had to scour the internet pretty hard to find this one; it's not only vintage, it's also bigger than the standard band flag size so it made a decent sized quilt :)

The technique was identical to the one I used to make the Moonsorrow quilt, as seen in this previous post. Just find a similar themed fabric for the backing, throw on coordinating borders, free motion quilt it with invisible monofil thread, add binding and BAM! A gift that simultaneously makes you warm and cool!  \m/  >_< \m/

Black Arts and Crafts

Up next, a little something I whipped out for an XXXmas present last year....behold the world's first and only (to my knowledge) BLACK METAL PENCIL HOLDERRRRR!

To make it, I used a cardboard snack tin as empty as our bleak existence itself. I took scraps of sufficiently grim and nihilistic fabric, and cut them out into rectangular shapes using a rotary cutter and ruler. I measured the dimensions needed to wrap around the tin, and arranged them on top of fusible webbing in the most depressing configuration. Then I tacked them into place with the iron (using a Teflon cover sheet to protect it.)
After trimming the big rectangle of fused scraps to size, I attached it to the tin by fusing it down with an iron as hot as the flames of burning hellfire. Then I decorated it by gluing on various 3-dimensional collage objects whilst contemplating the futility of it all.

At last, my quick and easy no-sew gift project was ready to hold the implements of doom, when they are not being used to write curses and morbid song lyrics! These make a great gift for everyone on your unholyday list!

Epic Chair Do-over

Time to catch up on some old posts!
I'm still rockin' the sewing machine; just been keeping a low profile :)

First up, check out this chair makeover I did. A sad old office chair X some amazing Alexander Henry Japanese tattoo fabric = an easy and impressive project!
I (mostly) followed this tutorial; results may vary depending on the individual chair shape.
Best part, you can be less than perfect on the seat bottom, since no one will see it :)

It's the INSANITY QUILT!!

What do you get when you make a Black Metal "crazy quilt"? A 3rd place ribbon at the AAQG quilt show, apparently :)

This is a 12" square block that combines traditional crazy quilting techniques with metal imagery and a limited black, white and silver palette. I used hand embroidery, embellishment, photo printing, and ribbon embroidery over a foundation-pieced background of black silk, satin and velvet fabrics. Most of the beads and decorations were found on Etsy. The photo is of the Norwegian black metal band Immortal, on printable fabric. I sewed this mostly on my breaks at work, over a few months. I'm really happy with the result, and I guess the judges were too! I don't think I would ever make a full sized one though....that would be INSANITY!

Needle de los Muertos

A while back I found some great Dia de los Muertos fabric online, and HAD to get some even though I didn't have any immediate plans for it. (I'm sure that's never happened to any of you....right??)
Recently I've been doing more embroidery and hand sewing projects, and got sick of digging around for the right size needle. Then it hit me: these Muertos loteria "cards" are a good size to fit on the cover of a needle book!
I whipped out a few by using the escape hatch technique (similar to how I made the band patch xmas ornaments), using some batting scraps and sacred heart fabric for the lining. Then I fused the loteria cards over the turning slit, and sewed the felt pages in down the center. Voila! I think they turned out pretty cool :)
There are a few in my etsy if you need one.

PINCUSHIONS OF DOOM!!!

Now that my class is over, I'm finally able to get back to making some of my own projects I have been itching to do for a while- like these most grim and frostbitten of pincushions!
Using this tutorial, I made them with mason jars and skull and skeleton fabric, and filled them with an assortment of black buttons. Then I added a few skull and bones decorations and a white guitar pick to each jar.
I was lucky to find the black pleather eyelet trim in just the right width, by the yard at Joann fabrics.
The skull pins were made by snipping off the bead ends of stickpins, and gluing on a tiny skull bead.
I have a couple listed in my Etsy  \m/  >_<  \m/

photos by Ronnie Williford

I got class! Also: cat beds

Whew! I haven't posted here in a while because I was busy last month organizing to teach my first class, which I volunteered to have at my guild's workshop weekend. It was about basic design and color principles, and while there wasn't time to do any actual sewing, we did do some sketchbook exercises in addition to my lecture and slide show. I had 5 students, and they all seemed to enjoy the class quite a bit. I hope to be able to refine it and teach more in the future!

Once things calmed down afterwards, I finished up a project I've been working on sporadically for a while: sewing kitty beds to donate to local shelters! This is another great way to use up tiny scraps that aren't good for anything else. I picked up the outer fleece wherever I could find it cheap: the guild free table, the  remnants bin at Jo-anne, etc. Pro tip: you can get a cheap blanket at IKEA with almost 2 yards of fleece for $3! Then I followed this tutorial and made a few beds here and there when I had time. Now I have close to 20! Here's Buddy, my quality control department, putting the latest batch through his rigorous testing standards.

don't throw that away!

I never get rid of any fabric scraps, as it's in my nature to be  cheap  cost-efficient. Odd cutting leftovers can be used to piece a back on smaller quilts. Even tiny bits of an inch or two can be put to good use: ones with nice patterns can be fused to make quilted postcards or mug rugs, like the Asian ones I made below. (fused bindings too!) Less-attractive or damaged scraps, including batting, become stuffing for pet beds I make for charity- more on that later!

This post is linked to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday 

yep, that about sums it up.....

Two of my favorite things in the whole world are 1) music, especially the heavy metal kind; and 2) cuteness, especially the Japanese kind. As unlikely as it seems, someone has seen fit to combine them with this Hello Kitty/ KISS fabric line. Now this is a mashup I can get behind! This panel and several other coordinating fabrics can be found on equilter.

Be a man!

This is a lap-sized quilt I did a while back for a guy friend of mine. He has health issues and lives in another state, so I don't get to see him very often. I found some great fabrics with beer and camo guitars on equilter.com, and couldn't resist making something! Especially since he restores guitars and amplifiers. 

For some reason the repeating print made all photos of the whole quilt appear blurry, even though they weren't, but the close-ups came out ok.

Japanese Oni pillow

I have always liked the look of redwork embroidery, but I would never spend time doing a traditional Sunbonnet Sue or any other overdone country kitsch design. 

I am also a fan of Japanese artwork and mythology, and figured this Oni (demon) mask from Kabuki theater would look good in red! 

When it was done, I added red borders and finished it into a square pillow. The back side is Japanese tattoo print fabric I found on equilter a while ago. Super fun!

Oh my Goth!

This is a potholder I made a while back for a friend who loves zombies, monsters and other ghoulish things. I  got the awesome pink hearse fabric at equilter.com, but it's out of print now. (there are a few cuts for sale on etsy.)

I just quilted a rectangle with a black backing, and cut it out in the shape of a coffin. Then I machine stitched a narrow black binding with a hanging loop. My friend loved it!

Merry Krampus!

This weekend I took a break from the complicated block-of-the-month quilt I'm working on to get started on my holiday projects- they will be here before you know it!
First up was this oversized Krampus Christmas stocking. The Krampus is a devil-like creature from Bavarian folklore who accompanies St. Nicholas on Christmas. But while St. Nick brings presents to good children, if they have been naughty the Krampus is said to put them in his basket and carry them off!
One of my friends at work is fascinated with the Krampus legend, so when I saw this fabric on Spoonflower.com, I knew I had to make this for him! (I changed it up a little by adding fake fur trim around the top.) Gotta love the removable crying kid in the basket on the back!