Self-care cockatoos

Designing our own Crash Bandicoot sampler, wedding edition (part 1)

So, this has been a long time coming! Ever since The Wonderful Smaz and I started making serious plans for our wedding ceremony, I knew I wanted to sew my own sampler to commemorate it (like how a Poundland 'wedding plate' is rolled out for every Royal wedding - except, y'know, far better). However, I didn't really know where to start - I knew I wanted it to be Crash-themed, but that was really about it.

Designing this one first really helped, especially when it turned out better than I pictured. Forever a cheapskate, I am still using graph paper, and my resulting designs have become very dog eared, crumpled, and liable to change at any moment. At my day job, they call this a 'living document'.

There are so many elements about my first sampler that I really like but the iconic items (crystals, gems, crates) were particularly fun to work on, so I used that idea of iconic as a starting point:

The top four panels are based off the wall textures from the levels Sunset Vista and The Lost City in the first ever Crash game. Smaz and I have always loved the aesthetic of these levels, and the music's pretty damned catchy too.

 

And below, our names worked in backstitch, the classic Crash icon on the left (again, introduced in the first game although you can see it in the N-Sane Trilogy edition too), Aku Aku on the right, and the Wumpa fruit with clear gems in the middle space - all four of these, can't get much more iconic than that!

I picked ecru aida as I really love the look of unbleached fabric; I get why if you're not a fan, but to me there's a beauty in no two similar pieces. It adds a lot of texture and interest to my needlework and in the case of bright colours (see Aku) it really makes the design pop.

Stay tuned for part 2 ...

Christmas Cards

I am now on Instagram as polyrillustration! I'm a bit more active on there as well as Facebook, if you haven't already gimme a cheeky follow.

For the second year in a row I'm not doing workplace Christmas cards - our department number is now in the 80s and as I'm still part of the Sports & Social squad I'm chatty with a lot of folks across the business. If I did cards for everybody it would be a very expensive (and time consuming) activity for something that's usually disposed of in January, so instead I'll be making a donation to Mind.

However I do make an exception for some family and friends especially those who I won't see in person this year - and instead of buying, I use up some of my crafting material and enjoy a quiet evening with some tea and paintbrushes.

Pampered Peepers

I've been wanting to do some bird illustrations for a while now - I'm a big fan of Gotcha the Cockatoo (Instagram) and Mr Max (YouTube), as well as seeing various bird ('birb') memes floating around Facebook. Drawing birds is a different subject topic for me as well, so it was a good challenge.

After the cockatiel and the pigeon were finished, I printed them out onto photo paper as free gifts for a Lolita fashion meet I organised, and the feedback I got was so nice that I thought I'd do a little postcard run of each design via Vistaprint - and here they are. I've also now opened an Etsy account, which was a very nerve-wracking thing to do but even if I sell a few of these prints, I'm happy!

This is Tatler, the Umbrella Cockatoo - a thoroughly spoiled scream-chicken who lives with his parronts and enjoys dismantling Ocado boxes - and yes, he's dismantled that parasol too.

Winsome by name, winsome by nature! Winnie to her friends, this is a sweet little cockatiel who lives with her refined human roommate Klara, and oversees all the get-togethers Klara has with her equally-posh friends. You can have a tea party safely at Winsome's house; she's taste-tested all the scones and the tea is guaranteed to be quality.

Sir Henry is a distinguished gentleman budgie who lives a peaceful retirement in Burlington Hall with Lord Burlington and his family. A show-off in his younger days, Sir Henry would just rather snooze in his cage these days after a plentiful meal of fresh veggies - and perhaps some scrambled egg on Sunday if he's lucky.

Maevis is a fancy pigeon through and through, used to strutting her stuff at competitions around the country. When she's at home though, she'll go through the odds-and-ends box to fashion accessories for herself, when the lady of the house isn't looking (or too busy with her housemate, Tatler the cockatoo). She is also a big fan of yoga and will start every day without fail with a good stretch.

These are ready to buy at Polyrillustration at Etsy!

Bank Holiday

... turned out all rainy and cold, so I was stuck indoors at a bit of a loose end. So, I decided to go through the old toolbox underneath my desk - I miss working into my journal the way I did when I was at uni, so I had a good creating session!

Illustration Friday: Shoe

 

A homage to my sweatiest hobby was on the cards for last week's Illustration Friday ('shoe'). As of today, it's 43 miles and counting.

I'm not built to be a runner to be honest, but that's not why I do it - there's something refreshing about the simplicity of it, just putting one foot in front of the other. Sometimes I'm accompanied by work colleagues, other times not - either way, I always feel better for it afterwards (well, except the one time where I scraped the skin off my hand and knee, funnily enough, due to not wearing the proper shoes for a run - that was a write-off, took ages to heal too).

Illustration Friday: Delicious

 

I wasn't sure what to do for this prompt, but as it's very foody and it's been a while since I've drawn myself, I naturally have combined the two. The Wonderful Smaz and I don't do a lot of takeout - once a month, if that - but when we do it's that pizza place. His is a Hawaiian, but mine's a vegetarian, thanks.

Illustration Friday: Fable

This is one of my favourite morals from Aesop, and boy howdy was this true to its word - I started on Sunday and (as it's been a busy week) finished it late last night.

Illustration Friday: Hot

 

Okay, so this deviated a bit. On Illustration Friday there was a lot of depiction of fire, heat, hot colours, the sun in response to the prompt of 'Hot' - and I chose heat, but not in the destructive sense. Heat is my go-to for comfort - whether I'm ill, aching, just plain uneasy or even just because - so I illustrated some of my favourite warm things. Tea fixes just about most everything, I have no less than five hot-water bottles in the house (not counting the one I've got at work) and although I mostly shower as it's quicker in the morning I am very much a 'bath person'.

I will admit though, I own very few heart-patterned things.

Designing my own Crash Bandicoot sampler

Of all the fandoms that have had inspired needlework patterns - you can't move for Doctor Who or Star Wars ones, for example, and there's even some Sailor Moon ones if you know where to look - there's not a great deal for Crash yet. As a lifelong fan of the orange marsupial who married another lifelong fan of the orange marsupial, I took matters into my own embroidery hoop.

You know how you see traditional samplers involving a depiction of a house, and motifs such as an alphabet or an idiom, and small lucky charms (I'm compelled to point out I don't mean the cereal)? I wanted to go for that feel for this piece. I looked into small Crash B. items that could translate easily into stitch, and sketched them out - the layout looked as below:

 

(click to enlarge)

The Wumpa, the Aku Aku mask, the crates and the crystals worked well - the well and the relic did not, I felt they made the layout look a bit unbalanced especially given the symmetry of the house, and they were discarded in the final stitching.

Now I really do need to invest in a proper cross-stitching software (as well as a new domain, you've probably noticed the watermark - but more on that later) however in the meantime I draw any designs I have out on graph paper and then go straight onto fabric from there. For numbers I do end up doing some of my own calculations, but this generator from Yarntree is grand when it comes to working out size.

I have a lot of thread colours so I do tend to pick ones out from my stash before I begin - I'm not pernickety over brand, I've used and owned DMC, Anchor and 'offbrand'. I don't mind offbrand, the colours can be quite good providing it's for decorative wall art (never used it to embellish clothes), but you're going to get a good strong thread with DMC and Anchor so if one can afford it, go for it. This sampler was done in a mix of DMC and offbrand, mostly DMC.

I ordered light-blue DMC aida for this project for a nice summery feel.

 

In-progress shot!

I do love when a piece starts taking shape, there's a stage when you think 'oh no, is this going to work??' and it's not unique to sewing - it pretty much happens when I draw and paint as well. I got that feeling a lot when working on the house but overall I was fairly happy with how it turned out. In retrospect a bit of shading work wouldn't go amiss but as the final sampler is fairly simple, childlike and colourful, it does lend itself to the overall vibe.

The sand at the bottom was a last-minute addition - the house and fence needed something. I thought full cross-stitch would be a bit overpowering, so I opted for half-cross stitch in two strands.

Second in-progress shot, just after I decided to add clouds. This was especially last minute, and only came about after I noticed that the gap between gem/crystal and border looked far too bare.

One of my favourite bits about the sampler is the French-knot 'glints' on the gems.

And finally, all framed up and ready for the wall! A few 'sparkles' added with metallic thread and I was very happy with it. It's so bright and bold, and very fun to work on with no monotonous bits (even the larger parts stitch up fast). I'm looking forward to my next Crash stitch, whether it's one I design, or if another stitcher designs one - I'm looking at you, Etsy.

Photos from a 2016 journal

Ever since we've moved house it's been hard to find some spare time to journal, but I very much enjoy it when I do. I did manage to complete one diary, given to me by a very good friend, Nanette. Here's some photos from that journal:

 



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Other artistic goals of mine accomplished this year along with my journal:

- Designed and successfully stitched a Crash Bandicoot sampler - once it's framed, proper pictures and a post to come! I'm very proud of it. I also successfully completed some Steven Universe character stitches (patterns documented below), more of those to come hopefully.

- Designed and stitched a 50th birthday sampler for my Mum (which is now pride-of-place on top of the bookcase)

- Crocheted many pairs of socks and gloves for a charity drive this Christmas

- Crocheted three baby blankets for 2016-babies (and currently one on the go for a 2017-baby).

Happy 2017, everyone! Let's hope it's a good one.

Steven Universe mini cross-stitch: Amethyst

 "I will fight for the world I was made in! The Earth is everything I've ever known!"

Yo, how's about that new Steven Universe season, huh?! Here's a finished pattern of Amethyst to celebrate! This chart is simple in colours, but a lot of fun in backstitch - you can always mash it uuuup by adding some silver metallics to the Gem backstitch in the corners. She measures around 1.75" x 1.75" on 14-count Aida, so she's similar in size to Peridot. You can omit the French knot 'glint' in her eye if you like; I think it looks great either way but I chose to leave it out in the example stitching.

Click on the chart below, if you need for it to be bigger:

Steven Universe mini cross-stitch: Peridot

 

 "You may have won the war, but the battle isn't over, Crystal Clods!"

I'm sorry these are taking a while - I've had quite a lot of projects on the go (and I've sworn to myself that I'll get them all done). Here is Peridot - I don't think she'd be big into sewing, but there's some fun fractional stitches and backstitch in different colours to keep even the pickiest Gem interested.

A bit bigger than Steven, Peri measures just under 1.8" x 1.8" on 14-count Aida (including her pointy hairdo). If you want to really give her a boost, replace the 3823 (her hair, the backstitch on the background) with a couple of strands of DMC's glow in the dark thread!

 

Happy stitching ... clods. Nyeheheh ...

Steven Universe mini cross stitch: Steven

"I will fight to be everything that everybody wants me to be when I'm grown!"

Here's the first little SU cross stitch design I've been beavering away on! I just need to finish test-stitching my Peridot, Amethyst and Pearl designs - and then I'll get out the graph pad for a Garnet pattern (Garnet is my favourite Gem in the series, so I want to do her justice!)

 Steven measures just under 1.5" x 1.5" on 14-count Aida, making him perfect for mini projects like a patch on a greetings card, a fridge magnet, or even a keyring if you've got some plastic canvas and felt spare.

The photograph of the finished stitching does show the DMC colours written on the chart, but if you have similar colours from another brand, go for it.

There are some fractional stitches and French knots in the pattern, but this chart can be easily done in whole stitches. If you have any small white beads, they'd also work for Steven's eye-sparkles if you're not a fan of French knots.

Happy stitching!

Pretty Embroidery

 

Happy Easter Sunday, everyone!

A month or so ago,  I came across a wonderful speed-painting (cookie-decorating) video by a lady who goes by the online alias of Mezesmanna (her Instagram is here) - she paints with royal icing onto gingerbread 'canvasses', and her traditional Hungarian-inspired ones are simply incredible! These days, a lot of my creative output is needlework-based, so I was inspired to do some studies of Hungarian embroidery using watercolour paint on card. I still had a bunch of flowers in a vase on the dining room table from my birthday, so I did some studies from those, too. I'd love to get out some graph paper and turn some of the paintings into cross-stitch patterns.

The embroidery uses lovely bright colours, but they look really sweet toned-down, too. The shapes used are so simple but fit together so well, the overall pattern is detailed and intricate - I could sit and Google-search these embroideries all day!

Mezesmanna's Instagram is here, and her YouTube channel is here - you can also follow her on Facebook. A really interesting site on Hungarian embroidery is Folk Art Hungary - take a look!

Mum's Sampler

 

 

 

 

I designed my very first sampler this year for my Mum's 50th birthday earlier this month! This book was a great help for layouts, and many of the motifs inside are also really useful for your general stitching needs. My favourite one on the sampler has to be the Welsh flag (which I drew out myself on the graph paper), although getting the dragon to look just right was a bit of a challenge!

The full sampler was around 8 by 5 inches, so it fit perfectly into a 8x10 frame. Even though the sampler was so colourful I did want a touch of folksiness to it, so I used ecru aida and a wooden frame to complement the autumnal border - I think it worked really well and my Mum thinks it's top too (which is the main thing).