Buck Face

Stitched a couple tea towels with images from Aunt Martha's Big Game Animals (3969) pattern.

The outline stitch was quick and easy but when I began to stitch the details on Buck Face, I wished I had trimmed to the pattern to omit the eyes and such. When stitching on looser weave, eyes are tough to get right. One shift of the weave or thread and you got a cross-eyed deer. It's disturbing, I tell ya.
Sooooo, I tried removing out the ironed-on transfer with laundry pre-wash and guess what, it worked! Next time, I'll trim their faces off before ironing.


Would love to take credit for the abstract silhouette look but it was the result of pure laziness on my part. As I stared at the finished towels, I saw a modern striped interpretation of camouflage animals.

Leezra dissolved my bucking face off!

I can't see you, dear

There's a squirrel on your towel

Squirrel outline in stem stitch

Still playing with the squirrel motif so made a teatowel for the Rikki Tikki Tavi.

I used the same method as the black Labrador dog towel: stitched squirrel onto an upholstery sample and appliqued with zigzag stitches and a fringed border.
Cotton weave towels from Pier One.

There's a dog on your towel

Black backstitch on dog outline.

Split stitch on collar. Clear bead stitched on for collar loop.

French knot for eye.

Pencil color used for shading.

My sister Rikki Tikki Tavi commissioned me to stitch a black Labrador onto a tea towel for a dog owner gift.

New to embroidery, I stitched directly onto the towel but now experimenting with stitching on accent fabric and sewing it as an applique. Messy straight stitches used with fringed border instead of turning under the raw edges. Hopefully, the fabric won't unravel. Using the applique application allows you to stitch on tea towels that would otherwise not be appropriate for embroidery.

These tan and ecru check cotton weave towels found at Pier One.

Monogrammed tea towels

~~Courtesy of Elizabeth.



She and I have a great barter system. I provide items for her to machine embroidery - one for her, one for me. That way, she isn't stitching, coveting and resenting all at the same time. THAT is a no good combination that may result in defective goods and cat fight scratches. People give me stuff - personalized stuff!

Nice cotton tea towels from Martha Stewart's line at K-Mart

Tea towel swap

My new craft buddy Anary and I arranged a 2 tea towel swap and she put put so much thought in to my most perfect towels. TRULY, it is one of the most personal and touching gifts I have ever received because it was ALL ABOUT ME! And my fat cat Sammy. Anary took a look at my blog and incorporated all kinds of SkitzoLeezra-isms into her work.
You know I love me some use of SHUT UP!

Anary's needlework and stitching is sublime and DANG, it is impressive! I cannot even imagine how long it took her to make those towels and feel guilty that I contributed to her possibly being a crafting shut-in lady that never ventures out of the house. A crafting agoraphobic, if you will.
And I used to think people that don't use items because they are "too nice" are stoopid, but I think I understand now. Those towels are FRAME worthy!

Big thanks to Anary for one of the nicest and the most thoughtful items ever.
The shiny "caw, caw" shout out goes to the Silver Bullet can of Coors. And the kitty claws are stitched with glow-in-the-dark embroidery floss. You heard me. Glow-in-the-effin'-dark! Love that.

Tea towel swap

Just completed an embroidered tea towel swap with my new craft buddy Anary. She suggested a few random holidays like "Ice Cream Soda Day". I found the perfect image in the vintage coloring books that Kay gave me (People Give Me Stuff!) and made an iron transfer.

Here is the completed ice cream soda in Anary's preferred colors.

I took liberty with her idea of "5 a day food pyramid".
Stitches include couching, backstitch, wrapped backstitch, outline, stem, seed, etc.

Burp cloths

Y'know, I burp all the time and I don't need nor use a burp cloth. Could it be that burp cloths are misnamed? Would a more accurate label be "puke rag"? Eh, never mind, keep calling it a burp cloth.

Anywho, the breeders are at it again. All of 'em are having babies. Though not a fan of babies, I like making baby stuff. You won't see me laying out cash for an extravagant baby gift. If ya can't afford the stuff, you shouldn't have the kid. 'Nuff said.

Please to enjoy, in all of their glory, are the latest burp cloths, hand embroidered by me. These are nice linen-type tea towels, purchased from KMart's Martha Stewart line.

Here baby, puke it out on my handstitched hard work.

Naughty words on a tea towel

Still don't get it? Read the word, say it to yourself, slowly.

So, recently signed up for a swap on www.craftster.org What's a swap? Folks sign up to craft stuff for a partner and then they trade. Themes range from owls to Golden Girls to the one I signed for - Naughty Words Need Love Too. Now you know why I could not resist. Participants were asked to specify their favorite naughty words.


My partner asked for embroidered tea towels so I stitched words that sound nasty on one side and an innocuous image of birds and airplanes on the other. Private side and preacher side, y'know.

Woman on the edge

• Printed out clip art image



• Photocopied and enlarged



• Attached image to light box



• Traced image with water soluble pen onto lightweight tea towel





• Embroidered with backstitch

WooHoo! A neat hand towel proudly displayed by Kay. She has the innate talent to accept my craft experiments, display them better than I would and make me covet the very thing I GAVE HER!

Mudflap girls

Several months back when I was on the brand new embroidery kick, I asked my buddy Chuck if he would like to request his very own stitched tea towel and he specified, oddly enough, mud flap girls. You heard me.

Here ya are, Chuck! Wipe your counters with these nude silhouette girls that I stitched for ya!

Older than my years

Now that I am a Southern female of certain age, genetics and heritage have kicked in and I have taken up embroidery. I LOVE it and am so content when I have a free night to stitch in front of TiVo enhanced television. So far, mostly experiments on linen teatowels but yesterday I purchased those old fashioned iron-on patterns of cats performing household chores. You heard me!
I draw a line at the stoopid Holly Hobby bubbleheaded bonnet girls but a cat going to market or a laundry washing feline cracks me up.

What's in the bag, pussy?

Embroidered napkins

Cute nephew's Montessori school has the children use a cloth napkin each day instead of paper towels. Said napkin must have child's name on it. WooHoo! Sounds like a project for the crafty aunt.

Napkins bought on clearance from Martha Stewart collection. 70 cents for two!

* With a water soluble pen, I traced around a quarter coin six times and drew letters to spell Foster. Completed with backstitch.


* With same pen, traced a sailboat stencil and used split stitch.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

NYC, baby!

Checked out the seasonal display change at Ralph Lauren's Rhinelander store. Spied cool vines attached to wall, very organic. Neat quilt composed of menswear wool squares.

Anthropologie store window stopped me in my tracks with a fantasy craft room complete with a zinc topped table, inspiration wall and loot worthy of covetousness. Oh, how I could have "liberated" that stash. Good that it was behind glass. So very good.

This array of Anthropologie tea towels caused me to utter my shopping mantra.

"Wow, that is really cute/pretty/neat.

How much?

Oh, I could make that."

As always, visited a couple flea markets. This ribbon whore had to satisfy her urges by just looking at the absurdly priced vintage ribbon. In all honesty, I would probably just look at it anyway and not bring myself to take scissors near it. A photo sufficed nicely.

Weird horse painting.

Snakeskin boots. Genuine snakeskin boots.

SO real that the head is still attached.

Nice.

And no shopping jaunt is incomplete without my other shopping mantra. Actually, it is more of exclamation.

"Caw! Caw! Shiny stuff!"

More Tea Towels!

Tea Towels!

Crafty inspiration

Three books have inspired me to get back in the craft room studio.


Quilts of Gee's Bend: Masterpieces from a Lost Place by William Arnett, Alvia Wardlaw, Jane Livingston, John Beardsley is a beautiful account of quilting by African American women. Stunning photographs and engrossing stories. But the inspiration, for me, was JUST MAKE IT. Great grandmother quilted. Mom quilted. And somewhere inside me, there is a quilt. But life is busy and I figured I would look forward to that when time passed a little slower. But this book has motivated me to get out the fabric and teach myself to make quilt! No patterns, no T-squares, no pinning. Learn to quilt and have fun while doing it.

Next I picked up a book titled Subversive Cross Stitch by Julie Jackson. This woman is after my own heart. She revealed her dislike of cutesy kittens and bears offered in the pre-packaged cross stitch kits. Her subversive urge caused her to add sarcastic comments to the otherwise milquetoast stitching. (And I thought I was clever to stitch "If you've nothing nice to say, come sit by me" in fancy script.) No, Julie Jackson is way too cool for school, what with her "Go Fuck Yourself" patterns. But again, inspiration struck and I quickly stitched a fingertip towel for my friend Bonnie with her oft repeated command, Bite Me.

And then I found Sublime Stitching: Hundreds of Hip Embroidery Patterns and How-To by Jenny Hart and Alexandra Grablewskifor. I have cross stitched for at least twenty years and while I enjoy the activity, I don't want any of that crap in my house. It is fine for baby gifts but not for the wall. So, after perusing the local library, I checked out Kids Embroidery by Kristin Nicholas. I have all of the needles and floss but what to stitch on? The scrub pants were right there and a handy future reference. With my well-stocked craft stash, I pulled out water soluble pens and stencils to mark my fabric. The stitching began. Hey, this is easy! Meanwhile, I am kind of pissed that I have been jacking around with cross stitch all these years while I could have been doing embroidery.

A look around the house turned up my stack of cotton tea towels. Stitched all of those. Then made a purse. And embroidered on that. Purchased six packs of nice cotton tea towels from the KMart Martha Stewart collection. And I am looking at all of my unadorned pillowcases . . . Everything will be stitched before my hands become arthritic!

Yay, my creativity has been juiced!