Pull up a bloody chair

Shown in March 2009 issue of Metropolitan Home,

this "Dexter" chair (inspired by the television show)

has a blood splatter embroidered onto back panel.

Kinda gross, huh?

Hoping blood stains won't be the "new toile" or

it won't devolve to menstrual blood smear motifs on towels and such.

My Valentine greeting for you

Shiny Stuff of the Week 6

In honor of Carnival season,

here is your shiny stuff of the week.

Make your own fabric covered mat

People give me stuff - lots o' mats!

Looka, someone gave me a whole mess of mats!

Sure the colors are no good but I'll show you how to cover a mat with fabric.

If it is double-matted, you don't want that little groove to show so turn mat over and spray BACK side of mat with adhesive. Use glue of your choice. I liked the quick coverage of spray adhesive.

Cut the outside edges with scissors or rotary cutter.

You could wrap fabric to backside but I found that creates a tight fit in some frames.
Make snips on inside of mat.

Pretend you are cutting a pizza and make lots and lots of cuts if mat opening is oval or round. (If rectangular or square, cut an "X".)

Pull fabric to backside of mat and glue. Trim long pieces.

Flip over mat and admire your work!

Place inside your frame. The frayed edges will be hidden.

Here's another:

Don't you wish you had room for this?

Me too!

Old school metal lockers for sale, less than $100.

Walking away from them. . .

I am,

SkitzoLeezra

The inspiration behind the silk skirt

Just realized I didn't show ya the Dolce & Gabbana silk scarf skirt that inspired my attempt at a pieced multi pattern skirt.
I first spied it in W fashion magazine and found it online for $2480.00 - NOW half price!
In truth, it is a clever idea of piecing 4 scarves (2 for front, 2 for back) but the coordination of scarves is, to my eye, not great. Click link above to see the back view of skirt.

SkitzoLeezra's suggestions:

• Check out your scarf stash or get yourself to a thrift store and whip up one of these skirts!
• Scarf provides finished edges on hems and finished edges on seams
• All ya gotta do is make a drawstring waist or add a waistband!
  
  

Cutting a stripe skirt

Back when I made my first stripe skirt, I was pleased with the matched side seams but had no idea how I did it. Well, dang if I didn't find some photos today that I snapped in process. Yay me!

However, cannot fully explain how I matched the stripes so perfectly but will direct you to notice the bottom hem edge at right angle edge of fabric and slight diagonal cut on side.

My mom laughs at me because I am teaching myself how to sew on the most difficult of fabrics - silk AND stripes. She says that if I can do that, then I could probably split atoms. What she hasn't realized is that the huge stash of silk is my PRACTICE fabric.

Totally spoiled,
I am,
SkitzoLeezra

Old School Rubber Stamp Storage

Big fan of industrial stuff and love anything that looks like it was in a 1940's era governmental office so HAD to have this flat file drawer unit for housing my rubber stamps and paper stock.

Don't hate the hoarder!

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

Hey Cupcake!

Stitched this little cupcake

onto a white apron

atop a cupcake stencil

outlined with water soluble pen.

Butt'n, oh no you di'nt!

The decorative appeal of a ton of buttons in one big glass jar looks cool but the first time I searched for specific size and color, I realized my anal retentive organization compulsion really did serve a purpose.

Now sorting buttons by color and happy to do it.

Trixie's toys

My good buddy Trixie is trying her hand at making toys. She mentioned the need of a dog recipient so am guessing her kitty cats are indifferent to a knitted bear or a crocheted penguin. Horrified that a dog would tear up her handiwork, I suggested the toys as a baby gift. Trixie told me that "the teddy bear would be okay but the penguin really has problems. The eyes aren't the safe, swallowable kind, one of the feet has stuffing popping out and one of the wings came undone from the body during washing."

Now looking at toy eyes
and wondering which are the safe, swallowable kind,
I am,
SkitzoLeezra

The official tartan of Louisiana

Yep, you heard me. A few years back, the legislators of Louisiana voted this to be the OFFICIAL Louisiana tartan. Just saw it in my clip art file and figured you wanted to see it. Especially if your name is Mr. Peacock.

What's your style?

I subscribe to the weekly e-mail of free clip art from Dover Design Publications and each week I peruse the offerings and download my favorites. Almost always, I pass on the Asian graphics, Southwest American or any phantasmagorical stuff.

No thanks

Instead I'll take a Victorian era black and white pen and ink skeleton

or a monkey or cat with a hat,

People give me stuff - antique linens

My cousin moved last month and gave me a bag of embroidered linens from my grandmother and great grandmother's houses. Also included, some tatted or crochet trims and a couple doilies. I LOVE embroidered linens. I DISLIKE doilies.


The weirder the motif, the more I like it. Unfortunately, no cocktailing monkeys or anthropomorphic vegetables in the bunch but there was this one kitty in a basket. Too bad kitty is not smoking a cigarette. Alas, my ancestral females were nice Baptist ladies. Woe is me.

Not a big fan of the heart motif but plan to add this trim to a linen hand towel.


THIS atrocity will be either given away or defaced. She looks like a precursor to the Holly Hobbie ilk. Ugh.

Stay tuned for the re-stylings of vintage embroidered linens.

Tie silk skirt

With that big silk stash of mine, I attempted a six gored skirt from an online tutorial. I drafted the pattern, computed some math and carefully cut panels from black and blue panels of the silk necktie fabric. Proud to use my serger for the nicely finished edges, I whipped up the skirt in almost no time.

But I made a rookie mistake - I didn't make a muslin version first. The skirt didn't fit. Not even close. With no more black and blue fabric, I added two contrasting red gores on each side. It looked homemade. And sad. Ripped out the red gores (ripped red gores, that sounds somehow gross) and resewed the skirt and gave it to my mom. It looks quite good on her.

Will try another six gore skirt but next time it will be of a "throw away" fabric until I get the math right . . .no more ripped red gores for this girl.

Serger magic

Finally ventured into serger land to see what else I could do besides seam finishing. This is a rolled hem (or napkin edge) and it provides a great finish to a raw fabric edge.

Mind you, I do most of my sewing and embroidery experiments on pajama pants because

1) that is what I am usually wearing

2) no need to retain lots of scraps for experiment results

3) easy referral

How many times did I re-thread the looper: 4 times

How many curse words uttered: just 1, but held out for a long note

Emotion at seeing the end result: JOY!

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.

Cross stitch Christmas ornaments

Made a heap of cross stitch Christmas ornaments, some with pinked edges, some frayed.


And after second consideration, decided I kinda liked the pristine white wide flange and left those as is.

Christmas crack, it's a good thing

This craftster chick posted her recipe for Christmas Crack and dang, it is some good!

Here is my version:
Strange thing, I had less than a full bag of chocolate chips, how does that happen? So I melted some white chocolate bark and poured that atop the melted chocolate chips and swirled it around. Worried that it might then be TOO sweet, I sprinkled some coarse kosher salt on top. LOVE me some sweet and salt combo snacks!
Oh WAIT! I forgot the moment of Zen:
press your nose against the glass window of your oven and watch the saltine crackers rise and fall with bubbling of molten sugar through the cracker holes. It is mesmerizing, I tell ya!



Here is my post to the Christmas Crack enabler:
Hey, why don't you post your recipe for methamphetamine next year because it would be LESS addictive than this stuff!! Thanks for making me a Christmas crackhead!