French Knot/Stacked Coin Pillow - First Etsy Post!

After many months of putting it off, I've finally opened my Etsy store!! You can check it out here:

http://swallowdesigns.etsy.com

... and this project is the first item I've posted there!

This is a fairly unique project for me, because I did it pretty much on the fly - I didn't sketch it out on graph paper beforehand. In fact, what I really wanted to do was something more liked a traditional "stacked coin" design. I'm having trouble finding a definition of what this means, but as far as I can tell it's essentially a design that incorporates strips of stacked patches, framed in neutral sashing.

I wanted to show you some examples on Flickr but got these results instead.

This quilt from Miss MeShell was really the inspiration - I love how she combined a deliciously simple linen with citrusy fabrics. She blogged it here and it's well worth checking it out!

My project veered off this plan, as you'll see soon...



I started with a pile of strips from my scrap box. I sorted them out for the blues, oranges, tans, and browns - which wasn't really hard because most of my projects lately have been in those spectrums. It was more a matter of weeding out the odd green scrap.



This part of the process went super-quick - I actually placed the sewing machine on my ironing board and did the whole thing standing up. This saved a lot of time. Plus it made it easier to watch TV. Can you tell I like to multitask?



I ironed each strip just before sewing it to the previous one, but I didn't iron the whole patched piece until I was done. Enjoyably spontanous compared with some of my more laborious projects, and certainly efficient.

When I finished preparing the large strip patch, I cut it into 4 pieces. However, after some thought, I ditched the traditional vertical parallel lines of stacked coins. I didn't have any linen, and it just didn't look as cool on the dark brown background.



So, I decided to use them as a frame for one of my French knots projects. I made this particular one a while ago, and they were inspired by the Connect the Dots tutorial from the purl bee, one of my favorite blogs from my good friends at purl soho. And by good friends I mean advisors/teachers/dealers of irresistable fabrics!



The back is an envelope flap, using the remaining "stack coined" (if I can call them that) strips:



Remember folks, this item is actually live and on sale on my store on Etsy! Why now? How did I finally set it up? Well, I ran out of room for my pillows. I'd love to keep them all, but there's only so much room I have on my bed and couch. The good thing is, it frees me up to use different colors - ones that don't match my lamp, sheets, and other accessories. I'm looking forward to seeing how that frees up my creative process.

Shake it Up!

Okay, I just received a challenge from an anonymous reader. In case you missed it, here it is from my last post:

Anonymous said...

icebat sure does look handsome next to your woolly pillow and vice versa. you seem like such a nice, placid sort of gal. but whatever happened to your embroidery "with an edge"? let's see more of that!

Ouch! Nice, maybe - but placid? I can't take it! So here it is. I've been sitting on this since I finished it this summer, but now I'm breaking it out.

Here's how it works:

It starts with a photo, that I bought from a Chelsea flea market - one that actually still exists (as of this writing):



Believe it or not, this project has effectively been a few years on the making. I first made a pen and ink drawing based on it:



I think the lady on the right looks a little like Karen from Will and Grace. That wasn't intentional!

This is one of my favorite drawings I've ever done. It's definitely influenced by underground cartoon art, such as Charles Burns, the Hernandez Brothers, and one of my all-time favorites, Dan Clowes, circa Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron era.

So, this summer, I picked it up and tried to turn it into embroidery. I traced the drawing (not the original photo) onto fabric using standard carbon paper. Long live the small stationary store!

Unfortunately, my first try didn't work out so well. I don't even have that anymore to show you. This is the second try, which is horrible, so you can just imagine how bad the first one was:



It was really hard for me to let this go, because the above represents hours and hours of embroidery. Oh well! I got it right the third time - but I did do several different takes of color combinations on the nipples before I was satisfied.



I tried to stick to a limited color palette, almost like one might do for a screen print.



I love and hate doing hair. It's incredibly time consuming - but what can you do? Hair is important!



I'm very happy with how the necklace on "Karen" turned out. The blue beads were made by doing a pretty standard back stitch in a circle, and then placing a French knot in the middle.

This was surprisingly hard to photograph! It looks a lot better in person - in the pic, the lady on the left looks like she's giving you the evil eye! But it's an optical illusion.

Male Plumage

I drew this portrait based on a photo based on a 1960s Life magazine article about "Male Plumage." They were quite amazed at how the crazy kids were dressing, and particularly that the men were expressing themselves in such vibrant, flamboyant ways, especially coming out of the gray flannel suit era. I'll post some info about this article when I relocate it.



It's interesting how projects evolve. I completed that drawing more than 8 years ago. A copy has been happily living on my friend Michele's wall for at least 5 years. Two months ago, I decided to try it out as an embroidered portrait. I finished the whole body and clothing in June, but not the hair. I just couldn't figure out what to do with the hair. Then I learned how to do French knots, et Voila! The solution.



I am particularly excited about the colors; prior to this, my portraits were of a more restrained palette.



I spent a LOT Of time on these two details. I did them freehand, and was just obsessed with getting them to reflect with what I had in my head.



Here he is in all his glory!



Now, what to name him...?

French Knots - Friend or Foe?

I did more French Knots this weekend. I was experimenting with the color brown. I did three variations.

Brown with blue and orange:



Brown with red and cream:



Brown with tan and blue:



Why are French Knots my friend? Because they enable me to relax and have fun with color. Because I can do them on the subway and people are curious and friendly about them. Because they are quick and satisfyingly obsessive.

Why are French Knots my foe? I feel I should be spending my time developing my more original embroidery designs/portraits. But they are some flipping fun!

The flowered fabrics are from Denyse Schmidt's Katie Jump Rope Series, and the gridded fabric is my favorite Japanese fabric - I have it in four different shades now.

Oops, I did it again... more French Knots!

I find these completely addictive. I did all of these French Knot projects in one week, including completing a whole pillow.

I am not sure what I am going to do with these yet.

French Knots

This is a project inspired by one of my favorite blogs, the purl bee. I was looking for a project to make my mom for her birthday - something quick but nice. I saw this posted on the bee Monday AM - I had finished the french knots portion by Thursday and the pillow construction by late Friday night.

When I first started, I thought damn, those knots are going to take a long time - will I have the patience? I don't usually do abstract embroidery. Well, I had nothing to worry about - I found making the knots completely addictive. In fact, I have already started to make one for myself.

I am very happy with how this pillow came out. It's even more personal because it contains fabric that my aunt gave me from her stash.



Check out the purl bee's excellent instructions for a french knot sunburst in their Connect the Dot Pillows tutorial.

And here's the back:



The binding is fabric from Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy collection. I bought a couple of yards of it for a wall hanging project I never did. But it makes the most charming detail, and I've used it both in this project, and the shark pillows.