"Little Odd Forest Coasters"

littleoddforest_coasters, originally uploaded by itsknotwood.

I found these on the Flickr site of one of my favorite blogs, It's (K)not Wood. This blog is devoted to anything and everything faux bois (fake wood). I actually did try to embroider my own faux bois many months ago, but it was too bloody boring for words. I might be willing to try it again on a small sized project though, like a coaster or pin-cushion.

Faux bois is one of my favorite aesthetics of late, and I actually have several variations of faux bois in my fabric stash. I think faux bois is very evocative, whether it makes you think of nature, or it makes you of some kind of Larry Clark basement photo shoot. Personally, it makes me think of both, and I like that.

These coasters are made by the littleoddforest, where they are available for purchase.

Molly Shannon on The Martha Stewart Show

This is just the preamble to the crafting dialogue I've recreated below. That, unfortunately, I couldn't find.

Martha Stewart and Molly Shannon Crafting

The NYC transit system is down, and I had to stay home from work. Sooooo sad. No one is even on email yet.

I've spent all morning watching the weather reports, tornados in Bay Ridge. Unbelievable. The weather guys are saying it's the worse mass transit morning they've seen in their entire careers. I like how situations like this bring the realness out in people sometime; I've noticed during the course of the morning, all of the anchors' and man-on-the-street interviewers' New York accents got more pronounced.

The weather abruptly switched to a repeat of the Martha show, where I caught the tail end of her making crafts with the adorable Molly Shannon.



This is my memory of it:

Martha complements Molly. She says her characters were the main reason she watched Saturday Night Live. The makes me a little verklempt. She says it brusquely and while applying an industrial strength glue to a ribbon. but really seems to mean it.

Molly is clearly uncomfortable holding the electric jigsaw Martha has given her. "You don't have one of these?" Martha says. Molly says her husband said moving in with her was like "taming a wild bear." It is clear she is not domestic.



Martha scolds, "come on, you have kids now, they are going to want to make crafts." They don their plastic protective eyewear. The saws start. Molly messes up immediately. Martha struggles to contain herself.

They move onto a cutting sequence, applying "beautiful" corkboard onto the letters they have now managed to saw out of the plywood (I guess Martha knocked off both of them herself during the commercial break). Martha asks if Molly has a self-healing board. "No?" Martha is incredulous. "You really must a self-healing cutting board in the house."



They make it through alive. I do love both of them! It was awkward as hell but that's what made it so great. I can now imagine Molly hanging the corkboard letters in her children's room, and then telling her friends the whole story over a dinner party and everyone laughing and having fun. I wish I could be there.

But it's true, Molly. You really MUST have a self-healing cutting board.

The Embroideries

I was just turned onto threadless.com. I really like cool t-shirts and buy them regularly from the Giant Robot store.

For those of you equally in the dark as me, threadless holds contests for t-shirt designs, and then prints the winners. I am sure I'll find countless tempting items as I peruse this site, but I was really surprised to find an embroidery themed shirt on the home page! It's not actually embroidered, it's some kind of fantasy of angel-workers stitching a dinosaur. I might have to have it.

White Stripes Embroidery

This amazing portrait of the White Stripes is by Jenny Hart, truly the queen of alternative embroidery. I had been previously familiar with her Sublime Stitching kits - both Purl Soho and The City Quilter carry them in New York. I had tried out a kit when I first started doing embroidery. But I had never seen her embroidered portraits before last night, and I must say I am blown away.

White Stripes Crafts

I was looking for a picture of Meg White's button bass drum last night at 2 o'clock in the morning, to no avail. But somehow, I stumbled across this:



Yes, it's the White Stripes. Knitted. Check out Hannah Simpson's blog cakeyvoice for the 411. Be sure not to miss her knitted Shaun of the Dead. Surely the first knitted interpretation of a rom zom com movie?

The $1000 Pillow, again

So, a sewing machine, three patchwork and quilting classes at purlsoho, a shelf full of books, two cartons of brilliant, delicious new fabrics, miscellaneous rulers, mats, seam rippers, rotary cutters, and ziplock bags full of embroidery thread later...

... and that first pillow isn't done.

However, I have spent the last year making and selling original embroidery designs, and I am ever so grateful to k studio for inspiring me to get started.

The $1000 Pillow

I really wanted that Woodland Creatures pillow from k studio. And I was determined to "save money" by somehow creating it myself. I also really admired their more architectural pieces as well, but I couldn't even consider tackling a project so complex.

As I considered how to do this, I had absolutely no idea where to start. I wasn't even entirely sure what stitching patterns with thread into fabric was called. I went to a local bookstore and found out oh, this is embroidery. I bought a dictionary of embroidery stitches, which was very clear and helpful, though I must admit to this day I only use 3 stitches regularly: the backstitch, the side stitch, the split stitch, and just recently, the french knot, thanks to my friends at the purl bee.