Strange Days

The past few months for me have been a strange mix of elation and deep turmoil. A lot is changing in my life, as it is apt to do when you're 23, I guess. Confusion and regret are just part of moving on and trying new things.

At the end of the day we'll all make it through with the help of good friends.

First let me say that I have fallen in love with Colette's Laurel pattern. I had always assumed that a shift dress like the Laurel would be unflattering on me, but I have made 3 so far. This one is made of a cotton sateen that I printed clocks and keys on. 

I'm preparing to enter into a design program (which involves moving to LA, accumulating debt, and breaking off a part of the Santa Cruz part of me, yikes!), so I'm trying to spend this summer finding my voice, which has resulted in some interesting things...

Is this biologist crazy to go to art school? Am I making a huge mistake? Haha, well, I guess I'll have to find out the hard way. All I know is that I'm not where I want to be in life, and if I'm going to course-correct, the time is now. Maybe its stupid, but the time to be dumb is when you're young and still have time to fix your mistakes.

Wish me luck!

Stitchin' and Witchin'

2013 has been a crazy whirlwind of emotions so far. We're almost 1/4 of the way through the year but it feels like much longer.
In early February I shared an amazing weekend with Heather Ross and Gretchen Hirsch at Asilomar for an amazing Weekend Sewing Workshop (an event I told myself that I would dedicate a blog post to, but it still kind of overwhelms me).

My Modern Quilt Guild had a wonderful showing at a local (and sizable) quilt show put on by the PVQA, another local quilt show, and it as exciting to have my quilts on display at such a large forum.

It's interesting to settle into a quilting style; it's definitely something I want to play around with this year. I want to experiment more with solids and improvisational, geometric shapes. I also want to play with denser quilting and more complicated techniques.

However, lately, I have been ALL ABOUT EMBROIDERY. After the intense emotional trauma of finishing Buffy the Vampire Slayer (yes, for the first time ever, oh man, seasons six and seven destroyed me emotionally, in only the way that well written TV can) I decided that I needed a more immediate, more portable and less attention-demanding hobby than sewing.

I started making these as a fun project to make at crafting night with my lady friends without having to take my machine, and I (literally) caught the embroidery bug. I had so much fun stitching these and re-teaching myself techniques. Plus these puppies were featured on Feeling Stitchy today, How cool is that!?
I should mention that I used Carson Ellis transfers from Sublime Stitching for these guys. I should also mention that I am reading Wildwood which she illustrated (I also loved the Mysterious Benedict Society books, which she also illustrated. I like children's books okay? Don't judge, you'll love them too).
I used Anna Maria Horner embroidery floss from Anchor, primarily as well as the Sublime Stitching variegated floss and a dash of the usual DMC.

Right now, however, I'm working on an original design that's coming along well, if I do say so myself.

  

  

 

I'm excited about embroidering my own designs and mixing them with fashion and quilting projects.

Madrona Road Weird Science Hexie

Madrona Road Weird Science Hexie, a photo by Alchemy Tea on Flickr.

I joined the Modern Quilt Guild's Madrona Road challenge sponsored by Michael Miller and Violet Crafts.

Initially I wanted to create free-form hexagon clouds on Cotton Couture Fog and call it the "Bad Weather" quilt.

However, improv quilting does as improv quilting pleases, and the result was much more biological in nature. The result is "Weird Science"

The back is a scrappy "road" with a slashed strip and I call it "Overpass".

Go Fourth!

Happy Fourth of July Americans! For everyone else... Happy Fourth of July: The Day They Discovered the Higgs Particle (probably)

In Santa Cruz there is no formal fireworks show on the 4th, an Idea that is taking time to adjust to for this girl who loves 4th of July Fireworks. *Sigh*

However, it's only one week until I leave for San Diego, so I'm using this opportunity to start preparations and packing.

Today amidst BBQing and lurking Tumblr, I tried on my Lady!Loki costume to make sure that the costume looks satisfactory all put together. I'm very pleased!

The base of the dress is a very comfortable bamboo jersey with green sequins and gold lame bias tape as trim. The cape is osnaburg muslin trimmed with faux fox fur and a decorative clasp.

The horned diadem is is a ring of brass strips I got from the hardware store and E600ned together (yes, I am turning that into a verb). The horns themselves are wire armatures covered in  tin foil, and then covered in Cloud Clay. The decorative pieces are Cloud Clay as well.

The wig is fabulous, and from Arda Wigs. This particular one is Buttercup in Black. Not only does this wig look and feel great, but it's easy to style, and I ordered it in the morning and arrived the very next day from Chicago. I am definitely going to purchase from them again.

The corset is from Pendragon Costumes (I bought this one at Clockwork Alchemy. Buying at a con is fun because you get to try before you buy!), and the makeup is all M.A.C.

I have a few tweaks to make (foam to the band of the diadem for comfort, coins for the hair, and maybe fur trim for the boots), but I think the costume is pretty good as-is. I based it on a mix of fanart and some official art.

So hopefully I'll get some killer photos at the Con!


In other news, my friends at Play Crafts (members of the SBAMQG) recently released their first product, a Palette Builder for designers, quilters and crafters! And it's AWESOME!!!

Basically, the idea is that you can upload a photo, and the Palette Builder will create a color palette from the colors that it picks up on. But you can also focus the palette on particular regions of the photo, and choose both the number of colors that it picks up on, and how monochromatic the colors are.

I made this one from some new charms I'm making for Alchemy Tea. This palette builder is super addictive!

Until next time, Happy 4th!

Exciting Times

I have some fun news! In fact, lots of fun news!
First of all, I am now a college graduate! Yeah! Four years and no debt, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. Now if I could only get that B.S. degree to turn its self into a job....

In the meantime, to supplement my retail career, I'm pushing my brand of accessories, Alchemy Tea! And I'm extremely excited to announce that a selection of Alchemy Tea accessories are now available at the Red Square Boutique in San Mateo!

If you live in the CA bay area, you should definitely go check this place out. Red Square has a marvelous collection of fashionable pieces all produced and designed by local artists that you can't find anywhere else. I'm extremely honored and excited to have the opportunity to sell my products here!

The Alchemy Tea Shop is slowly filling back up! Soon to be added are belts and fascinators! http://www.etsy.com/shop/alchemytea


Alchemy Tea also has an official facebook page now:  https://www.facebook.com/alchenyteaaccessories

To celebrate the new page, we'll be doing a small earring give-away when we reach 50 fans! So help spread the word!

Fanime 2012

For most Americans, Memorial Day weekend is for family, barbeques, and remembering those we've lost at war. For me and many others though, it's mainly associated with the long-held tradition of geeking out about our favorite fandoms by dressing up as our favorite characters and fraternizing with like-minded people at Fanime.

Fanime is a fan-organized anime convention held at the San Jose convention center every Memorial Day weekend. I have been going to Fanime ever since I moves to Santa Cruz four years ago, and for me, it's an un-missable event. It's not just about anime for me anymore. Not only are lots of other non-animated and non-Japanese shows represented alongside my favorite animes, but it's also a warm reunion between me and my friends that I don't get to see very often for many reasons. Fanime for me is about letting my geek-flag fly and catching up with my friends.

And this year, Fanime held a partner Steampunk convention called Clockwork Alchemy at a nearby hotel, which made it even better. Of course, I made a bunch of items, not knowing what I would feel like wearing, and only managed to wear a fraction of it, but for now, here are some notable outfits I wore:

Day One: Steampunk Lolita.

Day Two: Captain America Lolita

 

 

 

 

 

Day Three: Steampunk Lolita

What a whirlwind! And now, back to reality, sadly. I wanted to point out that I made that last skirt with fabric from Rouge Aerie Designs. I got a million compliments on it, but all the hard work was done by the talented Kate, who designed the fabric. Sadly, the fabric is no longer available, but Kate's making a line with it that is just stunningly gorgeous. And if you go like her facebook page and help her reach 1,000 likes, she'll be doing a give-away that will be drool-inducing for sure.

Inspired

I know, I know, it's been a while! And even after promising myself that I would make a blog schedule for myself. It's shameful really, but I'm back now, making an effort.

During my last post I mentioned the "Inspiration" challenge for my quilt guild. Well the challenge is over (it was due in April! Golly, it HAS been a while!) and I love the results!

It was so exciting to see this quilt top come together pretty much exactly how I wanted it. Not all of my points match up, but it reads like I wanted. I chose a litho print of Alphonse Mucha's Zodiac and made rows of wonky star blocks in colors to coordinate. I used mostly cotton couture colors from Michael Miller (so, so, so yummy!!!!). As of now, its still just a top since I had no idea how to quilt it. But I recently purchased a free motion foot for my machine, so once I get the hang of it to my satisfaction, I think I'll quilt in a wonky star pattern. Until then.... coasters, coasters, coasters!!!
 

Since my last post, I've also fallen love with asterisk blocks and granny squares! So much fun! I love taking blocks and blowing them up. I think next I'm going to have to do a giant asterisk, because that block is a cutie!

Additionally, I was given the honor of being given a Liebster award from Anne and Gillian over at Play Crafts! The Liebster award goes to great blogs with fewer than 200 followers (I know, I fit one of those categories for sure!). Once awarded the Liebster, the blog owner chooses 5 other qualifying blogs to receive it.

Or, in bullet format:
1. Thank my Liebster Blog Award presenters.
2. Link back to my presenters’ blogs.
3. Copy & paste the blog award on my blog.
4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to five blogs with 200 or fewer followers that I feel deserve to be noticed and post links to their blogs on my blog.
5. Let the recipients know they have been given the Liebster Blog Award by posting a comment on their blog.

This is so cool! Love to baby blogs! However, since my circle of blog friends is pretty small, step 4 is going to be an ongoing process for me. Most of the blogs I follow were awarded already by the Play Crafts ladies, but this will encourage me to make more friends :p

I will award my first blog though!

Megan, AKA Dinomeg has a totally "stitchin'" blog that chronicles all of her fiber arts love. She is a crafty crazy cat lady with mega talent, and a quirky personality. Plus you can spot me once or twice over there ;) She is wayyyyyy better about documenting her craft-ventures than I am!

 She also made me this scarf!

So thanks again Play Crafts! And I promise to share more amazing blogs as I discover them!

Meanwhile, you should check out the South Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild blog, and the Harts Fabric blog where I've been making posts (along with my co-workers and other guild officers). You'd think that since I'm responsible for some "real" blogs that I'd actually be able to update my own once in a while... ha! Oh well.

Next up... Fanime costumes and graduation! (from college!!!! GASP!!!!)