new things.

I haven't posted in forever, mainly because I just completed my first week as a government employee and I'm still figuring out how to work, get enough sleep, go to the gym, and still be able to craft things.  It's a tough process.

However here are some finished Christmas presents!

Two hoops, one for my grandfather and his wife, and one for my grandmother.

robo boogie!

Finished my "make it rain" hoop! All of the marker has faded, and I finished the hoop in white ribbon with colorful umbrellas on it. I thought it was pretty fitting. A.C. Moore just recently had a sale on ribbon, .99 cents a spool! Definitely stocked up on it.

Also started and finished a Flight of the Conchords inspired hoop. Based on their song Robots, or the Humans are Dead, in which there are only two dances in the world; the Robot and the Robo Boogie!

I made a quick sketch of the pattern on graph paper (which really doesn't work well for me, considering the graph paper squares are gigantic) and then set out to stitch it up. I changed the lettering around a bit as I was stitching.

I totally hijacked it as I was finishing it though and cut the cloth so that it barely had enough room to go around the hoop, making the back look ehhhh. I do that all the time and it's really irritating. Here's my coal statue Pennsylvania State Trooper weighting the back so the glue dries.

And the finished product! Wrapped in orange and pink ribbon!

I think I may actually start working on Christmas presents now, instead of making more hoops for my constantly growing hoop wall!

make it rain!

I recently saw a post on craftster that definitely inspired this, however that hoop featured a pole dancer and dollar bills. I decided to be a bit more literal with my design!

Most of my patterns start like this. I scribble some stuff on cloth and only embroider what I like. The marker that I use is fantastic. It's a quilter's marker that either vanishes in 48 hours or disappears in cold water. The best part is, it seriously only cost like $3.99 at Michael's. Way cheap. This picture was taken after about 24 hours and you can see the marker has already mostly faded! It's magic!