Getting organised

I hate cleaning. Problem is, I also hate a messy house. While I manage to keep the place tidy, I never really feel like it's clean.

I've been sick for a couple of days, and while I'm going crazy not being able to do anything for longer than 10 minutes without getting sleepy, I've managed to make myself a magnetic perpetual cleaning list. I'm hoping that once I'm feeling better this will motivate me to get my house sparkling again.

I made these with some scrap pieces of balsa wood I had sitting around from an abandoned clock project, some felt, thread and an old magnetic L plate I cut into strips to fit the wood.

Presenting: The Greendale Human Being

Last post for my power run of completed projects is the ever creepy, irrationally difficult to complete Greendale Human Being.

If you don't recognise this human being, then I suggest you go buy yourself a Community DVD and familiarise yourself quick smart. By far one of the funniest, smartest and craziest TV shows in recent memory.

This was meant to be an Xmas present for my boyfriend, but it took such a long time to complete he ended up getting it over a month later. I hunted high and low for an iron on 'G' or ready transfer (I don't have a printer to create my own), but gave up after 6 weeks of scouring stores and embroidered the 'G' by hand. Utter madness I tell you - took my inexperienced hands almost 2 hours :/

Now s/he might look a bit awkward and proportionately-challenged, but I think my totally hand sewn mascot turned out better than the ones on sale in the NBC.com store, and more like the actual Human Being. I will at least keep telling myself that...

Experiments with etching

After seeing a few posts on Craftster with some fantastic looking etched glass projects, I had to hunt down some Armor Etch. Turns out it's near impossible to find in stores here, but Ebay came to the rescue (of course!).

The result: custom booze glasses for my parents birthdays! It was really hard to get a good photo, but I was so pleased with the result. I really need to make myself some of these.

Pixel cushion

More completed projects, this one a little different. Inspiration was courtesy of 3Sheets - I swear this cushion was made to appeal to me. After my amigurumi binge I wanted to try something a little easier that I could just do in front of the TV, and having started this new crafty life cross stitching video game pixel images, a pixel cushion made so much sense.

The cushion is backed with some scrap black fabric, all hand sewn with a 35mm cushion insert. I love the result, but am still far more in awe of the gorgeous colours from my source of inspiration - click that link up there if you haven't already!

Pop culture stitching

A couple of random pop culture stitches - I loved the idea of stitching Robot Unicorn, and once someone made this awesome pattern, I had to make it!

I saw somewhere online someone had made up a Futurama inspired wall hanging, and thought it would be  a cool quick project. I'm definitely not the first person to stitch this, but I just kinda winged it on the text and didn't follow any pattern.

Amigurumi!

After my massive cross stitch binge, it was time to try my hand at something new and challenging. Amigurumi it was! Warning - if you've never crocheted before, starting with amigurumi is a crazy idea.

Thanks to some Youtube tutorials, Nerdigurumi, Wolfdreamer, and a lot of persistence I was able to miraculously assemble the characters below. I think Kirby turned out the best/neatest, but I have a soft spot for Chain Chomp - it was easily way above my capabilities when i started but I just kept on plugging away and finally made him at least recognisable.

Kirby still doesn't have a face :(

Smaller projects

So during the 9 months of creating my amazing SMB3 World map, I stitched this little framed piece for my Nana's birthday. I made the pattern, but didn't design the flower myself - I think it was from a bit of Googling.

These little bows were made... just because I wanted to see if I could do it! I don't have a sewing machine, so the bows are all hand stitched (not that much is required), made from recycled upholstery samples from Reverse Garbage. The non-headbanded bow is a brooch :)

These little mini magnets were stitched on plastic canvas as breaks from the SMB3 map - Tetris didn't really require a pattern, and I can't remember where I got the Angry Birds patterns from - they took me forever to find though!

Super Mario Bros 3 World 1 Map

Feeling like a complete hero after cross stitching a grand total of two projects, I was compelled to start something big. Of course, a 37000+ stitch project is the natural progression.

My proudest moment was completing this map. It was my figurative baby, taking around 9 months to complete. The pattern was found here - there are patterns for all eight worlds! I've been toying with the idea of starting another one, but have a couple of WIP's I really need to finish - and the knowledge that the repetition is super frustrating at times. After something like 50 cactus, I was groaning every time it was time to do another.

I really need to give this the respect it deserves and finish it off more than just a wash, iron and mount, but custom framing is a bit too pricey for me at the moment. Anyone got ideas of what to do other than framing?

Pacman bookmark

Project #2 was again from Sprite Stitch, pattern is here. I've made a couple of these, the first one on linen (as pictured) with metallic thread was a nightmare! Attempt #2 on regular aida cloth was a dream to make in comparison. Both are now in use as bookmarks somewhere, backed with black felt.

My first project

Gonna get things rolling with a photo dump of all the projects I've completed since deciding to be an adventurous crafter a couple of years ago. My first ever project (and many subsequent projects) were courtesy of Sprite Stitch and the awesome forums

This is the first project I ever completed, sometime around Spring 2010. The idea/pattern was from here