Tag Archives: embroidery project

izabel from saga (embroidery no. 16)

saga embroidery

I feel like I come late to the game to a lot of things. I just discovered Sandman–only 15 years after the first one came out. I am furiously trying to catch up on the Good Wife, which just started season 5. Last year I got really into Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, and the first one came out five years before I was born. I guess I can’t help being late for that one.

But I am into the comic books series Saga. And Saga is coming out right now. (To be fair, I did only read it after the first two volumes were complete.) Issue 15 came out on Oct. 30, and that issue is the inspiration for this embroidery of Izabel.

izabel from Saga

I like so many of the characters in Saga. Alana is a badass. The Will and Lying Cat really love each other. And Izabel is so nice and fun. Izabel may be dead, but she’s still a great babysitter to Alana and Marko’s daughter Hazel. She seems like a spunky teenager who cares for the family she is now working with. I really like Izabel’s fresh voice and positive attitude. Marko’s mom, on the other hand, may never warm up to her.

Saga has kept me on my toes and in love with the characters and stories. The next one comes out Nov. 27. I’ve been reading on my iPad, but if you can, swing by your local comic books store to check out Saga and see what else looks good!

izabel from saga issue 15

I am working on a project to sew some of my favorite quotes and images from books. You can see the other pieces of my embroidery project here:

i am the one who knocks (embroidery no. 15)

i am the one who knocks embroidery

Well, guys. Today’s the day. The series finale of Breaking Bad. Today we’ll say goodbye–and good riddance–to The One Who Knocks. (See an embroidered version of him here.)

I have never enjoyed a TV show more than Breaking Bad, but my emotions can’t take any more of this. These last few episodes have been nonstop intensity, and the following week is nonstop discussions, and my brain is nonstop fried.

But what a ride, right? It’s been blast. I’m so excited to see the end, but I’m sad for it to be over. I am also worried for the mental health of us, as a group. Will there be a giant sigh of relief tonight? Or stunned silence?

breaking bad embroidery

I used green and brown to reflect the colors in the Breaking Bad credits. They are also reminiscent of the desert dirt in New Mexico. When Walt yelled at Skylar that he is the one who knocks, it was an iconic moment in television. We had a new phrase for evil, a new kind of bad guy. And I expect tonight’s episode will be a new kind of send-off–a finale that takes us to depths we haven’t seen before. I can’t wait.

I am working on a project to sew some of my favorite quotes and images from books (and TV). You can see the other quotes in my embroidery project here:

embroidery display update

embroidery display rae's days

I have finally added my latest embroideries to my embroidery display!

embroidery display

I am slowly but steadily filling the space above my bed. I love having them in my home–I love any handmade item in my home. I think it adds originality and personality, and I’m of course also proud that I made them myself.

display embroidery hoops

I’m getting quite a collection, and I’d love to keep going. I think they look lovely as a group. The whole is just as good as the parts.

cropped_MG_0927

I am working on a project to sew some of my favorite quotes and images from books. You can see the other quotes in my embroidery project here:

breaking bad (embroidery no. 13)

mini heisenberg embriodery

Today’s the day. The beginning of the end. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about a TV show. It actually reminds me of when Harry Potter was coming out. The midnight parties, the internet message boards (remember those?), the guessing and wondering and talking in circles about how it would end. I love this kind of thing.

So in the spirit of my embroidery project, I made a tiny tribute to Walter White as Heisenberg. I thought about embroidering “I am the one who knocks,” and I still might. But his features are so perfect and distinct for an abstract image like this that I couldn’t pass it up. And I certainly would never say Heisenberg is cute but…

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God bless you, but… (embroidery no. 12)

embroidery rae's days

When a dome falls over your entire town, cutting you off from the rest of the world, things can get a little stressful. One of my favorite parts of the book (and show!) was watching how people handled that stress–whether it was admirable or terrifying.

This embroidery is from Under the Dome and, well, has language that’s a little NSFW. Click through the jump if swear words won’t offend.

Continue reading “God bless you, but… (embroidery no. 12)”

chapter 19 (embroidery no. 10)

harry potter illustration embroidery

I did something a little different for today’s embroidery. For those of us who grew up with Harry Potter, a charming part of those books were the illustrations in the American version at the top of each chapter. I had a small embroidery hoop lying around that was really the perfect size to fit the drawings at the top of the page–just a few inches across. So I took my paperback of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and picked one of my favorite illustrations. And using the back stitch and Sublime Stitching’s tutorial for the chain stitch, this is what I came up with!

Continue reading “chapter 19 (embroidery no. 10)”

i carry your heart with me (embroidery no. 9 and happy mother’s day)

i carry your heart embroidery

This one is for my mom. Most of you are familiar with this E. E. Cummings love poem, but I believe this particular line can speak to many kinds of love.

I don’t live near my mom. My parents are in Atlanta where today I believe they are going on a motorcycle ride in the nice Southern weather. So we can’t spend this Mother’s Day, or many other days, together. But my mom has made me strong, so that I can come to New York and go to work and build a life. I bring her strength and her love with me always.

I talk to my mom just about every day. (I asked my sister once if you need your mom less when you get older. She said no.) She listens to me when I go on and on about some boring thing that I’m now super interested in, or she lets me explain the plot of whatever book I’m reading, and she celebrates with me when things are good, and is sad with me when things are sad.

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everyone was going (embroidery no. 8)

no one was invited embroidery rae's days

This week’s quote is from Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. I loved the characters in that book, and I love love love the parties they throw. The whole town shows up and to a raging party–but was anyone actually invited? It doesn’t matter. It’s the talk of the town, and everyone is going. See more of my thoughts on Cannery Row and the charming people of that story here.

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this weekend

embroidery display rae's days

fabric rae's days

mirror rae's days

blanket rae's days

bed rae's days

No new embroidery this week, but I did update the display! My mom is in town visiting and the week was full of errand running and getting ready, and now that she’s here it’s full of fun. We are working on my apartment in between running around the city. I got some fabric to make pillow cases for the couch and bed. I got a new mirror for the bedroom that I hope to hang up today. I also got a flamingo blanket that #fatcat likes to nap under. Hope you all are having a great weekend! Doing a lot of work around here, hope to post some updates this week and get back to embroidery next Sunday.

Usually each Sunday I post the embroidery project I am working on to sew some of my favorite quotes from books. Let me know if you have any quote suggestions! You can see the other quotes in my embroidery project here:

see synonyms at monster (embroidery no. 7)

embroidery

For #familybookclub  this quarter, we read Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. (We’ll plan a video/phone chat soon to discuss!) In Middlesex, our narrator tells the story of a Greek family over three generations and a rogue gene that shows up in the youngest member of the Stephanides family and changes his fate.

Our narrator Cal is born as Callie. He is intersex, and has both male and female genitals. His family raises him as Callie, a woman, and later, after learning more about himself, he becomes Cal, a man.

To tell how Callie became Cal, he begins the story of his ancestors, starting with how his grandparents, who are brother and sister, fall in love. As Cal learns more about who he is, he visits a doctor, who calls him a hermaphrodite. Cal is young, and still Callie at this point, and doesn’t understand the word. So Callie looks it up in the dictionary. And to her horror, finds the words “see synonyms at monster.”

Continue reading “see synonyms at monster (embroidery no. 7)”