Monthly Archives: February 2012

“Edgy Cute” a new name for Lowbrow

Edgy Cute From Neo-Pop to Lowbrow and back again. This beautifully presented book was a birthday gift by my big bro who remembered I have a soft spot for ‘Lowbrow’ Art. It makes a great companion piece to ‘Pop Surrealism’ The rise on Underground Art, which I already have. While  Pop Surrealism’s articles and introductions are fun and informative about the growth of this scene, the artists contained within are widely documented elsewhere and are the darlings of Juxtapoz Magazine, who seem to tied in with the creation of this book.

Artist : Kirsten Easthope

‘Edgy Cute’ however, while I don’t recommend reading the introductory essays – way to turn a person off this kind of art, super pretentious!!!  And I’m not convinced I share most of Harry Saylor’s tastes, I do recommend for its broad overview of examples from the contemporary Pop/Lowbrow/Underground world.

Artist: Brandi Milne

I’ve discovered a few artists here for the first time and I was pleasantly surprised at the higher than average proportion of female artists represented, as well as a few UK-based artists making the cut in a genre of art that is largely considered American.

Artist: Mike Bell

I think Mike Bell’s ‘Bat Dance’ may well be my favourite image in the book.  What I like most about the work collected here is the cross over between fine art and illustration, cartoon, kitsch or other wise. It a book I’ll be browsing for some time.


Kitschy Catwoman Embroidery

 

I managed to squeeze in a little sewing time this weekend because I just had to get this idea out of my head, off paper and into stitches.
I’ve been thinking of all things cute, kitschy and cheesecake. Out of the blue it dawned on me that superhero girls are just geek pin- ups!
What perfect subject matter for stitching? They express my comic and glamour interests combined.

So here for your amusement is my kitschy catwoman original 3 in embroidery, and you can also find her here in my Etsy shop.


Dragon Embroidery

Here’s a little project I’ve been working on for my dragon obsessed boyfriend. Think of it as a late Valentine’s present. It’s the most colourful piece I’ve ever embroidered and I really like how it’s turned out.

Chinese Dragon on my book shelf- Design by Aimee Ray

This is the first time I’ve stitched a pattern that wasn’t my own, but when I saw Aimee Ray’s Chinese New Years Free give away pattern I knew this Dragon would be perfect . I also embellished him with patterns from the ‘Asian Chic’ section of Aimee’s book Doodle Stitching the motifs collection. I think the fans and the cherry blossom were an ideal foil for my red lucky dragon with jade eyes! If you haven’t seen Aimee’s work before I totally recommend her Doodle stitching books, perfect for beginners with lots of really sweet woodland themed designs. She has a fab shop on Etsy too.

Close up of Dragon's face

Even the back looks pretty!


Events of the Year quilts – History in the Making.

It’s been a great week for writing assignments, and I’ve some exciting news about my Derry & Irish fabrics which I’ll be able to share on here soon. For now I have a deadline to meet, but in the meantime I’ll just take this opportunity to flag up a really unusual quilt exhibition that is currently running at the Tower Museum Derry until the 24th March.  Irene Mac William is a Northern Irish quilter who keeps journals in the form of quilts and creates engaging  annual quilts depicting local and international events, almost like massive quilted comic strips! Well worth going to see. And if you can’t make it you can read all about it in the next issue of the Irish Quilting Magazine- out soon!

Irene Mac William - Events of the Year Quilt 1994


Romance and Roaring Rockabillys

 Happy Valentines Day y’all!

I made this little gift for my Lover in lieu of a valentines card, I like to think of it as ‘The Book of Love’. It’s a tiny embroidered book made of felt, only 1 x 1.5 inches big, with our initials on the front, and this pictogram message inside:

This year we combined my birthday gift with valentines and my Lovely Man took me out in Belfast to celebrate! We stayed at the Europa (very swanky), and went to a gig at ever cool Black box  venue.  ‘Stay Sick’ was a tribute night to the Cramps, and The Vipers and The Saberjets did not disappoint! There was some genuine rockabilly love going on, and the crowd were brilliantly odd. I’ve never been to a Cramps gig, but I’d like to think it would be just like this. There was a real mixture of ages, old and young, squares and hipsters, goths and punk rockers, femme fatales and greasers, geeks, gays, tourists and crazy ladies. It was awesome. I have never seen a dance floor like it!

Charles Burns (this was for an Iggy Pop album, but you get the idea)

It was like looking at a crazy animated Charles Burns drawing  the only thing missing was somebody in a Mexican wrestling mask! There was swinging, moshing, jiving, shoe gazing, conniptions, serious 80’s dancing, violent mis-aimed lindy hopping, girls squatting and circling each other, running, shape throwing , there was even crawling at one point. It was freaking hysterical. (So glad I made it out there for the last dance!)

I’m feeling the love people. Ah, if only every weekend could be like this one!….xoxo

 


Twin Peaks ‘Cherry Pie’ fabric designs

SNEAKY PEAK:

I was asked by a very lovely Quilter to come up with a Cherry Pie fabric for the Twin Peaks quilt she is making.  I’d always intended on working the cherry pie motif into the range, but her request has somewhat expedited the process. After one or two failed attempts to create a design I was happy with I hit my stride and ended up creating a mini collection dedicated to cherry pies and incorporating the logo of the Double R Diner. (How could I not?) These fabrics are now at the proofing stage, and if the work out as well as I’m expecting I’ll make them available on Spoonflower. I’ve kept the colours as much as possible to red, white and black and the jade/turquoise colour of the Owl ring.  Hope my quilter likes them!

What do you think?

 


Vintage Valentines

This weekend I was busy writing book reviews but I did manage to squeeze in a little sewing time. I made this 3in retro vintage tattoo inspired valentine while watching the heartbreakingly sad ‘Never let me go’. I like the soft colours in this one and might just keep this for myself.

I was also very pleased to see  lots of people checking out my Twin Peaks fabrics today as I’ve been ‘Tumblr’ed!  And I’ve had lots of fun looking at the cool, crafty, kitschy and just plain random stuff on all your Tumblr albums! I’m not a Tumblr user  but would like to say thanks to The Hefty Hideway and all those who have posted and reposted about my Twin Peaks collection, they are available to order on Spoonflower.com  

a selection from my Twin Peaks inspired range


Hexagon Bag part3

Hexie firefly bag:sides and bottom attached, front flap folded over

You thought I’d forgotten all about it didn’t you?! Well, I’m like a proper quilter now, with some UFO’s of my own! This little bag got shelved on the run up to christmas, but I picked it up and did some sewing in front of the telly last night and got the ball rolling again. (If  I were only working on this and not countless other little jobs it would probably whip up quite quickly). I’ve a funny feeling that the shoulder strap will wind up being the longest part to do….so I’ve saved that bit till last.  As previously outlined I am constructing this bag from hand sewn paper pieced hexagons and is backed with felt to give it structure. (I’m kinda making it up as I go along!)

Another view, showing the inside of front flap at the top

Hopefully it won’t be too long till I’m showing you my latest progress report ;-) You can see my previous entries on this project here and here


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