Oh hai! Also, GIVEAWAYS!

*tap tap*

Is this thing on?

So. Um. It's been awhile, huh? Sorry about that. MrXStitch has been keeping me pretty busy. I'm just realizing today that I haven't posted my last few projects on Craftster! Scandalous! I will remedy this soon, however.

Anyway, I've made a pile of stuff since the last post. Some of it you really have to read the flickr post to understand. Here's a few others:

This was for a swap with the amazing Mimi, who I love. She made me this. Yes, I cried when I received it. :)



I made this pattern for The AntiCraft and sent the actual stitch to my craft kindred spirit, Valued Sony Customer, because she is one. :)


This was a big mother. I made this xstitch portrait of Jamie when Ruby42 came up with the idea and pattern and asked me to stitch it because she thought it would make the most sense coming from me.

I was more than happy to do it. He's an awesome guy and a great friend who is always good for a laugh. :) You can hear that for yourself if you listen to the episodes of Emergency Pants podcasts he's made guest appearances on - check them out here.

Speaking of MrXStitch (see what I did there? Seamless segway!) it is the first birthday of the site today! Woo-hoo! To celebrate, we're giving stuff away EVERY DAMN DAY. Seriously! Look for the posts that are titled "Giveaway Time!" each day for the next week and be sure to comment on those posts and you could win! Here's a list of the stuff you could win:

• A gift pack from the awesome Subversive Cross Stitch!
• One of Emily Peacock’s fabulous needlepoint kits!
• A free sampler of your choice from Miso Funky!
• A copy of Manga Cross Stitch, courtesy of Ilex Books!
• This thing I made!
• This thing Jamie made!

It all starts today with this post. Check it out!

Super Swaps

Hey everybody! I've been doing a lot of stitching lately thanks to some swaps I've been involved in. Here's a quick update about all the swappy goodness.

Penny Nickels and I did a personal swap. I know, right? I can't believe how lucky I am! ^_^ It was pretty intimidating, to be honest, since I've been a fan of hers for awhile.

This is what I ended up making and sending to Penny:



I was inspired by Trixiedelicious and her pretty and subversive china plates.

And this is the amazing dirty pillow I got from her:



I absolutely love this. Sure, it made me turn a few shades of red, but that just means it's working! :)

I'm also involved in a swap at the Phat Quarter, the flickr group Mr X Stitch and I started. The theme of the swap was anatomy, and I was totally stumped when trying to think of a topic. Internet saved me. I was inspired by Pietro Aretino and his Sixteen Postures as provided by the pornokrates website, where a gentleman referred to his member as a "ruthless organ."



The stitch practically designed itself after that. :) The... um... well, let's just call them what they are... the penis flowers are an original design. I sent to Meagan Ileana, who is an amazing artist. It isn't nerve-racking at ALL to send to someone like her. Nope. :)

I'm going to be getting my swap piece from Julie Jackson of subversive cross stitch fame - how exciting is that? ^_^

Now I've got to work on my entry for the AntiCraft, and of course keep posting over at Mr X Stitch. You really need to check things out over there if you haven't already. It's pretty damn awesome.

Thanks for looking! See you next time!

Dr. Horrible & stop stitching about touching yourself

Hey folks! Thought I'd post over here for old time's sake. I've been posting over at Mr X Stitch and that along with Emergency Pants has been keeping me pretty busy. Not too busy to stitch, though!
I did a couple of Dr. Horrible stitches:


And this one - Emergency Pants listeners will know who sent me the link that inspired this stitch:

Thanks for looking, and please be sure to make your way over to Mr X Stitch to see all kinds of great stuff. Mr X and I also started a flickr group, Phat Quarter - please join and post your stitchy stuff there!

Craftster Challenge, Tighten Up, and Working for the Man

Hey everybody! I know, it's been awhile. How've you been? You look awesome, by the way. Have you been working out?

I just thought I'd drop a quick note about some of the stuff I'm been doing lately. I entered the Craft-a-Song challenge over at Craftster. Check out the post here. The song I decided to craft is Hell by the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Check it out:


I also made a stitch for a co-worker who's been out ill for over a month. He's a super cool guy and I really miss him. You can see the explanation of this stitch on my flickr post, as well as Merlin Mann calling me sweet and the elusive You Look Nice Today favorite trifecta. Yes, I am a nerd. Anyway, I really hope he likes this stitch, and I hope he's back soon.


I'm also posting over at MrXStitch, both the Craftster Pick of the Week on Sundays and whatever strikes me as awesome on Mondays. MrX is having a contest this week - if you comment on any of the posts you could win this recycled stitch he made:



You can see more about the piece here. So if you haven't already, come on over and check out the site. I'm really enjoying being a part of it!

See you next time - stay awesome!

Balls + Cross Stitch = Romance

It happened by accident. Seriously. I mean, not the first one... but the second one, that was a surprise. But I guess it makes sense that ball-related stitches would come in pairs.

The first one is pretty self-explanatory, I think. It just makes sense:

Then I saw the youtube video for the new Flight of the Conchords song SugaLumps and I had to make something from it. When I heard the line "All the ladies, they hustle to ruffle my truffle" I knew I had a winner. Mostly because "Honies try all kinds of tomfoolery to steal a feel of my family jewelry" was WAY too long.


I didn't realize this before, but apparently balls are quite romantic. Some lucky lady is getting the first stitch for Valentine's Day. Other fun Valentine's sales from my etsy shop: the masturbation blackwork sold within an hour of being listed. The First of May sampler sold as well. Sometimes I'm kind of sad to see them go, but if it means that I'm going to help someone express themselves to their partner, it's worth it. It's a public service. It's my way of helping people say, "Hey. You and I both know I'm really dorky, incredibly weird, and also perverted. Thanks for sleeping with me anyway."

Happy Valentine's Day! Also, if you didn't already know it, you can catch me posting over at MrXStitch's site now, too. Come and check it out, won't you? Thank you!

You can almost smell the beer

My husband Jim and I have very different tastes when it comes to music. Jim loves Gackt, Muse, X-Japan and Malice Mizer. I love Richard Cheese, They Might Be Giants, Ben Folds and the Violent Femmes. One thing we agree on is Pat McCurdy, a local guy who sings at bars and festivals in Illinois and Wisconsin. He's playing somewhere almost every night.

I did a couple of stitches recently inspired by two of our favorite songs. The first one, I Like You Best, starts off sweet and then changes midstream. It goes from "Let's sit beneath a shady tree and read romantic poetry" to "I promise not to break your heart, I'll wheel you home in a shopping cart." I kind of made this one to even out a really mushy stitch I made for Jim recently. Depending on his mood he can decide which one to display on his desk. :)

The second one has been on my mind for awhile. I always thought it would make a great subversive stitch, but I wasn't sure how I wanted it to look. It's based on my absolute favorite song by Pat, I Like Everything. I really wanted to try doing some more blackwork, so I thought this would be a good chance to do it.

I'm happy with how it turned out, but my Catholic schoolgirl childhood has made this stitch the most embarrassing of all my creations. Well, next to this one.

Selfish Stitching - I thought

I had two gigantic weeks off over Christmas and New Years, and it was awesome. I got my Omaha fix the week of Christmas, thank goodness, and then the next week there was absolutely NOTHING on our schedule. I've been working incredibly hard this year, and when the time came to relax...

I decided I wanted to stitch my ass off.

I would stitch whatever came into my head first without any concern about whether or not anyone else would find it amusing. I was thinking of it as Selfish Stitching - stuff only I would get a kick out of.

I started with a quote from You Look Nice Today - not a surprise, it's my favorite podcast and obsession of the moment. Hubby Jim and I listened to several episodes while driving through Iowa, including the episodes guest starring Jonathan Coulton and John Hodgman.

*nerdgasm*

Ahem.

Anyway, the quote comes from the end of each episode when Scott Simpson read a plug for Hodgman's new book, More Information Than You Require:

"Go buy a copy. Ostentatiously read it in front of your friends and co-workers. "What's that?" they'll ask. "Nothing. Nothing _you'd_ be interested in," you'll say. Then show them the dog poop you have in your other hand. "This is probably something _you'd_ be interested in. You look more like a dog poop person to me."



Then, I did a REALLY selfish stitch, this one from my own podcast - Emergency Pants. My co-host Shane asked this question:



There was a funny story after that, but this question is what I remember the most.

Last but not least is a quote from the Stars and Tartan podcast. I only recently started listening to it, but I LOVE IT. It's no wonder, considering that in episode 4 Derek called a mean neighbor this name:



It was a fun week. And when it was all said and done, the stitching wasn't selfish after all - lots of people seemed to find some amusement in them. Maybe I should just stitch whatever comes into my head more often.