Sunday, September 9, 2012

Typewriter Fabric

I remember thinking I was so cool typing papers and stuff for elementary school on my mom's old typewriter. (We didn't have a computer yet, so a typewriter to me was beyond awesome). I didn't care if it didn't have a screen like a computer. I loved the sounds the keys made, and especially the sound made hitting the return key. Needless to say, I was really excited to see that Spoonflower chose typewriters as the theme for one of their Fabric of the Week contests. Even better was that the fabric designs had to be in black and white. I may have went a little crazy, as I ended up with several designs to choose from for the contest. Here is my entry for the current Fabric of the Week contest, Keys & Ribbons Plaid:

Keys & Ribbons Plaid
Keys & Ribbons Plaid, test swatch 8"x8" view shown. Click image to see repeat in yardage.

Keys & Ribbons Plaid is made up of circular typewriter keys on vertical lines with letters, numbers, and symbols from vintage and modern machines. Used and unused typewriter ribbons are woven into the vertical lines. This print wasn't my first idea for the theme, but ended up being the one I liked the best for the contest.

Geometric Letter Keys was actually my first idea for the theme, and is probably my favorite.

Geometric Letter Keys Large
Geometric Letter Keys Large, shown at fat quarter 21"x18" view. Click image to see it in yardage.

This print has the circular typewriter keys on a mod inspired pattern. It's different and fun, but isn't as obviously typewriter inspired as the plaid print. You can view the rest of my typewriter themed prints here. I'm sure I'll be adding more, eventually. (I do have more designs, but do not have them uploaded yet).

Voting for the Typewriters Black and White contest ends Wednesday. You can vote for your favorite fabrics here until then. There are lots of fantastic entries to see in this week's contest. Seeing all the typewriter fabrics just makes me want a vintage typewriter even more.

I'm currently working on a fabric design involving some creepy critters. I also have my sewing project (jacket) to finish. Holidays and storms kind of interrupted my sewing time. I have a new cut and sew kit that I will be ordering soon, along with lots of swatches. There will be several fun and spooky designs posted soon!

*Past Contest Results*
-Zig-zag Cheater Quilt: Sleepytime zzz Cheater Quilt 209/216

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Nyan Cat Cross Stitch Pattern

A little over a year ago, I first saw the Nyan Cat video and immediately loved its silliness. It may annoy some, but it makes me smile. I decided to make a cross stitch of the strange and cute toaster pastry cat. Here is my recently finished project that still needs to be framed:


Creating a pattern for the Nyan Cat wasn't bad, but I spent a while coming up with a border design. And since I had not left a lot of extra fabric around the Nyan Cat (oops!), I had to work with the space I had left. I created the border with "nyan" in rainbow colors and pixelated star shapes similar to those in the Nyan Cat video.

I stitched the pattern on 16 count Aida cloth and the finished pattern with border is 9.0625 (9 1/16)  inches wide and 4.875 (4 7/8) inches tall. At first, I used 3 strands of floss for the Nyan Cat, but then used 2 strands of floss for the rest of the pattern. (I hadn't done a cross stitch in years, so wasn't sure how many strands to use). I used what colors I already had, and chose to use the same pink for the cat's cheeks as the toaster pastry frosting. For the most part, the colors I had were good matches to the colors in the video.

Here is the pattern for this project, with the colors I used listed:

Click image to view it larger. For personal use only.

If I did this project again, I would probably stitch it on a dark blue cloth and use glow in the dark floss for the stars. I do have another Nyan Cat I want to stitch. It's the Missing Nyan Cat. The background music is the Lavender Town music from Pokemon games. This Nyan Cat will be stitched with glow in the dark floss (for the white sections) on lavender linen fabric when I do the project.

If you use my pattern, please do not sell the pattern. (Because of the abundance of Nyan Cat inspired products, I'm sure it would be fine to sell the completed projects). Feel free to make lots of fun Nyan Cat cross stitch projects, though! Also feel free to use different colors if desired. Have fun stitching!