Totally Awesome Patchwork Potter Purse

I like it when I look at a handmade item and I can actually feel the love that went into it’s creation. This Teesha Moore inspired bag by QuirkieCraft is one of those items. Seriously, in my head I’ve been referring to this bag as “The Pottergasm”. Check out QuirkieCraft’s post for images of the other side (which is equally awesome) and some detail shots. “This button is a portkey”  is probably my favorite:

The Keeper of the Keys

Finished … I think. I’m not sure. If feels a little off balance, but I’m going to let it sit for a while. Also, he doesn’t appear to have a nose,whoops. I’ll fix that too.

Hagrid’s flowery pink umbrella

My favorite part (the scarf) and my least favorite part (the owl’s face) together in one picture.

And a little boot detail. The other boot actually turned out just a little bit nicer, but I forgot that when I was taking and editing the pictures. Whoops, again.

Once I get a few more of these completed, I plan on starting a gallery page so that they can all be viewed in one place. For now you can click The Project That Must Not Be Named tag to see my past posts for this project. Next up are The Vanishing Glass and The Letters from No One. I’ve already done the crayon tinting on The Vanishing Glass, but I’m not thrilled with the colors that I used, so I may scrap it and start over.

And that is it for my Monday update (one day late).

 

 

Coloring Book Embroidery

So at this point we all know that I love me some HP embroidery, right?

Well, one of my  favorite crafters/artists, Heidi Kenney of My Paper Crane just posted a clever HP embroidery project that she’s just started. She picked up a Harry Potter coloring book to use as a pattern, and I can’t wait to see the finished piece.

Are you working on any HP needle crafts at the moment? Leave me a comment, and let me see what you’re up to.

Owl Post Embroidery

This owl post applique/embroidery was created as part of a collection called Embroid-ustrations of a Wild Imagination by artist Ben Rumback.

Speaking of Embroid-ustrations (love that name, btw), I’ve been pretty horrible about updates on The Project That Must Not Be Named. That’s because I haven’t been making any progress on it. I was missing a few colors of floss, and then I got distracted by sock knitting – which almost feels like an HP craft, given the importance of socks in a certain house elf’s life – but I promise an update next Monday. No excuses!

 

Potter Day of The Dead Embroidery Pattern

I literally squealed when I saw this! Isn’t it beautiful? Craftster user erica_tattoos created this Jose Pulido inspired Day of the Dead Harry Potter embroidery pattern, and she’s been kind enough to share it over on Craftster (where you can also see the crafts that she’s created with it). If you use this pattern for anything, head over there to show her what you made, and thank her for sharing her amazing artwork.

The Boy Who Lived

Woo Hoo! 1 down, 197 to go. It’s cool, it’s not like I really wanted to do anything other than embroider for the next 5o years anyway.

I’m really happy with the way this first piece turned out. I don’t have a whole lot of embroidery experience, and I’ve never done crayon tinting before, so the fact that this isn’t just a pile of melted crayon, knotted thread and tears is a bit of a relief.

I used back stitch for all of the outlines, a little bit of satin stitch for the blanket border, a sort of modified stem stitch (meaning that I only partially followed the instructions) for his hair and then I just threw some random stitches around to fill things in.

I’m particularly happy with my slightly messy – but in a cute handmade way – stars.

I’m going to start posting The Project That Must Not Be Named updates on Mondays. Hopefully I can have a completed chapter each Monday … but I’m not ready to make any promises.

A Peek

Here’s a peek at what I’m currently working on.

Years ago I was rereading The Goblet of Fire and working at a JoAnn Fabrics that was in the process of liquidation. I was admiring the beautiful Mary GrandPre illustrations at the beginning of each chapter, when it occurred to me that they would make a great embroidery project. I stocked up on all of the super-sale embroidery floss that I could get my hands on, and then my motivation fizzled out. About a week ago, motivated by my recent rereading of the entire series, I started scanning the tiny illustrations, enlarging them and playing around in Photoshop until I had something a bit more embroidery pattern like.  I plan on doing all of the chapter illustrations for all 7 books. I’m working on the first 4 chapters of the first book right now. The Boy Who Lived and The Keeper of the Keys should be finished shortly. I haven’t yet decided what I’m going to do with all of these once I’m done, but there is plenty of time before that decision will need to be made.

Does anybody have any ideas for what I should do with a million little embroidered Harry Potter illustrations?