Crafting, Creating and Weight Loss

Oh My Gosh!

It’s been such a whirlwind here… and so long since an update.

I’ve been crafting, yes.  I have a TON of photos of what I’ve done. I even have lots of step-by-step tutorial photos for some great information… but WHERE DID THE TIME GO?

I must be wallowing in age huh? lol

I promise to give you a tiny peek at what I’ve added to my ‘crafty’ fun.

Bears.

I was thrown back into painting because my mom made a request for them. And I’m In LOVE with them!!!! I love painting. It’s so …  enjoyable, flexible, and fun!

These are going together as a long valance for the top of a window dressing. And another set of fence is going to run along the bottom edge of the window as well.  🙂 One of a Kind!

I’ve had to put my paintbrush down… What has zapped my life?

Well, just to give you a SMALL intro… I’ll give you VISUALS

and….

I keep saying that by some ‘sparkling miracle’ I’ve become a weight loss coach.  It was more or less… brought to me.

I’ve got some writings and recipes here: I’m trying out all the platforms.

http://realw8hawaii.wordpress.com/http://realw8hawaii.wordpress.com/

http://realw8hawaii.blogspot.com/

http://realw8.weebly.com/

I can help you. And I can help you, help others.

Just message me, comment here, friend me on FaceBook.

My personal FaceBook is

https://www.facebook.com/alicia.delosreyes.hankins

My page is

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alicia-Delos-Reyes-Hankins/180769312049424

Enjoy! … and more Crafty stuff to come!

AliciaInHawaii

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Hawaiian Hapa Teddy Bear Boy and Girl

To prove that I have been sewing and stitching creations other than purses and bags…I bring to you…

BEARS

*and…don’t be fooled. Sewing up 3D stuffed animals is WAAAAYYY harder and more difficult that sewing any purse or bag! Talk about digging deep for your sewing skills…  🙂 *

First the cute little girl. Complete with Honu (turtle) bikini and flower lei! (crochet lei)

And now, the Boy.  Showing off his Honu (turtle) boardshorts and his flower lei.

These were the most fun to make! I got to challenge myself a bit to create a pattern for the clothing…and of course…after crocheting all the lei for graduation after graduation and a wedding this year, I was happy to only crochet an itty bitty lei for the bears! 🙂

Your life needs fun. Go ahead, have some fun! –
smiles,
alicia in Hawaii
See my ArtFire Studio! http://Curiosities808.artfire.com

Embroidery Project Update-Shoulder Bag Progress /Little Teddy Bear Chatelaine with Bullion Knot Stitch Daisies

Now that the little bear’s dress is embroidered, [see previous posts also] I went on to the little shoulder bag. I DID NOT cut out the little bag until AFTER the embroidery was done. (finally followed the directions, thank you very much!) It really was a lot easier to hold on to while the little bitty parts were still attached to the felt sheet. Those directions are there for a reason I guess. 😉

The little shoulder bag has a small bullion knot daisy embroidered in the corner with little french knot buds and forget-me-nots, detached chain stitch leaves, just like the dress. It uses the same flowers and stems, yet it all looks so different on the felt. (ah, the wonderful gift of embroidery…always different…)

My camera does some weird things with the color whenever using the flash, so I’ve posted 2 pictures to show the color and the stitches of this one.

Here’s the pocket that goes on the inside. (yes, the INSIDE…can you believe that!)

Here’s the little shoulder bag all folder up. It still needs its seems and strap and I’ll post those pictures after the project is completed.

The pink felt is for the lining of the little handbag. From what I can tell, the next little bag, the little “handbag”, holds a thimble. The dark green has the outlines for the little thimble handbag and the dark green hat and brim.

I’m off to embroider the little thimble handbag and the little hat. Hopefully I can post them here tomorrow, if not, I have some cute little surprises waiting to post their debut!

Until then, please comment or email. I’m always happy to see what other people are doing and always glad to help. Have some fun with your art! You life needs fun. Go ahead, have some fun!

Embroidery Project Update-Pocket Progress /Little Teddy Bear Chatelaine with Bullion Knot Stitch Daisies

Hi again! I managed to get back to the Little Teddy Bear. She needs her clothes!

I needed to get away from the computer to get back to stitching!

Read more about the start of this project is here on this blog. (Click link: Don’t forget to come back now!)

I managed more bullion knot daisies with more stem stitch on the front pocket. There are more french knot buds for the little buds and forget-me-nots. I followed the pattern and colors even though my material must be a bit darker than the one they used to create the sample. The greens for the stems and flowers don’t show up much, but, I still like it.

The back pocket is a cute litte felt cutout of a beehive stitched and stuffed onto the pocket, then embellished with chain stitch and blanket stitch. The little bees are french knots and the wings are done up with a gold cord I have. (could even be japan gold…I don’t even know…I found it in my stash)

The dark felt the little pieces are on is actually marked off with the little purse pattern that I plan to embroider next. You can’t see it much in the group picture up top, so I took a “flash frightened” one just to prove that I am tracing out the pattern pieces…and I will have to mantra NOT to cut the piece out UNTIL it is embroidered. Yes, I realized way too late that I cut the other little parts out BEFORE embroidering…which made it a little more wiggy to hold onto while embroidering. You would think I learned my lesson…yet, I did it a SECOND time…same mistake. So, this time, I am keeping the scissors far from me until I am done with all the stitching! Beginners mistakes.

Wish me luck on the progress.

Please leave me a few comments. I really enjoy reading them. Let’s me know that there is SOMEONE out there that may be gleaning some inspiration from all these pictures and posts. Hopefully it is as fun for you to read as it is for me to post. Your life needs fun. Go ahead, have some fun!

Embroidery Project Update-Little Teddy Bear Chatelaine-Embroidering Bullion Knot Stitch Daisies

After prepping the draft for the previous post, I took a break from blogging and got back to embroidering the Teddy Bear’s dress pocket. The pocket pattern for the front is for several daisy clusters and a few scattered flowers and buds.

Here is my rough interpretation of the pattern given and my transfer of the ‘dots’ to the fabric for the front pocket. I poked holes in the paper pattern and simply used a pencil to mark the dots where the center of the daisies, bees, flowers and buds go. That was my quick and easy way to transfer the pattern to the fabric.

The embroidered daisies are bullion knot stitches. I’ve made them with a milliner’s needle (9). Here are some still photos of my bullion knots. I come up in the fabric, take a stitch, wrap the thread at the exit end of that stitch, pull thru, pull taut, and secure the stitch. Hopefully, the pictures will help you to see the bullion stitch and the beginning form of the daisies on the dress.

Here is the start of the daisy clusters.

The stems are sewn with a between (12). All the stems are done in stem stitch (novel idea eh?) and the leaves are done in detached chain stitches. This is what the daisies look like at this point.

They aren’t done yet. I am done for the night tonight and will take more photos when I get back to stitching it again tomorrow.

I hope you are having fun. Life needs more fun. Go ahead, have some fun!