Folk Art Santa Fat Quarter #1 Embroidered and Colored

I finished embroidering Folk Art Santa Fat Quarter #1 (available from Spoonflower). And I love it!

All 5 blocks embroidered!

My plan is to cut them apart and re-assemble them as a wall hanging with spacer strips (in bright coordinating colors), and then hand quilt the piece. But that's not set in stone yet.

I had an extra one of these Fat Quarters, so I decided to color it with crayons. My plan is the same as above, though I think I'll quilt it with embroidery floss to enhance the outlines (and maybe do a little embroidery, but I'm not sure).

Crayons have interesting color names these days.

All were colored lightly, and then set with a hot, dry iron (with layers of paper toweling on top and below, to absorb any wax. The Bookmark blocks look more *crayony* than I thought they would, but I'm sure they'll be fine once they're put together.

Here's the whole thing. Again, I think I'll make a wall hanging. Or maybe a couple of wall hangings. I don't know for sure yet.

Folk Art Santa Fat Quarter #2 should be here within a week or so, and I'll be off to the races again!

Amazing what you can accomplish during a long afternoon of football...

And yes, of course, I watched the new X-Files (there were some very bad words muttered during the exceptionally, and needlessly, long post-game wrap-up), and I did it without embroidering or knitting (my ultimate compliment to a TV show). I may have teared up a little at the opening credits.

My bar for new installments of the show is set pretty low- I just want Mulder and Scully back together (on the screen, they don't have to be together-together), and that made me very happy. The first episode got tepid reviews, but almost unanimously, the advance reviews for the other episodes are very good indeed.

Here's my recap of last night's episode: aah, ooh, SQUEEE!!!!!!, is that a wig?, heeee, sigh

Words this time, and a new embroidery panel!

I'm continuing work on the first Folk Art Santa embroidery panel (available from Spoonflower now).

I really love how all of these are coming out. Again, the faces are lightly colored with crayon and then set with a hot, dry iron (using paper towels to absorb any wax)

And, I finished a new Santa swatch, which will be available soon.

And another Folk Art Santa Embroidery Panel. As with the first one, this fat quarter has 5 blocks to embroider, embellish, or color. My samples should arrive in a week or so, and as soon as they do, both the panel and the swatch will be listed for sale!

And speaking of *for sale*- Spoonflower let me know that my Embroidery Panel #1 was currently trending in their Indie Designer Shop! I've designed fabrics through Spoonflower since 2010, and this is the first time any of my designs has *trended*. I am pretty thrilled!

Wordless Stern Star Santa

Santa Side-Eye, no words needed

Oh Boy!

This is going to come out even cooler than I hoped!

And I did finish the Brew Towel first...

And it's here! The Folk Art Santa Embroidery Panel! It's here! And Available!

Okay, this time it came out right! Kathleen Taylor's Folk Art Santa Embroider or Color fat quarter is now up for sale at Spoonflower. My sample just came and I am delighted with it. The 5 blocks are meant to be cut apart AFTER embroidery or coloring. All of these designs are printed on one fat quarter (I recommend their Basic Cotton Ultra). If you want lots of them, a full yard will have 4 full repeats of the fat quarter. Check out my other designs there- my shop is listed under the designer name: grammak. I plan to put together more Folk Art Santa Embroidery panels.

Here's the full fat quarter. If you want to order a yard, you get 4 of the above repeats.

These Santas can be embroidered, painted, colored with crayon (and set with an iron), and/or embellished any way you like. If you get them, please share your versions via email, Facebook, and/or on instagram ‪#‎ktfolkartsanta‬

Also- these drawings were all inspired by wood carvings I did in the 90's. Soon, I will have a new and exciting announcement about them!

I am excited to start working on them, but first I will finish the Brew dish towel, because I am a grownup. A reluctant grownup, but still.....

Embroidery.... more embroidery... embroidery experiments... and some printed embroidery designs you can buy soon!

I'm still in embroidery mode. Witness:

Both of these designs are from Urban Threads.  The Mendhika Alphabet . I'm a little over half done with the blocks.

Worked with 2 strands of floss, in a 10" hoop, on a good quality flour sack dishtowel.

and so is this one (note that I embroidered Mr. Wino on the wrong side of the towel...). The design is free until Saturday, Jan 16, but Urban Threads designs are very reasonably priced even when they're not free.

My current Facebook profile pic...

and this one.

But I also have been designing. I had a yard of my Folk Art Santas printed by Spoonflower, but unfortunately, I chose the wrong fabric (it was too heavy for comfortable hand embroidery) and had to start over.

This time, I ordered swatches

Top: Heavy Cotton Twill, Lower Left: Satin, Lower Right: Basic Cotton (best for embroidery)

The printed cotton swatch- the lines are exactly the right width and color for stitching.

I used a 6" hoop and 1 strand of floss for this embroidery.

I colored the faces with crayon and set it with a dry iron (and paper towels to absorb the wax)

I love love love how this came out. The crayon did not wash out.

I colored the Cotton Twill swatch with Prismacolor pencils (more on them in a future post) and the outlines were redrawn with a superfine point, waterproof ink marker. The sizes are different on purpose (they can be ordered on swatches as bigger or smaller). I have fixative to make the pencil coloring washable, but I doubt this piece will be washed. I think it'll end up in a wall hanging.

This is the Fat Quarter Folk Art Santa set of motifs. My sample should be here tomorrow, and it can go up for sale at Spoonflower as soon as it arrives. You can order the Trio Santa swatch now, if you like, or wait for the fat quarter to be available (which is a much better bargain). These are all my original drawings, based on wood carvings I did in the  90's.

My Spoonflower designer name is grammak, and here is my shop (other original fabrics are available). I'll post an updated link when the Fat Quarter is up and running. I plan to put together at least one more Fat Quarter set of designs.

The Basic Cotton is good for embroidery and quilting. The Cotton Twill is great for coloring and painting, though I think you could embroider on it easily enough. I haven't tried the Satin yet, but I suspect it'll embroider up nicely as well.