One of my favorite steps in children’s book illustration is charactor design.

First I collected realistic images of weasels. 

 Then I collected cartooned images of weasels. 

I study both to get what I need.

See the weasel circled above?  I really like him but he is not too child friendly. I will save him for my Adult weasel book.

This weasel is suppose to be young.  And you know what that means,  Big Head Time!

Okay, getting close.  The first one looks like an alien, but the second one Pure Magic!

Oh Yah,  almost there.

Adorable and cranky!  Success!

FACT: I took me about 150 sheets of paper to get to the final drawing.  Front and back.

TIP:  Don’t hold back.  Draw EVERY idea that comes into your head.  It doesn’t matter if they’re good or not.  You learn something with each drawing.

It’s been a while since I’ve done any needlework.  This piece is not really a quilt.  At least I don’t think it is. You see, it’s doesn’t have any batting.  It just has a top and a bottom.

This piece is a combination of applique and embroidery.  The appplique is hand done with no iron-on webbing.  I believe I used only two embroidery stitches, the running stitch and blanket stitch.

This piece is approx. 20″ x20″.  All layout was done by eye.

Go-Go Paperarts

 I was visiting San Diego today and I stopped by a fantastic little shop called, The Grove.   I was looking though their yarn, books, crafts and fabrics when I came upon on a lady working in a little nook up to her eyeballs in papery goodness.

Go-Go Paperarts

 Her name is Jo Madden and she is Go-Go Paper Arts, located in The Grove.   I don’t work with paper myself but I can see how there can be a addition similar to a fabric addiction.  Jo had all kinds of fun stuff that she uses to create her cards.

Go-Go Paper Arts creator, Jo Madden

I was drawn to her cards featuring little birds.  Her birds weren’t cranky, but I’ll forgive her.

Go-Go Paper Arts

 She had quite a few dog cards which I almost bought, but then I spotted some birthday gift cards and I snatch ALL of them up.

Go-Go Paper Arts

 See that pink bag (kind of in the middle & a little to the left).  Jo has been making bags but she is having a fight with the pink paper.  It’s not cooperating.  I believe the paper is evil.  I hope Jo wins.

Go-Go Paper Arts

 If you are in San Diego try to stop by The Grove and visit the lady in the back having a knock-down drag-out fight with some very evil pink paper.

Jo Madden: http://xoxojoma.vpweb.com/

The Grove 3010 Juniper Street, San Diego, CA / (619) 284-7684

Artwork by Andrea Zuill at Leaping Lotus, Solana Beach, CA

   Now that I have this small retail store (at Leaping Lotus in Solana Beach, Ca) I have to decorate it.  This is hard for me.  I don’t decorate.

Artwork by Andrea Zuill at Leaping Lotus, Solana Beach, CA

   What I wound up doing is creating faux frames by designing, printing and cutting  frames out of paper to cover my already framed pieces.  I used 3M ’s double sided sticky tape to apply everything.  The tape is low tack and comes right off when it’s time.  I tested it before I did all this work.  I have these nice frames under the paper frames and I didn’t want to ruin them with adhesive.

    Okay, I swear to god that I didn’t realize what I was doing until I had almost finished this image.  I mean, there I was, working away on my gnome house.  “It’s so cute”,  I thought.  Then, looking at the mushrooms, I thought, “That’s kind of funny.  The mushrooms looks like little penises…. Hey, wait a minute.  The house looks like a…… ”

   So , I made a very phallic discovery.  What in the heck was I thinking about when I was sketching this.  I really like  my little gnome house, except that it looks like a huge penis. 

      This reminds me of a quilt I saw on Craftsters.  A newbie quilter posted her first project.  It was a kind of pinwheel design.  She was very proud.  All of us reading her post noticed right away that what she had created was a swastikas quilt.  Someone ask  her if she meant to make swastikas.  “No”, she posted sadly, she had not meant to make a Nazi quilt.

   If you think that you, a friend or some little tyke would like a picture of a huge penis shaped gnome house hanging on their wall, drop me a note, because this print will NOT be going up at my Etsy store.

Free Candy by Andrea Zuill

      I’ve been reading your advice, not only from my blog but on Flickr.  Thinking things over I’ve decided that I wanted the house to look sweeter.   So I redesigned the house and changed the colors.  Everyone seems to like the sign in the front yard so that is back with the house.   I liked the candy canes, but I changed them into a fence.  I added Hugs and Kisses (OXOX) as trim on the house.  I wanted to have decoration to the outside of the house but I didn’t want it too busy.  Lastly,  I needed one more item to quietly make the house more dangerous.  After quite a lot of thought I designed skull and crossbone smoke coming from the chimney.

Work Quilt #2 by Victoria Gertenbach, aka Silly Boodilly

     I was innocently thumbing through my current Quilting Arts Magazine, June/July 2010, issue 45,  when I came across a article written by a person named Victoria Gertenbach.  This Victoria was clearly trying to pass herself off as my web friend Silly Boodilly.  After a moment of confusion and deep thought it dawned on me that Victoria and Silly where the same people.  I never remember a persons real name.  I mean, who’s Mama would name their kid Silly Boodilly?  Not a very good Mama, that’s who.  Web names and the names of people’s pets is what I remember.  Real names never.

  So please, if you haven’t already, go get the newest Quilting Arts Magazine and check out VICTORIA’S article, Stitching from the Soul / Laying the past & present.  She tells of her inspirations and goes into detail regarding her quilting technique.

Oh, I almost forgot, I was looking through the contributors of Quilting Arts Magazine and I found the name of another friend of mine, Jane LaFazio.  She is a San Diego based quilt artist, and teacher.  She also beat me at getting into the Quilt Visions show.   I might forgive her for this since she is the one that got me started in teaching quilting and embroidery.

I love name dropping.

Pattern transfer

 I have transfered the design to muslin fabric.  I used a Heat Transfer pencil.

Starting the embroidery

Sorry for such a bad image.  I basically stitched ( using the stem stitch) all the lines ( of the dog only) in a dark grey.  I have started putting in the black shading for the area of the eyes and nose.  For shading I am using a runnning stitch that creates a nice dot pattern.

At this point, the portrait can go either way, good or bad.  I have been known for ripping out a lot of embroidery if I am not happy with it.  Buttons face colors so far are black and dark grey.  I am hoping to put in some warm colors.   I having a bit of trouble seeing the personality in this piece.  His face is so furry it’s hard to catch his expression.

Purlene by Andrea Zuill

Some of my first needlework samples I ever posted where  portraits of dogs.

Maggie by Andrea Zuill

I am a little dog crazy and these portraits where great fun. 

I even got a commission to do the piece above.  And, yes, that is the actual dog’s expression.

I have decided to try another dog portrait.  This one will be of a dog named Button.  Button is a terrier mix that was adopted from the Humane Society by friends of mine.  I will post some of my steps  I take to create a portait.  Button will be the first hairy dog I have ever done.  Wish me luck.

I

   I was reading the magazine Quilt Mania and I came across a new embroidery product called Transfer Eze.  With Transfer Eze you can put a sheet into your computer (like a normal sheet of paper) and print your embroidery pattern.  Once this is done you peel that backing material off then stick the film, with the image, onto your fabric. When you finish stitching your design you use cold water to get rid of the film, leaving just your stitching and fabric. 

   Here is my step by step on using Transfer Eze and the results.

  Using my regular, cheap HP printer I printed my design onto the Transfer Eze.

  I peeled off the backing paper and stuck the image on 100 % cotton muslin fabric.  The Transfer Eze was easy to apply. As you can see I didn’t iron my fabric and the film adhered very nicely.

  Printing on the Transfer Eze was very easy and left a nice, dark and clear pattern.  Transfer Eze feels like a paper fabric.

  No problem putting the fabric and the Trans. Eze into my hoop.  The Trans. Eze feels like having your fabric applied to a stabilizer.

  Very little trouble with stitching.  There is some extra resistance  but probably not much different than using a stabilizer.  I have major carpel tunnel and stitching with Trans. Eze didn’t bother me a bit.

  You can see the texture of the Trans. Eze in this photo.   I tend to manhandle my work so I was glad to find that I had no lifting or releasing of the Trans. Eze while stitching.

  Completed stitched design with Trans. Eze still attached to fabric.

After stitching, peel and cut away extra Trans. Eze. 

  Lastly, after clipping the extra Trans. Eze off I soaked my fabric in cold water.  The directions states that it takes 5 to 10 minutes to remove the film, but it dissolved much faster on my project.

The only problem I had with Transfer Eze is that Trans. Eze film was like having a very thin spacer between the stitching and fabric. When I removed the film my stitches weren’t as tight as I would like to be.  I believe I could improve the tension of my stitches with practice.   Maybe this tension problem happens with stabilizers too?  I just don’t know. 

Remember, if you try Transfer Eze practice on a sample first.  The results I had may not be the same for everyone and every fabric.

The only place I could find Transfer Eze was at Original Creations Quilt Shop.  Here is their info.:

Original Creations Quilt Shop, 16863 Highline Blvd., Cut and Shoot, TX, 77306

phone: 956-491-5650

Email;   jerry@originalcreationsquiltshop.com

Website: http://www.originalcreationsquiltshop.com/home.htm  ,  Their website is a little hard to use.  If you click on Transfer Eze it doesn’t take you anywhere.