Andrea Zuill’s Blog

   I don’t think that I have ever posted a blog about a music group or their videos, but I discovered these videos last Friday. 

I think everyone knows the group Ok Go, their song Here it Goes Again, with the video of the group dancing on treadmills.  Well, they have a new song and two videos to go with it.  The song is called This Too Shall Pass.  I love this song! 

The videos for This Too Shall Pass are amazing!  You should really take the time to watch them.  I mean REALLY take the time!  You will not be disappointed.

Here is the first video for Ok Go’s new song:

http://bit.ly/ajAws7

Cool Right! Here is the second video (which l love even more than the first video) :

http://bit.ly/apZqYZ

 When I was little the movie Bambi was hands down my most favorite movie.  Sure, I cried when Bambi’s Mom died, but what intrigued me was how cute all the animals were.  Even as a small child I was fascinated by how the animators captured the essence of a baby deer.  I loved Bambi’s long, hard to control legs.  The scene with Bambi on the ice was priceless test.

Here is my version of a fawn.  I really wanted to get the fawn’s small body with the spidery legs right. 

My new print, Fawn, is all legs and ready to go at my New Store:

  I just got back from my art show in Marfa, TX.  When my Husband and I take this trip we try to stop by our friend’s house in Silver City, NM.

   We had car trouble just outside of Tucson, AZ.  Our alternator died.  Praise Jeebus for Pep Boys.  They have rescued us more than  once. 

   We arrived in Silver City the next day.  Silver City is a very historic town. 

   We stayed with Cecilia.  She’s a good friend and artist.

  We met a few of her friends.

  Silver City is a blend of old Mexican families, White ranchers,  Artists and has a large gay and lesbian community.  Silver City has it’s own unique flavor and customs.

*Silver City is known for flooding mainly during monsoon season.  The downtown is especially prone to flash floods.

  Silver City is also know for their mining.

*Actual historic photo of The Ditch after a flood in downtown Silver City, NM.

  Valentine Girl, another painting for my BE Mine… show at Galleri Urbane in Marfa, TX

Now, questions that need to be answered:

1. Referring to my Transfer Eze post:   Wow! I’ve been looking for something like this. My biggest challenge is finding ways to transfer embroidery designs. Can you recommend any other products or techniques? Thanks for sharing such valuable information!

Here are the most common ways to transfer embroidery designs onto fabric - 

Transfer Paper - You can get this item at any fabric store and Sublime Stitching.

Iron on Transfer Pencil  -these can be found at most fabric stores, like Joanns. 

Light Table  -  Well, actually, using a window as your light table.  If you are using the window method, you will find that taping the design to the back of the fabric or to the window helpful as the design will not slip easily while you trace it onto the fabric. To trace, use a light pencil, chalk, air or water-soluble pen, or even a fine tip permanent marker in the shade of thread you will be using. (This info is from Victorian Embroidery and Craft)

2. Just curious. When you are buying fabric, for not a particular project, how much do you buy? A yard? Fat quarter? 2 yards?

Since my quilts are smallish I tend to buy fabric half yards.  But, if I am head over heals in love with a fabric I will buy 1 to 2 yards.  Other reasons to buy more than half a yard of fabric is hard to find colors, hard to find patterns and great fabric to back a quilt with. 

I have trouble finding a good orange fabric, so if I find one I like I’ll buy a yard or two.  Same with brown.  I am always looking for a good chocolate brown.  The color is not the only thing that is important.  I am very picky about the type of pattern on the fabric .  Everyone has their own needs when it comes to size, design and rhythm of pattern on their fabrics.

When I find a nice feeling cotton fabric that would make a great backing for my quilts, and it’s cheap,  I’ll buy several yards. 

  I bought one of these egg cups for my friend Jean.  She is famous for her Chicken Chaple , as seen on HGTV.

  I don’t use feathers, but I need to buy these feathers.  I mean, how can anyone resist cups and cups of colorful feathers????

  It’s a love rat, perfect for that special someone. 

  The Craft store my Daughter and I was looking for is Thoughtful Crafts.  Here is what I think went wrong.  We used my Husbands iphone to look up Crafts and that is how we found Thoughtful Craft.  We should have gone the next step of looking at Thoughtful Craft’s website.  Don’t laugh, but they are a graphic design company.  I just found that out by googling their name.

  But,  we did find Cliff’s Variety  store.  Right in the middle of Castro is this wonderful store.  Cliff’s is part hardware store, gift store, toy store and craft store.  It’s the kind of place where you can get salt and pepper shakers but not just any s&p shakers. They have them in bunny form, penguin form, and bear shaped.  They also have wigs.  Wall decals.  Stain remover. And very surprised puffer fish.

  Do you want some unusual ceral bowls?  They have these bunny and monkey bowls at Cliff’s.  Besides being cute these bowls are plastic.  I like this because I tend to break things.

  Buns Galore.  I would like to take credit for naming this print, but the credit has to go to my Husband.  I was going for a name like Fuzzy Buns, which while interesting it doesn’t convey sexuality.  My Daughter and I regularly play a game of making up burlesque names by ending descriptive words with the word galore.  I don’t know why it didn’t come to me. But, one day while taking a lovely drive, my Husband shouts out, “Buns Galore!”. Beside scaring the ba-jesus out of me,  I realized that he was right.  So, here she is, burlesque queen, Buns Galore.

You can get your rabbit erotica at my store:  http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38033079

You can get you naughty rabbit in 3 sizes: 5×7, 8×10, 11×14

My Dog before receiving his hedgehog Christmas present.

My Dog after receiving his hedgehog Christmas present.

Is it normal for a dog to suckle on their hedgehog?

  What a difference a day makes.  The last photographs I took of the quilt top all the pieces for the applique where just pinned into place.  Previous Valentine Quilt article: http://zuill.us/andreablog/2009/12/20/valentine-quilt-just-beginning/

   As you can see I embroidered the heck out of it.  This style of embroidery is more subtle than what I usually do.  Tried to add fancy stitches like the Blanket Stitch and Maiden Hair Stitch but it just looked to heavy.  I usually go for colors that “fight” with each other to make it pop but that is not what this quilt top needed.

  This design currently sits in the middle of a 30″x30″ piece of muslin.  I don’t know yet if I will leave it there in the middle like the other heart quilt or will I cut it down to make the design off center and maybe add other elements.

Book stuff-

The response for a possible quilt/embroidery book has been real positive.  Don’t get yourselves too excited yet because I’m still have issues regarding what the dang thing should be about.  Every time I make notes or write a passage it seems so dry and boring.  Plus, to be truthful, I have no idea what I am doing.

  In this photo, from left to right , is Mike Nelson,  Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy of RiffTrax.  Formally, they are all from Mystery Science Theater 3000.  You might actually know them as Mike as, well, Mike, Bill as Tom Servo, and Kevin as Crow T. Robot.  They came to our town last night and performed a Christmas show. 

    They brought with them a bunch of Christmas shorts.  Shorts are animations and short films.  Apparently, Christmas can bring out the weird in some animators and film makers.

  Guess who showed up?  Weird Al was there to help the guys riff on a film about pork, yes pork.  This whole show was broadcast live to Theaters all over the place. 

Okay, on to bras. 

   I had a disturbing reply to my bra blog.  I was excited because many of you could relate to playing hide and go seek with you bras.  Then, a certain someone wrote this, “So good to hear that I am not the only one who does this.  When mine get totally lost that usually means it’s in the backseat of my car!”  Ah, okay.  This statement begs for many questions.  

The bra issue has also spurred on my Husband ’s creativity and he is now designing a bra rack.  I stated to him, “Wouldn’t that be just like a hat rack?”.  He gave me a angry look and just kept on drawing.  He hates it when I take the wind out of his sails.