Bee's Knees Industries

Flickr Group: Blythe Outfits

Since I've been working on fabric design lately, I have been enjoying seeing what people make out of my Spoonflower fabrics. There are some great Blythe outfits shared in my Flickr group that make me want to create more Blythe-sized designs.

2054 by Valentine Westphal. This is the dress that started my Blythe obsession. A few years back, Julie emailed me a photo of this dress that she had made from my Ghostly Paisley fabric. Before that, I wasn't really aware of Blythe, and I certainly didn't know anyone in the Blythe community here in Portland. Through that one little email, I have made so many great friends and joined in on an extremely fun hobby. Thanks, Julie!

Pink Bears Dress by Thea

The Little Stitch-Along Dress by Summer Day Studio. This piece of course isn't made from my fabric, but it uses the Toast & Jam embroidery pattern I made for Feeling Stitchy. I can't believe the exquisite tiny embroidery on this piece!

Someone Should Make Candy Corn Flakes by Button Arcade

Puppet Show by Photos 4 Sue

Regal Dress by Fish Knees

Thanks so much to everyone for sharing your work!

Working Wednesdays: Fabric Design

As I mentioned a few posts back, I'm working to put together a collection of fabric designs around the theme of Wonderland. I also wanted to try a tiling shape I hadn't really used in the past, so my next design tiles as an ogee. (Before looking up that link to share with you, I didn't realize how many uses the ogee really has!)

It's fun trying a new design element, since it stretches my brain a bit to see how it all fits together. You can see my initial sketch above where I worked out what tiling element I need to create.

Once I have the basic concept down, I am able to get started on the illustration work for the design. I'm just getting started here, but I enjoy this part of the process.

When I work on any repeating pattern tile, I always try to check my work periodically to make sure I'm connecting everything correctly. This goes doubly for hand-drawn designs. Digital designs can generally be easily altered after the fact, but it's no fun to have to go back to the drawing board because I didn't work out my tiling just right.

I'm sure there's a fancier way to test pattern tiles, but I always use my desktop.

I have plenty of work left to do on this design, but it's coming right along.

Ice Cream, You Scream... for Embroidery!

The weather in Oregon this time of year tends to fluctuate pretty wildly. At lunchtime, I might be sweating and trying to cool myself off on the porch, and at dinnertime, I might be bundled up under a blanket sipping hot soup. I've been trying to take advantage of the warmer bits of the days to enjoy some cold treats, like popsicles, smoothies, and, of course, ice cream.

With thoughts of warmer and warmer days on my mind, I can't seem to get ice cream out of my head. And so I decided to focus on the heads of ice cream instead. Here we have a couple of headwear fashion options a scoop of ice cream might don: a cone hat and a cherry beret.

I'm looking forward to more days of ice cream, barbeques, and fun on the river. What's your favorite part of the warmer weather ahead? (Or of the cooler weather coming to my Southern hemisphere friends?)

You can find the pattern for these embroideries in my shop.

Printable: Playscale Seed Packets

The timing of purchasing my home meant that Tony and I got a late start on gardening this year. We hoped to spend the fall clearing out a patch for the vegetable garden, but instead we had to wait until spring to work on it. However, Tony, hero that he is, tore down a huge bramble patch (entirely by hand, I might add), and now we have a lovely spot to grow some food.

We've spent the past month or so choosing plants and starting seeds, which is my favorite part of the whole process. (Well, I guess it's my second favorite next to eating the harvest.) My dolly wanted to get in on the action, so I made her some little seed packets of her own.

You can download your own Blythe seed packets here. Each of the plants I included has seeds small enough to fit in the packets, so they're functional as well as cute. You can choose from radishes, poppies, catnip, carrots, and tomatoes for a fairly well-rounded garden.

Dolly couture by yours truly.

Working Wednesdays: Embroidery Patterns

It has been so nice over the past month or so to really get down to work. With everything else going on in my life these past couple of years, I have had so many ideas accumulate in my sketchbooks. I've been toiling away, trying to bring as many as possible to fruition, which I find very fulfilling and also inspiring. There's nothing quite like good, hard work to get the creative muse going.

I get so excited in those last few steps of working on a new project, right before it's ready to meet the world. Here are some images of the last stages of my embroidery patterns. Up above, I'm blocking the fabric to get it ready to photograph, then reviewing my original sketches and notes on color and stitch choices. (Easter egg and alpaca pin cushion are obvious necessities for this part.) Finally, I digitize the image in Illustrator and put together the elements of the PDF in InDesign.

What's your favorite part of the creative process?

Ahoy, Matey!

I have a very silly tutorial to share with you today. For anyone who spent as much time as a child as I did making goofy paper crafts, this is nothing but a throwback, but for anyone who didn't, well, it's high time you learned how to make a paper hat.

Pinterest: Seedling Pots

I'm sure I'm not the only person who gleefully browses Pinterest, pinning this and that, daydreaming about all those projects I'll create once I have some Free Time. Of course, Free Time is hard to come by these days, and Pinterest projects seem like a lot to ask of oneself when trying to think of something relaxing to do.

This is where having a helper comes in handy. No, not the sweet boyfriend who loves gardening and insisted we finally try one of the pins I showed him on my gardening board. The bunny, of course! This project involved toilet paper tubes, and Enid went bananas when she saw how many Tony was about to use.

Whoops! Never mention bananas in the presence of a bunny unless you mean business.

Well, OK, so I guess Tony comes in handy for calming the savage beast.

This was a really simple project. We made little seedling pots out of toilet paper tubes. You just cut the tube in half, snip about a half inch up all around the tube, fold down the little tabs you make, and tuck the last tab under the first tab. Voila!

If you can't find your scissors, you can always use your teeth.

And you never know what kind of inspiration will strike you while working on your project. You might come up with the next ingenious pin! Or not...

I'll leave it up to that super-helpful, gardening-loving boyfriend to grow food. I used all of my seedling pots to get a head start on my dyers garden. Let's hope some of my seeds sprout!

You can see the original pin for this idea right here, and you can find the rest of my boards over here. What's your favorite thing to pin?

Clowning Around

I'm very curious: Who here hates clowns? I find it interesting that so many people seem to be afraid of them, and, since I'm afraid of everything (seriously, everything), I always wonder why I like them. It could be because I performed in a little clown troupe when I was a child, or perhaps I was just too old by the time I finally watched It, or maybe we'll simply never know.

I have to wonder, though, what about people who like dolls? I also have always liked dolls, and plenty of kids who came over to my house for sleepovers were creeped out by my doll collection (in their defense, I lived in a really creepy house), so perhaps the same phobia immunity covers both.

With that theory in mind, I present my latest Blythe dress, with a clown! I'm looking at this one as an experiment. I think it's adorable (especially next to my Circus dress), but what will the dolly world think?

If you're inclined to sew up a Clown dress of your own, you can find the kit in my shop.

Recipe: Chicken Soup with Stars

I've been meaning to post some of my regular recipes on here for a while, but I'm not the best food photographer, so I always shy away from it when planning blog posts. I finally had a push to post a recipe, though, thanks to a friend of mine who has started making hot sauce.

My friend Dane asked me a couple of days ago to post a review of his FYM Hot Sauce on my blog to help with an upcoming Kickstarter campaign. Well, as you can see from his Kickstarter page, he doesn't really need much help from me, but I'd still love to promote his hot sauce.

He started a couple of years ago with an extra batch of peppers he grew in his garden. He brought in a bottle of his homemade hot sauce to my office, and it quickly became my go-to condiment to make bland office snacks very tasty. Since then, his business has grown quite a bit, and he now has a commercial setup for producing his sauce, but I still love it to make my office lunches more exciting. My favorite food to add it to is my chicken soup with stars, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you so you can try the combo yourself.

Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 chicken breasts, cubed
10 cups chicken broth
1 cup stelline pasta
3 celery stalks, chopped
3 carrots, cut into coins
1 cup frozen peas
Salt, pepper, and spices (I usually use a blend of tarragon, rosemary, savory, thyme, sage, and lavender, which is my homemade "herbes de Provence" blend)

1. Saute the diced onion in olive oil until translucent.

2. Add the chicken broth and any salt, pepper, or spices to taste. Bring to a boil.

3. Add the cubed chicken and boil for five minutes.

4. Add the pasta and boil for seven minutes.

5. Add the carrots, celery, and peas and boil for five more minutes.

6.  Remove from heat and enjoy!

This is one of my favorite simple but filling lunches to make when both Tony and I work from home. It cooks up quickly, and I can even keep working while it boils, making it a low maintenance recipe. Add a dash of hot sauce to your leftovers the next day at the office, and you have a great lunch!

Ouroboros

Has anyone else noticed how dogs tend to behave like the fabled Ouroboros? Or perhaps it's just me? I decided to meditate on the matter while stitching, but I didn't get any closer to an answer...

This is the design that I learned long-and-short stitch for, and I'm glad I did. I originally planned just to outline the ear on this piece, but I really like using more advanced stitching techniques. I'm looking forward to learning more as I work on a few more pieces. I'm experimenting as we speak with chain stitch as a fill stitch, which, I must say, is a lot of fun.

You can find this pattern in my Etsy shop if you'd like to stitch up a pup of your own.

Like a Polaroid Picture

At Roofus' behest, Tony and I have driven around our new town exploring rivers and lakes. He enjoys himself immensely, but the depression of going back into the car may be more than he can bear. The little nose pressed against the window just kills me. (Of course, I had to Photoshop out the rest of the nose smears from drives past.)

April on Instagram

Springtime has been beautiful here in the Pacific Northwest. I love all the flowering trees and the pink "snow" that comes with it.

I bought some fake finger mustache tattoos for the ladies at my office as a post-April-15th gift, and they were thoroughly enjoyed by all. Best dollar I've ever spent!

An incredibly sweet friend of mine is due any day now to have an incredibly sweet-to-be baby, so I made her a couple of onesies for the occasion. These were drawn on with fabric markers, but I liked them so much, I've been in contact with a local screenprinter to work on mass-producing them. I've wanted to make t-shirts for a very long time (like since-high-school long time), so I'm looking forward to my ideas finally coming to fruition.

A misty morning boyfriend and a view of my neighbors' farm. (They're starting up a CSA over there, which I'm over the moon about!)

I have a new crafting buddy, compliments of Monica. She is a pincushion/alpaca seed to help with all my stitching/alpaca-obtaining endeavors.

You can find me on Instagram as @BeesKneesIndustries.

Talking Garden

I have loved designing fabrics since I first tried my hand at it, but I have always made designs that are meant to stand alone. The blogosphere has been abuzz with lovely fabric collections, though, and I just had to give it a go.

These two colorways of my Talking Gardens design are the first in what will hopefully become a full collection based on Alice in Wonderland. I have two more representative designs on the way (heart crowns and painted roses) and am looking forward to working on a few abstract pieces to go with it.

I'm enjoying the process of creating repeating patterns with a theme, and I have a feeling this will be something I do more of in the future.

This pattern is available as a fabric in gray and pink at Spoonflower and as a digital download for scrapbook paper at my new shop.

Tutorial: Long & Short Stitch

I have been trying to incorporate some new-to-me stitches in my latest embroideries, and I thought it would be fun to share what I'm learning, so here is a tutorial for the long-and-short stitch.

Bee Embroidery Pattern

This post has been update at the new blog. Head this way!

Next up for the Red Circle Craft class free embroidery patterns is this little buzzy bee. We've been working to get bees at our house, which I've been very excited about. I seem to have bees on the brain when I sketch, so I couldn't resist a little bee-broidery.

I enjoyed stitching this little bee, and I like that I have a good way now to sew up a tiny bee, which will come in handy for some future stitching projects. I had one idea that I'd been working on with little bees flying out of something, but they looked more like flies and stink lines. I'm looking forward to trying again with my newfound skills.

Download your own Bee embroidery pattern at the new blog.