Handmade Princess Bride Westley Doll

"As you wish."

I've been meaning to share this for a while now. I mean, it's not every day I make a doll. In fact, I'd never made a real doll before last autumn, nonetheless a doll of the Dread Pirate Roberts (a.k.a. Westley) from the Princess Bride.

It must have been the pregnancy hormones that made me commit to this madness. I was bandying about ideas for a regular craft swap I do with a friend, and I mentioned making a doll for her wee son in return for a black, crochet baby blanket. I'd been looking for something to hone my sewing skills, since I'd mastered the skill of sewing two squares together. A doll was the next logical step, right?

To be fair, I started with a pattern I found on an Etsy store, Dolls and Daydreams. There's an adorable superhero boy pattern that served as a base for the body and the mask. Rather than making the legs, arms, and body in different colors, I went with black fabric. The tricky parts were the boots (made from upcycled pleather from a couch I skinned), the chest (trying to get that sexy, open-collar look), and the hair (how do I give a doll a ponytail?).

Appliqueing the face turned out to be rather challenging, too, but fun. The mask was made from the same upcycled pleather, but I used wool felt for the hair and mustache, and craft felt for the eyes. It's hard to tell from the picture below, but I machine stitched wavy lines of hair to make it more interesting. Freestyle.

"No one would surrender to the Dread Pirate Westley."

The chest issue was solved by cutting a slit in the chest fabric and sewing it open to make a "collar," and then sewing a triangle of flesh-colored fabric to fill in the space. I hand embroidered the criss-cross laces of the shirt with a simple back-stitch.

I figured out how to make the ponytail fairly easily: I stitched a little bit of felt to the back of the doll, so that when I sewed the head on it looked like a ponytail:

"Why won't my arms move?"

The boots. Oh lordy, those boots. Remind me, the next time I work with pleather, to make the legs BIGGER so I don't have to turn thick, stiff fabric in a one-inch-wide tube. It took me half an hour each to turn those legs!

I am exceedingly pleased with how my first doll came out, and most importantly, I learned a lot (#&@*ing pleather). It was hard for me to let him go, even though I knew he was going to a good, geeky home. It'll be a while before I have the time or space to make another doll, but fortunately, it'll be a while before my own wee son can play with dolls. If I start now, I can have it done by his 5th birthday.

Star Wars Easter Eggs on eHow

Look, Ma! My hand-painted Star Wars Easter eggs were selected to be part of an awesome slideshow on eHow.com!

Give it a looksee. There's some really great ideas for unique Easter eggs, and there's still enough time to plan ahead to be creative.

Unfortunately, I won't have time this year to sit down and do some involved painting, or get more crafty than PAAS. 'Cause, y'know...baby. But someday, perhaps, I'll be able to expand the collection. There's some Star Wars characters that would look pretty boss in egg form.

Also, welcome to those of you here from eHow! I hope you enjoy my other crafty creations if you stick around to take a peek.

Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted

I'm a big fan of the Assassin's Creed video game series. I used to find running along the digital rooftops of Italy as calming as stitching (y'know, back when I had time to play involved video games and work on big embroideries), so it was natural to combine the two into one geeky, crafty project.

I started this project back in early 2011. To give you an idea of the size of the emblem, it's hung in an 8" hoop. My original idea was to satin stitch the whole thing in white for a sleek, textured effect. After an inch or two of stitches, though, I realized the logo was too big, and there would be saggy bits. No good.

So, I scrapped that idea, but not the whole project. I'd been dabbling in acrylic paint around the time, so I got the idea to paint the logo onto the fabric, then embroider on top of it. I was inspired by Ezio's (the protagonist of the second series of AC games) color palette, and opted for burgundy paint and silver thread.

I couldn't just stop at outlining the emblem. Oh, no. I wanted this to be something truly special. So, for the first time, I experimented with freestyle embroidering.

Hundreds, maybe thousands of tiny, meticulous stitches went into this. It was both wonderfully meditative, letting the stitches take my fingers where they wanted to go, and pretty annoying, as metallic thread is damn finicky. It got so bad I put the project down with only about three inches on one leg to go, and didn't pick it up again for over a year.

I resuscitated the project in the ninth month of my pregnancy, as I was tying up loose ends on my crafting projects. It only took me a couple of evenings to complete, including mounting it in a silver-painted hoop.

After all that work, there was only one thing I could do with it: give it away. I gave it as a Christmas gift to my brother, the one person I knew would truly appreciate it, both as an Assassin's Creed fan and as an artist. The look on his face was priceless.

When I have time, I'm planning on experimenting again with freestyle-stitched, mixed-medium embroidery. I could probably do with a little meditative crafting these days!

The Call of Cthulhu

My embroidery has taken a new and interesting turn lately. After finishing a long and labor-intensive project (pictures soon) I decided I wanted to do something a little more...well, little.

I've known about needlework jewelry for a while. I even have a vintage cross-stitch pendant I inherited from my husband's late Nana. I never really thought of making my own, though, until I came across MotherEagle's work.

It was love at first sight. Not only her themes -- bones, brains, anatomical hearts, etc. -- but her gorgeous, elegant stitching. I seriously can't wait until she launches her new jewelry collection next week (that heart is mine!).

More importantly, it also inspired me to experiment with my own embroidery. The perfect occasion presented itself: a crafty friend of mine was celebrating her birthday soon. More precisely, she was celebrating Cthulhu-style (well, with more cupcakes and gaming and less madness and terror).

I found a lovely Cthulhu Celtic-knot inspired pattern (funny enough, it was a pumpkin carving design originally), and shrunk it way down to fit the pin setting I'd found on Etsy. I had to make a few little improvisations with the head, since it was too large for satin-stitching, but the color gradient gave it a nice feel.

The finished piece is about 2 inches diameter, so it's not really a true miniature. It is the smallest complete embroidery I've made, though, and I'm pretty proud of how it came out. My friend adored it, and wore it with pride through the evening.

I bought some other brooch and pendant settings, and this time, I'm planning to experiment with my own design ideas. I haven't really done anything that hasn't been part of a pattern pack for a while, so it'll be good to get the creative juices flowing again. 

A Song of Cake and Pie

When you play the Game of Birthdays, you win or you have cake.

Lately, my husband and I have been a little obsessed with George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. The Professor is reading the books out loud to me while I stitch (we're on A Storm of Swords), and we devoured season one of the Game of Thrones TV show as soon as it came out on DVD.

It seemed only fitting, then, when the Professor's birthday rolled around that we throw a little themed shindig. We had a friend bring over his copy of the Game of Thrones board game, and I planned a Westeros-themed dinner to go along with the festivities.

It wasn't hard to pick what would go on the menu. Though the books are filled with exotic delicacies, the ones that made my mouth water were the meat pies. Particularly the beef and bacon pie and the pork pie.

Luckily, there's an awesome blog called Inn at the Crossroads that is a treasure trove of recipes inspired from the Ice and Fire books. These two talented fans not only research medieval recipes that would be at home in the fantasy setting of the books, but also offer recipes more tailored to modern palettes.

I opted to try their medieval pork pie recipe, which was an interesting "sweet" pie with chopped dates and currants. It reminded me a lot of Chinese pork bun filling: fruity and flavorful without being cloying.

To balance out the menu, I also made the modern beef and bacon pie. While it had a great flavor, the meat chunks needed to be cut smaller and cooked a little longer to make them more tender. Also, I'd add more bacon next time (and oh yes, there will be a next time).

This also marked my first foray into homemade pie crust. I'm sure Winterfell cooks weren't using shortening for their pie crusts, but hey, it's what my friends at Better Homes and Gardens called for. With my pie-master friend Abena helping me roll out the crust, they came out gorgeous and delicious!

...and yes, mom, we had salad, too.

What birthday is complete without cake? Inspired by Sansa Stark's favorite tea treat, lemon cakes, I whipped up a lemon cake with lemon curd filling and lemon cream cheese frosting. I researched a few frosting recipes online, but in the end decided to wing it. The result was a delicious frosting that was like eating solid lemonade.

I kind of put the layers together upside down, though. I tried to cover it up by stuffing the crack with blueberries and more frosting. Not too shabby for my first layer cake. I might buy one of those fancy cake cutters my mama has, which would always result in smooth, even cakes.

The evening was quite a success, even if the board game did go until one in the morning (and I lost horribly)! The meal was fit for a king (or five), and everyone went home with full bellies. I call that a win in the Game of Birthdays.

WonderCon 2011

I’m still feeling a bit loopy from a cold that’s had me on the ropes for a few days, so forgive me if I don’t make much sense. Today is my first day wearing real clothes (as opposed to pajamas) since Sunday.

So, aside from sniffling and coughing, what have I been up to? A little of everything: some crafting, some writing, some gaming, some good lifestyle changes. It’s been a busy time.

The pinnacle of the past few weeks was definitely San Francisco’s WonderCon. It boasts the same geeky spectacle as the huge San Diego Comic Con, but on a slightly more manageable scale.

I spent a glorious two days networking with other filmmakers, writers, artists, and crafters. I got to see some great costumes:

Potter Puppet Pals!

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Meet some interesting people:

Lloyd "Troma" Kaufman

The Mistress of the Dark herself.

And shop for some cool stuff:

Spoiled Cherry

The highlight of it all, though, was meeting Max Brooks.



He’s the man responsible for the Zombie Survival Guide, as well as World War Z (one of my favorite books). He gave a great talk. He’s funny, intelligent, geeky, and genuine. The kind of guy you want on your team for pub trivia night.

When I went to Comic Con last year, I gave him a copy of Everything I Needed to Know About Zombies I Learned From the Movies. Honestly, I had half expected he hadn’t watched it.

Imagine my surprise when he said that he had enjoyed it very much. It had creeped him out. It reminded him of an early Romero film, and he could see the passion of the cast and crew behind it. Gathering up my courage, I then asked if he’d be willing to give me a quote for the film. Right there, on the spot, he scrawled one out on the back of the DVD jacket:



Holy crap! My little six minute zombie comedy was not only watched by the man who helped revive the zombie genre, but actually endorsed. I’m still on cloud nine over that! Perhaps it's time for a cover redesign...

It was hard to top that. The rest of the Con was just gravy. Interestingly enough, the second I got into the car to go home Saturday, my voice gave out and I got slammed with the full cold. It's like my body knew it could finally give in and be sick after holding it back for days.

I'm slowly catching up on my writing and other projects. April is officially Script Frenzy month, and I am so far behind. Wish me luck!

Han Solo Cross Stitch pattern available (finally!)

UPDATE 1/19/2015: I'm sorry, but this pattern is no longer available. You can read why here.

It's been two years in the coming, but finally, FINALLY, I have charted my Han Solo cross stitch! Here! Stitch! Enjoy!

Click on the image to download a JPEG version of it off Flickr.

I also have a fancy PDF version for folks who want the color table.

I have to give a big thank you to amigurl55 at Craftster for sharing the link to the free KG-Chart software I used. I've been looking for cross stitch pattern software that didn't cost an arm and a leg, and now I can finally chart up my old patterns as well as create new ones. I have some ideas for some other Star Wars cross stitch patterns, among others.

Thanks also to the folks who have been so patient for this pattern. I'm sure there's like, three of you left in the world who are interested in stitching this up, but for you three, here you go!

The Announcement!

Hear that hush? The storm has passed. The gale-force winds of Christmas have quieted, leaving behind colorful debris of wrapping paper, tinsel strands, and cookie crumbs. New Year’s is still upon us, in all its cork-popping glory, but it’s a mild rain compared to Hurricane Xmas.

I, for one, had a lovely holiday. We had our first official Bay Area Xmas--my folks made the trek up from SoCal--and there was much merriment and feasting. I think the highlight was playing Rock Band until 3 a.m. with my entire family, and hearing my Mama sing Rob Zombie’s “Superbeast.” These are the precious moments holiday specials are made of.

But now, the parents are on their way home, the fridge is stuffed with leftovers, and it’s time to settle in and get ready to welcome the New Year.

New Year’s is both about reflecting on the events of the past 365 days, and looking forward to the clean slate of the next year. I, like many other folks, already have some goals set out for 2011, but there’s one in particular that got a bit of a head start this week: that thing I announced that I was going to announce.

Thank you for being so patient, dear readers. I can finally tell you what it is I’ve been sitting on for the past couple weeks:

I’m a new contributing writer at Geek Crafts!

I’m super-excited about this new gig, seeing as it’s the fusion of three of my favorite things: writing, geekery, and crafting. I’ll be combing the interwebs to find some of the best in geek craft to share with the world. My first post went up yesterday, and I’ll be posting every Tuesday and Friday.

This is not to be confused with my Crafty Bytes column over at Electronic Wasteland, which is all about interviewing video game crafters.

So, if you have any geek crafts you’d like to see featured, send ‘em my way!

Futurama has me in stitches

Sometimes I fear we are cute...

Continuing on my sci-fi stitching kick after the Adventures of Rocketgirl, I decided to turn my embroidery needle to something a little simpler, a little softer, a little...cuter.

Behold, Lord Nibbler the Nibblonian from Futurama!

He may not look very regal in this pose, but make no mistake, he'll vaporize you with his kitten-class attack ship (unless you can fight him off with a folding chair).

His likes include devouring hams (and live animals) whole, being scratched behind the ears, and messing with the space/time continuum. His dislikes include intergalactic pet pageants, flying brains, and high-velocity mail.
He's stitched up with back stitch, satin stitch, long-and-short stitch, and french knots. Click the picture for a closer look. He stands (well, sits) around three inches tall, and is mounted in a four-inch frame.
I wish I could take credit for the stuffed ham in the first picture, but alas, I am not that crafty a sewer. That delicious-looking plushy is from Sweet Meats, which gets extra points for wrapping their fuzzy creations in deli paper.

I'm contemplating more Futurama-themed stitching projects, since the art style lends itself so well to it. I have an image of a scuttling Zoidberg that would make an interesting piece, as well as some funny Bender pictures. We'll see, though. I'm 1/3 of the way through an involved Dia de los Muertos embroidery project I would like to finish by the end of the month, and then the holidays loom near. Which I'm so not thinking about right now, not with Halloween around the corner!

It's an "Electronic Wasteland" out there!

Though not as big news as the release of Halo: Reach, I too have my own small contribution to the gaming community to announce today.

The secret project I have alluded to in my past posts is finally up and running! For all you gamers and game-curious folks, I give you the Electronic Wasteland!

Created by my old friend Kevin Eno, "Electronic Wasteland" is a place to discuss all things video game related. It covers video gaming news, reviews, and lifestyle, embracing all forms of digital gaming, from big-budget console franchises to indie-made iPhone apps.

So far I've contributed two pieces, one about how to get your significant other to game with you and one about my Dragon Age II experience at Comic Con.

I'm really excited to have a specific place to share my love of games, and I hope ya'll take a peek. Kevin is also looking for writers who would want to contribute, so drop me or him a line if you're interested.

Come to the Dark Side...we have cookies!

May slips into June, June sneaks into July, July bowls into August. Now September looms around the corner, and almost an entire season has gone by since I last shared on this blog. That's what summer vacation is about, though.

This was my first genuine summer break since high school (which was back in the dark ages of the mid-1990s). As soon as I turned 16, I worked every summer and holiday. I always had a job (or two) throughout college and my summer breaks, and then right after graduation I jumped straight into the nonprofit work force. I've been very lucky that way.

But I have to admit, being laid off was a sort of a blessing in disguise. This was the first year the Professor wasn't teaching summer school, so we were able to spend two months just relaxing together. It was bliss. We took care of home projects, spent time with friends and family, and generally enjoyed the taste of sweet freedom...

...which tastes kinda like sugar cookies.



I actually made these cookies back in May, as part of my brother's college graduation festivities. These Star Wars cookie cutters were an early birthday gift from my folks, who had come up to the Bay Area for the commencement. On the last day of their visit my brother helped me roll, stamp, and sugar, which brought back a ton of happy childhood memories. Though, I have to admit, there was an extra bit of geeky glee in decorating Star Wars characters.





I think my favorite, though, is our DIY Death Star. Since there wasn't a Death Star cutter, I made my own with a round cutter and a toothpick. As you can see, it's ready to fire on a unsuspecting cookie planet...

Writing Update

So, last I wrote, I was awaiting the results for the NYC Midnight Screenwriter's Challenge. The good news is that I won third place in my heat, which held 18 writers. The bad news is that only first and second place advanced to the next round. So, that was it for me. I made a good showing, though, and I'm genuinely please with what I entered. I received some good, solid feedback from one of the judges, so overall it was a good learning experience.

Right now, I'm actually working on a secret project with a friend of mine, which I'm really excited about. It's not ready to be unveiled, but soon I'll be able to share more details...

Halloween, in a Nutshell

For many folks, Christmas is the busiest holiday of the year. The baking, the decorating, the company, the spiritual observance, the activities, etc. For me, it's the Halloween/Samhain season, and this year's was a non-stop, action-packed, three week period filled with friends, food, theater, film, games, and so much more.

Let's recap some of the highlights, shall we?

Exhibit A: "At the Opera Tonight..."

The festivities began the weekend before Halloween, with a weekend trip to the state capital for the Sacramento Horror Film Festival. This was purely a pleasure trip (I hadn't submitted my film this year) to see a screening of Repo! The Genetic Opera, with cast and creators in attendance.

It was a great evening (though it was preceded by a nauseatingly bad pre-show), complete with shadow cast performances, audience participation, and a lively Q&A with Terrance Zdunich (co-creator/"Graverobber"), Darren Smith (co-creator/"Opera Maestro"), Alisa Burket ("Henchwoman 1"), and Andreja Punkris ("Henchwoman 2").

I waited in line to get autographs from them all, and was quite pleased that I didn't make an ass of myself. I usually tend to put my foot in my mouth when meeting artists or celebrities, so this was a step up!

Exhibit B: "Holy Sugar Cookies, Batman!"

Like I mentioned before, baking is integral to my Halloween season. And when I bake...I BAKE:

In one evening, I made over 100 sugar cookies in 3 different colors of dough and flavors of sugar topping: orange leaves and pumpkins with real Wisconsin maple sugar on top, white ghosts and bones with vanilla sugar, and purple-black cats and witches with purple sugar.

I think, out of all the cookies this year, I am most proud of my Batman cookies:

You see, my video game of the season was Batman: Arkham Asylum, and I had to commemorate the occasion in cookie dough. *nods seriously*

The reason for so many cookies? I made enough to ship to friends and family, share with co-workers, take as my contribution to a play-reading/potluck party, and have enough left over for my own guests at a Rock Band party. Even with all that, we still didn't finish the last cookie until two days ago.

Exhibit C: Making Halloween

Of course, what Halloween is complete without crafts?

I didn't have much time, but I did manage to get a little stitching in:

This wee ghostie was made using a free Annie Oakleaves pattern I snagged last year. I made him using back, satin, and long-and short stitches.

I tried to finish a little friend for him:

But I didn't quite make it. Perhaps next year!

Now it's time to switch gears. Though my favorite holiday is over, there's still two big, special events right around the corner. That being said, I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks of mellow-time before we kick back into holiday mode!

Hand: Swapety Swaps (Image Heavy)

As I mentioned before, I've been crafting like crazy the past few weeks, but haven't been able to share my projects since they were all part of one swap or another. Well, swaps are finally concluded, and now I can share both my creations and the lovely stuff I received in kind!

First, my most recent (and I think favorite) swap with my old friend Dana, The Geek Girl Friday. I stitched her a Black Apple Bunny (from the Sublime Stitching pattern):





And she custom made me a gorgeous set of mosaic cupcake coasters!





Here's a detail of my favorite one:





Personally, I think I got the better end of this deal. Mosaic is still a mystery to me as a craft, and to see such a cute design in glass is just amazing!

The other swap I was a part of was the Ultimate Whedonverse Swap on Craftster.org. It was a lot of fun, but I admit I find the whole "point system" a little stressful.

I made many crafty little things for my partner, all inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which was her favorite of the Whedon canons).





The big thing was a cross stitch I designed with a quote from Anya, the former vengeance demon who found herself winning in the "Game of Life" boardgame.





But, I have to say my favorite was my Spike-inspired pincushion with Slayer-stake quilting pins:





The quote is from the musical "Once More with Feeling" episode: "If my heart could beat, it would break my chest, but I can see you're unimpressed." What I really love is that it's in glow-in-the-dark thread, which I thought was very appropriate for a vampire's heart (which was based off Sublime Stitching's "Vital Organs" pattern set).

In return, my partner (craftster KCFirecracker) made me the most spiffy Firefly-inspired spats:





She also made me the most lovely pillow case I will ever own:





It's a beautiful applique based off my favorite cover of BtVS season 8. Check out the source image:



I love the texture so much:





It's been a swap-happy couple months, but I think it's time for a little break. My fingers have been itching for some bigger, more involved projects, and I have something in mind that may just fit the bill.

Hand: Sublime Stitching Up a Storm

When I promise embroidery goodness, I deliver!

I've been a busy little stitching bee since my last crafty post, mainly due to that pesky Christmas thing, and then to that mandatory down time called "healing."

The bunny above is from Sublime Stitching's Black Apple pattern, which I fell in love with. I wanted to make a little something for myself amidst all the gift stitching, and this is what I came up with.



This is a tea towel I stitched for a good girlfriend of mine. I was going for a sort of Edward Gorey-esque look with the colors and stripes.


Close-up on the little bee and banner.


This is a "Nacho Libre" towel I stitched up for another good friend. She loves that movie like crazy, and I thought the Sublime Stitching lucha libre masks in the "Craft Pad" would make a great gift for her.


Close up of Nacho. I tried to keep Nacho looking as true to the movie character as possible (even had to run out and buy the right shade of blue floss for the mask).


Aaaand, what "Nacho Libre" towel would be complete without toast! I designed this little bit myself, actually drew it freehand onto the towel with a pencil and stitched over it.


This, actually, is a towel I stitched about a year ago, a gift for a good friend. I forgot to take pics of it before I gave it, and she was nice enough to snap a few pictures of it for me recently.

The quote is from a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode, and the monkeys are from (I think my favorite) Sublime Stitching pattern. I did add the monkey pants myself, though.

There's still a few more finished projects I have to post, one being one of the works I'm most proud of ever. But this is a good start.

In real-life news, tomorrow I go back to work. I'm a bit nervous...it's been about a month since I've been back in the city, and I'm still moving a little slowly. It should be okay though, once I get into the swing of things. Rejoining the world and all that stuff. Today, we're going to look at a new car. Wish us luck!