Valentine’s Day is approaching quickly so I thought I’d share one of my favorite poodle valentines.
As always you’re welcome to use my illustration for your own personal use. Enjoy!
Love’s Greeting to my Valentine (PNG) Download
It doesn’t often get very cold here in Texas, but today it is rainy and colder so I thought it was a good day to share this poodle drawing with you.
It was one of my first poodle illustrations using a 1920 Norman Rockwell painting as inspiration. I always used this drawing for greeting cards and once or twice in a 12 month color-your-own calendar. As always you’re welcome to use my illustration for your own personal use. Enjoy!
Poodle Reading a Thermometer (PNG) Download
Like I announced last Wednesday, I’m going to change things up a bit around here. The first new pattern is a hand applique poodle. In April of 2010, I designed him for my hand quilted wall hanging.
I suppose it’s hard to tell but he’s white with light gray legs in the shadows with embroidered nose and eye. You could make him any color and if you want to keep him with the right depth use a darker toned fabric for the legs in the shadows.
This wall hanging was my first foray into needle turn applique. When I did it, I used the freezer paper method. I traced my design onto the paper side of the freezer paper and ironed the shiny side with a dry iron to the right side of the fabric. Next, I cut out the fabric leaving about a 1/4″ margin all the way around and pinned it to where I wanted to stitch onto the background fabric. I used the freezer paper edge as a guide to the finished edge I wanted and used the needle to poke the edges under as I stitched the piece down with extremely fine thread that matched the fabric. I used Mettler Machine Embroidery thread but I hear another popular choice is silk thread. I didn’t bother with ironing under the 1/4″ margin as it seemed a little fussy. I did snip curves and corners as I went to help with puckering.
Here is the PDF with the pattern pieces. Download Feel free to ask any questions!
I’ve been dying to reveal what I’ve been up to behind the scenes and now that it’s mostly settled I can tell. We’re expecting a new addition to our family!
The last year, we’ve been pursuing adoption of a sibling group or an “older” child from Taiwan ROC. Just lately, we’ve been matched with a 6 year old little boy! We’ve accepted the referral and are waiting for the courts to finalize everything before we travel to go pick him up next year. After traveling, we expect to be quite busy helping him learn English, adjust to his new life in the US of A, and homeschooling him.
Isn’t he a cutie? Because of my expected future busy-ness devoted to our new little boy, I’ve been pondering how things are going to work. I decided that from now on, I’m working to convert everything will be download only. So you can still get your poodle designs here plus some new things. 
I’m going to start writing out patterns and instructions of things I used to sell at craft fairs and posting them here as well. So if you have a little crafty streak you can make some of the things yourself. I will still own the copyright for all drawings, patterns, and designs but you will be able to use them for your own personal projects as long as you don’t sell them for money. Just as a side note, even though all the downloads will be free but I will be accepting donations via PayPal if you’re so inclined. Calligraphy projects will be handled differently. If you’d like a piece done I’ll accept on a “as I have time” basis and will be the same rates as before.
It’ll take a little while to start changing things here, but I’ll eventually get there. First up, I’ve drawn out some quilt applique patterns — so look for those in the coming weeks.
Happy National Adoption Month!
While looking though some old artwork last week, I came across some farm animal silhouettes I drew the summer after my freshman year in college.
That summer, I worked at a living history farm in Austin, TX teaching 4 to 6 year olds how to be Texas pioneers. We did lots of different types of things but one thing I tried to show them was that when our chores were done, there were fun games to play without computers. One of the things we made were tissue paper parachutes with these farm animals attached. They had great fun making the chutes and then dropping them out the barn window then running down the barn steps to go get them on the ground.
Originally they were drawn to be printed on cardstock to use as the weight for a tissue paper parachute (The animals would be hole punched at the top and the string tied through the hole. If the animal is not heavy enough you can tape a washer or flat rock to the back of the animal. They would also be cute as as animal paperdolls.
These silhouettes would be great for other coloring type activities too.
Enjoy!
Farm Animal Silhouettes (PDF) Download
