Favorite Artist of the Week: Holly Stalder

I'm in love with this layered silk chiffon dress by Holly Stalder. I can just picture myself wearing it in Rome, Italy at a cafe on a beautiful spring evening. Holly makes these dresses to order and can do them in any color. Fabuloso!

Straight from my Journal: Leprosy Colony, Nigeria

I'm starting a new regular feature on my blog called "Straight from my Journal." I always keep a journal when I travel, so I thought it might be interesting to pair my travel photographs with my journal entry from that day so you can see a little bit of what was going on behind the scenes of the pictures.

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March 21, 2007
Ogbomosho, Nigeria

For lunch today we had plaintains, fish, spinach with groundnuts cooked in it, and pounded yam. I liked the fish and spinach but think the pounded yam is probably considered the tofu of Africa- totally tasteless unless there is a sauce.

After lunch my family went to the leprosy colony called the Baptist Health Services Center. It was unlike anything I've ever experienced before. I've never known anyone with leprosy or seen what it does. It seems like it slowly hardens fingers and toes and then they fall off or something. (Later I found out they don't really fall off. To read more about this look on Wikipedia.) Many of the people there are better now, but will not be accepted in their home villages because the villagers fear catching leprosy. While at the colony, we walked around and saw some of the buildings- a men's ward, a chapel, and individual houses where families lived. We prayed with several people, talked with them, touched them, and shook their hands. The people there were so happy to be touched because usually everyone else is scared to be near them. I wasn't scared because I learned that you can't get leprosy from touching someone. You have to live a long time in unsanitary conditions before that could happen. We gave out some lifesaver candy, candy bracelets, bouncy balls, and plastic jelly rings to our new friends there. The rings were a big hit with the women. I met a woman named Grace that gave me an African name. It is Ayooluwa (pronounced A-yo-o-lu-wa) which means the Lord's joy. This was probably my favorite day in Africa. The people were so happy to meet us and I really learned a lot that day about being grateful for what you have.

Favorite Artist of the Week: Hine

Check out the cutest camera cases I've ever seen. They are made by Hine, a Japanese illustrator, video artist, and crafter who lives in Vancouver, Canada.

Famous Photographs Recreated with Legos

I love anything made with miniatures so when I found these macro photographs by Balakov on Flickr, I was in photo heaven! Each one is of a famous photograph, recreated with Legos. Brilliant!

100th PILLOW GIVEAWAY!

I am so proud to announce that I have reached a milestone in my business...MY 100TH PILLOW! Right now I have made 99 pillows and would like to create a special 100th pillow for one of my fans. This is my way of thanking all my loyal customers and friends for their support of my business.

To enter to win the 100th PILLOW GIVEAWAY, all you need to do is:

1. Look through my website http://www.shutterstitch.com/ and decide which pillow is your favorite.

2. Then post a comment under this blog posting. In your comment tell me which pillow is your favorite and why. (Hint: the pillows all have names above their photos on the website). Include your name and some way for me to contact you if you win- like an email address. (If you don't want to leave your email address on the blog for privacy reasons, you can email me your contact info seperately at: shutterstitch@gmail.com.)

3. On March 31 I will put everyone's name in a hat that posted a comment on this blog about my pillows. Then I will close my eyes and draw one out of a hat. That person will win a totally free 14 x 14 inch quilted pillow. You choose the colors, patterns, style, etc! I'll even ship it to you for free! Hooray!

Here are the 99 pillows I've made:

1 Police
2 Grass
3 Rust
4 Strawberry
5 Banana Split
6 Bulldog Tooth Fairy
7 Chocolate and Blueberries
8 Elmo Tooth Fairy
9 Bulldog Tooth Fairy
10 Bear and Bee Tooth Fairy
11 Safari
12 Fire
13 Fun Florals Pinwheel
14 Fun Florals
15 Purple Psychadelic
16 All Batik and Hand-dyed
17 Hawaii
18 Georgia Bulldog Tooth Fairy
19 Pink Ballerina Tooth Fairy
20 Kitty
21 Summer of Sun
22 Red, Blue, and Cherries too
23 Angel Tooth Fairy Pillow
24 Custom for Charity
25 Pink Hydrangea
26 Pink Hydrangea
27 Funky Flamingo
28 Tape Measure
29 Eiffel Tower Tooth Fairy
30 Wild West Map Pillow
31 Carrot Cake
32 Heart
33 Blue Guitar
34 America
35 Grape Splash
36 Yellow Handkerchief
37 Wilderness
38 Tape Measure 2
39 Day at the Zoo
40 Spring Flowers
41 Spring Flowers
42 Georgia Peach
43 Crazy Kitty
44 Paper Doll
45 Poppy
46 Farm Tooth Fairy Pillow
47 The Grass is Always Greener
48 Southern Peach Map
49 City Girl
50 Flowers and Birdies
51 Strawberry Fields
52 Flamingoes
53 Sew Awesome
54 Birds and Bears Tooth Fairy Pillow
55 Plum
56 Yellow Safari
57 Custom for Colleen
58 Custom for Colleen
59 Blue Guitar 2
60 Ducklings Photo Pillow
61 Plum Crazy
62 Pumpkin Petals
63 Beachy Keen
64 Purple Peach
65 Poppy Pillow for Lark Books
66 Horse Photo Pillow
67 Sock Monkey
68 UGA Map Pillow for Kreslyn
69 Monkeying Around
70 Custom Tie Pillow for Kendra
71 Custom Pillow for Brian
72 Custom Pillow for Brian
73 Banana Rama
74 Blue Circle
75 Brown and Peach Stripes
76 Carrot Cupcake
77 Bulldog Tooth Fairy
78 Bulldog Tooth Fairy
79 Day at the Beach
80 Desert
81 Diagonal Blue
82 Hawaiian Tropics
83 Nature
84 Orange Jungle
85 Sunset
86 Black and White
87 Garden
88 Watermelon Punch
89 Brown and Red Athens Map
90 Blue and Yellow UGA Map
91 Blue and Green Circles Athens Map
92 Green Peace
93 Pink Athens Map
94 Red, Black, and White UGA Map
95 Red and Black UGA Map
96 Dotty Orange and Blue
97 Dotty Orange and Blue 2
98 Red and Black Stripey
99 Red and Black Log Cabin
100 ???

Snow Day!

Living in Georgia, we only get snow every couple of years. So when we had 6+ inches fall this past weekend it was pretty amazing! I haven't seen snow like this since I was in middle school.

You can see my portrait photography studio building here in the middle photo.

Customize your own TIE pillow

I recently made a pillow for an Etsy customer out of her grandfather's neckties. He had passed away last fall and she wanted to give the pillow to her mother on her mother's birthday. The tie pillow turned out so well and was such a neat idea that I am going to start offering custom tie pillows as a regular product in my Etsy shop. It's a great way to remember or honor someone special like a father, grandfather, brother, boyfriend, or husband. (By the way,the little embroidered 22 in the corner is for his lucky number.)

Here's what my customer said about her pillow:

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I gave my mom the pillow yesterday and she LOVES it. There were a lot of tears. And a lot of thanks yous. So my hat's off to you for all the great work. -Kendra

Spring Pillows at Helix

I just took a new batch of Shutterstitch pillows to Helix, a hip gift store in downtown Athens that sells my work. Go check them out before they are all gone. One of my most popular pillows is the "Athens map" pillow or "UGA map" pillow. The maps are printed on fabric, quilted so that they puff up, and are washable.

Favorite Artist of the Week: The House of Mouse

Who doesn't love miniatures? This adorable Frida Kahlo Mouse comes with a photo of herself and Diego Rivera as well as her signature unibrow.

The House of Mouse, on Etsy, hand sews each mouse using felt, silks, ribbon, glue, paper, card, wire, beads, monofilament and stuffs them with polyfil.

Too cute!

Cards for Africa

Here is another great non-profit called Cards for Africa. This helps families affected by AIDS and genocide in Rwanda. There are all types of cards from birthday and thank you cards to wedding and valentine cards.

Global Mamas

My Mom just introduced me to this wonderful non-profit called Global Mamas. They help women in Africa earn a fair, sustainable livelihood by making clothing, accessories, and home decor. All proceeds go directly to the women and to non-profit programs that assist them with business development.

I loved so many things on their website, but finally ended up purchasing a bag, shirt, and skirt. I can't wait for them to arrive in the mail!

Favorite Artist of the Week: Satisfactory

I LOVE these cozy jersey cotton scarves by Satisfactory. This one is printed with an image of horses on it. Can't you imagine cuddling up in it on a cold day?

The Making of a Quilted Shutterstitch Pillow

Step 1- I pick out harmonious colored fabrics and cut them into strips with my rotary cutter.

Step 2- I arrange the strips so they create a nice composition with well balanced colors and patterns.

Step 3- The strips are sewn together.

Step 4- I machine quilt batting onto the back of the pillow top to make it "puff out".

Step 5- The envelope style backing is sewn on.

Step 6- Wa-la! The pillowcase is finished. I will then stuff it with a pillow insert and it will be on its merry way to its new owner.

Recycled Fabric Cards

I am trying to recycle as much as possible and have been making these cute fabric cards out of the scraps of fabric leftover from my pillows. I was inspired by a Pippi Longstocking book with fabric illustrations that I saw at my school. The cards are available on my Etsy shop.

Favorite Artist of the Week: Jennifer Maestre

As an art teacher, this pendant is straight after my own heart. I am so curious to see how jenmaestre slices these thin layers of colored pencil to make her beautiful pendants, pins, and earrings!

Carrot Cake Muffins

I am in love with my new cookbook called Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld's wife). The book is chock full of recipes that teach you how to hide pureed fruits and vegetables in everyday foods. It's great for families with picky kids (or picky husbands!)

I made these carrot cake muffins with cream cheese frosting this morning and my husband and I have been chowing down on them. They actually have cauliflower puree, carrot puree, chopped apricots, chopped prunes, and orange juice in them (among other things)... and they are actually really good!

The book also has some other great recipes that I've tried from mac and cheese (butternut squash puree), french toast (pumpkin puree), meatball soup (carrot and sweet potato puree), peanut butter and jelly muffins (carrot puree), and chicken nuggets (spinach puree). This is the first cookbook I've ever had where I think I might actually try all the recipes.

Favorite Artist of the Week: Plum Creek Mercantile

I've been trying hard to not use as many plastic baggies and containers in an effort to reduce my impact on the environment. That's one reason I like Plum Creek Mercantile's fabric snack bags. They are machine washable and easy for little hands to open. Check out all of her reusable bags on Etsy.

New Website

I am so excited to have launched my new website this week! http://www.shutterstitch.com/

I've been busily creating it over the holidays and have added some new wedding photos from Jason and Elizabeth's wedding to it too. Check it out!

Favorite Artist of the Week: Craft Pudding

What's not to love about these whimsical hand-carved stamps by Craft Pudding? I know I want one!

Wedding Photography

These are a few of the photographs I made of Jason and Elizabeth's beautiful wedding last week. Congrats guys! The rest of their wedding images will be posted on my website in a few weeks when I'm finished with all of them.