Crewel Embroideries: Greatest Hits Volume 1

I decided I want to keep a record of my fabulous finds of yarn art. It occurred to me that I could have a colorful, kitschy gallery of gorgeous had I kept my crewels instead of selling them for money.
As of lately, these are my current "thing." You know, the thing I'm obsessed with at the moment. I've been very lucky! Here is a little retrospective from my first six years as a vintage seller.
Thing is, a lot of these are older pictures that I just saved from my Etsy account. I recently switched computers and haven't transferred many files over. I probably should have because some of these pics are potato quality.

I kept this big beautiful willow tree. ($5!) It's still hanging in that same spot.
I think I'll try and separate up this mass of pics into themes. I guess I'll start with larger sized ones. Here are some other big crewel wall hangings.

So awesome! The sun with a face really sold this one for me. One of my favorites and it was sold along with some other stuff as a prop for a Netflix show.

It's not exactly huge, but seem to remember it being...not small.

I found this biggie at my local thrift, OutFITers and after listing it sold immediately. Then I regretted it. I really should've kept this one.

This beautiful forest was actually found at the bins! The Goodwill Outlet, where people throw and grab aggressively. I just looked over and saw this standing up among other items in a bin that no one was looking at. I quickly ran to it, assuming the worst but much to my surprise it had no damage! A god damn miracle!

This one wasn't exactly huge either, but I remember it hung around for a good while. I feel like I usually sell southwestern themed stuff pretty well, so I was annoyed that I had to mark it down.

This is one from the string of autumn color crewels I had for a while. When I go into my local Savers the first thing I look at is the wall hanging wall. I soon found this one and noticed its cool 3D flowers. It was found along side this little one:

This next one is a favorite.

A short time later, I was looking in the exact same spot at Savers when I spotted this. For real, my jaw dropped. This big pink masterpiece was incredible! It sold within 24 hours of listing.

Here's a closeup.

I had a similar experience with this one. I was in OutFITers when I glanced over and saw this leaning against a bookshelf with a shopper precariously close by. I made a dash for this thing before someone had the chance to knock it over or put it in their cart.

This one is like the Cadillac of crewel art. It's big, unique, and expertly done. The frame is professionally done, heavy and high quality!
I mentioned earlier that I had a run of good luck with Autumn flowers. Let's transition to embroideries made of brown, orange, rust, avocado, and harvest gold...
But first this one:

Here's the story. Over the summer, I thrift like maniac. I was on my way back from a trip to a Savers and Goodwill a few cities over. Apparently, I hadn't had enough because I stopped into OutFITers on my way home.
One of the employees approached, "Hey, you look at wall art a lot, right?" Once confirming, I was led into the backroom and shown a large canvas cart of wall hangings. They had just come in and hadn't even been priced yet. I excitedly looked through the treasures, where I immediately spotted that one with all the plants and the wood stand.
Score! A framed crewel! "Definitely want it!" I said, greedily. Then I found this:

Like the first one it was made by "A.J. Stanley." Then I found this one:

Thanks, A.J.! I told the woman I would take all three and thanked her for sharing these treasures with me. She pulled out a price gun and said she would ticket them. $3 each. Three professionally framed, hand embroidered artworks for a total of $9.
At some point afterwards, I actually found another one just like the blue/orange/brown flowers in a basket.
Also, this one.

 This one fits both themes; it's seasonal and it's large. I believe that was a Goodwill find where a week later I also found...

Fishing supplies. I don't love the subject, but great execution!

Oof. Not a great picture, but I can assure you these owls on a branch with an orange background was great quality! I can say that about this next picture too!

They're pillows!

Look at that little cutie. I don't know whether the quote is suggesting that the chipmunk listen for the earth's music, or that the chipmunk is going to sing for us. I'm not a huge fan of their music; their voices are way too high pitched. (Get it?)
This charming cottage looks autumn-y.

All right, let's wrap this up with some sunsets.

This style is called "long stitch." Man, I love a good '70s landscape. This one has a matching orange frame!

 Awesome shades of orange on harvest gold.

This one is somewhat similar. Isn't it kinda creepy? I love that.
Join me next time for some more yarn art!

Moody and her Ghosts

Ahem. About the title...

 

 The song is actually called "Jenny of Oldstones."

It's Game of Thrones Season!

There are few things I love in this world more than Game of freakin' Thrones. At the time of this writing, there are three episodes left. Three glorious Sunday nights and then there will be no more Westeros, no dragons, no Kings Landing, and no more Jon Snow.
 Anyway, I was rifling through the bins at the Goodwill outlet last week when my eyes spotted this:

 

It's a pillow sham.

If you've watched any of season 8, you might see where I'm going here. That faux fur reminded me of something!

********Spoilers Ahead!*******

The show (and yes, also the books) is full of symbolism. Even the costumes help tell the stories. Here Daenarys Targaryen, who's spent the last seven seasons trying to reclaim the throne once held by her father, as she was believed to be the rightful heir.
This season, she rode her dragons to The North with Jon Snow. Since winter has come, she wears a luxurious fur coat. She looks cold as ice as she prepares to rule the Seven Kingdoms.
Only thing I rule over is a wrestling ring.

Well, sometimes... (Check posts tagged WAW Wrestling for the background.) My boyfriend Chris hasn't wrestled since our last stint four years back where we did a GoT gimmick with fur capes and whatnot. He agreed to do a short stint for a special event; but he needed a story.

Here's how our story played out!

This time we did it as our oldschool characters. Our angle started when Christian Sain, (my guy) stormed the ring after a long absence to flip out on Derek Conway, a commentator who brought up his name during the previous show. It was a paranoid meltdown where he raged against Conway for "saying his name!"
The next week, he came back and pulled the same stunt. But this time he swerved and instead of taking issue with Conway, he called out: "Stop saying my name... Henry!"

 It was like in this scene when Sansa turned the tables on Littlefinger

Henry is our very popular, good guy announcer. Now Chris has really hammered it home that he's the villain. Conway came in to save Henry and there was a brawl. This week, the company president intervened to put a stop to her man. (That's me.)
I apologized on behalf of Christian Sain and promised to keep him away. Conway wasn't convinced. I left the ring while he looked at me with shifty eyes.
This was meant to put suspicion about my true intentions into the viewers' minds. Of course, Conway called for a match with Sain, who refused saying he was a 4X WAW Champion and would only do a match if it was for the WAW title. And he knows that his girlfriend will make that happen.
Hmmm...will I be a fair and just queen? Or would I take the side of my partner and screw everyone over?
That's what they're doing with the Daenerys' storyline. Will she bend the knee for Jon Snow when she finds out he is actually the heir to the throne? Or will she just have her dragon shoot fire and burn everyone like her father, "The Mad King" would do?
There is a 0% chance that anyone who saw my costume for the Special Event Show, Legacy, understood that my costume was a reference to the small similarities to our stories. It's like an Easter egg, a symbolic thing that no one will notice.
So what will I do with that pillow sham?

 It's a no-sew!

I draped it over my shoulders and safety pinned it under the arms like that. It was like a "shrug" top like this:

The Dragon Queen always displays her house sigil and has a huge, sparkly dragon thing on her coat. My "house sigil" is a bee or a star (my name is Moody Starr so that checks out.) I pulled out some pendants and pinned them on with a medieval looking brooch.

Here's what it looked like!

That's "backstage" maybe I'll check Facebook for an in-ring shot later.

If you're still reading this, thanks!

And if you're wondering what happened at Legacy? You're probably not, but just in case...
I told Christian Sain that he would be fighting for the title and he would be in the main event...but not tonight.
I demanded he give Conway the match. They fought and Sain was defeated but then they shook hands to great applause and it was a happy ending.

Can You Dig it? Sucka?!

That title is referencing the theme music for the wrestler/now commentator Booker T.

Here is a link to the song. Enjoy.

In this case "sucka" refers to "seersucker." Seersucker is a puckered, lightweight cotton fabric usually with thin stripes. Most commonly, blue and white stripes.

Here's my seersucker dress!

Here is an article about the history of seersucker. 

You see, seersucker is historically worn in the south where it's hot. There's even a seersucker day in Congress where the senators all wear it! My dress would be perfect for sweaty school days!

I bought that dress last year at Savers then spent all summer of 2017 trying to make it work. As you see in the picture, it's mostly just long. I thought it would be an easy fix. Nothing's ever easy for me!

Here's the first step! Little off the bottom, little off the sleeves... (Moody likes mid length dresses and short sleeves!) It was not a bad start...just a little loose fitting in some areas.

Here's my testing out some fabric pinching with some safety pins. I put a few gathers in the back. Gathers? Darts? Don't know the proper term for this. Starting to look better...but something was off.

Does that look cute to you?! Nope. It does not. It's that damn collar. Well, I know what I've got to do.

Seam ripped the collar and made a v neck. Hello, sexy new neckline!

NO. That is not a sexy neckline. It's not right at all. 

Undeterred, I stood in front of the mirror with my pins, adding more "darts". Then I hacked more sleeve off. Here's what I got:

I love it. I wore it to school and received many compliments! Here's the big finish:

 Sorry, I took a lot of pictures.

 There's the little sash belt.

So school was a little different last year. I've spent the last 6 years in kindergarten and first grade. In September, 2017 they sent me upstairs. With the big kids. I spent my days shuffling between several fourth and fifth grade classes. I was reunited with my old friends! My first babies from kindergarten 2012-2013 "graduated" from fifth grade. I may have teared up a bit. 

Never Gonna Give You Up

Go ahead...click this link. It's harmless and totally worth it...

LOLOLOL, 😂😹😭Did you click it?! Ha! It's 2018 and I used that old gag! The joke cycled back around and got funny again!
Sure I haven't posted all year (by that I mean school year, I always go by that calendar) but I'll never give you up, blog! 
Also, this old thing:

I picked up this beauty back in the early part of the decade and even then it didn't fit well. Here I am wearing it with some control top tights and a wide belt:

Look at the print. Cats. Kitschy looking cats with tiny pink polka dots. I love the print and I love cats! It's a sheer, woven acrylic. This dress was not comfortable and (when not posed and with a filter added) not flattering. But still; I held onto it. What can I do with a too small dress? Make an infinity scarf? Give it to a kid? No.

 Cut that shit in half.

By the way, I do most of my sewing at night that's why the pictures come out terrible.You can see, right? I cut the dress right down the middle. This is not a new trick for me. Browse the archives, you'll find a few button-up dresses being worn unbuttoned and layered over other clothes. Another thing I do a lot?

I take collars off. They bug me.

Yeah, so I removed the button placket (placket? wtf is that?) and sewed up the raw hem on each side. Now I have this!

 

It's like a sheer vest thing! Isn't it kinda cute? When I'm not wearing a dress I'm wearing tight, stretchy pants. The tights black pants and top combo becomes a blank canvas for something like a kimono or long cardigan. Long is the key word here. 

These pics were taken at the end of a day with some shit lighting. Didn't much feel like attempting to smile for the camera. I did my usual "look down at the floor" thing, it's just easier for me.

Here's a close-up selfie:

And here's the side by side: