Q and A with Jewel Staite and a Kaylee craft

Kaylee Frye Shindig dress Cross Stitch

Jewel Staite, who played Kaylee Frye on “Firefly” and “Serenity” was in Kansas City for Planet Comicon this weekend, and a local movie theatre took advantage and showed “Serenity”, followed by a short Q&A with her. As Browncoats, my husband, daughter and I were pleased to attend.

The Q&A was fairly quick but interesting. Here are some highlights:

  • Jewel is apparently an “adventurous” foodie and has a food blog. She said while many in Hollywood “juice”, she does not: “I don’t juice. I steak.”
  • She has enjoyed all the food she’s had in Kansas City, saying that what she’s eaten has been “top notch”. She specifically mentioned Jack Stack BBQ and Genessee Royale.
  • She loves wine and enjoyed visiting Amigoni Urban Winery. She said if she wasn’t an actor, she’d probably be a winemaker. As much as she enjoys wine, however, she said Adam Baldwin is an even bigger “wine snob” than she is, but that’s ok, because he usually picks up the tab.
  • When she is at cons, she is often too busy to seek anyone out, but tries to make time to find cast members from “Lost“. She is a big “Lostie”; Matthew Fox is one of her TV crushes.
  • She hated wearing the ruffled dress in the episode, “Shindig” – it was just too cumbersome and hard to maneuver.
  • Someone asked if she kept any of the props from the “Firefly” set – she said Nathan Fillion took most of them and has his own “museum.” She also said Adam has the head of the “Hero of Canton” statue from the episode, “Jaynestown.”
  • Her favorite “Firefly” episodes were “Out of Gas” and “Objects in Space.”
  • She said Nathan frequently tried to prank her on set, such as putting lotion on the door handle of her dressing room.
  • She talks and texts with other “Firefly” cast members “all the time”: “I took away eight friendships.”
  • She has two dogs and loves animals.

To make this post geek-crafty, I found you a Kaylee-inspired craft: Kaylee in her Shindig Dress Cross Stitch Pattern (shown above, originally shared on Craftster – click to see other Firefly cross-stitch projects)

If you had attended the Q&A with Jewel, what question would you have asked?

Star Wars Cross Stitch

starwars-cross-stitch-tapestry-1

A long time ago in a galaxy far  far away… or possibly in LA.  There was  a tapestry to end all tapestries on display.  The tapestry, tells the entire story of Star Wars in cross stitch with text, below is the artists description of the work.

A hand-stitched cotton thread on 30 foot of continuous length of 7 stitch per inch Klostern fabric. Stiffened with a thin batting and hemmed with a custom-made printed pixel star farbric on rear. This cross-stitch tapestry depicts the Star Wars saga (so far) from Episode 1 through Episode 6. Quotes from each movie are written in Aurebesh on the surrounding border. Chanelling the Bayeux Tapestry.

That is an epic work.

Michael Myers Cross Stitch

Since tomorrow is Halloween, it’s the perfect time to feature Jasmin’s amazing cross stitch of everyone’s favourite serial killer, Michael Myers. (From the movie Halloween of course!)

Michael Myers Cross Stitch

Cross-stitching smileys; inspiring minds

About one million years ago I cross-stitched a whole bunch of forum smileys/emoticons and attached them to note cards for a massive Internet forum-based snail mail exchange. At the time I was pretty sure that what I was doing was ridiculous, but I was having fun, and these were only people on the Internet anyway, so who cared, right?!

Cross Stitch Emoticons

Today I received the nicest letter from one of the recipients that I’ve actually kept in touch with after all these years. In it, he explained that crafting had never occurred to him before he received my card, but that he loved it so much he tried out cross-stitch for himself (he actually sent me his first attempt – a Half-Life lambda icon), and that led to him trying out other crafts and projects from knitting, to papercraft, to electronics, and beyond!

So really what I wanted to share with you today was the thought that even though I was sure my little cross-stitch pixel-art cards were daft, they actually inspired someone out there to explore their own creativity, and that is AWESOME.

So keep crafting, folks – inspire away! And you know, looking back I reckon those emoticon cards were actually a pretty cool idea. If I do say so myself :)

Pet Semetary Cross Stitch Sampler

Pet Semetary Cross Stitch Sampler

I’m a HUGE Stephen King fan, so of course I was super-stoked to hear about the new tv show Under The Dome. I loved the book (which, by the way, is also HUGE), and when I heard that Hank from Breaking Bad (Dean Norris) was playing the baddie I was super-duper stoked!

Unfortunately, the internet says that there aren’t any Under The Dome crafts (Let’s try to remedy that, shall we?), so we’ll just have to make do with a Pet Semetary craft for the time being (and by “make do” I mean “this is awesome”). Emily of Pyro Dog Pins is the genius behind this cross stitch sampler, and the pattern is available for purchase at her Etsy shop.