Flickr Pool: Marvin Night-time Embroidery.

In my household reading the Hitchhickers Guide to the Galaxy is a rite of passage. It’s lexicon is the language of our everyday social interactions within the house. It’s a beautiful thing.

It’s very confusing for visitors.

So looking in the Flickr pool for today’s feature, there was only one choice for me.

Amazingly LadyHazard has never read the books, but she certainly captured the spirit (or lack thereof) of our favourite paranoid android. Its a beautiful piece (but just a slight warning, her photostream is awesome… but NSFW!… there you were warned, now go there anyway :-) )

Awesome work LadyHazard

Reader Submission: Toad Embroidery

Oh my, this little guy’s CUTTTTEE!!!

This cheeky little Toad was stitched and submitted my Melissa Watts from She’s Crafty, go to the blog to find more geeky and downright adorable embroidery, including, Zoidberg and Bender from Futurama, Portal, Bioshock, Daria and Dr Who inspired pieces.

Flickr Pool: Royal Tenenbaums Pillows

Royal Tenenbaums PillowsGrab your goggles, because Geek Crafts is taking a dip in the pool…the Flickr Pool!  Each week we’ll be showcasing some of the awesome geek creations made by our Flickr group members.

There are a lot of great crafts floating around the pool right now, and it was tough picking just one to kick off the series. As both an embroiderer and a film nerd, though, I was instantly drawn to Ellen Schinderman’s stitched submission.

This trio of pillows features the lovable losers from Wes Anderson’s film The Royal Tenenbaums, complete with quotes from the narrator. Drop by Ellen’s blog, Schindermania, to check out the backs of the pillows, too, which have fabric correlating to each Tenenbaum child’s personality (you can already see the fuzz from the fur coat backing for Margo’s).

Royal Tenenbaums Pillow MargoIf you want to see the pillows  in person, they’ll be part of the fifth annual “Crazy 4 Cult”  gallery show in Los Angeles, July 8-30. Congratulations, Ellen!

Portal Hoops

This is such a cool idea! I wish I had thought of this. TroubleT made these for her husband as part of his Father’s Day present (apparently she spoiled him big time–she also stitched him a Binary Man). This is so simple yet SO brilliant…I’m still kicking myself about not thinking to paint hoops as portals!

Shel Silverstein Embroideries

shel silverstein broiled face Shel Silverstein’s stories and songs were a big part of my life when I was growing up. He seemed like a fun, cool uncle that never got tired of spinning yarns and cracking jokes, and he was always as close as my nearest bookshelf.

I got that warm, fuzzy childhood feeling all over again when I spied LilyVanilli72‘s spot-on embroideries depicting Mr. Silverstein’s wonderfully weird illustrations.

I love how this traditional blackwork method of embroidery lends itself perfectly to Shel’s art style. Lily’s meticulous stitches don’t hurt the sketch-like effect either!

So far she’s done “Razor-Tailed Wren,” “Who Ordered the Broiled Face?” and “Running Giraffe.” I’m hoping she’ll stitch some more, like the classic “Boa Constrictor” (a personal favorite of mine).

Tutorial Tuesday! Star Wars Travel Embroidery Case.

Here’s one from me!!  (Geeky Sweetheart)

I had the utter JOY of participating in the Star Wars OTT (One Tiny Thing) swap on Craftster. This is what I sent out… It’s a circular embroidery case, which is large enough to accommodate a 6″ embroidery hoop, as well as supplies in its integrated needle-book and inner pocket, have a look!

Of course, I ended up making one for myself as well, I LOVE it! I took it to a hospital appointment where I had to hang around in the waiting room for 2 hours, I was sat there stitching away happily, could have stayed there ALL day (but glad I didn’t have to!)

The image on the front of the case there is by DeviantArt user Jasonpal, you should completely check out his gallery, there are all sorts of geeky goodies in there. Inkjet Iron on transfer paper is a brilliant thing! … The speech bubbles were my idea though!

Probably worth mentioning quickly about what I recieved on the swap from my fantastic partner SilentBlair. It was only the cutest little Wampa amigurumi for my little geek-to-be (2 months and counting til (s)he makes his/her grand entrance into the world!) Here he is next to my 1929 Singer hand-crank sewing machine and my baby Yoda hat I got from The Green Hedgehog on Etsy.

ANYHOW – I promised you a tutorial, and here it is. Go forth and make circular travel embroidery cases, emblazon them with your best geeky quotes and images, and dont forget to let us know about anything you make using the ‘submit a geekcraft’ link.

OOh and while I’m on the topic of tutorials, I’ve finally got my act together and organised a tutorials section on my blog. Now you have direct links to all the tutorials I’ve ever published, including my “Wretched Hive of Scum and Villiany” embroidery pattern and my Supergirl Costume.