See I think internet censorship is silly, rather pointless, and inevitably ineffective. I would even go so far as to say that it is a policy equivalent of fucking for virginity.

Our political leaders are supposed to introduce policies that REDUCE the problems in the most cost effective way. Not flick rubber bands at problems in a way that not only makes them harder to solve but creates a whole new raft of problems in the process, not to mention costing a big bundle of dollars.

If the government really wants to deal with the problems of sexual exploitation in our society perhaps they might want to start by looking at their own policies that treat women and children like tradeable commodities. Perhaps if the exploitation of women and children wasn’t so wholeheartedly endorsed by business, media, police, our governments etc etc then people wouldn’t find the sexual exploitation of women and children so enticing.

But big picture issues and solutions don’t fit so neatly into electoral terms do they?

What gets me the most about this whole internet censorship thing is the AUDACITY of the Minister to say that it’s to help parents protect their children.

Excuse me? If I needed help protecting my kid, I’m afraid the government is probably the last place I’d look. I would much prefer tax payer dollars were spent educating parents, teachers and anyone else who has interaction with kids and computers on the issues surrounding net safety, respect for women and how to empower kids to protect themselves.

Do we seriously think rape and sexual assault would be such big problems if our kids were empowered to respect all genders. I know thinking back to my teenage years there were far too many guys who thought it was ok to treat girls like objects and even more girls who just did not have the skills to stand up to it.

At some point we, as a society, have to do something real about this issue. And sadly, despite the rhetoric of ‘Australia Says No’ I doubt it’s gonna come from the government. So it has to be up to us as parents, aunties, uncles, grandparents, siblings and friends. Anyone wanting to read more on feminist parenting might want to start with ‘Raise Some Hell’. And if anyone reading this post knows of any good resources it would be awesome if you could share them in the comments.

Finally, I urge you all to drop a line to Stephen Conroy. He really is being quite a fool about all this malarky. And the more people who tell him the better.

http://nocleanfeed.com/

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This cross stitch was hand stitched on antique linen. In between breast feeding, changing and entertaining twins and feeding and hanging out with a three year old, it took me about 3 weeks to complete.  It has been framed in an antique brass frame with the original mounting board to complete the aged feel of this piece.

This piece is for sale and proceeds will go to the campaign to stop internet censorship.  Maybe someone out there wants to buy it for Stephen Conroy?

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This is my favourite piece:

Free Radicals: 1958. It’s one of his later films. But all the earlier ones are just as cool. I often used to pay a visit to the uni library and sit down for a watch when I needed a bit of time out and some inspiration. And while they’re cool to watch on youtube, watching on actual film is of course, very cool!

Secondly, I’m interested in ways to communicate to people just how slow cross stitch is as a craft. I am constantly explaining to people that my work usually takes months to complete and people are almost always surprised. And I suspect they wonder why I keep doing it… Without going into a big explanation – I’m saving that for another time – what I really enjoy about the slowness of cross stitch is the time it gives me to meditate on the subject I’m stitching about.

So anyway here’s my first animation attempt!

While this piece isn’t a very big one, I thought it leant itself well to the idea. I used iMovie to produce it and it was pretty easy to make. Although the software has changed since I last used it and I couldn’t figure out how to do a couple of things and just gave up trying..

Here’s two imbeds. First from Facebook cause I think it compressed nicer but that doesn’t work for a few people so the second is the youtube version.

Music of the Compuriddims EP on the most wonderful JaHtari Net Label.

This piece is part of a QR Code sequence I’ve been making for an upcoming show, and it’s next in the QRack series. More on that later.

I’d love to hear what people think!

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I wrote this great thing about how cool cross stitchers are ’cause we’re down with our roots and are ace at subverting traditional design, exhibit a, Kate Westerholt. Then I talked about how there’s this super ace pattern floating about which not only gives props to the old skool but also gets down with the nu skool in a mad sampler/pixel art/nerd joke remix.

Here’s the pattern:

And here it is in actual stitches:

And in true web styles, someone else had a go

And woah, it’s taking off now!

How freaking awesome is THAT?  I’m tempted to join in the fun and do one myself, but my WIP pile would seriously scream at me..

Props Mr X Stitch for the delicious find.

Oh, and speaking of nerdcore, Elle Carpenter (of HTML Embroidery fame) is up to no good in Sweden, and the Swedes, man, they know ALL ABOUT cross stitch! Check it out.

</laziest blog poste ever>

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So I thought, hey, why don’t I just make one. I can’t exactly help the project with my programming skills (read: none) so how ’bout just contribute some fan craft. Surely there is nothing cooler than nana core, nerd core fan craft?

So here’s a pattern, click on the image to download the pdf of the pattern and colours and complete cross stitch instructions.

Enjoy.

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The great news is that now it’s done! Well, it’s opening in an exhibition next weekend so it must be pretty close. So for you lucky people in London, you can get along and check it out.

It’s part of the Open Source Embroidery Exhibition:

This exhibition explores the connections between the collaborative characteristics of needlework, craft and Open Source software. This project has brought together embroiderers, patch-workers, knitters, artists and computer programmers, to share their practice and make new work.

Other works in the exhibition include Susanne Hardy’s Knit-a-Blog, a collective knitting project made by contributors from across the UK and USA, Iain Clarke’s PHP Embroidery, which explores the open source PHP programming language as a form of self-generating weaving, as well as artworks by Paul Grimmer, Tricia Grindrod, Jake Harries & Keith o’Faoláin, John Keenan, Trevor Pitt, Clare Ruddock, James Wallbank, and Lisa Wallbank.

And if you do get to check it out, look for my little patch, located somewhere in the top left of the quilt!

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MC Storm Troopa hails from the mighty crafty town of Hamiltron (naturally) and is absolutely brilliant, or should I say, fully sick mate!

I never would have thought that I’d find myself groovin out to a track called Empire Pride.

It’s nerdcore to the baddest and not only is it clever but it’s all extremely well produced. You could very easily drop any of these tracks into a party and noone would really notice. Mind you your friends might look at you funny if you played the You and Me Padme track…

Check out his Myspace and Virb and there’s tons of tracks on his Facebook page. Check out the very cleverly titled EP. The downloads are free due to some copyright thing. But if you like it you might like to find a way of flicking him some coin.

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So today I’m going to show you some nerdy stitch fun.

I often say to people who wonder why I’m convinced that cross stitch is cool that cross stitch is just like pixel art, just heaps slower.

So I loved it when I found this one:

It’s from the Subversive Cross Stitch photo pool at Flickr but I found it at this site, which has a lovely wee feature of this website! I don’t quite get what the post says ’cause it’s in Italian and I couldn’t get a very good translation of it all.

But I also LOVED this stitch.

If anyone can tell me where it came from, I’d be really interested to know.

OK so back on to the nerd theme… Im sure I’ve pointed out this site before but if not, check out spritestitch.com which has this AWESOME Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pattern. I was about 9 when the original series came out so there’s a real special place in my heart for the Turtles. Although I could never figure out why my pizza wasn’t as stretchy as theirs. I used to think I had to go to america to get stretchy pizza, but then I figured out animation…

I can’t wait to see this one finished!

Which brings me back to pixel art and quite possibly the most amazing WIP I’ve ever seen. So the story goes like this: I was at the Craft Cartel market in the beginning of February and one of our lovely stall holders said ‘hey check out this cross stitch’ and pulled out this bit of fabric wrapped in plastic.

It was this:

Which is a pattern design by Tea Party Revolution from the original drawing of aforementioned stall holder Lilly Kitten

I was floored! It is done on the tiniest canvas (22 count!) and it’s amazing. It’s even got silver thread accents in it. Which we all know is more unpleasant to work with than the plague.

Here’s an up-close of a small part of one eye lid to give you an idea of the level of detail

So I emailed the genius behind it all and this is the story she gave me:

It’s a piece known as Dirty Angel and her pattern is a work in progress (she is made from the original pattern, the revised and better pattern is being worked on). The original design is one of the LillyKitten design range, an original of which you can see here (and above):
As for her – she is roughly 43″ by 34″, and stitched on 22 count Aida using just over 180 different colours from the DMC colour range of stranded cotton. None of the colours are blended, at the moment anyway. So far she has taken roughly 2 years to do, since she enjoys frustrating the hell out of me as I attempt to change colours. She also enjoys making me frog her.

180 colours!! That is absolute insanity! 2 years! eek! holy crap wow! I wish I had the patience for stuff like this. I’ve started two big projects and that’s as far as they got… started.

Tea Party Revolution also sells her own cross stitch kits which we’ll hopefully see soon at the Craft Cartel and online. Will let you know when that happens.

There’s more WIP shots and other stuff here

Finally for Friday Fun, this one is slightly off topic but it’s still xstitch, or should that be X-Rated stitch, and also from the SCS pool:

Says it all really.

Have a good weekend!

xox

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So I had to share this one with you ’cause it reminded me of a number of people I know.

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This is The Datsuns in all their minipop glory

Awww, ain’t they cute?

So OBVIOUSLY these translate well into cross stitch (since pixel art is just plugged in cross stitch). And rubykhan has a bunch of them on her flickr. This is my fav. Guess who it is?

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