Happy New Year…er… Happy New Day!
Well, hello there. Where have you been?
Here?
You’ve been here, waiting for me to post?
Well, I haven’t been here posting. I’ve been on adventures that have taken me from the mitten state (Michigan) to West Virginia to Texas and I’ve finally arrived back at Domestigay headquarters. I’m so sorry, that you’ve been waiting for a post for me for so long. To make it up, I have tons of great posts coming with free stuff for you for that special love day that’s coming up! So, grab a latte and let’s catch up.
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I finished my first semester in graduate school! Yay! But I couldn’t survive without stitching. So, late one night in my office I procrastinated by stitching. Looking around I realized there was nothing to stitch! *collective gasp* Using some ingenuity and creativity, I give you book-stitching (something I want to do for real now).
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Now, remember how I said only one person was getting an embroidered gift this year (cause that’s all I could reasonably do), well here it is! My friend M is Russian and has two Russian tattoos (one says feminist in Russian, the other are nesting dolls). So, now she an embroidered tote of her tattoos! (you can get the pattern from Sublime Stitching here)
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And that brings us to the great state of Texas! J and I went to Texas. For New Year’s Eve we went to a B-Movie Ball. It was awful. The party was not happening—that is, not until we showed up! Check out our costumes. Can you guess who we went as? (PS: Is that glitter on my pencil mustache or are you just gay to see me?)
I did some stitching on the plane to and from Texas (but it must remain a secret)! I joined the stitching mile-high club!
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I am dedicated, now, to organizing my embroidery supplies, too! I made this cotton/linen bag to tote all my embroidery supplies around with me (see photograph above about not having stitching nearby at office).
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Oh, geesh, look at the time. I sure did talk about myself a lot! I’m sorry, mom, I know it is not polite to talk about myself so much. Now, moving on… give me someone else to talk about! Please send your craft/art projects to domestigay@gmail.com or find me on Twitter (@domestigay) or on Facebook (facebook.com/domestigay) or on Instagram (domestigay). I’m becoming an Instagram-addict. It’s true! Tomorrow I am absolutely talkin’ about someone else—D from Texas (who was in West Virginia while I was in Texas!) sent in a stitched up tote she made for her friend for the holiday! Stay tuned!
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Coming soon to domestigay:
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Valentine’s you won’t be embarrassed to give (cause they’re gay)
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I resurrect underwear stitching
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More beefcakes!
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Musing on jealousies—complete with stitching.
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How I am organizing my floss
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AND SO MUCH MORE! STAY TUNED (I promise to write this more)
Embroidered iPhone!
Hey, there. Guess what I did. I embroidered my iPhone!
I have been enviously looking at blogs where people have embroidered their iPhone for weeks now. In fact, I was thinking of the idea before I even saw it on any blog, and then it appeared on a lot of craft blogs. After a quick search on Google, I found a cheap website to order from. I ordered a couple (because they were so cheap). After a week of hearing nothing other than PayPal releasing my money to a Chinese company, I thought I’d get in contact with them. Using a type of instant messaging service, I spoke with a customer sales representative who had very broken English (which made me thankful for the instant messaging because I could diagram the sentences in my head when they were really bad—dork!). This representative said that the products I ordered were, “on order behind.” This means backordered. They did not know when/if the product would be received, ever, so then they refunded my money.
So then, I followed a link from a blog that swore quick shipping by both the American writer and many of the commenters. I ordered it, and in one short week, I received a package from Korea. Inside was my shiny new cross stitch iPhone case. I’ve had this case since September and have been anxiously wanting to stitch it. I could not figure out what to put on it. A whale perhaps? “Domestigay,” maybe? One of the included patterns of Superman? The traditional, “Jason,” you know to make sure everyone knew who I was. No. Then last week, Boyfriend and I went to the bookstore and I got to page through two books I’ve been dying to get my hands on—Push Stitchery and Hoopla. I was so inspired I decided I needed to have embroidery in my daily life. I decided I’d tackle on the iPhone case. Even though my canvas is for cross stitch, I used an embroidery stitch to design the cover. The herringbone stitch is one of my favorites. So, without plotting I just took off stitching. I started with a light grey, then moved onto a darker grey and a d
arker grey, ending the row early. At the end, I thought the stitched sides needed to be (mildly) connected, so I embroidered Xs (aka large and spaced out cross stitches) down the center. I am quite happy with the results. For my next techno stitch, I want to get this MacBook case and embroider it! Where will the madness stop!?
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There are only THREE days left of MOvember! Have you donated yet? There is still time! Go to http://mobro.co/jvanfosson to help me change the face of men’s health! So far, I’ve raised $135.00! I’d love to make it an even $200! Thank you to all of you who have already donated. Every contribution helps—no matter how big or how small. In fact, if everyone who viewed my YouTube video donated just one dollar (less than a cup of coffee), I would have raised over $400.00 for prostate and testicular cancer!
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I Need a Drink
Is this week almost over? This week has certainly been one of the most difficult, trying, stressful, and questionable weeks since the great migration to the Midwest. It’s time for a drink!
So what does a good domestigay do when he has a stressful week? Embroider, of course!
I am currently embroidering six cocktail napkins. Each cocktail napkin features a different drink. So, without further ado, I present the first of this series.
This is my vodka-on-the-rocks glass. I call it this as opposed to an old-fashioned glass because the colors really remind me of the Absolut vodka bottle—silver, grey, blue. I hope you like it—the vodka, not the embroidery.
The first picture in this post shows the napkin itself. I got the napkins, of course, from Sublime Stitching. You cannot get these napkins anymore. BUT, there are a whole set of new cocktail napkins at Sublime Stitching you can get. I want to get them in blue and black. If you want to embroider your own cocktail napkins, you can order them here and get a free pattern for them from here. Did I mention how much I love Jenny Hart? I think she saved my life. The pattern that I used for this comes from Jenny Hart’s first book, Sublime Stitching. I like the simple patterns in it, but I prefer her second book (to come in a later cocktail post) for directives and projects.
On another note, I’m really excited about the coming week for domestigay! Domestigay will be getting a great face-lift and I can’t wait to revamp the website. That means that if you are reading this in a RSS feeder or in your e-mail, you MUST come visit when I say so.
In the meantime, tell me, what projects are you currently working on? Submit some pictures! I’d love to hear from you!
Related articles
- Free Cocktail Napkin Embroidery Patterns From Sublime Stitching (craftzine.com)
- Beefcakes and Cruising (domestigay.net)
- Pin-Up Grrls (domestigay.net)
What is Domestigay? And how do I use it?
Be Domestigay Proud!
Good question. Given my love for language, let’s begin with a definition and usage lesson.
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Do·mes·ti·gay /noun/ 1. A domestic homosexual 2. The intersections among queer sexualities, domesticity, and activism 3. An attempt to confront and combat heterosexism through domestic production. 4. A movement in the domestic arts and queer community that attempts to interrogate heterosexist assumptions that continue to make homosexuality monstrous to both heterosexual and homosexual identities.
Do·mes·ti·gay·tic /adjective/ 1. Characterized as exhibiting qualities that directly challenge heterosexism through the domestic arts (i.e., embroidery, cross stitch, baking, knitting, etc.). 2. Of or pertaining to the queer household.
Do·mes·ti·gay·te / verb / -gay·ted, -gay·ting 1. To engage in subversive and queered domesticity. 2. To challenge heterosexist thinking through the domestic arts (i.e., embroidery, cross stitch, baking, knitting, etc.) 3. To rewrite the heterosexual narrative of domesticity in a suspect or queered way. 4. To live a domestigaytic life.
Do·mes·ti·gay·tor /noun/ 1. A person who engages in actions indicative of domestigay philosophies. 2. A person who domestigaytes their life.
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I am starting this project because, despite recent successes in the queer community, I have realized that lgbtq rights have a long way to go and heterosexism is alive and well. This realization is something that I have been living with for quite awhile but I have not known how to go about actually engaging and creating these discourses in a meaningful way. Recently, however, I have been thinking about the crafting skills I have picked up in the last few months. I concluded that there is something quite powerful about the domestic arts and queer culture working together. Typically, I (and many other people I have talked to about this) have thought of queer culture as the antithesis to domestic arts. In reality, queer culture and domestic arts are the perfect places to work toward combating heterosexism in a constructive, subversive, and, I think, non-threatening way. (Seriously, when is the last time anyone went running out of the room screaming at an embroidered tea towel?) With this new understanding and vocabulary of domestigay I move forward to better understand both queer culture, domestic arts, and how these two areas can be most effectively used for activist and subversive projects. I ask you, loyal reader (If you read this far, you are quite loyal), to join me and became one of the few, the proud, the domestigays.
Domestigay 