designing Archive

Originally posted 2008-07-19 11:36:53. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThe 70′s and 80′s had lots of not good fashion things in them, but one trend which wasn’t was the trend for geometrics and, in the 80′s, geometrics in neutral colors. This fashion trend is one which translated well into needlepoint. Even today you can find incredibly cool modern geometrics. I found a blog post yesterday about the needlepoint of Atlantan Sol Kent. He was unhappy with the needlepoint available at the time, so he designed his own. Go take a look, the patterns are geometrics of various kinds, but the color schemes are chic neutrals like camel and white, or brown, light blue, white, and light brown. I just love them. One of the comments said “I love his pillows, which is surprising, because I am definitely a flower needlepoint kind of girl.” I’m more and Arts & Crafts/bungalow kind of

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“Garden of Delights” is the theme of the new crafts contest at Dover Books. Use Dover clip art, a Dover pattern,or be inspired by a Dover book & win $100 worth of Dover books. Winners appear in an upcoming catalog. The contest ends June 30,2013. The winning entry will be selected based on originality and technique by the Dover editors. Learn all about it here

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Originally posted 2010-04-14 07:26:34. Republished by Blog Post PromoterToday we have a guest post from my friend Jen Funk-Webber. She puts out a delightful email newsletter, The Needlework Nutshell. She also runs the Stitching for Literacy Bookmark Challenge and designs wonderful needlework which you can see on her site, Funk & Weber Designs (http://funkandweber.com/fw/index.html). In her most recent newsletter she mused about experimenting in needlework. I loved it, and she gave her permission to reprint it here. ************** I had an interesting e-conversation with Amy recently. I do a lot of preaching about experimenting with new embroidery techniques, materials, and ideas. I’m a huge fan of doodles and am undeterred by disasters. I am willing to leap before I look, and failure is (almost) as welcome in my house as success. Truth be told, failure comes around more often than success, but he can be quite entertaining, a lover of

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In the interests of helping you waste time and inspiring your needlepoint (though not directly) I bring you Silk. It’s an interactive art generator that has easy to use tolls that let you create wonderful designs that seem to be made of billowy silk or colored smoke. Click on the link and the design screen shows up, a blank black canvas. Put your mouse somewhere and start to move it. A symmetrical design will appear. On the left are options and controls. The dot in the line on the upper left is the controls button. With it you can pick colors. To do a color blend drag one color onto another, then you can start drawing with the blend. Below that is a slider that allows you to create symmetry with different numbers of points. When you select these the points appear as dark gray dots. You can save your

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Samplers and quotes are a continual attraction to stitchers of all kinds. From magnets which declare whether the dishes are “clean” or “dirty” to elegantly bordered and framed sayings, the combination of words and stitches allows almost anyone to become a designer. Today I will discuss choosing an appropriate quote, picking a style of alphabet, spacing and choice of a border. With these tools, you can make your own quotable quotes in needlepoint. Choosing a Quote When doing a quote in needlework, you need to be aware of the space each letter will take up and the effect this will have on the size of the finished piece. Ideally a quote for needlepoint should be short. Quotes for cross stitch can be longer because you can use Backstitched letters to put more letters on each line. The quote should also be something which breaks into more or less even lines.

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Originally posted 2010-01-09 07:21:07. Republished by Blog Post PromoterJoce has made wonderful progress on her geometric project and has done two more posts. The Big V adds the large diamond surrounding the center. From a Diamond to Some Squares adds detail to the diamond and begins the corner squares. Inspired by a comment from Joce, Barbara at Create Needlepoint is starting a project called Needlepoint Stitch Tangle. It’s based on a kind of doodle called a Zentangle. A second post lists all the stitches she will be using and show the painted design. I really love it and am thinking (hard) about doing one or more of my own. I think I’m going to ask people in my family to make the doodle and then stitch one for each of them as an ornament. My DD also asked me about doing a set of three ornaments for a friend’s daughter

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Originally posted 2009-08-19 07:34:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter I’m getting ready to start stitching a charming piece from Needle Delights called “Down the Garden Path.” I just love it and the way it uses so many different shades of Watercolurs. So I decided to use it as a chance to try some new colors of this and other overdyed threads, that were new to me. When I bought them I thought I could just switch one thread for another, but it isn’t quite so easy. The original threads have a range of values from light to dark, mine are mostly light. And they have a selection of multi-color threads and ones with shades of one color, I only have one or two single color threads. This happens to many stitchers, so I thought I would share with you how I have planned my threads out before I begin to

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Originally posted 2009-05-14 04:34:31. Republished by Blog Post PromoterTake a look at Kim’s photostream on Flickr of her house renovation and see her wonderful use of Bargello pillows. It’s the second option on the side. My DD would love to have a couch like one of these and so would I!

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Homestead, located in Grand Blanc, Michigan recently announced the rules for their needlepoint challenge. This year, you have a shape to stitch as you wish. You must, however, use at least one color each of two threads: Shaded Very Velvet and Petite Silk Lame. Here are the rules: The shape of this challenge is a sweater, drawn on white 18 ct. mono canvas at Homestead Needle Arts. It is approximately 4-1/2″ x 5″ in size. The sweater MUST be stitched with at least ONE color of Rainbow Gallery’s Shaded Petite Very Velvet AND at least ONE color of Rainbow Gallery’s Petite Silk Lame’. You may use any other threads, beads, buttons, attachments, etc. that you desire. The drawn canvas, Velvet and Silk Lame’ MUST be purchased here at Homestead Needle Arts between the dates of April 3, 2013 and May 18, 2013 (this date may be extended if there are

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Originally posted 2008-09-29 07:24:07. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThe Victoria and Albert Museum in London has recently made available these charming pictures and line draings of some of the patterns by Florence Caulfield, of South African plants & flowers. The patterns are free for you to print and to use in your embroidery. I’m crazy about the drawing in the middle of the second row and plan on using it for our next Stitch Along with Me Project. Line drawings like this which have large areas and not too much detail are wonderful to use for needlepoint. In a future post, I’ll talk about how to transfer them to canvas so you can stitch. Further down on the page are pictures of more of her embroidery without patterns. Just lovely stuff

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Originally posted 2009-05-29 05:40:08. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Are you looking for some lovely designs as a jumping off point for your work? The new blog, Indian Folk Designs, has lovely free drawings of all kinds of Indian art. They are classified by area and can be used as drawings to trace of as inspiration. While many of them are too detailed to be used for needlepoint as is, they could be a great starting point

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Alleluia! It’s Easter. To enjoy this lovely holiday, here’s some more lovely needlepoint thanks to Carolyn Hedge Baird’s blog, Living with Needlepoint. Have a blessed day!

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Although my office is filled with real chocolate bunnies and eggs right now, waiting for Easter, I carve some Easter-themed needlepoint. Happily Carolyn Hedge Baird’s Living with Needlepoint blog is filling the bill with this delightful look at needlepoint stand-up rabbits. Aren’t they just too cute? If this isn’t enough furry cuteness for you, look for needlepoint rabbits on Pinterest, there are lots of great ones

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Even if you have never tried your own design before you will learn how easy it is to create lovely personalized gifts in this Initial Needlepoint Mini-Class. In this two-lesson class you’ll create two gifts: the initial ornament and the super-size initial boxtop. You’ll learn: how to enlarge a letter for needlepoint how to transfer a design to needlepoint canvas how to pick an alphabet that works for monograms using Bargello needlepoint as a background using metallic effectively as a background self-finishing for boxtop or ornament Because the class is on-line, you don’t ned to travel to learn or even learn at the time the class is held. Nothing could be easier. The class begins May 5, 2013 and is only $20. This is an early bird discount. On April 4, 2013, the price goes up to $25. Use the PayPal button below to enroll now. If you would prefer

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Originally posted 2007-12-02 15:32:43. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI hope my previous two posts have gotten you excited about exploring the world of diaper patterns. As promised, I’ve searched the Web to bring together some additional resources about them. Diapers in Needlework (instruction) My friend, Judy Harper, loves diaper patterns and has a lovely post about them on her blog. Best of all it shows two wonderful designs. I have the egg one in my stash, but haven’t stitched it yet. On the ANG site, there is a two-part article on diaper patterns. Read Part 1 here. And Part 2 here. Ann Strite-Krutz has a wonderful sampler available to order for teaching you about diapers. Here are picutres of several stitchers work from an EGA class, Old Staffordshire, which showcases diaper patterns. Diapers in Other Media (inspriation) Artlandia has pictures of three diaper patterns. Google Books has the book Pattern

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