All Those Lovely Ribbons...

One of my all-time favorite canvaswork designers is Carol Costello.

She was designing the most exquisite things way back in the '80s. (She printed her patterns under the name, Fancy Work & Fantasies.) And I still think they're the classiest and most elegant stitchery I've ever done...even now. I stitched several of her designs, and still love looking at them and marvelling at their intricate beauty. And best of all: THEY WERE SO FUN TO STITCH!!

My sister Diane went to college down in Irvine, California in the '80s. She was in her needlepoint phase back then (she's a fantastic art quilter nowadays...) and when she went looking for a needlepoint store in southern California she found Nantucket West in Costa Mesa. And she discovered Carol Costello, who was teaching classes there. When Diane came home for college breaks, or when I went down to visit her, she would be working on Carol Costello designs and I fell totally in love with whatever project she was doing at the time.

Working on Carol Costello designs opened up a whole new world of canvaswork for me (and I'm sure a lot of other stitchers). All of her designs were counted on canvas, usually on the basic tan canvas, since that was the only "color" available besides white. I, of course, changed the color palette of her designs and stitched with more colors (hers were usually ecru on tan or very pale colors).

In the photo above, the piece in the background was intended to be ecru on tan, but I did it on white canvas in pinks and greens (my all-time favorite color combination). That piece is also rather unique because it is actually a selection of blackwork patterns - but done on 14 ct mono canvas - something REALLY ahead of its time! I have both these pillows on my bed today, and still love looking at them...and they still have things to teach and inspire me...

I remember vividly how much fun I had stitching those Carol Costello designs. In fact, that feeling of stitching something wonderfully different - something intricate and elegant, yet NOT DIFFICULT - has remained with me during all my stitching years. And it has been the benchmark for all the patterns I have designed. I always strive to create patterns that are a delight to the eye but not so difficult that they make you weep in frustration!

The joy of stitching should be just that: A JOY. If it makes you snarl, curse, weep, or fling something across the room, you are NOT having fun. And stitching should always be fun. It should be fun to learn something new; fun to add a new technique to your stitching repetoire; fun to share with friends; and once finished, fun to look at years later and remember how much fun you had creating it....

And the Next Flower Collage Will Be...

I've had a few emails from stitchers asking how many flower collages I will be designing overall in the Collage series. Well, I was rendered speechless over that question. I'm planning to stitch as many flower collages as there are flowers (which is A LOT!), and for as long as I find them interesting to stitch (which should be forever). I'm guessing that I'll be designing flower collages as long as I continue stitching....(which, God willing, will be a really long while yet...)

But for you flower collage lovers, here's a peek at the latest flower collage that I'm currently stitching right now. Can you guess what the center flower will be?
(Pssst....HINT, HINT: It's the flower in the enhanced/blurred photo above.)

In this new design, I've created another yummy pair of ribbons that are really fun to stitch...

And in the lower left box I've stitched a simple bargello pattern that incorporates the variegated color in the top row of the flower bud (see how the colors move along the rows?)

And in the upper left box, I've created a very simple floral blackwork design (using the variegated thread) that echoes the tiny four-petal flowers found in the real flower.

I also enjoyed creating the large pattern in the upper right box. I wanted an airy lattice foundation (to suggest a garden lattice)....but I used the variegated thread for the foundations stitches (instead of the solid greens) and then added rows of flowers in alternating colors of lavender. Isn't it interesting how the variegated colors of the "latticework" really looks like sun-dappled light on a garden lattice? (And viewed from a distance, that pattern has a rather rich, medieval tapestry look to it...I really like it....)

And I decided to use the newest variegated floss from DMC - their "Color Variations" thread - for the pale background filling. It's a nice, soft watercolory wash of pale blues and lavenders using only 1 ply of the cotton floss in a simple 4-way stitch. (If you are a painted canvas stitcher, you might consider using that very simple 4-way stitch to fill in backgrounds. And you can use 1 or 2 ply of a variegated silk or cotton thread to create a soft, washed look - just like in the photo above.)

Well, that's all for now....time to get back to stitchin' and graphin'!

(P.S.: If you have any favorite flowers you'd like to suggest for future flower collages, let me know.... I'd certainly appreciate hearing your ideas!)

Oh, To Be in California When the Irises are in Bloom...

The irises are blooming now in Northern California.
It's so fun to walk around the neighborhood and see all the colorful irises in bloom. I never can decide which colors I like best - they're all so luscious. And they all seem so fragile, you have to enjoy them while they appear, for they are gone from the garden so soon...

Here's an iris that's blooming in my neighbor's yard. She has drifts of purples, yellows and even some coppery bronze ones that are very different.

And look what I did after playing around with the iris photo in Photoshop... I used one of the artsy effects to create this painterly version of the iris. I just love the effect! It reminds me of a pastel drawing, or maybe a bold watercolor painting...

I can visualize this translated into a quilt, using batik fabric. But I'll have to think about how you could translate this image into a stitchery piece. The blurred edges are so soft and very Monet-like....I'm not sure how you could stitch that effect, but it's worth considering using blobs of color, outlined with light, to create that halo effect...hmmmm.

And as long as I'm mentioning iris, here's one of the first flower collages I stitched: the Bearded Iris Collage. I used a soft variegated thread (Watercolours' Harvest) that had soft apricots and lavenders. Although I stitched it to hightlight the apricot iris, you could certainly use lavender colors to create a lavender iris in the center instead.!
I wish I could stitch it up BOTH ways, to see both versions....(and then of course you could also try a pale cream iris too)...sigh...there's just too many yummy possibilities sometimes, and it's hard to pick just one to stitch...

And because there are so many different types of irises, I'm planning to stitch another iris collage sometime - I'm thinking I'll do a Japanese Iris or my favorite, the Pacific Iris (both flatter flowers that you view from above)....