Playing with Patterns: Herringbone

I was looking thru magazines this morning while having my breakfast and came upon this page with two interesting herringbone patterns:


The magazine blurb says about herringbone patterns: "...rendered in new materials, with a metallic flash or a new set of references, this spiny motif of syncopated chevrons reaches higher levels of chic."

Of course, I was intrigued about how these patterns might look as stitched patterns, so I created a doodle canvas and whipped out some herringbone samples:


The three patterns on the RIGHT were stitched with #5 pearl cottons. I like each one of them. They have great potential as borders for painted canvases, don't you think?The middle (solid color) one would make a great basket texture on an appropriate canvas (it's done on the diagonal over 8 canvas threads). Imagine this herringbone pattern as a border to a handpainted canvas, with a plain (or padded) diagonal satin stitched row on either side of it, to create a basketweave mat effect around the central design. Can you "see" how elegant that would look?

The other two patterns have a variegated thread in them; maybe it makes them rather busy, but perhaps with subtler variegated colors it could create a sophisticated effect for a border, or large pattern area. Imagine this pattern done in two solid colors - or maybe two solid colors, but in different TEXTURES - wouldn't THAT look elegant?? [FYI:The top right pattern is done in rectangles of 2 x 6 threads, stepping up 2 threads each box. The lower zig zag of chevrons is done on the diagonal over 8 canvas threads.]

I wanted to see how the herringbone would look for a background stitch, so the two patterns on the LEFT were stitched with 1 ply of a 6-ply cotton floss. I REALLY like the look of those stitches! I don't know where I can use them, but I'll certainly try to find a use for them on some canvas somewhere! [FYI: You might want to play around with stitch lengths for these background patterns. And depending on the size and scale of your canvas, you'll need to enlarge or reduce the pattern size to fit.]

So, I'm thinking herringbone patterns might start showing up in some of my next designs because they're.... Chic?? WELL, YES! Fast and fun? MOST DEFINITELY!!

Please, Don't Eat These Daisies!

Well, I can finally share my latest flower collage with you -- it's the DAISY COLLAGE. (Which the majority of you guessed correctly!)


It's a very cheerful design....and it makes me smile to look at it. (I'm also smiling because I finally got the model FINISHED after being buried in my to-do pile for many months. ahem.)

Well, daisies are like that, aren't they? They make you happy just to look at them; no pretense, just pure sunshine. Like Meg Ryan's character says in YOU'VE GOT MAIL: "Don't you think that daisies are the friendliest of flowers?" (Thank you, Coni, for that wonderful movie quote...I totally agree with Meg.)

Coincidentally, I was dragging my feet about tent stitching the center bouquet this past weekend and while flipping channels, came across the Doris Day movie, "Please Don't Eat the Daisies". What could be more perfect? So I decided to stitch along with the movie...and voila, my daisies are done! (Although, I must confess that I also have that movie song stuck in my head now, with those silly lyrics looping over and over in my brain...)

But at least I have the model done.... so I can send it off to one of my distributors, Nordic Needle, who will show it off at the next big trade show in September. Meanwhile, I've just finished the instructions - HOORRAY!...so DAISY COLLAGE will be popping up on my website any day now...

....And Grows...

I mentioned last time how I started my stitching garden by creating bouquets of certain flowers and stitching them on 24 ct. Congress Cloth. TULIPS, above, is one of those early bouquets.

Then I had the idea to create a collage effect. And I stitched up this WILD ROSE project:


I wanted to have swatches of patterns behind a flower, and then add ribbons and buttons. To do this, I had to draw the design on the fabric and stitch inside the outlines - which worked perfectly well for the freeform flower bouquets. It worked here, but I really didn't see how I could instruct stitchers to duplicate this design using just a line drawing. In other words, I was stumped because this design wasn't easy to explain, especially since I used slanted boxes, which were hard to fill precisely with geometric designs that others could replicate exactly.

So, regretfully, I set this design aside and went back to stitching quilts....

Then quite a bit later, I had the brilliant idea to put my collage idea within straight boxes (which would be much easier to graph and stitch!) and lo and behold, my first flower collage was officially created - the PINK TULIP COLLAGE:


I was SMITTEN! Not only does this layout let me highlight a single flower in the center box, but it also highlights the beauty of variegated threads. And now I have a reason to mix & match stitches to create little boxes of composite stitch patterns - which I love doing - as well as dabble in creating little ribbon patterns to my hearts content. Seeing this PINK TULIP COLLAGE come to life was definitely an AHA! moment for me. I realized I could use this layout to stitch an infinite number of flower collages....and I certainly intend to create them the rest of my stitching life.

Oh, YUMMERS!

I just got a packet of Caron Collection's twelve newest thread colors:


These are the WATERCOLOURS versions, but they're also out in WILDFLOWERS and WATERLILIES.

Here are their names, from the top of the photo:

Barely Blue
Porcelain Blue
Cornflower Blue
Ink
Primrose
Geranium
Claret
Spearmint
Garden Path
Black Hills
Prairie Grass
Sunflower Seed

Aren't they delicious? And their names are worthy of designs using those names, I think....ANYWAY, I was glad to get these new threads and have no doubt they will inspire a several new designs in the coming months.

How My (Stitching) Garden Grows...

When I first started designing patterns, I was totally focused on creating quilt patterns using variegated threads. I did lots and lots of them over the years.


Then I decided to venture down another path and into the garden. I've always drawn flowers, mostly in colored pencils. When I decided to start stitching flowers, I wanted to replicate the flowers as best I could with thread, instead of pencils. I decided to stitch on 24 ct. Congress Cloth, with DMC floss.

Here are a few of the flowers I stitched:

Pansies:


Anemones:


Clematis:

The challenge I gave myself was to try and capture the essence of each flower, using thread colors and stitch patterns. It was tricky finding very small patterns that would work in the petal areas, yet not detract from the overall look of the flowers. In many cases, I would use the same stitch, but change the direction in each petal to create movement, as well as change the light effect on the overall piece. You can see how I did it on the pansies below:


I look back and think, "How did I stitch all those flowers?!?" but when you're passionate about what you're doing, you don't think of it as work, just as a stitching challenge.... Yes, it was tedious, but in the end, the finished effect was well worth it.

Here Come the Naked Ladies!

One of the greatest gifts my parents ever gave me was the love of flowers and plants. As far back as I can remember, my parents shared their love of growing things with my brother and sister and I in the simplest of ways - by observing and pointing out the flowers, plants and trees that grew all around us.

We would be driving in the car on a Sunday drive somewhere, and my Mom would say, "Oh, look! There are some naked ladies in that yard!" And of course, we kids would press our noses to the windows and say, "WHAT? WHERE?!?" And Mom would point to the tall pink flowers growing straight up out of the dirt, without any green leaves in sight, and say, "There they are! Look at them!"


I can still remember how funny we kids thought that was - that flowers could have such a shockingly appropriate, but silly name... And imagine my delight to find some of those very same Naked Ladies appearing in my front yard this summer!


Here they are, shyly revealing themselves a little bit every day...


until they're fully exposed in all their glowing pink glory:


They don't last long; they'll die back soon, and then their green leaves will appear, long after the flowers have bloomed in a chorus line of pink. So keep an eye out.... and don't be surprised if some Naked Ladies show up in your garden!

Drunk on Flowers

This weekend I visited my parents in the Bay Area.


Down the street from their home is a large organic vegetable garden where the gardener sells not only his many types of vegetables, but lots of flowers as well.


I took the opportunity to walk down with my camera and take some pictures (well, I took a LOT of pictures, actually). Here are just a few....

I've never seen so many unusual zinnias,


or huge dahlias growing up over my head...


And I've never seen so many bumble bees resting or actually sleeping inside the larger flowers, drunk with the intoxicating presence of so many flowers....


I could certainly relate! I too got slightly dizzy by all the flowers and after taking lots of photos, I staggered away, drunk on their overwhelming beauty and dazzling color combinations...