It's been a hectic week, but I did make some progress on my projects, and I thought you'd all like to see how they're doing! I have a PC pattern almost done. It's totally stitched, but I need to get around to making the pattern now, but for some reason I just feel totally blah about doing that today (which is why I took these pictures instead, lol). Here it is:
It's a spring version of my Fall Wall Hanging for sale up at Etsy. I plan on eventually doing one for each season, but gee whiz! These wall hangings take forever to stitch. I've been working at this one for two weeks now, I believe. Of course, it probably would have taken less time if I hadn't also been busy with a quilt and taking care of a sick guy.
Speaking of my quilt, it's really coming along too. I sewed up the first block last night, and I have to say, it's going to be one weird ass quilt, lol. It's a lot brighter and wilder than I usually make my quilts! But my MIL gave me a bunch of fruit and veggie fabric a while back, and I love this pattern so much, I thought I'd give it a try. I figure if nothing else, it'll make the perfect picnic quilt.
I also wanted to share my newest toys! I decided to buy myself some books to help me with my designing since I'm still pretty new at it and I want to become really good at it. Here they are:
The one on the left is 501 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks and the one on the right is The Needlepoint Book. Yes, I know the one is a quilt book! However, I bought it because I've always had intentions of incorporating quilt designs into my PC designs, and this book will certainly help with that. Especially since it's specifically rotary cut blocks, the designs should translate to PC pretty easily.
There's lots of gorgeous designs! I'm excited to get working on those. Plus, I'll have it on hand for my quilting too (someday I'd like to start designing for quilts too, but that's in the future somewhere).
Did you know that Plastic Canvas is actually a form of needlepoint? Until recently, I had no idea. As a designer, I really want to bring something new to the PC world, and I especially want to make pieces with lots of texture and interesting techniques. So many PC designs are super simplistic, using only the continental stitch. That's ok for a beginner, but as you progress, you want to make something more complex and interesting, but there's very few designs out there that fit that bill.
That's where this book comes in. Since PC is a form of needlepoint, I'm hoping I can learn to beef up my designs with what I learn. I have to tell you, this book is fascinating! It has well over 300 needlepoint stitches! I spent over an hour just flipping through pages, staring wide eyed at all the new possibilities. This is how much of the book is just stitches:
And here's a picture of some of the cool stitches in the book.
I can't wait to try some of these out! I'll be sure to share anything I learn, too.
So that's what I'm up to this week. Have any of you got any interesting projects going on?
Love that wall hanging! I have a few I started many years ago that still sit in my WIPs bin...::sighs::... lol. I have a segment on my blog called Living the Dream Wednesday because I too can't post without a story attached. Hehe. Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteAlexandra of EyeLoveKnots