Dec 3, 2010

Needlepoint Doodle Cloths and Dog Sneeze

Do you Doodle?
I do!  Especially with threads.  Lately, I've been doing a ton of design work for 2011.  I find working on a spare piece of canvas is really helpful in order to find the right stitch, color, and fiber.  It allows me the freedom to try out as many stitches and colors as needed as well as the opportunity to make sure I'm getting the right coverage.

Often I'll take some left over canvas or cut a small square. Other times, I will take a larger piece and draw squares.
Here's a fun example.  I was auditioning some stitches for a Thanksgiving series I was working that included Native Americans and, obviously, corn:
I thought I'd have more to show but I usually cut up the squares and then fasten them to binders I keep stitch diagrams in or the stitch book (although I'm careful about which books I tape them to!)

Below is the doodle cloth I'm currently working on.  It's more of a free form doodle cloth.  See the numbers below the blue stitches?  That's where I'm making a note of the number of strands used.  I auditioned the thread both in horizontal and vertical stitches to save myself trying to figure out the right number of threads when working stitches later on.  That's another good habit and Time Saver to get into when your working up your own stitches.
What am I working on?  Well, the only person who knows that is LilyMom.  I will share the initial thread color way with you. Unfortunately, when I snapped the picture the golds, bronzes, and reds hogged the photo.  There are some great blues and purples hiding in the back right of the shot.  This new piece will be a very vibrant when done and I will share it here.

Now the Dog Sneeze part.  Boy, it's been a week.  Sinus infection ga-lorrrre!  I'm on the mend but both Cocoa and I felt under the weather this week.


Things are getting better quickly!  The nice FedEx gentlemen showed up yesterday with a wonderful early Christmas box for me:
A New computer.  I'm so Excited!  They even had a lily pond background already programmed into the wall paper just for LilyStitch! (I'm kidding).  2011 promises to bring lots of upgrades and wonderful things to you, wonderful folks.  Thank you so much for all of your encouragement and support.  I'm very excited about the direction LilyStitch is going in and think you will enjoy the journey, too.

Christa, Lilystitch
www.lilystitch.blogspot.com and www.lilystitch.com

2 comments:

  1. As a great fan of Monet- I love your screen saver. A number of years ago, I became tired of the waste of canvas when trying out new stitches and threads, so began drawing small shapes of all kinds that could later be used at least as ornaments, etc. I have many scraps of canvas left over from cutting for painted designs, so use these also for developing stitch counted things - like lace edgings.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for leaving a comment, Judy! That's a great idea. Never thought of using for lace edgings but will in the future. I'm completely picturing that on one of your Angels.

    Christa

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.