Shades, shapes and texture

In the past week I've been mainly working on two projects. One is a new pattern which I will share when it's completely done. All I can say that it's a winter-y one this time. The other project is my 'Big French Knot Project'.

I use a lot of different shades of red and pink (and some other colours too) in this project. From dusky pinks to deep berry shades and from bright reds with a hint of orange to the 'classic' DMC 321 red. My Colour (or rather Shade) Chaos Theory is that if you put a lot of different shades of one colour range together it can work. Just Dusty Pink next to Christmas Red looks horrible but if you add another eight (non-matching shades) in the mix it's ok. At least in my book. This photo below doesn't really proof my point but once it's finished and you can see the whole picture I hope you will see my point too :)  This project is about shades, shapes and texture and I find it really refreshing to work on something completely different than my 'usual' stuff.

Most of the colours I use are from DMC (the regular six stranded floss) but I also used some very bright Sublime Stitching Floss Red and a very deep Anchor Purple.

I'm about halfway with my French Knot project (this is just a detail pictured here) and I think I will be taking it with me to the &Stitches Picnic in London this Saturday (check the details here, it's free and if the weather is terrible than we have a roofed alternative!). I'm very much looking forward to visiting London again and meeting up with some of my UK based Embroidery Friends. I also hope to squeeze in some visits to crafty stores and museums. If you know any good crafty stores in or near Central London, let me know! :)

Big French Knot Project

This is my Big French Knot Project. Not big in the way of Picasso's Guernica, or Rembrandt's Night Watch but it's still a lot of French Knots! It's an experiment and so far it's turning almost as I had in mind. :)

Bear & FIsh update

I really missed working on my big Bear & Fish project. Yesterday I added some tiny berries and coloured in some more of the rose. I also started filling in some empty spaces in the background with 'moss' which actually consists of tiny French Knots in every colour green I could find in my teacup filled with floss leftovers!

I'm really happy with how it looks so far even though it is for from perfect 'technically', especially if you look closely. I'm now looking to pictures of waves and clouds on Pinterest for inspiration for the background.

Experimental stitching and LIttle Tiger winner

The wonderful selection of floss I received from DMC Creative  has given my embroidery and design work a huge impulse this year. I think it helped and inspired me to refine my design style and embroidery techniques. 

Among the goodies I received there were also these bright colours:  

The label on the yellow and green floss says Fluorescent Effects. The light coloured floss in the middle is Glow in the dark floss. Now these are not colours or flosses that I would normally go for but at the same time I'm kind of drawn to them as well. I always like to try new things, so today I thought I would just go and try the 'crazy flosses' out on a free form embroidery type of thing. In a stroke of genius (ahem..) I chose this dark charcoal coloured cross hatch fabric. A perfect backdrop for the bright colours I think.

I have only just started but the first thing that really impressed me was how soft the Glow in the Dark floss feels. I have a set of other Glow in the Dark floss that feels hard and is difficult (read: near impossible) to make neat stitches with.  This particular floss feels more like Satin Floss (or the old DMC Rayon Floss) so it's a little silkier than your regular six strand floss. Even making French Knots was not a problem at all.  The Fluorescent flosses were equally easy to handle.

As far as I know these are the only colours available in the DMC Neon/Glow in the dark section of the catalogue and for my free form embroidery I really needed some more colour so I have added (bright) six stranded floss as well.  I will keep you up to date with the progress of this piece, unless it turns out not so great ;)

Thank you to all who left a comment on my most recent giveaway. I so enjoyed reading about your favourite tree ornaments. :)  Winner of the totally adorable Little Tiger pattern from Joey's Dreamgarden is commenter no.3 which is Em. Congratulations Em!  If you are looking for a cute and beautifully handmade gift a visit to Joey's shop is a must.

& thank you Joey for contributing to my 500th blog post celebration!

French knot

It took me a long, long time to learn how to do the French knot. Thanks to the excellent Video tutorial on Mary Corbet's Needle'nThread I was able to master it. Her website is a great resource if you want to learn new stitches.
This is a test embroidery of a new pattern by the way. As I watched a picture of a sleeping Wombat (well of his butt anyway, I assume he was sleeping) this morning I thought of making a pattern similar to the Hibernating Bear pattern. This one has a sleeping wombat and instead of the woodgrain an aboriginal inspired 'frame'.