The lock stitch: day 5

More explorations on the lock stitch have been going on. This post will bring a few more samples up to date.

Charlie Parker at lines and colors  wrote this on the orphan bill act I mentioned several posts ago.  Many thanks to him for raising the issue with his readers. If you haven’t checked it out, please do, he has concisely outlined the issues involved.

 

Red clover chains

I’m still stitching away on a former WISP that I call my feather stitch sampler. I’m at the tedious, repeating process at the moment. There is not much new to look at. But last night as I was stitching, i suddenly saw this area afresh.

It reminded me of red clover chains that I use to make when growing up. I suppose it’s a likely substitute for the daisy chains, if one grows up in Vermont. Red clovers are the state flower there. They are abundant, growing freely. The stems are tough and ridged. They felt square to me as a kid (you can almost see the ridges here). And between the ridges, a finger nail can cut a very nice slit for the next stem to be threaded through.

 

Many thanks to the folks at Wikimedia for the real red clover image.

Still distracted

I’ve been having fun with the patterns I’d been working with in thread here and here and in theory here.  And I started playing with a resulting shape in the middle of the four. I took the work in two different directions.

I don’t know where these experiments are going or if I’ll try stitching it. I amuses me how far back in my stitching I can trace this pattern.  

Update: I forgot to mention that I’ve been seeing two broken links come up in my statistics a number of times over the last couple of weeks. I’ve you’ve clicked on a link that is not working. Please leave a comment and let me know. I would like to fix it or remove the link. Thanks very much.

Distracted

Not much stitching progress because of distractions.

First, I got totally distracted by a pattern that I was working with earlier. I made a least 15 different versions. I’m thinking about starting another piece to show the progression. I’m not sure if it will be just a border design or some how incorporated overall.

Second, I got a new computer … distraction and frustration. I’ll be happy if in a few days its all loaded and in working order.

Third, do I take out the pink and go to purples or blues? Or do I keep the pink and find a couple more to work with?

Fourth, May’s TIF concept is so hard for me to portray. I have an idea but I don’t know to convey it in stitches. So far all of my mind mapping just hasn’t done anything except make me think perhaps I should stitch it.

Work on the feather stitch sampler

I’m trying to take the three WISP (works in slow progress) from last week in to a rotation pattern in order to clean up my backlog.

I’ve been able to put in some more work on this little feather stitch sampler. There are five variations of the feather stitch so far. Two of the new ones added are pictured above. I’m using variations of the mixed Milanese stitch as a secondary stitch of interest in the sampler. There are only two variations on the sampler at present. This is one of them. And the second is shown in the last photo.

Limiting the sampler to just these two stitches with variations forces me to explore these particular stitches. It’s not as easy as doing samples since I have to keep the overall appearance and goals of the sampler in mind. Still it may be a worthwhile exploration. I’ve allowed use of the cross stitch, backstitch and French knot incidentally to the design. But my goal is that they do not become focus points.

 

WISP: day 3 & orphan works

My love for patterns showing up in this piece. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stitched and restitched due to my concern over colors. The pattern is done. It’s the stitching it out that’s seems to overwhelm me.

Orphan works

I know this is a very controversial subject concerning copyright. Have you been following any of the we’ve been having over here in the states about it? It looks like legislation is now moving into congress through committees. This interview done earlier this year is perhaps a way of taking in the information from at least one point of view. I can’t recommend some of the language, but an interesting discussion. Links for addressing members of congress or senate are here. These have been set up in just the last few days as the written texts of the bills have become available. 

WISP: day 2

Although not in evidence this piece also has feather stitching in the lower section. I’m not sure why I don’t finish this up…

WISP: day 1

Feather stitch sampler in progress

 

The lock stitch: day 4

Many thanks to those who have been leaving such kind and encouraging comments. I’ve been reading them but have been unable to respond to my emails this week. Due several personal issues I’m struggling to find time and energy that I generally have on hand to blog. I will slowly be getting back to everyone with thank yous and notes. I’m hoping that by next Monday things should be up to par again.

The lock stitch “off grid” work has been rather disappointing but I took some of the work back “on grid” and liked the circle and two lines of the double wraps.

 

The last three patterns

It’s the end of the darning pattern piece…maybe. There are three more patterns added in and I think its done.

I’ve reoriented it. It works at least two ways but I like this best.

 

This sure needs pressing. Sometime later in the week I’ll try to capture a photo with it all cleaned up.

I only now caught the fact that Color Lovers has introduced has a pattern maker portion to their site. If you’d enjoy making and coloring patterns they allow you to play. You may also look through patterns here.