10 02 06 Frernch Knots and Dover Publishers

There was a small discussion on the Stitching Post list about french knots. These three images from some antique Chinese embroidery are what has inspired me to try to do french knots as well and evenly as i possibly can. It's not till you get to the detail image that you realize that the shading is not from shaded satin stitching but from french knots!

overview of the panel



A little closer



Closest





This work is all done in silk.Till I can do something anywhere near this, i consider that i don;t know how to do a french knot!
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Nothing new just a bunch of appointments all this week and squeezing in time for stuff is getting a little harder........but I will be posting a little bit of a tut on satin stitching....just a few pictures of beginning to cover an area.




This is from the Dover Sampler series, which you can get mailed to you each week from Dover Publishing. The link is on the sidebar and what happens is that every week they send you a selection of titles and samples from thsoe books. Some of them are pages of text, but many are illustrations. They are free to download and Dover even includes the download instructions with the sampler. It's a wonderful way to not only actually get some graphics, but also to see what is out there. Dover Publishing is one of the places that artists and craftspeople can count on for affordable sources for designs and motifs.

happy stitching

ktj
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10 01 06 World Peace Day

Today is a major Buddhist holiday..it is World Peace Day,when Buddhists of many countries have special ceremonies in conjunction with sitting zazen.

This is not an image I have made, but to me it says peace and tranquility.


I wish you all peace, serenity, and a way out of the dark places.
ktj

09 30 06

Nothing new, just uploaded a nice nostalgia image to print, or use as inspiration.Even if i have no embroidery to upload here, i will almost always make sure that i change the Motif A Day image. And of course i try very hard to add more links every day from the interesting places i come across.

Janie-----i have just gotten up(late late late) and will have to get in gear to take that little walk.

OK JANIE! i did, it;s pouring rain here now so i am glad that i got it in before it really started, although it did start pouring while i was out...that;s ok, at least i got some in> Thanks for doing this with me.

By the way, for anyone interested in fibromyalgia, the best website on the net for information is The Orgeon Fibromyalgia Foundation. The link is on the sidebar.


ktj

09 29 06 Me and Janie J.

What a nice day for me...i actually got things done. I finally decided that I actually must do some excercizing and walking if I am going to get the fibromyalgia under control...and that's what i have ben doing for the past couple of days. Nothing major mind you, and i don;t walk very far and certainly not very fast but it is being done.Janie J. and I have decided to check in with each other every day and make sure we are doing what we need to do to keep our health from spiralling down.So, Janie.....yes! I did it ......gggggg.

Maybe one of these days I'll be able to walk, exercize AND go up and down the stairs a few times before getting worn out.

Anyway, nothing on the embroidery front today, have spent the dayso far doing chores and having a lunch with an elderly friend at the local family restaraunt chain.

ok, back to work!
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09 27 06 Can she get any more ladylike??

Took this one last night and dl'd it to the computer a little bit ago...i was struck by the easy elegance of this pose.....she is SUCH a lady.

09 27 06 Redwork Piece

This is a piece of redwork I did several years ago for an overseas friend. It is an adaptation of a plant illustration from a coloring book and because it was so detailed with so many small areas it got done in maroon sewing thread...one good thing was that i didn;t worry about running out of the thread!It was 8.5 by 11.

09 26 06 WIP small embroidery

A small embroidery for the fun of it...lots of shapes and textures.There are some things that will look very different in the finished piece. In the oval empty spaces near to the right side i want to do some stitching that will be reminiscent of leaves. The purply blob on the left needs something to make it less.ummm. aggressive in the piece, but not sure what i will do.

09 25 06 100 details-002

When I finally did the first one, I had to laugh cause it ws so late in the game, and right after I got this one done, the scanner and the computer decided to quit talkiing to each other(AGAIN!)so now it is even later........but here it is. The same folk art colors and this time i did add a little wooden seed bead.


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And just because they are so much fun, here's another color swatch.........



and another color block...lol....

09 24 06 Sunday Already

It seems like just yesterday that I was wondering if i would get anything done this week...and now i know....and the answer isssssssssssssssss..not much..unfortunately!

Of course playing around on the computer doesn;t interfere at all!



Having so much fun doodling in Paint.


The M.A.Day is a line drawing of a grey scale image that has been posted previously. It is two birds on a very leafy ranch. It is copyright free.

Happy stitching.

For 09 23 06 Two Paislies on M.A.D. and Mija pic

Here is a picture of my female pup. She is so incredibly sweet. She is far more eager and willing to please that her brother Sin Huevos and wags her tail ALL the time. Both she and her bro have beautiful smiles and maybe one day i will be able to capture them.



And here is another of the two of them. i have this terrible feeling that now that i have a digital camera i am going to end up one of those people that just has a million pics of the babies and shares them at the drop of a hat....lol...........




Also, on the Motif a Day page (under "collections" in the sidebar) there are two paislies. They are adaptations of paislies from a Dover collection.If you read the sidebar on the M.A.Day Series you will know that the previous entries are deleted when the new one goes up.

And finally...more of the Easy Share software...i love it...it allows you to edit a picture(or graphic) in "coloring book" mode............which means it makes black and white outline graphics of pics....this is a great feature.You can easily begin to embroider a photo of...oh, let's say my dogs! Here's one from the bunch of photos I took this evening.



Some of the lines need to be darkened but otherwise this is just a great thing. I did this as well to some color vector clips i had of birds and the outlines are dark, sharp and clear. I don;t know if you can get this software without buying the camera, but if you can, and it is not exhorbitantly priced, this feature is just the greatest!

I have been having a lot of fun with my programs as you can see, so i thought i would share another color swatch..these are more fun than jelly beans........lol.....so here's "golden glow" for want of a better name.

09 22 06 Color Swatch-Peach

The Motif A Day can be found under "Collection" on the side bar, and today is a greyscale of two birds on a leafy branch. It was greyscaled from photo and i thought this would be an easier way to see the basic shapoes and outlines.

Got the scanner back running and even have figured out some things on the new digital camera..i am pretty excited about the new ways of capturing and keeping images!
Have also been playing around in MS Paint and my PSP program just to remind myself of the tools available. Here's a color swatch i came up with in PSP. It was made by using the airbrush tool at its largest(and therefore most diffuse spray of color) setting. I thought it would make a really pretty piece of fabric so i saved the basic swatch.

009 21 06 Paisley Challenge and a pic of Sin Huevos

Sin Huevos! Here's a pic of the male puppy and one of the two lights of my life!



Paisley Challenge in progress report.........lol
Stitched more on the Stitching Post Paisley Challenge piece and made many design decision and laid out more of the main areas.

Overview

Detail

09 21 06 Motif a day for today and stuff...

The Motif a Day can be found on the side bar under "collections'

Todays graphic is one i did and it is of course marked with a copyright and is for personl use only. It is a 4by6 landscape. It's just basic outlines and i thoutt it would be cool to use as the starting point for a fabric postcard. Or even for paper arts....the line drawing could easily be fused to some non woven interfacing and cut a part for templates.
I f any decided to try using this drawing in any way, i would love to see the results. Just give me an email to the link and i will be happy to include it here! :>)

Otherwise, not much, still waiting to see if the scanner is amont the living, or do i need to get a new one.I have the camera that i am slowly figureing out to use but i am not sure it will ever be as convenient as a scanner. Guess we'll see. Have been busily sleeping trying to get rid of some aches and pains........lol...and embroidering on on the Stitching post Paisley challenge.

I have also started and am just about done with a 4x6 size piece that i thought for sure would be going thorugh the mails...but as usual, i got very carried away with texture and i have a feeling this one is staying home with me....

ktj

09 20 06 Two Small Spot Motifs CF

Today there are two small spot motifs in color. Check in the sidebar under "collections".
have fun.

ktj

09 19 06

The Motif A Day series for today is a copyright free goldfish from a stencil.You can access it by clicking on the "collections" link in the sidebar.
enjoy.

09 18 06 Motif a day series info/links etc

The Motif A Day Series can be accessed by using the side bar and clicking on it under the word "Collections".When I add a new pic, the old one will be deleted. It seems that blogger occasionally changes the extension from .gif to.png.
I will try to catch these before publishing, but if you find a png, it will still save and you can then do a conversion to jpg or whatever you like in your editing program.

Irfan view is free and easy and does it.

Irfanview

And thanks to Lou Anne S. for bringing it to my attention that some of the graphics were .pngs and that the email address i put in the welcome section didn;t have the .com on it.

I add links every single day to the sidebar to the various categories. They are not labelled "new" or anything, but if you know of a place that you think would fit in one of the categories very well, please don;t hesitate to let me know. I'll check it out. My email is in the side bar.

09 14 06 Satin Stitched Flowers

Ati asked a question of the LTE list about what threads to use for satin stitching. In the discussion i mentioned that i would put up this photo of using sewing thread for satin stitches. Here it is. The threads used for the flowers are for the most part rayon40/3 and some 30/3 along with some flower thread and cotton sewing thread. The piece measure 3 inches top to botton and just under 3.5 inches across.

Update on the Paisley Challenge

Here's the url to the SP blog, where members are busy stitching.
The Stitching Post Blog: Paisley Challenge For Stitching Post Members

Over on the Stitching Post blog members are posting their versions of a paisley designed by Sharon B.The link above takes you to the post that explains the challenge and also the pictures of the member's work. It also included the link to the original designs as posted by Sharon on herblog. Scroll down a bit and you will see them.
My scanner is still not being recognized by the computer AGAIN! so i have to wait to post any pics of what i have been doing recently!

ktj

A book that is a must have!

For the discriminating gift giver and person with a sense of humor: go check this out and see if you don;t have the wild urge to buy this book!It's called

Killer Slippers and How to Make Them


the link is the side bar as it is too long to show up here.....

ktj

09 11 06 New Flickr Group

There is a new embroidery group over at flickr, "Embroidered Motifs".

Embroidered Motifs>

It for embroiderers using any techniques to post the photos of the motifs they have done. If you have a flickr account you can upload your photos to the group pool. Getting a flickr account is pretty easy if you want one...and I hope you stop by the group and consider joining. Its great eye candy seeing all the embroideries of the different motifs that we use in our work. It is open to all embroiderers, not just crazy quilters. The photo of course should be primarily of the motif and large enough so that we can really see the detail! That's what really makes it fun, learning from, and being inspired by one another!

Hope to see you there.

ktj