Cross Stitch: Squares, Lines and More

This flower is from my "Antique Flowers" Sampler. It is very similar to another flower in my "Les Fleurs des Bois Sampler".

Whats similar? The flower shape is identical. What's different? Color - the antique flower is stitched with a dark muted purple. The contemporary flower is stitched in multiple brighter purples. The stems are very different. The antique flower stem is stylized and made exclusively from cross stitches. The contemporary flower uses a few cross stitches with some backstitches and half stitches thrown in. It is more delicate and realistic.

A few simple choices drastically changed the look of the flower. Whatever shape I design, either simple or complex is shaped by many decisions. Color affects the mood - pastels, brights, darks all have a different look. What stitch do I use? All cross stitches? Do I add backstitching or not? The half stitches are more work but they smooth out the edges so the design isn't as boxy.

A lot of detail can be placed in a simple design that can be surprisingly realistic. And not just in Cross Stitch. One of my favorite websites http://www.conceptistech.com/ has logic picture puzzles (and number puzzles too) called Pic-a-Pix, Fill-a-Pix and Link-a-Pix that are made of simple grids. Most of just two colors - black and white. But they do some with more colors. I've never tried cross stitching any of their designs but you certainly could. Some of their designs are more ambitious than anything I've ever tried to fit into a grid. Some succeed brilliantly and in others you have to lean back, squint and try to figure out what the design is. It didn't strike my until recently that perhaps the reason I enjoy these puzzles so much is that they is so similar cross stitch.

Comments

It's about time - the big reveal

My bright quilt was finished in June but I wanted to wait until both were done before sharing the pictures. Quilting the blue quilt didn't take long but finishing the binding sure did. I did procrastinate a bit as it was too warm to have a huge quilt on my lap for most of the summer. After this, I'll probably do all the binding on my sewing machine (and stick to smaller quilts). Notice the cut-out corners? That was a challenge. I found instructions here and it looked easy enough but I wished I had practiced some. After a lot of finessing I finally got good miters but I could have done much better. The cut-out corners allow the quilt to hang nicely over the edges of the mattress and it's a perfect match for a full sized mattress. But, the top edge isn't even close to the pillows. I wonder how the quilt fit on the bed it was made for. Here, at last, is the original quilt that I was copying. I just noticed - all of the baskets are

Basted

A few weeks ago I was at the Local Quilt store basting my bright sampler. It's been ready to go for a while. I've been working on a baby quilt and it's now done. It's been a while since I've quilted so I'm glad I had a quilt to warm up on. Next I need to pull a folding table out of the garage and re-arrange my quilting space. This quilt will have a lot more drag than the baby quilt. I've also been looking at pictures of similar quilts looking for quilting pattern inspiration. I'm thinking of taking the easy way out and u se wavy lines like this quilt . I should start quilting next weekend!

The last 2 blocks and the tops are done!

I needed 2 more blocks to finish the gray version of the quilt. I ended up making simple 9 patch/half square triangle blocks. One is the yellow block in the lower left. Here it is closer up. When I made the half square triangles I had the red fabric going the wrong way so you are seeing the backside of the fabric. So the red in the triangles is a little lighter than the red in the center. It wasn't worth redoing. The other corner has a blue block and I managed to get the front of all the fabrics showing. So, here's what it looks like almost complete. And here's the blue version of the quilt. I've got the backing and the batting for the gray quilt (the backing is in the washer now) and I'm working on the thread to use for quilting and how to quilt it. They are too big for me to free-motion quilt. I don't have the space. As it is, quilting with the walking foot will be a challenge. These tops deserve so

Erica's Stitches

Search This Blog