A trio of Poppies

For the last few weeks I have been stitching on three little 3" square Iceland Poppies entitled Poppy Trio.  This trio will be offered at the 2014 ANG Seminar.  Of course they took me longer than I had planned....but each flower needed to be handled a little differently.  The designs all begin with a transfer design created from an original water sketch which is then ironed onto the canvas.     The background stitching is all very open and chosen to show off the "sketched" flowers.   I also tried different border ideas and ways of stitching the flower centers so students will have stitching options.  

I was happy to finally get them to the framer today and we decided to use the same frame and matting for each, but they would also look nice all framed together.  

My next few projects will be a series of three small geometric designs, approximately 5 inches square.  They will be primarilty stitched with some new Treenway silk threads.  The first design's planned completion date is November 1st, so look for an update in mid September.  

Terry

Baroque Diamonds and some new poppies

One quadrant is finally complete of Baroque Diamonds.  I ended up making several minor, or moderate, changes. 

Of course, since last time I hav added the two new pattern areas and added bugle, seed and Tila beads.  I also revised the center diamond and the triangular area of the same pattern. 

Once this stitching was completed I scanned the area and then pieced together 4 copies of the scan to show how the completed design will look, except for the little bit missing on the right edge.  The complete design is approximately 8-1/4" square.  

It is interesting to refer back to the original sketches and threads pulled for the project.  I used three of the markers:  two rose and one gold.  I also used three of the beads shown previously plus one new Miyuki seed bead. Also, no new threads were pulled other the originals shown.  But previously there were only the full skeins lined up with no regard to proportion and it just shows how much a change in the proportion of each color group can make to the overall design!

Now here is a another new design I have begun working on.....very different from Baroque Diamonds!

This is going to be a group of three small poppy scenes, each only 3-1/2" square.   The can be framed separately or all three matted into one frame or pillow or wall hanging, or other.  

This is the original watercolor sketch before it has been copied to Transfer Artist Paper.

Here it is TODAY, with the design transferred to canvas and the first poppy almost conpletely stitched.  Each of the three poppy sketches will have different color Iceland Poppies with some looking up and some looking forward, and with interesting "sky" and "field" patterns added.   Rather sketchy and loose as you can see....or maybe it is too soon to tell yet.  I am having fun with them!

Happy New Years!

Terry

Working on a new geometric design

Now that I have returned from ANG Seminar, and before I leave on my teaching trip, I have been working on a new design proposal.  Stitching finally begins this week!!  

Several people stopped me, while at seminar, to request I do blog posts more often, particularly related to what I am current working on.  So, I just took photos of most of the currents elements I have collected so far.  In general this might include any of the following:  sketches, marker or paint color samples, a selection of beads, threads I am "auditioning", stitch sketches, overall design sketches, etc.  

Let's start with the color inspiration.  I already had the colors in mind when I saw this Design Seeds images with the colors.  So, I printed it off and carried it with me at first to get going with choosing a thread palette.  I always begin by collecting at least twice what I end up using.  

Next is the (very rough) original sketch and later I added some Copic markers to help block in areas of color.  The actual size of the sketch is about 2" X 2".  The actual design will be 8" to 9" square.

Here are the Copic Sketch Markers applied to 18-count eggshell canvas that I am considering......and will probably only use 2 or 3 of them in the end. 

While collecting supplies I found some great beads I had never seen.....some very small triangle beads.  Loved the colors and bought several tubes (just in case).  There are also several bugle beads in the mix, which i definitely plan to use.  *** The triangle beads are the two center tubes, and the tube on the right are Tila beads.

Now, last but not least, are the threads I have collected.  They are separated into three groups:  purples/blue, burgundy/rose, and rust/golds.  The threads include the Painter's Threads ribbon with metallic, Treenway 20/2 silk, Planet Earth PepperPot and 6-stranded silk, River Silks, Gloriana 12-strand silk, Kreinik 1/16" ribbon, Rainbow Gallery Spendor and FyreWerks, and a new Bijoux color and Valdani silk.  

These are different colors than I usually use and I am looking forward to seeing how the colors, threads and stitches all come together!!  Now that I have made an official record of the "starting" palette, it will be very interesting to see how it compares with the "finished" palette.