Crazy for September

It won't be September until tomorrow, but after a dry, sweltering summer (again) in Austin, we all look forward to, hopefully, the time when at least at night it starts to cool off a bit.

Anyway, the header is constructed from my "A Heart for Birthdays" series of crazy quilt designs. September is about Sapphires and Asters and beautiful cooler colors than last month.

If you haven't seen the CQ for birthdays things, they are on the other blog, and are quite an exercise in silk ribbon embellishing and "beads on the painted canvas."

Dot Addendum

I forgot to take pictures of the two instances of "dotted swiss" as I enjoy using it. First, the "JOE" mini-stocking cuff is not quite as plain and boring with the dots on it - in this case placed two stitches apart rather than one as on the chart in the post below.

The second picture is a close-up of a patchwork piece, made more interesting in the white background patches with the use of the "bumps" of the dots. They don't really show up well in this photo - but they are, as on the mini-sock, placed with two stitches between on the diagonal. The white dots on the green patch are Sundance beads.

"FABRICS" for Patchwork in Needlepoint

I have had inquiries recently, via my article this month in Needlepoint Now, about the houndstooth checks and maybe other fabric replications - so thought it might be fun to practice a few and then use them yourselves on your own projects. Hopefully, I will have more patchwork patterns here shortly. I've been very busy, so am running behind and neglecting Freebies.

The illustrated heart in houndstooth was made with the pattern simply in mosaic stitch. Very simple to do by just following the chart, doing the color first and then filling in with white or a second color if you wish. I have done this one in pink and orange also, and it was stunning. Just be sure there is enough contrast in value (light and dark) to make both colors show up.

The little chart with numbers gives you the direction to take when stitching to make it easy, and also to put the least strain on the canvas and prevent warping. If you know proper basketweave, it will be super easy to understand! The same numbering sequence is also for the mosaic stitch version to make it easy.

You could, of course, follow the pattern and go straight across with the mosaic stitch rows, but this does warp the canvas a bit. ( I always stitch mosaic on the diagonal to avoid it.)

Notice on the heart that I first outlined the whole thing in tent stitch so that there would be no confusion and no ragged edges in subsequent working of the mosaic stitches that make up the pattern.

There is also another way to do the small, "woven" houndstooth - explained in the Plaid tutorial.

Patchworking again! (in Needlepoint)

I discovered the joy of drafting patchwork patterns to size about 135 years ago (1973), when I was a young wife and mother with lots of energy and enthusiasm, and had learned to piece and quilt with a group of elderly neighbors on adjacent farms. This was very absorbing, but I soon began the process on needlepoint canvas, as I had scant patience with the hand sewing and quilting required, except as a social event at Miss Minnie's house.

This pattern was one of my favorites - "Stepping Stones" - and I made several pillows with it in different colors, which I used in my little book on patchwork pillows.These ornaments are worked on 18 mesh canvas, but would work as well on 13 - just a bit larger proportionately.
This first drawing on canvas is for a 4" patch, and as the pattern is a "four-patch," I made each square 36 stitches. Examining the design shows that each of the four squares is divided into four more squares - so each little square within the big ones is 18 stitches. This is just to illustrate the format and construction of this quilt pattern. I didn't actually draw all these squares when I put it on canvas, as I would have had to white out (with acrylic paint) a lot of black lines that would have shown through the background stitching.


The next drawing is the pattern itself on canvas and ready to stitch. You can "read" the elements as 9-stitch squares. simple!! The next pattern (same quilt pattern, but smaller) is based on 24 stitches square instead of the 36 on the larger one. This makes the little squares within it 6 stitches. Adding the border made it 3 3/4" square.

The partially drawn canvas illustrates starting in the center with the 12 stitch square. If this is a bit vague, just look closely at the drawings and it will become clear.

When this was lying on my work table one day, I started to see what it would look like if I rotated it 45 degrees and chopped off two corners - one of my favorite ornament shapes!



















As for stitching, you can just look at the picture at the top and fairly well see what I did. The red pattern is made with long slanted stitches in Kreinik metallic ribbon - 1/16" width.

On the very small version, the center square is made with green metallic braid (Kreinik) in Leviathan stitches (four stitches square each), and the little gold bumps were made with smyrna crosses, which adds some interesting texture. For background on the little one, I used YLI Ribbon Floss in basketweave, and the same thread on the border, but in long, flat stitches - you can see the texture is different because of the way the light strikes the surface. It looks like two different fibers. Wonderful effect that I use often!