Have you tried Swedish Weaving or Huck Embroidery? These beautiful towels were stitched by Katherine Kennedy who has recently opened her shop Swedish Weave Designs and is selling her awesome designs and finished products. She was kind enough to send me the chartpack for “Kate’s Garden” (named after my mom!) which combines huck and cross-stitch. Gorgeous. You have to check out her site and get inspired!
Finished the first part of the back of the purse – have to repeat that section again and then figure out what to do for the front flap. I am trying to see how much I can get done before having to go back to work tomorrow 🙁
Isn’t he just the cutest
Just found this awesome modern photo blog – scroll down about 2/3rds of the page to see our pic for Modernneedleppoint.com at blueantstudio
Getting some more bloggage – check out Craftgossip
Okay, I am going to have a slow start on day 3. Dean and I went to the Marilyn Manson concert last night at the Austin Music Hall…I gotta tell you I am getting too old for this stuff.
The opening band went on late and they were flat out the most boring opening act I have ever experienced – they are The Ours and frankly I expected more from a band opening for Marilyn. It is a bad sign when you can hear the crowd talking over the lead singer. Then Marilyn did not come on until just after 10p (we had already been there for over 2 hours), but he put on a hell of a show and was every bit the showman that I had expected. We lasted a couple songs up in the crush of bodies in the middle of the crowd until my foot got stomped on repeatedly as the mosh pit of beefy plug-shaped dudes with baseball hats on backwards (yeah these are the same guys I remember from college who were the ones that would always get into fights at parties – good to see that things have not changed) slammed themselves together closer and closer. Needless to say, we bailed to the back of the crowd where lo and behold – we could see even better and it was not so loud.
Good show Marilyn – you are 2 years older than I am but make me feel ancient. Now for some yoga to stretch out my aching back and calves…
I just love having the doors open, of course Theo does too. It is really quiet outside except for the birds singing like crazy! It is misting and overcast which is perfect birding and coffee weather.
Here is the update on Gram's purse - got a little more done yesterday and this morning. I realized that the pattern I am creating with this one reminds me of smocking. I really like the blog Posie Gets Cozy and she has been working on smocking which I just love. I think this is my inspiration for this little purse. I love how patterns cross all kinds of mediums.
I would have gotten further on stitching yesterday, but I took it upon myself to reorg the studio/office space and am thrilled with how it has turned out! Look at the beautiful wool!
Has begun! I can’t tell you how excited I am to give the ol’ work-a-day world NO THOUGHT over the next 4 days and just indulge in craftiness and relaxation. I will be drinking alot of this…if you have not tried it yet, I highly suggest that you do.
I will also be spending some time on the patio with Theo bugs, (he has just spent the last couple minutes running laps around the house for his morning exercise, I wish I was that disciplined)
I definitely need to clean up and make my office space more inspiring. We just moved the single bed out of here so I can set up my studio/office space properly rather than be crammed into this corner. And no, it does not always look like this...
I am going to spend some time here on my favorite mod couch...
Working on a cute little purse for Gram's B-day on the 24th (better get crackin'!)
Hopefully getting inspired to create more of these...
Which creates wonderful nesting material like this...(hoping to lure the Bewick's Wrens back again this year). The Titmice, Carolina Wrens and the Chickadees were all up on the patio yesterday looking for nesting materials, the Titmice especially liked the cowhide rug and were tugging at it trying to get some cow hairs to line their nests.
And while sipping my coffee, there is nothing better than watching the birds. Ahhhhh...bliss.
I need to finally finish this properly into a pillow!
Janet Perry was kind enough to profile me in her wonderful blog.
It was fun answering her questions, hopefully this will help me get out of my needlepoint slump and back into it!!
So this is a pattern called Pebbles that I had designed a ways back and now it has transformed itself into my latest cuff bracelet design. I really like this one!
Ugh – I just hate it when this happens. I had been riding a wonderful wave of creativity and sometime last week I came crashing back down to earth. I have figured out that my creativity wanes in direct correlation to increased work stress, so when my brain is being asked to be very analytical, it seems to suck all the creative juices with it.
Until just now, I forgot my own rule about this, and that is when I am not able to generate any new ideas, fall back on the excess ideas that I generated while I was in the creative flow. I have been a good little squirrel and have many nuts stashed, so to keep on, I just need to pull one out and mindlessly stitch until I can get my groove on again. Hope it comes back soon.
Until then, I think Theo has the right idea.
The warmth made me inspired to actually take Dean’s camera and prowl around outside in the sunshine. Look at the new growth comin up already on this Lion’s Tail! What a fabulous day.
Here is the new toy – the VW Thing. Couldn’t resist a pic under the live oak trees.
And some more pumpkin color, I do not know what it is with our house and pumpkins, but they seem to last forever!
Just look at that sky….had to bring out the ficus so it could get some sun and fresh air!
Went to Nanny Pop Pop’s yesterday and Nanny gave us Dean’s afghan from when he was a kid. I just love the blues and will have to try out the crochet pattern. Looks like it would hook up super fast.
I have been having tons of fun designing these cuff bracelets!!!!
I have had multiple questions on where I get my wool and what kind I use so I figured a quick post would not hurt! I use Paternayan 3-ply persian wool. I get it at www.discountneedlework.com who offer a great price of $10/quarter pound hank (which is a nice chunk of wool). They have 400+ colors to choose from so anything you can think of, you can probably find.
Thanks Rachel for your visit and I hope you have fun with needlepoint – it is really awesome. There are unfortunately not many designers working on modern non-cutesy patterns, so that is the area that I am concentrating on most. Patterns that look nice in a modern home with an updated look and feel. I am hoping that by developing new modern designs, people will start getting more interested in buying needlepoint and also trying it out themselves, in the same way that knitting and crochet have come back into fashion.
Check back as I am starting work on designs to sell in my Etsy shop.