A day for firsts...

This is my first time posting to this particular blog. I have a stitching blog, a gardening blog, a thread and fabric dyeing blog, and now a cross stitching design blog. I am toying with the idea of integrating the fabric and floss dyeing blog into this one, but iuno yet. Yes, I know this isn't brain surgery, but on the other hand, hand dyeing fabrics and flosses really has nothing to do with designing cross stitch charts. However, one can also argue that that particular argument seems not to have stopped Sharon Crescent over at Crescent Colours , yea? I mean, she hand dyes silks and cottons and also has a framing line, plus she designs some as well. Ah, well, I'll figure it out eventually! :)


The reason for this blog is today, I spent some time designing a sampler to commemorate the fact that I had my first ever tomato harvest a few days ago. It was an exciting time for me, and I suppose that's how samplers got started. Something happened and someone felt the need to save the memory for posterity, as the first photograph wasn't taken until 1826. (Daguerreotypes didn't appear until 10 years later.). So, I set about this morning crafting a sampler of sorts. This is not as easy as it looks. First one has to have an idea, then one has to further refine it, as you can only have so many elements into a sampler before it turns out something that is so overcrowded, that to me at least, it looks overbearing and unwieldy. I am heavily influenced by Sandy of SanMan Originals , Diane Williams of Little house Needleworks , and Nikki Leeman Needleworks . As I get older, I seem to have lost my taste for overly complicated and fiddly cross stitch. I want to enjoy it, not have it become a chore, know what I mean?

At any rate, here is a pictorial of the creative journey I took this morning. :)


The workspace:







An artsy fartsy picture of said desk:





What I came up with:






Next, it was time for choosing floss colors:









Time for a floss toss!








I need to find a smaller grid graph paper, and plot the design out again, as I would love to offer this as a free gift design. Right now, it is very big as I used two sheets of 4 sq/in graph paper taped together. The design itself is 18 x 54, which is roughly 3 7/8" wide by 1 1/4" high. For a 14/28 count fabric, 12 1/2" by 10" would be needed for fabric. If you wanted to do a 16/32 count fabric, a 12" by 9 1/2" piece of fabric would suffice. (An 18/36 count would make it 11 1/2" by 9 1/2").



I have chosen straight DMC colors for the project, but you could use any that you wanted to, really. Throw in some bee buttons or charms and really just have at it. I deliberately left off the vines and the tomatoes on the frame, as I think one should go all Bob Ross on it and put them wherever you flippin' well please :). I can see the vines done in regular backstitching, long stitches, chain stitches, feather stitching and stem stitching. I also deliberately left off tomatoes as well. I can see them done in 'regular' cross stitches, french knots, beads, and colonial knots. I can see them stitched with 'plain old' cotton floss, and with silks and even silk ribbon. One strand, two strands, and even 'heirlooms' with tweeded floss . I see so many possibilities, which is why I am presuming that I never get a thing done, which includes my own design! HAHA! :D




Well, I need to bolt for now. I've found some free graph paper online, so I need to get that printed out and re-chart out the design. I also have to attend to the household with dinner and the like. :)


Hope everyone is having a wonderful day today. And remember, you can do more than you think you can! :)


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Respectfully submitted,


C.