Another Site for Great Images and Color!

Before I get excited again and can't remember the name of the artist and the quilt - this is Laura Wasilowski of Illinois at the Houston Quilt Show, where she says she was a "woman packing iron." The quilt is named "Pressing Matters."

I found the site by total accident, and have spent several hours over a few days looking at things - there is a blog as well as a delightful web page.

This is an art quilt technique in which the fabric patches are cut and then fused onto a background, rather than sewn as they usually are. Then stitching embellishments follow.

Laura's graphics are delightful and colorful, and the text had me LOL in several places - especially the part about the Chicago School of Fusing. Her style ranges from whimsical to rather sophisticated and abstract.

Be sure to click on all of the "departments" on the front page of the web page - the "stitch-u-structions" is equally delightful and informative. It has a ten commandments for art quilters, which tells me we need one for needlepointers as well. (right now, I don't remember if this is on the blog or somewhere on the web page.)

The second picture is one of her large quilts from the "Housing Department." Equally wonderful are the Produce Section and Landscapes and Nature.

I won't attempt to show any more, as I could go on for several more pages about this wonderful version of needlework, which is a new one to me. Oh where have I been??

This lady dyes her own fabrics, I forgot to mention, and has them for sale, as well as threads. Anyway, do go see her web page at Art Fabrik and enjoy it. See also her blog, as there is a link to it on the web page.

The Origin and Progress of a Species - My Blog and Others

Anne Stradal announced, along with her new post today, that her blog is now two years old.

(The Cape Stitcher) Amazing. I decided to go back to my own origins and see when I started mine. I had no idea what I was doing, but mercifully, I had "met" Allison Aller, who graciously pointed out the errors of my ways and helped me along.

Mine began on September 13, 2006. YIKES I had no idea how to do it. I didn't even separate it into paragraphs. I had already fallen under the spell of the art crazy quilters, and had stitched this small stocking for my older daughter, Marie. Four years later, I'm still mesmerized by this style, and continue to attempt to replicate those gorgeous things in needlepoint - the embellishment being almost instant gratification.

Originally, I didn't intend for it to be a totally needlepoint blog, and wanted to use a lot of the crafts I do, including my pottery - but gradually it became more needlepoint oriented.

Incidentally, these were taken from the first page of blog posts way back then - the one that shows Sept. 2006. You can click on that on the archives and see it from the beginning.

The next photo (taken with my first ancient second hand digital camera) is of two greeting cards I had used to make transparencies - the way we did it before the craft stores started selling something they called "transfer medium" and making it more expensive and complicated than it need be.


This was done with simple polymer medium. It was very enjoyable, and elegant decorative items were produced. I liked putting these onto candles, as when they were lighted, the light glowed through the picture.

I also put them onto glass vases (on the inside) and then backed them with gold leaf - gorgeous vases for dried plant material.

Today I was crusing around the blogs as I do each morning, and found that Kris of Kris' Color Stripes has changed her format, and is doing her colors a different way. They are perfectly beautiful the way she presents them, and easier to use, I think, to create our own color schemes for needlework.

Be sure to go see her HERE, and click on "colour files" on the left side bar to see what she will present every Monday. This is her very first one on the new blog, and I look forward to many more.

Beautiful Surface Embellishment

This is a blog cruise to really enjoy, as Allison Aller (whose beautiful first book is ready to be "out" in February) just returned from the Houston Quilt Show with pictures of the art quilting represented there. (not all crazy quilt - lots of what I call "art quilts")

Allie's blog is one of the very first I found after I was given a computer and shown how to turn it on and off by two of my sons, (one of whom, my James, installed my internet and showed me how to do e-mail) and has been the mainstay of inspiration for my adaptations of art crazy quilt to needlepoint.

She also guided me, after we became fast friends on the internet, on how to "do" a blog, and made a gorgeous block for me to use in my very first article in Needlepoint Now - which was May/June three years ago.

The second picture is of a quilt named "Legendary Ladies and Fabulous Fans" by Barbara Warner. There is some genuinely beautiful art in this show, and Allie has several posts, and I think more to come.

The Quilt show has quite a variety of styles!! It's worth a look - and do give yourself plenty of time! I have found a tremendous amount of visual inspiration and methods for embellishing the surface of needlepoint in these CQ blogs.

I am not a quilter, although I have loved over the years putting traditional patchwork onto canvas for needlepoint, and now am mesmerized by the embellished CQ. I'm eagerly awaiting February and Allie's book - it's total Eye Candy as well as fine instruction! See her at Allie's in Stitches.

Images and Inspiration (eye candy)

It is a fact that images implant in our minds and can strongly influence us in this work of designing and stitching painted canvas. It's a kind of subliminal suggestion that sometimes we aren't aware of - and this includes choosing color schemes and threads.

This is one of the reasons I cruise among blogs in the morning that are beautifully presented and have nothing to do with needlepoint.

The images will stay with me, although I'm unaware of it later. I was looking through the new Metropolitan Museum of Art catalog yesterday, and realized what a strong influence the jewelry has been on some of my small pieces - such as napkin rings and birthday crazy quilts.

Sometimes I pick up a piece I designed a few years ago, and wonder why I was so clever that day - and what was I thinking?? I probably couldn't do it again.

Anyway, I have found yet another blog with the little "painting a day" theme - just small, 6" x 6" paintings that are enchanting to look at, and have the five elements of design (line, shape, texture, mass, and color) in good order.

These paintings are the work of artist Lisa Daria, and the blog, as she presents them, is delightful! This is the sort of thing that, although I'm unaware of it at the time, will creep into my mind when I'm choosing threads and colors for a project. These pictures show a wonderful use of main color, secondary color, and accents! (with other touches too).

Have you ever thought about how decorating magazines subtly influence us in setting new trends for color and furniture? I know that sometimes at first I don't like it at all, but bit by bit it gets familiar and feels good. The same happens in the fashion world!

Next is the blog of Lin Moon at PURPLE FAN.In the post showing today, she is presenting some quilts from the Long Beach quilt show of the summer.

This first one is by Pam Berry - and I love not only the colors, but the texture and composition.

Next is a quilt featuring hibiscus, and if you click to enlarge it when you go to her blog, you will see some exquisite stitching on the flower - it gave me some ideas for needlepoint flower treatment!

Lin Moon also designs and stitches highly embellished and very imaginative crazy quilt art bras for the annual calendar that is sold for raising funds for breast cancer research - and she participates in the TAST activity presented by PINTANGLE. I really enjoy seeing what she does with the weekly stitches - a very talented lady, and worth a daily visit!

Silk Ribbon Embroidery - a different twist!

I took a little bit of time this morning and treated myself to another cruise through Needle Crafts. If you click on "silk ribbon embroidery" - or something like that - on the list of topics under the header, you will see some techniques that are different from the "norm" we usually see.

There are even dragonflies and butterflies and a few flowers I haven't seen before - enchanting! Also, the other patterns and tutorials are amazing. I have no picture here, as I couldn't communicate to get one to show.

I've used silk ribbon in three different widths for about 12 years - for surface embellishment on stitched needlepoint designs. It's almost instant gratification, and a very creative endeavor, once one "gets the hang" of handling the ribbon and making the stitches.

On this blog this morning, I saw the solution to one dilemma I had had with a particular flower - this is good! I used the SR embroidery extensively on my "birthday crazy quilts" in needlepoint, and it's easy to get carried away sometimes. A most rewarding form of needlework!

Classic and Gorgeous Crochet and Cross-Stitch Patterns!

I enjoy lots of other forms of the needlearts, in addition to needlepoint. Crochet has been a great love of mine since I was a child, as long as it's the classic and traditional type patterns.

I have a blog post over on Freebies, etc. about a beautiful site with FREE patterns - crochet both traditional (with new twists and uses) and whimsical.

Also counted cross stitch patterns that I might even do although I don't usually enjoy that. This woman's photos are gorgeous.


I have collected Fillet Lace (crocheted) patterns for many years, just because they fascinate me - and I love adapting them to needlepoint.

A rug is shown that is exquisite, and I would never have thought of using it that way!!

Inspiration in Nature! A Beautiful Blog

I've been looking at Carol-Anne Conway's blog regularly for quite some time, (Threads Across the Web) although I don't do embroidery. - It's great to have these images of beautiful and well-executed work in my head. I look at more of the diverse fiber arts than I do needlepoint, as being a designer, I find so much visual stimulation in those - and learn a lot, even though I do a different sort of work.

Incidentally, Carol-Anne has posted a picture of the beautiful Japanese embroidery she's just finished - cords and a tassel. Go see it here.


This morning, as I was "cruising" blogs, I decided to look at another of hers she has listed on her profile: Wilbur's World. These are some of the most beautiful photographs I've seen in a while - and I went way back a year or two (and there are more) and thoroughly enjoyed myself - and realized I've been smiling! She presents them in a very charming way.


Do go look at this if you haven't seen it before - a great way to start or finish the day! As a designer, I look at nature for inspiration, as the colors and forms not only imprint in my brainwires, but I feel a joy in looking at it from all angles in all seasons. (even underwater)

The Beauty of the Fiber Arts

I felt I needed to share this beautiful work with any of you who haven't discovered Allison Aller's blog (Allie's in Stitches - click on it here to see).

She tells the reason for doing this particular landscape, as she does all of her landscape quilts - and they are, indeed, works of art. This one causes me to really "FEEL" the atmosphere in the picture, as well as to appreciate the fine needlework and talent involved in it's creation.

Allison A. and Sharon B. (Pintangle) were the creators of the very first blogs I ever saw - over three years ago before I started mine. I stumbled upon them while looking for old crazy quilts, and was amazed at the "new look" in CQ - traditional but yet far beyond in the colors, materials, and arrangements.

This led to my experimenting with adapting CQ to needlepoint, which is what I wanted to do in the first place, but these were soooo much better than the Victorian kind I was looking for. Allison was, at that time, working on her Crazy for Flowers, which won a national award! Beautiful thing, it was.

Anyway, we became acquainted via the internet, and she has been a wonderful mentor, as well as being a very supportive friend in my triumphs and tragedies over the last three years or so. It was she who supplied me with a block to show in my very first article in Needlepoint Now - I believe it was the May/June issue in 2007.

I have just recently gotten this out of storage, and am hoping to get it to the framer soon. It's a beautiful thing up close - exquisite in it's small details of seam embellishment and surface enhancement.

Designing needlework is, indeed, an art form, which is why I enjoy the images and inspiration I get from cruising the blogs of the fiber artists over the planet. Each piece is an original creation, which is as it should be!

I look forward to starting the translation of this block (the second photo - not the Sun and Moon quote) into needlepont soon - that which I call "inspiration, adaptation, and just plain plagiarism" - but Allie gives me permission, as I always ask first.