I see colors: Peacock Feathers

I started out with a forest in mind: very dark mahogany (DMC 300) with very dark turquoise (DMC3809). But once it was stitched, rather than leaves, I saw peacock feathers. So I added a flourish with royal blue (DMC 797) and French knots of very dark shell pink (DMC 208). I am very happy with the results.

I intended to make a diamond ornament, but stitched the margin too close to the design. Thus the ragged edge.

I think it will look amazing in reds, oranges and yellows. Next time.

I See Colors!

If you frequent my blog, you know I see patterns in black and white. I normally stitch them in black and white (or monotone), too. 

But this one's different.

As I was crafting the pattern, I saw orange flames one minute; verdant green forests the next. I saw rainbows, pastels, and jewel tones. I think this is one of my favorite patterns and I can't wait to stitch it myself.  

Oh, that's another thing; I normally stitch all my patterns before sharing them with you. But I couldn't wait with this pretty chart. So pick your colors and have some fun! Click on the pattern to save the jPeg.

And when you're done, SEND PICS! jeannedansby@att.net

Unfolding Leaves

I've been quite taken with leaves as of late. Here is a motif that is a ton of fun to stitch! Unfolding Leaves makes a pretty pattern for a greeting card, border or maybe even a bookmark. I've included some variations you might want to try.

Unfolding Leaves is fun and easy to stitch.

Click here for the pattern.

Imaginesque

I took to surfing the internet not long ago and came across a most amazing blog: Imaginesque. Jack London once said, "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." And C.J., the mysterious author of this amazing blog does just that.

Using simple motifs as building blocks, C.J. shows us step-by-step ways we can create our own blackwork and embroidery masterpieces. Biscornus, fill patterns, and border patterns have opened my mind to a new world of possibilities. 

More than 280 posts fascinate and inspire. One of my favorites is "Blackwork Floral Biscornu Pincushion Pattern Variation" (May 20, 2012): 

I love the shape of the leaves in this floral motif.

C.J. also offers friendship bracelet patterns and there's a nifty little blog on bookbinding.

Oh yeah! And all the patterns are free!

So go take a look, get inspired, and start stitching at Imaginesque

Snowflake Fill

Snowflakes are a great motif for repeating patterns. This snowflake is a nice size for ornaments or borders.  Click here for pattern

Happy Stitching!

And Happy New Year!

I am gobsmacked! Twizzlefixed! Over the moon!  Rose at Christmas City Stitcher has presented me with the Liebster Blog award!

The word, "Liebster" is German for "Favorite" and I'm thrilled to know that my blog has become a favorite place for other bloggers to come to be motivated and inspired. Thank you, Rose. I am truly honored.

To accept the award, the blogger must:
1. Link back to the person who gave it to you and thank them.
2. Post the award to your blog.
3. Give the award to 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers that you appreciate and value.
4. Leave a comment on the 5 blogs to let them know they have been offered this award.
5. Share 5 random facts about yourself that people don't know about you.

So it is with great pleasure that I present to you my five favorite small blogs~

•  The World According to Agi With charming free patterns and innovative finishing techniques, Agi gets my creative juices going! She now offers paid patterns, too. A visit to Agi's world is a true adventure.

• Feeling a little blue? Visit Flossy Bobbin and that blue will become a veritable rainbow of color and light. Flossy Bobbin is funny, irreverent, and very creative. She's got a sunny attitude and can't help but make you feel the same.

• Aurelia at Eglantine Stitchery has been an inspiration to me for quite some time now. Her fun ideas, her careful and meticulous stitchery are a joy. Her cross stitch resource page is one of the best on the net! She hasn't posted since the holidays. Hopefully, she'll return soon with lots of new ideas.

• Ant-Stitch is a new blog on the scene that focuses on the great new patterns featured at Ant of Sweden. There are contests and freebies, so be sure to bookmark this one and visit often.

• A Bit of This and That is like sitting down with a friend over a hot cup of coffee. Beautiful stitchery and fun finishing techniques make Shannon's blog a great place to visit.

Be sure to stop by and say hi to all these talented and creative people.


Now for those five random facts...

1. I love games. Card games, word games, board games; I love 'em all. I'm horrible at chess and bridge, but can hold my own in dominoes and canasta.
2. When I travel, I end up taking lots of pictures of architecture and scenery, none of the people I am traveling with. 
3. I'll admit it; I'm a Facebook addict. Pintrest is starting to grow on me, too.
4. Parties scare me, but I love speaking in front of a group. 
5. I know how to fly an airplane.

Thanks again, Rose, for your support and encouragement. 


Happy Stitching to you all!
Jeanne

Framing made easy

Well, now that I have learned how to frame, I'm finding it a lot less intimidating. One of the best methods I've found is at Carol Leather's Needlework Tips & Techniques. This easy-to-understand tutorial uses foam core board and straight pins to secure the fabric. A couple of stitches at the back corners, and it's ready to display in the frame. The nice thing about this method is that the picture can be removed from the board and washed if necessary.

I used Carol's framing method for my most recent pattern, Fleur de lis:

It really was simple and stress-free, after I figured out how to handle the glass without getting smudges on it. My secret weapon? Vinyl gloves, of course!

And yes, this pattern will be available soon at Ant of Sweden.

Love Letter

For you, dear readers, I present, Love Letter. I fell in love with this pattern as I worked it, changing colors, changing moods, until finally it felt right. This is a special "Thank You" to you all for your support and patronage. I don't know which pleases me more, creating and stitching the designs, or sharing them. At any rate, this is my belated Valentine's Day gift to you.

Visit the Cross Stitch Smalls page for your free pattern

New Free Pattern

I've been having so much fun with colored pencils on blackwork that I came up with a pattern especially for the method:

Star Window is a small, simple pattern that is easy to stitch and fun to color.

You'll find it on the Blackwork Smalls page.


I also pulled a bunch of samples from my stitching box and have transformed them using colored pencils. I have learned a few things along the way:

1) Don't overdo the color. Many pieces can get weighed down and look muddy with too much color.

Just a hint of color makes the facets of Snowflake Mandala pop!

2) Dampen the cloth, then roll it in a towel to remove excess moisture. A slightly damp canvas makes the color more vibrant. Be careful not to get it too wet; the colors can and will bleed if you're not careful.

I didn't like this pattern at all when I first designed it.
The bright colors have given a boring and clinical -looking
pattern a lively new look.

3) Keep the pencils sharp. Or not. It depends.

A dampened, duller pencil is great for filling in larger areas,
but as you can see, a fine point is needed to get the color
into the nooks and crannies.

4) It's okay to blend colors. In fact, it can lead to some exciting effects.

I was unhappy with the blue I had chosen for the small balls;
they were too bright for the green and gray. I colored over them
with the gray and got a fascinating patina. It wasn't so successful
with the purple, but I think that I used too heavy a hand with the
purple to begin with.

5) You may need a second coat.

After the first coat. Look at the first photo again and
you can see how much I missed. 

6) Keep a Tide Stain Stick handy. I got a smudge of color in the wrong spot and the Tide Stain Stick saved the day!

I'm contemplating using some sort of finish in addition to heat-setting the color. Something to protect it from the elements. Any ideas? Let me know.

First frame job

Well, I did it. I framed the Celtic Sampler in a shadowbox. This is my first attempt at framing and no, it's not perfect. But it does give me the incentive to try again soon. Any advice or tips for making the job easier would be greatly appreciated.

Happy stitching!

Blackwork Heaven

There IS a blackwork heaven, and I've found it at String-or-nothing.com. It's there that you will find Ensamplario Atlantio: 

Kim Brody Salazar, writing as Ianthe D'Averoigne, offers her expansive book in four PDF downloads that give you just about any blackwork fill pattern you can imagine. From simple to ornate, more than 200 fill patterns will amaze and inspire you.

And best of all? It's all FREE! Download your copy today. I guarantee it will become your "go to" book when it comes to blackwork fill.

Happy Stitching!

So, how'd the pot roast turn out?

The Precision Induction Cooktop puts a nice sear on meat. It was quick and easy.

Chuck roast seared in the Precision Invection Cooktop.
I used Montreal Steak Seasoning  for a light rub.

I'm afraid I had the temperature a little high for cooking though, so the roast was finished rather quickly. Like two hours faster than I had planned.  Keeping it warm made the meat tough. Oh well. Lessons learned.

The next day, I tried fried chicken according to the directions in the PIC cookbook. It turned out juicy and tender. The recipe was easy to follow and results were exactly what I'd hoped for. Which brings us to the cookbook and the Precision Cooking Club website. The website is a nice source for information and recipes.  At this time, both the book and the website are the same, but there's lots of room for new information on the website. Precision Cooktop owners get exclusive access (you'll need the serial number of the unit to sign up). It's a nice inclusion in the total package.

The PIC has a fan that runs whenever the cooktop is in use. It's not exactly the quietest fan, either. On the other hand, the unit does not radiate heat, so the kitchen is cooler.

The more I use the PIC, the more I like it. Still a very enthusiastic "Thumbs Up".

On the stitching front: I've come up with a new border pattern, Celtic Heart.

Celtic Heart Border

There are a lot of half stitches in this one, so it's best suited for even weave. Aida cloth is not recommended. I do plan to design a slightly larger version more suited to all fabrics in the near future.

Snowflake Small

Looking for a little Christmas inspiration?  Maybe this will help. September Snowflake was originally the center portion of a larger piece I had been working for some time. I wasn't happy with the pattern from the beginning, but I went ahead and started to stitch it anyway. I got to this point (I work from the center) and realized that the pattern needed nothing more than this; everything else was just busy work that totally hid the crystalline shapes. So I tossed everything else out and focused on this sweet little pattern that will grace many a family tree this Christmas. 

September Snowflake

Add some seed beads or metallic floss and really make it sparkle!

Celtic border

It's far from finished, but I'm so excited about my new design that I just can't wait to share it.

I love Celtic knot work, the beautiful, winding lines weaving gracefully in and out, the intricate and painstaking attention that it requires to both draw and stitch. This one is not yet available for sale, but it will be soon at Ant of Sweden. In the meantime, pay a visit and check out my other patterns. Perhaps you'll find just the right thing for those upcoming Christmas projects.

Back to the Beginning

So I've been tooling along, talking about blackwork and sharing my patterns, thinking everything is hunky dory.  Suddenly it hits me. I never explained what blackwork was.  Yeah, there are a thousand sites that tell the story of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII, and Holbein. And yeah, there are some really great tutorials out there with wonderful diagrams.  Why should I reinvent the wheel?

I'm not, really.  I'm just consolidating information, making it easier for you when you come to visit.  And besides, I have these nifty pictures I took and they shouldn't just take up space on my hard drive.

So here it is. The Basics of Blackwork.

Work the stitch in passes, or journeys.
On the first journey, work the even-numbered stitches: 1,3, 5 etc.

On the return journey, work the 'in between' odd-numbered stitches: 6,4,2 etc.

You will end up where you started.

Side trips are worked as their own little journey.

Work the element in one direction, turn around...

...and join back to the main path

Voila!  In the traditional sense, blackwork looks the same on the back as it does on the front,
though modern blackwork may or may not hold to that tradition.  

Baking bread, stitching slow

My husband looked at the ingredients on a loaf of bread last week. Saw all kinds of sugars and preservatives. Expensive, too.  So I thought, why not? I bought some yeast and flour and set out on the internet to find out how to make bread. I found Simple Dollar.  http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/11/04/homemade-bread-cheap-delicious-healthy-and-easier-than-you-think/

With easy step-by-step directions and photos, I found myself falling in love just as I had when I first picked up needle and thread. The first loaf wasn't horrible, but made for good practical experience.  My second loaf was much nicer.

Light, fluffy, and makes outrageously great toast. Looks like this household has seen the last of store-bought bread.

My blackwork has been slow going lately.  I've got a few "pay it forward" gifts to finish, and since I really liked the way the wedding invitations came out, I thought I'd send out greeting card collections to my FB friends.  The smalls I've posted on this blog are ideal for the project. 

My friend, Barb Day at Gypsy Wools recently posted some photos of a beautiful silk thread in the most amazing peacock blue....

I couldn't buy the floss, but it did inspire a new design that I stitched in DMC rayon (sorry, can't remember the color number).

Winter was long, spring was a tough, but as summer progresses, I'm finding myself embracing the joy of life again.  I hope the season brings you that same joy.

Flikr

South Doorway, a photo by Melissa Blake1 on Flickr.

Flikr is a great place to visit when you want to see some wonderful blackwork. One of my favorites is Melissa Blake of the UK. She finds inspiration in local architecture. "South Doorway" is a favorite of mine. See more of her work at http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissa_blake_creations

New Freebie!

Here's a charming small that should set your imagination free! I needed a break from the wedding invitations and this was the perfect project.  You'll find the pattern on my Blackwork Smalls page.

New Patterns at Ant of Sweden

Here they are!  

Jeanne Dansby patterns at Ant of Sweden!

Gift Pack 1 includes stitching instructions and directions for the "No Measuring Required" ornament

Blessings

Monarch

Another gift pack is coming soon.

While you're there, check out the list of designers on the left sidebar.  

Yep!  I've got my own category, too.

Happy Shopping!

Post Pattern Depression

It's my own fault.  I don't need to get so involved, but sometimes I just can't help myself.  Sometimes a design becomes so intriguing, so mesmerizing that when I finish it, even under the joy and thrill of accomplishment, I feel a sense of emptiness, a little bit of loss.  Such is my relationship with "Blessings."

I think I'll set the stitching aside and go read a book.