My Life is in threads right now!

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October 23rd, 2010

Thank you Irene for pointing me in the right direction through yesterday's post comments.  Your guidance is much appreciated and I do hope you have amazing patience. I did read the "Cross Stitch with Linen" bit that I picked up on-line but it was gobbly de goop to me. I read it and said it three times and then I tried it three times whilst I said it - I shone a light through the back of the fabric so that I could see the make up and direction of the cloth...the magnifying glass did help tons and off I went in a straight line. I do miss the ring to hold onto and need to figure out the "hold" you suggested.

 Soooo, I have tried it again with some sort of sensibility and I think it looks more uniform...I have measured it and it appears I am on the right track ( finished measurements should be 3 7/8 x 3 1/3) but please let me know if you think something is off here...that would be my preference rather than carry on...

This picture is of the Interior Decorating  "homework" I have been doing whilst trying to work out the cross stitch on linen...I looked at my projects lying there and realized they were all in similar colours.  I am thinking the cross stitch has influenced my dining room colours.  This was another fiasco as I am to use a cheap watercolour paper and add the colours with acrylic folk paint using three primary colours and black and white...start mixing. When you apply the mix to the cheap paper the colour goes on streaky and I am going over it several times to make it even...then it starts to lift off...so I thought I would be smart (always costly and a bad sign) and got the 40lb Arches paper out.  Now step one is to copy the drawing from regular letter size paper onto the water colour paper...first disaster.  I cut it to size with my wee blade (works like a charm), put it into the printer and it got caught in the printer and I was 15 minutes clearing a paper jam without damaging my newish ( I love it)  printer. So that idea was binned.  I got a lighter weight, much smoother, Strathmore watercolour paper, did the same thing and it worked beautifully.  I took the paints, mixed the colours and applied it and it was even more streaky than the cheap paper.  Sooo, I won't be beaten...I tried the water colour paints and better brushes and proceeded once more through the process...my findings- the watercolour paints were better on the cheap paper for this project as it was  more even, but still not great.  So back I went to the cheap paper, folk art acrylic paints and the better brushes and it looked "not too bad".  I messed around with it to get a better feel and I think I can do a good job on it.  So back to basics and sticking with it. I will post the finished assignment that is due next Wednesday. I do think the colours were influenced by the threads even though I had picked the red in my head and thought green for accessories as a complimetary colour...or maybe the other way around  -  I picked Blackbird's Floral Gift cross stitch design because I had the interior colours in my head.  Who knew? Be careful out there!

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It's a beatiful life in colour and especially the fall colours that are warm reds and oranges.  How influenced are we by nature and the everyday colour schemes out there that are invisible to us in our busy, busy lives? Never mind the ad "What's in your wallet" - when picking threads or yarn " What's in your head". I hope you are seeing very pretty colours out there and stitching or knitting accordingly.