February D.E.S.I.G.N. - Passion Broderie 77

Again, I'm barely squeaking this post in the nick of time.  Hopefully things will settle down after this week, since I will no longer have our church activity hanging over my head after tonight (why they asked me to organize the thing....)

Anyway, February is almost over, so it's time for February's DESIGN post.  For those of you who don't know what that is, DESIGN is a monthly feature hosted by Leonore Winterer of the blog Needle, Pen & Sword.  The acronym stands for Designer Everybody Should Instantly Get to Notice, and each month, different participants post a series of questions about a favorite/new needlework designer they've been working on.

What designer do you want to talk about this month?

This month I am featuring work by Corinne from the blog Passion Broderie 77.   Although not a "published" designer, Corinne publishes several of her own designs for free on her blog a couple times a week or so.  It's a great source for free patterns.  The blog is in French, which is a difficulty for me, but with the help of Google Translate, I manage okay. 

Have you stitched a project by this designer before?

My first project that I stitched from this designer was the Perfume Bottle pattern I stitched for WOCS.

Would you buy/stitch a design by this designer again? Why/Why not?

I am currently stitching three other designs by Corinne: a ladybug design, a purple owl design, and a sparrow design, all of which are also for charity quilts.  I'm sure there will be more of her designs in my future too.  I have a lot of them saved for reference. 

What made you choose this particular design/designer?

I first found the blog when I was searching for a pattern to use in a charity stitching quilt for a "ladies accessories" themed quilt.  I didn't have any patterns in my stash that would work, and being on a budget I went looking for freebies.  I eventually stumbled upon Corinne's work, and the rest is history. 

Did you notice anything that distinguished this designer from others?

So, there's a few things that set these designs apart from others I have stitched before.

1.  There are no symbols on the charts, just color blocks.  I know some people prefer this kind of stitching now, but for me, it makes it a little hard to tell exactly what color I'm supposed to be using, especially if the shading is close.  My printer doesn't always print straight colors, so that compounds the problem, so sometimes I have to pull up and super enlarge the original in order to get the colors right.

2.  For freebie patterns, most of these designs are fairly big.  Most of them start at about 70 to 90 stitches square, with a few being closer to 120 in height or length.  This means on 14/28 count fabrics, you're looking at a pattern at least 6 inches or so without any border around the edges.  Which is a good thing to keep in mind while you're planning.

3.  Many of the patterns feature large blocks of the same color.  This may be good or bad depending on how you look at it.  I think it makes stitching a lot easier in most cases, but I get bored sometimes too. 

4.  One bad thing I've noticed is that the designs do not really appear to be symmetrical most of the time.  While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, I have modified things like eyes/pupils so they match on either side.  Also, sometimes the shading and colors can be a little off.  Bottom line, you'll just need to be ready to modify the pattern if needed.

Well, that's about it for this month.  Happy stitching until next time!