March D.E.S.I.G.N. - Tiny Modernist

I really need to get better at doing these DESIGN posts a little earlier in the month.  I just am always undecided about who to feature.  Oh the pressure!!!!

For those of you who don't know what  DESIGN is, it's 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?

As I said, I tend to be a little indecisive about who to feature every month.  So when looking through my WIPs and projects from this month, I came across the Cheryl from Tiny Modernist and decided that might be a good choice.  So I set off to learn more.  Come to find out I'd seen a few of her designs before in several cross stitch magazines, so she wasn't as new to me as I thought. 

Have you stitched a project by this designer before?

This is my first stitching experience with a Tiny Modernist pattern.  I just finished a project I called Hoppy Spring (originally called Happy Easter) as part of a spring exchange.  I had also featured one of her patterns for my Free Pattern Friday post back in February, a raccoon with a heart that I love (no pun intended) but I have not had a chance to stitch it yet.

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

Um, yes, most certainly this will not be my last project by Cheryl.  If for no other reason I need to stitch that raccoon.  Hehe.  But seriously, I love this ice cream design, and it will totally end up on my to-stitch list, just as soon as I get some wiggle room in my Stitch from Stash budget...

What made you choose this particular design/designer?

The Tiny Modernist blog features a whole bunch of really neat free patterns.  Originally I found the raccoon pattern through Pinterest, and then when I was looking for a pattern to use for my spring exchange, something about that easter bunny just called out to me.  I think I was drawn to Cheryl's use of color and shape, especially in that bunny design.

Did you notice anything that distinguished this designer from others?

Tiny Modernist definitely has a modern feel to the patterns, so it was aptly named.  There are pretty much no fractionals, and only minimal backstitch.  It's more of what I would call "color blocking" style.  It reminds me a bit of Satsuma Street designs, but Cheryl definitely has her own spin on things.

I also love the wide variety of patterns the store has, from modern designs, to vintage/retro, to holiday, to travel, and the variety of designs from samplers to biscornus, to smaller designs.  There's a bit of something for everyone.


You can find the free Tiny Modernist designs at the blog page for freebies, and you can purchase Cheryl's patterns for direct download from her website, or you can find paper versions at your local/online needlework store.

Happy stitching until next month!

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!

January D.E.S.I.G.N. - Shannon Wasilieff Designs

Just in the nick of time, I'm squeaking by at the end of this month with my DESIGN post for January.  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?

So who to feature for January?  Well, that was a bit of a challenge for me, because due to the Crazy January event, I don't have a lot of consistent progress on much of anything right now.  But after some contemplation, I decided to feature Shannon Wasilieff.  She's the designer of the Gingerbread Houses SAL from Facebook last year that I'm working on as part of my Turtle Trot projects for this year. 

Have you stitched a project by this designer before?

Yes, this is my first project by Shannon, but I don't think it will be the last. I actually found out about the SAL and Shannon's designs through a post she made on the CrossStitchForum.com website.  I had never seen any of her stuff before, but I do love her designs.

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

Yes, I think I will. Her designs are so very cute, and they don't have a lot of fractionals (which always make me crazy).   In fact, I have a copy of 3 of her charts that were featured in World of Cross Stitching magazine, so I will probably do one of those next.  However, if I wasn't already doing a gingerbread house themed piece with the SAL pattern, I definitely would make this Gingerbread House Street design of hers my next project. 

What made you choose this particular design/designer?

As I mentioned, I found Shannon through the cross stitch forum I participate in, and that led me to her Facebook group, which lead me to the SAL. And I pretty much can't resist anything Gingerbread House themed. Hmmm... not sure why that is though.

Did you notice anything that distinguished this designer from others?

This is going to sound weird, but Shannon has a very "blocky" sense of shading. Not sure how else to describe it, but the way she creates the effect of shading by layering colors is very unique from what I've stitched before, and I like it. I like that it's not always just the next color down (DMC 605 to 604 or something like that) but she actually uses different and coordinating colors to make her shading stand out. Of course, she uses a lot of single stitches too, which drives me crazy a bit since I'm a bit of a neat back freak. But I can deal with the frustration of that because the outcome is so worth it.

So thank you Shannon for making so many wonderful designs!  You can follow Shannon on her blog or through her Facebook group.  She's got lots of designs coming up in the British cross stitch magazines soon, but you can also find her great patterns in her Etsy store too. 

Until next month!

2015 Stitching Goals: More and More SALs

Well, I had the epiphany today that it's actually getting pretty close to 2015 now, so I better finish up my 2015 goals series of posts.  So rather than do an introduction post for all of these, I'm going to put them all in one post (so I can actually focus on stitching things for them, haha).

So in addition to the 2015 Flower of the Month SAL I'm hosting, the Crazy January Challenge, and BAP Attack's Turtle Trot, here's what I have planned for the new year.

Daffycat has plans to continue her Totally Useless SAL (TUSAL) into the new year.  I've already emptied my ort jar in anticipation of starting that one.   She hasn't posted (as of this writing) the new info for 2015 yet, but this is the link to her 2014 post explaining this SAL. 

Heather from Stitching Lotus is doing her Smalls SAL again this year.  I think this will be kind of like the MMMM I did in October and November, so I'm excited for this one.  I know I will be able to work on smalls for every month of this year, it will just be a question of finishing them or not...

Measi is hosting WIPocalypse again this year.  This is a very low key SAL that is essentially all about sharing your stitching goals and progress for the year.  It will go along very nicely with Turtle Trot this year I expect.

Mel from Epic Stitching is hosting her Stitch from Stash challenge again.  This year, it will be divided into two parts.  The idea is to spend $25 (or your equivalent currency) or less on stitching stash supplies per month.   When I first heard about this back in May, I was kind of like "who is crazy enough to sign up for something like that?".  And then I spent all summer stashing wayyyyy too much, so I signed up so that I could try to keep control of it next year.  With the cut in pay that came from moving out here to Mississippi, my budget is much, much tighter than it used to be, so I will have to think careful about each and every stitchy purchase I make from now on. 

And last but not least is the D.E.S.I.G.N. of the Month, which stands for Designer Everybody Should Instantly Get to Notice. This is a series of posts that will be done by participants throughout the year showing off a current WIP from a different designer each month, with a series of reoccurring questions answered about said design/designer each month.  The idea is to introduce everyone to new designers we may not have run into/tried on our own that we think others should try (or stay away from I suppose).  I'm super excited about this one; I'm already brainstorm ideas on what to feature. 

Phew!  That's a lot.  Think I bit off more than I can chew?  Maybe so, guess we'll just have to see.