05.21.10
Posted in General at 2:26 pm by deRomilly
So you want to learn embroidery, but are overwhelmed by all the information out there. I took some of the questions I ask my students when they are deciding what to learn first and put them into a quiz to rank four of the basic embroidery styles and suggest which one you should start with. Unfortunately I can’t plug the quiz in here, but you can find it here:
What Embroidery Style Should I Learn?
I don’t get any results back from this, but I’d love to know what your results are! Feel free to post in the comments. I got “freestyle” which is funny, since I started with and design cross stitch and crewel designs before I expanded out. But I guess we all change over time!
If you know how to create a quiz I can post IN my blog – please give me a heads up. My google-fu is failing mightily on this subject! And I’d rather not make you all click more than necessary!
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Posted in General at 1:02 pm by deRomilly
Onyx-kun, Old Lady Cat, Kitty-Purr…
May 15, 1995 - May 17, 2010
Your fur will continue to live in my embroidery for years to come!
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05.14.10
Posted in Drawing at 7:00 am by deRomilly
Geometric versus Organic Doodling
In the “How to doodle” post way back when, I examined how I doodle around geometrically, creating geometric designs, subdivided and filled with yet more shapes. That method can be done using dice for inspiration.
My organic doodling is less structured – take a scribble – any scribble – on paper or digitally and then expand on it.
How to Doodle
- Scribble. I often use pencil for this. The key when making it is to truly scribble — don’t think and don’t try to make anything. In fact, scribble a bunch of these randomly on the page without looking. I like to keep a stack of pre-scribbled doodles to work with whenever the mood strikes, or several pages of them in my current studio journal.
First Doodle Step
- Now, pretend you’re a kid again, lying on your back on a hill watching clouds. What do you see? Each scribble is a cloud.
- At this point I like to use a brush tip pen to delineate what I see. The brush tip makes it easier to make some of the lines stronger and more obvious. You can get the same result with a different color of pen, or a pen over pencil, or whatever works for you. Remember – you don’t have to use all of the scribble – you can make multiple pictures out of the same scribble, or combine more than one scribble into one picture.
Finished and titled doodles. Click to enlarge.
There are no rules in doodling – and it’s about playing, not “real” art.
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05.11.10
Posted in Stitching Genres at 1:42 pm by deRomilly
I was reminded yesterday by a friend of a technique I had taught her several years ago. She was intimidated by all the counting in counted cross stitch, and couldn’t find a pattern she liked to learn on in any case. The easy solution? Make her own, without counting. If I can talk her into letting me take a photo of her finished project I’ll try to post it here. 
What we did was the following:
- Find an iron on transfer or a line art/coloring design she liked from a clip art book.
- Transfer it onto a piece of counted fabric. In this case, aida.
- Now fill in the various areas with the stitch of your choice. In my friend’s case, I taught her long-armed cross stitch. You can also use tent stitch, cross stitch, satin stitch, or any other filling stitch, lacy or solid that you like. Or a variety of stitches.
- Stitch over the outlines with stem or back stitch.
- Voila! apparently counted work that wasn’t counted.
Note: I’m not sure how regularly I’ll be posting for the next few weeks. Our old lady cat is in home hospice care, in the last stages of thyroid disease AND renal failure, so I find myself watching her and worrying more than I ought to, perhaps.
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