Oh man, I just spent who knows how much time hunting up just the right T-Day image, which also can be used for Xmas (since, ahem, I'm a little late on the T-Day countdown), and turning it into a StitchPainter diagram then a BMP image for you, when I realized that it's Photoless Friday.
Oh well. Here's a link to my Photoless Friday T-Day musings on my "My Milan (Italy)" blog, and I'll post the diagram for you, either tomorrow, or in the next couple of days, computer willing (knock on wood).
http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/11/more-than-photoless-friday-07-i-should.html
Enjoy!
Friday, November 26, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Milan Monday (16): a cherub
Monday, again, oh so fast!
Here's a cherub in a half-circle frame on a building in Milan. I uploaded my picture into StitchPainter, then turned it into a BMP for you.
(If you want to know more about the image, please see my other blog, My Milan (Italy), http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/11/cherubic-grin.html, thanks!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Photoless Friday (05): how do YOU organize your yarns?
I am organized in certain areas of my life and house. My desk is usually a mess (though, really, I do know--pretty much--what are in those piles organized by subject matter), but my needlepoint yarn drawers are pretty darn tidy...More......
One small drawer is dedicated to my patterns that I worked up in StitchPainter together with the inspiring material, the one, or two, ready-made patterns I have bought (and never made up, but I sure do enjoy looking at them!), lots of inspirational photos in folders, a couple of small nice frames picked up on sale (why do they never work for the project at hand?), the roll of masking tape to finish off the edges while working the canvas, a couple of extra needles (never at hand when desired, but always THERE when searching for something else), and a sample of plastic canvas I wanted to try for seeing how to needlepoint tissue box covers and Christmas time gingerbread houses (maybe if I combined those two concepts, I'd actually DO it), my Paternayan yarn sample color chart with some handwritten notes. That's about it.
The other two somewhat deeper drawers are dedicated to my spare yarns, each grouped by color families into clean big baggies. I'm still working on some colors bought 15 years ago, folks!--those are the ones I should start using to do the outer two stitch rows just for firming up the stitching, you know, the rows that get sewn into the margins, so unseen. I have a pretty good sample of typical colors I use, though it always seems that there's never enough of the one I want for any particular project (especially cream, as I use that a lot for backgrounds).
Wish I had more space, but it looks like the situation is going to go the other way. I've got to move in the next couple of months (Cosmos help me), and those drawers are now going to be needed for pesky things, such as clothes.
I do have some clear plastic containers that will probably have to do, and go under the bed. Yuck. But the available space (and budget) is what is is.
I'm tellin' ya, if I win the lottery, my new house is going to have a huge bedroom just for my needlepointing and sewing supplies and activities.
How do YOU organize your yarns and other craft supplies?
One small drawer is dedicated to my patterns that I worked up in StitchPainter together with the inspiring material, the one, or two, ready-made patterns I have bought (and never made up, but I sure do enjoy looking at them!), lots of inspirational photos in folders, a couple of small nice frames picked up on sale (why do they never work for the project at hand?), the roll of masking tape to finish off the edges while working the canvas, a couple of extra needles (never at hand when desired, but always THERE when searching for something else), and a sample of plastic canvas I wanted to try for seeing how to needlepoint tissue box covers and Christmas time gingerbread houses (maybe if I combined those two concepts, I'd actually DO it), my Paternayan yarn sample color chart with some handwritten notes. That's about it.
The other two somewhat deeper drawers are dedicated to my spare yarns, each grouped by color families into clean big baggies. I'm still working on some colors bought 15 years ago, folks!--those are the ones I should start using to do the outer two stitch rows just for firming up the stitching, you know, the rows that get sewn into the margins, so unseen. I have a pretty good sample of typical colors I use, though it always seems that there's never enough of the one I want for any particular project (especially cream, as I use that a lot for backgrounds).
Wish I had more space, but it looks like the situation is going to go the other way. I've got to move in the next couple of months (Cosmos help me), and those drawers are now going to be needed for pesky things, such as clothes.
I do have some clear plastic containers that will probably have to do, and go under the bed. Yuck. But the available space (and budget) is what is is.
I'm tellin' ya, if I win the lottery, my new house is going to have a huge bedroom just for my needlepointing and sewing supplies and activities.
How do YOU organize your yarns and other craft supplies?
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Milan Monday (15): a garland (and a time-space experiment)
Here's a garland on a local sculpture...it's also a time-space experiment to see what date and time is posted on the blog message...mine, or of the HQ of blogger.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Photoless Friday (04): Mid-term report and ruminations about art
A mid-term report and some ruminations about art...More......
Mid-term report: my current needlepoint point project is going as slowly as molasses uphill in January. Life is getting in the way, and probably will continue to do so for at least a couple of months. Plus, needlepoint is pretty slow going, even in the best of times. Please be patient, and I'll continue creating diagrams for you in the meantime.
Now, for some ruminations about art.
If you read this blog (all three of you!), you'll already agree with me when I say that needlepoint (and cross-stitch and sewing and knitting and...) is an art form.
Art critics and art historians are finally recognizing these forms as equally important as traditional painting, sculpture and print-making. It's not easy...not even for me, as an art historian, who needlepoints. Why they didn't before opens up a whole other can o' worms (depreciation of "women's work," for starters, when women did not have the opportunities to learn and to practice that men had, so it was a double bind situation, and so on and so forth).
I don't want to dwell on the negative aspects.
Rather, I want to present a positive step towards recognizing these media as equally valid art forms. Though for knitting, the "Dritto Rovescio" ("Front Back") exhibit at the Triennale gallery in Milan a few years back was a big step forward. The site's in Italian, but no problem, the pictures are universal: http://www.do-knit-yourself.com/DrittoRovescio.html
I also want to point you to my Photoless Friday ruminations on art on my "My Milan (Italy)" blog, in the hope that they might be interesting to you, too: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/11/photoless-friday-04-i-dont-know.html
What are you working on?
Mid-term report: my current needlepoint point project is going as slowly as molasses uphill in January. Life is getting in the way, and probably will continue to do so for at least a couple of months. Plus, needlepoint is pretty slow going, even in the best of times. Please be patient, and I'll continue creating diagrams for you in the meantime.
Now, for some ruminations about art.
If you read this blog (all three of you!), you'll already agree with me when I say that needlepoint (and cross-stitch and sewing and knitting and...) is an art form.
Art critics and art historians are finally recognizing these forms as equally important as traditional painting, sculpture and print-making. It's not easy...not even for me, as an art historian, who needlepoints. Why they didn't before opens up a whole other can o' worms (depreciation of "women's work," for starters, when women did not have the opportunities to learn and to practice that men had, so it was a double bind situation, and so on and so forth).
I don't want to dwell on the negative aspects.
Rather, I want to present a positive step towards recognizing these media as equally valid art forms. Though for knitting, the "Dritto Rovescio" ("Front Back") exhibit at the Triennale gallery in Milan a few years back was a big step forward. The site's in Italian, but no problem, the pictures are universal: http://www.do-knit-yourself.com/DrittoRovescio.html
I also want to point you to my Photoless Friday ruminations on art on my "My Milan (Italy)" blog, in the hope that they might be interesting to you, too: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/11/photoless-friday-04-i-dont-know.html
What are you working on?
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Milan Monday (14): Yet another piece of (lovely) grillwork
Another lovely snippet of Milanese wrought iron, this time just right for a cushion.
I snapped the photo, turned it into a slightly tweaked StitchPainter diagram, then turned it into a bmp image for you.
(To see more information about this grill, see “My Milan (Italy)” blog: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/11/yet-another-beautiful-wrought-iron.html)
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Milan Monday (13): a river goddess
It's raining. It's dreary. That doesn't make for uplifting photos. Or needlepoints. So I decided...More......
...to hunt through my files for something cheerier. What could be better than a recently restored river goddess?
Here she is in all her glory, turned into a StitchPainter diagram, then a BMP image, just for you!
If you want to know more about the sculpture, see my other blog: My Milan (Italy) (http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/11/river-goddess-to-chase-away-rainy-day.html#0)
Have fun!
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