Milan Monday (33): a strip of laurel

Laurel was used to honor a worthy recipient. If you have someone to congratulate for whatever grand accomplishment (a graduation, a promotion, the first book published, the first--or 100th!--hole-in-one, etc.), this strip of laurel can be adadpted for the border.

Enjoy this design that I created out of one of my own photographs imported into StitchPainter, then turned into a BMP, for your personal non-commercial use.

If you'd like to know more about the image and the photo, you can go to my blog about Milan, My Milan Italy: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2011/06/laurel-for-successful-graduations-and.html#0.

Milan Monday 27: a beautiful classicizing acanthus border

A beautiful classicizing 15th century acanthus border on the principal portal of Santa Maria delle Grazie (the church to which the refectory, where Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper is found, belongs) to brighten your Monday.

I transformed my photograph into a StitchPainter diagram, then saved it as a BMP image, in order to share it with you.

If you want to know more about the relief and the church, go to the blog post on my blog dedicated to Milan, "My Milan (Italy)": http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2011/04/delicate-and-exquisite-classicizing.html.

Milan Monday 26: acanthus

Monday, already! It seems to arrive faster and faster.

Here's a lovely classicizing acanthus pattern, which will work beautifully for borders, a table runner, or a bell pull.

I created the design out of one of my own photos using StitchPainter, then turned it into a BMP for your personal non-commercial use.

If you'd like to know more about the inspiring architectural decoration, see my blog on Milan, "My Milan (Italy)": http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2011/04/lovely-acanthus.html#0.

Milan Monday (24), again!...already!

Time whizzes by. It seems like almost yesterday that I posted the last "Milan Monday." Work, rushing around, being now tired, now frustrated, now satisfied with a day well spent. (Expected) appointments, surprises (which I hate), routine tasks to do in an unroutinely manner. Finally a long delightful walk on Sunday, and to bed too late, then, too soon, the alarm, Good Morning!

Here's a snippet of more lovely architectural decoration that can be used as a repeating border pattern. As usual, I turned the photo into a StitchPainter pattern, then saved it as a BMP file, to share with you.

To know more about the photo, go to my blog on Milan, My Milan (Italy): http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2011/03/via-piero-della-francesca-and-lovely.html.

Enjoy!

A balcony for a border (Milan Monday 23)

Happy Monday to you!

Here's a gorgeous balcony in Piazza Wagner to cut-and-paste, perhaps as a repeating border.

If you're interested in the building, see my blog on Milan: My Milan (Italy), http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2011/03/delightful-liberty-building-in-piazza.html.

Bye for now!

Milan Monday (17): An Art Nouveau border

Break from Christmas stuff! It's Milan Monday, and since Milan's Xmas decorations are not terribly inspiring, here's something that is: a delightful Art Nouveau border on one of the many anonymous, but delightful late 19th century buildings scattered around town.

I snapped the shot on the 11th of December, at about 12:15, imported it into Stitch Painter, and turned it into a BMP for your personal, non-commercial uses.

If you want to see the original picture, or learn a bit more about the building, please go to my "My Milan (Italy)" blog: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/12/break-from-christmas-delightful-art.html.

Enjoy!

Milan Monday (11): a door jamb from Chiaravalle

Another Milan Monday, the time sure flies!

Saturday, I went to the Chiaravalle monastery just outside of Milan, and snapped this gorgeous brick door jamb for you, then uploaded it into StitchPainter without retouching the shot. Turned into a BMP image for my blog, you should be able to trim it as desired to use as a repeating border design.

If you want to know more about the monastery, see my blog on Milan: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/10/chiaravalle-monastery-just-outside-of.html

(More) Grill work for Milan Monday (04)

This time, the grill pattern is particularly useful as an overall pattern, a border or a corner.

It is a detail from a grill located between the Duomo and the episcopal palace. See today's post on my "My Milan (Italy)" blog for more information. (http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/08/between-duomo-and-episcopal-palace.html)

I uploaded the detail of the grill into my StitchPainter program, then turned it into a BMP image to share with you.

Milan Monday (01)

I promised a surprise for Monday: Milan Monday.

Each Monday, I'll be posting my photos of Milan, Italy, that are inspiring for a needlepoint project. If at all possible (life too often does get in the way of needlepointing), I'll use StitchPainter to turn it into a needlepoint design, too.

While walking in Corso XXII Marzo-Viale Corsico, this air vent grill caught my eye:





And it seemed just perfect for a repeating border design:





Substitute your desired colors for the grays, and enjoy!

If you'd like to follow my blog on Milan, Italy, too, please go to: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com, thanks!

Library mouse (02)

I feel much richer as a person for having learned more about William Morris (1834-1896). I knew of him as a...More......multi-talented artist and craftsman, but never realized that his aspirations to improve and uplift our daily lives by insisting on beauty in the making and using of everyday things also had extended into poetry, narrative and political activism. (For more on Morris, go directly to http://www.morrissociety.org.)

Arthur Clutton-Brock’s William Morris (New York: Parkstone Press International, 2007) is largely concerned with exploring Morris’ interests and beliefs, with particular attention to Morris’ own writings. The book is not dedicated to translating his art into needlepoint, or cross stitch, designs, though the ample and beautiful illustrations will be an inspiration for your work.

The book spends less time than I had hoped on analyzing Morris’ approach to art, in order to be able to apply it to our own work. Even if the style of his art may not please you, after learning about his goals, you may find that you like his art better, even if you already adored it before learning more about him, as I did.

The text, despite its in-depth attention to Morris’ writings, is not for scholars, who will lament the rambling text without footnotes and the too short bibliography, but it is suited for interested fans wishing to understand Morris’ works, better, and is a good source of some beautiful images full of inspiration for your needlepoints.

Better understanding his goals helps us to better translate his art into designs. Unexpectedly, but more importantly, it helps us, like Morris, to be uplifted by making beautiful things and to insist on living surrounded by beauty, even in all our everyday objects, not just because it gives aesthetic pleasure, but also because it refines our spirits.

Library mouse (01)

Do you love books? Me, too. Real ones...More......that you can hold and touch and annotate and in which you easily can hold your place flipping back and forth to coordinate information on the various pages (that’s why books were invented in the first place; scrolls were good for from-start-to-stop reading, but not for page-to-page-in-the-same-book consultation…I haven’t tried digital books, as I just can’t focus my thoughts reading on a computer, as I can when reading a book, yet). Then, like me, you’re what the Italians call a “library mouse”…so much nicer than “bookworm,” I think. I recently found some needlepoint books that I can hardly wait to share with you one-by-one, as they arrive. (When they’ve all arrived, I’ll put them in the bibliography.)

The first one to be shared is Barbara Hammet’s The Art of William Morris in Cross Stitch, n.p.: David & Charles, 1996. It’s 128 pages packed with great photos, some basic information about the fascinating fellow William Morris (who wanted to fill everyone’s everyday lives with soul-uplifting beauty, bless him), and with about 50 charted designs for imaginative projects, complete with sewing instructions and some basic information for cross-stitch starters (though the complexity of most of the designs makes them suitable only for those with cross-stitching, or needlepoint, experience, in my opinion).

With some practice at interpreting charts for doing needlepoint, I think that most of the designs (those that don’t rely heavily on outlining) can be adapted for needlepoint fairly easily. I particularly like the way that she envisions the background as an active part of the design (more on that when I talk about the book on the Beggarstaffs, which I am awaiting eagerly).

Her approach to cross-stitch and the final effect of her designs are so akin to the look of needlepoint that I’m tempted to try cross-stitching one of her designs. Because the cloth background and final product of cross-stitch projects are so much thinner and flexible than needlepointed ones, cross-stitch also can be used for lots of things that needlepoint can’t, and that makes for happy gift-planning, for example, a personalized book marker. That’s tempting, too.

Rope border

Here's another of my borders--a rope motif, inspired by ancient Greek and Roman art and architecture--to adapt for your images and sayings. Don't forget to plan your initials (see example) and dates into the design!

Ribbon border

Designing one's own needlepoints is so much fun, even when being inspired by needlepoint books (well, that's what they're there for, after all!).

I got this ribbon border from the Victorian needlepoint book, and used it for the needlepoint I did of a pugdog (also from the Victorian needlepoint book), and I added the cushion, the ball and the striped background (color scheme dictated--once again--by what I had in stock!). It came out very well, I think.

The ribbon motif is quite flexible, if you think of the flexed ribbon separately from the bow in the corner. Use multiples of the ribbon bit (turning it, as necessary) to fill up the lengths of your design, and plan the width of the border to accomodate the bow in the corner, too (also to be turned, as necessary).

The border would be a lovely accent for your favorite sayings, too. (I did the patterns with the StitchPainter program, then turned the images into BMP for you; if you use your browser to enlarge the image, it should be big enough to use.)