A cushion for your naps

Hello! I think about you often, and keep trying to cut a snippet of time out of my hectic schedule to whip something up for you. This morning I succeeded!...More...... Here's a pattern for a cushion based on an architectural decoration I snapped in via Coni Zugna in Milan. It shouldn't be too complicated, but if you'd like it even more simple, print it out, take your Sharpie, and trace around the three (or four) basic areas of light, medium and dark.

To create this I imported my photo directly into Stitch Painter. If you have the program, you can print at this point, but to share it with you, I transformed it into a BMP, and uploaded it for your personal non-commercial stitching pleasure.

Enjoy!

P.S., We're coming up on the T-Day and Christmas season...if you didn't needlepoint my designs last year, search through this web site to find them easily (see the labels), and try them this year!

Milan Monday (40): a lovely 1930s snippet

A lovely 1930s snippet for your personal, non-commercial needlepointing and/or cross-stitching.

As usual, I took a snap, then used StitchPainter to turn it into a diagram, then turned it into a BMP for sharing with you.

If you'd like more info about the snap, go to my blog on Milan, My Milan (Italy):

http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Milan Monday (39): a snippet of Art Deco

A snippet of Milanese Art Deco for this Milan Monday.

I took one of my snaps, turned it into a StitchPainter diagram, and then into a BMP image for your personal, non-commercial enjoyement.

If you're interested in knowing more about the image, see my blog on Milan:

My Milan (Italy): http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Milan Monday (37): another lion!

Milan Monday, again, already! Time has been flying, I've been so busy at work. Now that it's vacation time, I hope to spend more time with you.... More...

To kick things off, here is another lovely lion on the façade of the Palazzo dei Giuresconsulti in Milan (if you want to know more about the building, see my other blog: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2011/08/lion-motif-corbel-on-palazzo-dei.html#0).

I turned my photo into a StitchPainter diagram, then into a BMP to share with you for your personal, non-commercial enjoyment.

On an 18-point canvas, it should work up to be about 16" wide by 14" tall.

Hope you like it!

Milan Monday (28): Milanese Art Nouveau for a beautiful cushion

Milan Monday, again, already. Just doesn't seem possible.

Here's a gorgeous and fascinating example of the two kinds of Art Nouveau (fluid and based on vegetal forms coming from the French tradition vs. geometric coming from the Viennese tradition) found in Milan.

It should make a gorgeous cushion.

If you want to know more about the original, which I photographed, then turned into a StitchPainter diagram, then transformed into a BMP for your personal non-commercial use, see my blog on Milan, My Milan (Italy): http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-milanese-liberty-art-nouveau.html#0.

Milan Monday 25: a circular floral pattern good for a cushion

Went to a local open air market on Friday, and saw this circular floral motif on a building, which I thought would work up nicely as a cushion, so I snapped it, turned it into a StitchPainter diagram, then a BMP image to share with you for your non-commercial personal enjoyment.

If you want to know more about the design, see my blog "My Milan (Italy)": http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2011/03/lovely-bit-of-floral-architectural.html.

Have fun!

Surely, I'm getting unpacked a bit...("Only a bit, though, and stop calling me 'Shirley'!")

My dad's jokes make me laugh more, now, than they did then.


(me) "I feel like an ice cream!"

pinch-pinch

(him) "Funny, you don't feel like an ice cream to me!"

(me) "Aaahhh, daaaaaad!"

or...More......

...anything beginning with "Surely,..." which evoked comments about the subsequent part of the sentence, followed in rapid-fire by "...and stop calling me "Shirley!"

heh heh heh

Surely by now I'm getting some of the moving boxes unpacked, and some of the stuff put away.

Key word: "some."

My needlepoint cushions have found their new homes, though.

Two on the little etagère seen upon entering the living room, and...

...the rest up on the top of the big bookcase...right where they'll be hard to dust, but away from sticky hands.

Progress on the current project is still at a standstill.

Did Jack London ever write a sequel called The Call of the Boxes?

Milan Monday (21): a gorgeous corbel

Milan Monday back again, yeah! After the move,...More......

...everything is still topsy turvy, but one element of feeling a normal rhythm of life is trying to get back to blogging, and spending time with you.

So, here's a simple, but absolutely gorgeous corbel,which should sit nicely in the center of a 16x18" pillow with a border of your choice. If you're needlepointing a table runner, or a window valance, in a traditional style, it would be the perfect center element.

If you want to know more about the corbel, go to my blog on Milan, My Milan (Italy): http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2011/02/gorgeous-corbel-on-corso-xxii-marzo.html#0.

Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday (04)

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)

Wordless Wednesday (03)

[cross reference: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/11/wordless-wednesday-4.html]

Milan Monday (10): a medieval dado

Like medieval stuff? Here's a dado border in relief from Milan's Duomo...More......

It could make a marvelous rectangular cushion, for example, or a wind-stopper for a window sill, a footstool (the design can be trimmed fairly easily on the ends), or a decorative strip (replicating it with lots of patience) for the center of a long festive table.

If you don't like the heavily cast shadow (which does add 3-D, however), just split the design down the center horizontally, and flip it.

198 w x 80 h = 11" x ca. 4 1/5" for 18-count

198 w x 80 h = 16 1/2" x 6 2/3" for 12-count

If you're interested in learning more about the image, go to my blog on Milan, "My Milan (Italy)": http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/10/medieval-dado-on-duomo.html

Pavian Tribute

Had to go to Pavia on Wednesday for some bittersweet moments, and so wanted to record the day...More......


with, what else?, photographs.

This large rosette on the door of the Duomo would make a marvelous pillow.

I've created the diagram large enough for an 18" pillow on 18-count canvas, if the whole image is used. That means the center part should be about right for a 16" pillow, if you use just the circular area and the rosette.

I've imported the image into my StitchPainter program, then turned it into a BMP image for you.

Milan Monday (08): Art Nouveau grill

Another Milan Monday, already. Time sure flies. This time, it's a "rare" French-influenced Art Nouveau grill...More......

I uploaded it into my StitchPainter program, and created a BMP image of the design just for you. If you use 18-count canvas, it should be just right for a pillow about 16" x 18" (for you metric system folk, that's about 40 cm x 45 cm).

(I remember about 25 years ago there was a lot of noise in the States about finally going over to the really much easier metric system, over a 10-15 year period of adaptation. Everyone was too lazy, and so we're still stuck with the old-fashioned and much more difficult measuring method. Too bad for us.)

If you want more info about the grill, see my blog on Milan: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/09/rare-french-influenced-art-nouveau.html

Thanks!

Milan Monday (07): a lion's headed door knocker

Antique doors and door knockers are fun. I always keep my peepers open for just such an occasion: a beautiful lion-headed knocker....More......

I pasted the image into StitchPainter, and gridded it for you. It's so big, it would make a great cushion, I think. If you want to know more about the photo and where the knocker is in Milan, you can go to my blog on Milan: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/09/lions-and-tigers-and-bears-oh-my.html

The gridded full-size image was too big for Blogger, so I've uploaded a simple photo into this blog to give you a preview.

The full-size gridded image, in the form of a BMP file, is available on my Google site created just for such a purpose. Here's the (unfortunately long) address (copy and paste into your browser): https://8364221704685161048-a-1802744773732722657-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/starsthisandthat/home/ars-acupicturae-stellae---star-s-needlepoint-art-1/my-designs/liondoorknockerviarovellofullsize-BMP.bmp?attachauth=ANoY7coBE8Ge1JmAXshFrdnE2QAaHU7WvtLknA3aKOoBoCqFrYyYMmQDHjgAOK_Da8STT2QOJVyl4HnUQKlpAHVMzi4O1FLx8nbk5hypBA3ShGX-HmmFm8-DymOatZm5K_qi6u7hfBONg9Bt4aCvFlAhVIqzvrycKGLEanwCPkvhCmnlntOaQLIpM3j3luhevOOy2_8OKdIyfIC4xAMExu1wmgpL7s93G9xFXcBc8apFPn2rRAHPGMgVfn4wVUpwcaDLEwbTYMQL_wTMXYLuzMPQ0HvfwgfDd2sTzR5i4HsgTMln4VmRx-5OlpMFJOYaYHGGdQS6kGh3yNA_LBawYigXQBTw2J-IPA%3D%3D&attredirects=0

or go to http://sites.google.com/site/starsthisandthat

and click on the Ars acupicturae stellae folder.

Save yourself work: create a series of grids. This one's for a circular cushion 16 inches in diameter

A number of posts back, I promised that some big works for you were in progress. The book reviews were some of them. Now, here is the final preparatory step for another. I'm not going to spoil the surprise, and tell you what it will be, but I can share this stage with you, because I think you'll find it useful....More......

The design, created with my StitchPainter program, is for a round cushion 16" in diameter (about 40 cm., give or take, for you metric system people). It has 292 x 292 rows of 18-point stitches because each side has two rows added for the stitching seam; remember, if you stitch on larger whole canvas, the design will be the same, but the overall size will be bigger.

You'll note that the exterior "circles" are not quite circular. That was done on purpose to keep the design more lively. Pulling the shapes into a perfect circle made the design go "dead." Perfection is not always the right answer (keep this in mind when stitching...it eases the conscience, and may save you from unpicking and restitching, if the deviance from the pattern is minimal, and doesn't hurt the final outcome).

When you plan a large project, such as this 16" diameter cushion, keep saving the preparatory stages, so that you can use them, again, for other projects. I have saved the plain grid for myself, should I need it for a square cushion, and here, too, is the circular cushion grid with just the most basic of the circles delimited in dark gray.

The dark gray color represents the areas to be stitched for the design.

The green color represents the areas to be stitched for the seam (and so you can use mixed tag ends of colors because you'll be careful, when sewing, to put them all inside the seam).

The yellow indicates the grid, and is just to help in the creation of the design, and is not to be stitched.

When planning your needlepoint, if you don't use a frame for stitching, you'll need at least one to one and a half inches (about 3 cm. for you metric system folks) of extra canvas at each of the four extreme points of the diagram. If you use a frame, you'll need more, depending on how the canvas is attached to your frame for stitching.

The gridded design is too large for Blogger. It wouldn't even let me upload it in a "small" version, so I've had to create a mock version without the stitch-by-stitch grid, so you can see what I'm talking about, at least. For the real (and fully gridded) design, go to https://sites.google.com/site/starsthisandthat/home/ars-acupicturae-stellae---star-s-needlepoint-art-1/my-designs, which I've created for just such occasions.

Just preparing the grid has taken a number of evenings of work. Even if StitchPainter allows one to draw these simple geometric lines and shapes, easily, the whole design has to be checked and double checked for those "sticky" points (moving towards the left for right handed people; moving towards the right for left handed stitches). On this, see my: http://arsacupicturaestellae.blogspot.com/2010/06/devil-is-in-detailsof-designing.html

Starry starry night

A few of the steps on the way to the conclusion of the starry gift cushion inspired by some mid fifth century A.D. mosaics in Ravenna.



More......

The cross is probably about 5, or so, inches tall...



Remember that, working on 18-point canvas, it takes me a whole evening's work to produce about 1" x 5" of worked canvas (less, if there is a complicated pattern to count out)...



The "furry" bits are the flashes of color; the ends get cut off, as I fill up around them...




And now, for the finished project (I do my own sewing up, too):





(for more info on the font of inspiration, go to my: http://arsacupicturaestellae.blogspot.com/2010/07/from-whence-cometh-my-profile-picture.html#0)