Late Summer Questions and Answers

Wild asters in bloom

I know you have been busy with the Still Life posts, but what else have you worked on lately?

I've been finishing some projects that were put aside while I worked on others. One of these was a mirror-image piece done in upright Gobelin stitch on needlepoint canvas. Here's a picture of it shown horizontally. The pattern is mirrored both from side to side and from top to bottom. Seen in this way, it is pure geometric pattern in design.

Needlepoint, horizontal view

Needlepoint, vertical orientation

But look what happens when it is shown vertically. Now it is a stylized representation of the fields and forests, mesas and mountains of western Colorado. I don't usually do a design that leans this far toward the abstract, but this one was fun.

I'm thinking of framing it with two hangers on the back of the frame, one on a long side and one on a short side. Then it could be displayed either way and changed back and forth as desired. What do you think?

You showed a picture of a basket of strawberries at the top of Part II of the Still Life series (August 21, 2017), but you didn't tell us anything about it. Are you going to tell us about it?

Certainly. Here it is again:

Needlepoint still life of a basket of strawberries

There are a great many things to consider in doing a still life painting — or its equivalent in needlework. Here is a cheerful little needlepoint of a small basket of strawberries on a blue-and-white checked tablecloth. It is done in a poster-like style with little indication of depth and no highlights or shadows. The emphasis, instead, is on line, shape, color, and texture. Still, there is a good deal of pattern involved. Something like this is a good exercise for a beginner taking up still life needlework. This is the sort of design that can be found in a child's coloring book, for example, for anyone not yet ready to make an original design. The design is done in acrylic yarn on #10 needlepoint canvas. The checked tablecloth is a simple bargello pattern done in upright Gobelin stitch.

Sample of stitch for checked tablecloth

The body of the basket is a simple needle-weaving pattern that is shifted every other row. The yarn is brought up from the back of the canvas. Working from left to right, the stitch pattern is over 6 threads, under 2 threads, over 6, under 2, across. The return stitches from right to left are under 6 threads, over 2, under 6, over 2. The sample has been done in two colors to make this easier to see. The stitch pattern is continued until a block of 6 rows is completed. The next block of 6 rows begins shifted 4 threads to the right of the first one. The third block is just like the first one and the fourth is like the second one. Incomplete blocks can be filled in once the pattern is established. Each stitch begins and ends in the same squares as the adjacent ones. No canvas threads are left uncovered.

Sample of stitch for basket

The strawberries are done in Parisian stitch to indicate their surface texture. The sample is done in two colors for clarity. For more on Parisian stitch and related stitches, see the post for April 10, 2014.

Sample of stitch for strawberries

The ribbon-striped wallpaper is done in continental stitch, but the rows are done vertically rather than horizontally. To do this, do downward vertical stitches in the standard continental manner (lower right to upper left) and upward stitches in the return method (upper right to lower left).

Stitch technique for wallpaper stripes

Although this is a simple pattern, it still contains some information. The strawberries indicate that it is probably late spring or summer. The lighting indicates daytime. The checked tablecloth indicates that the room is a kitchen or dining room. The bow on the basket handle suggests that the strawberries are a gift. We don't know whether the gift has been delivered to someone in the household or whether it is a gift being prepared for someone else. Either way, it is a pleasant picture. (I like to think the basket is a gift for a friend.)

Are you still doing new crochet projects?

Yes, I am still doing crochet projects. A while ago I started a new line of baby afghans and “loveys”. Loveys are soft stuffed toys based on my puppet designs. I will admit that I have never been fond of the “Pink is for girls; blue is for boys” school of thought. For one thing, babies do not readily see pastels for quite some time. The first color that most of them notice is bright red. Toy-makers have known this for centuries and painted their toys accordingly.

I try to make bright-colored afghans that will appeal to toddlers (and also allow parents and caregivers to teach the children colors and words), and toys that can be used along with storybooks, made-up stories, and even songs. For example, here is “Cottontail's Garden” and its “lovey” (at the left side of the photograph).

Detail of "Cottontail's Garden" afghan and lovey

The rows of different colors can be associated with the vegetables and fruits the child eats or sees in visits to the grocery store. The lovey could be a good companion to the child when books like the Peter Rabbit series are read or songs like “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” are sung. (Incidentally, J.D. says he feels hungry every time he looks at this afghan.)

This question is for J.D. You mentioned a hot drink made from dandelion roots. (July 16, 2017) I sure have plenty of dandelions. What can you tell me about the hot drink?”

(The gnome grumbles...) Okay, for reasons too complicated to go into here, I once had to come up with a hot drink made from ingredients easily available in northern Europe a thousand years ago. After some experimentation, I settled on:

4 parts roasted malt barley

1 part roasted dandelion root

1 part roasted chicory root

Grind together to the size and consistency that matches whatever apparatus you use to make coffee - or tea - and brew. No caffeine kick, but it tastes pretty good on a cold morning.

J.D.

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Our Fourth Anniversary Edition

It is time for our annual anniversary post. How time does fly! It hardly seems possible that we are beginning the fifth year of this blog! First of all, I want to welcome the new nations that joined our readers this past year. They are, in alphabetical order: China, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Guatemala, and Swaziland. We are so happy you have chosen to “visit” us. The little blue maps that we used previously were not doing justice to lovely small countries like Luxembourg. (I have fond memories of my visit there.) So we have put a large world map on the wall by my desk. I mark each country with a paper dot.

Photo of world map from Annake's office

Lemon balm growing in Annake's Garden

As Spring draws closer, we are getting ready to plant vegetables and herbs for the seasonal Farmers' Markets. Annake's Garden is earning a good reputation for its fresh herbs. One of the things that we do is to supply a sheet of simple recipes and tips for using each herb to first-time buyers of that herb. We would also like to share some of these recipes with you. One of the most popular herbs we introduced last year was a favorite of mine — lemon balm (Melissa officinalis). These two easy recipes got great reviews. Look for more recipes during the coming year.

Lemon Balm Simple Syrup

1 C. sugar                  1 C. water             3 C. chopped lemon balm leaves

Boil water and sugar until sugar dissolves. Add lemon balm. Simmer another 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat. Let cool for 30 minutes. Strain syrup, discard leaves.* Refrigerate in a tightly-closed container.

* Leaves can make a second batch of syrup if used right away.

Lemon Balm Coolers

¼ C. lemon balm syrup                                              1 tsp. Lemon extract

½ can lime juice concentrate                                     5 ounces club soda

2 C. crushed ice

Combine the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, Serve in chilled glasses. Garnish with lemon balm sprigs if desired.

Parsnips

I don't know if you follow health food news, but one of my favorite vegetables is getting very favorable mention for its nutritional value. That vegetable is the parsnip. (Brassica rapa) It is one I use a lot, especially in slow cooker (crockpot) recipes. With our demanding schedule, we depend on having this kind of hot meal waiting for us at the end of the day. You can use parsnips in recipes that call for carrots, turnips, or other root vegetables. If you haven't tried them yet, I hope you will do so soon. Look for more about herbs and/or other food plants later this year.

Applique on one of the sweatshirts in our Etsy shop

I am always pleased when new needlework or art topics get a good response. I was gratified by the interest in Swedish weaving, optical illusion needlework, and reverse applique. There will be more information and patterns this year for all of those topics. Another thing I hope to begin this year is a series of articles relating the characteristics of kinds of art work to their applications in needlework, starting with still life. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised by the interest in a particular post. That was the case with the one about decorated sweatshirts and the follow-up post about jackets made from sweatshirts (November 30, 2016 and December 15, 2016). I will try to include more information about clothing decoration in future needlework posts.

I really appreciate the questions I get from readers because they allow me to give additional explanations and instructions that time and space did not allow me to give in the original posts. I was especially delighted with the variety of questions based on the 'Serendipity' post (January 15, 2017), which generated so much follow-up that it will take two whole posts to cover all of it (February 14, 2017, and the first post in March 2017).

Keep those questions coming,

Some upcoming project topics...

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

For the Wee Folk

Some of Annake's many puppet designs

If you have followed this blog for some time, you have read about my puppets occasionally. I started making them for my own children, made more for the children of family and friends, and used many as teaching aids throughout the years.

Earlier this year (February 29, 2016), I showed a puppet made into a simple stuffed toy. I call these toys ‘loveys’ because they remind me of simple, even crude, toys called that which I saw as a child when living in the southern United States. Here are some other examples:

'Loveys", made from Annake's puppets

Lately I have begun combining the ‘loveys’ with another of my favorite pastimes, making afghans — in this case, baby afghans. I've never cared much for the “Pink is for girls, blue is for boys” idea. Babies don't see pastels very well. The first color that babies really focus on is usually bright red. Toy manufacturers know this and make good use of the fact. I used bright colors for my children and incorporate them in most of my afghans.

"Big Red Barn" afghan/lovey set

I mean for the afghans to be used long after they are needed to wrap a tiny baby. I envision toddlers using them as nap blankets and play mats, cuddling in them while being read to or told stories, even using them as “security blankets”. Therefore, I try to incorporate features that inspire “teachable moments” for parents and care-givers. “Cottontail's Garden”' for example, could help children learn colors, associate the colors with favorite vegetables and fruits, and learn the names of those edibles. That should make trips to the grocery store more fun. (J. D. says it makes him hungry just to look at that afghan.) The association of the garden pattern with the rabbit ‘lovey’ leads naturally to reading storybooks like Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit series.

"Cottontail's Garden" afghan and lovey set

Later this spring (May 12, 2016), I used a puppet to show how simple designs like those in coloring books could be adapted to create various kinds of needlework items for children and decorations for their rooms. The first thing I did was to convert my lion puppet pattern into a down-loadable outline drawing, similar to a coloring book picture, suitable for several kinds of needlework projects.

Puppet and new design outline

I used a copy of the outline pattern to cut out pieces of felt. Then I stitched the felt pieces together and appliqued them to a background. At this point, the picture would be suitable to be framed or to be made into a small wall hanging. There were, however, several other options. Eventually the picture was used to decorate a tote bag — a nice place for a coloring book and crayons perhaps?

Lion applique on tote bag

Needlework pictures, wall hangings and other decorations are ideal for a child's room because they are not likely to cause any injuries to the children. I never put glass in a picture designed for a child's room, and I use narrow, light-weight frames. I learned this lesson the hard way. One day when my oldest child was about 14 months old — and already walking and climbing out of his crib — I found he had climbed onto the bench of my spinet piano. From there he had climbed onto the closed keyboard and then onto the top of the piano. He was trying to lift a framed painting that was bigger than he was off the wall. The painting had glass in it and a very heavy frame. There were dangers of several sorts of disasters. I think I got my first gray hair that day! We moved all the pictures closer to the ceiling and secured them to the walls with adhesive. Then I began making things for the nursery that weren't hazardous to young would-be mountain climbers, like this blackwork cat embroidery which, even framed, weighs just a few ounces.

"Cat Nap",  framed blackwork embroidery

I'm still embroidering animals in blackwork, redwork, whitework, and Holbein embroidery (which is essentially blackwork stitches done in many colors). I decided to do the lion design in Holbein embroidery on checked gingham. Once again, I used the simple outline design, this time to make a hot-iron transfer that I ironed onto the gingham. You will notice that the pattern is reversed when you use the iron-on technique. You can see more animal designs — these destined to become a child's quilt — on the blog post for October 18, 2013. Go to our Archive or the search engine on this blog to find them, along with a pattern you can download.

Lion pattern done in Holbein embroidery

The last little lion is done in latch-hook, a soft medium that children like to touch. I traced the outline directly onto the latch-hook canvas with a permanent marker. I had to adjust the position of the tail a little to make it look right. This little fellow became a small wall hanging. As you can see, the three projects are similar, but different.

Lion pattern as a latch hooked wall hanging

I hope you will try one or more of these projects, whether with the downloaded designs or ones of your own making. If you don't have children or grand-children of your own, please make something for a child in need of kindness. There are far too many of them out there.

Thank you,

"We Love You THIS Much", latch hooked wall hanging from our Etsy shop

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Celebrating Our Third Anniversary

It is wonderful to see so much more color on our blog visitor's map this year. J.D. and I want to send a special thanks to those of you who visit our site regularly or occasionally. We also want to welcome visitors from the new nations we heard from this past year. They are (in alphabetical order): Armenia, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, Finland, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, and Suriname.

Snowdrops in bloom

Most of the heavy snow that we've been accumulating since early December has melted or is melting, although there are lighter snows in the weather forecast. I have no illusions that winter has finished with us. We usually get at least one heavy snow the last week in March, the first week in April, or both. Nevertheless, the retreating snow is revealing treasures — like this cluster of beautiful white snowdrops. Iris and poppy plants are appearing in all of the flower gardens. Strawberry plants are thriving. In one of our vegetable beds, a row of cress has been growing under the snow. I find myself humming my favorite Frank Sinatra song, “It Happens Every Spring”.

"Big Red"

More sunshine and longer days have led to more hours of work in the greenhouse. It is time to start flats of seedlings and hanging baskets of foliage plants and flowers. I'll be taking cuttings from plants like this geranium (which appears to have delusions of grandeur). It was nearly as tall as I am when we brought it into the greenhouse in the autumn. Now it is pushing up on the inside of the greenhouse ceiling! I've seen geraniums like this in sunny California, but not in the cold Colorado mountains. When it began its rapid growth last season, it produced balls of bright red flowers that were six inches (15.5 cm.) or more in diameter, and continued to do that all summer long.

Now that we have doubled our participation in farmers' and artisans' markets, you will be hearing more about plants and seeing pictures of them from time to time. That doesn't mean I'm going to neglect the handicrafts, however. For example, I have still been experimenting with my own crochet patterns. Here's an afghan, “Autumn Colors”, that I did recently ....

Crocheted afghan, "Autumn Colors"

....and another one, “Winterwood”, that I did for this season. I have continued to do latch-hook and needlepoint projects and have several crewel embroideries in progress. I'm also embarking on new designs for the cross-stitch, blackwork, redwork, Assisi and Holbein types of embroidery.

Crocheted afghan, "Winterwood"

Some of our new puppets

Currently I'm working on a large series of puppets for another Etsy artisan, a baker-confectioner, to include in her Easter baskets. Some of these chickens, ducks, and rabbits are new designs. I'll be adding them to the farm animal puppets on our shop site. New designs are developed frequently. Here are a few new ones. I'm also working on a series of puppets of endangered animals for Earth Day. I believe that puppets are a good way to encourage children to learn about — and care about — animals.

Rabbit 'lovey'

Most of the puppets can be easily made into soft toys. I stuff the entire body and make a seam at the bottom to close it. When I was a little girl living in the South, little children were given rag dolls or animals. These were often stuffed with raw cotton from the cotton gin at the end of the road. The older folks called them “loveys”, and that is what I call the ones I make today. Here's a picture of a rabbit “lovey”.

I've been re-reading all of the posts for this past year. While doing this, I discovered that I had mentioned several projects and techniques that I didn't follow up with articles and examples. I'll be concentrating on those in the upcoming posts for March and April. They include reverse applique, an introduction to Swedish weaving, and lettering as a technique for needlework design (as well as words as needlework motifs). I apologize for any concern that my delays may have caused. I will do my best to discuss everything that I overlooked last year. I will also have some summer and autumn patterns that you can download, so that you can get an early start on projects for those seasons.

Swedish Weaving Sample

I hope you will enjoy this, our fourth year, along with us.

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Winter Questions and Answers, 2016

Your embroidered plain chain stitch looks a lot like crocheted chain stitch. Is there a way to use crocheted chain stitch as embroidery?

Yes, there is. It looks good on things like sweatshirts, heavy sweaters, caps and mittens, too. Because it can only lie on the surface of the fabric, however, you will need to couch it down with embroidery stitches in the same yarn or a contrasting one. If you use contrasting yarns, you can create borders that are attractive in both color and texture. Some embroidery techniques are shown on top of crocheted chain in the samples below. The first group is done in a single color. These are: back-stitched chain, couching between the “links” in the chain, alternating couching worked from the centers outward at right angles, whipped chain and plain chain on top of the crocheted chain (like “double chain” in crewel).

Click picture for larger view

 The second group are done in two colors — and some can easily be done in more. These are: crocheted chain with double running stitch (red and blue); alternating couching of the crocheted chain in two colors (yellow and green); crocheted chain couched, with back-stitch over it (purple and blue); crochet chain back-stitched in red and then threaded in green; cross-stitch between “links” of the crocheted chain, with running stitch over the crosses (blue and purple); and two parallel rows of crocheted chain, back-stitched in red and interlaced in gold. Work all of the stitches in one color before going on to the next color. I find it works well to stitch one color left-to-right and the other color right-to-left. The green threaded and gold threaded stitches may be couched down. I would do this on a garment or any article that will get a lot of wear. Use tiny stitches in one strand of the yarn or floss, or use a matching sewing thread.

I suggest you place practice fabric in your hoop and make a chain a yard or meter long in order to practice each stitch pattern across the full width of your hoop. Leave a long “tail” when you begin your chain. Later you can thread this end into a crewel needle, take it to the back of your fabric and secure it. Cut your crochet yarn far enough beyond the last link in your chain that you can thread that end into a crewel needle, take it the back of your fabric and secure it. Pin the chain to the fabric every inch (2 ½ centimeters) or so. Don't stretch the crocheted chain out of shape. Don't pull couching stitches so tight that they disappear in the chain. You can use lighter or heavier weights of yarn for the embroidery if you wish. Or you can use crochet cotton, embroidery floss, or other materials.

What is the difference between the optical illusion block you showed last month and a 4-way bargello?

Optical illusion needlepoint started from center

That's a very good question! The major difference is that the optical illusion (and the quilt block it is based on) are figured out in advance and the areas are drawn on the canvas before the stitching is begun. You may or may not put in the horizontal and vertical center lines and the diagonals — depending on the pattern. Ordinarily you would begin at the center and work your way out to the edges. The design will be basically the same whatever canvas and yarn you use. Back-stitching is often an important feature of the design. For me, the challenge is in drawing the design precisely in order to get the effect I want.

4-way bargello "Green Envy",  started from pattern line

The 4-way design is not unchanging like the optical designs; it changes and evolves as you stitch. It is best to begin all such designs by drawing in the vertical and horizontal center lines and the diagonals. A 4-way usually begins with a pattern line, rather than a shape to fill in. (There are exceptions; see “Hearts Afire”, December 22, 2014 post, which does depend on a definite shape, for example.) A four-way usually begins several (sometimes many) rows of canvas from the center. Instead of being worked outward from the center, it is worked both outward and inward from the pattern line. The design changes rapidly — often in surprising ways. Back-stitching is not regularly used. I get the most pleasure from starting with a pattern line which surprises me as it unfolds.

There are similarities between the two techniques, however. Both need to be centered on the finished canvas. Both tend to be square when finished. Both use the upright Gobelin stitch. Both may benefit from being turned ninety degrees as you work on the various parts of the design. Both depend on a careful selection of shades of color for their best visual effects. Neither leaves empty squares of canvas in the design; stitches share canvas squares. Both are fun to do and satisfying to complete.

I really like the optical illusions from quilt blocks. They look like fun. But they're square, and I hardly ever see square frames. Are you going to do any that fit rectangular frames?

I've just adapted the “King's Cross” design for a rectangular frame. The sketch will work with any three-color combination as long as the white sections are in the lightest color, the pencil-shaded sections are a darker shade of the same or a similar color, and the inked-in triangles are in a very dark color. You will notice that the pairs of triangles are not quite the same. Also, the shapes that were parallelograms in the original pattern are now polygons. These are large areas, so use a heavier yarn than usual or double your regular yarn to cover the canvas completely. Once again, I recommend doing the triangles in basket-weave, starting at the center points and working outward this time. Any irregularities where two colors of yarn join, or at the edges, may be covered by back-stitching if you choose.

Click on diagram for larger view

I did this pattern for a 5-inch X 7-inch frame (13 X 18 centimeters), but I can show you how to adapt it for any rectangular frame. Turn the frame upside-down on your canvas and draw around the opening with a pencil. Remove the frame. (If necessary, use a ruler or straight-edge to square the corners and make the sides straight.) Leave extra canvas around the rectangle so that you can tape the edges. Find the center of the rectangle and mark it with a dot (O on the diagram), continuing to use a pencil. Find the centers of the top and bottom — the short sides — and mark them with dots (A). Find the centers of the long sides and mark them (B). Mark the four corners (C). Mark the centers of the lines between the A's and the center O (D). Mark the centers between the B's and the O (E). Mark the centers between the C's and the A's (F) and the centers between the C's and the B's (G). Now connect the dots as follows:

• A-O-A
• B-O-B
• Both C-O-C's
• Both E's on the top and bottom with the nearest D
• Both G's on the sides with the nearest E
• You may then erase the A-D and the B-E lines if you wish to do so.

Now you are ready to begin stitching.

If you like squares and rectangles, just wait until we get to hexagons!

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.