Crafty Things - Meet the Author Open Book Blog

                   

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This week's topic: Topic: Are you crafty? Do you like DIY projects? Would you like to be? Share some projects you've done.  It could be gardening, crafts, home repairs/remodels, turning a door into a headboard, creating a light fixture out of a crate (I know a stretch), anything.

I think you can already see where I'm going with this post. I'm into needlecraft. Everything on this post is my work. (Except the book covers!) Sure, most of the ones I've posted are from kits, but that's because I've given away a lot of things I've made to special people in my life that were not kit-based. And I didn't keep pictures of them.

Oh, you thought those were paintings? Nope. They are all done with yarn. Well, the ones you've seen so far are.If you zoom in you can see the individual stitches.Several different techniques were used in these samples of my work.

The lion is done with a technique known as longstitch. It's done on a fabric canvas, and one stitch can cover several squares. It's done in a vertical fashion, unlike the next project. That's traditional needlepoint, and the stitches are made in a diagonal pattern. (Continental stitch) It's also done on a fabric canvas, and each stitch covers one of the "intersections" of the canvas threads. Yes, folks, that's a lot of stitching in that project. Also a lot of variations of the colors used. I had to make sure I worked that one in good lighting so I didn't mess up the shading.

The unicorn pillow is a combination of needlepoint techniques. It uses the standard stitch (continental) like the pansy picture, but it also uses satin stitch and french knots.If I recall correctly, it also uses a stem stitch and an outline stitch, It was inspired by a kit I made for someone else, but I liked the design so much I copied it and made on for myself.

Before I go any farther, let me apologize.  A photographer I am not. And it's difficult to get a good shot when the object is hanging on the wall in an odd spot. But I did the best I could.

The eagle and the two pillows are a different style of needlecraft known as crewel embroidery. It's done with yarn on a special cotton fabric. You can create different effects by using different of kinds of stitches. The eagle only used about four kinds of stitches, but the pillow below used about a dozen. There are many different kinds of stitches you can use—there are entire books filled with the instructions for how do the numerous variations.

Let's move on to another category, one that perhaps people are more familiar with. Embroidery. It's done with special thread (floss) on cloth. You've all seen items that are machine embroidered, but I do my stitching by hand. What you see below is one corner of a very large tablecloth. Large enough that if I tried to fit it into a picture, you'd lose the sense of detail. It took me five years to complete this project. Yes, five. Granted, I did some smaller projects during that five years when I got tired of this one, but I never gave up on it.

This is my most recent project—a baby quilt I embroidered for my grandson. It's done in cross-stitch—stamped, not counted. The request for the quilt was the second thing out of my daughter's mouth when she told me she was pregnant. I'd made one for each of my kids, as well as several nieces and nephews, and there was no way possible she wasn't going to get one for her baby.She didn't even need to ask. It only took me about five months to do. I'd allowed myself more time than that, but he came early and I put aside my writing to get it done before he came home from the hospital.

I'm not working on anything right now so I can't show you any works in progress. I've been concentrating on my writing as my creative outlet. But if you want to know more about these crafts, there are lots of books available.If you know how to thread a needle, you can buy a basic kit and start there. The kit will include instructions.

Find out what author T.L. Clark does besides write. Check out her post at T.L. Clark.  Don't forget to check out her books while you're there!