Colour Grading

Technically I have one more sample to stitch up to finish this weekends play with primary and secondary colours, but I confess after several hours at the machine I needed a change.  So I decided to skip the last sample for now and move on to some play with colour grading. 

Boy am I finding this a really tough exercise so far.  I thought I'd matched my threads pretty well against the colour grades I'd made with paper back in chapter one but as it's come to stitching some of the colours look wildly out of place.

And look at the difference between the two samples too.  The purple one was first and it was getting so chewed up under the machine with all the satin stitching I decided there was a definite need to get to some in hoop stitching for the rest of the colours.

It's going to be interesting to see how the other colours turn out.  I'm sure there will be more mistakes ahead but it's all a great learning exercise.  For as many years as I've been stitching I've never really paid much attention to colour theory I usually just pick things that I think look right together.  The exercises in this chapter are teaching me A LOT, and I'm having tonnes of fun in the process.

Killing Christmas or Sunrise at the Lily Pond

So I realised between lack of posts generally and a glut of submission posts now I've been able to catch up with work in the sketch book, it's been a while since I did a post dedicated to work on one particular sample.

I spent a good portion of the day yesterday working with primary and complementary colours.  I have to admit that I was pretty uninspired when it came to the thought of working with red and green.  I have nothing against the colours individually but together there is just no getting away from the fact they shout Christmas.

Anyway off I went merrily stitching away until I reached a point that I thought 'would do' for the sample.

There is no doubting the colours work well together. neither one really dominates the other.

But no matter what way you look at it it just says Christmas.....yuck.  No offense to all you Christmas fans out there it's just not a time of year that really holds happiness for me anymore.  So all that said and done I decided to put the sample under the machine again in an attempt to try and kill Christmas......

So I stitched and stitched and stitched and ended up with something I'm so much more happy with.

 Maybe I haven't quite managed to kill Christmas but it's definitely on it's way out.

I think the finished sample has so much more of a landscapey feel to it now.  The colours don't really ring true to life in this photo - where the stitching is overlayed in places the colours are becoming a lot more brown in tone, and I think the zig zag stitch makes it look really like a rippled reflection in the water.  The reflection of sunrise over a lily pond maybe?

Ok so that might be a bit of a stretch for the imagination, but hey to me that's a whole lot better than Christmas tree.

Secondary Slump

I'm feeling rather frustrated now, as I'm still not 100% better but I'm trying not to let it get me down too much and am just doing bits and pieces as and when I can. I've managed to finish samples for chapter 9 working with primary colours and the last couple of days have been working on secondary colours.

I have to say so far the samples aren't really grabbing me, but then again that just may because I'm generally feeling down in the dumps.

This weekend I'll be playing with complementary colours and layers of stitch.  I have to say that I'm feeling a bit more excited about this, I think this will be more my kind of thing.  I guess by the end of the weekend I'll be able to let you know for sure :)

Stitching again

Things have been a bit quiet round here I know.  For the last week I've had a nasty virus.  I'm not very good at sitting round and doing nothing but these lovely germs have had me knocked out and I've basically spent the week comatose on the sofa :(   I'm still not totally better but I'm getting there,and one of the first post recovery jobs was to get back on the machine.

Chapter Nine has begun ....... exciting!

Module One Chapter Eight - Submission of Work

Module One Chapter Seven Submission of Work

Module One Chapter Six Submission of Work

Apologies as yet again some of these pages have uploaded sideways and I can't get them to correct, but hopefully all can be read ok.

Finished

My resolved piece is finished.  At first I really hated it .... but it's growing on me.

I'm glad to have it done now though.  I just have a couple more things to write up and then I should be able to do a submission of chapters 6, 7 and 8 and then I can get straight on and cracking with chapter 9

Circles are finished

 This morning I made myself ignore the temptation to go and sit in the garden in the sun, and I sat at my machine and finished the centre panel for the prairie points piece instead.

It was a lot of fun to do and I like how it came out.  I'm hoping that the random and almost sketch like stitching of the circles will be a good contrast to the neat and ordered lines that are on the points.  The one criticism I would have is that I'd have liked the stitching in the orange centre of the circle to be a bit neater but stitching circles with the foot on with such a small arc to the circle proved to be pretty difficult.

I'm off outside to enjoy the sun for a while but I'm hoping to get the sample all put together and finished this evening.