Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Crafty Sheep's September Color Challenge

Hello, hello!

Hey, have you heard of Crafty Sheep's Color Challenges? I have been wanting to do one for months, but haven't had the chance until now.  I just love September's challenge.

Isn't this palette fun?!

Photo by Crafty Sheep, aka Alexis, aka Awesome Crafter & Stitcher

With this challenge, I decided to go outside of my comfort zone with more than just color--I am also challenging myself with pattern. I have never done blackwork before, and I thought it would be fun to give it a whirl.

And it is fun. But it's much more challenging than I thought it'd be! I think it would be easier if I were stitching it all in one color. Oh well! A challenge is supposed to be challenging, right? ;)


As you can see, it's a work in progress. I used a pattern I found here (top one), and have been winging it a bit, too. The pattern is teensy (just 16x12 stitches!), so I put four of them together. What you're seeing here is the top half of my piece...well, a partial shot of it, anyway. 

It seems to be that blackwork, or at least this particular pattern, has a rhythm to it. Once I figured that rhythm out, I didn't even need to refer to the pattern. It was nice, and very repetitive. Maybe even melodic.

I don't know if you noticed, but I haven't used 728 in the piece yet. I didn't really plan out what I was going to do, and I don't really have a vision of how I'd like to see this turn out. Like I said, I've been winging it. I will be incorporating the 728 into this piece, and I think I know how I'll do it, but I am not sure yet. I guess I will just have to wait and see where the needle & thread take me.
 

9 comments:

Alexis said...

Gorgeous!! I've never done blackwork before either - I've bookmarked the patterns you linked to for future reference!

I love your work...so happy you're playing along with the challenge this month!

Julie said...

It looks so good!

olisa said...

This looks gorgeous and I love these colors! I want to give blackwork a try, too.

C.Shore said...

This reminds me of those little squares I showed you that I did without a pattern and nearly blinded myself. These colors are so great - Autumn colors yea! Can't wait to see where you go with this - You're soooo Stitchy Ms. Stitcherson!

Barb said...

Beautiful! Good for you for taking a challenge!

Paige said...

That's beautiful so far! I'm not sure what blackwork is but I like the look of it! ;)

besomom said...

Gorgeous! Excellent use of color. You are so talented. I can see where the color changes would be insanity-provoking, though, especially if you don't cheat by carrying over threads (like I would do!).

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link to Crafty Sheep's Color Challenge -- I'd not seen that before so look forward to checking it out.

I like the September challenge colors; I bet I can find a pattern in my stash that can be stitched up with these colors in just a couple days!

Blackwork's been on my "try it" list for a while. I really like how you've chosen to use different colors -- seems that would make it more enjoyable, and easier to differentiate the patterns within the design while stitching.

Glenda

Anonymous said...

You could put the dash of yellow in the middle of the blue!
This is fancy needlework!