As promised, the next few posts will be a little bit about the new designs we released at Nashville. I’m busy working on other things, but wanted to catch up a bit.
Kaleidoscope came about because I have always been fascinated by kaleidoscopes and the ever changing view through them. When we lived in Oklahoma City, we used to visit Arts in the Park every spring, and there was a vendor who had beautiful hand-made wooden kaleidoscopes. Oh, how I wanted one! But they were far too expensive for a frivolity, so I had to pass. We haven’t lived in Oklahoma for 19 years – I wonder if that artisan still goes to Arts in the Park? I’ll have to plan a visit to find out; maybe now that we no longer have to devote every dollar to raising children I just might be able to get a small one.
Anyway, since I’ve always been intrigued by Kaleidoscopes, I researched online for kaleidoscope pictures, found several, and attempted to create a pattern that called to mind a kaleidoscope. Do you know how hard it is to make rounded shapes in counted canvas? I abandoned the first few attempts, and decided to go with diagonal and triangular shapes instead.
All of the stitches in Kaleidoscope are diagonal or triangular stitches. Believe it or not, I think this is a “suitable for beginners” piece, because none of the stitches are very complicated. The delight in this piece is the way the colors change, so I included a full color graph to indicate where to change colors.
I also did most of the piece with cotton floss and pearl cotton, with touches of Rainbow Gallery Silk Lame’ Braid and Neon Rays, and of course Kreinik (have I every done a counted canvas piece without Kreinik?). There’s no shading in this piece; all the color changes are pretty abrupt, just like a kaleidoscope. I went with bright jewel colors, to make a strong visual statement.
I hope you like my Kaleidoscope, and visit your local needlework shop to pick up the design, the canvas and needed threads. And, of course, I’d love to see your own color interpretations!