Brooke's Books Blog

Once Upon A Stitch - Little Women

OK, this is a project I've wanted to do for a long time. Have you ever seen those cute Pixel People cross stitch designs that are all over the internet? Very simple small depictions of well known characters standing in a row...Kind of reminiscent of 16 and 32 bit gaming graphics. But I haven't seen that many Pixel People created from classic stories and fairytales and I've been dyin' to create some for fun. I just love Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and decided to start there. So, here are the March sisters...My first attempt at the "Once Upon A Stitch" collection of cross stitch designs. They are small so you can stitch them seperately, or line them up and stitch them together. I hope to add Marmee, Laurie, Mr. Brooke, Professor Bhaer and even Aunt Josephine in time. There are so many other stories that would be fun to stitch with this idea. Like Jane Eyre, Pride & Prejudice, Cinderella...Oh, my, I could go on and on...and I hope I do. Even if I'm the only one stitching them. LOL

These are downloadable cross stitch charts available at my Craftsy Store here: http://www.craftsy.com/user/1333992/pattern-store?_ct=fhevybu-ikrdql-fqjjuhdijehu

If you have "Once Upon A Stitch" style characters you'd like to see translated into cross stitch and embroidery like this, let me know. They need to be fictional and part of the Public Domain but beyond that, the sky's the limit. I'd love to hear your ideas.

New Spirit Angels - Christmas Star and Mrs. Claus

For your Christmas stitching pleasure...I really did enjoy designing these. Here are more close ups.

For Spirit of the Christmas Star I was inspired, of course, by the star of Bethlehem and I kept having visions of a sparkling night sky with all the deep blues and purples and silver...The Aurora Borealis kept coming to mind. And why she's all Italian Renaissance...I have no idea. I think those gowns are so beautiful with the little tufts of silk in the sleeves and all the gold and silver embroidery. This was a magnificent era in fashion and somehow it was inspiration for this angel. The star was really fun to construct with all its layers. It really stands out more than the photos show. Also, the colors are much prettier than the photos show.

I do have one important piece of news about the angels this year. For the past few years I've added extra charts for stitching them on fabric but this year I couldn't do that because the wings are SO very dimensional. They are not just flatly stitched but have Memory Thread and metallic ribbon details that make them impossible to chart flatly. You could still stitch the angels on fabric using the perforated paper charts but you'll have to create your own wings for fabric. These wings don't translate to fabric.

Here's the yin to Christmas Star's yang......The Spirit of Mrs. Claus.

Her little helper cracks me up. Originally, I was going to design a little elf to help her but somehow this Scottie dog won out. Wouldn't Mrs. C have a little puppy like this scurrying around her skirts as she bakes goodies in her kitchen? Also, I had fun with her shoes. They're all green metallic and have bells on the toes.

I'm so glad to be back designing angels again. I missed them last year.

A Fun Project For DMC

I always hate to post something without a link where to get it. But there is no there there...just yet. But I had so much fun designing this little project that I had to share. DMC Corp. asked me to design something in three stages that they could take to trade shows to demonstrate how their Color Infusions Memory Thread can add dimension to a stitched piece. So, "Emma Plum Fairy" ornament was born. Get it? Emma...DMC's mascot. DMC now owns the copyright to this design so I can't publish her but they've promised that one of these days she will appear on Emma's blog. I'll keep my ear to the ground and let you know when they've posted her.