We're having a beautiful autumn here in the Northwest! Sunny days that start out crisp, cool nights, and just enough rainy days to keep what's still going in the garden nicely watered. The trees are gorgeous and the sunflowers are in their glory days.
I think it's the cool nights that get me thinking about yarn work. I've been looking around and found quite a few fun knitting, crochet, and felting patterns that celebrate autumn - and are free!
Lion Brand has instructions for this felted fall leaf wreath here.
ABC Knitting Patterns offers this free filet crochet shawl pattern that uses Kauni's 8/2 gradient yarn, so there's no switching colors. The instructions say it's in color EB, but it looks more like EP to me.
These two fall leaf hat patterns from Knitty Magazine look like they'd be fairly quick to knit up - and would also look great in the Kauni gradient yarns.
Kathleen Taylor offers the pattern for these fun fall fingerless gloves here. Stranded colorwork is still on my list of knitting techniques to learn!
This cute little pumpkin is from The Sitting Tree here.
There are so many gorgeous variegated yarns in fall colors that would be fun to used on this crocheted afghan from Crochet Magazine.
Finally, there's a beautiful fall leaf hat from Universal Yarn Company here, along with several other free fall themed projects. I'm really going to have to get going on stranded work!
Happy Creating! Deborah
After the fog lifted this morning, I found these treasures on my morning walk.
I love the way the light caught the individual beads of moisture! A search of beaded spiderwebs didn't bring up anything that came close to capturing their beauty, but I did find some fun fiber art webs.
Pamela Kellogg created this gorgeous crazy quilt spider and web. You can see the photo on her flickr feed here.
Tallgrass Prairie Studio has a free tutorial on spiderweb quilting here. If you want to get even more mileage out of your quilting fabric, these were created with the selvage edges!
And this giant web in a forest is just one of several amazing pieces of environmental art by Iranian artists Atefeh Khas and Tara Goodarzy. See more of their work here.
Happy Creating! Deborah
It's finished and framed! I'm not as happy with the frame size as I thought I'd be, so it'll probably be getting a slightly larger home, but for now it's staying where it is.
For this project, I found a leaf that was in the process of turning colors, but still had some green left on it. I traced it onto a scrap piece of white Kona cotton with a hard pencil and lightly drew in a few of the veins.
I chose a few colors of embroidery thread that came close to the colors on the leaves and then some others for accent colors.
I embroidered along the lines with an outline stitch ...
... used single chain or lazy daisy stitches to add in the green areas ....
... and then the rust areas.
To add more texture, I embroidered on a few buttonhole wheels (good instructions here) ...
... and some french knots.
I'm planning on having an area of nature inspired embroideries on one of the walls in our bedroom!
Happy Creating! Deborah
I really thought I would have my leaf project done by now - there didn't seem to be any way it couldn't be! But then I forgot about how crazy busy the first week of school is - this house has a teacher going back and a new kindergartnerer. And with the unusually warm summer here in our part of the northwest, the apples ripened a few weeks early. All at once. We're talking about buckets and bucket worth! So it's probably not surprising my stitching time was cut back. However, here's a sneak peek ....
.... and an amazing artist to check out.
Hillary Fayle is one of those artists whose work makes you look at ordinary objects in a new way. Working with castoffs from nature - leaves, twigs, acorn caps, and more - and what must be an extraordinarily steady hand, she manages to embroider on these fragile pieces with delicate stitches and threads. It's beautiful!
Be sure to check out her website and her blog to see and read about more of her work.
As for me, I'm off to can applesauce .... with a few embroidery breaks.
Happy Creating! Deborah
After a long, hot, dry summer, we are suddenly at the cusp of autumn here in the Northwest! Misty mornings, nights listening to rain on the roof, hops and ripening grapes on the vines, red apples, the end of the tomatoes, and the beginning of crisp purple cabbage.
And like usual, what's inspiring me is the fall colored leaves! They're just starting, but every morning the trees have a little more color.
I've been feeling like doing a bit of embroidery lately and found a couple of projects that are helping inspire me.
DMC Threads offers this free pattern for windblown autumn leaves here ....
... and Jeannette Luther added this gorgeous autumn leaf stitch sampler to Stitchin' Fingers here.
And if you're new to the blog (we added quite a few new readers last month!) or just missed them, here are three past autumn leaf projects I've worked on.
This crocheted leaf pattern uses embroidery thread,
I made these autumn leaves using photo fabric, embroidery thread, and a few beads,
and this autumn leaf table runner uses ice dyed fabrics and thread sketching. Instructions are here.
I'll show you what new project I come up with next week!
Happy Creating! Deborah
