non-pattern links Archives - Page 10 of 12

Eta, theta, iota…

Kappa!

Thanks to my darling husband for being the photog on this expedition.

A while ago I ordered some Japanese amigurumi books (and one embroidery book) on eBay. They arrived in two weeks, on an estimate of 3-6 weeks, wrapped splendidly with an origami paper crane. (On a related note, I wholeheartedly recommend Books Toron for all your Japanese book needs.)

One of the books was purchased almost entirely on the strength of the kappa pattern above. I learned a lot about amigurumi photos just from looking at the pages posted on eBay.

Accessorize! Shawls, hats, sunglasses, purses. Look at the little monkey with his banana-shaped satchel. Ack!

From Books Toron.
Make an army of your little guys and pose them all together. The only pattern in the book with the kappa that I cared about was the kappa itself, but I had to have that one, based on the cuteness of the picture.

Lions from Books Toron.
Make the background fun even if it is completely unrelated. My favorite was possibly the page below with amigurumi ostriches. The poses and background have nothing to do with ostriches, but they made me squee.

The four page pictures above are from various volumes of Amigurumi Collection, published by Kawade Shobo Shinsha.

I haven’t put any of these lessons into practice yet, but I’m certainly thinking about them. Between these sorts of observations and the various online photography courses and graphic design books I’m taking in, the way I think about composition of everything has changed. Once I am done with the curtain sewing job, my next major endeavor will be a light box and photography setup.

Civil War quilt project

As part of the Sew-Op I went to a meeting recently about a project for Quechee Library’s participation in Vermont Reads, a statewide community reading project. This time around the theme is the Civil War, because of its 150th anniversary, and since one of the librarians is a quilter, she thought of making a quilt in the style of those made for medic cots during the war. Since there was great need, they were simple so they could be made quickly.

She (perhaps with assistance) made a whole bunch of four-patch quilt square kits, as shown above. The fabric varies from kit to kit. The ones I chose are a reproduction of a period calico, and a homespun-style fabric. The finished quilt will have squares divided by strips of plain fabric, plus a border, 4 squares by 7 squares for a finished size of 48″ by 84″ – they needed to be long to tuck under the foot of the cot. She cut enough kits for two full quilts.

Even with pressing and photographing it took me less than 10 minutes to sew the square. If you are interested in participating, quilt square kits are available at the front desk of the library and due back by May 29. We’ll have a little bee at the Sew-Op on June second to assemble the quilt faces, which will then go back to the librarian to be batted and backed. Later in the summer there will be a community event to tie the quilts, and then they may be displayed, raffled, or donated.

Patterns and puppets

I got a new toy this week! Ursa Software puts out a cross-stitch pattern making program, with versions not only for Windows but also for Mac (unusual!). I’ve only just begun using it but it is fun so far. There is a bit of a learning curve, though. I would like to read through the manual and see if I can reset some things – like making only the corners of each square available for French knots and the ends of backstitches, instead of a grid of nine points on each square. The image uploader/converter is quite good, as far as I can tell from playing with it, and there are a few built-in alphabets and motifs. I got the Premium version (only $5 more than Standard, and I definitely didn’t just want Lite, which can’t do French knots or make pdfs), which is the only version that allows you to preview the work matted and framed.

I made one little pattern that I’ve started stitching and tweaking, so more on that later, but with one of the included alphabets I made the following:

Click the picture for the pattern in pdf. There is no overlap between the pieces of the pattern, which unfortunately is not indicated.

While you’re waiting for my full review, enjoy this little guy I whipped up last night: