Those Tweener Bands

While the larger images are usually your inspiration and set the theme of the piece, it is those in between bands that can add a lot of interest to a design.

In designing Northern Nights I began to see that the narrower bands reminded me of something else from my quilting days, a favorite fabric, ticking! Not just the simple ticking of pillows and mattress coverings, but decorative fabrics that were made up of rows of varying types of stripes, many resembling ribbons.

Here is a lap quilt I made years ago and you'll see the block of fabric that displays this ribbon quality.

If you take a close then distant view of different patterns in your designing palette you'll find quite a few that can be cut from a larger whole and then repeated to form something that can give you that ticking/ribbon effect. You can add tumbling flowers or geometric shapes that can bring that sense of movement to your design.

Placed between your larger bands for division and symmetry, those 'tweeners' can really affect the overall design.

Northern Nights - My First Design

I've just completed stitching my first cross stitch design!

Using Needleprint Infinity Chart software I've had great fun being able to finally bring some of my cross stitch design ideas into reality. http://needleprintinfinity.blogspot.com/

I love band samplers and found that the selection in charts is somewhat small and began searching for some software to try with my limited computer skills. Needleprint's Infinity was perfect for me, especially with Jacqueline Holdsworth's patient and kind responses to my many requests for assistance while learning how to use the software. Thank you, Jacqueline!

Northern Nights was inspired by my love for cold winter nights here on our little place we named Gracewood in the northern Rocky Mountains. I wanted to capture the feeling of those frosty nights with shades of cold blues, with the warmth of hearth & candlelight through windows in shades of gold.

The howling dogs represent our two Anatolian shepherds, Zach & Jubal, who love to do just what you see on a snowy night. (Sadly, Zach died just before the piece was finished, making this an even more personally memorable design for my husband, Terry and I).

I used Victoria Clayton's wonderful silk floss http://hand-dyedfibers.com/oscnuked/index.php on an 18 count ivory Aida. The chart count is 131 x 305 and the finished piece measures 7 3/4" x 18 1/8"

The frame has been ordered, but I couldn't wait to post a picture of it so here it is unframed. Wish my photo skills were better!