Density

In a previous post I mentioned the theory of digitizing to help us understand why we do what we do.

Okay lets take a look at what density is...

(Webster 1828)

Density, n.

1.  Closeness of constituent parts; compactness. Density is opposed to rarity; and in philosophy, the         density of a body indicates the quanitity of matter contained in it, under a given bulk.  If a body of       equal bulk with another is of double the density, it contains double the quantity of matter.

2.  Thickness; as the density of fog.

Now lets look at the basics.  By the basics, I mean hand embroidery.  If you've never tried doing a satin stitch by hand I suggest you give it a try to help you get a feel for designing a satin stitch in the machine.  Mary Corbet is amazing, I love her work and she has great resources on her site Needle n Thread.

Back to digitizing, lets say you want to create an embroidery using 60wt. instead of 40wt. thread.  You have to do a third (1/3) more of the stitches.  This concept works with all specialty threads.

                            I apologize if these are hard to view.  I could only do them so large.


                                                The density reads: 8957

                                          60wt Before adjusting density.

                                         

                     The density reads: 10392 (This was adjusted from 5 to 4)

I wanted to keep this short and sweet for a beginner.  If you have any questions, just leave a comment below and I'll get back to you.


Cultivating Creativity,
Dora (aka Elaine)

ASG Annual Meeting

For the ASG Annual Meeting we had Nancy Sapin from Sulky  I had taken a lecture before from Nancy at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo in (I believe) 2017.  This was on stabilizers which she did touch on again at the meeting. They had a fireman scheduled to teach sewing room fire safety, however he never showed so Nancy was glad to spend extra time talking to us about different techniques.  All that Nancy spoke on was informative, but I got out a lot of what she said about threads.  She actually went over stuff I hadn't heard before and I have heard, read, or seen quite a bit about all things sewing.

I was too busy looking, listening or talking to get too many pictures.  But I did get three with different design elements I would like to give a try.

Sew Awesome!

Elaine

As of late...

... trying to catch up on a few things I've been up to.  It's hard to capture all my moments but I will share a few that I have.

Below is an embroidery I created with the sketch option in my Premier+ Ultra software.  I found a picture of a grouse that I really liked and sketched over it.  It is challenging to use on a computer unless you have Bamboo.  I use to have one, but when it quite I didn't buy another and am looking to trying my software on the iPad Pro which is built for professionals and supports CAD programs, so I am told.  The iPad Pro has a stylus that I LOVE.  There where a lot of stops and starts with this design, however I had to trouble with it.  It is NOT for sell in the Etsy shop.  The design was not free for commercial use.

 In September (I think, lol, time flies!) the girls and I went to Pineapple Fabrics with a friend of theirs.  We had a great time and we even tale gated!  My daughter packed a chicken salad lunch (which was great with corn chips if you have to do gluten free!).

While there we ran into a friend so we all headed

to Starbucks for coffee.  I regret not getting a 

picture with her in front of the huge chest of drawers on the outside of the building that Starbucks was 

located in.

This is a picture my daughter Eva drew with her Copic markers she's been investing in.  They are a little pricey, but the results were well worth it.  For that matter so is the paper for it. 

 I created the vinyl folder for her to keep her copic paper in on one side and the other side for her finished pieces.  This was so quick and easy.  I cut 2 vinyl pieces to the size of the paper and added 1/4" for paper thickness on all sides.  I then cut a piece an inch taller than the other two pieces of vinyl.  Next bias binding was added to the top of the shorter pieces.  All three pieces where then sandwiched together and bias binding sewn around all three layers.  I used plastic clips to hold the layers while sewing on the binding and top stitched with a straight stitch although for a brief (very brief)  moment I thought about using  something decorative.














Create what you love!

Free Form Designs

I came across an amazing video of an artist named Meredith Woolnough.  I was really inspired by her work, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I didn't quite use her technique, I choose to do an underlay as you would if creating it in embroidery software.  I may try her technique but I wanted to start with something I was more familiar with.

Be bold!, give it a try.

I should have had the lily sit on the leaves and not the other way around.
May add more detail if I decide to put it attach it to something.

Due to Hurricane Florence and a Wedding...

I have not put much into the theory of density to do a post yet.  So for know I am sharing my Bob Ross "Happy Little Accident" moment with you.

 

You can see in the first picture that I mistakenly put yellow thread in (twice!) So I made it a Bob Ross moment and made my mistake into a Happy Accident.  No artist is perfect, it's just having the knowledge of how to fix mistakes that makes one great.

Find a way to make your "mistake" a Bob Ross moment.

Happy Trees!,
Elaine

Theory

The key to good digitizing.  Just as in piano, a player can only improve when they understand the theory behind the music and a composer can only be as good as his knowledge in the area of theory.  You can compose a song without knowing what the circle of 5ths are.  However, you can create an even better piece when you know and understand how you get the circle of 5ths.

So lets delve into some embroidery theory over the next few months.  I still consider myself a novice, but I love to study things out and hope that I might be able to shed some light onto a few aspects of digitizing theory.  I have some background in hand embroidery that helps with this as well.

Here are the first couple of lessons we will focus on:

1. Density - What is it, Why does it matter and How specialty threads are effected by it.
2. Underlay - What is it, Why does it matter and How does it effect my design.

I will put out lesson one this month and lesson two in October.

I hope you'll join me as we theorize on how to digitize!



There are no mistakes, we'll just turn that into a happy little tree.
~ Bob Ross
(I love Bob!)

Modernizing Cross Stitch

I have never been all that interested in cross stitch and never took the time to learn the technique (although very simple).  I came across some amazing wall art on Pinterest that was a cross stitch design and fell in love.

So I got with my sister Lee (who is amazing with this stuff, she can look at a picture and map it in her head on the linen!) to help me figure out the technique.  I know this is simple, but I didn't finish a quilt for three years because I wanted to do mitered corners, but couldn't figure it out (this was before you used the internet to solve all your problems, lol).

So here is the finished product and where you can get the pattern...

Dream a little BIGGER:

Crossing Art Barriers,

Dora