Very large and complicated charts--growing trend?

Oh gosh, where are you seeing the larger, more complicated projects? All of the magazines I see on the newsstand, other than Cross Stitch Gold, cater to small, simple projects. I have to hunt the internet, high and low, to find challenging projects. In general, I think the market is bereft of designers to create anything for us avid stichers. I keep trying to design for myself but my talents are elsewhere.

Check out

tiag.com mirabilia.com thesilverliningonline.com

That's what I was thinking, too, that many of the newer charts are computer-generated and, to get them so real-looking, the charts are, of necessity, larger. I, personally, don't care for the CG charts because, to me, there really isn't any "art" to them, it's just a photo. And, yes, I know there's an "art" to photography, as well; it just isn't something I want to stitch.

What got me started on larger charts was seeing one of Marc Saastad's roses stitched up at Nordic Needle. It really made me itch to do one (or three or ...). They are realistic and yet the "art" is there.

Maybe the designers got tired or felt limited as to what they could do with small designs and started branching out, then it followed that we all started stitching the larger charts because they were different than what we'd see previously.

Which brings up another question....when a person starts designing,

The pendulum swings.......

Joan

I'm working on Northern Lights right now during my physio appointments. I love and since DH was born in Yellowknife it's very appropriate for my house!

On Wed, 10 May 2006 19:55:55 GMT, lucretia borgia defied the laws of time and space to say:

You may be right--I tried to make a chart of the Taj Mahal once with Patternmaker. After fiddling with it for a day or two, I decided I'd rather pay a REAL designer for an actual chart. It's harder than it looks to make a stitchable chart that looks halfway decent.

-Bertha

Bertha ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

Hee hee Bertha - are you saying I have outlived it all and still talk??? That gave me a real laugh lol

Because Marc is a painter, and starts from his original hand-painted artwork.

On Wed, 10 May 2006 23:22:03 GMT, lucretia borgia defied the laws of time and space to say:

Took me a minute to realize you were talking about the attribution text. :) I just made that one since the new incarnation of Dr. Who started airing in the States.

-Bertha

I figured she was talking about the lifespan calculator that says she's already dead. :)

I have the tendency for going for large projects, buying them as kits. If I bought the stuff individually it would cost more than the kit itself. Smaller stuff I usually design myself and make as gifts. I like large projects cause they give bigger satisfaction when done, although more time-comsuming. The biggest project I've done is Copenhagen, the longest King tut. All on my website.

No good trying to "pump" them out, as, sadly, is done too often. There are lots of those for sale on Ebay and a lot of adverts saying that a design can be done from your own photo "by return". A good or even a satisfactory conversion from a straight unaltered scan is just not possible - there`s a LOT of work involved in getting rid of confetti stitches and adjusting the colours. On the other hand, some confetti stitches often add to the detail and reality, but you have to be VERY selective.

It takes me several weeks to achieve - and I`m retired and can spend all day at it. Many of these conversions are done in people`s spare time in the hopes of raising a fast buck.

The fewer pixels to the inch that you can set your scanner to, whilst still getting a reasonable picture, the better the result. I also find it`s best to considerably lighten the original picture before converting as in itself this reduces the confetti stitches. The more you can simplify the better the result - and the smaller you can make the design, if you so wish. As I have mentioned before, I find that a photo scan provides the bare bones of the design - after that a bit of helps if you have any artistic ability is really what`s needed. DON`T expect the computer to do it all - it`s just a tool!

Pat P

The problem I have with confetti stitches, is that many of them add enormously to the look of the finished project, I would not have any chance, whatsoever, trying to decide which confetti stitches are "required" and which can be safely eliminated, until *after* I have completed the stitching. My answer to the problem of confetti stitches is to treat them as essential to do, and work out ways for me to do them efficiently, without suffering psychologically.

None of my designs are small, even my first was 18" tall! lol

I think it all depends on just what the designer is trying to portray, details like sweeping skirts are very difficult to design in a smaller format.

Caryn

I have noticed that many of the new charts in Magazines in particular seem to have a lot of single scattered stitches and mixed technique projects which seem to try to sprinkle in as many different types of stitches just for volume or novelty. Presently I am working on a blackwork sampler, which in the magazine was done in colour and looked beautiful. However when I got the floss together they did not resemble the colours in the photograph and were not to my taste. I took a closer look at the pattern and realized that there were a lot of small areas ( of 4 stitches or even 2) in each pattern row that one would be forever stopping and starting threads as the there were many colour changes. It must have been a bitch for the person who stitched up the sample.. I think it makes it unnecessarily complicated and tedious . The pattern choices however are very complimentary and balanced so it will make a nice sampler . I am doing it in all white on a lovely blueberry fabric and it is quite striking. Stitches up much faster, as you can imagine. I have always used double running stitch for doing blackwork and just seem to think in that stitch when doing blackwork . Also because I am never carrying my thread under unstitched areas of fabric there is no show through shadow on the front of the work. Ruby

"Stitcher" wrote

That sounds like a lovely combinarion, Ruby. Any chance of seeing a picture when it`s done?

Pat P