Inspiration: Beaded Sleeves

Last week was one of those weeks that just wasn't productive. I didn't feel motivated to do much, so the time I did spend working on things went towards a gift (yet to be finished... I had to redo a good chunk of it). I realized today I had this post sitting around half-written.

So, two weeks ago the Coletterie linked to this Threads article showing a pair of beaded and embroidered sleeves. If you haven't seen it, do! They're absolutely beautiful. The detail is amazing.

It got me thinking about how cute it would be to add sheer beaded sleeves to a simple top or dress. I lack the experience or ability to make anything quite like the inspiration, but I have done a bit of beading and rather liked it. The Alabama Stitch Book even has a little info on beading, and the stencil patterns from it would work for beading patterns.

I started looking for examples, and while they weren't all over the place, I did find a few (quite a few wedding dresses, too). Here's one:

Photo at tomandlorenzo.com

I like that it's more modern, with the very plain bodice and bright colors, but the beading is a little heavy.

This is example from Flickr is on a sweater and different beads than I'd use, but I like the random, scattered style with a stronger concentration at the hem:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/onthevraydar/6425678691/

I'd use a simple bodice and little cap sleeves for this. And wouldn't the Truffle dress look good with beaded sleeves and matching detail on the ruffle?

Colors & Value

Last month, I went to the library and ended up checking out First-Time Quiltmaking: Learning to Quilt in Six Easy Lessons by Becky Johnston. I wanted something to flip through in case I got stuck somewhere on the baby quilt. At the back of the book, it shows quilts made by beginning quilters (the book is basically the lessons she teaches to new quilters in classes). These caught my eye, because they're all the same design but it comes across so differently in each one. I think it's just the values of the fabrics they each chose, so I popped them into black & white to make the value more obvious. Here they are:

In this one, the center (plain) squares are the lightest value,
stripes are mid-tone on edges with darkest in the middle-
to me, the centers look like a background and stripes pop off
(forgive the weird cropping, they overlapped in the book)

center squares are darkest
stripes have mid-tone (one a little darker) on edges with lightest in the middle-
the centers float over the background of layered squares

centers are very light,
stripes have very dark on one edge, light in middle, midtone on other edge-
ends up looking like squares with edges chopped off; also pattern looks more like the first one

this has a midtone in centers,
stripes have dark tone on one edge, mid-tone on other, and lightest in middle-
the center squares at the "intersections" float above the background squares

I'm not into analyzing what values do to each other at the moment, but I think this is an interesting reference in case I ever make a quilt and happen to actually consider the values before I pick out fabrics (not likely - I'll probably see/buy fabric and decide to make a quilt, not the other way around).

Knit Owls

Um, these amaze me. And I kind of want to learn how to knit (not because of this, but I am highly impressed).

by kate at needled