It's been a very idle sort of a day here today. Down right lazy in fact. I spent almost the entire morning with the Little People creating with hama/perler beads. Oh we LOVE these little itsy bitsy plastic beads! I know without a shadow of a doubt that if these beads had been invented when I was a child I would have been totally, completely addicted to them.
Little Man sat for hours on end today in front of my laptop, using the perler beads website which has hundreds of design ideas and patterns to follow. He made two dogs, a frog, an electric guitar, a whale, two fish, and a car.
Little Lady and I collaborated on a joint project to makes stars together.
It was a lot of fun, more than perhaps a forty year old should admit to having with this kind of thing. Possibly.
Our house, being Victorian, has a very tall space for a front door, which allows for an extra piece of glass across the top (officially called a Transom, don't you know). Now the previous house owners installed a (rather hideous, in my humble opinion) white plastic front door and transom, with wibbly wobbly leafy glass. I really dislike it, and one of my greatest wishes for Number 24 is for this lovely old house to have a lovely new front door. A beautiful, handmade, painted wooden front door with some beautiful panels of stained glass made to my own design. The transom window is just crying out for coloured stained glass, don't you think? Possibly with the number 24 incorporated...ahhh, it makes me feel quite giddy thinking of the creative possibilities!
Anyhow, I decided on a whim to hang our perler bead stars up at the transom window with invisible thread, and every time I've walked into the hallway and seen them there today, I've experienced a rush of pleasure. Ok, so it's not quite stained glass, but I like the effect rather a lot.
It struck me how closely the beady stars resembled the colours/patterns in my crochet work. How my instinctive use of colour repeats itself through all my creativity, whether it be fabric, yarn or plastic.
See my Big Chair there? Photo taken today, and I have to say, another pleaure rush there too.
I was asked a little while ago about this little needlepoint cushion of mine (so sorry I forget who exactly asked to see it more closely, but I hope you know who you are)...I didn't make it, although it is handmade. It was given to me by my mother in law who bought it for £1 from a car boot sale knowing I would love it.
And I do, very much.
Want to take a closer look?
So simple, just little repeating squares of colour worked in tent stitch (don't I sound knowledgable haha!)
It's been a great many years since I did needlepoint (I remember as a child, I was given a small kit for a birthday present once) and I suddenly have a real strong yearning to try it again, to see if it's something I might enjoy to sit quietly and work on in idle moments when I do not feel like crocheting (gasp!).
I had a little pootle about on the internet today, trying to find some modern/contemporary needlepoint kits/designs, but it seemed there was not a lot to be found. Most of what is available is quite stuffy and old fashioned in my opinion. I did find this rather nice website called Jolly Red which is bright and cheerful and the designs appeal to me. I like this one and this one...but am seriously wondering about designing my own and buying the wool and holey fabricky stuff to do it my way.
Attic24-stylie needlepoint.
Now there's a delicious thought.
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PS if any of you know of any good books/websites/blogs/sources of inspiration for needlepoint, please do let me know? Ta muchly xxx
Edited to add :: Oh oh oh...look what I found here and here ... Cripes, I really have the excitable heebie-jeebies for this new craft, not good just before bedtime, i feel all twitchy! If there was a craft shop open right now selling needplepoint supplies, I would be there in my pyjamas!!








