A Touch of Whimsy for Monday Morning

Welcome to Monday. This is one of Those Mondays. I’m not as prepared for it as I should be.

I knew it was coming, but I’m just not ready for it.

Mondays are so inevitable, sometimes.

This morning, I’ll share a touch of whimsy with you. This is a design set we’ve been working on because we’ve gotten multiple requests for something gnome-themed for our ready-to-stitch towel sets over the last few years.

This little guy was one of our first trial-and-error samples on a gnome-ish idea. He didn’t quite make the cut. I like him, but he needs adjustments.

This will be a three design set: spring & summer, fall, winter. Gnomes for All Seasons, you see.

The initial designs are doodled out, but they need adjustments and touching up before we stitch the samples.

My problem with stitching sample sets like these is that I get carried away with randomness – sometimes it works, and sometimes, it decidedly doesn’t.

The colors, for example, in the photo above need re-thinking. Yellow is not an ideal color for a major element on this type of design, because it gets washed out into the white background.

And woven wheel flowers are probably not the best choice on a cotton towel that will likely need laundering now and then.

Next time we work on this set, I’ll plan ahead on the approach.

This is another one of those “back burner” projects that develops slowly here. We work on it between major events, when we’re not focusing on bigger, more intense developments in the studio.

Intense. That might be a stretch.

Coming Up

I’m working on linen sourcing, so I’ve been playing with swatches. We’ll talk swatches and linen. And I’ve also got some new “cloth-of-gold” (not technically cloth of gold) on hand that I’ll be cutting up, so I’ll show you that experiment.

A book review of Inspirations Studios Hand Picked Collection Vol. 4 is in the works, so that you can see the inside of that new book up close and personal. (It’s in stock here, if you already have it on your radar.)

I may have to share with you my misadventures in the beeswax-petites manufacturing facility (that would be my “garage” at home – this one, that used to be my original studio.) Some people are pessimists. They believe that, if a thing can go wrong, it will. I’m not generally that way. Except. Whoops! Sometimes, things go wrong!

It’s time for a much-needed cup of tea.

Have a good Monday!!