Designing experiments

I have set myself the design limits of the grid - any kind of counted work. I want to see how far I can push the grid. There are techniques usually suited to or used on a non-count ground fabric. But I like to manipulate those techniques for a counted ground. Yes, I could perfect my non-count techniques, but I have chosen to stick with my grid.

I love shapes and playing with them, especially with the possibilities a shape holds. I want to see how organic I can make a grid, which is never found in nature except at the crystalline level. No matter how curved, undulating, 3-dimensional a shape is, I want to see if I can create it on a grid. My current grid is canvas, either 18-count or 24-count.

I love experimenting with color. Heck, I just love color period. The more colors, the brighter colors the better. But I have discovered, as I open myself up to the possibilities in color, that there really isn't a color I don't like. There are colors I don't wear because they make me look like five miles of bad road. There are colors I don't decorate with because that is for using my favorite colors. But I am discovering there are no colors I won't stitch with. I am better at some colors than others, but that just encourages me to experiment more with the colors I'm not so good at - practice makes perfect is true.

I am not so much into reality designing - people, animals, landscapes. Others are working in this field and doing wonderfully. Far better than I could or want to do. But I am into using geometric stitches to create an illusion of reality (as in Beach Walk). And I am into using simple stitches and colors to create other illusions - of 3-dimensionality,  of layering, of motion, of texture.

The daffodil is one example of a depth experiment. I would LOVE to have time to stitch it to see if it comes out as I want it to. Unfortunately I am the world's slowest cross stitcher. [sigh]