Virtual Yarns - Support

Design Demonstrations

Our Alice Starmore Hebridean yarns are ideal for those of you who design your own needlepoints. You will find your designs greatly enhanced by the use of our unique colour mixes. You need not be an expert in order to produce a very satisfying results: if you work with beautiful materials you will find that even the most basic of designs will guarantee success. The Ardagh Tile is a perfect example of a simple geometric pattern worked in Alice Starmore Hebridean 2 Ply in cross stitch on 12 mesh canvas. The stitch texture and bright colour mixes produce a dazzling effect which appears to shift and glow with changing light.

For beginner designers, I recommend experimenting with simple abstract shapes. A very simple composition can be just as effective as a complex and detailed design. The key to success, as with painting, is to always block out your composition on paper first, and be mindful of balancing the whole space and not just the single elements within it. For example, look at the piece that I have called West Over Sea, made in Alice Starmore Hebridean 3 Ply stitched in basketweave on 12 mesh canvas. I based it on a simple abstract notion of the sun setting over the the tide line when the light is often very warm and intense. We refer to this time as Magic Hour: a favourite time for taking photographs. Quite often the light sweeps over the beach and the waves, casting the shapes into deep relief and highlighting them with warm, glowing colour. The composition was drawn in less than a minute as I was concerned only with catching the essence of light, shadow and movement.

Symbols or stories can be great sources of design inspiration, as shown in this piece by Jade, which she has called Compass Rose. She wanted to explore a maritime theme in cross stitch, using Alice Starmore Hebridean 2 Ply on 12 mesh canvas, so she designed a compass rose and stitched it in rosy shades instead of the traditional navy blue. Above the rose is a geometric rendition of the guiding star Polaris, using the same colours but with fore and background shades reversed. Lurking below the rose is the Kelpie - a malign water spirit symbolising every sailor’s nightmare. Its dynamic curves provide contrast with the straight lines above. The piece is now framed and decorates a wall in a house close by Stornoway Harbour.

Although one of the beauties of stitching is its ease of execution, it is also possible to devise more challenging projects if you are so minded. The Roscalie Bag is simplicity in itself to stitch, but the bag construction requires some skill and experience as a seamstress. The bag shows that small, regular patterns can be very effective. I stitched them using Alice Starmore Hebridean 3 Ply on 10 mesh canvas, working straight from the chart of a pattern I designed for one of my knitting books. I stitched the pattern in horizontal lines, just like knitting, and also filled in the background horizontally. This produced a dense tapestry fabric which is ideal for items intended for heavy use, and although the process is slow, the result is superb. You see it here photographed in Glenshiel in the West Highlands, just below the Five Sisters of Kintail (the Sisters were being rather moody that day).

If you have never designed your own stitching projects before, then I hope that these few examples will tempt you to try. The possibilities are infinite.

Alice Starmore