Category Archives: Sites worth bookmarking

Sites worth bookmarking: Scanned Images, Engravings and Pictures From Old Books

  By sharonb | May 17, 2013 - 5:32 am | , , ,
2 Comments

screenshot of siteScanned Images, Engravings and Pictures From Old Books is definitely worth browsing and bookmarking so make a cuppa and take a look there are some real gems to be discovered.

These images are not only a wonderful design source but they will be of interest to anyone who prints images on fabric, are interested in the book and paper arts or do mixed media collage pieces.

The site houses over 3,000 high-resolution free images which have been scanned from old out of copyright books. Images are tagged and described so it makes for interesting browsing. Take a look particularly at the decorative initials and borders as I am sure many stitchers will find these great inspiration and sources for designs.

Friday freebies is a regular series in which I highlight free resources online, free patterns and links that are of interest to fiber folks.  All posts in the series are in the  Friday Freebie category I hope you enjoy them.

The Historic Tale Construction Kit

  By sharonb | February 15, 2013 - 5:53 am | , ,
6 Comments

screenshot of siteI have no idea how people might use The Historic Tale Construction Kit but it has a fun connection to the history of textiles so I thought I would share. The Historic Tale Construction Kit is an interactive site where you can build you own story based on the embroidery found in the Bayeux Tapestry. Its a story cloth of another kind!
Elements from this historic piece have been digitised so that you can rearrange them to tell your own story. You can add graphic elements to the main area and save images to create you own historical textile comic strip. There are a variety of people, warriors, animals, buildings and other things that you can use.

It’s fun and since you can keep the image you could easily send them to friends.

Originally the Historic Tale Construction Kit was a Flash application created by Karnebogen and Jungbluth but it does not exist online anymore. So Johannes Jander rebuilt is in HTML and JavaScript.

Friday freebies is a regular series in which I highlight free resources online, free patterns and links that are of interest to fiber folks.  All posts in the series are in the  Friday Freebie category I hope you enjoy them.


Friday Freebie

  By sharonb | September 21, 2012 - 6:47 am | , , ,
13 Comments

pattern available from craftsmanspace

I have a something different this Friday which I think readers will enjoy.

Lately I have had a lovely time poking around the Craftsmanspace website which I have only recently discovered. Craftsmanspace share patterns for people who use techniques such as marquetry, wood burning, folk painting, fretwork, carving, etc.

They do not include embroidery on their list but there are many patterns on this site that are more than suitable for stitchers! Usually they are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0. Full details are on the creative commons website but the main thing is that you can use them as embroidery patterns and you can adapt them to stitching designs.

pattern available from craftsmanspace

Anyway I thought I would tempt you with few screen shots of patterns found on the floral designs page.

Now no drooling on the keyboard just head over to craftsmanspace and browse the sections listed on the right hand side as there are all sorts of designs there. Make a cuppa take some time out and have fun.

pattern from craftsmanspace

If you need to know how I would transfer patterns to fabric, I have a tutorial on how to transfer embroidery designs to fabric which may help.

All posts in the series are in the  Friday Freebie category I hope you enjoy them.

Print your own fabric on demand services compared.

  By sharonb | April 18, 2012 - 6:37 am | , , , ,
4 Comments

screenshot of websiteThere are a number of services online that will take a digital design and print small lengths of fabric. Unlike the big print houses they provide a service for small runs and do not have expensive set up costs that make it prohibitive for a studio based textile practitioner to use.

Many people know of Spoonflower andKarma Kraft but did you know about Fabric on Demand?  Each service offers a slightly different product and it is sometimes hard to compare what is what.

Kim of True Up performed a Digital Fabric Printing Experiment and sent digital files to each and compared the printed results.

You will find a comprehensive illustrated comparison of print colour and quality on her blog alongside a very useful spreadsheet of the results of her research which Kim is giving away as  PDF file on her website