The needle, and the damage just begun

[pharminatrix]

When I was little, I remember registering certain chunks of color as candy. There were green houses with pink trim and I would gnash my teeth as we drove by: "Ka-chunk. Peppermint!" The rippling color gradients on the cover of my mom's bargello books? Slurp, dude. Slurp. Mom's needlepoint projects happened while I acquired language and ate as much

Comments

[lhasa7]

That Critchlow book is like Ebenezer Butterick on acid (or something better).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebenezer_Butterick

There's a very infrequently seen Harry Smith film (No. 15, 1965-66) that goes through patterns of Seminole patchwork that Harry had collected (both front and back). That seems to have a symmetrical editing pattern, but I have only seen it once. Here's more in that regard:
http://www2.austin.cc.tx.us/hannigan/Presentations/NSFMar1398/MathofSP.html
http://daphne.palomar.edu/ddozier/course_notes/regions/woodland_files/seminole_patchwork.htm

ADDENDUM: And probably more technically relevant to what you're doing, samplers are an endless font of weirdness and inspiration:
http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/search.aspx?advanced=colClassification%3a%22samplers%22

I'd probably mainly be concerned to get threads with the right materials and dyes. Like none of that fluorescent crap:
http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/

[ineffabelle]

you are a font of wonderful patterns indeed!