COMING SOON! New Designs for my Cross Stitch company...

I recently ran a user-competition in my new company cross stitch group on Facebook: Eclectic Bloke Designs

Caroline Lord (Facebook page) chose five of her favourite pieces of art from her portfolio and my members were allowed to choose which of the five would be the next chart.

This is the design that won.

This gorgeous depiction of a lioness and her cub is called Mother's Love and will be my next Caroline Lord cross stitch release.

Caroline has also given me more pieces that I can work on....so if you love her work, you're going to love these designs.

ALSO...

More HeidiMadeThis! designs are looming ever closer.

Patchwork Santa

I'm currently trying to optimise the detailing in this wonderful design; but hopefully he will be released shortly.

Also, we have one of my personal favourites 3 Wee Kings

Anyone who likes my designs and is watching will also be very pleased to read that I have approached more artists and I am just waiting to hear back from them about the possibility of working together!

So watch this space...

But, even more importantly....

HAPPY STITCHING!

Eclectic Bloke Designs signs another Artist!

Yes, it's true! After the coup of joining forces with HeidiMadeThis! I have the greatest pleasure in announcing that I have signed Caroline Lord to my company.

Caroline's art comprises some of the most beautifully detailed animal paintings I have seen and it has been an absolute joy to convert the first of these into a cross stitch chart.

This is how Caroline describes herself:
"Animal Portrait Artist, Obsessive cross stitcher & crazy cat lady. I specialise in pastels on velour paper, and am inspired by the beauty of the natural world"

Given the popularity of my current WIP, it seemed only fitting that my first collaboration with Caroline be a tiger. And here he is!

 

This is the utterly beautiful and regal "Panthera Tigris".

This stunning design is stitched on 25 count fabric.

Design size approximately 16 x 14.5 inches.

38 colours are used.

£11 for the pdf chart.

Sorry, but at this time I can't offer a physical printed version, although I do hope to in the near future.

If you are interested in purchasing this item please click HERE and I will reply to you with my email address so you can pay via Paypal.

I will have a website up shortly and will notify everyone via my blog when it's ready.

In you love 'Panthera Tigris' then I'm positive you will love the rest of Caroline's portfolio. If you would to see more you can find her Facebook Page by searching for Caroline Lord Art and Craftworks 

Also, if you pop over to my Eclectic Bloke Designs Facebook page HERE you can see a little competition I have going.

Caroline herself has chosen 5 of her favourite pieces from her portfolio and everyone in my group is allowed to vote on which picture they would like me to chart next.

The picture with the most votes by 10pm on Thursday 24th of July will be the winner.

Everyone who voted on the winner will then have their names put into a hat and I will randomly pick a winner to receive the chart for FREE once it's available to the public.

So, for your chance at a free chart from my new company head over to my Facebook page and GOOD LUCK!

OMG....I'm finally doing it! I'm a Businessman!

"Eclectic Bloke Designs" is a GO!

Since starting my blog I've really loved the interaction it's brought with other people - my fellow stitch-mad friends. I love the fact that you all interact and take part in my blog, I love the feedback and I love the enthusiasm. But, most of all, I love the support and encouragement that you have all shown in such a short space of time.

Who would have thought just over a month ago I would have gone from just another Facebook stitcher to having my own blog, my own cross stitch designs, my first ever Artist onboard, a registered domain name and very soon my own Website.

It's exciting and scary all rolled into one.

So far I've designed two principal charts for my new company. I like to call them The Torso Collection, but their names are Burning Up and Ice Pack. Just in case you've forgotten what they look like, here they are again:

But, with my mind set to all-systems-go with this new chapter in my life I quickly approached my dear friend Heidi of HeidiMadeThis!

I've always loved Heidi's card designs, and have often thought that many of them would convert to cross stitch very well, and appeal to my fellow stitchers.

Thankfully for me, she agreed (she has put a lot of trust and faith in me - for which I thank her from the bottom of my heart!).

So, with Halloween fast approaching we decided that the best thing to do would be to pick something from her portfolio that would appeal to lovers of that special occasion.

So we picked Cameo Skeleton and Haunted House as our first collaboration. One of the things we wanted to do was separate these cross stitch designs from their card counterparts, while still staying true to the original. We both feel we've achieved that.

And here they are:

Haunted House

  The original can be viewed HERE

Designed to be stitched on 25 count fabric.

Finished design measures approximately 11" x 10.5"

Only 17 colours are used to created this wonderful effect.

 

Haunted Cameo

Originally called Cameo Skeleton, the original can be viewed HERE 

This unusual and deceptively simple design is designed to be worked on 25 count fabric.

She measures approximately 8" x 8"

Only 25 colours are used.

 Currently both of my new designs are being sold via the HeidiMadeThis! Etsy page.

If you're interested in buying either of these designs you can do so by following this link: ETSY

I will hopefully have my website up and running shortly and all my current and future designs will be available through there.

I can tell you it will be called: EclecticBlokeDesigns.co.uk

I would like to thank everyone whose helped with this endeavour, but especially Sarah Paine of Paine Free Crafts, Esther Hung (Admin Extraordinaire and Fellow Stitch Nutter), Heidi Sandford for believing we could do this and, as always, to Nigel; my ever-supportive partner who has the patiences of a saint and is the most wonderful person in existence!

Thank you!

Where Stuff Is

 

Sometimes I get asked where things are on my blog. So, even though it may be teaching some to suck eggs (as the saying goes), I figured it wouldn't hurt to highlight the most important parts of my blog.

I'll also state where you can find them on my blog.

Ok, first up is the 'Pages' bar.

This bar has a group of all the really important pages I want people to see.

As you can see it's directly below the title of my blog.

Here you can find out about my Photo-Cross Stitching Service, the Gallery of previous conversions, My designs and finally information about Copyright.

Top left of my blog is the box with links to my favourite (or useful) sites. This helps those of you who are interested in things you see get to those things a lot quicker.

 

Now, My Recommendations (top right) is a direct link to Amazon.co.uk. If you're in the US or any other country this may be useless for you. However, in this widget you will find links to some bargains I've found on Amazon. I try to update this with new bargains on a regular basis, so it's worth looking through ever so often.

 

The Blog Archive (right side). This is where you can see links to every post I've made since starting my blog. It's a quick way of finding what you want without scrolling through loads of pages (there is also a search box further down on the right side of my blog).

 

Popular Posts is on the right side of my blog about halfway down.

This is actually one of my favourite features on my blog. I really love being able to see what has caught people's attention. It helps me to see who my main readers are and what they like to read.

 

Right hand side, near the bottom.

Put your email address in here and you'll never miss a single one of my posts.

On the right at the bottom you'll find another useful navigation option. Just click on one of these 'Labels' and you'll be shown all the posts I've made on that particular topic.

This is useful if you only read my blog for one subject.

 

Finally, we have something that appears on some of my individual pages or posts.

If you see any post with a 'click HERE', you literally need to click on the word HERE and you will either be taken to another page, or it will open up your email service to send me a message.

Ok, What's it. It's not sexy and for anyone who's familiar with blogs it's going to be REALLY boring!

So, Dear Reader, this post is dedicated to all you noobs who have never seen a blog (and who probably don't know what a noob is either!).

HAPPY READING!

(More stitching in my next post, I promise)

Siberian Gold Tigers - Day 53

I'm really pleased to report that despite being busy designing my second and third cross stitch designs I still found enough time to make a big dent in the final page of this design.

I now feel like it's a matter of days before I reach the end.

Thankfully, there's not a lot of back stitch on this one. What there is primarily amounts to whiskers and some twig enhancement.

Easy as pie.

I'm getting really excited now about my next projects.

Material is here.

Thread is on order (admittedly they've said it won't arrive for 2-3 weeks!!).

Now, I just need to finish these tigers.

I will be very sad to see them go, but I'm really pleased too!

HAPPY STITCHING!

 

My THIRD Cross Stitch Design - This is "Ice Pack"

"ICE PACK"
(Please note: frame is NOT included. It is purely for display purposes).

12" x 12.5" (approx)
25 Colours
25 count.

PDF chart delivered directly to your email for just £8.

If you would like a copy please drop me a message HERE for details on how to pay.

 

 My third design is here and I have to say I'm very pleased with how this and it's partner piece "Burning Up" came out.

Personally, I think both work really well as designs and would look great together.

HAPPY STITCHING!

Burning Up - My Second Design

Here it is, my second design.

I've called this "Burning Up"

Finished size approx. 12" x 9" if stitched on 25 ct.

40 colours.

If you are interested in buying this design please contact me by one of the following methods:

1. Via the link on my 'Exclusive Designs' page.

2. By leaving a message on this blog.

3. Via my Facebook page.

I have decided that all my designs will only be available for a short period.

So, "Burning Up" will be available until the end of October 2014.

Get him while you can!

HAPPY STITCHING!