New Felted floral brooch on 3 different styles of scarves and a shawl. Now at www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com Each is a one of a kind piece made with hand painted merino wool and alpaca. The Rose and leaves brooch is felted to add a nice textural enhancement. I will be working more more felted accents so pop by my Etsy store to see the latest.
My Sweet Addiction to Sweetgeorgia yarns http://www.sweetgeorgiayarns.com is an addiction I am proud to admit to! On several visits to Vancouver this year to took the time to pop into my favourite yarn warehouse and store to see some of the latest delicious colours in this years palette. Needless to say as you see by the pictures I had a hard time saying no to all of these amazing colours. They inspire many of my designs this year as I enhance my love of nature in some of my newest pieces. Here are some of the colours I picked up on my trips this year. There are more colours than this of course in my new collection of Sweetgeorgia Yarns. You will see some of the other yarns in my current designs at http://www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com or http://www.valeriebaberdesign.com
I also wanted to thank all of the wonderful staff for their amazing and fabulous customer service and attention to detail. Felicia, your colours are divine thanks for sharing them will all of us!! I am currently trying out some of their other beautiful yarns so check back soon to see what I create next. Put http://www.sweetgeorgiayarns.com on your Christmas list and latest Addiction list as you will love every moment working with these beautiful yarns.
A Desperate Fortune Scarf and hand warmers designed for Author Susanna Kearsley and her newest book “A Desperate Fortune”. This one of a kind design was designed from the inspiration that Susanna used for her newest book. Take a trip into the past and present with this extraordinary book with a cryptic journal from the past telling a secret story in the present day of this written book. A fabulous read that includes suspense, deception, allegiance and love that will entice you through each chapter with plenty of visually written moments. Plenty of twists and turns to entertain you throughout the book and as always a surprise ending. I absolutely love this book, it is a must read so add it to your list soon.
I am fortunate that Susanna is a most wonderful friend and I thank her for asking me to work with her on this wonderful adventure. Like the two women in her book working separately, yet together though they lived far apart in time and Susanna and I in distance. It is a true pleasure being a friend of Susanna’s and I am so very proud of all she has done and continues to do. Awesome job my friend on your newest book!!! One of my new favourites by far!
The A Desperate Fortune collar style scarf (small scarf) and hand warmers are available for purchase together or separately at http://www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com takes about 1 to 2 weeks to make. See more information about them at my Etsy store.
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/234093633/stained-glass-rose-window-scarf?ref=shop_home_active_13
The present day character Sara wears various scarves through out the book and originally I thought of designing a scarf that included these various scarves. The Architectural descriptions in Susanna’s latest novel were speaking louder likely since I have been greatly inspired by Architecture of the past in my work this past year. I couldn’t wait to begin this newest member of my Architectural designs just for Susanna. Below are some pictures of the building Susanna was influenced by in her description of the building in the book. Susanna’s description: “The building with the windows is the chapel inside the old chateau of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in France, which once housed the exiled Stuart kings of Britain and their courtiers. For me, having written for several years now about these people and their lives, actually getting to stand on this spot was a very moving moment, as this chapel would have been at the centre of their daily routines”.
You can read the first two chapters of this wonderful book here:
http://books.sourcebooks.com/adesperatefortune/
I began this journey into the past for the A Desperate Fortune Scarf with a crochet base of a light coloured stone as shown in the pictures above. Adding green at the bottom for the stained glass effect that the stone tracery would be adhering to down the road. You can see more of the progress in the pictures below as I design the stone tracery and add the brick colour to the scarf and hand warmers. There are two brooches that accent this scarf so you can wear it in various ways and use them to fasten the scarf. The are both Stained Glass Rose windows that were designed for these wonderful Architectural buildings of the past.
For the “A Desperate Fortune” scarf I used beautiful yarn from SweetGeorgia Yarns, a Canadian Company, who dyes yarn in wonderful colours that portray their local area and Canada. A fitting yarn to use since both Susanna and I are Canadian. The colours were perfect for this design with the light stone colour being the Birch colour way, the stained glass is the Woodland Colour way of greens and the brick is done in the Terra Firma colour way. All yarns were by SweetGeorgia Yarns in the Superwash Merino wool blend. SweetGeorgia yarns are as noted in the name, SWEET! One of my favourite yarns to work with, luxuriously soft and the colours are truly fantastic. I recently took a visit to Vancouver and popped into the store to see the latest colours and newest yarns for this year. They are even more delectable and wonderful than ever. I can’t wait to use them in my next series of designs.
Be sure to check out SweetGeorgia’s website at
I am off to work on some new Architectural designs and new designs for Fall. Come back soon to see my latest as well I am restarting my Architectural project as there was so much inspiration in my research that I have decided to go a different direction. I will blog my start on that very soon. Have a most wonderful day today.
The Midnight Garden Shawl – second version. I was asked by a customer if I could make her one of my Midnight Garden Shawls which was one of my first free form type shawls. I don’t usually keep notes or pattern write for my free form style pieces so that I can keep them One of a Kind, but luckily I do take a lot of pictures and used them as my basis to design from making changes along the way to make this newest member of the Midnight Garden Shawls unique. This time I wrote it down so that I may reuse this design to make other shawls etc. with a similar design essence.
The Midnight Garden shawl is a One of a Kind Wearable Art Shawl made with 100% Hand Painted Merino Wool. Soft and luxurious high quality yarn that is hand painted with a stunning colour way of Teal and a Midnight colour of deep purple, blue, green and tones in between.
The Midnight Garden Shawl is designed with the thoughts of walking through a garden in the late evening, Midnight Garden. The colours portray this feeling with the different crochet used throughout the design.
Starting from the Neckline of the Shawl I will tell you the story of the design. It starts with the Teal green which represents all the green in the garden and in this case the green grass on either side of the walkway, which is the stripe of Midnight yarn through the middle. As you walk along the path you see the flowers dancing along the side of the walkway at the bottom of the shawl. They are attached with crochet to give the essence of the vines and such you seen through the garden. The ruffles are the vine like plants you see throughout the garden walk. This is how I interpreted this walk in my Midnight Garden.
The Midnight Garden was a true pleasure to design and Crochet and I look forward to designing more shawls soon.
You can see more of my designs on my Etsy store at http://www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com or my website at http://www.vbaberdesigns.com My most recent work is on my Etsy store.
This particular Midnight Garden Shawl is going on a trip to Austria which is exciting as I have never been there.
Happy New Years to all of you. I just finished, literally, my first new scarf design for 2015. Last year I decided to make the first scarf design of the year for myself to start the year and give myself a bit of a bonus for all the work I did in the previous year. This year since my biggest inspiration and joy in design has been working on my Architectural collection I decided to make this new addition to the collection. I am so excited to continue this venture this year as there are many ideas I must design and continue my journey of Architecture and the inspiration that it beholds.
This is my newest member of the Architectural collection, the Stone Tracery Rose Window scarf, Long version. Made with hand painted merino wool in an ivory stone colour and a darker beige to show a the shadow effect and darker features of the window beneath the stone tracery. Edged in stone tracery with crockets on the edges found on my Gothic Cathedrals and Architecture of the past. Three different sizes of Rose Windows adorn this scarf to add a tapered look and finish to the design.
I am happy with the outcome as if you look back at my other smaller designs you will see my progression towards this scarf. It’s a wonderful moment when you achieve in your finished design what you have been busy designing in your head and at last see the finished product. I have enjoyed every moment of the Architectural venture and can’t wait to begin some bigger projects on my list.
Stay tuned to see more as I am currently working on a version of the Stone Tracery Rose Window long scarf at the top with the stained glass rose window in the background. This scarf above as well as many others are available on my Etsy store at http://www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com I also sell at other stores locally like the Alberta Craft Council Gallery store http://www.albertacraft.ab.ca and the Art Gallery of St. Albert http://www.artgalleryofstalbert.ca
Play of the day… what I finished this week is a new group of Floral Stone Tracery scarves. These scarves are designed with a stone wall base and accented with various stone tracery effects of the Gothic Style Architecture theme I have been working on. I put a hand spun rose in the centre to reflect the Rose Windows on many of these amazing buildings. To finish off these new scarf designs a Neutral Rose hand warmer with a hand spun rose in the centre and hand painted yarns through out.
I am currently working on the larger pieces to this collection so come back soon for a peek. Also working on various floral designs. Check out my Etsy store at http://www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com or website for more designs and where you can purchase them http://www.vbaberdesigns.com Keep warm and cozy as winter approaches.
The Floral Twist Accent scarf…dreaming of the warm day of Spring coming our way, eventually! It is so very cold here today and for the next few days and I couldn’t help but look forward to the warmer days of Spring. Seems to be such a long winter this year and I am impatiently waiting for warmer days of Spring and Summer. I love the look of Winter, but not the cold! I have become a Winter wimp!
To break out for a moment of warm relief this week I was busy designing a nice light acceent scarf that I could wear during these cold days to warm my thoughts of the coming Spring. I started with designing a new base for my scarf. I wanted something that looked like it was twisting, but could lie flat. This gives the essence of a vine twisting and turning up the lattice, in this case your neckline, with the leaves adding the movement and twists along the way. I used a beautiful hand painted merino wool of blues, greens, purples an hints of yellow. If you look closely at the bark on trees, vines or other greenery you see many different colours that combined. I love using hand painted yarns as they add a special unique touch to each piece I make as they are never the same from skein to skein.
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/180894945/floral-twist-accent-scarf-spring-and
The Floral Twist accent scarf can be worn in many different ways and be used to dress up your favourite T shirt, sweater, shirt, or jacket. A touch of bling in the glass button adorns each flower. Various purples were used to make the 3 different flowers on this design. There will be a cotton version as well in neutrals and bright and bolds to warm the day.
Warm up your day and think of the coming Spring! Have a great one!
