This wild idea came up at a Christmas party where a friend received an ornament with a hand stitched QR code and my brain absolutely broke! How on earth had I never thought to make a QR code cross stitch after years of designing off beat stitch patterns. I attacked this project head on, doing test after test to see how far I could push the concept design wise. always thinking about how we can incorporate this idea in our regularly scheduled cousin cross stitch projects I started my journey! I knew what my test link would be IMMEDIATLY. I did some testing using URL shorteners, and finally plugged my perfectly shortened URL into stitch fiddle . From there I opened the exported PDF in Illustrator and customized my grid system. I used colored fishing line to match in the fabric and got to it. In my pre-stitch testing I did find that using the URL shortener did reduce my grid width from 33 to 25, which made my brain feel a lot better. Depending on your fabric gauge, you can get a code down to about an inch. These were done on 14 and are just under an inch and a half square. So how did the testing turn out? Here is the breakdown: Test 1: Basic, nothing flashy, works! Test 2: Four vibrant color gradient on a diagonal, works! Test 3: Four color tone change gradient on a diagonal, more subtle, doesn't work! (too light?) Test 4: Three color tone change gradient on a diagonal, works! We have a lot of design options which is great! As I shared out my findings with crafters people started to mention the interesting commentary I was making adding in technology to an much more traditional form of art. Bringing it to life in a new age and making it an interactive experience. Not something I had thought about specifically, but the interactivity was what interested me the most. We plan to work QR codes into some of our new designs and I can't wait!

I grew up in West Seattle if you've ever met someone who has or is currently living there, you'll know! West Seattle is just an ordinary neighborhood within the city of Seattle but for some reason, it's a peninsula of pride! We may not be as trendy as Capital Hill or can make legitimate claims to be the center of the known universe like Fremont, but it's safe to say we have the best rocky beaches, a famous music store, and tamales. I don't know if that is what West Seattle is "known" for it is just what comes to mind. A month or so ago the main bridge that connects West Seattle to the rest of the city was closed due to some structural damage. So now, more than ever, we are our own little island paradise. Come for a lunch and never leave, because it will take you 5 hours to go 6 miles. Being stuck here, I realized it's pretty great and maybe we just embrace it. Here is a new collection of graphic tees that people can sport showing off their west side pride!

I've been inspired by the a great project by Inka Mathew titled Tiny Pantone Objects . She places found objects on a corresponding color matched Pantone Color Chip and documents it! It's such a simple and amazing reuse of a chip book! Before we move on, I should explain what a chip book or even what the hell Pantone is! Pantone is a proprietary color system used by graphic and product designers to ensure color is consistent from the design plan to its production. The Pantone chip books are the encyclopedia of said colors that you can use like paint sample cards. Since I don't have an old chip book laying around, I needed a substitute. Welcome in coolors.co a great website that helps you create color schemes. Originally created for web designers to check web safe colors and create schemes this site also has a random color generator option that gives you five colors that look great together! This was such a great solution, now, instead of finding the object first and sorting through a chip book. I used the five random colors given to me, forced to go on a kind of treasure hunt for color! That is basically the whole deal! I did this on safe, socially distant, walks through my neighborhood. Since this was a fully digital experience, I continued with that and used Photoshop to create the final scheme with the found objects. The last Photoshop step isn't necessary, making it a fantastic trick to get kiddos engaged on a walk! Just pull up the site and keep walking until you snap a photo of each of the colors.

I started out thinking about just color and shape, but then landed on really leaning into the belt theme... I figured this might be another project that get filed under "things only I will find amusing", but I guess we are great siblings for a reason, and he was impressed!

It all started a few years ago when my family bought a cabin and we decided it needed a few more modern handmade touches. Our first to pieces simply highlight a few of our favorite cabin past times... eating and puzzling! Just finished the Mount Higgins piece! Now we have to think of a new project! Want more stitches, check out the QR code testing blog!