a little lime

I wanted to create a pattern with Hearts and Diamonds. And, now, I'm happy to say my Lifelong Dream has been achieved (well, o.k., "lifetime" maybe overstating it a little, it is probably more accurate to call it "vague idea that I liked the sound of".......but that doesn't sound anywhere near as exciting, right?). hahaha. ANYWAY......here it is: You could stop at step 4, but I really like the way the diamonds effectively "disappear" and the hearts become more pronounced as the line detail is added in step 5 and 6. If you want to add these lines too, the pattern could begin with a square line grid framework instead if you find that easier. Have a great day!

It's the month of love. Yep, the big L. Hearts and Roses. So, I've already shared some String Roses, now it's time for a heart2heart (see what I did there?) I was pretty surprised to find I had another heart pattern left in me, but here's one that I've been playing with and am really loving: heart2heart starts with an alternating s-grid - add some v's to create the outer heart then a second heart shape is added inside. Variation - try alternating the direction of the hearts (panel 6). You know what else I'm really loving of late? The way I can quickly record and edit insta-videos from my phone. Here's a little heart2heart demo. A video posted by A Little Lime (@alittlelime) on Feb 11, 2017 at 2:01am PST Here's a sample on a wonky grid. I hope you have a fantastic, love-filled valentines day. Me? I'll be at school feeling the love for my computer :) hahaha. hx

Hearts have been a pretty frequent theme on the blog over the past few years (see all the heart posts here ) - there's just something wonderful about the shape. Love, love. During February I try to come up with one or two new patterns featuring hearts, but I have to admit it is getting harder to do - there's only so many approaches you can take with this basic shape. This year's offering isn't particularly ground-breaking and has a similar base to Heartstrings.  Half of the heart is drawn continuously along one side of the line (this is how I draw Heartstrings - you can see a demo in this  video ), then the second half is drawn offset on the other side of the line. This pattern really comes into it's own when alternately coloured - an interesting zig-zag pattern appears. Here's the step out: A red and black sample on some wonky lines. On the farm we've had some long awaited rain - 75mm last week! The paddocks are greening up and we're headed i...

Hey all, long time no "see". So much has been happening around here, but more about that later........first, onto the new pattern. I've barely picked up a pencil for over a month and once I got back to my desk this week I had a whole heap of scribbles to work my way through. I didn't get very far into it when I found a piece of paper where I had experimented with the tangle pattern Swells by Jennifer Hohensteiner  - it started me thinking about how the aura-ing technique would work with the  Heartstrings  framework to create a kind of inside out version of it. By the way - I have no idea what it is with me and heart shapes but I just love, love them :) This pattern starts off much like Heartstrings , see below for some tips: Drawing tips Leave enough distance between the lines to draw hearts with space around them - unlike Heartstrings you do not want the hearts to touch Starting lines will give you a framework to work within Change up the size o...

We are having an absolute scorcher here in Hoddles Creek today - it has almost reached the high of 40degC as I sit here composing this post. Fortunately it takes a few continuous days of heat for our old farmhouse to become really hot - unfortunately, the next 7 days are forecast to be really hot. Ah, well, at least I have kicking back to read a book scheduled into my calendar for the rest of the afternoon. Here is today's pattern: Heartfully. Yep, it's full of hearts. Don't hurt me because I'm no good at the whole "naming the pattern thing". There's only so many directions that you can go using hearts in patterns and I think I've almost run my idea well dry.........though, I might have one more to put out there. Along with updating the gallery, pattern and video sections of the blog......it's on my to do list. I'll have to see how I cope with the heat this week as to what gets done. So, Heartfully. The first version I played with has cur...

Feedburner is doing funny things with the stats, showing me that my subscribers have disappeared. I have my fingers crossed the feed is going out. If you subscribe via email, and you receive this, I would love it if you could post a comment, or email me to let me know that it is working. Thankyou, thankyou :) O.k, so I finally got this video uploaded after 5 tries! Aaargh! Last night, on my 4th try, it told me it was going to take 7 hours to upload.......huh?!?.......what?????!!! So I just cancelled it and tried again this morning at a slightly reduced resolution. It worked.. Quickly, too! You'll probably want to view it in a larger view to see the detail due to all the fine string lines. Some variations. Linda Farmer at www.tanglepatterns.com came up with the idea to flip alternate rows of hearts. Love this idea. Here's mine with some randomised lines. Love the squished hearts. Brief step-outs of the variations on the video. Use the basic...

We went to the dentist today - I have been seeing the same guy for almost 40 years - even when we lived in Singapore, I would book my appointments during our visits back home - no idea what I'll do when he retires! Well, today I went in sure that I was going to be up for a 2nd root canal and it turned out to be just a cracked tooth. Not real happy about that either, but so, so much better than what I was expecting. Day 2 pattern - Heartstrings. It's pretty much Olb (which I sooooo wish I had thought of a better name for but, whatev., it's done and time to move on). This one has heart shaped outlines and I really like how the negative space fills out. My example is drawn using full hearts as shown in the pattern step out, but I have also worked the pattern by drawing a column at a time of  "half hearts"in a continuous line, then repeating on the next column to complete the heart shapes. Whatever works best for you. Update: You can find...

A while back when I did the pattern for Scrolled Feather - I got my daughter to video me demoing - all ready for me to upload to the blog so that you could see how I go about drawing it. Unfortunately my firewire cord, or the video, would not talk to the computer and I couldn't edit it. I still wanted to do it, and today, as it has been miserable and so incredibly cold that even my husband, John didn't want to work outside (an unheard of occurence!)  I got him to video me on my little Canon point and shoot camera. Yep. We're a high quality outfit here. Nothing but the best. LOL. Hopefully I don't live to regret it. Anyway, here it is. Take note of the disclaimers at the start - the sound quality is not good (I do not lisp, and I'm sure my voice does not sound like that!) Hopefully you can understand me and my very Aussie accent. I also had a bit of a play with the pattern and came up with a few variations of the theme. Also, along the...