a little lime

Before John broke his leg last year and everything was put on hold, I was working on a pattern experimentation tool. I've finally been able to get back into it and found some patterns I'd already had a play with. Here is one of them: Depending on shading or detail, two different "flower" shapes that can be emphasised in this pattern. Here are some fill ideas.  On a wonky grid with a bit of randomising thrown in. It's a very simple pattern with floral elements - always one of my fave themes. Have a great day! hx

Here's a shock confession for you - I'm a chronic doodler. What can I say? Put a pen and paper in my hands and it just happens. My notebooks are peppered with patterns in between the more "serious" notes. I was having a tidy up recently and discovered these doodles amongst the notes from a Natural Beekeeping workshop I took a few years ago. After breaking them down I thought they made good pattern candidates.  So, here are Queen B and Warre: A sample drawing created with Queen B: Hope you have fun with them :)

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!

I know I've been promising the step-outs for Spiral Rose for a while, but I've been......ah..........distracted. The pitfalls of a short attention span. hahaha Today  finally, I have it ready to share with you, and in case you are scratching your head and are all like....."huh, spiral what?"......... Here's the step-out: I think these rose patterns have been a bit of a flash back to 90's folk art painting. Pretty sure I'm done now. Here's the video: As a rare treat (in which you may read "treat" to actually mean "cruel and unusual punishment"), I am subjecting you to some narration in this video. It's been a few years since I've talked in a video as I really hate my voice - I pretty much "broke" it 10 years ago when I had whooping cough and after months of intense nightly coughing I damaged my voice permanently, practically losing it for a year. It's never been the same since. Thou...

Daisies really don't make me cross - I love them! I love ALL the daisies (please, no hating from the daisy partisans) - I just couldn't resist this pattern name :) hahaha. I have finally, FINALLY finished updating the Pattern page, please check it out and let me know your thoughts. It should be a lot easier to navigate, but if you find any glitches or incorrect links, let me know (there's a LOT of links, so I wouldn't be surprised if I've messed up somewhere). So, anyway, when I was working on the patterns, going through my files to organise thumbnails, etc., I found another 2/8's pattern variation that I stepped out in 2016 - it wasn't published to the blog at the time and I can't remember why. Maybe I decided it was a bit simple, or just forgot - but as I included it on the new, improved pattern page (mainly because I love its name......hahaha), I thought that I should post it here, too. (or, as I like to call it - DMMC). Here it...

I am getting ever closer to the finish line of my course. I have one more round of assessments to go and should be done in around 6 weeks - I cannot wait! I have enjoyed it, but am more than ready for it to be over. Thanks for hanging in there with my erratic posting over the past year or so :) My desk, which has a myriad of buried treasure amongst the clutter  (my organisation "system" tends towards scribbling things down on scraps of paper when I get an idea then throwing them on my desk). Anyway, I had a bit of a clean up last night and it offered up this pattern ready to scan and share. I love, love, LOVE easy patterns and how, often, from a simple construct the illusion of a more complex design can be created. I think that "faux weave" is one such example. What could be easier than spiralling around a single line? Stack these spirals together using a square grid, alternate the direction, add some basic fill and shading and all of a sudden you have a woven...

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

Well, d-day has almost arrived. Tomorrow I head back to school. Where did the summer go? At least the class schedule is looking pretty light and I'll only be at school for 2- 2 1/2 days a week. Today I want to share a really simple technique/pattern I've called "String Rose". This idea first made an appearance on the blog during the  old into new challenge back in 2014. I named one of the experimentation tiles as Trentwith  and though this pattern was the initial source of inspiration, my version takes a different approach. I had always meant to share the technique as it's so simple, and fun, but I just didn't get around to it. Until now! 2 1/2 years later.....haha. O.k., here goes........ The String Rose Pattern - this shows the base technique. As it's all done in one continuous line, I thought a little insta-video might help out: A video posted by A Little Lime (@alittlelime) on Feb 4, 2017 at 11:09pm PST I've never lin...

O.k., wow. Another year done and dusted! Can you believe it's 2017? Me? I'm still reeling. So, where did 2016 go? I had so much that I wanted to get done here on the website, but, life takes some interesting turns and my return to full-time study in 2016 though not planned, was so interesting - I loved it! Since term ended for our long summer break, I've been periodically working on tidying up my files and found some unpublished patterns that I hadn't got around to posting. I'll put them up over the next few weeks. Today I'm sharing a pattern called Puffy 8's - it's another spin off of 2/8's (love that base pattern!) You could stop at step 5 above, or keep going to fill all the spaces. Here's a freeform version: Wishing everyone a happy, productive 2017! hx

Still having fun playing with this pattern :) Variation idea for Double 8's which I shared a few weeks ago. For this first variation, leave space between the 8's to create an even flower grid, in the second sample add connecting strokes. Here's a freehand example of version 2: I think it's pretty cute. Like a flower ribbon :) Have a great weekend! hx

I've had a wonderful time during the term break - I've been getting lots of drawing done and have a bit of a stockpile of fun things to share with you over the next term :) I'm back at school again from next Monday, 4 days a week! I'm equal parts excited and dreading the amount of time I'll have to spend studying. A while back I posted a pattern 2/8's  - this week I've been revisiting the concept and have developed a couple of spin off patterns. Here's one of them: Double 8's: And, just for fun - here they are as individual "off grid" flowers: And with some colour for a change :) Around the farm not much is happening - we're in the middle of Winter, it's cold but not too bad. We haven't had any frozen pipes or much snow on the nearby mountains. Still the wood heater is running 24/7 :) Our two mama sheep have given birth to their lambs - they're healthy and adorable! I love seeing them run around the paddock...

A while ago I was playing around with Beth Snoderly's pattern Plop  - lots of fun. In my play I kept going back to a more minimalist floral design with no diagonal line. Using the dots on the grid really helps to keep track of where you are in the pattern as these provide a centre point for the flowers.  I approach it by drawing it in alternating blocks as shown below and ended up with a Plop Flower = Plower. On a wonky grid..... Interested in the experimentation process I use when playing with patterns? Check out my e-book Tangle Transformation. Have a great day! 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...

A week or so ago the   Square One Facebook group  pattern focus was my pattern Steps (thrilling) - my experimentation took me in a bit of a different direction and I ended up with this tile: I was asked to do a step-out showing how I did the tile above, but ended up getting distracted (as usual) with a spin-off idea and ended up with this which I like way better: Here are the step-outs, it can also be done as a continuous pattern: This pattern did not make it in time for the 2015 edition of the Pattern Folio which, by the way, will be going out in a few days, if you're not signed up please make sure to do it right away - you can read more about it here . Note to email subscribers: you should have gotten an email today with a discount book offer. There's actually a couple of reasons for me sending this out: 1. I wanted to send it to you :) 2. The 2015 Pattern Folio will be going out in the next few days - if you did not receive today's em...

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...

Here's the new pattern mentioned in my previous post, Scribble Daisies A couple of notes: A dot grid helps to keep it straight/regulated if that's the look you want. Note 1: shows the initial strokes done in a different order. Note 2: keep adding more lines to fill if you want - really changes the pattern appearance. Here's a couple of freeform versions: I'm currently working on a video for this one :) Have fun! hx

A while back I did a post showing a technique using some dots - and it was dubbed "tumbleweed" by several readers (I had mentioned tumbleweeds in my post). So, since it's a great name that works with the pattern AND I'm a very lazy pattern-namer, I've just gone with it. I played around recently with putting this pattern into a grid - the dots in the original were a device to help randomise the pattern so they're not needed in the grid version, but you could try it that way if it works better for you :) It's got a bit of a curvy "Steps" feel without the central line. hx

 I've been in the process for ages of curating, and redrawing my pattern reference folder - it's something I do on and off  when I'm in the mood (more off than on - I'm only up to the D's). I initially drew out patterns that I liked quickly and in basic format, now I'm going back and being a bit more adventurous with them, randomising, adding shading, etc, etc. It's a great way to revisit ones I have forgotten, put my brain in neutral, and get the odd idea, too. When drawing out Dawn's lovely pattern Blossom  - the zig zag grid got me thinking, the end result was this pattern: I had some fun experimenting with the fill options: If filling with black as above, you could ditch the initial horizontal lines and just do rows of zig zags. hx