Friday, August 31, 2012

Country Cottage JULY Canada Conversion (WIPocalypse #7)

Fall is starting to creep into the air here. It's cooler at night and in the morning it's getting awful close to freezing. It's a perfect time of year for me! Not too cold, and not too hot.
Today I have for you the long awaited conversion for the Country Cottage Monthly Cottages series; July that has been my WIPocalypse project for the year.
The cottage original is for Fourth of July. Now I know the Americans out number the rest of us on the internet by far! However I have always shied away from doing a "monthly series" like this because of the "july issue". It just didn't seem appropriate to have US flag and colors when July commemorates Canada Day (July 1, the day Canada become independent from GB, however we are still
a member of the Commonwealth and pay respects to the Queen) here and I've never been anything but a Calgarian nevermind a different nation.

So my solution?
I'd start a monthly series, and tackle July when I got to it. Was a small piece of me hoping that maybe it'd be a "simple enough" change? Yeah, I'll admit it. But I'm soooo glad it wasn't just a "change a color here or there" because I am in love with how it turned out and feel like this was a good step towards my goal of "designing some patterns" someday. But time to get to it!
Let's start from the end result and work our way backwards:



 The "Canada conversion" of the July Cottage of the Month
from Country Cottages. Conversions & changes by Mel @ Epic Stitching
 

The biggest change?
Of course the flag!


As promised I have charted the Canadian flag out for everyone to see and work from.
I know there were a few other flags people wanted for other countries, if you email me or indicate in the comments which countries you'd like then I will do them up for you and post them in the coming weeks. (figuring out the Canadian flag took some time but after many pencil sketches and blocking it at last 20 times by hand I am happy with the final result, that was recharted after stitching as I changed it a final time!) <- this is why I only have the one flag for right now, but please do let me know if you'd like a specific country and I will see what I can do.

The colours?
Alright, starting at the top.
All the little flowers (with yellow in them), the word July, the window & house frames are in "Ruby Slippers" from Crescent Colors.
The other red (big flowers, flag, flower pot flowers) are a lighter, brighter red from Carrie's Creations called "Crimson".
The fireworks have an added Kreinik to them. I did this with all my months, this is entirely optional.
The other colors all stayed exactly the same as on the original pattern.

The modifications besides the flag?
There are other changes as you've likely noticed.
The flowers have left the white line in the middle and the rest is the Crimson red (regardless of symbol, unless green for the leaves).
The house has a "one line" thinner border, instead of having 3 layers and colors.
The windows have been brought down to one pane instead of with the "shutters". All I did was replace the shutters with white and do the outline of the windows in Ruby Slippers red. The little window at the top "peak" of the house was just added in as a 10x10 block. I did this because all the other houses had something in that space when shown on their sides and I didn't feel that another maple leaf was needed (seemed like overkill to me).
The bird is yellow. Why? good question. Because I couldn't decide on a "Canada" color for a bird besides more red, and I was feeling red overload when I got to the bird, so yellow was already in the design, hey there are canaries in Canada somewhere I'm sure. (just not where I live, lol!)

That's it in a nutshell.
Nothing too fancy or challenging (not including that darn maple leaf).
If you have any questions or concerns or what not please feel free to ask and I'll answer to the best of my ability.

I'm sad I have to say this...
DO NOT ask me to send you the pattern with my symbols in it. The copyright to this pattern remains with Country Cottage and it is against the laws of copyright to send you a copy of the pattern with the changes. So please don't make me tell you no and just don't ask. This July month is available at all major LNS or online stores. Ok that's the messiness out of the way.

In other unrelated news I am really, really close (like 20 stitches) away from a page finish on dragons! I pushed hard on dragons this past week once I had the cottage out of the way.
I've also got my new commission on the go and have permission to show you progress pics of it! That is coming next week for sure (it's super fun and crazy colorful).
I've been doing some online advertising for the store. With a stock of about 150 bracelets on hand right now I am having a hard time justifying making new bracelets unless they are sales. (but I do anyways of course, lol)
Lots & lots of new patterns lately that I love. Including Rosewood's Halloween Quilt (so fun!), the latest Just Cross Stitch autumn edition and I've been stocking up on Lizzie Kates snippets. Pictures of new starts on some LK's in the next few weeks, holiday stitching begins! 
Oh yeah... and a baby sampler that needs to get finished. 
Gosh, I've just exhausted myself. Okay, so lots of projects. I'm gonna stop now and get to it all!
Thank you for visiting and reading this far!


17 comments:

Linda M said...

Beautiful work. How clever to come up with the flag conversion.

Christina G said...

Very nice Candadian flag...good job!

Anonymous said...

Your finished picture looks very nice and glad you were able to chart the Canadian flag for it.

Marl

Gabi said...

Beautiful finish. Congrats. Love your Canadian version

Lesleyanne said...

A gorgeous finish. Would love to see a conversion for the British Flag.

Denise SA said...

Love your July cottage I am still waiting for the chart but as August has arrived I am stitching August.

Anne Sans Tete said...

Beautiful conversion!

- Lisa N. in Cambodia

Emma/Itzy said...

It looks great! :D

Unknown said...

It looks great! I love the conversion.

Heather said...

Great job! And I absolutely agree with you, I shy away from monthly series for the same reason, along with November.

Maureen said...

Great conversion - very Canadian!

Rina said...

Thanks so much for sharing your Canadian conversion, Mel!!

Mindi said...

Love the Canadian flag you designed. I pinned it in case I need to stitch something patriotic for a Canadian stitcher in the future! Your cottage turned out gorgeous.

Nancy M said...

Great conversion and still works well since Canada Day is July 1.

Unknown said...

stunning work! i also amazed the way you changed the cobversion for the flag! i'm really waiting for your next project soon! _Marina_

www.stitchingrendezvous.blogspot.com

Patti-Rocky Mtn Stitcher said...

Thank you for the Canadian Flag! I was hoping to find one.

Patti-Rocky Mtn Stitcher said...

Thank you for the Canadian Flag! I was hoping to find one.