Garden of Epicurus pattern

I'm starting work on a new piece.  The image is a flower garden, and the panel in the middle is a quote said to have been at the gate of Epicurus's garden.  Epicurus is currently my guide to life, and I'm planning for this to go in a frame in some prominent part of my living room, when it's finished.

There are a lot of different colors here.  I hope it comes out well.  If you click on the image, you should get the full pattern.

Planets: finished

I've finished the "Planets" series.  I'm pretty happy with how they've turned out- except for Saturn.  I don't care for Saturn.  That's why I chose it to go under the wine glass in my photo.  I'm hoping that you, gentle reader, won't notice its flaws.  I love Earth, though, and Jupiter, and I like the visual joke of Pluto with its tiny size and its asterisk.

I made the patterns using MacStitch 2009, and used telescope images of the planets, mostly Hubble photos, that I found on Wikipedia as a basis for the patterns.  They are stitched on 18-count Aida fabric, backed with black fabric, and edged in black double-fold bias tape.

I release all of the patterns under a Creative Commons license, which means that anyone has permission to copy, use, and change them- but please don't sell them, or anything you make from them, without my permission.  I'm including links to all of the patterns on this post.  I made them as coasters, but I would be curious to see what other users people have for them, so if you do something cool with these patterns, I'd love to see it.

• Mercury
• Venus
• Earth
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Uranus
• Neptune
• Pluto

Planets by Heather Murphy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at nerdyneedle.blogspot.com.

Planets: Pluto

I've finished stitching the last of the "Planets" series- Pluto is marked with an asterisk, since its status as a planet depends on whether you're talking about popular conceptions or science.  I didn't like to leave it out, though; it was a planet when I learned about the planets from Interplanet Janet, and I'm a little attached to it.  Besides, Jonathan Coulton's "I'm Your Moon" is the best love song ever.

Before I start finishing the coasters, I'll upload the charts for Pluto here, in case anyone else wants to use them for anything.  

Uranus

I finished stitching Uranus while watching old episodes of "Angel" on DVD in my pajamas, enjoying a richly-deserved day off.  As usual, I'll include the chart for anyone who wants to use the 'planets' patterns themselves.

Planets:Saturn

I'm not sure about my colors on Saturn, and I never did manage to get the ring entirely to my satisfaction- I tried several different strategies, but nothing worked quite as well as I hoped. Nevertheless, here it is, with the pattern for anyone who wants it.

Planets: Jupiter

It's been a while since I updated the blog, but I do still want to use it for housing my own work. Maybe I'll get around to using it as a real blog again someday, or maybe it'll just be a once-in-a-while collection of my own work. Whatever. Either way, here's Jupiter, and here are the charts for it. On 18-count Aida, it makes a three-inch square. The chart has the colors for the whole series of planets, and includes colors that aren't used in this chart.

Planets: Neptune

Here's the fifth of my planets: Neptune. I'm adding the charts for it, in case you want to make one. Stitched on 18-count Aida, it makes a three-inch square. The color chart includes the threads for all of the planets patterns, not just this one, but the colors for this planet are indicated. I'm releasing this under a Creative Commons license; feel free to share or change it, but not to sell it.