Thursday, August 21, 2008

Belle and Margaret, Front and Center!


I need you ladies to eyeball the globe and tell me if it is improved. In the photo above I replaced the Petite Treasure Braid lines on the Earth with a very thin DMC Metallic machine embroidery thread. It is black with a lot of highlights. This time I didn't enhance the photo a lot so you may not be able to see it all that well. In person it looks good but photographing metallics is a chancy business.

If you look at the hem of the purple under-robe you'll be able to see that I've added the three padded lines of trim. The original paint on the canvas is two lines of gold with a line of silver in the middle but I switched colors so that I have a fat line of silver nearest the hem, a line of pale purple metallic in the middle and then a narrower line of silver. All the threads are Soft Sheen Fyre Werks and I matched the silver in the Fyre Werks carefully to the silver Kreinik so that the two shades would be as close as possible.

I've also added more to the layers on the purple robe but I doubt you can see it since I didn't get very far in this step last night. Instead I concentrated on the basket next to the books at the wizard's feet. I never liked the idea of a basket much. Surely a cauldron is more likely to accompany a wizard on his travels? So I pencil sketched a likely shape on my copy of my plain canvas until I was satisfied I had the shape right and then stitched it using three threads: a black Frosty Rays used to tent stitch the interior so it had extra sparkle, a line of couched black Petite Very Velvet to make the rim of the cauldron stand out a bit (it's very hard to see but in person you can get the idea) and the body of the outside done with black Flair in Mosaic stitch (on the right of the staff) covered with long lengths of the same thread running horizontally (on the left of the staff) to hide the white dandruf and smooth the outside to make it like a real cast iron pot. Once the books behind the cauldron and the staff are stitched, I'll couch down more Petite Very Velvet to make a handle.

Do let me know what you guys think, especially Margaret and Belle.

Thanks!

Lani's Autumn Leaves in Purse Form


I found the perfect pocketbook to use Autumn Leaves with a couple of weeks ago but dawdled about appliquing the canvas to the front until two weeks ago when the county fair deadline pushed me into finishing this piece. I whipstitched it to the front of this purse, which happened to be the right shade of red and also is made of what looks like a knit cotton. The material the purse is made from is perfect for attaching a NP canvas and then hiding the stitches with trim.

Do you like it? I hope Mom does! This is her birthday present for next month. (This is a secret, remember? Don' give it away!) Her favorite color is red and this is the perfect early autumn purse.


Lani's design looks great here. An all tent stitch piece is perfect for such a finished item. Here's a closer look.



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