Sunday, July 5, 2009

Playing With Fire -- Cape Cod Dogs


I've also been playing with fire on Cape Cod Dogs. Was anyone betting how long I'd be able to concentrate just on the basketweaved border background? I bowed to the lure of the rest of the canvas on the 4th of July by starting to stitch the window glass. I'd decided there were two ways to handle the view out the window: Either I'd stitch it in light coverage stitches with only one ply of silk or cotton, or I'd stitch the glass with clear Water N Ice and totally ignore stitching the details of the painted view themselves. I felt either route would make the view recede into the background where it belongs.

Being ultra lazy, I chose the Water N Ice route.

Step one was to find my cards of Water N Ice (done!) and step two was to choose a stitch. My first stitch choice was Byzantine as I thought the diagonal flow would look like reflections of sun on glass. I also thought the Water N Ice, which is a ribbon-like thread, would cover better on the diagonal.
http://www.barbarabergstendesigns.com/new_page_1.htm

However, as I worked I discovered two things. First, the holes between the rows of Byzantine stitch made a prominent pattern that detracted from the view itself and secondly, the Water N Ice frayed badly at the tail end that hangs out the needle's eye. I ended up using 8 inch lengths and still having to cut off 2 inches at the needle's eye because the thread was coming apart as I worked.

What to do? Short lengths didn't stop the fraying. My bottle of Frey Check was so old it was dried up, so in the trash it went, useless to stop the unraveling of my Water N Ice. I know some folks use burning tools to seal the ends of threads. (Frey Check and burn tools listed in this link.)
http://www.fashionribbonwear.com/cosmetics.html#fraycheck

I don't own such tools but I do have a wood stove. In other words, I've got MATCHES.

[At this point the nervous stitcher may want to hide under the couch. Or at least get a stiff drink!]

I cut off an eight inch length of Water N Ice, took it into the kitchen, stood over the sink and lit a match. After it burned a second, I blew the flame out and touched the hot end to the cut end of my thread. It sealed it a bit. I put the slightly melted end went through the needle's eye. Then I stitched. Usually I didn't have any unraveling after that. Of course touching the hot end of a match is a bit chancy. Besides the danger of being burned, one won't always seal the thread completely. Occasionally I did have some unraveling.

By the way, I am stitching the window using Irish Stitch from Stitches for Effect, page 37. This is a simple straight stitch over four threads. Then you skip a channel, stitch over four threads, skip a channel, etc. The second row you drop down two threads and do a series of over four straight stitches in the empty channels. Repeat these two rows endlessly and you'll have a nice plain stitch that I found let the painted canvas show nicely and added a window glass reflection to the canvas.

Hope you like the effect. You don't see the glassy shine in the photo but it is there. I've still got to finish the border, and I'll tackle that chore along with tent stitching the thin red line on the inside of the border next.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Playing With Fire-- Ch'ing the Chinese Red Dragon


Last night I finished the stitching on my Leigh dragon ornament by stem stitching the fire he breathes. This took a while because I used rows of very thin metallics in orange, gold and red, working from the right side of the ribbon of fire to the left. The left edge of the fire was painted red but I put orange there on the outside edge just to make the background distinct from the flame. Occasionally I put a gold stitch on top of the red ones or an orange stitch on the gold to add a little depth to the colors.

I used Bijoux 414 (the same thin red metallic I used to tie down the silk that outlines the background squares), orange Treasure Braid #TR47 (4-strand), and gold Acentuate #23 for the fire the dragon breathes. These are all very thin metallic threads around the size of Kreinik's blending filament. It took a while to create the flames but the stem stitch is very easy. You can also cover up a bare patch easily if you didn't pack the stem stitches tightly enough as you worked.









I like how he looks a lot but I do have to say that the photographs don't do him justice. Ch'ing will go to Leigh Designs to serve as a model and there will be a stitch guide available later but I don't have the details on that yet.

I'm going to add another smaller piece to my stitching rotation now. I choose another Dynasty Ornament from Leigh, this time Fiji (the one with the palm tree on the beach) from the South Seas Dynasty series. It's on my favorite sea green canvas and is a lovely design very reminescent of photographs I see at work all the time. Photographers can't resist a beach with a palm tree leaning out toward the incoming waves. Well, who can? Not me for sure!
http://www.leighdesigns.com/Grp825x.html

I'll continue working the border on Cape Cod Dogs. Right now three of the four sides are finished. I won't do the corners of the border until later but I hope to finish the basketweave black background and the red letters on the border this week and move on to something more interesting.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow