Tuesday, November 1, 2011

The Gold Fish Revisited

Carol's Gold Fish
Remember last Thanksgiving I asked for volunteers who wanted help and ideas with a painted canvas? One of the brave souls who volunteered was Carol. She was trying to come up with ways to stitch her Lillian Chermor Gold Fish.  To see the bare canvas (and explore more of Lillian Chermor's lovely pieces) go to her website, then click on Collections on the left side.  The Gold Fish canvas is under "Flora and Fauna and Friends."
http://needlepointbylilliandesign.com/

Carol's been rather busy with life, not to mention getting her EGA Master Craftsman status (congratulations!), but she has started to work her Gold Fish background. The color is absolutely perfect!  What you don't see in the photo above is that Carol's tent stitched over the seaweed strands in the background and over the fish before putting her fancy wave stitch on top of the background seaweed.  This helps keep the color from showing under the stitches.  Once Carol gets further along, she will put the seaweed back using ribbons and beads.  Which brings us to a question Carol has asked that I am hoping a Blog reader can answer.  Carol has absolutely perfect teardrop-shaped beads to use among the seaweed.  She'd like to use a mesh type ribbon to hold the beads in place.  Carol's thinking was to put the beads inside Flair so that they look like they are floating among the ribbon seaweed.  But her beads, which are perfect, are 14x10 mm and 11x9mm wide.  She doesn't think Flair will stretch enough to hold them.  Here are the beads.


She's looked at tubular mesh ribbons which come in two sizes:  6mm and 20mm. You can see the ribbons here.
http://www.beadedlily.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page&id=31&chapter=0

The 6mm size is smaller than her beads and the 20 mm size is a lot larger.  Anyone know of a tubular ribbon that is the width of her beads?  Anyone know how stretchy this type of tubular ribbon is?  If so, please post a comment or email me at chilly hollowat hotmaildotcom and I'll forward the information to Carol.

Carol's going to try stuffing beads inside Flair this weekend.  Flair stretches, so it might work.  She also is considering cutting strips of panty hose to hold the beads in place.  If you see someone in your local clothing store asking where they keep the purple and green panty hose, that'll be Carol.

Collection of Designs Package Ornament

Carol felt badly about not having more progress to show on her Gold Fish, so she also sent me a photo of A Collection of Designs Christmas present ornament she just finished. The pink body of the present is knitting yarn.  Yes, that's memory thread coiled under the ribbons on top.  The background is just perfect.  You can't tell from the photo but it's white with a touch of sparkle.

I think Carol's well on her way to mastering painted canvases, just like she has mastered so many other kinds of needlework.

I'm looking forward to seeing more progress photos of the Gold Fish, and especially how the seaweed works out.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

Partridge in a Pear Patterned Tree

If you are looking for a non-traditional traditional Christmas design, Tapestry Fair's partridge on a bargello pear pattern might be just what you are looking for.   I think despite all the pattern, it looks very elegant, and all that pattern will make it fun to stitch.  A stitch guide is in the works.
http://tapestryfair.blogspot.com/2011/10/partridge-finished.html


Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com