Last night I stitched on the endless miles of background remaining behind the wizard. Before I forget, I should warn you that when you stitch an open stitch like this with only one ply of silk, the thread will try to wiggle out from where you tied it off. If you can manage it, anchor the thread in the main stitching of the piece (the wizard, the bird, the perch, etc.). That will minimize your having to re-secure the background threads later.
I did put glasses on the wizard's nose. Joan Thomasson padded the nose of her model but my wizard's nose is just tent stitches and it was starting to look very plain and prominent to me. So he's suddenly grown reading glasses in #4 Kreinik braid (gold 02).
Pretty soon I'll add the moon and stars charms around the globe the wizard carries, but first I need to stitch another 40 miles of background!
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
6 comments:
Jane, does your background stitch have a name? Is it an original? I like the way it looks, but I can't quite figure out how to do it. Are the horizontals different threads from the verticals?
~Belle
I like the glasses! He looks so smart.
LOL The bird obviously doesn't think so.
Jane, giggling in CH
Belle, it does have a name but I can't remember what now. I know I said where I found the stitch, so go back through the postings and you'll find it.
The stitch is very easy. You do 5 long vertical stitches over 6 threads, then do a horizontal stitch across the middle. Work a column of these and when you move to the right (or left, doesn't matter) to do the next column, start your 5 stitches "over 6" at that middle bar of the previous column so the columns alternate their starting point.
It is a lot easier than my explanation makes it seem!
Jane, tongue=tied in CH
Thanks, Jane. I finally found it (after looking back through your posts for several days without success--don't know why I couldn't locate it). You said it's called the Linked Stitch from Even More Stitches for Effect. I appreciate the explanation.
~Belle
I'm glad you found it, Belle. I couldn't remember and didn't have enough time with the computer this weekend to hunt it out for you. It's a nice stitch for the stonework effect but with one ply, there's not a strong backing to tie off threads into, so use the main motif for that or tie off securely outside the margin of the piece. Or you'll get to tie off the ends again as they wiggle free. Silk is especially prone to wiggle loose; I am beginning to think silk threads are cousins to those escaping beads!
Jane, waving from CH
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