So I was walking around the Internet one day, minding my own business, when I discovered the Shining Needle Society. It's a Yahoo Group that organizes cyber classes from various famous teachers in the NP world. You join the group and you get the announcements of upcoming classes which you can take or not, as you please. One of the classes has an "open" classroom, which means you can sign up for the emails from the class whether you actually are stitching it or not. The class is for Mystery in a Corner by Gay Ann Rogers. It's a big piece and I know my limits but I signed up for the emails so I could listen in. I have a lot to learn about counted thread and Ms. Rogers is a dynamite teacher.
I've enjoyed watching the photos of the mystery piece appear and hearing about the choices people have made while stitching this piece. I've been thinking it would be fun to try some of the same things on a small piece, and Gay Ann Rogers has been reading my mind. She's got a new little ornament chart package available. It's called The Challenge Ornament. You can see it here.
http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Small_Designs_.html
Yes, I bought the design. (Gasps of horror from the peanut gallery!) It arrived in the mail Friday and yesterday (Saturday) I made a trip to the little counted thread shop that is closing. Most things are half price so I thought I'd kit out this piece from whatever they had left. The closing sale has been going on for a while and I'd be scraping the bottom of the barrel in some respects but that just added to the Challenge.
The first challenge on the spot at the shop was when I realized that overdyes aren't on sale. No way am I paying full price for them, so I decided I would just wander around the shop and find the three types of thread I need (an overdye, some perle, and a thin metallic) for the project in colors that would coordinate well. I can fake an overdye quite well. Remember the Sundance Indian Woman in a Blanket canvas? All the "overdyes" there were faked.
But before threads, I needed NP canvas. I've been watching the Mystery in a Corner canvas photos from a ton of people doing that piece and I preferred the bright colored ones (particularly the one on black canvas) that have a lot of contrast between colors and the muted ones that are all shades of one colorway.
I gave up on shades of one color right away as I didn't find enough variations on a single color I liked to make this work for me. As I said, the shop thread choices are limited as stock is sold off. So it was high contrast colors for Jane! And you know what that means--black canvas. (More gasps of horror.) You know how much trouble I have counting charted designs and black canvas is hard to see on. BRING ON them challenges!
Ok, black canvas in hand, I wandered around. The threads above are what I came up with. I have --left to right--Petite Treasure Braid metallic in light green (PB57), Pebbly Perle in lavender (P50), three cards of Splendor silk floss in teal blue S865, teal green S880, and light lime S1058, and a spool of Kreinik blending filament in blue 006. I've got two thin metallics, three silk flosses, and a cotton perle. The colors blend well with the purple for a muted background and the lime for a punch. I may not use both metallics or I may mix them.
Here's what I've done with my threads.
My challenges here were figuring out what colors to put where. I studied the finished photos of this piece on GAR's website and blog, deciding what patterns seems to stand out and what didn't, then decided I wanted the muted purple in the center and on the lacy sides. The middle box seems to be prominent on all the stitched samples, so I mixed my teal colors there to fake an overdye. The lime is the middle part of the center block of three squares to add a bit of punch. By the way, this piece has a name. It is now called Insanity Improv.
This really is going to be a challenge and a nice break while I figure out what I want to do with the Joan Thomasson wizard robes. Prayers are gratefully accepted!
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
