It is definitely turning into fall in Chilly Hollow. I've been in the habit of taking progress photos most mornings but recently it has been too dark for me to do this. Some of this is due to overcast skies, some due to the fall fogs we have this time of year. Now I'm trying to make time when I get home from work among the chores that have to be done before the sun sets to take my photos. Please be patient!
So you are not going to see the more normal progression photos as I work on the snowman ornament for Mim's shipment of Christmas trees and ornaments overseas. I'll still explain how I worked, though. For example, I started out tent stitching around the perimeter of the snowman's face with my metallic ribbon floss. I didn't fill in the center where the eyes and mouth and nose go until I was able to put in half cross stitches for the red smile (Patina, a shiny nylon thread), the pink cheeks (Flair), and eyes (MillHill's Magnifica beads). Since snowmen traditionally have lumps of coal for eyes, I didn't do the eyes exactly the same. Coal chunks are very angular and I wanted eyes that looked like coal would. The black beads are attached with two plies of black DMC cotton so the thread doesn't show.
Once the smile, cheeks and eyes were in, I finished tent stitching the entire face. Then it was time for the carrot nose. I had originally intended to fill a tube of orange Flair with orange beads but that provide impossible. Instead, I laid down a long stitch in orange Patina (more nylon thread) and wrapped it with orange Flair in a fake bullion. I like the snowman's happy little face and hope you do also.
But a snowman for Christmas isn't just a cute smile--he's got to have clothes!
I grabbed a sheet of paper from the trash and using the same glass candlestick, drew circles on it, then sketched out a variety of cap and hat styles and scarves on the paper circles. Once I had something I liked, I tent stitched the outline onto my NP canvas. In the photo below, you see the stocking cap and scarf I ended up with.
The scarf is outlined, but I stitched most of the stocking cap last night, using a stitch from the September-October 2008 Needlepoint Now. Marnie Ritter has done a great purse design called "Fascination" with all kinds of fancy stitches and I used the purple stitch in the middle for the snowman's stocking cap. I may use another stitch from the purse for the scarf. I've not decided yet.
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
Inspired by Pocket Full of Stitches' knit cap and gloves canvases (see links),
I've pulled a bunch of colors, mostly red and lime green and orange sherbet with some medium blue, from my stash and I'm mixing and matching textures to create the colorful outfit on the showman. His cap is the ribbon-like in lime green tied down with a greener shade of lime in Impressions (silk-wool blend) with straight lines in the empty spaces in the pale gold-peach Impressions. I tied down the lime green ribbon with two strands of medium blue Accentuate to add sparkle and also used a strand of the same blue Accentuate to attach the orange beads I'd originally thought would make a great carrot nose. The next step will be to add a fuzzy ball to the tip of the stocking cap and fuzzy trim around the snowman's face.
I'm thinking I'll use Kathy Feschel's turkeywork variation stitch which you can see here on the ANG website.
Now all I need to do is decide which thread! I'm leaning toward a medium blue Impressions mixed with the blue Accentuate. But it might make more sense to couch down a fuzzy thread instead since there isn't much space at the edge of the stocking cap around the snowman's face. Hard to make your turkeywork really plush with only 2-3 lines of stitches.
Stay tuned!
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
