Introducing Robin King's Insomnia

Robin's got Insomnia. Yes, indeed! And she's willing to share....

Before you start emailing me home remedies for sleeplessness, let me assure you that Robin doesn't have trouble sleeping. She's stitched a canvas called Insomnia which you see above which she is graciously sharing as my guest blogger today. Insomnia is a Maggie design, adapted from a Jeanju Clifton painting. The link below has the plain painted canvas on Maggie's website. Insomnia measures 11.5" wide by 15 " high on 18 count canvas.

http://www.maggieco.com/html/detail.php?ID=973&Category=1&pg=1&q=@Jeanju%20Clifton

Here's what Robin told me about the design and how she stitched it:

"I am attaching the photo of Insomnia. Here is my story: Pat, my guy, photographed the original art piece by the artist, Jeanju Clifton. When I saw the photograph, I said to myself, 'This would make a great needlepoint canvas!"' It took me a few years to get Maggie Co. and Jeanju Clifton together, but it was finally made into a canvas.

I had Amy Bunger create a Stitch Guide through her Cook-Up a Canvas classes, and then I stitched it. I learned how to knit, and knitted the long scarf with Poppies on size 0 Bamboo needles. I made her curlers (from curlers) for her hair, and I made her knitting needles out of the same size 0 Bamboo needles. Her hands are wire-wrapped floss so that she is actually holding her knitting project. I was true to the painting, so yes, those are blood-shot eyes. After all, it is entitled 'Insomnia'. Each of the cats are wearing a different sweater. You can even see Elliot in the aqua Argyle sweater. She isn't a pretty woman, but she sure was fun to stitch. I lost count at the number of Colonial Knots for her Chenille robe. Her Curler Cap was done with Gathered Flair. The blue/gray flooring is the Tessellated T's. She is wearing an actual pearl pierced earring. The white cat is playing with a real ball of thread that I wound up.

I submitted Insomnia to the Nashville ANG in 2005. It didn't get any awards, but there was a nice commentary from Tony Minieri and Judy Souliotis. They asked that Insomnia be given a chance to comment on, and for me, that was all of the prize that I needed."

[Jane says: Heck YEAH! Ribbons are one thing but being singled out for recognition from Tony Minieri and Judy Souliotis is rare and priceless. You can read what they said about Insomnia and see another photo of this piece on the ANG website in the link below. By the way, Robin is the photographer and webmaster of Amy Bunger's website and she films the Amy DVDs. The Elliot she mentions is her orange tabby cat who loves wandering into the photo shoots she does of finished Amy needlepoint.]

http://www.needlepoint.org/WhatIs/2005/conversation.php#502np

Robin continues: "So, that is my story. I took an idea and through determination brought it into reality. Yes, those are real curlers. I went to Sally's Beauty Supply, found some tiny curlers, and then cut them down even 'teenier' to fit Insomnia. The small yellow velcro type curlers were about the size of your little finger. I used about a 1 inch length, and then I trimmed away some of the guts so that the curler would tighten down even more. Remember, all stitch suggestions & threads were à la Amy; I was merely the worker-bee. Amy was fearful about sending her needlepointer customer / friend into a Knitting store ... would I get hooked and ditch needlepoint for knitting? I told her to not worry. I was only learning to knit for Insomnia. (Later I found out that I couldn't multi-task while knitting like I can when I needlepoint.)"
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Learning to knit so you can stitch a NP canvas? Robin, that's REAL dedication!

Hope everyone enjoys seeing what a talented stitcher can do when helped by a terrific teacher like Amy Bunger using a hilarious canvas from Maggie. Thanks for sharing, Robin, and for being my guest blogger this morning. I get a grin all over my face every time I look at Insomnia's details.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Jade's Hair

In the photo above you can see Jade's hair stitched on top of the padding, using the Soy Fiber in long stem stitches that were staggered so that each one began or ended at a slightly different place than its neighbors. I tried to do the stitches in the same direction that real hair would go. Of course there are areas that the stem stitches couldn't fit, like the curls at the nap of her neck. The tent stitches done there cover the painted canvas and look ok.

By the way, this photo is color adjusted so you can see the black threads on the black painted area of the canvas better. It is really black in person!

The bows are finished also. The knot was painted in alternating stripes of light dusty pink (I used Kreinik's Soie Perlee #3333) and light blue (Thread Gatherer's Silk N Colors in Delphinium which is the thread used on the light blue parts of her robe), so I covered the stripes with long skinny cross stitches in those colors, then took my needle full of pink silk under the row of cross stitches to put a horizontal line under them. I did that because the skinny cross stitches didn't cover well. The pink cross stitch was done using Soie Perlee which is a skinny perle-type silk thread. Very pretty but it was too thin to cover entirely.

The ends of the pink and blue bows were done in outline stitch except for the tiny bit of blue ribbon on the left which was done in reverse tent stitches covering one or two thread intersections. I worked from the centers out using my light blue and light dusty pink but I needed a darker dusty pink and a darker blue, so I used the dark blue thread from the robe (Thread Gatherer's Flax N Colors in French Blue) and the darker purple-pink that I will use on the geisha's robe. That is Rainbow Gallery's Splendor in S1035. I used the Flax N Colors as it came off the card, the Soie Perlee in one perle thread, and two plies of the silk floss Splendor and Silk N Colors.

The bow itself is a bit fancy for a lady's maid but we have to remember that she dresses the geisha and is probably up on the latest fashions and rather skilled in fixing hair so I expect her vanity got the better of her.

I'm going to work on the geisha's robe but before I do, look at the last blog entry and check out the neckline of the maid's robe. Doesn't the left side look a bit jagged? I'm going to talk about why that happened and how I fixed it next.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow