Plenty of times during the holidays I've sat down and stitched a little on my second pet guardian angel for the ANG Auction in Milwaukee next fall. I just haven't talked about it with all the other things we've all had going on.
But since the Victorian Parakeet is almost done, how about a picture?
I have to say, this has been a really interesting piece to stitch. See the braided trim on her sleeves, down the front of her jacket and at the bottom of her apron and long dress? That was a real pain to do! I finally mastered the braid stitch in a straight line, only to have to learn to do a similar braid on a slant. It was difficult and fascinating to interweave the purples and peaches to get a smooth and lovely touch for this pet guardian angel.
Now look at the sleeve and jacket bodice and the three sections of the back of her skirt and bustle. That is all the same stitch, oriented differently. The purple skirt areas use the same stitch as well. I found it fascinating to see how slanting the stitch various ways gave dimention to the various areas of the parakeet's clothing.
I used an unusual color mix for me based on a Kreinik metallic that mixes purple and orange. I saw this thread on Michele Herron's blog when she was working on the darling Tapestry Tent/Susan Roberts Halloween trick or treaters canvas. The little red haired girl in the witch costume was wearing Kreinik 5007 (a purple with hints of orange) mixed with a lavender Kreinik metallic.
http://bristlythistle.blogspot.com/2008/11/cute-little-witch-with-red-hair.html
I was fascinated by 5007 and picked up a spool. Since I found a royal purple Soie d'Alger (#1345) and a peach/orange silk that I think is also Soie d'Alger in my stash, I only needed one more metallic to outfit the parakeet in purples and oranges. I choose Caron's Snow in Fire Orange #13, which is pumpkin and gold. These aren't "my" colors but I'm very happy with the choices which make the Victorian parakeet look elegant, not like an escapee from Halloween.
The last bit of the parakeet was its wings, wing-tip hands, and the head. (Remember, all the pet guardian angels have the same tent-stitched background in Ecru DMC perle cotton.) These are in Medici using Blanc (white) and 8380 (a soft grey with undertones of pink). The wings turned out beautifully once I outlined each feather and overstitched the tips with grey. All white wings blended into the ecru background without the grey outlines.
I stitched the head and wing tip hands in basketweave with one strand of my Blanc Medici. That was a mistake. The blue outlines where the shading was to go showed too much as the white thread didn't cover. So I went back over the area around the eye (that's a Mill Hill Magnifica bead in color 10120 held on by a big fat French knot using my purple Soie d'Alger) with \ stitches to make the face near the beak and eye cross stitches. That helped but still didn't cover. What to do?!?!?! Ok, let's try a second layer of basketweave on top of the rest of the head. Still didn't cover. Ok, let's put a third layer on top, this time Interlocking Goblein. And it worked! I have a feathery look to the bird's head. I should mention I back stitched the grey lines showing feather marks on top of the first two layers on one strand of Medici and the Interlocking Goblein went on top of the cross stitches, the basketweave and the back stitching. Since I used all white for the Interlocking Goblein, it softened the look and made it all quite feathery. Which goes to show ripping out isn't always the best way to hide mistakes!
I need to finish the background and then add buttons and a broach to the outfit and give our angel a halo. So I have a way to go.
Hopefully today I'll get some of the fnishing done on my Squiggee Three Women piece since I'm stuck at home due to an ice storm. Everybody stay safe and hope the power stays on!
Whoops! Almost forgot the beak! That's tent stitches in a third metallic, plain old Kreinik #273 copper in tent stitches topped with a few free-hand slanted \ stitches for the top of the beak where parakeets have a roughened area.
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
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