Important Announcement

With Yahoo 360 closing their blog system, I've tested several options yesterday and today.

1) I've moved all the original Yahoo 360 postings to the new Yahoo Profile page. However, this is not really functional as a blog. It is not searchable, there are no keywords left, some of the photos were lost in the transition in blog entries that had multiple photos, and it is not easy to navigate to older postings. There doesn't seem to be a way to get straight to the blog either. I will leave everything here as an archive but I will not post new blog entries here.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

2) Yahoo 360 allows one to move the 360 blog to other systems. I tried Wordpress but it doesn't allow me to move all the old posts. I have too much old information so I can't move everything. I'm also having trouble with the download/upload which isn't working properly. I will delete the Wordpress blog I started. It has nice features but it isn't going to be a good replacement for Yahoo 360 due to the size limits. So that's not an option.

3) I'm going to try to download the old Yahoo 360 material to Blogspot. So far I'm not having any luck with this. I uploaded to Yahoo Profile ok but it looks as if Blogspot only will upload .xml files and Yahoo 360 downloads material as txt files. The incompatable formats are a problem, but I'll continue to attempt this.

4) It looks like the best option for now is to just have one blog at Blogspot. So effective tomorrow I will no longer post messages to Yahoo 360 and my only blog will be the one located at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com

I am very sorry for the problems this will cause Blog readers but I can't make anything else work except Blogspot. We'll have the old material archived at Yahoo Profiles but Blogspot will be the only blog from now on.

Jane/Chilly Hollow

Old Yahoo 360 blog archived at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

While I'm Busy Switching Blogs

I'm wrestling with Wordpress this morning, trying to see if I can import the Yahoo 360 blog material into it. If I can make that work, I may consolidate everything there and abandon both Yahoo and Blogspot. Stay tuned....

While I tear out all my hair, I do have some things for you to enjoy. No need for all of us to go nuts, right?

The Needlepointer has their monthly clubs for 2009 up on their website. I can't believe I didn't notice the candy cane, lollypops, sheep and tree/wreath clubs before now!
http://www.theneedlepointer.com/needlepoint-clubs.htm

The French Knot has their late spring newsletter up. It announces several fun classes and that they have added a "blog" link to their home page.
http://www.thefrenchknot.com/newsletter.html

http://www.thefrenchknot.com/blog.html

Have fun browsing. I'm off to wrestle with templates and downloads/uploads. Sigh.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
New Yahoo blog at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow and second new one at
http://chillyhollowneedlepoint.wordpress.com/

Transfer from Yahoo 360 to Yahoo Profile

This seems to be the new address of my Chillyhollow Needlepoint Yahoo Profile. This doesn't take you straight to the blog--you have to click on a link on the right side of the page. Sorry, I can't find a direct URL for the blog yet. Everything has transferred except keywords (HOW THE HECK CAN WE FIND ANYTHING WITHOUT KEYWORDS??!!!?!?!?!) and the slide shows (but I think if you click View All you can still see them) and second photos in blog entries that had more than one photo.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Could some folks test this please? Thanks!
Jane, exasperated in CH

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

The Wisteria Teapot Is Done

Last night I finished laying 4 plies of white Gloriana silk across the cotton perle padding to make the latticework and finish the wisteria teapot. I am not 100% happy with how it looks as the white painted area varies a bit from area to area and that is noticable, making the latticework a bit uneven. But since there is nothing I can do about it, I will let it alone. I don't think anyone but me will notice this. I'm quite pleased with it otherwise, although I think now the little bit of brown Accentuate I added here and there on the wisteria vine stem was unnecessary.

Now it goes into the pile of finishing! Which somehow is getting larger, not smaller!

In totally unrelated news, I got a note from Yahoo this morning that Yahoo 360 is shutting down the second week of July. I will have to move the blog contents from here to their new "social networking" site. I'm going to do this because there are more visitors to the Yahoo 360 blog than the Blogspot one, and I know many of you can't see Blogspot. But there will be changes. You'll have to go to a new address and I think some things (like the keyword tags) will disappear. Bear with me while I try and figure out how to do this. I'll keep everyone informed and once all the settings are done, I'll copy/paste the Yahoo 360 blog over and we'll see how it works.

Stay tuned! But if you hate change, you might want to try out the Blogspot blog. At least I know it works. I always post the Blogspot address at the end of each message.

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

Silk Ribbon Embroidery Supplies and Stitches

Before you do any silk ribbon embroidery (SRE) you need supplies. The photo above shows several brands of silk ribbon and also shows a packet of chenille needles. Stitching with silk ribbon needs a needle with a large eye and a sharp point, and chenille needles are perfect on both counts.

Silk ribbon for embroidery comes mostly in 4 mm widths although 2 mm and 7 mm widths are available. I don't have any 2 mm in my stash but the card of variegated yellow ribbon in the photo is 7 mm wide. For 18 count canvas like my example, 4 mm works just fine, although if I were doing a large and elaborate piece, I would want some 2 mm for buds and other small areas. I actually used a card of variegated purple Splendor Silk Ribbon from Rainbow Galley. It's not in the photo. I didn't think to take the picture until after the wisteria was all done. The card held 4 yards of ribbon and I used it all and needed to finish my wisteria with some of the Bucilla pale lavender ribbon you see in the picture. Brands of ribbons matter. Some are stiffer than others. I like the crisp curl the stiffer Bucilla ribbon gave to my wisteria blossoms, although the Splendor silk ribbon looks just as good. I haven't used the River Silks ribbon yet, although folks rave about it, and I haven't used the Gloriana silk ribbon yet, either, although I love the depth of color. Whatever brand you use, keep in mind that the two wisteria clusters which are each around 3/4 inch wide and 2 inches long, took more than 4 yards of ribbon. Make sure you buy enough ribbon. SRE does use a lot of ribbon.


Now let's talk about the stitches I used. I had taken a careful look at the Lee wisteria kimonos Ruth Dilts and Joan Lohr stitched and taught Judie at Thistle Needleworks, and already knew that they used mostly Japanese ribbon stitch. To do this stitch, you come up through your ground fabric (NP canvas in our case) and then lay your ribbon flat on the surface and plunge your needle down at the point you want your stitch to end. This is why you need a sharp needle--you use it to stitch right through the ribbon! You get a long stitch with a very pretty curl at the end. Here's a good diagram.
http://www.stitching.com/CDA/stitch/stitches/ribbon-stitch.html

I looked at various ribbon stitches and did some test stitching and decided I wanted to mostly use a lazy daisy stitch for my wisteria. If you look at the stitches on the left of the canvas you see a lazy daisy stitch done in dark purple as a sort of horseshoe shape. Instead of starting and ending my lazy daisy stitch loop in the same hole, I spaced the starting and stopping holes apart to make the horseshoe which I tied down as you normally tie down lazy daisy stitches.
http://crochet.about.com/library/weekly/aalazydaisy.htm

If you look back at photos of the teapot from yesterday with the wisteria partly stitched, you'll see the blossoms were painted as shaded ovals of various lengths and widths. Working from the bottom of the spray of flowers to the top, I made a lazy daisy horseshoe that fit an oval. If the oval was wide, I put a smaller lazy daisy horseshoe inside the first horseshoe. Then I finished the flower by doing the Japanese embroidery stitch in the middle of the horseshoe's empty shape. I always came up at the top of the horseshoe right under the tie down stitch and went down at the bottom between the horseshoe legs so that the curl of the stitch was at the bottom. In my sample on the canvas's left side, the horseshoe lazy daisy stitch is in dark purple and the Japanese embroidery stitch that fills the middle is in pale lavender. I hope you can see the little curl where I put the needle right through the ribbon at the bottom.

Occasionally I did a French knot in ribbon if I needed to fill a space that my other stitches didn't cover. I also put a few single Japanese embroidery stitches here and there in the very small oval areas. It didn't take long (although it took a lot of ribbon) and the only hard part was keeping the ribbon from twisting. It was pretty well behaved most of the time but it is easy not to pull your ribbon all the way snug if you aren't careful. I cut out the lighter areas of the overdyed Splendor silk ribbon to use mostly on the left spray of flowers and put most of the darker areas of the overdyed ribbon on the right side. I thought that looked better, but really I could have let the colors fall naturally if I wanted.

I like how this turned out and learned a great deal about SRE that I hope to put to good use on two other pieces I have in my stash that will benefit from silk ribbons. The next area is the latticework which as you see I've padded with long stitches of DMC white cotton perle that I'm overlaying with 4 plies of my white Gloriana silk. I am not sure that I have the stitches the proper length in some areas that I had to compensate so I'll be studying this and thinking it over for a while.

Meanwhile the sun is supposed to be out today and perhaps that means my finishing of the pet guardian angels can continue. Wish me luck on both projects, ok?

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

Wisteria Leaves (Don't Look at the Ribbon Yet)

While waiting for the glue to dry on my pet guardian angels (yes, I'm finishing them but there are 6 and the weather is not cooperating), I have been stitching Mom's birthday present. Yesterday I added the leaves in several embroidery stitches (long and short, outline stitch, herringbone) using 2 plies of Mandarin Floss medium green #M817. The darker vein down the middle of most of the leaves was done in Grandeur G848, which is a #5 silk perle which is darker and less olive green than the Mandarin Floss.

I have a little spool of Bijoux in my stash that is brown (there's no number on the spool, sorry) so I added a few short stitches here and then to the wisteria vine to add a highlight sparkle here and there.

It occurred to me as I worked that there's no way to really explain how I choose a spot to add a highlight to the vine or how I figured out which embroidery stitch to use on the leaves. I learned to do crewel embroidery in college and this gave me a good grounding in embroidery and a feel for what looks right in natural pieces. You have to work from instinct, which I know bothers a lot of people. The best I can tell you is to work slowly with only a few plies (I used two instead of the four I've been using for the blue areas and the three I used for the vine stem) so you can either pull out a stitch that doesn't look right or easily cover it with another stitch in the right position.

The last thing I did is take one full strand of my dark brown Mandarin Floss and lay it across the top wisteria stem. The teapot top is supposed to be indicated by a straight line of tent stitches that are dark blue and then change to dark brown. Since I used stem stitch for the vine and worked from the right to left and from the bottom to the top, I couldn't do that. I think the straight line looks ok and gives you the idea of the lid that comes right off when you make tea.

I've started the silk ribbon embroidery but I'll talk about that tomorrow. I'm still trying to figure out how to explain what I did clearly. Communication is hard!

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

Wisteria Vine in Stem Stitch

I have finished stitching the wisteria vine stem in stem stitch, using two colors of Mandarin Floss (dark brown M830 and medium light brown M886), which is a 6 ply floss made from bamboo fiber. I think Mandarin Floss is perfect for plants and flowers because the plies are a bit rough in texture and look "natural" to me.

The photo has an odd highlight in the upper stem near the lid but I highlighted that area so you could see the stem stitches all packed together clearly. I worked from the right side of the stems to the left side, laying a line of stem stitch starting at the bottom of the teapot and working up.

I have two links to show you how stem stitch is done. The second has a video in case that is a better way for you to learn. First, this diagram shows exactly how I worked, holding the loop out of the way so I could see where to put the needle.
http://www.coatscrafts.co.uk/Crafts/Needlecrafts/Howtos/stem+stitch.htm

Here's Mary Corbett's video tutorial on stem stitch.
http://www.needlenthread.com/2006/10/embroidery-stitch-video-tutorial-stem.html

Note that the tutorials both use a crewel wool and take pains to do the stitch very regularly. Each stitch is the same length as the stitch before. I did not do this since wisteria vine is not regular. They twist and the bark isn't regular. Here's a photo from Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeysplanting/426486829/

I am using three plies of my Mandarin Floss as well, so I have to take more care that all the plies are smooth and pulled equally tight as I stitch. I also made sure I worked from the right side to the left side in rows. When you are doing crewel, you rarely stitch like this but I varied the length of my stem stitches and tried to make them tightly packed.

I like how they look. I've continued around the outside with my basketweave and will tackle the leaves when I can.
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Teapot Background in Tent

The weather over the long holiday weekend has been lousy (hot, humid, overcast, thunderstorms) so between washing windows and other household chores that need doing I worked on the body of the teapot and started the background. Note that the empty area between the wisteria vine handle and the body of the teapot has been totally stitched. I decided to fill that area rather than trying to cut it out when this is made up. That is much easier!

I have started doing three rows of basketweave around the perimeter of the design. That's because I've been reading Judy Harper's blog where she talks about surrounding ornaments with tent stitches for easy finishing. You can read her comments here, in date order.
http://fairy-crafts.blogspot.com/2009/05/basketweave-background-for-shaped.html

http://fairy-crafts.blogspot.com/2009/05/more-shaped-basketweave-background.html

http://fairy-crafts.blogspot.com/2009/05/amoeba-with-background-needlepoint.html

How did I decide to use white for the background area? That color is part of the design but not part of the outside edge so it will set off the design. I did consider pale yellow as I thought that would make the purple wisteria flowers and the blue teapot itself pop out visually, but in the end I went for simplicity as my mother collects blue and white china. She would prefer the colors be blue and white with purple touches instead of blue, white, purple and yellow.

I found three Melissa Shirley teapots for sale on at this eBay shop. You can see why I think my wisteria teapot came from her. The black one with pink flowers and leaves has a very similar spout, although all three teapots are smaller than mine.
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/dogwoodfan__W0QQ_armrsZ1

By the way, I worked with these threads in this order:

First, the white band around the middle of the pot (Gloriana Winter White 190 edged with Crescent Colours' Belle Soie silk in Violet Water).

Secondly, the blue diamond shapes inside the latticework (mostly in Crescent Colours' Babbling Brook, cutting out the right shade of blue for the area, with some solid blue Splendor silk in S860 for the very lightest blue diamonds).

The purple shading around the white band (Belle Soie silk Violet Water again).

The blue body of the teapot, working from left to right in the lightest blue, then the medium blue and finally the dark blue. (light blue is Splendor S860, medium blue Splendor S914 and dark blue is Kreinik's Silk Mori #5013).

I've started testing packed stem stitch for the brown wisteria vine on the handle. I plan to use Mandarin Floss (a six ply floss made of bamboo) in dark brown M830 and medium light brown M886. The stitching you see is three plies but I think two might work better. I will pull this out and restitch next. I want the wisteria vine stem finished before I do the white latticework.

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

My Wisteria Teapot

What you see on the right is my next project, a teapot with a wisteria and white latticework pattern. This is a really cheap eBay find which I got for something like $5 including shipping because the canvas itself is flawed. I think the designer is Melissa Shirley and so did the eBay seller, but the canvas doesn't have MS on it like most of hers do. It is marked 290 C with another line of letters that are illegible. It resembles other Melissa Shirley small teapots so I think she is the designer.

This piece is about 3 inches high and about 4 inches wide at the widest point. It is on 18 count canvas. Look carefully at the right side of the teapot between the handle and the wisteria stems on the body of the teapot. See the flaw? There's another gray line at the base of the wisteria stem near the bottom of the teapot. I got this at a very good price because of the flaws. When you think about buying damaged canvases like this, consider how bad the damage is and whether it will hinder your stitching first. Because the line of gray is a vertical or horizontal line, it is easy to tell what is supposed to be there. I'll stitch right over it without any problem.

When buying a painted canvas, the first thing to do is analyze exactly what you've got and make a color copy of it. I have my color copy made, so let's list what we have here:

First, this canvas is ornament-sized, which is perfect as I intend it as a birthday present for my mother who loves teapots and flowers. It will be a quick stitch and fairly easy for me to make up myself in time for her birthday celebration.

Secondly, the motifs are the wisteria flowers and vine, the latticework, the leaves and the teapot shape itself with the rounded corners and the fat little spout. I need to emphasize those things and de-emphasize the body of the teapot itself. Since I intend to use silk ribbon embroidery for the wisteria flowers, they will be last. Everything else will be stitched first and I'll test the right size and colors of ribbon and the stitches I might use for the wisteria blooms while I work on other parts of the canvas. Since I want the blue teapot body to recede, I will tent stitch it. So that's my first step, more endless basketweave, after I choose threads, of course!

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

Fake Bullions for the Faint-of-Heart UPDATED

E-Rose wrote bullions scared her but not to worry! David McCaskill taught us on the ANG list how to make fake bullions and kindly gave me permission to teach anyone and everyone the technique. He discovered how to do it by accident when he messed up stitching something with perle thread and because he is a thread genius, he immediately saw the possibilities and perfected the technique.

To do it, you must have a perle-type thread. This doesn't work with any other kind of thread. I recommend you use a 3-4 inch length of thread and a needle with a larger eye than you'd normally use with this thread (although you shouldn't use a needle with an eye too fat for your NP canvas or other ground fabric). If you look at the loose thread with the knot below the example of a fake bullion, you'll see that I choose Trebizond, a silk perle. The end without a knot is already begining to untwist a little as that's how perle threads are made--they are twisted single threads. This characteristic is what David exploited in making fake bullions.

Secure your thread, then come up as usual. Slide your needle off the end of the thread and put it away safely temporarily--you'll need it again in a second. Grab the loose end of your thread and untwist the perle a bit so that you see all the component parts. (The loose length of thread on the canvas below the bullion shows you what perles look like.) Grab one of the pieces in one hand and all the rest in the other. Hold the single twist steady with one hand and slide all the other twists down toward the ground fabric or NP canvas. Let go. You'll have a bullion with a very messy top as you see above. Gently thread up all the loose ends again being careful to not disturb the bullion and secure the bullion on the back side.

There are drawbacks to fake bullions--you can only do one at a time and I personally find they are less controlled than the regular wrapped bullions. If I have only one bullion to do, and I'm not trying to carefully place it to mimic a finger or something else that needs to go one way and one way only, then I use fake bullions. Holi the colorful Tudor Dog had a fake bullion flower in her halo, for example, but I used the normal bullion knots to make the paw ridges in the Golden Rabbit as they had to be precise sizes and had to bend a certain way. You have to wrap a bullion to get that exactness.

Many, many thanks to David McCaskill for generously sharing this technique! David knows much more and you can see the terrific designs he works out on his website. Clicking on the waving flag on his home page takes you to a free flag design. Most of David's work is on line drawn canvas. Head to the Design section and choose Christmas, then look at his Millennium Ornaments bowl. He made the bowl transparent and used the ugliest thread in existance (in my opinion) to make those red sparkling ornaments. This is just one example of how fine a designer David is and how much he knows about threads.
https://www.needlepointdavid.com

By the way, I found another great tutorial on how to make traditional bullions here. You might enjoy looking and comparing how bullions and fake bullions work.
http://www.heritageshoppe.com/heritage/stitches/bullion.html

UPDATE: Belle found us a link to Mary Corbet's videos of how to make stitches. Bullion Knots are under the Detatched Stitches & Knots section. Thanks, Belle!
http://www.needlenthread.com/2006/10/video-library-of-hand-embroidery.html

Feel better, e-Rose?

UPDATE #2:  I redid the above tutorial with better pictures.

https://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2016/04/faux-bullions-david-way.html

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

Gone But Not Forgotten--Ray Dockstader UPDATED

On Memorial Day I learned that the stitchers in the D.C. area have lost one of their most famous and interesting stitchers--Raymond Dockstader. That's Ray above in a photo taken from the Washington Post, with a piece of his needlepoint and one of his many ribbons. He specialized in small 3x3 inch squares of needlepoint, with many motifs done in tent stitches, which were later assembled in groups and framed. I've seen a lot of his work exhibited at Woodlawn over the years, all of it wonderful, but I didn't mention all of it in my reports to you. Ray's work was hard to describe as it was original and personal. Sometimes I think you had to be present to study the pieces to grasp their artistic impulse. Ray had two small framed groups on display last March that I didn't describe. I wish I'd taken better notes so I could do that now. You'll have to be content with a quotation from the 2006 Woodlawn Plantation exhibit about Ray's work and my very favorite piece of his stitching, the parrot in a window. This is what I wrote then.

There were also many male stitchers who sent in cross stitch and needlepoint, plus a gentleman was demonstrating Hardanger when I was there. I am glad needlework is being done by both sexes these days. In fact, the winner of my annual "I'd Take This Home If I Could" award was stitched by a man. My favorite was one of four original pieces Ray Dockstader submitted (he showed several original pieces last year, too). This particular piece was the size of a piece of typing paper. It showed a yellow stucco wall with a few bricks peaking through crumbling stucco. There was a window cut in the wall with a black wrought iron balcony. Inside the window the walls were bright red and there was a parrot sitting on the wrought iron framed against the red wall. His pink head was cocked and he had an orange and yellow body, green wings and a blue tail. The whole piece was saturated in color, with touches of green elephant ear-type leaves and other lush green plants outside against the yellow stucco wall. Very nice piece, very different. The bright yellows and reds aren't my usual favorite colors but I thought it a very charming piece full of personality. He did three other pieces, all original, all probably in tent stitches (although I wasn't able to study two of his pieces closely). The largest was sort of a fabric collage in deep burgundy red with various fabric motifs scattered around. Another, also with a deep reddish brown as the main color, was a sort of abstract quilt pattern based on diamond shapes. It had other colors (navy, brown, yellow) but red was the main color. The last piece was another fabric-type collage and it won 1st place in its group. It was his version of a sampler with a marching line of terrier silhouettes on the bottom, a Bird of Paradise, flowers, strawberries, daisies, pears and a nude all scattered here and there. [I think this is the piece in the photo above, by the way.] It reminded me of a crazy quilt but without the fancy embroidery around the pieces making up the crazy quilt. Interesting work and nicely stitched but none of the pieces had the charm or design magic of the parrot in the window. Somehow there is always a piece that has personal appeal beyond its technical merit.

I hope the above brings some of Raymond Dockstader alive for you. I never met the man but I will miss him.  I loved that parrot!

Here is his obit in the Washington Post. If the Post asks you to sign up to read it, please do. You simply give them your email address and create a password. I've never gotten spam from the Post and you will want to read about Ray's amazing life and what he did when he wasn't stitching
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/23/AR2009052301737.html?sub=AR

More about his other interests.
http://www.umt.edu/urelations/MainHall/0104/cookbooks.htm

His online memory book.
http://www.legacy.com/gb2/thankyou.aspx?bookid=2577107365744

UPDATE:  A memorial written by a friend.
http://maggiebsmocks.typepad.com/smocking/2009/10/sharing-the-needlepoint-of-raymond-dockstader.html

UPDATE #2:  Maggie Bunch, who wrote the memorial above, owns several of Ray's pieces and is allowing me to post photographs of them here.  First, here are several 3 1/2 inch square paperweights.  Ray worked these as doodles, creating whatever was on his mind through his hands.  Maggie was fortunate enough to be invited to his estate sale where she purchased these.

She says she doesn't know what they are filled with (walnut shells?) but it is larger and heavier than rice.

Maggie says to notice the subtle color changes in the purple edge at the corners and in the middle.  Each piece has touches like this.

Maggie had this doodle sampler which shows off his through processes framed by Total Framing in Fairfax, VA with one of Ray's needles still parked.

His estate donated a few pieces to Woodlawn Plantation and they part of Woodlawn's 50th Silent Auction.  Maggie was lucky enough to be one of the winners.

These two photos  (above and below) are images of a Navajo style rug.  It is 15 1/2 by 23 1/2 and was blocked and framed by Total Framing.

Maggie says she knows the orb is from her camera flash but she likes to think that it is actually Mr. D. smiling down at us.

Thank you for the wonderful needle art you shared, Ray.

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

Bullions

When I posted about the Golden Rabbit's bullion stitch paw, Mickstitch wrote this comment on Blogspot, "I love your bullions! Any tips on how to get them to lay flat? I've been practicing them for one of my current projects, but I always get an extra strand underneath that twists the bullion. Any suggestions?"

I thought perhaps Mickstitch wasn't pulling the tail of the loose end of thread tightly enough, or perhaps wasn't holding the wraps tightly enough to keep one from unraveling into that extra strand underneath. It's not possible to diagnose a problem without seeing the problem stitch but here are two websites with good instructions for making bullions.

The first is SharonB's site. She has a whole series of stitches here, all with clear instructions. Note that she is making a small bullion. When you are learning, just do a few wraps. A 20 wrap bullion is a lot harder to do than a 5 wrap. Wait until you understand the stitch before running wild, ok?
http://inaminuteago.com/stitchdict/stitch/Bullion.html

This site is by Carol of Stitchin Time. I think she is a counted thread and XS designer, although I'm not certain. Look carefully at the needle she uses to explain how to make a bullion. It is longer and thinner than the one SharonB used for a reason. Bullions are made by wrapping thread around a needle, then sliding the needle through the wraps. Using a needle with a narrower eye than tapestry needles means you don't have so much trouble sliding the needle through the middle of the stitches. A lot of folks use millinery or crewel needles for bullions since they have narrower eyes. That's my first tip--use a needle with a skinny eye! They will have sharp tips, though, so be careful. By the way, MickStitch, perhaps your bullions are curving because you did too many wraps for the area you want to cover? Carol is curving her bullions because she is making roses from them.
http://www.needlework-tips-and-techniques.com/bullion-stitch.html

Another tip I've heard--as you pull the needle through the wraps you've made, think of this little rhyme. "Pull his tail, tickle his tummy." Pull the needle through the wraps, and continue to pull on the thread to snug the bullion down on the ground fabric. Don't rush this and use the tip of the needle to gently stroke the underside of the bullion so it lies smoothly. Bullions actually are about practicing until you get the tension right. You have to wrap the thread around your needle tightly but not too tightly, then hold the wraps steady with one hand as you pull the needle through the wraps with the other. This takes practice.

Gay Ann Rogers is called the Queen of Bullions by her students. Want to know why? Check this out!
http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Bullion_Knots.html

Gay Ann says if you practice bullions ten minutes a day for ten days, you will own this stitch. I recommend you try it! You won't "get" this stitch immediately but you will eventually and it will become second nature.

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

Golden Rabbit Finished

While the computer was in the shop, I finished the basketweaved background around Kandace Merric's Georgian Rabbit, the last of the six pet guardian angels that I'm stitching to add to a group of these ornaments that will be auctioned next fall at ANG's Seminar to raise money for ANG programs. You see the Golden Rabbit above. Note that her halo is surrounded by three gold Mill Hill beads topped by a pale copper Toho bead for contrast.

Below you see the Golden Rabbit with the final touch added--a Mill Hill "Glass Treasure" which is a glass charm that has a hole in the top leg of the star. I simply sewed it on with a few passes of a ply of cream silk through the ecru background stitches. I like this final touch and feel lucky I noticed the star at Scarlet Thread during my stopover there on the way to the computer repair place. Thanks, Sara Leigh! Hope you all like how she turned out.


The next step is to finish all the ornaments and write up instructions so that the other folks stitching angels have something to use to finish their ornaments themselves. I plan to post step by step instructions here and then send a more coherent and polished set of instructions to the participants in this stitch-along. Whether you stitched an angel or not, I hope you find the instructions helpful. I'm going to start working on them this holiday weekend.

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

Golden Rabbit Without Makeup, With Beads

In between sessions of backetweave marathoning, I removed the black thread outlining the Golden Rabbit's eye and replaced it with a dark brown bullion in the same DMC cotton floss as her face. I decided the black was too harsh. The bullion is made of three plies of the floss and it is couched in the middle to bend it to arch over her eye. What do you think?

I also added three bullions to her paw to give it dimension. These are in the same thread and same number of plies as the eye bullion, but I started with the longest bullion on the right and did around 20 wraps, the middle bullion only had 15 wraps and the short bullion on the left only 12. I tried to do "fingers" to give depth to the area, inspired by Joan Thomasson and Amy Bunger.

I first saw this technique on Joan Thomasson's Nativity figures. Here are her Three Kings. The hands clearly have bullion fingers.
http://needlepointnow.com/back_issues/2003/2003_11/2003_11_cover.html

Amy Bunger does the same thing in her stitching class on the Kelly Clark Nativity. Look at Joseph's hands.
http://www.amybunger.com/albums/album_image/6366238/4533002.htm

One needs to practice bullions and they are easier to do with a one stranded thread, but I think the bullions I added look good. What do you think? Will you consider doing this on one of your next pieces?

The other thing I've done is scatter beads above the halo. This is a test to see how many and which color looks best, or even if I should do this at all. Starting at the rabbit's nose and arcing upward, you see two of the pale copper Toho beads, then a single gold Mill Hill Petite bead, then a cluster of three gold Mill Hill beads, and finally a single pale copper Toho bead. I think a mix of both types might work but I've run out of time to test that. What do you think?

The reason I've run out of time is that I have to take the laptop in for repair today and I don't know when it will be ready. Apple won't even tell me if they have the repair parts in stock (that's "propriatary" information? !?!??!!). Anyway, I won't be blogging for 2-3 days until the computer comes back but I'll work on the basketweave and once that is done, I'll decide about whether beads above the halo look good or not.

Y'all behave while I'm gone!

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

Scarlet Thread Threads

I picked up a few threads to use with my new canvas yesterday since shopping without buying threads for me is like taking a shower without using soap. Us threadaholics must have the threads!

Clockwise starting from the top left you'll see another skein of the lovely Gloriana Silk I am using for the Golden Rabbit. I love the Old Lacquer color and since I've used most of the skein I originally bought, I replaced it with another.

The next thread in the plastic cover is a spool of Gilt Sylke Twist in a similar gold color called Isabella. This is the new filiment silk wrapped in gold metallic that Access Commodities distributes in the U.S. I can't wait to stitch with this. Although it looks rather muted in the spool, I think this will be the perfect thread for the yellow labs in my Cape Cod Dogs canvas. On the back of the package is says to use a #24 chenille needle (or a #24 tapestry needle in a pinch) for this thread and that once you thread up, a twist of the thread tail will keep it from coming out of the eye. I'll let you know how this stitches up. I almost bought more of this as Scarlet Thread is the only shop in the area carrying it but at almost $20 a spool, I am too cheap to spend the money.

The last thread on the top row is a card of On the Surface's New Metallics. This is a thin wire-like thread in 2 plies (again, only Scarlet Thread carries this in our area) that is easy to work with and which does great metallic effects. I bought the color Matte Gold, a golden brown, thinking that one dog might be darker than the other. It also is a close match to the wooden bar color, so perhaps I'll use it there. I have a card of the pearl white and a card of a dark gray that I've used for angel wings and a wire metal chair. It's a great choice for special touches. On the Surface threads can be found in quilt shops. A friend send me a nice spool of the white from her favorite quilting shop in the NorthWest, so check at your local quilter's hangout to see if they carry it in larger sizes than this little card.

Continuing clockwise, we come to the lovely deep red #414 Rubasse spool of Bijoux, which is also from Access Commodities. Bijoux is thinner than even one ply of New Metallics. I thought it would be perfect doubled or trippled in my needle to stitch the red lettering of the border of Cape Cod Dogs. Other shops in my area carry Bijoux, but few have such a large range of colors as Scarlet Thread.

My final purchase is the pretty blue silk of Belle Soie, a 12 ply silk from Crescent Colours, which started out as an overdyed cotton floss dyer. They have moved into silks. The counted thread place that moved to WVA introduced me to this thread. I'm not wild about all the colors but when I like one, I really like it. I have a gorgeous pale lavender, a beautiful carrot color and a lovely pink in my stash already. Now that the counted thread place has moved away, I can't get this thread anywhere in the area except at Scarlet Thread.

I am really going to miss this place.

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

Cape Cod Dogs UPDATED

Cape Cod Dogs
They Don't Chase Cars
They Like to Pick Up
Girls in Bars

LOL! My husband lived in and around Boston for many years and loved it. I bought this canvas to stitch for him (he's also a dog lover) yesterday in what was probably my last trip to The Scarlet Thread, which is closing this summer. Sara Leigh the owner had it put aside for me, wicked girl! I am not sure who the distributor is (my best guess is Needlepoint of Back Bay as it has the initials NOBB on it) but the artist is Elizabeth Mumford. She licenses some of her paintings for NP. You can see prints on her website link below. Since I can't find any mention of which canvases are on NP, I can't tell you if any of these other charmers are available to stitch but Cape Cod Dogs is numbered EM-20 so I bet there are more. Just don't know which ones.

UPDATE:  Needlepoint of Back Bay has updated their website with several Elizabeth Mumford designs listed as available.
http://www.needlepointofbackbay.com/product_pages/Elizabeth-Mumford.htm

 Note that the NP version of Cape Cod Dogs doesn't have the big ship in the background window, probably the ferry over to Nantucket or perhaps Martha's Vineyard. My canvas is on 18 count mono and the design is around 8 inches square. There's not much room for the ship, although I might try to add it myself. It's a nice touch.
http://www.elizabethmumford.com/portfolio_open.shtml

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

Everyone Has Finished Stuff But Me

If you don't follow other blogs regularly, you might not realize some projects we watched being stitched are back from the finisher. They are all spectacular! Remember the kids in their costumes marching off to trick and treat? This is by Tapestry Tent (distributed by Susan Roberts) and it is wonderful as a pillow!
http://bristlythistle.blogspot.com/2009/04/halloween-march-needlepoint-back-from.html

All four of Madonna's Sundance Southwestern pieces are back from the framer. Aren't they wonderful as a set?
http://frontrangestitches.blogspot.com/2009/05/these-just-in_14.html

Anne Stradal's version of her dad's black and white sketch is framed. Look how well she handles shading, light and shadow in just black and white threads!
http://thecapestitcher.blogspot.com/2009/05/framed.html

Terry Dryden has finished her class model for Mediterranean Squares with a three stitch border that is the perfect finishing touch.
http://www.terrydryden.com/-blog/2009/5/19/mediterranean-squares-finished.html

I need to get busy and finish the last Pet Guardian Angel so I can put them all together and show off my own finished pieces!
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Beads and Eye Liner

Last night I managed to add the little gold Mill Hill Petite beads to the centers of the flower stitches on the trim on the Golden Rabbit's skirts. I discovered the pale copper beads just disappeared but the gold ones are a bit more visible against the ivory and golden trim stitches. I hope you can see them in the photo. I didn't have trouble getting them to stay in place but they are smaller than the pale copper Toho beads. Those might have misbehaved, as beads do. Odette had trouble with beads when she tried the same thing. Guess the size is what is important here. Smaller beads are less wiggly. Sort of. I still had one bead jump out of the box and escape into my recliner somewhere! Do NOT trust beads. They are escape artists!

i also added a bit of black thread to highlight her eye. Then it was back to the Basketweave Marathon. Lots to do there still! Once I get more background done I'll take beads down around the halo and you can help me decide whether I need beads there or not.

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

Golden Rabbit's Halo

Yesterday it was cool and rainy and windy and I was sick of housework so I couched a halo for the Golden Rabbit using a long strand of my Kreinik copper/gold 002V color. Traditional couching is pairs of metallic thread but I always have more luck couching one thread in such a small space. The halo itself is around an inch long and almost half an inch wide. It is tied down with two strands of gold Accentuate. I worked from the outside in and was very careful to keep the thread from twisting so it would lie smoothly on the NP canvas. After I had everything couched, I started on the background again to help me decide it the halo looks good. It is a bit offset due to the rabbit ears, but I think I like it. What do you think? I am considering adding beads around the outside but that needs to wait until all the background of this area is finished.

I finished all the trims on the skirts except for the final touch of beads. I'm debating whether to use the little gold beads, the larger pale copper beads, or to do French knots in my ivory Silk Lame Braid in the center of the flower shapes. Stay tuned! I'll work on background while I ponder it all. Sometimes it takes a while to visualize the possibilities and see if you can come up with any other ideas, then do a little test stitching.

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

A History Lesson (or Two)

I've noticed a lot of articles on the WWW about historical embroidery recently, enough to gather together here for you to browse if how our spiritual stitching ancestors worked interests you. First of all, ever wonder how sequins are made? The folks stitching the reproduction 17th Century embroidered jacket have photos of the raw materials that make up the spangles they are going to attach to their piece.
http://thistle-threads.com.mytempweb.com/blog/index.php/2009/05/making-spangles/

And they say that the silk purl that is being reproduced for the project may be available commercially. Another thread-hurrah! I'm sure those who like reproduction embroidery are thrilled but I must say the variety of new threads available makes me drool, too. We really are lucky that the interest in hand embroidery is strong enough to make new threads available to us.
http://thistle-threads.com.mytempweb.com/blog/index.php/2009/04/silk-purl-another-ripple/

As you know, I live in an area where there is a lot of interest in samplers, either modern takes or historical reproductions. I am starting to understand that stitching samplers is a kind of time machine, taking the stitcher back in time to another era and way of thinking, stitching and living. You can see some of this appeal in an article by Needleprints, an English sampler design company, describing a visit to some of the areas where samplers have originated.
http://needleprint.blogspot.com/2009/05/in-1847-sarah-pugmire-finished-her.html

Do you love Japanese Embroidery? Have you always been puzzled by the flowering trees depicted in Asian embroidery? Which is a cherry tree? Which is a flowering plum? What do these images mean? Then you will want to read Coral-Seas' explanation on her blog. Look for21 April to read about Cherry Blossoms and 9 April to read about Plum Blossoms.
http://japanese-embroidery.blogspot.com/

To jump to still another era, this Dutch museum has a display of embroidered slippers from the late medieval period. It is an amazing browse, even if I can't read Dutch.
http://m-silkwork.blogspot.com/2009/04/embroidery-at-rijksmuseum.html

I hope you enjoy learning about our past as much as I do.

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

Floral Trim for The Rabbit

Last night I added a bit more basketweave around the Golden Rabbit's wings, then started on the two trims at the edges of her over- and underskirts. Four colors are used n the original design but I decided to use the copper Kreinik for two of them. The ivory Silk Lame Braid is what I used for the flower shapes made of tent and reversed tent stitches. I have no idea what I'll do next but probably it'll involve more basketweave marathon while I think about it. Beads go in the center of the ivory flowers but I might use the little gold beads in her necklace instead of the larger pale copper beads. I don't want to cover up the flowers with a big fat bead in the middle.

Stay tuned.....

In other news, Stitch Niche is posting photos of new canvases daily as they arrive from their Dallas show orders. You can see them here. The second link is their shop newsletter, full of photos of projects finished and underway as usual.
http://www.needlepointyaya.com/website/new/may/mayindex.htm

http://www.needlepointyaya.com/newsletter/may/maynews.htm

Needle Works in Austin is also posting new items. I was particularly interested in SharonG's new half nature/half meditation pieces and in the bird stockings from Share One's Ideas. To see everything from these two designers, click on their name in the left hand column. Don't miss SharonG's Twin Beaks. The pun makes me laugh and the abstract birds would be fabulous stitched in silks and metallic fancy stitches.
Somebody call Marnie Ritter--have I got a painted canvas for her!
http://www.theneedleworks.com/catalog/

In designer news, Lani's updated her website. It's not quite done but you'll enjoy seeing the lovely slide show of finished pieces and the bare naked painted canvases are a treat!
http://www.lanienterprises.com/indexa.html

My final posting is really special. You may know that Kimberly Crum (now Kim Smith) has stopped created charts. I think her pieces are fabulous so I was really sorry when all the work got to be more than she wanted to take on. But we can take heart that occasionally, very occasionally, she creates painted canvases. The newest one is up on her blog. I don't know the size, cost, if a stitch guide comes with it, or any of the details, but the design itself is vintage Kimberly--floral and rthymic and nature in motion. Lovely! I was especially charmed by the large leaf and how the background is denser at the top and then fades towards the bottom. Thank heavens Kimberly gets inspired occasionally!
http://akimberlydesign.blogspot.com/2009/05/swooosh.html

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

Bunny Wings

As you can see, I completely abandoned the basketweave background marathon last night and concentrated on stitching the Golden Rabbit's wings. The white thread is my ivory and gold Silk Lame Braid, while the golden thread is the Lorikeet wool. I used only two plies of the wool here so as not to completely hide the Silk Lame Braid. Once the rows of stitches were in place, I filled in the empty spots betwen stitches with my pale copper beads from Toho. It took a while to stitch everything and I'm not 100% sure that the edges are compensated properly, but today I'll fill in the background around the wings and figure out if there are places that need padding out where they meet my DMC ecru perle background stitches.

I also gave the rabbit a necklace of little gold Mill Hill Petite beads. The pale copper beads didn't look good against the brown of her neck fur, so I went with gold.

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

News in CH and Elsewhere

When either Needle Pointers or Needlepoint Now arrive in my mailbox, I study the issue cover to cover. I love all the articles (Hey! The Spinister Stitcher is writing for NP Now! I hoped they bribed her with champagne--Coni's definitely a champagne kind of gal.) and I read each ad, too. Gives me plenty to talk to you about.

First up, new monthly clubs! Choice is good, right? Chandail has a new Kelly Clark club--Christmas alphabet blocks. I wish the finished photo was better but the idea is fabulous.
http://www.chandailneedlework.com/series/MerryChristmasBlocks.php

Needle and Thread of Tomball has a darling little scissor fob of the month club. If you want to do something small, this is the monthly club for you.
http://www.needleandthreadoftomball.com/jm/

Pocket Full of Stitches has gone Kelly Clark with a lovely Thanksgiving set called The First Harvest. Details and the canvases are here.
http://www.pfos.com/KellyClark_TheFirstHarvest1.HTM

Stitch and Frame has a Cross a Month series to stitch and display. They also have a Fleur de Lis series for those who love French pattern. The Cajun Twelve Months of Christmas series is also on this page. Fun! I think all the designs are from Jude Designs (second link), but I can't be sure. Nice job, whoever the designer is.
http://www.stitchandframelafayette.com/Needlepoint_by_Category/Category/Monthly_Series_Sets.htm

http://www.spicyneedlepoint.com/index.htm

What's the Point has the last new club, a series of Kathy Schenkel Santas. Sadly, their monthly club page hasn't been updated with photos yet, but it shouldn't be long as this club starts in July.
http://www.whatsthepoint.biz/clubs.php

I discovered that Sign of the Arrow has yearly limited edition ornaments. 2009 isn't up yet but if you are a fan of this famous shop that donates a huge portion of their profits to charity, you'll enjoy seeing the little designs that come with a stitch guide and threads. These appear to be on plain canvas so you either will follow a chart or transfer an outline to the canvas.
http://www.signofthearrow.com/shopping/category.php?category=4

Ok, everyone go get a beverage, then settle down with your monthly club design and we'll watch Debbie get her cat design worked up. Coni, pass the champagne bottle, please.

Oh, the news from CH is that the white irises are blooming.

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

Wings for Liz

The endless basketweave marathon continued last night but I did make a start on the Golden Rabbit's wings. Here you go, Liz! You've been asking what I planned to do. This time I didn't really plan, I just browsed through "Sundance Beads for Needlepoint: How To & Why Knot." The booklet has 25 unnamed stitches in the back that the Sundance folks like using when beading. The diagonal flow appealed to me and I thought the stitch would look nice with the ones I used on the pet guardian angel's robe. I didn't plan to alternate my ivory Silk Lame Braid with my overdyed golden Gloriana silk floss. It just happened as I was studying the stitch diagram and deciding which areas were more prominant and where the beads would go. Angel wings are usually white and the ivory mixed with gold was the closest I have to white in my color scheme. The pale copper beads will sit in the unstitched holes once the rows of stitches are laid out.

I still have a lot of background to do. I'll work on that tonight for a while and then switch to filling in more wing area.

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

Influences, with Thanks

When I am running a background marathon, my mind often starts to wander. Last night I started to think about Jean Hilton's death, all the wonderful comments people posted to the ANG email list thanking her after she was gone, and the lady who wrote we should thank the folks who have made our needlepoint better, more fun, more skilled, more creative or just more MORE.

I should do that. But who do I thank? There are hundreds of stitchers who have influenced me via the Internet, especially ANG's email list. There are designers who have inspired me, books that have given me endless ideas, fellow stitchers who encourage and instruct me. How do I make a list? Ok, here goes--

The Internet has made a huge difference in my needlepoint life. I especially want to thank the folks on the ANG email list who pose questions, answers, and links and have eased my lonely stitching life no end. I also want to thank my fellow bloggers who are always interesting and who make the NP Blog-o-sphere of the last 3-4 years such a fun place.

When it comes to books, I have to thank TNNA whose little How to Needlepoint booklet opened the door to endless pleasure; Kaffe Fassett, the master of color, whose Glorious Needlepoint showed me what NP could be; Jo I. Christensen, who wrote the Needlepoint Bible I use almost weekly; and finally Brenda Hart, whose stitch dictionaries are always inspiring.

I want to thank Marnie Ritter, whose incredible plate designs in the old Needlepoint News and Needlepoint Plus magazine are as beautiful and relevant today as they were when published twenty years ago. She is still publishing gorgeous things in Needlepoint Now, using a multitude of threads and stitches she has created out of thin air. I can't tell her how much I love her work!

I want to thank three painted canvas designers who do the realistic, shaded pieces I so admire--Leigh, Mindy and SharonG. Your gorgeous designs make my fingers itch to stitch and my brain goes into overdrive, trying to come up with something that will add a new dimension to your works of art. Thank you all, and thank you for your willingness to share personal help, advice and stitching tidbits. These are really exceptional women, not just exceptional designers.

And finally, I want to thank the late Nina Goerres, who got me started writing about needlepoint on a regular basis, and blog readers, who keep me going because you keep coming back here.

The iris above is from my garden. It is a meagre thank you for all you've done for me. Now, who do you want to thank? Act now, while they can still hear your gratitude....

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

The Basketweave Marathon Continues

Last night I stitched more of the endless background about the Golden Rabbit pet guardian angel. How such a small piece (she's roughly 5 1/2 inches long and 5 inches high) could have so much background puzzles me, but there it is--a new law of stitching. The background takes forever, no matter how large/small the piece. No wonder I like stitching on silk gauze--traditionally the background is not stitched. You have to love that!

I didn't scan a photo this morning since nothing much has changed and I'm running low on printer ink but I do have many treats for you other places. First of all, the May-June Needlepoint Now has arrived and there's an article on blogging! I haven't read it yet but I did look at the list and found many of my favorites plus 1-2 I don't recognize. A little browsing is in order, don't you think? You can start with the magazine's very own new blog! A peek into magazine publishing should be very interesting.
http://nneditor.wordpress.com/

Madonna's Gossiping Geishas design is back from the framer's. Look at her May 12 blog entries. The first photo you see is the model from Pat and Lee Designs (there is a stitch guide available, see second link below) and the second photo is Madonna's version which has a gray cat instead of two white ones. I had a lovely time comparing these two stitched versions of the same charming design. Pat and Lee designs are unique in that you can get a chart, or have the design put on 18 count or on 13 count. I think the canvases are silk screened [No, I am wrong, the canvases are painted on interlock canvas per Madonna. Thanks for the correction, Madonna!] but the quality is very good from what Madonna says. Her version was on interlock canvas but regular mono is also available at a higher price.
http://frontrangestitches.blogspot.com/

http://www.pattandleedesigns.com/stitch_guides

Speaking of finished projects, you'll enjoy seeing all the customer pieces posted on Needle Works' blog. There's a bonus interview with Colleen, the shop's owner, as well.
http://theneedleworks.typepad.com/the_needle_works/2009/05/projects-finished.html

I'll end with Denise & Linda's blog (The Stitching Sisters) which is full of photos of small pieces they've finished. The little nutcracker is cute. You can't see his teeth much either, so I like him. Nutcracker canvases with their teeth often give me the willies! In honor of Denise's nutcracker, the canvas of the day is another nutcracker, one that is marching around the Christmas tree.
http://nystitchingsisters.blogspot.com/

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

Picking Flower Colors, Adding Fur

As you can see, I haven't worked any more on the skirt trims for Miss Honeybunny (honey=golden, does it make sense now?). Instead I stitched her paw and most of her face. I still have the eye and nose to do but these areas are essentially done. I just happened to have two skeins of DMC cotton floss not put away yet that were a perfect match for the golden gown the Golden Rabbit wears. (The dark brown is #610 and the lighter tan is #612).

You might think that I switched to the face and paw because I was tired and basketweaving these areas was an easy way to show progress. That's only part of the story. The real reason I wanted to stitch the fur was the floral trim on her over- and under-skirts.

The over-skirt trim is a floral pattern that is 6 stitches wide, while the under-skirt trim is a floral pattern 4 stitches wide. The outside edge of both trims in the original instructions is gold Kreinik braid. I have stitched this already for both trims. But moving to the next step was a problem for me. The floral trims both have French knot centers for the flower shapes. I can use my pale copper beads there. But what about the flower-shaped stitches (yellow in the original model), the tent and reverse tent sttiches that are supposed to be leaves (green in the original model), and the accent stitches (straight and large cross stitches) which are violet in the original. I have limited myself to overdyed gold and light gold colors, so I needed to introduce more colors that would work with gold. I decided that the brown and tan on the rabbit's face might do for some of the trim colors, but to know for sure, I thought I needed to stitch the face. So I did!

Every part of a canvas effects every other part, doesn't it?

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

Odette's Georgian Rabbit with Butterflies

I have another completed pet guardian angel to show off. Above you see Odette's Georgian Rabbit who has the special added touch of butterflies. Clever! The lavenders in the original model plus the flower shaped trim makes this a spring-themed pet guardian angel, so butterflies fit perfectly in the spring color theme. The rabbit's face is knitting wool and she wears cotton and rayon fibers for her gown with touches of metallic. I think she is lovely, so here's her picture instead of a photo of my rabbit who got more basketweave last night. Each angel has looked slightly different as folks changed colors or threads and added their own special touches. I am so pleased with how these are turning out!

In other news, Fireside Stitchery has a virtual trunk show up of Mindy's designs. Mindy is one of my favorite designers. She also has a retail shop with a huge selection of buttons and trims, which explains the tassels, buttons and charms she adds to her canvases. Being so busy, Mindy's website isn't updated with new things more than a few times a year so trunk shows are the best place to see what she's been up to. I didn't realize she had little 2x2 inch designs, for example, and hadn't see all the purse-shaped canvases she has created. The colors are a bit light in the trunk show (they are rich and glowing in person) but you can still see how beautiful these are.

The trunk show is in four sections: pillows/pictures, purses, standup trees, and stockings. It looks like the jester stockings come with beaded balls for trim. Interesting touch! Navigate by selection one section to view, then click Next until there are no more pages. After that, click on Virtual Trunk Show-Mindy in the left column to return to the main page to choose another of the four sections. Have fun browsing!
http://www.firesidestitchery.com/fs/HandPaintedCanvas/index.cfm?fuseaction=GETVirtualTrunkShows&saleId=23&saleTypeId=1

Now I'm off to stare at Odette's butterflies again. They fascinate me!

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

The Art Nouveau (20th Century) Pet Guardian Angel

The six Household Pet Guardian angel ornaments Kandace Merric designed in the early 1990s all wear costumes from various centuries. There's the Medieval Cat, the Renaissance Rat, the Tudor Dog, the Georgian Rabbit, the Baroque Fish and the Victorian Parakeet. The colors and stitches Kandy selected are typical for each period. I've deviated quite a bit on some angels (Holi is not Tudor, she is a mix of Hindu and Mexican cultures) but the original guardian angels all are solidly grounded in historical costume and color. What you see above is the new 20th Century pet guardian angel-- the Art Nouveau Suger Glider.

When I wrote asking permission to use the pet guardian angels for the ANG Auction, Kandy immediately volunteered to stitch two new angels for the set. What you see above (minus the background) is the first of the two new angels. The 21st Century angel will appear when she is ready as we get closer to the ANG Auction date.

You can read about sugar gliders here. My nieces had one and it was really cute, but I don't think they are terrific pets as they are nocturnal. They are active when we are not. But they make superb pet guardian angels!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Glider

The Art Nouveau sugar glider adds a great deal to the appeal of the ANG Auction pet guardian angel ornaments. Unique and made with love by the incredibly talented hands of Kandace Merric herself, this pet guardian angel is not diagrammed in the magazines. Thank you, Kandy, for creating a new angel to raise funds for ANG and to delight us all.

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

Trims for a Golden Rabbit

I've finished the Golden Rabbit's underskirt area and I think it looks nice. The Silk Lame Braid adds a subtle sparkle to the underskirt without overwhelming it with metallic. I want the overskirt (that has Kreinik metallic thread) to be primary and the underskirt secondary, so I needed to control the accent thread that pairs with the same Gloriana overdyed silk in both areas.

When it comes to using Silk Lame Braid, it seems to eventually unwind itself and the metallic parts can escape the needle's eye. This wasn't a big problem but I'd use a shorter-than-normal length of this thread to help minimize the jailbreaks. I think this is a nice thread for subtle sparkle or for areas where a metallic thread might catch on the silks you already have in place. Used alone it might make awesome white snow or a navy velvet sky as well.

I decided to start on the trimmed edge of the over- and under-skirt next. The overskirt's trim border is 6 threads wide while the underskirt's is 4 threads wide. In the original model, Kandace Merric tent stitches the sides in metallic and I stuck to that, using my 002V copper/gold Kreinik. The rest of the pattern is done in cotton floss and perle cottons in a pattern that looks like flowers and leaves. The flowers have a French knot center. I will use my beads in the flower centers instead of French knots but I am not sure what threads I will use where for the last three stitches. Stay tuned! I'll pick up the Basketweave Marathon and get more of that knocked out while I ponder thread choices.

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

Decision Time

Last night I continued the Basketweave Marathon for a few rows, finished the little bits of Kreinik on the overskirt of the Golden Rabbit, and started thinking about the underskirt. I'm using three main threads on this piece -- the overdyed wool Lorikeet (from Gloriana), the overdyed silk (Gloriana) and the solid silk Silk Mori (Kreinik). I did a few stitches in the Lorikeet but it looks too dark. The Silk Mori is just a bit too light and regular in color. The Gloriana overdyed silk in Old Gold is the right color, so I started stitching the pairs of long stitches in rows that make up half of the pattern. I like how it looks so I've turned my attention to what thread to use for the little short stitches that separate the long pairs. In the photo I put one of my Toho beads in the bottom row, then in the top row I used a new thread -- Silk Lame Braid (Rainbow Gallery) in SL03, which is a pale wheat, similar in color to the Silk Mori except that Silk Lame Braid has a metallic woven into the silk perle. Silk Lame Braid is described as 4 strands of silk woven with 4 strands of metallic. Note that this perle-type thread comes in two sizes--the 18 (4 strands silk+4 strands metallic) and the 13 (8 strands silk+8 strands metallic). I have the 18 count smaller size. The color card is below.

http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?ID=1149

I compared the look of the two and decided I preferred the Silk Lame Braid. The bead is back in the tube and this morning I'll add a bit more of the Silk Lame Braid before I continue stitching this area. As usual, I'll do a little background basketweave. If I don't, there is just too much background at the end!

Tomorrow I'll have a special treat--I'll unveil one of two totally new pet guardian angels, stitched by the designer Kandace Merric for the ANG Auction.

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