Introducing the Byzantine Icons by Designing Women

I had my next project all picked out until the friend I was going to virtually stitch it with fell ill. So I've put that project aside to give her time to feel better and instead, I'm going to stitch the little Byzantine icons I plan to give my nieces for Christmas. I've enjoyed stitching them little Christmas ornaments and have done many of them, but none have had religious themes. I think it is time I stitch something that really is in the spirit of the season and choose these two little pieces.

They are by Designing Women, a small company in Arkansas. You may have seen their chair series or their large royal portraits but they do lots of small designs. They don't have a website but I did find these links to show off the range of their painted canvases. They have a lot of Christmas stockings. My favorite of their designs are a series of little canvases that depict kids dressed in Christmas pageant costumes that come with little ceramic legs to dangle below the Christmas tree one child wears over his body. Or whatever. Here's an angel canvas but you don't see the legs that come with the canvas.
http://www.pasttimesneedlepoint.com/product.asp?ProductID=25154

Here are most of their canvases.
http://www.stitchersworkshop.com/needlepoint_designers.php?Designer=Designing+Women

The small ones are like little jewels.
http://www.annieandco.com/designers/des_women/index.html

They are famous for their crosses.
http://www.silk-road-needle.com/Designing%20Women.htm

Apparently they do XS charts, too.
http://www.stitchersworkshop.com/crossstitch_category.php?Designer=Designing+Women

There are several small canvases in the Byzantine Icon series. Here is another. There are angels who wear pink, a blue Madonna, etc. They usually also face a slightly different way. You could stitch three angels and they'd all be different.
http://www.pasttimesneedlepoint.com/product.asp?ProductID=7256

I hope this gives you a flavor of the breadth of their designs. My two little pieces came with a packet of pearls which you see in the photo above and with a simple stitch guide stapled to the back. The guide includes unusual stitches, though, like Palestrina Knots and Maltese stitch. The designs are on 14 count canvas that has been painted with gold metallic. The designs themselves are 5 inches high by 3 wide, so these will be a quick stitch. (I'll be facing more finishing again before the horror of the last week has faded. Yeah for me....)

I only have one pair of stretcher bars the same size so I picked up the Red Madonna and Child at random and started on it. Last night I stitched the Madonna's red cloak with a modified Scollops stitch from Brenda Hart's Stitches for the Millennium (page 90). I turned it on its side to echo the rounded shape of the figures in the center of the design. The figure 8 double halo shape is also rounded, so I'm thinking I might need another curved bargello-type stitch there but I suppose I need to figure out what metallic threads I will use on this first. I normally stitch on 18 count and don't have very fat metallics here but I'll improvise. Here's what the design looks like now that I've stitched the cloak--



Before I forget, I used a strand of Thread Gather's overdyed Sheep's Silk, which is a half wool/half silk thread. The color is Cranberry Swirl which comes in shades of cranberry red. I ignored the shading on the original design but because I used only one strand of Sheep's Silk, it doesn't completely cover the paint so you see some of the darker areas still.

Normally I would start with the background but since I need to pick a thread first that will work for both the background and the halo gold, I started with the figures. My next step will be to stitch the Madonna, working from the trim of the gold cloak out to her hair, and then her face. I might do the face and then add the hair on top. I'm not sure yet.

Stay tuned!

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow