After last night's excitement waiting to hear how well the Pet Guardian Angels did at Auction (they raised $500 for ANG, thanks to the effort of the stitchers who brought them to life and to Kandace Merric, their incredible designer who designed and stitched two brand new angels herself), you can imagine I couldn't do any of the H-Q rows on my Glittering Kimono. I couldn't concentrate!
I did work on the beach area of the South Seas Fiji piece after I finished the last of the black tent stitches on the right side. The hard part was finding the right threads for the complex stitch I choose. The stitch is called Diagonal Wave and I found it on page 42 of Brenda Hart's "Favorite Stitches." I wanted a stitch that simulated the curved shapes you get when a wave comes onto the beach and then goes out again. This is a perfect choice.
Diagonal Wave is meant to be stitched in three different types of thread. I pulled out 7-8 different threads in the sandy color I wanted and tried a few in the margin of the canvas. My "try out" stitching where I auditioned threads is shown in the photo above. You can see the mistake I made in the first wide row, too. Auditioning stitches and threads makes good sense because you find out where you are likely to make mistakes, not just what stitches and threads work well in your current design!
What you see in the photo is two of the three rows that make up Diagonal Wave. (The third row in Diagonal Wave is tent stitches that follow the curve, which I didn't bother to stitch with those as I could already tell what would and would not work from my batch of possibilities.) The bottom wider row is done in Silk Lame Braid and the top narrower one in Impressions. I decided both threads were too heavy for the design. After all, the sandy beach is not supposed to overwhelm the palm tree. So I auditioned a second set of threads. They turned out to be perfect.
In this photo you see the beach half stitched. I used two plies of Dinky Dyes (a six ply silk from Australia--website below) in color #154 "Cottesloe" for the bulk of the beach.
The darker wet sand nearest the wave is stitched in two plies of Gloriana overdyed silk #107 "Honey Bronze."
I tried to manipulate the Gloriana overdyed silk so that the darkest parts covered the darkest painted areas. In the photo above you see both the stitched right side and the original painted canvas on the unstitched left side. By the way, the third row of the Diagonal Wave stitch is tent stitches, using one ply of my Dinky Dyes silk mixed with two strands of thin metallic Accentuate #022 for this row. (And yes, I have updated my stash credit number on the left side of the page with my three new threads. I will be curious to see how high I can get the number before the end of the year.)
I am quite happy with how this stitched up. The beach isn't too heavy compared with the right side of the design and it won't overwhelm the central motif of the palm tree. I know because once the beach was finished, I stitched the trunk of the palm tree in stem stitch using a strand of Treasure Braid TR298 in the 12-strand size. There are a few long stitches to fill in and add highlights in Bijoux, which is a thin metallic a bit heavier than Accentuate. I used a bronze color. My spool doesn't have the number on it, so I can't tell you the precise color. The Bijoux doesn't show up well in the photo but in person it gives a lighter effect where the sun hits the trunk.
Here is the finished beach and palm tree. I need to do the background line of beach and trees, then I will think about stitching the water and waves, and probably end with the sky. Once all that is done, I can do the fronds of the palm tree which are on top of all the other stitching.
And I might do a few rows of H-Q on Glittering Kimono, too!
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
12 comments:
Looking good! I like the sand....nice ideas, and the tree shines if we enlarge the photo! .....walking away smiling on the success of the auction!
Thanks, Pat. The tree trunk is all in metallics, which is not a realistic choice but I wanted the tree to sparkle and draw the eye away from the beach scene. The palm fronds will be in metallics, too. At least that is the plan this morning.
But plans change....
I love the stitch you used for the sand. That book is one I don't have in my library, so I'm going to have to go investigate the Seminar bookstore and see if it's available. It seems like a great stitch to use when you need a random look but are a little challenged when it comes to actually allowing your fingers to stitch randomly. My brain always tries to interfere and send signals to my fingers to set up a pattern for my random stitching.
Nancy, I love Brenda Hart's books. I use the ones that are just stitch dictionaries more than any others I own when looking for stitches, so I highly recommend them for the needlepointer who embellishes.
Thanks again for all the work last night. We loved the pictures of the Pet Guardian Angels on display! Did you have a hard time watching Cookie go?
No, I didn't have a hard time watching Cookie go, at least not this time.
Jane, I swear. I just want to come sit in your house and watch you stitch. I am riveted by absolutely everything that you do!
One of these days I'm going to take a class so that I can get over my ridiculous fear of all of my painted canvases. (I'm afraid that I'm going to "ruin" them if I try to stitch them without adult supervision. Stupid, huh?)
Brava on keeping me occupied and off the streets!
Good! I thought she was magnificently stitched. I might have carried her around all before the auction, weeping, myself.
Coni, it is silly to worry about ruining a painted canvas. After all, I do this, so it can't be that hard, right?
I'd love to come to your house (it's where the Cool Kids hang out, after all) and stitch with you but it's too far. How about you just tell me when you want to jump off the couch into the deep waters of painted canvases and we can all shout encouragement and ideas as you work? Once you conquer Painted Canvas #1, you will be over the fear and will know if you like stitching them as well as your samplers and counted pieces. I swear, it is not that difficult. After all, you only have to suit yourself.
Nice auction result and your Fiji ornament is coming along nicely.
I so love your work! The beach looks lovely and I love the contrast on the other side of the ornament. I agree with Coni! One day I will have to be brave and start(and finish) a painted canvas! I am so afraid I will make a mistake!
Beth, there is no trumpet, a trapdoor in the ceiling does not open and a banner with FAIL on it drop down. You just rip it out and try something else.
A very smart lady who is a dynamite stitcher (collected another ribbon at the ANG Seminar exhibit this week to add to her collection) told me once the more you rip out, the better a stitcher you are.
Going by that I am the queen stitcher of the universe, but seriously, making mistakes and figuring out how to fix them is the way you get good at embellishing painted canvases.
Thanks, CO Stitcher!
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