Last night was more of the same when it came to NP. I added stitches to the Rabbit Geisha's face, filling in the area between the brow arch and the eye, working up towards the ears, and trying to get all of the first layer of the left side of the face in. After I began to get tired, I switched to doing background. I've not mentioned before the mechanics of doing background. I'm using 4 plies of DMC cotton floss for the background split pavilion stitch. DMC cotton floss has six plies, so once I use up an 18-20 inch length of four plies on the background, I use the remaining two plies doubled in my needle to work on more of the three rows of tent stitch that surround the outside of this piece. Doing things this way means I am constantly adding to the background and the border of tent stitches so they are not all left at the end. I'm sure there will be plenty of background to finish once the central figure is done, but I am trying to keep that to a minimum.
Tonight I'll probably mist the canvas with my plant mister so I can work the ears and perhaps some of the three rows of tent stitch around the perimeter just above the burn hole. I'm getting close to the area where the hole was burned so I want to be careful.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
4 comments:
He is looking wonderful! While it may be slow going, the control and effect is worth it! Love the Orna piece in the side bar!
Thanks for the encouragement, Pat. By the way, the Orna Willis piece that is Canvas of the Day is very popular. I've seen 3-4 different colorways at the Woodlawn show over the years. I like it in most colors, too. Very nice balanced design.
Dear Jane,
I am a faithful fan of your work and blog and just wanted to say that you are a great teacher and an absolute master needlepointer. Your interpretation of the Geisha rabbit face is inspired.
I do have a question...when you begin to stitch the background....such as this current work...where do you start the background stitch? The upper corner? Or do you measure, find the middle and work from the mid-line out?
Regards,
Dr. Denise
Lake Villa, Illinois
Thanks for the nice compliment, Dr. Denise. I am glad you find Blog so useful.
When it comes to doing the background stitch, I choose various places to start depending on the stitch. The background stitch I choose is done in vertical rows (well, I turn the canvas on its side and work them horizontally but they run down the canvas vertically). Therefore, I decided I would start on the right side and work a row there. I messed up the count a bit so I tossed in a third row of tent stitches to cover.
Because I am right handed, I often start in the upper right corner. Much depends on your stitch, though. If you think there is going to be a lot of compensation, do a row across the largest span of background to give yourself practice and a row that looks good. Then you can work up and down (or right and left, depending on the stitch) from the baseline row you did.
If I was doing a bargello type stitch, I would have probably found the center and worked from the middle out to one side, then from the middle out to the center side. It all depends on the stitch and whether you think it needs to look perfectly balanced.
Hope this helps. It's always confusing when there is no set rule.
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