Anne Stradal has started blog-stitching the companion piece to Three Women and a Peach. This design is called Nippon Textures and is also from Squiggee. It is a 7 inch diameter circle on 18 count, which is the same size and canvas count as the piece I just finished stitching.
You can follow along by reading Anne's blog, The Cape Stitcher.
http://thecapestitcher.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-year-new-project.html
Anne's style is much more traditional than mine. She is likely to use much more tent stitch and to use different threads than I did, so this is going to be fun!
We can always learn from each other, so I hope to get lots of ideas from Anne's stitching.
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Supplies Needed for Three Women...
Thanks to a remark from Madonna, I know how I will finish my Squiggee design of Three Women and a Peach. It is going to be put on the cover of a photo album.
Above you see some of my supplies for finishing this piece--the photo album (covered in brown suede and about an inch taller and 2 inches wider than my 7 inch round canvas), my paper color copy of the canvas before I started stitching it, and a piece of tan finishing foam cut to a 7 inch circle. I used brown finishing foam to put under my NP because the background stitch is an open one that doesn't hide the underlying brown canvas. I don't want someone noticing the backing inside the NP through those holes!
You have noticed that the finishing foam has a piece cut out of the middle. That's because the album is held together with a magnetic flap. You pull the flap away from the magnet to open the album. I put my paper pattern under the flap in various positions and when I was happy with one, I traced around the flap and then cut out the section. I used the paper pattern before it was cut to cut two pieces of finishing foam and then used the paper pattern after it was cut away to trim the same sized slot from one piece of finishing foam. What you don't see in the photo is my second round disk of finishing foam which is currently under a heavy book to help the brocade fabric that covers one side dry. I just glued the fabric on so that item missed the photo shoot.
I plan to layer the two pieces of finishing foam, one covered in fabric, in this order from the bottom up: finishing foam circle with the back covered in brocade facing to the bottom of the layers, magnetic flap, brown finishing foam with the slot cut out that will fit right around the magnetic flap, and then finally the NP canvas itself on top. I don't think I'll put quilt batting inside this piece, but I may change my mind about that. I will need something to pull to open the flap as I won't want folks pulling up on the needlepoint to open the album. I happen to have a carved fake ivory bead shaped like an oval Buddha that I can use as a pull.
The reason that I just happened to have the right bead is that I do a lot of stitching with Asian themes. I keep my eyes open wherever I go and pick up items that look good with this style. I found the bead in the local bead shop near where I work last spring and bought it, knowing that eventually it would come in handy. You can do this sort of pro-active shopping yourself. If you love Santa canvases (or rabbits, or whatever), just watch for beads, charms, trims, etc. that you really like that are also Santa-themed (or bunnies or whatever it is you tend to stitch). Pick them up on sale and put them in your stash for later. I almost always find a use for my bits of Asian things eventually.
The next step is for me to put the trimmed needlepoint canvas I just stitched around the brown piece of finishing foam and lace the sides down. Then I will need to figure out how and where to attach the bead Buddha, put the layers together and stitch the back layer to the front. The final step will be attaching trim around the edges. I don't have the right trim yet. I waited to buy that last as I wanted to have everything else. The trim needs to look good with all the parts and I wasn't sure what I was using until yesterday when stores closed early because it was New Year's.
By the way, Happy New Year. I saw a nice sentiment on Jane's Japanese Embroidery blog. She wrote "May 2009 bring you smooth silks and even stitches."
I hope you have all that and good health in the new year, too.
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
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