The Madonna and Child are completely stitched now and the halo is done. Because this is an icon, it needs lots of glitz so I used red Toho beads (size 11/0) on the outside edge of the halo and gold Fyrewerks on the inside. (By the way, the beads are redder in person. I think the light bouncing off them made them lighter for their photograph.) Fyrewerks is really shiny but it is the same gold as the Shimmer Blend ribbon floss I used for the trim of Mary's cloak. The darker vintage gold trim is On The Surface metallic thread in Vintage Gold. When you are mixing metallic threads, you have to consider if the shades of color are the same or different. In this case I need two golds. I'll need a gold for the background and the frame, too. More about that later.
I did a few vertical straight lines between the red bargello pattern on the cloak using dark red Bijoux. That adds more subtle gleam. You may remember I want my Christmas ornaments very shiny so they look good on the tree with all the lights and stand out from the things around them.
I used my Bronze Splendor skin tones set to do the faces and used dark brown Alpaca in tent stitches for the hair. The Baby Jesus's hair was then overstitched with French knots using Wildflowers, which is a thin perle thread from Caron. I used a skein with various shades of brown. I'll add the color number when I find it. The bangs on His mother were slightly padded with a length of the Alpaca and then I did long straight and slanted stitches with a few tent stitches at the sides for her hair. The eyes are in the same thread and Mary's mouth is the same Sheep's Silk as her cloak.
My instructions call for Maltese cross stitch for the background. I found this stitch diagramed here but it's too big so I will experiment with threads while trying to reduce the size tonight.
http://www.needlepoint.org/Kids/00-03/Laura%27sSampler_Part2.php
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
