From Playing with Fire to Playing with Water N Ice

Cape Cod Dog's window has been completely covered with Water N Ice and I'm continuing work on the border. Didn't finish that last night but I was slightly distracted by testing some stitches for the South Seas: Fiji ornament. So today I'd like to talk about Water N Ice a bit more. I forgot to mention that when stitching the window view on Cape Cod Dogs, I used two colors of Water N Ice. I used the original clear WT1 (which looks like thick saran wrap cut into strips) in 90% of the window but at the bottom where the view was of the ocean, I switched to Water N Ice WT2, which is blue. I hoped to make the blue water even bluer than it was painted. The last 2-3 rows are all blue. If a row of stitches overlapped water and land, I used the clear Water N Ice as I thought blue land would look odd. I like how the use of both colors continued the glassy look but gave a boost of blue to the water seen through the window.

Water N Ice comes in many colors. Here are the online links at the Rainbow Gallery website I found--
http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?ID=939

http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?ID=1071

http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?id=1215

It also comes in Navy and in the original Clear but I didn't see those colors on the color card page. In the photo above you see (top row, left to right) the blue WT2 and the clear WT1 and (bottom row) the new Pearl Ice color WT12 which has a frosted look compared to the original Clear WT1. The new frosted Pearl Ice isn't as see-through as the original Clear and has some pink and green highlights. It resembles opalescent white metallic threads which often have the same highlights.

If you are stitching a margerita glass, you will want to use Pearl Ice. If you are stitching a water glass, use the original Clear. Long stitches work better to showcase this thread's glassy or wet look.

In other news, Gay Ann Rogers is experimenting with adding videos to her website. Her first short movie is an interview with the nicest and funniest NP teacher in captivity--Carole Lake. Catch it now. I don't think it will be left up on GAR's website long.
http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Surprise_Video.html

Judy Soulitis has redone her website and announces her retirement from teaching except at Callaway and via the Internet in places like the Shining Needle Society. Be sure you look at the Sales section of her website to pick up a kit for a class you always wanted to take. Also, note that she has various section listed on the left side of the page and a slide show in the upper right hand corner. Don't want you to miss any of the eye candy because honey, she can stitch!
http://www.judysneedlework.com/

Barbara Elmore also has revamped her website and has added a blog. There is a lot to see as Barbara also makes jewelry, is a photographer and teaches.
http://www.barbaraelmoredesigns.com/Home/Godaddy.html

While you amuse yourselves I'm going to work on Cape Cod Dog's border. I've got the outside red padded edge to add on most of two sides and have the black background to tent stitch around one side still. I'm also working on the last side's red letters in cross stitch. To keep from dying of boredom, I cut a length of black Impressions and do the basketweave black background. When that runs out, I cut off a length of red Mandarin floss and cover the Very Velvet for the padded outside edge. Then I switch to a short piece of Hi-Lights to cross stitch another letter. It keeps me from being bored although progress on any of these three items of the border are slow this way.

Happy stitching!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Making a Boring Border Better

I didn't mention several things when I posted about the Cape Cod Dogs window yesterday. If you looked closely at the photograph then, you saw I'd already finished the inside red border (tent stitches in the silk perle Elegance) and added a new element to the border--an outside red line, broader than the thin one on the inside edge of the border. The success I had padding Ch'ing the Chinese Red Dragon's face with Very Velvet meant I wanted to try padding again, especially when Carole emailed me about her current Melissa Shirley Santa stocking (photo above).




Carole used Petite Very Velvet as padding under her stocking top. She says, "I used the Petite Very Velvet to pad and then did Ribbon Floss over it. The holding power of the PVV is awesome. My Ribbon Floss has never looked better--you can't see the individual threads. It stands up just little above the PVV background in the blue."

Carole has a second similar Melissa Shirley mini stock with a pink and white peppermint top and plans to stitch it the same way. This looks great, doesn't it? Cape Cod Dogs isn't quite as gorgeous (I don't have any red ribbon floss and believe me, I looked!) so I laid down a long line of red Very Velvet around the edge of the original black border and have been stitching slanted stitches over it using all 6 plies of a card of red Mandarin Floss. It looks very nice in person and gives the border a very nice touch. Of course I still have tons of boring background to stitch, but at least with the Very Velvet padding it looks very nice. Here's a closeup from yesterday's photo.



Wish me luck finishing the last black border background, the red lettering and the padded red border all around the outside.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow