Yesterday I posted the errata sheet I have from the ANG email list to help those who are working this piece, along with a note from the folks at Needlepoint Etc. (a Yahoo Group) who worked this piece. Hopefully it will be useful for us stitchers working this right now. If you belong to Needlepoint Etc. look at their files for color choices, a blank form to use to make up your thread list and this same errata sheet.
The first step in working this piece is to choose your colors. Five are used in the piece. The first thread you choose is an overdyed silk or cotton floss thread with at least 4 distinct colors in it. The overdyed thread is used here and there on the design, mostly in the middle border between the outside large border and the inner sashing. The bulk of the design is worked in four colors (Tony calls them A, B, C and D) chosen from the overdye's colors and used to pick your other threads. Tony recommends your four colors be distinct from each other to bring the pattern to life.
To help guide stitchers in color choices he explains that colors A and B are quite dominant in the piece. A is used in the outer border and B is used for the sashing that divides each star quilt square form the others. He also lists twelve different color combinations that his students used when he taught this piece and includes his model colors in the list. Most stitchers choose from these colors although I think Silk n Colors Morning Garden and Spring Frocks have been discontinued. This chart book was published in 1999 so many threads we have available today were not used, but that doesn't matter. Tony tells you that you need things like "Medium Round thread choices," which means a medium shade of threads like pearl cotton, Patina, Trebizond, etc. This makes it easy to pick threads when you want to substitute for something on one of the thread lists or when you choose a color and can't find the equivalent shade for the stranded cotton or whatever you need.
Choosing threads and colors is a threadaholic's delight! I had a blast with this part of the design, aided by my friend Linda C. who was a color genius. Above you see my choices: Violet (A), Black (B), Terracotta (C) and Copper Metallic (D). There is no overdyed skein in the photo because there is no overdyed silk or cotton thread that mixes these colors, so I faked my overdye.
The design goes on a 15x18 inch piece of 18 count canvas. The color doesn't matter since it doesn't show through the threads anywhere.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
4 comments:
How are you going to fake your overdye? Are you going to have to stop and start your threads to make it look like you were using overdyed threads? Or are you just going to do the overdyed areas completely solid?
Nancy, that would be telling! However, I'll drop a large hint--in 2007 I stitched Sundance's Trail of Life project faking all the Watercolors overdyes in the original thread list....
http://profiles.yahoo.com/blog/?num=5&max=1648&start=955
the link didn't work. :(
You will have to copy/paste it. I can't make hyperlinks in the Comments section. Sorry. HTML coding isn't allowed in Comments.
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