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| Nordic Snowman by Melissa Shirley |
Several years ago I stitched a small Christmas stocking with a snowman design for a small child. Now that the owner of this stocking has a younger sibling, I want to stitch another snowman stocking so that each child has their own. For the second snowman stocking I choose a Melissa Shirley design called Nordic Snowman. This canvas is on 18 count canvas. The design itself is 5 1/2 inches high and 4 1/2 inches wide at the foot.
There are several versions of the Nordic Snowman in the Melissa Shirley line as well as other designs with a Danish, Swedish or Norwegian flavor.
http://melissashirleydesigns.com//gallery/?cat=31
There are also snowmen with the same side profile and different clothes. Six of the first seven snowman at this site (working from the top down) are all relatives of my Nordic Snowman. The seventh is my design exactly.
http://store.apneedlearts.com/snmi1.html
This design is going to be a real challenge as it has so much color and pattern. The snowman is wearing a long stocking cap with a bell and perhaps a bow tied around the fur ball at the end. He has mittens and a colorful scarf with long beaded fringe. He wears a patchwork coat that has a beaded bottom hem. He carries a package with a bow and what appears to be a colorful wooden bird toy. There are wrapped Christmas packages and apples and holly leaves scattered in the snow at his feet.
You can emphasize three elements in a stitched design: the color, the texture, or the stitches. If you emphasize more than two of them in one design, you run the risk of making a mess that is so busy it is unattractive. This design already has so much color and pattern going on, I am going to have to restrict how many different stitches and thread varieties I use. I think I will probably vary textures some but be restrained in how many stitches I use.
As always, my first step was to make a color copy of this canvas. I almost certainly will cover the tiny white dots in the sky with stitches and then go back and add white beads or a metallic thread to indicate they are snowflakes. The color copy will help me figure out just where they go.
Many thanks to Melissa Shirley for giving permission for me to post photos of her design here and stitch-blog it publicly.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
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