Halloween Screams

Before I forget, the Chaparral monthly Halloween basket club has photos up on their website.  These are a scream!
http://www.ndlpt.com/html/series/shallowb.html

The French Knot has posted photos of stitched candy corn canvases (in my opinion, the best part of Halloween).  I don't think this is a monthly club but I am not sure.  The stitching looks like a lot of fun, so maybe they'll kit up these for you if you ask.
http://www.thefrenchknot.com/models/halloween.htm

Halloween in May.  Sounds like a great idea!

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

Five Whites for a Snowman

Yesterday I talked about all the white areas on the various parts of this little stocking.  I've picked five brands of white threads from my stash to use on the stocking.  The somewhat disarranged skein on the left is DMC cotton floss #Blanc.  (It had an unfortunate encounter with Tommy the Cat who grabbed it off the table and attacked it yesterday evening.)  The top row left is Flair #F502 and the top right is Burmilana #3891.  The bottom row left is DMC Blanc #8 perle cotton and the bottom row right is Impressions #0057. All are stark whites, although as Judy pointed out yesterday in the Comments, I really don't have to worry about the shade of white too much as different stitches and textures reflect the light differently.

I started stitching the snowman's body with Flair and the snow on the ground using the DMC #8 perle.  The Flair sparkles while the cotton perle is more matte in texture so the snowman stands out a little at the base against the snowy ground.  I'm not sure how well you can tell the difference between the snowman and the ground as this is something obvious in person but not in photographs.  The photo shows also the white dots and lines on the scarf which I stitched with my Burmilana. Burmilana is an acrylic/wool blend so it looks fuzzy.  That's appropriate for a knit winter scarf.

Although it is not white, I should mention that the blue shadows in the snow and along the snowman's body are stitched with ThreadworX's overdyed Kreinik #91018 which is a beautiful pale blue.  It is perfect to add a bit of shadow and sparkle to this canvas. Many thanks to Beth at ThreadworX for sending this thread for me to try.  I do love the look of icy blue shadows that it gives the design.

By the way, all the white stitches are tent stitches except for the Burmilana areas on the scarf.  The dots there are cross stitches and the long lines of white are elongated cross stitches.

Tomorrow I'll talk about the snowman's face and the blue sky in the background.

By the way, yesterday's Canvas of the Day has been identified as to designer.  This is Dancing Lion by Melissa Shirley.
http://www.needlepointalley.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=npa&Product_Code=a71-565a

Credit to whom credit is due! Thanks for letting us know, Melissa.

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