Thursday, June 17, 2010

Introducing Cha-Cha (Leigh Designs)


The canvas above is from Leigh Designs' Brazil series.  It is one of eight bird-fruit-flower designs on 18 count pink canvas, all named after dance styles.  You can see the whole series on the Leigh website.  All the designs are 12 inches square, so this is a pretty large piece.
http://www.leighdesigns.com/Grp403x.html

When Leigh and I started talking about which design I would stitch for her next, I mentioned how much I liked the colors in the Brazil series.  So she sent me Cha-Cha to stitch.  Eventually this canvas will be a model for her at trade shows and I will sell a stitch guide for the design through the new Chilly Hollow Stitch Guides site.
http://www.chstitchguides.blogspot.com/

As you can see, this design breaks down into six distinct areas:  the bird, the flowers, the fruit, the leaves, the tree branch and the background.  It is going to be a challenge to find stitches for each area that harmonize with all the others.  Tomorrow I'll talk about the background stitch I choose and why I'm doing background last on this design.

For fans of Dancing with the Stars on tv, here is a video of the cha-cha that demonstrates the basic moves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ngz4hPC328

"Like a flower in the breeze...."

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

New Clubs, New Finishing Instructions

Fireside Stitchery has just announced four new needlepoint clubs that will all start in September.   The clubs include pastries (love that blueberry pie slice), Halloween bears in costume, holiday themed baskets that make up into cute 3-D display baskets, and cookie cutter ornaments.  Click on the Click Here link under each photo to see all the stitched models for each club.
http://firesidestitchery.com/fs/clubs/index.cfm?fuseaction=getClubList&CategoryId=3&clubState=future

By coincidence, Cheryl Fall, the About.com needlepoint guide, has posted instructions for finishing stand up needlepoint figures on her site.  They look fairly simple so if you are interested in stitching the Halloween bears and trying your own finishing, this might be a good starting point.  If you are interested in stitching a Nativity, she has also posted charts for the Nativity set used to illustrate her instructions elsewhere on this site.  Click on the links to go to the charts.
http://needlepoint.about.com/b/2010/06/14/finishing-instructions-for-stand-up-figures-posted.htm

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