Monday, October 24, 2011

Cache Pots for the Cat Topiary Garden

Two Cache Pots
I decided the next area I would tackle on the cat topiary garden would be the two big cache pots that flank the garden gate.  I had the perfect thread--a beautiful overdyed silk 12-ply floss from Gloriana called Deep Blue Sea.  The photo above shows the left cache pot with the stitch I choose from Brenda Hart's Favorite Stitches, page 35 underway.  This stitch isn't named in Brenda's book but I have seen it other places.  It is done in two steps:  first the framework which you see above, then the circles are filled with straight stitches.


Careful study of the photo will show you that the right pot has a different thread.  Yes, when I stitched the left pot framework, I discovered the Gloriana silk that looked so perfect in the skein had too much green in it to actually work well for the pots.  So I switched to two shades of medium blue in DMC cotton floss for the right pot.  The lighter blue that makes up the bulk of the cache pot on the right is 825 but I used the darker 311 for the edges of the pot where the paint is darker.  I stitched the framework and the central circles in the correct shade of DMC cotton to echo the shading on the big jar.

Right Cache Pot Finished
The final area to stitch in the cache pots is the lip around the top, which I did in padded satin stitches.  The second photo shows the right cache pot finished.  I pulled out my Gloriana silk from the left cache pot and hope to have it stitched by the time you read this.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

7 comments:

~Judy said...

I thought the green in the pot on the left looked like moss on the pot. I like it both ways, but you can see it in person, so you have the best perspective. Lovely!

~Judy

Wendy TC said...

Great depth of field, Jane. I'm glad you are happy with your decision to take the previous color out. It's a bravery issue that I'm embracing more and more...be happy with the stitching effect rather than settling for "just ok", especially after all the work that is put into needlework.

Nancy L said...

What a great stitch choice for the cache pots! I love the look, as well as the contrast to the smaller stitches used above.

Nancy

Anonymous said...

Great stitch. Thanks for showing the Gloriana so we could see the difference between the two threads.
Your posts about your stitching "adventures" are the ones that I enjoy most.

Sharon

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

Thank you all for the nice comments. The pots look very good but of course they won't be finished until I get the cat statues stitched and add the little flowers that are around the feet of the statues which stand on the pots. Stay tuned, in other words!

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

If you end up settling for something, you are never happy with it, no matter how the piece turns out. Plus, I see mistakes and problems as ways to learn to avoid such problems in the future. It's just hard to know how an overdyed thread will work until you actually stitch with it.

NCPat said...

I love the pots! Amazing, just amazing!