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| Jude Designs' Christmas Alligator |
http://mostlyneedlepoint.com/its-all-about-the-finish-part-2/
I used Double Stitch on my Cat Topiary Garden for sone of the evergreens and it is a beautiful stitch. However, it is a thread hog and I ran out of the 18 count size of ecru Silk Lame Braid # SL03 I was using for the big crosses. That's why I worked on the stocking cap before finishing the background while I waited for an emergency shipment of Silk Lame Braid.
By the way, step two of Double Stitch is the tiny cross stitches. They are in a similar color in Impressions (#1146) but because of the difference in textures, the Double Stitch has some depth and interest to it, besides having the sparkle of Silk Lame Braid. I like having a lot of metallics on Christmas ornaments to help them stand out among all the other Christmas decorations. One thing I didn't notice until I did the scan for this posting was the loop of thread laying on top of the red stocking cap above the alligator's left eye. This is a bit of the metallic from the Silk Lame Braid which untwists itself as you stitch. I use short lengths of thread to minimize this, but you can still have something stick up at the end of a length of thread if you aren't careful. Interestingly, I don't have this problem with the smaller Petite Silk Lame Braid, perhaps because the twist is tighter.
In the photo the right half of the background has the tiny cross stitches added but I haven't gotten to the left half yet. I also still need to do the background between the tail and the head but I ran out of steam last night and went to bed.
The stocking cap is done in the new shaded Petite Very Velvet. Rainbow Gallery shows off the colors of regular shaded Very Velvet in the link below so you can get an idea of the colors available. Sorry but I couldn't find an online color card for the Petite shaded. I am using V810, which seems to be similar to the regular Very Velvet's Holiday Reds. I used Interlocking Goblein which is done in horizontal rows and allowed the colors to fall where they wished.
http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?ID=1251
Once I finish the background, I plan to use Don Lynch's basketweave beading technique on the blue Christmas ornament. While I run around like a maniac, getting ready for Christmas, you can wander over to Don's website at Associated Talents and see how he does basketweave beading.
http://www.atneedlepoint.com/Guides/HE-801-GUIDE.pdf
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
