The End of My Path (Angel with Tree)

The Angel with Tree Finished

As I continued stitching Melissa Shirley's Angel with Tree, I did a little editing of the design and of stitches chosen for it.  The photo above is the finished Angel, with her jacket, apron, skirt, petticoat, shoes and stockings and of course her little Christmas tree stitched.  If you compare my version with Melissa Shirley's unstitched canvas here,
http://melissashirleydesigns.com/galsearch/index.cgi?index=1430178336_7822&col=

…you will see that my version has the gray line of the skirt and petticoats stitched from left to right, although the original has the gray lines only on the left side.  As I worked I just felt that the line needed to extend all the way across.  So I did took it all the way across the bottom of the skirt.

When it came to choosing the jacket stitch (I used Combination Scotch and Inverse Mosaic Stitch) I decided that I would only do the first two steps in the stitch.  Adding beads as shown in the diagram above just seemed Too Much.  So I didn't.

You are stitching to a mental image that is informed by your own taste.  Sometimes the original design will need a bit added or taken away to fit what you are trying to do.  One of the problems people have in coming up with their own ideas for a painted canvas is that they do not trust either their instincts or their ability to figure out what is right and wrong with something they are working.

You just have to be brave and try it.  You can always rip out.  I audition a lot of stitches before choosing what I think works.  And if something that I start isn't working, I try something else.  It takes self-confidence and experience to do this but it is the only way to up your stitching game to the next level.  Learn to look critically at what you have done (most people are very critical of their own stitching so this will be easy) and then analyze what you don't like and how to fix it (which is much harder but you can learn).

The stitch guide moral here is to trust your own judgement.  You don't have to stitch a design exactly how it is painted or use a stitch exactly the way it is diagrammed.

Thanks again to Melissa Shirley Designs for allowing me to blog-stitch Angel with Tree.  Hope you enjoyed peeking over my shoulder to see her develop.  Her stitch guide is available for purchase from me, by the way.  Your favorite shop can pick up the canvas for you from Melissa herself.
http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com/2017/05/angel-with-tree-melissa-shirley-and.html

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright May 28, 2017 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Following the Path to a Background and More (Angel with Tree)

Last time I choose stitches and materials for the Angel with Tree's hair, skirt and jacket, skin, and snowflakes.  I promised to talk about where I started stitching, what choices I made, what worked and what didn't, and how I altered my path as I worked on this design.

Face and Hair

The easiest part of stitching people is to work their faces.  There are pitfalls to make a face look right, but those probably are generally related to stitching the eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth.  I tent stitched my face using various shades of cotton floss.  Then I added the features with bits of brown wool, black Kreink and burgundy floss.  I suggest that after you work an eye, you carefully consider what you have done, then rip out if necessary.  Even one stitch will make a huge difference.  I often add either a reverse tent stitch or a straight vertical or horizontal stitch to an eye or mouth to make it look right.  In this case the nose paint showed through the pale pink floss so I didn't bother to stitch the nose.  The eyebrows were done in stem stitches using the lighter brown thread I used for my hair.

I like wool and wool-like stitches for hair.  Because my godmother had gentle curls in her brown hair I altered the angel's hair to match.  I found two shades of Medici wool, a Felicity's Garden silk/wool blend, and Vineyard Silk Shimmer (silk with metallic woven in) in my stash and created hair using French Knots and Colonial Knots.  I wanted big, irregular curls so a mix of threads and stitches served to create the look I had in mind.  Some of my French Knots were one wrap, some were two.  All were placed roughly to match the four shades of hair painted.  I particularly like the fact that the Vineyard Silk Shimmer has a bit of metallic in it. That added highlights to the angel's hair.

Next I wanted to tackle my background.  I had a lovely blue Splendor silk matching the background paint and wanted a light coverage stitch that looked like snow.  I chose to make up a stitch around each of the white snowflakes to emphasize the dots of white.

First Background Attempt

But once I had the little diamond motifs in, I was stuck.  What do I do next?  Open stitches?  Solid tent?  Everything seemed WRONG.  I had to face the fact that a fancy background was going to be the star of the show instead of the angel herself.  So I ripped it all out and went with the calmest of backgrounds—brick stitch.

Second Background Attempt

I did compensate around the white dots.  Luckily brick stitch over two is very easy to compensate.  And as you can see, the little tree worked up nicely using leaf stitches dotted with small round gold beads and Swarovski crystal sequins.  Three good ideas out of four ain't bad!  It is all too easy to fall in love with an idea that doesn't work.  Then you are stuck with a piece you can't finish because you cannot bear to rip out that one part that you love--but that doesn't work.  Don't be that stitcher!  Be ruthless when you must!

Today's Stitch Guide Moral:  Don't be afraid to change directions. Staying committed to the wrong path doesn't work.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright 2017 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Choosing A Stitch Path for Angel with Tree

Inspired by Orna Willis' essay yesterday on the types of stitches one can choose, I thought I'd walk through my stitch choices on this darling Christmas angel. This is Angel with Tree, one of Melissa Shirley's angel series from a year or so back.  This design is 7 inches high by 4 1/2 wide on 18 count canvas.  She is one of a series of six angels which are also available as round ornaments and small stockings.
http://melissashirleydesigns.com/galsearch/index.cgi?index=1430178336_7822&col=

As Orna Willis made clear in her essay yesterday, there are a variety of paths one can take when picking stitches on a canvas that will be embellished in various ways.
http://ornadesign.blogspot.com/2017/05/how-i-make-my-stitch-choices-on-painted.html

I rarely know exactly where my path will take me when I start a canvas.  I tend to like realistic pieces (if you can call a portrait of an angel "realistic") and this one appealed because the angel reminds me of my godmother and a good friend.  I also liked the little white dots in the background which remind me of the tiny snow balls we often get here in the wintertime instead of lacy snowflakes.  So already I know two things:  I want pearls in the background instead of snowflake sequins to resemble the snow we get and I want a hairstyle and color that looks like my godmother and my friend's hair.  See?  Two choices have been made already!  If you simply look at the canvas you bought and think about what you liked about it, that will give you stitching ideas.

Of course knowing I want hard little balls for snowflakes is an easy choice—beads, specifically white pearls.  My godmother had lovely brown hair that she wore in soft curves and curls.  I happen to really like wool and wool-like threads for hair so now I know I want to look through my stash for wool appearing threads that I will use in French knots and Colonial knots.  See?  Making these choices is easy.

I like tent stitches for faces so that's another choice down.  The white outfit the angel wears I want in something that looks lacy.  So that narrows down my stitch choices to something rather lace-like, perhaps eyelets?  I like leaf stitches for trees, so there's another narrowing of the path forward.

So far we have something for the hair, skirt and jacket, skin, and snowflakes.  That's enough to get started.  You'll discover as you experiment with embellishing painted canvases that each choice you make narrows down the following choices.  One you are set for a hair stitch, you probably will use the same thread for eyebrows, for example.

Next time I'll talk about where I started stitching, what choices I made, what worked and what didn't, and how I altered my path as I worked on this design.

Today's Stitch Guide Moral:  Make a few choices and the path starts to unfold before you.

Many thanks to Melissa Shirley for allowing me to stitch this for you!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright May 3, 2017 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.