Preparing for More

Today I checked over the Stuart Plaid Lion piece, looking for missed stitches, loose beads, or any furry spot that needs a few more stem stitches.  He will head off to Leigh Designs the end of the week to be made up into an ornament that will be one of the Dynasty ornament models eventually.  If you go to the trade shows, say hello to Leigh and the royal lion for me!

I'm going to start on the next Stars block tonight.  It's called Marlon Brando and is the first block in the second row.  I've also put my next two painted canvas projects on stretcher bars.  I'll start the smaller one of these once Brando is finished.    While I am getting organized, there is plenty of stuff for you to see elsewhere.

Pocket Full of Stitches' blog is full of new products and a new summer project canvas.  Read the May 4 and May 5 entries to catch up what the new owners have been up to and check out Lena the Ballerina.
http://pocketfullofstitches.blogspot.com/

Needle Works has posted their May newsletter and it is full of new and wonderful canvases.  Don't miss the Floozies.  Sloe Gin Sadie is my favorite but your tastes may run more to champagne or bourbon or ale.
http://www.theneedleworks.com/newsletter/201005newsletter.pdf

Finally, Amy Bunger is encouraging her students to run wild with glitter glue.   I advise staying inside and hiding under your beds until Peggy puts her pen away!
http://needlepointstudyhall.blogspot.com/

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

A Touch of Gold at the Finish

Yesterday I took one last look at the Stuart Plaid Lion, trying to figure out if the lion's body and mane was finished or if I needed to add more stem stitches here and there.  I ended up adding a few highlights to the mane using a strand of Accentuate (gold #024) and then laid long stitches with the same thread across the diagonal red skip tent stitch background.   The skip tent stitches run from the NE to the SW and the long gold Accentuate stitches are laid from the NW to the SE.  Using a little Accentuate adds a bit of pizzazz to the canvas.  This is a royal symbol of the Stuart line of English kings and queens, after all!

I think this design is finished but I'll take one last look today before sending it off to Leigh to be made up into a model while I write the stitch guide.

On another topic entirely, Old World Designs' website page about their monthly club of California ornaments has updated to show photos of all the designs in stitched form.  Love that cable car!
http://www.oldworlddesigns.com/california.html

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

Farrah and the Golden Crown

Saturday the Stuart Plaid Lion and I took a field trip to see neighbors who used to needlepoint.  Fading eyesight, golf, and  trips to Africa have meant that my neighbors don't do needlepoint any more but they are always interested in what I'm stitching and give me good input when I need it.

We talked mostly about the crown that the lion reaches towards on the design.  That's my own invention as it wasn't part of the background, but I wanted to add something besides the fading lines from the plaid and came up with a lovely little red crown with a few crystal beads to enhance it.  However, Leigh Herself said a golden crown would not weigh down the background the way the red crown would, so I wanted second opinions about how gold would look versus red before I ripped out the red crown.  We decided gold would be better so out came the beads and the red holographic Kreinik to be replaced by gold holographic 1/16 inch ribbon in Chromo Gold 002L.  It looks great!  Leigh, you were right.

I'm not even going to put the beads back.  The gold crown doesn't need them to Pop! off the background.  Here's a close up.

By the way, I'm still working on the lion's mane.  I've added a few stitches to the body and extended the stem stitches down toward the paws, but mostly I am adding thread a little at a time to the mane.  Think Farrah Fawcett's hair with plenty of highlights.  That's what I am aiming for.  Here's Farrah herself for those too young to remember her famous hair--

I've got at least one more night's stitching on the mane but this piece is getting close to the end.

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

Layer One: Mane (Eating the Watermelon)

Yesterday, I finished stem stitching the lion's legs and also covered his body with stitches.  In the photo above, his lower tummy is done in split stitch instead of the stem stitches I used elsewhere on the body to make a smaller and smoother first layer of stitches.  Stomaches often have shorter and smoother fur than areas like the shaggy mane or even the legs.  Remember, this is just the first layer.  I'll go back and add stem stitches using just one ply of my silk or cotton floss on top to add definition and shading to the fur.

Once I finished the first layer of stitches on all four legs and the body of the lion, it was time to stitch the mane around his face.  The mane is heavily padded with two layers of thread, so I can't see the canvas colors here.  They are hidden by the thread layers.  This is why I made a color copy of my canvas before I stitched anything on it.  It is a reference for me to stitch areas like the mane.

Looking at my photo, I added stem stitches  in my brown DMC floss to help me follow the flow of the mane.  These dark stitches are guidelines to help me place other colors.  They also divide the mane up into manageable areas that will be easier to stitch.  Small sections help you keep the flow of the mane going in the right direction.  Just like eating a watermelon-- one slices a watermelon into small segments before eating it.  Stitching a needle painted animal means the critter has to be cut into smaller segments.  You don't "eat" it all at once!

By the way, I switched to a sharp beading needle when I started stitching this padded area.  A crewel needle or a milliner's needle work also.  You just need a sharp tipped needle to both go through the padding layers and to pierce a needlepoint canvas thread in case you want to put a stitch down where there isn't a hole.

After putting in the guidelines for the mane, I stitched the ear using three slanted stitches in my brown DMC floss which I went over several times to make it stand out a bit.  After that, I switched to my beading needle and one ply of the various colors to start adding areas around the face.  In the photo above I've filled in around the top of his head, under his jaw and near the ear.  There's a long way to go but it is just carefully adding stem stitches following how the mane flows.  This isn't hard, it just takes a while because you aren't eating the watermelon as a whole, just segments.

The canvas is starting to take its final form now. At least you can see what the lion will look like on top of the heavily patterned plaid background.

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

Layer One: Legs and Tail

Last night I stitched the first layer of stitches on the tail and two of the four legs of the lion. Following my usual practice, I used two plies of my silk or cotton floss but just one strand of the #8 Kreinik gold metallic.  The stitches you see are stem stitch (mostly, although to make the right curves I occasionally used outline stitch).  This layer just covers the painted canvas, more or less.  I will add more layers in a single ply of my threads on top and blend the threads down into the tent stitched paws.  The most important thing at this stage is to lay down a layer that slants in the right direction--the way real fur lies.  I don't have a lion here to look at but the dogs and the cat have fur, so if I have any question I just look at a tail or leg or tummy here.

This first layer can--and for the most detailed results, probably should be stitched--with one ply instead of two, but using two makes it all go faster.  I enjoy this sort of needle painting but it isn't a fast stitch.

If you want to see how a master of needle painting creates very lifelike animals, we should go visit Tanja Berlin.  She uses long and short stitches instead of the stem stitch technique I am using.  I feel that my stem stitches work better on a small piece that isn't very large but I am not as skilled at Tanja, either.  Whatever technique you want to use, Tanja's approach has great information that will help you, so do a little exploration here, starting with her section that describes what her needle painting instruction booklet.
http://www.berlinembroidery.com/needlepaintinganimals.htm#example

I hope to do the other two legs and start on the main body today.  I need to put down the first layer on all of the legs, tail and body before I start with the head.

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

The Stuart Plaid Lion: Padding and Paws

The next section of the Leigh British Dynasty Ornament to be stitched is the central figure of the lion.  The first step in stitching this is to make a color copy of the canvas itself.  I do this first thing, before I do any stitching of a painted canvas.  It's a good reference point if you cover areas that you will stitch on later.  I'll toss the copy after the piece is stitched but until I finish, it is what I refer to when I need to see where something goes I can't see on the real canvas.

Once the copy is made, I pull threads.  I choose a brown, a goldenrod, a bright yellow and a metallic gold for the lion itself.  All but the metallic gold are floss type threads since I plan to use random long and short stitches on the lion.  The mouth was already stitched.  I'll need black and white floss for the eye and nose when I get to it.

Then I pulled another thread to use for padding.  In the photo above you see that I used a medium light brown Burmilana doubled to pad the front rear leg and the mane around the lion's face.  I did two layers, one slanting one way and then topped with another layer slanting in another direction.  In the above photo I have not finished the mane's second layer so that you can see better how it was done.

The next step is to tent stitch the lion's face, eye and nose; then tent stitch his paws.  In the above photo this is mostly done and I've added a tiny bit of padding to his lower front paw.  Once the padding and tent stitches for detailed areas are finished, then the base for the random long and short stitches is done.  Now I can actually stitch the lion once I finish his eye and nose which you'll see done using black Splendor #S801 floss and white Impressions #0057 in the photo below.  I used tent stitches for the eye and nose.

The last thing I did before putting my threads away was to finish stitching the metallic hanger at the top of the ornament.  I'd already put rows of yellow beads (the same ones that make up the yellow lines in the Stuart plaid background) on the ornament hanger.  Now I stitched the remaining metallic gold, goldenrod and brown lines with threads I choose for the lion.  I used DMC cotton floss #3862 for the brown, Kreinik's new holographic gold #002L in size 8 braid for the metallic gold, and Soie d'Alger silk floss in #2244 for the goldenrod lines.  The metallic gold was done in extended tent stitches (over two threads high instead of just one thread intersection) to maximize the shine from this lovely thread. The goldenrod and brown areas were just tent stitches, done with four plies of each thread.

I hope to start work on the lion's body tonight.

On another topic entirely, here is a photo of the Barbara Bergsten Designs display at the Dallas trade show.  I love seeing how the designers present their work.
http://createneedlepoint.typepad.com/create_needlepoint/2010/04/dallas-show.html

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

Surrounded, Crowned, and Beaded

Yesterday I finished the red crown.  To do so, first I added a few tent stitches to the empty spaces on each side of the crown and in the middle with my Elegance silk perle.  The skip tent background was showing there and I thought it would look odd because of Step Two.  The second step was to attach crystal hex beads (I used Sundance size 14 beads in color #250) with a doubled ply of my royal blue Sullivans Floss.  That helped the beads stand out a bit. In the photo the red crown doesn't show up much against the red skip tent background but in person the metallic shine makes it pop off the background.  Using blue thread to attach the beads makes them stand out, too. Notice that I slanted the beads on the right using reverse tent stitches and did the beads on the left in tent to slant them the other way.  The center column of beads were attached straight up and down in a row.

This stitched sample on 10 count plastic canvas shows how the crown was done.  The white stitches are the left to right row I stitched.  The brown stitches are the second row I worked right to left.  I stitched this on top of the skip tent background, so the next step was to add tent stitches to the empty right/left/center spaces inside the crown with my background thread so that they were completely stitched.  (This is not shown above for clarity.)  Then I attached beads on top of the tent and skip stitches.  The green thread shows how the beads were attached with different slanting threads to make them turn or stand upright.   I found this darning stitch diagrammed on page 101 of SuZy Murphy's book entitled SuZy's Darn Stitches.

Then I took my red Elegance silk perle and put 2 tent stitches all the way around the perimeter of the ornament to help the finisher.

The last thing I did last night was to attach rows of yellow beads to the ornament's metallic hanger.  I used the same yellow beads that make up the yellow stripes in the plaid and the same DMC yellow floss I used there to attach them.  The rest of the hanger will be stitched with the threads I will use on the lion.

By the way, Leigh Richardson herself suggested I use gold for the crown instead of red.  She thought that gold would be lighter than the red and I could put a gold crown in above the tail.  I may try that but I may not.  I am very happy with the canvas as it is but when the designer has an idea, it is always worth serious consideration and I thought someone else stitching the Stuart Plaid Lion might want to use gold crowns in the background.

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

My Path

Here's what I finally settled on for the background behind the Lion.  I appreciate everyone's opinions.  They really helped me decide what I liked and why.  Almost everyone who responded had a different set of likes and dislikes, all of which look good.  I just chose what I liked best personally.  No beads or metallics in the background, either.  I've decided to leave the skip tent background alone.

My next step is to put two rows of tent stitches all around the perimeter to aid in finishing.

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

More Background Paths

I worked a bit more skip tent background behind the Stuart Plaid Lion yesterday and also started back on Stars.  I'll report my progress on the Tony Minieri counted thread piece tomorrow.  Today let's just talk about the Dynasty Ornament.  As you can see in the photo above, I have the background 2/3 done and also worked crowns in the margins around the design.  Several folks had mentioned they liked the crowns in the background if they were muted, so I stitched a couple of crowns in my #8 silk perle (Elegance #E822 from Rainbow Gallery) and also a slightly smaller version in my red holographic Kreinik 1/16 inch ribbon.  It always helps me to compare things if I have the real thing to look at.

I also started playing around with the skip tent background, trying to see if I should put #8 braid in the empty spots (I used the holographic Kreinik again) or use crystal clear hex beads instead.  And if I used beads, should I use red floss or blue floss to attach them?  The next photo shows a close up of the background with all three variations.  I need to see this in good light (it was very overcast yesterday) to see what it looks like but so far I think I like the beads better than the holographic metallic. They are more subtle. I like the background but I do have to make sure it stays in the background and doesn't overwhelm the lion.  I think the red holographic Kreinik might make the background too overwhelming.  Of course I could stay with the tweedy look of just plain skip tent stitches.  Decisions, decisions!

Speaking of decisions, I made a color and a black and white copy of my design to use when I start stitching the lion.  I cut out the crowns I stitched in the margins of the canvas from my black and white copy, put double-sided tape on the back of each, and positioned them here and there on my color copy.  This helps me decide just how the crowns look if I scatter them different places.

First, you'll remember that Robin made us a mock up of the Stuart Lion Plaid with an all-crown background using Photoshop.  I think this is too busy, even when done in my silk perle instead of metallic.  It would work nicely if done on a cream colored background but since I want red, I've discarded this option.

I could use three crowns instead of an all crown background.  These seem too many to me.  What do you think?

I could use just two crowns on the right and omit the one near the fading stripes.  I think this moves the focal point too much to the right, however.  The lion is clearly looking at the fading stripes on the left.

I could drop one of the right hand crowns and have a more balanced background with a crown on each side.  I like this.  It adds weight to the  focal point on the left but fills the empty spot on the right side above the tail.

I could also use just one crown.  In this version it is located just above the lion's paw, adding to the left side focal point.  Does this make the other side of the ornament look bare to you?  If I do this, the crown has to be shrunk a bit to fit or I have to remove the fading stripes entirely and move the crown to the middle of where the blue stripe currently resides.  I do like the fading stripes but the lion reaching for the crown is a more symbolic background.

Finally, I could put the single crown on the right side above the tail, leaving the fading stripes without a crown.  This is a more symmetrical balancing of the ornament but it makes the fading stripes look a bit wimpy.

I'm going into such detail to explain the possibilities and point out that whatever you prefer, most of the options are equally valid.  To some of us, the all-crown background isn't too busy while it drives others of us nuts to have all those crowns.  It is a matter of personal taste which background you prefer.  The choice of threads matters greatly in deciding as well.  I like the holographic red crowns but adding holographic red tent stitches between the skip tent stitches seems too loud to me.  All a matter of taste....

I know a great many folks don't like to stitch painted canvases without a stitch guide because the huge number of possibilities seem overwhelming.  I find all the choices very interesting myself.  They make me think and plan and come up with ways to try out the possibilities without having to stitch and rip and stitch again.

After all this, I think I like the single tiny crown in red holographic Kreinik just above the lion's paw near the fading stripes.  But I'll have to decide about the skip tent background before I make a final decision.  Using beads or Kreinik metallic will definitely impact the crown....

Stay tuned.  This is better than the Perils of Pauline, right?  LOL

By the way, the poll seems to be broken.  No one can log in to vote, not even me, and I have to be logged in to post Blog entries! In the hope that this will be fixed today now that folks are back at work from the weekend, I'll leave the poll up until tomorrow.  You can always post your vote in the Comments or email me directly at chilly hollowat hotmaildotcom.  Thanks for your patience while I glare at Blogger.

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

A Bit More Background (and Tongue)

While everyone is thinking over their vote (or trying to make the poll work--lots of folks are having trouble but not to worry, just post a comment here or email your vote to me at chilly hollow at hot mail dotcom), I added the background stitch to the ornament.  I choose skip tent.  I wanted something rather plain in the end.  I did test all the background stitches you see on the right of the ornament first but kept coming back to the tent stitch family.  I wanted a stitch that would work with either the crowns --which can be stitched right on top--or the fading lines from the plaid, more of which can also be worked on top.  I also removed the thin silver line on the right side of the ornament which I never liked once I'd stitched it.

Right now it looks a bit tweedy.  I may fill the empty spots between each skip tent stitch seen above with a tent stitch in my red holographic Kreinik or perhaps with crystal beads.  (Or maybe I won't!)  The thread I used is Rainbow Gallery's Elegance, which is a silk perle thread around the size of #8 cotton perle.  The color is E822 which is a very pretty medium Christmas red that is slightly darker than the reds used in the plaid.

By the way, I stitched the lion's tongue a while ago and keep forgetting to nention it.  The darker red base is tent stitches in my red holographic Kreinik #8 braid, and the lighter top is stem stitch in the bright red Trio.  These are both threads used in the plaid area. In this instance I separated one of the three Trio bundles into half so I used one of the six strands you can separate this thread into.  Ordinarily I just use of of the main three bundles but this I made smaller.  There's not enough stitching to stress the thread enough to make it pull apart in the middle but I was pretty careful with my thread tension, just in case.  Trio is really not intended to be divided into 6 sections.

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

A Fork in the Road UPDATED

After I worked a bit on the background last night, I realized we've reached a fork in the road.  Let me explain.

I always intended to work some of the lines up into the plaid and have them fade away into a background of darning stitch patterns.  I planned to use a fleur de lis for the darning stitch as that is a prominent part of the Stuart royal court of arms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Stuart

But I never found or was able to create a small enough scale fleur de lis to fit into the background space.  I did find a lovely little crown pattern in SuZy Murphy's SuZy's Darn Stitches, which is a book full of darning stitches for borders or backgrounds.  In the photo above you see two crowns from page 101 done in the 1/16 inch Kreinik holographic ribbon.
http://www.threadneedlestreet.com/booksndptstitches.htm

The dilemma comes because I don't think I have enough space to work both fading lines and the crowns.  Do I rip out the lines that are in the empty background space and just fill it with crowns?  Do I rip out the crowns and just do a few more lines?  Or do I stop here and go with what I have stitched, just filling in the background with tent stitches around what is in the photo above?

I am having trouble deciding and I'd like input.  Therefore I am about to post a poll at the top of Blog for folks to vote on their favorite background. I'll wait a couple of days until I have another Stars block finished and we'll see what the poll result is before I take the right fork, turn left, or stay on my current road.

UPDATE:  To vote in the poll, you have to have a Blogger or Google account.  If you have neither, just post a comment below.  I'll count those in as part of the official poll vote.  Robin sent me a photoshopped photo showing an all crown background which I've added on the left.  This will help you decide.   THANKS, ROBIN!

While you debate, you might want to visit the new Pocket Full of Stitches blog.  The shop has transitioned to its new owners and is having a sale on current stock.  The day's sale is announced through the blog postings about the Designer of the Day.
http://pocketfullofstitches.blogspot.com/

You will want to visit the shop itself to see their announcement of the two new monthly clubs for the year:  Kelly Clark's Pears set and the Renaissance Designs' Halloweenies ornaments.  PFOS is famous for their monthly clubs and a favorite of many stitchers. I am really glad the original owners were able to find someone to take over the shop so that it continues after the retirement of its founders.
http://www.pfos.com/

Speaking of clubs and Halloween, I just stumbled across Needle Orts' Halloween ornament set.  These are different and fun for the holiday stitcher.  They are all on this page mixed in with the nutcracker club canvases.
http://www.needleorts.com/category_results.cfm?Category=16

I'll go set up a poll while you browse.  See you back here shortly!

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

Yeller

I decided I wanted something a bit different for the yellow stripe in the plaid half of this ornament, so I pulled out a tube of size 15 yellow hex beads (they are not labeled as to manufacturer but are slightly smaller than Mill Hill's Magnifica G11011 beads) and attached them in horizontal rows, using a doubled single ply of yellow DMC floss to attach them in an upright line.  Once I finished all the horizontal lines, I turned the canvas on its side and worked the vertical lines horizontally.  I thought that would work best and I am pleased with the outcome.  As with the royal blue stripe, one row of yellow is worked up into the pink background area by stitching a group of beads, then two single beads.

I need to finish the silver rows.  I haven't done the row just under the tail on the right and some of the silver lines will extent into the plain upper background so I have more work to do before I can say that the plaid is stitched.

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

Jagged Silver

Yesterday was hectic so I only finished the silver lines in the plaid, couching a doubled line of #8 braid with a 1/16 inch length of the same Kreinik holographic silver.  It is harder than you would think because the metallic threads catch other loose threads that are on the back and bring them forward, even if you think you had them secure.  It also is hard to keep the 1/16 inch ribbon smooth as you work.  I can see in the photo that there are 1-2 places where the thread twisted that I didn't notice.  I'll fix that before continuing the silver lines up into the background.

Pat asked the in the Comments yesterday what I planned to do with the background.  Wait and see....

Jane, teasing here in CH

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

Sullivans Embroidery Floss and the Stuart Plaid

I know at least one reader is interested in stitching plaids in more than just tent stitch.  If you look carefully at yesterday's photo in close up above, you'll see that the largest bright red areas are broken up into smaller sections, each stitched as a separate rectangle.  I thought that would look better than a smooth filling of the large shape with laid slanted stitches.  I want the plaid to have dimension and I'm doing this with texture (using silk/wool blends and metallics) and also with different stitches.

Today I am adding a new thread called Sullivans Embroidery Floss (well, it is new to me) that a friend sent.  She'd heard good and bad things about it so she got some samples for me to use.  One color happened to be a royal blue, suitable for the Stuart Plaid.  So I used it.  Sullivans Embroidery Floss is a six stranded cotton floss thread, made in China according to the label.  Sullivans is an Australian company with an affiliate in New Zealand.  They do tapestry wool and a lot of sewing notions, too.  The royal blue color I have is #796 and it seems to be a pretty close color match to DMC's #796.  Sullivans says right on the label that this skein is "similar to DMC #796."

I had a little trouble stripping the Sullivans floss into the six plies. I cut my usual 18 inch length and it did knot itself together as I tried to separate the plies.  It seems to be important to hold all the plies in one hand and pull hard on the one you want to separate with the other.  The individual plies seem a bit thinner and a little shinier than DMC cotton floss plies.  Otherwise, I can't tell much difference.  The Sullivans stitches up just fine.  Since no one here carries Sullivans, I probably will just use the colors my friend sent and not try to mail order but I'd bet that folks in Australia where it is based use Sullivans all the time.  If anyone else has experience stitching with this thread, we'll all love you to post about it in the comments.  For everyone else, here is the Sullivans American website's page about their embroidery floss.
http://www.sullivans.net/usa/sullivansfloss/

Back to the stitching!

Using four plies of my Sullivans, I stitched the bright blue areas in Cashmere Stitch, mostly laid out horizontally.  Here is a diagram but the stitches here are oriented vertically.
http://needlepoint.about.com/od/texturedstitches/ss/StraightCashmere_3.htm

It is pretty easy stitching.  There are a few areas where the cashmere stitches need to be a bit longer or shorter, or where a tent stitch or two is needed around a leg, but it is straightforward. As you can see, I extended one of the blue stripes up into the upper half of the ornament and started to fade it out, stitching with spaces between two cashmere stitches, or just doing some of the stitches that make up a cashmere stitch block.  This fading technique is one Marnie Ritter uses a lot and I admire it greatly.   I thought it would continue the plaid up into the top background without dominating the area.

I've also started working the white lines in the plaid.  You may not be able to tell from the photo, but some of the white lines are light grey where the line crosses the black plaid areas.  I decided rather than stitching some as white and some as grey, I would stitch all of these lines in silver, using my new Kreinik holographic thread.  I've done two vertical lines, laying long lines of thread on either side of the thread painted white (or grey).  You can see this on the right hand line that is stitched.  My vertical threads actually lie in the "ditches" on either side of the painted line.  I used Kreinik holographic 001L in #8 braid for this.

The left hand stitched line is tidied up by couching over the two underlying silver holographic threads with Kreinik holographic 001L in 1/16 inch ribbon.  The 1/16" ribbon is shinier than the #8 braid and couching the underlying thread makes for a tidier and brighter line.

This is just another way of dealing with a single line in a plaid.  I think it will look nice once I finish.  Some of the silver lines will also end up in the upper background.  But you'll have to wait and see what things look like until I can finish the silver stitching tonight (hopefully).

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

The Stuart Lion's Plaid

I decided the easiest place to start on the Stuart Plaid Lion ornament was the plaid section, and I also decided to work all the plaid a color at a time.  This is a bit chancy as the various lines and rows and boxes are of different sizes.  It is really easy to do a block three stitches wide and then do the section above it four stitches wide by accident.  So I am careful to work a vertical column at a time, making sure that the next color I use is done in stitches that are as wide or narrow as previous colors in that section.

In the above photo, I have worked all the reds, using the Trio (Really Red #T312) for the bright red and the holographic Kreinik (Robot Red #003L) for the dark red.  As I mentioned yesterday, I used size #8 Kreinik braid for the single line of tent stitches and the larger size #12 Kreinik braid for the blocks of cashmere or Scotch stitches.  I liked how those two sizes covered these various sections.

I worked the single line in tent stitches first, then stitched the single stitches around the paws and tail, then worked the larger boxes and rectangles for each color.

Once those areas were done (and it took longer than you'd think as there is a lot of red in the plaid) I worked the black squares and lines in the same fashion, using the Felicity’s Garden Cast Iron Black #008.  Felicity's Garden is a silk/Merino wool blend tapestry style thread.  You can't ply it, unlike Trio, but the two thread brands are both half silk and half merino wool.

I love the silky shine of Felicity's Garden and since I have a nice little stash of it, I used it often.  It works well on either 13 or 18 count canvas if you are doing tent stitches.  On the Stuart Plaid Lion, it looks very deep and inky black in comparison to the two red threads.  It's perfect for my purpose, in other words, although there is a bit of black fuzziness compared to Trio which--although fuzzier when unstitched--is less so stitched.  Here is the Felicity's Garden website.  They offer a shaded overdyed Felicity's Garden called Felicity's Garden Duet, a lambswool/alpaca tapestry thread called Newport Harbor which is made up of shades of colors, and Annabelle's Playhouse, which is a wool tapestry yarn.
http://www.rosebud-studio.com/yarn-menu.htm

I'll have a photo tomorrow that shows the black areas stitched and reveals the interesting things I plan for the thin yellow and white lines and the slightly larger blue lines in the plaid.

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

What's Next--Introducing the Stuart Ornament

I was too tired last night to even think about counting out the three sections of pattern couching I need to finish on Stars last night, so I picked up my next painted canvas design (mounted on stretcher bars last week) and started doing some tent stitches on it.  I can do tent stitches even when I am half asleep and I did want to stitch--I just didn't want to have to rip out what I stitched the next day!  More about that later.  I know you are asking, what new painted canvas?!

My next project is a Leigh Designs piece from her Dynasty Ornament series. It's one of the new British Dynasty series, just released at the February trade show.  Leigh sent it to me free to stitch.  It'll go back to her to use as a model at the trade shows and I will eventually write and sell a stitch guide for this ornament.  More about that later.  The entire new series of eight ornaments based on British kings and royal families can be seen in the next link.  My ornament is the Stuart Ornament, first on this page on the Leigh website.
http://www.leighdesigns.com/Grp827x.html

All of the British Dynasty ornaments are painted on 18 count pink "blush" canvas and all are approximately 4 inches in diameter.  Each comes with a little metal loop to attach at the top so they may be finished as an ornament.  (My loop is seen attached to the canvas in the photo above.) They join the other sets of Dynasty ornaments all of which are linked to from this page.  Look under Christmas and then choose whichever country's Dynasty ornaments interest you.  Some of Blog's long time readers will remember the Chinese dragon ornament I did for Leigh last year.
http://www.leighdesigns.com/IdxCateg.html

Leigh choose the ornament for me since when we discussed this, they were still being created, so I didn't know which ornament I would receive or what the others looked like at that point.  I think I got lucky--the Stuart Plaid Lion is my favorite of all the ornaments although the Plantagenet ornament is sitting there, whispering "stitch me in goldwork" every time I look at it.  LOL

This is the back side of the Stuart Plaid Lion canvas.  I'm showing it to you because Leigh mentioned in passing that one can always tell a painted canvas by looking on the back side.  Hand painted canvases show blobby paint on the back where it bleeds through.  A printed or silk screened canvas does not.  I thought anyone who was unsure about a canvas they were thinking about buying might like to know this.  Many of the printed canvases today are hard to tell from hand painted ones if they are well done unless you take a very careful look.  This isn't going to help anyone buying online, but it is a good tip for the shopper in a real stitching shop, particularly a beginner who won't necessarily know that such-and-such a designer never sells anything except stitch painted or silk screened or hand painted canvases.

I plain to work on this piece once the Clark Gable block on Stars is finished.  Until then, you might like to read a bit more about the Stuart kings, who include indirectly the ill-fated patroness of needlepoint Mary, Queen of Scots.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Stuart

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

South Seas Fiji is Finished

Or is it?  I need a sunny day to take this Dynasty Ornament outside and check to make sure I didn't miss a stitch somewhere and that I covered all the painted palm fronds with stem stitches.  But we've had cloudy, overcast skies for the last two days.  So I did a big scan to see if I found any problems that way and I did not.  Often a scan or a photograph will reveal a cat hair caught in my stitches or a stitch I missed or another mistake that the naked eye just doesn't see.  I've noticed that one becomes so familiar with a piece you just don't notice things, like the fact that my first sky stitch was too big for the piece.  You get used to a piece and stop seeing the details.  That's another argument for a stitch rotation.  Switching back and forth one sees problems a lot better than stitching one piece at a time.   However, I know that I become so focused on a piece that I forget about the other piece in my rotation.  That's why this took two months to stitch.  Most of the time it was waiting for me to finish up Cape Cod Dogs.   So my next piece will probably be a large one that I focus on exclusively until it is done except for time outs to work on Glittering Kimono.  I've started the September stitch there (it's a mystery piece with a new section diagrammed for you each month) and am still working away on May.

While stitching South Seas Fiji, I relearned this lesson about paying attention to our stitching courtesy of Liz Morrow who first mentioned in the Comments that the sky stitch looked too large.  Scale is very important in needlepoint and if Liz hadn't spoken up, I wouldn't have noticed that my sky's too big.  I also relearned the lesson that just because one stitch is lovely (and the original sky stitch, Ming Variation is lovely) doesn't mean it is the right stitch for the piece you are working on.  This lesson was reinforced by the problem I had on the right side of this piece.  I originally did a light coverage couching stitch on the sea foam green parts of the fabric half of this design.  When I added tent stitches to the black areas, they made the sea foam green sections look sunken.  I had to rip out the couching stitches and do something else so that the two halves of the right side of this design were balanced.

In the end South Seas Fiji was all about achieving the right balance of elements in a design.

Please note I have not stitched the top metallic hanger and loop on this piece.  I plan to frame it inside a circular mat so that this area is hidden.  If I can't find the right frame and decide to finish it differently, I'll go back and stitch the area, but if it is going to be hidden in the framing, it is better that it is not stitched.  South Seas Fiji will be put away in the Awaiting Finishing pile for now. The next sunny day I'll take her outside for inspection and the next time I am at the best local frame shop I'll search for the right frame and choose a mat.

I hope you enjoyed stitching the second of my two Dynasty Ornaments by Leigh Designs.  The designer told me that these are created to be fast, easily stitched designs and I've certainly found this to be the case.  Here are the rest of the Dynasty Series to date for your browsing pleasure.
http://www.leighdesigns.com/ImgIdx2h.html

http://www.leighdesigns.com/Grp826x.html

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

Next, Add Tree

Once the sky stitch was the proper size to look good with the rest of my South Seas Fiji design, the only things left were the tree and the metallic hanger at the top of the ornament.  I've decided that I want to frame this piece with a mat cut out in a circle so that looking at South Seas Fiji is like looking through a peephole.  It should be a glimpse at Paradise in my mind.  So I won't be stitching the top of the ornament.  I'll probably just put a row of tent stitches all around the perimeter.

That leaves the palm tree fronds unstitched.  I started them yesterday but didn't talk about them.  Donna, that's why the top of the tree looked so faint yesterday.  I had just started the stitching and didn't make that clear in what I wrote.  If you look at yesterday's photo, you can see the darker fronds stitched with a ply of the same dark forest green Splendor (#S907) I used for the tree line in the background.  I am doing stem stitch for the fronds.  It gives me a thin line since I am just using one ply of silk.  I topped the line and filled it out with a strand of dark green Petite Treasure Braid #P853.  This adds sparkle to the tree while the dark silk underneath gives a shadow.  It takes a long time to stem stitch the fronds with such a thin thread but I think building up the fronds slowly works best.

In the photo above you can see that I've started working on the lighter colored fronds using a medium green Splendor in color S906.  Once I finish all the fronds (using the color copy of the plain unstitched canvas as my guide) I will go back and add a ply of Sparkle Braid (a thin metallic strand similar in size to my Petite Treasure Braid) in color SK08 on top.  Then I will have to decide whether to use an even lighter color of Splendor to add more highlights and shadows.  I'm playing with color and texture here, trying to make the palm tree memorable and realistic, too.

Wish me luck!  I'm going to add three more threads to my thread stash count....

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

Big Versus Little Sky Stitches

The photo above shows the old large Ming Variation stitch in the right hand side of the sky and the left side shows the smaller balloon stitch I found which is a smaller scale, less oval version of the stitch that some of us think is too large.  It was easy to pull out the left half of the sky as this is a light coverage stitch with only one ply of silk.

Here's a tip about ripping out--use the eye end of the needle to gently pull up a stitch.  If I use the business end, the sharp tip catches the silk the wrong way and I end up pulling half the ply out, not the whole thing.

Comparing the two sky stitches, I like the Ming Variation better but it isn't right for this canvas. It is too large.  So I ripped it all out and continued filling the sky with balloon stitch.

This photo shows an all balloon stitch sky with some of the palm fronds stitched in.  I'm using stem stitch and a variety of threads, but more about that later when I have more palm fronds stitched.

Thanks for your input, everyone!

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

Is My Sky Too Big?

Last night I completed the sky in a variation of Ming stitch (Page 91 of Brenda Hart's Stitches for the Millennium) using one ply of my Thread Gatherer's overdyed silk (color Seafoam Green).  As you can see, I stitched right over the palm tree fronds.  If I'm careful and use a sharp needle, the fronds can be stitched on top of the background stitches without disturbing them.

However, Liz thinks that perhaps the Ming Variation #3 stitch is too large in scale.  I will think about this today and just work on Glittering Kimono couching of my H-Q rows. I don't know if Liz is right or not but if I decide she is, this is the time to rip out.  I don't want to do palm fronds until I am sure about the stitch they go on top of.  As usual when I am thinking about a stitch, I will work on another item and put this one up where I can see it as I walk around the house.  Eventually I will decide whether Liz is right.  Scale is very important in needlework. If the background stitch is too large, the piece will be an irritant.  So I'll take time to think this over.  Thanks for the critique, Liz!  We can get too close to our stitching and not see how good/bad it is!  I love getting comments from Blog readers as otherwise I have no input on my stitching at all.  There are no other needlepointers near me in Chilly Hollow.

Anyone else have thoughts about the sky background stitch?

The other thing I worked on last night is the white foam on the edges of the waves rolling into the beach.  My canvas came with a two page stitch guide.  I used the threads list to guide me in choosing threads (but I didn't follow it completely). I have not used any of the stitch suggestions until now.  The guide suggests using detached buttonhole for the white foam.  I deviated from that slightly in that I used regular buttonhole (one ply of my white Splendor silk used for the sandy beach in the background mixed with one strand of white Accentuate #311) to stitch the foam lines from left to right.  In certain areas I added a tiny French knot where the foam needed to be thicker as it spilled over the top of an incoming wave.

I have to admit it was hard to keep the silk and Accentuate strands even in the needle.  This was slow going but I like the end result. It doesn't overwhelm the water and looks real to me.

The white Accentuate was a new thread so I added one more stash credit point to my tally which stands at 25 now.  It amazes me how many threads I use on a piece and how I rarely use up a thread from my stash.  I must mix a lot of small sections of each thread.  But as I am a threadaholic, I would expect no less.

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