More Pet Guardian Angels UPDATED

Margaret and Pat have just finished their pet guardian angels for the ANG Auction. You can see photos of their beautiful stitching on their blogs.
http://cranecottage.com/stitchingblog/?p=1075

http://needleartnut.blogspot.com/2009/06/guardian-angels-are-finished.html

UPDATE: I've received photos of Carole's fabulous Autumn Tudor Dog and her beautiful springtime pastels Medieval Cat. These are in the slide show, too.

Remember, you can see Kandace Merric's original angels as well as the ones being stitched for ANG's Auction in the fall in Milwaukee by clicking on the magazine cover that showcased them on the left side of this page.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

The Golden Rabbit Pet Guardian Angel is Done

I can see the finish line from here, despite the rain and fog we have this morning. Last night I put the Golden Rabbit together and added her trim. The Victorian Parakeet is next and then I'll work assembling the wisteria teapot.

I hate finishing but I must say making up 7 ornaments in a row makes it easier. I feel a lot more confident about finishing now.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Golden Rabbit Finished

While the computer was in the shop, I finished the basketweaved background around Kandace Merric's Georgian Rabbit, the last of the six pet guardian angels that I'm stitching to add to a group of these ornaments that will be auctioned next fall at ANG's Seminar to raise money for ANG programs. You see the Golden Rabbit above. Note that her halo is surrounded by three gold Mill Hill beads topped by a pale copper Toho bead for contrast.

Below you see the Golden Rabbit with the final touch added--a Mill Hill "Glass Treasure" which is a glass charm that has a hole in the top leg of the star. I simply sewed it on with a few passes of a ply of cream silk through the ecru background stitches. I like this final touch and feel lucky I noticed the star at Scarlet Thread during my stopover there on the way to the computer repair place. Thanks, Sara Leigh! Hope you all like how she turned out.


The next step is to finish all the ornaments and write up instructions so that the other folks stitching angels have something to use to finish their ornaments themselves. I plan to post step by step instructions here and then send a more coherent and polished set of instructions to the participants in this stitch-along. Whether you stitched an angel or not, I hope you find the instructions helpful. I'm going to start working on them this holiday weekend.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Golden Rabbit Without Makeup, With Beads

In between sessions of backetweave marathoning, I removed the black thread outlining the Golden Rabbit's eye and replaced it with a dark brown bullion in the same DMC cotton floss as her face. I decided the black was too harsh. The bullion is made of three plies of the floss and it is couched in the middle to bend it to arch over her eye. What do you think?

I also added three bullions to her paw to give it dimension. These are in the same thread and same number of plies as the eye bullion, but I started with the longest bullion on the right and did around 20 wraps, the middle bullion only had 15 wraps and the short bullion on the left only 12. I tried to do "fingers" to give depth to the area, inspired by Joan Thomasson and Amy Bunger.

I first saw this technique on Joan Thomasson's Nativity figures. Here are her Three Kings. The hands clearly have bullion fingers.
http://needlepointnow.com/back_issues/2003/2003_11/2003_11_cover.html

Amy Bunger does the same thing in her stitching class on the Kelly Clark Nativity. Look at Joseph's hands.
http://www.amybunger.com/albums/album_image/6366238/4533002.htm

One needs to practice bullions and they are easier to do with a one stranded thread, but I think the bullions I added look good. What do you think? Will you consider doing this on one of your next pieces?

The other thing I've done is scatter beads above the halo. This is a test to see how many and which color looks best, or even if I should do this at all. Starting at the rabbit's nose and arcing upward, you see two of the pale copper Toho beads, then a single gold Mill Hill Petite bead, then a cluster of three gold Mill Hill beads, and finally a single pale copper Toho bead. I think a mix of both types might work but I've run out of time to test that. What do you think?

The reason I've run out of time is that I have to take the laptop in for repair today and I don't know when it will be ready. Apple won't even tell me if they have the repair parts in stock (that's "propriatary" information? !?!??!!). Anyway, I won't be blogging for 2-3 days until the computer comes back but I'll work on the basketweave and once that is done, I'll decide about whether beads above the halo look good or not.

Y'all behave while I'm gone!

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Beads and Eye Liner

Last night I managed to add the little gold Mill Hill Petite beads to the centers of the flower stitches on the trim on the Golden Rabbit's skirts. I discovered the pale copper beads just disappeared but the gold ones are a bit more visible against the ivory and golden trim stitches. I hope you can see them in the photo. I didn't have trouble getting them to stay in place but they are smaller than the pale copper Toho beads. Those might have misbehaved, as beads do. Odette had trouble with beads when she tried the same thing. Guess the size is what is important here. Smaller beads are less wiggly. Sort of. I still had one bead jump out of the box and escape into my recliner somewhere! Do NOT trust beads. They are escape artists!

i also added a bit of black thread to highlight her eye. Then it was back to the Basketweave Marathon. Lots to do there still! Once I get more background done I'll take beads down around the halo and you can help me decide whether I need beads there or not.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Golden Rabbit's Halo

Yesterday it was cool and rainy and windy and I was sick of housework so I couched a halo for the Golden Rabbit using a long strand of my Kreinik copper/gold 002V color. Traditional couching is pairs of metallic thread but I always have more luck couching one thread in such a small space. The halo itself is around an inch long and almost half an inch wide. It is tied down with two strands of gold Accentuate. I worked from the outside in and was very careful to keep the thread from twisting so it would lie smoothly on the NP canvas. After I had everything couched, I started on the background again to help me decide it the halo looks good. It is a bit offset due to the rabbit ears, but I think I like it. What do you think? I am considering adding beads around the outside but that needs to wait until all the background of this area is finished.

I finished all the trims on the skirts except for the final touch of beads. I'm debating whether to use the little gold beads, the larger pale copper beads, or to do French knots in my ivory Silk Lame Braid in the center of the flower shapes. Stay tuned! I'll work on background while I ponder it all. Sometimes it takes a while to visualize the possibilities and see if you can come up with any other ideas, then do a little test stitching.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Floral Trim for The Rabbit

Last night I added a bit more basketweave around the Golden Rabbit's wings, then started on the two trims at the edges of her over- and underskirts. Four colors are used n the original design but I decided to use the copper Kreinik for two of them. The ivory Silk Lame Braid is what I used for the flower shapes made of tent and reversed tent stitches. I have no idea what I'll do next but probably it'll involve more basketweave marathon while I think about it. Beads go in the center of the ivory flowers but I might use the little gold beads in her necklace instead of the larger pale copper beads. I don't want to cover up the flowers with a big fat bead in the middle.

Stay tuned.....

In other news, Stitch Niche is posting photos of new canvases daily as they arrive from their Dallas show orders. You can see them here. The second link is their shop newsletter, full of photos of projects finished and underway as usual.
http://www.needlepointyaya.com/website/new/may/mayindex.htm

http://www.needlepointyaya.com/newsletter/may/maynews.htm

Needle Works in Austin is also posting new items. I was particularly interested in SharonG's new half nature/half meditation pieces and in the bird stockings from Share One's Ideas. To see everything from these two designers, click on their name in the left hand column. Don't miss SharonG's Twin Beaks. The pun makes me laugh and the abstract birds would be fabulous stitched in silks and metallic fancy stitches.
Somebody call Marnie Ritter--have I got a painted canvas for her!
http://www.theneedleworks.com/catalog/

In designer news, Lani's updated her website. It's not quite done but you'll enjoy seeing the lovely slide show of finished pieces and the bare naked painted canvases are a treat!
http://www.lanienterprises.com/indexa.html

My final posting is really special. You may know that Kimberly Crum (now Kim Smith) has stopped created charts. I think her pieces are fabulous so I was really sorry when all the work got to be more than she wanted to take on. But we can take heart that occasionally, very occasionally, she creates painted canvases. The newest one is up on her blog. I don't know the size, cost, if a stitch guide comes with it, or any of the details, but the design itself is vintage Kimberly--floral and rthymic and nature in motion. Lovely! I was especially charmed by the large leaf and how the background is denser at the top and then fades towards the bottom. Thank heavens Kimberly gets inspired occasionally!
http://akimberlydesign.blogspot.com/2009/05/swooosh.html

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Bunny Wings

As you can see, I completely abandoned the basketweave background marathon last night and concentrated on stitching the Golden Rabbit's wings. The white thread is my ivory and gold Silk Lame Braid, while the golden thread is the Lorikeet wool. I used only two plies of the wool here so as not to completely hide the Silk Lame Braid. Once the rows of stitches were in place, I filled in the empty spots betwen stitches with my pale copper beads from Toho. It took a while to stitch everything and I'm not 100% sure that the edges are compensated properly, but today I'll fill in the background around the wings and figure out if there are places that need padding out where they meet my DMC ecru perle background stitches.

I also gave the rabbit a necklace of little gold Mill Hill Petite beads. The pale copper beads didn't look good against the brown of her neck fur, so I went with gold.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Wings for Liz

The endless basketweave marathon continued last night but I did make a start on the Golden Rabbit's wings. Here you go, Liz! You've been asking what I planned to do. This time I didn't really plan, I just browsed through "Sundance Beads for Needlepoint: How To & Why Knot." The booklet has 25 unnamed stitches in the back that the Sundance folks like using when beading. The diagonal flow appealed to me and I thought the stitch would look nice with the ones I used on the pet guardian angel's robe. I didn't plan to alternate my ivory Silk Lame Braid with my overdyed golden Gloriana silk floss. It just happened as I was studying the stitch diagram and deciding which areas were more prominant and where the beads would go. Angel wings are usually white and the ivory mixed with gold was the closest I have to white in my color scheme. The pale copper beads will sit in the unstitched holes once the rows of stitches are laid out.

I still have a lot of background to do. I'll work on that tonight for a while and then switch to filling in more wing area.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Picking Flower Colors, Adding Fur

As you can see, I haven't worked any more on the skirt trims for Miss Honeybunny (honey=golden, does it make sense now?). Instead I stitched her paw and most of her face. I still have the eye and nose to do but these areas are essentially done. I just happened to have two skeins of DMC cotton floss not put away yet that were a perfect match for the golden gown the Golden Rabbit wears. (The dark brown is #610 and the lighter tan is #612).

You might think that I switched to the face and paw because I was tired and basketweaving these areas was an easy way to show progress. That's only part of the story. The real reason I wanted to stitch the fur was the floral trim on her over- and under-skirts.

The over-skirt trim is a floral pattern that is 6 stitches wide, while the under-skirt trim is a floral pattern 4 stitches wide. The outside edge of both trims in the original instructions is gold Kreinik braid. I have stitched this already for both trims. But moving to the next step was a problem for me. The floral trims both have French knot centers for the flower shapes. I can use my pale copper beads there. But what about the flower-shaped stitches (yellow in the original model), the tent and reverse tent sttiches that are supposed to be leaves (green in the original model), and the accent stitches (straight and large cross stitches) which are violet in the original. I have limited myself to overdyed gold and light gold colors, so I needed to introduce more colors that would work with gold. I decided that the brown and tan on the rabbit's face might do for some of the trim colors, but to know for sure, I thought I needed to stitch the face. So I did!

Every part of a canvas effects every other part, doesn't it?

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Odette's Georgian Rabbit with Butterflies

I have another completed pet guardian angel to show off. Above you see Odette's Georgian Rabbit who has the special added touch of butterflies. Clever! The lavenders in the original model plus the flower shaped trim makes this a spring-themed pet guardian angel, so butterflies fit perfectly in the spring color theme. The rabbit's face is knitting wool and she wears cotton and rayon fibers for her gown with touches of metallic. I think she is lovely, so here's her picture instead of a photo of my rabbit who got more basketweave last night. Each angel has looked slightly different as folks changed colors or threads and added their own special touches. I am so pleased with how these are turning out!

In other news, Fireside Stitchery has a virtual trunk show up of Mindy's designs. Mindy is one of my favorite designers. She also has a retail shop with a huge selection of buttons and trims, which explains the tassels, buttons and charms she adds to her canvases. Being so busy, Mindy's website isn't updated with new things more than a few times a year so trunk shows are the best place to see what she's been up to. I didn't realize she had little 2x2 inch designs, for example, and hadn't see all the purse-shaped canvases she has created. The colors are a bit light in the trunk show (they are rich and glowing in person) but you can still see how beautiful these are.

The trunk show is in four sections: pillows/pictures, purses, standup trees, and stockings. It looks like the jester stockings come with beaded balls for trim. Interesting touch! Navigate by selection one section to view, then click Next until there are no more pages. After that, click on Virtual Trunk Show-Mindy in the left column to return to the main page to choose another of the four sections. Have fun browsing!
http://www.firesidestitchery.com/fs/HandPaintedCanvas/index.cfm?fuseaction=GETVirtualTrunkShows&saleId=23&saleTypeId=1

Now I'm off to stare at Odette's butterflies again. They fascinate me!

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Trims for a Golden Rabbit

I've finished the Golden Rabbit's underskirt area and I think it looks nice. The Silk Lame Braid adds a subtle sparkle to the underskirt without overwhelming it with metallic. I want the overskirt (that has Kreinik metallic thread) to be primary and the underskirt secondary, so I needed to control the accent thread that pairs with the same Gloriana overdyed silk in both areas.

When it comes to using Silk Lame Braid, it seems to eventually unwind itself and the metallic parts can escape the needle's eye. This wasn't a big problem but I'd use a shorter-than-normal length of this thread to help minimize the jailbreaks. I think this is a nice thread for subtle sparkle or for areas where a metallic thread might catch on the silks you already have in place. Used alone it might make awesome white snow or a navy velvet sky as well.

I decided to start on the trimmed edge of the over- and under-skirt next. The overskirt's trim border is 6 threads wide while the underskirt's is 4 threads wide. In the original model, Kandace Merric tent stitches the sides in metallic and I stuck to that, using my 002V copper/gold Kreinik. The rest of the pattern is done in cotton floss and perle cottons in a pattern that looks like flowers and leaves. The flowers have a French knot center. I will use my beads in the flower centers instead of French knots but I am not sure what threads I will use where for the last three stitches. Stay tuned! I'll pick up the Basketweave Marathon and get more of that knocked out while I ponder thread choices.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Decision Time

Last night I continued the Basketweave Marathon for a few rows, finished the little bits of Kreinik on the overskirt of the Golden Rabbit, and started thinking about the underskirt. I'm using three main threads on this piece -- the overdyed wool Lorikeet (from Gloriana), the overdyed silk (Gloriana) and the solid silk Silk Mori (Kreinik). I did a few stitches in the Lorikeet but it looks too dark. The Silk Mori is just a bit too light and regular in color. The Gloriana overdyed silk in Old Gold is the right color, so I started stitching the pairs of long stitches in rows that make up half of the pattern. I like how it looks so I've turned my attention to what thread to use for the little short stitches that separate the long pairs. In the photo I put one of my Toho beads in the bottom row, then in the top row I used a new thread -- Silk Lame Braid (Rainbow Gallery) in SL03, which is a pale wheat, similar in color to the Silk Mori except that Silk Lame Braid has a metallic woven into the silk perle. Silk Lame Braid is described as 4 strands of silk woven with 4 strands of metallic. Note that this perle-type thread comes in two sizes--the 18 (4 strands silk+4 strands metallic) and the 13 (8 strands silk+8 strands metallic). I have the 18 count smaller size. The color card is below.

http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?ID=1149

I compared the look of the two and decided I preferred the Silk Lame Braid. The bead is back in the tube and this morning I'll add a bit more of the Silk Lame Braid before I continue stitching this area. As usual, I'll do a little background basketweave. If I don't, there is just too much background at the end!

Tomorrow I'll have a special treat--I'll unveil one of two totally new pet guardian angels, stitched by the designer Kandace Merric for the ANG Auction.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Finished Beaded Sleeves

Last night I got the rows of beads on the Golden Rabbit's sleeve. They look very nice! I was tempted after putting in the first row to take them all out and do something fancy (I have those diagrams for fancy stitches using beads in the Sundance Bead Book to use!) but I decided that the space was really too small to show off a mix of beads and stitches and her gown is fancy enough already. Hope you like it.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Beaded Sleeves

The Georgian Gold Rabbit got some basketweave background last night, then I started beading the inner sleeve. I tried to do the background around the sleeves to make less chance of snagging thread on the beads later. I should have waited to add the beads toward the end but I couldn't help it--I was dying to see how the color worked with the silks and wool. The beads go in the empty spaces made in skip tent but since they are size 11 beads from Toho in the color 1955-133 Hexagon Pale Copper, they probably don't need the skip tent stitches. Size 11 beads fit 13 count canvas. I prefer size 14 beads for 18 count. But the Toho beads only came in size 11 and you goes with what you got!

Note that I am stitching the beads in a backwards tent stitch \ with one ply of the same Silk Mori that couched the Lorikeet wool on her bodice and over-sleeve. That makes the beads look like the slant of the rest of the sleeve stitches which is more pleasing to my eye. I can't say it matters much but since I like that, that's usually what I do.

Tonight I'll attempt to finish beading the inner sleeve, then start back on the Background Marathon to get a bit more of that finished.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Introducing the Golden Rabbit

As you can see, I've started the last of the six pet guardian angels (designed by Kandace Merric) for the ANG Auction this fall at their Milwaukee Seminar Auction. You can see a photo of the original model on the left if you are here via the Blogspot address. We already have several beautiful rabbits in colors close to the original so I went for a monochromatic color scheme, thinking that I would use texture to make this a subtle and elegant piece.

The skirt is a bargello type stitch done in overdyed silk floss from Gloriana. The color is #169 Old Gold. The accent metallic is Kreinik's new 002V which is a mix of gold and copper. When you put this color with Kreinik's other golds, it looks copper. When you try to put it with the coppers, it looks gold! I like how the two shades are similar but there's enough color contrast for this to be interesting, instead of blah. I was afraid a regular gold wouldn't stand out enough from the gold overdye, so I think this was a good choice.

The bodice is couched Lorikeet (also from Gloriana, color Lacquered Gold this time). Lorikeet is a 9 ply wool and this color is overdyed and slightly darker than the Old Gold silk. I used a lighter gold in silk floss from Kreinik-their Silk Mori. The color is 0923. This is a faded shade from their Milk Paint color set.

The sleeve is in two parts. The outer sleeve uses the same stitch as the bodice but I changed the inner sleeve design and am stitching it in skip tent using two plies of my Silk Mori. More about that tomorrow. Right now I want to talk about the stitch on the bodice and upper sleeve. I told you it was just the Lorikeet (3 plies) couched down with the Silk Mori (2 plies) but I didn't say the original model uses diagonal mosaic slanted two different ways for the bodiee and the sleeve. Diagonal Mosaic is one of the stitches on ANG's website.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2000/00-07.php

I wanted to emphasize the textures of my threads, so I came up with a couched version of diagonal mosaic, that couched a line of Lorikeet with only the short stitches, then the next row in only the long stitches. This way you can see the Lorikeet under the couching lighter Silk Mori.

When you have a specific effect in mind, you can often tinker with the recommended stitch to stay in the design's ballpark, but still do what you want with the threads.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Odette's Rabbit Angel

I got a note and a photo from Odette this weekend. She's working away on her household pet guardian angel, the Georgian Rabbit. I thought (with Odette's permission) you would like to see how it is coming along. This is what Odette told me:

"Thought you would like to see that I have progressed. I was hoping to finish bunny angel this weekend and only have the background to complete but that did not happen.

You can't see the shimmer on the wings - I put a green pearlessence DMC threads over the stitching. I used the same green rayon thread that is in the border for the centre of the 'feathers'. I thought her face turned out quite well. It shows up a bit fluffy."

The face looks great! I think Odette told me it is a knitting wool. As she is in South Africa, the threads she has available are a bit different than what I can buy in the United States, which makes this a very special international angel!

Nice job, Odette. I especially love the contrast of her dark gray furry face with the lavender and spring colors of her clothing.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Odette's Georgian Rabbit

The photo above came from South Africa where Odette is stitching the Georgian Rabbit from the Household Pet Guardian Angel series for the ANG Auction. Because the threads Odette has access to are not the same as what I can get in the U.S., the threadaholics Out There will really enjoy her description of her progress so far:

"The underskirt is done in rayon thread 99 by House of Embroidery and I used DMC Jewel effects E155 as the little in between thread. The overskirt was stitched in stranded cotton pansies by Chameleon Threads and the same DMC E155 in between. The borders were stitched with DMC no.4 2745 for the yellow flowers, another Chameleon Threads green apples, twisted rayon, for the leaves and lilac haze perle no 8 also by Chameleon Threads. The border stitch was done with Kreinik #8 007HL. We can get a little of Kreinik but don't get the colour range or the availability.

House of Embroidery and Chameleon Threads are both local. Via Laurie of Chameleon Threads has told me that she has an agent in USA! "

I was able to find Chameleon Threads' website but Google didn't find a U.S. distributor for me. Perhaps a blog reader has seen these in their shop?
http://www.chameleonthreads.co.za/

Here is House of Embroidery's website. They say they have a U.S. distributor also but again I failed to find one. Luckily it looks like both companies will do mail order.
http://www.houseofembroidery.com/h_page.asp

Nordic Needlecraft in the UK has a nice description of DMC's Light Effects Jeweled Effects metallics. I'll have to see if any of the stores here carry these.
http://www.nordicneedlecraft.co.uk/acatalog/DMC_Light_Effects.html

I love the fact that Odette is stitching her angel with local threads we won't have seen in the U.S. It makes this angel very special. Thanks for sharing, Odette. Your angel is coming along beautifully!


Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow