Michele and the Trick or Treaters UPDATED

Michele of the Bristly Thistle in Michigan has been stitching this Tapestry Tent canvas (which will be distributed by Susan Roberts starting in January, if you want to track it down) of little trick-or-treaters for a while now, displaying photos on her blog with information about the stitches and threads she choose and why. I've been totally charmed by the Bristly Thistle blog and enjoyed each and every photo of each and every figure and part of the canvas. Nice job, Michele!

http://bristlythistle.blogspot.com/

UPDATE: Judy asked if Susan Roberts was distributing Tapestry Tent designs now. That's what the rumor mill says, Judy.

When I asked Michele permission to use her photo, she told me she had the canvases on order from the distributor for her shop and would do a stitch guide for them when they arrived, but the backorders for TT would ship first. So it'll be a while. Anyone interested should go to Michele's blog and look for the shop website link on the right, then find email Bristly Thistle to get on a waiting list for the canvas and/or stitch guide.

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

Needed: Black Paint

I have been busy putting the trick or treaters stocking from Squigee together. The photos show my progress, and also why I need black paint! I have some black spray paint that I'll use on the little support later on today. Hopefully it'll be dry enough for a final photo tomorrow.

The back side is darker than in the photo but I adjusted the color so you could easily see the purple satin through the net overlay with all the orange fuzzy shapes and words.

The front is angled because I discovered that setting the stocking on the peg at a 90 degree angle overbalanced it and it toppled over. Can't have the kids lying on their sides! Now that I'm used to it, I think it's the perfect angle for viewing this piece. Most stockings are designed to be seen hung from a top corner like traditional Christmas socks, after all.

The next step is to add the fuzzy trim all around the perimeter while the black paint dries on the support.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Trick or Treaters Stocking Finishing Supplies

The photo you see above shows all the finishing supplies I'll need for the Squiggee trick or treaters stocking. I have two fabrics, a purple satin and a thin novelty fabric that has orange fuzzy Halloween motifs on netting. I plan to layer the two fabrics on the back side of the stocking. Then I will twist the orange and the purple ThreadworX threads together to make a cord to go around the edge of the stocking. I thought about including some of the green I used for the fright wig but I think three colors are a bit much since including the green might mute the effect of all that green spiky hair. By the way, I won't make a traditional twisted cord from my two threads. That would trap too much of the fuzzy stuff. I'll just twist them together in my hand, stitch them down, and then use the blunt end of my needle to gently comb and fluff the thread to get as much of the ends to stand out as possible. Here's the ThreadworX website with the Legacy Collection thread colors, just in case you are tempted....

http://threadworx.com/product.php?catid=5&catName=The%20Legacy%20Collection

If you look carefully at the photo, you'll see the paper cutout I did from the color copy of my canvas. I always make a color copy (and often several black and white copies) of my projects. You can cut out the shape to aid finishing, you can see where things you've stitched over go when you are ready to add them, and it's just a good reminder of where the plain canvas started before you got your grubby little paws on it and went to town!

I used the paper pattern to cut out the quilting template you see as the clear stocking shape next to the pattern. I'd never heard of quilting template until Summer Truswell kindly told me about it. (When a superb professional finisher gives you tips--listen and listen hard!) This stuff comes in sheets of clear plastic about the size of an extra large place mat for $2 or so. You can buy it with a grid of what looks like one inch squares on it also, but that costs twice as much and I didn't need that here. Cut it with scissors to shape and you have the perfect lightweight stiffener to put inside ornaments. You can see a photo (next to last on this page) of the gridded and the plain with a pattern drawn on it at this website.

http://www.fabriclandwest.com/quilters%20corner/quilting_tools.htm

The last thing in the photo is two wooden dolls from the crafts emporium. They are in the wooden forms section, the place where you buy plain wooden letters to paint and put on a child's door. I could have bought wooden dowels and a wooden base and mounted the stocking on a stick but I decided I wanted to try something a bit different. I plan to take one of the dolls and insert it in the base of the stocking so that it will rest on a desk without any visible means of support. This means the stocking will be finished inside in the opposite way of most Christmas (or any other holiday) stockings. Normally, there's an opening in the top but my trick or treaters stocking will not open to hold candy corn. Instead, there will be a space in the base to insert the wooden support. I will leave it open so that when Halloween is over, the little wooden form can be removed and the stocking laid flat in a drawer until October 31st rolls around again.

Now all I need is to sit down and attempt to put this all together. If we could have a moment of silence, please!

[drumroll]

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Halloween Trick or Treaters Done

The stitching on the little Halloween stocking is done. The buttons were the last bit I needed to add before starting to hunt for the right fabric for the back side. Buttons are attached in many different ways, depending on how they were made. You've all seen buttons on men's dress shirts with the two (or four) little holes that you stitch through to attach them. The buttons that Squiggee included with the canvas are not like those. Working left to right, the cat's head button is flat and thick with a hole drilled through the middle. It was easy to attach with a doubled thread in one side and out the other. The pink skull bead has a shank. I stitched it from the back four times, each stitch slanting in a different / \ _ | direction to try and hold it steady. But this bead will tilt here and there since I did not make a hole in the canvas and push the shank through to the back side. The last bead is the brass moon face which has a loop at the top like a charm. It was easy to attach but it will sway from side to side slightly.

Hope you enjoy the canvas. Many thanks to Squiggee herself for designing something so quick and fun.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Fright Wig Finished, Claw Added

Here's a photo of the Trick or Treaters stocking from Squiggee with the fright wig all done and combed, and the claw hand added to the middle figure. The "hand" is just beading wire twisted to resemble a bony skeleton hand. One end was poked through the canvas and it was tied down on the back, then I used two small stitches to secure the fingers on the front. It took me a lot longer to explain how the wig and claw were done than to actually add them to the stocking!

In this photo I've added a row of orange beads to the top of the stocking. Squiggee herself showed the beads in a row along the bottom of the stocking top but due to the finishing I plan, I want them at the top.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

The Fright Wig

The photo on the left shows the fright wig underway. I happened to have two brands of fuzzy threads in my stash I thought might be perfect for the wig of the right hand trick or treater. One used to be called Viola when it was distributed by SharonG but I believe the new name is VaVoom. It's a soft hair-like thread that is very thin and delicate. In the photo below it is the purple thread in the plastic bag and in the stitched samples. It is distributed by dede Odgen now. The other is less soft and more plastic. It used to be called Charleston when the defunct Needle Necessities sold it. Now it is called The Legacy Collection and comes from ThreadWorX. It's the skein of green you see in the photo below.

Here's a link to information about VaVoom.

http://www.needleartworks.com/dsgnr/deo/deo9.htm

And here is one for The Legacy Collection. My skein of green is color #606 Kelly Green.
http://www.threadworx.com/product.php?catid=5&catName=The%20Legacy%20Collection

Even though the black VaVoom is soft like cashmere and looks like long hair and the green looks like a plastic feather boa, they are stitched the same way--in long stitches. The stitched sample you see uses dark purple VaVoom and fancy stitches to show what these threads can do. The stitching is by my dear friend Penny Evans who test drove Viola for me 4-5 years back. Thanks, Penny!

I decided to use the ThreadWorX green instead of the Viola purple since I thought the green would stand out against the purple background of the stocking and the purple robe next to it better. This thread comes in precut yard lengths, so I pulled one out carefully from the skein and cut it in half to have an easy-to-use 18 inch length. Then I used a number 18 needle so that there was plenty of room in the eye for the thread. My canvas is 14 count, by the way, so even the holes are large enough for this thread.

If you look at the top photo again, you'll see that I first stitched three straight lines spaced across the roughly fan shape of the wig. This divides the area into 4 pie-shaped wedges. Then I stitched straight stitches across one wedge at a time, working from left to right. You can work from right to left--this doesn't matter--but I think it helps to distribute the thread evenly to work a section at a time. You can work one half if you want, but I preferred to divide the wig into four areas.

The little plastic hairs that stick out of the central core (look at the green thread in the needle on the left side of the top photo) get mashed down in stitching. One you have totally finished the area in this thread, take your needle and gently stroke it a few times in the opposite direction you want the hairs to point. Then stroke it many times (gently!) in the direction the hairs should point. This gentle petting motion will pull the hairs out from under the long stitches and make it fuzzy.

I'll need to pet the hairs again occasionally as I add other attachments and do the finishing. They do get matted down or point the wrong way after handling. But you'll get the fright wig effect very quickly and easily using either of these threads.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Halloween Cuff Done

I managed to finish the cuff of the Trick or Treaters stocking last night. Note that I stitched a row of tent stitches all across the top in the colors of each stripe. That will help in finishing. There's a row of tent stitches all around the perimeter of the stocking as well.

Here's the stitch I used for the rows, courtesy of Carole Lake's Stitch of the Month series for ANG in 2002. It has many names but Carole calls it "braided knitting" so I will also. I find it makes a lovely narrow border as well as very nice stripes on the stocking's top edge.

http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2002/Apr.php

I made sure I held the threads tight as I moved from one long narrow cross stitch to the next, particularly when I was doing the orange and orange/red stitches with the Panache. It's well behaved as nylon threads go but I was taking no chances.

If you look at the photo, you'll see I still need to stitch the lime green fright wig, do something for the claw hand of the middle figure (the painted version of which is covered by stitches now, so look at the model photo in the side column to see how it looked when Squiggee painted it), and attach the buttons that are the masks of the children.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Stripes for Halloween

These long cross stitches take longer to stitch and more thread than you would think, but I like the effect. The flat ribbon thread Soft Sheen Fyre Werks stands up to the red-orange and the orange Panache nylon perles well, better than I expected since one is a flat thread and the other two round perles. I also like the shiny stripes' contrast with the dull background stitches.

I'll try to finish tonight.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Woven Stitch Background

The photo shows my progress on the little Halloween stocking. I first stitched the two black robed figures with black Krienik 1/16" ribbon in cross stitches. Then I stitched the middle figure in tent stitches using Rainbow Gallery's Soft Sheen Fire Werks (color FT8). This is another ribbon-like thread that is a variation on the original very shiny Fire Werks. It is less reflective although it is a metallized nylon.

Now that I've finished the background figures that will showcase the fancy buttons, I started on the background. I happened to have the perfect color and texture in my stash-a skein of Felicity's Garden in 049 Heather. Felicity's Garden is a crewel type thread that is half silk and half Australian Merino wool. It has a bit of sheen but when you contrast it with the very shiny metallic threads I've used in the figures, it looks very wool-like. I wanted a very neutral stitch to use with my Felicity's Garden and it took several tries before I hit on the right one, a woven stitch from one of Brenda Hart's stitch books. Basically it is a Burden Stitch variation. You lay a long length of thread in a channel between two NP canvas threads, then couch it down with a perpendicular thread that goes across the channel at a 90 degree angle. Skip a hole and do another perpendicular thread to countinue couching. When you do the next row, you put the little couching stitches in the holes you skipped while attaching the first row. In a thread like Felicity's Garden, the result is a woven pattern that's not too hard to compensate. In the photo above, I have done all the rows except for a bit at the bottom and around the figure with the green fright wig.

I'll finish those tonight and start on the striped stocking top.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow