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

Two More Pet Guardian Angels Finished

Two more of the pet guardian angels are made up into ornaments, making the grand total of finished pieces four. I have two to go, the Georgian Rabbit and the Victorian Parakeet. The end is in sight! (Or course I have to make the wisteria teapot into an ornament also but we won't quibble at how much I have left to do, right? No one wants to see me burst into tears....)

Above is the Tudor Dog, which I call Holi because her colorful outfit and floral halo were inspired by Mexican floral embroideries and the Indian Festival of Color which is called Holi. Everybody seems to like Holi and she was a lot of fun. I'd encourage anyone to go outside their comfort zone occasionally and really cut loose with their stitching.

And here is the Baroque Fish. She is one of my favoriates as I love the colors and her silver halo and the stitches Kandy Merric created for her are magnificent.

The Golden Rabbit is tonight's finish. Wish me speedy fingers!

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

Holi The Tudor Dog Goes Cinco de Mayo

I should have waited until tomorrow as that's the holiday of Cinco de Mayo but Holi's done today, so here is her official portrait, at least until I get her finished as an ornament with her siblings. You can see I added clusters of three beads all along the green hem of her robe. I thought that made it look a bit like the green and gold squares on her over skirt. Occasionally I just used one bead in areas that were pretty narrow. Hope you like that effect. I do.

I learned from this piece that folks really love a mix of color and pattern. She's my most commented-on angel in the five I've done so far. To my eyes, she is a bit of a mess but she was a lot of fun to stitch and she certainly will stand out in the crowd of the other pet guardian angels at the ANG Auction. I hope Blog readers will visit her at the ANG Auction in Milwaukee this fall! Even if you don't bid, you can see Holi in person and laugh.

I also learned that white threads can be tricky, both on a pink background (I used a scrap of pink canvas for her) and next to bright red (her collar). Both of these things give her face a pink cast under some types of light. The stitches on her are marvelous. I will use the boxed pattern of her overskirt somewhere else if I can. It's really beautiful. And the diagonal hearts are lovely. The designer Kandace Merric did us proud with her!

Next up is the last pet guardian angel, the Georgian Rabbit. She's already started but today is Holi's day and I will wait to post progress photos of the next and last angel in the six animal set until another time.

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

Holi's Hem Without Beads

Last night I finished couching the hem to Holi's robe and started the basketweave down the right side of the piece next to the hem. I ran out of steam before I added beads but probably I will need to wait until all the background is in to attach them so I don't snag threads on the raised beads. I might do what Judy Harper does and skip the basketweave stitch on an intersection that isn't a bump right next to the hem. Then I can have the beads along that edge in the little skipped tent stitch "hole" so they sit better and don't wiggle.

Beads are big wigglers (think kindergarten kids attempting to sit still listening to a story) and you have to Take Precautions!

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

More Couch Time

Sadly, I don't mean time lazying around on the couch, I mean couching my heavy Kreinik with my light Kreinik to add the hem at the base of Holi's skirt. I've gotten a lot of tent stitch background done but before I can veg out each night and carry that down the right side of the pet guardian angel ornament I need to do the couching at the hem.

I'm thinking about putting beads on the hem, too. Holi says she isn't cheerful enough....

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

Enough on the Wings Already!

Last night, driven by a mad desire to add more beads to Holi's wings, I stitched long lines of metallics instead over the arrow centers and between each arrow. I used my blue/green Kreinik #4 braid over the medium and dark green areas and a strand of gold Accentuate over the lime green portions. Never got around to adding the beads as now the wings don't need them.

I think you'll find that if you run wild on one section of a canvas, you'll probably need to run wild on the rest to make it look good. My wings didn't have enough sparkle to hold their own with the rest of the piece. There are exceptions, of course. You might have a central section with sparkle and the rest of the piece doesn't have shine to focus attention but in this case, Holi's wings needed a bit more Omph. Metallics work well for that.

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

Holi Has Beaded Wings

I finished the arrows on Holi's wings last night and added gold beads at the tips. Can you say--Over the Top? LOL

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

Holi Has WINGS

Holi's wings were pulled out and the stitches adjusted so they touched instead of having the gap between them you saw before. Even though the gap was supposed to have a thread cover it, I like them better this way.

Holi is rapidly reaching the point of Too Much. Generally speaking, one can vary the colors, stitches, and textures (that would be the thread types such as smooth cotton versus fuzzy wool versus metallics versus shiny silks) in a piece and for a coherent design you probably should only vary two of them. I have used cottons and silk perles and fuzzy Wisper and metallics in this piece, used a lot of colors, and used a lot of stitches which are not really related to each other. The only unifying theme at all is the green used in most of the areas of the design. Holi isn't anything like my usual pieces but sometimes one has to try something different. I deliberately set out to make Holi colorful and vibrant to the point of earthquake and it looks like I've succeeded.

I'll put beads on the wings, that's for sure! LOL

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

Holi's Hearts (For you, Barbara)

I got a note through Yahoo 360's messaging system that I wasn't able to answer Friday morning. The default if you use this system to send messages is No Replies Allowed, so when Barbara asked what the heart stitch on Holi's skirt was called and where she could see the stitch diagrammed, I wasn't able to reply privately. Barbara, this stitch is called diagonal hearts.

Diagonal hearts, like most of the stitches on the pet guardian angels that are new to me, seems to have been created by the designer Kandace Merric. I have not seen this stitch anywhere else. I looked again last night in my books but it isn't there, at least not under this name. If you happen to have a copy of the February/March 1992 NP Plus, you can see diagonal hearts diagrammed. But I bet the percentage of people who have a copy in their collection is low.

So last night I pulled out my black 10 count plastic canvas and stitched a diagram. You see my pretty awful looking attempt above. I should have pulled some tapestry wool to stitch this so it wouldn't have looked so awful but I didn't have the time or energy to go looking for it last night so you all will have to forgive me for the twisted threads. It's not possible to get good stitches if you use so little thread for a larger count ground material. So stop snickering and look at the diagonal row of red hearts. This is the basis for the stitch. I hope you can see where the diagonal lines go over two lines and where they go over three. (If you count boxes, it's over one box or two.) Once you do a diagonal line of hearts, you add the orange tent stitches around each side of the hearts. The red bits are where a contrast like a metallic thread goes, also in a tent stitch. The partially completed heart in the second line of diagonal hearts shows how I center the next row to make sure everything fits correctly into the framework of tent stitches.

And that's it! Hope this is helpful, Barbara. Kandy Merric has made us a lovely stitch.

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

Arrows for Wings

I made a little progress on my wings last night. This stitch seemed particularly hard for me to get the rhythm of, and I ripped out arrows several times before I was happy with the base line of three medium green arrows. The tops of the arrows are the acid yellow-green color. The gaps at the base of the wings are arrow tips like the acid green ones but turned to face the other way. I plan to do that area in dark green. The spaces between arrows is supposed to be a straight line and I'll probably use the thick Ultrasuede that makes up Holi's collar there. I looked carefully at my stitch diagram this morning and discovered there will be empty spaces that reveal the background between stitches. Somehow this failed to sink in when I choose this stitch but I like how it looks so much that I will do what I always do when faced with a problem--I'll plaster beads over the empty spots!

This stitch is a creation of the fabulously talented Marnie Ritter. She calls it Marnie's Interlocking Leaf-Diagonal and it is diagrammed in the March-April 1991 issue of Needlepoint Plus magazine.

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

Dog Collar and More

Holi's bodice was stitched this weekend. The stitch is a green framework with fancy interlaced cross shapes inside the frame. I mixed two plies of my medium green DMC with one ply of the lime green DMC and stitched the frame with that. The centers are filled with my red Trebizond silk perle. The final touch is gold beads, one at the center of each cross shape and one at the end of each arm of the cross.

I wanted Holi to have an Elizabethean collar for some unknown reason. It just seemed "right" and since I had a sample of red Ultrasuede, I had a thread thick and stiff enough to stitch large lazy daisy stitches which are not tacked down at the tip. That makes the lace part. They are a bit mashed by lying face down on the scanner but you get the general idea.

I've started the wings, using my medium green DMC cotton floss (4 plies). The leaf stitch I'm going to use has four parts, and right now I plan to use my three shades of green DMC floss. I don't know what the fourth color will be but I'm considering yellow, red and turquoise. Stay tuned to see what crazy thing I do next!

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

Holi's Greensleeves (with Beads)

Compare Holi's sleeve to her overskirt and you will be able to tell just how successfully I was able to use DMC cotton floss to fake the Gloriana silk perle overdye from the skirt to the sleeves. Probably I should have used the lightest green shade as background behind the fancy stitches on the sleeve but I like how it turned out so I left it. You probably can't see much of the Kreinik overdyed metallic that made big + shapes with a gold bead in the center all over the pattern but in person they add a lot of sparkle.

My next step is to figure out what colors (probably apple green and reds) to use on the bodice. The original model is visible on this page to see what this looks like in the original blue, gold and white color scheme.

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

Holi Greensleeves

Despite the flaw in the image above (hopefully because the canvas lifted up slightly there when I pressed down in the middle of Holi as she lay on the scanner bed) you can see I've given up basketweave background in favor of stitching Holi's sleeve. This section is very complex and was supposed to be done in three different threads. So far I've used my two Kreinik greens, red Trebizond, peach Trebizond and am about to go shopping today for some lime green DMC so the background unstitched area can have apple green to match some of the overskirt colors. I will then add my yellow and orange overdyed Kreinik and then beads, either gold or orange or red or yellow. I am not sure about the bead colors yet. I could even use French knots instead of beads as Kandy Merric did on the original model.

She's coming right along but I can see I need to add the green to tie the sleeve to the rest of the design. Otherwise there is too much pattern going on. Well, too much for me!

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

Dog's Head Morning

Here's a closeup of the floral halo on Holi's head. I basically did a flower at the left end, the middle and then the right end of the halo and filled in with other flowers. If you squint, you can see that some flowers are on top of the halo, some have parts behind the halo, and some are a bit to the side. Starting from the left end of the couched length of Kreinik #32 briad that is the gold bit of the halo, here's what I did:

The red flower was the first one I did. It's in my red Patina thread, but with the perle untwisted and only one part used (I believe Patina divides into three main parts when you unwind it although it is a lot of long filaments and will divide much further). The petals are lazy daisy stitch. The center of the red flower is a bullion in red silk (Splendor if I remember correctly).

The orange flower on top of the red lazy daisy is the last flower I did. It's partly on top of the red one. It is made of two bullions done in the same overdyed yellow and orange Kreinik that is on the boxy overskirt. I love metallic thread bullions, especially in the Kreinik overdyeds! I made sure the bullions were a little longer than would lie smoothly on my fabric so they would curve. I wanted two semi-circles (or as close as I could get) so that I could put beads in the center. The beads are Petite Mill Hill gold beads, again on a short length of thread so they'd not lie flat. I think I added a last bead on top since the mass of beads (all strung on one length of thread) had an empty spot.

The purple flower is the second one I stitched. I used my purple Splendor silk to add three long stitches in roughly a lily shape, then used a single ply of pink silk from my leftover ends to make a French knot on a stalk (I keep the longer bits I cut off until a piece is finished so I can do a single missed stitch from them if necessary). I had to wrap the French knot twice to get a knot large enough to stay on top of the canvas since I was usuing a single ply of silk. Most experienced stitchers say to control the size of your French knot by the thickness of your thread instead of making many wraps of the needle. The base of the purple flower has two more curved bullions in green floss I had for leaves. I ended up finding a single pink bead on the floor near my stitching chair and plonked it between the leaves. It made a nice finishing touch somehow. I guess I was thinking of all the beads I used for hair ornaments on the geishas that are the header and background of Blog now.

The next flower is a coral ribbon rose done with floss. I made five spokes to my wheel, then went over/under the spokes as I circled the center of the "rose." This is also called a spider web stitch. There are a lot of variations of this basic concept, usually based on the number of spokes you use and exactly how you circle them with your thread. This was the next to last flower I stitched as it is partly on top of the last flower on the right.

The last flower on the right end of the halo is actually a small gold sequin topped with an orange bead. I was doodling almost when I tried this. I added green silk (one ply) to tie down the sequin further and add some color as the orange bead didn't reflect it's color on the gold sequin as much as I thought it would. I was afraid the gold sequin would disappear into the gold halo thread underneath. I added two more gold beads at the perimeter of the sequin eventually.

And that's how dogs get floral halos. It's a pretty haphazard process as I tried various things and almost doodled the flowers but you can always rip out. I did decide that the Wisper was a pain when doing flowers on top of it as the long fuzzies would get into my stitches or hide the flower. I ended up trimming fuzz away from the coral rose as it was plainly visible on top of the flower.

I'm busy with the tent stitch background now.

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

More Flowers, More Skirt

Holi has a few more flowers on her halo (I'll talk about them when I am sure they are all done) and a couched dividing live between the outer and inner heart-covered skirt.

The couching is one linke of the heavier #16 braid Kreinik, tied down about every three holes with the skinnier #4 very fine braid Kreinik. The next line that was couched had the couched thread start in a different hole, but I skipped three holes to do each tie down. So the effect is staggered, not a straight line of couching. I also decided to remove the outline around Holi's head. Instead, I restitched all the brick stitches with another strand of Wisper. Wisper's very thin (think wispy beard of a very old Asian man) instead of full (think Santa's beard). In the end, the more I stitched on top of the head, the more the fur seemed thin in comparison.

I need to do a lot more tent stitching on the background, so don't expect much to see for a few days. By the way, the colors are off in the image above. I darkened and sharpened the image so you could see the outlines of the unstitched wing, each of the halo's flowers, etc. better.

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

Holi's Floral Halo

Holi has most of the flowers I planned stitched on top of, under or beside her halo now. I still need to add some small gold beads but ran out of time. Once everything is done, I'll post a closeup photo for you to study. I outlined Holi's head in stem stitches using my ecru perle cotton #8 but I might rip that out and try using the same white Whisper I used for the fur instead. Haven't decided on that yet. Note that the paw is not outlined since I haven't finished the tent stitch background around it yet.

I finally choose a thread for step four on the overskirt. That's the skirt area filled by lime green boxes with overdyed yellow and orange Kreinik in a cashmere variation inside. The isntructions say to use the same thread used when one tented stitched around the perimeter of the box innards, but since I used #16 braid (in Kreinik's 5982 which is dark green mixed with lighter green and gold) for those stitches, I thought it was too heavy a thread. I rummaged around in my stash and found a spool of Kreinik #085 in #4 very fine braid. #4 braid is much smaller and even though 085 is blue, green and gold, I thought it would work. You see the result in the photo. The tiny #4 very fine braid looks nice on top of the yellows and oranges and because it is thin, you don't notice that it has much more blue in it than the original 5982 color.

I guess my next step will be to finish the halo off with beads, then start on the dividing line that separates the two halves of the skirt. I'm not sure if I will use the overdyed orange/yellow Kreinik or the green and gold Kreinik. Stay tuned!

I just might use both....

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

Finally There Are Flowers

I've been dropping very large hints that Holi would have flowers somewhere on her person and last night I finally arrived at a point where I could start adding them. When I first saw the set of six pet guardian angels, I thought they should hold something in their paws. I didn't have a clue what until Holi started to evolve in my mind. The colors she wears were originally sparked by a photo of crepe paper flowers, after all. Since Holi celebrates those flowers and the Indian Festival of Holi (color), it seemed appropriate to add folk art style flowers on her halo and in one paw. She holds my interpretation of the hibiscus that has a third bud opening here in CH this morning. The center of the flower is 4-5 pink French knots in my pink Trebizond, surrounded by petals in the orange Panache and red Patina and a touch of the same red medium silk perle by Gloriana that makes up the braid on her sleeve in a French knot next to the pink ones. Folk art flowers are shaded with bright colors, after all. I used these two sources which both have images of Mexican floral embroidery for inspiration.

http://alliesinstitches.blogspot.com/2009/01/oaxacan-embroidery.html

http://worldembroideries.blogspot.com/2009/01/huipul-from-central-america.html

Holi's halo has one lazy daizy flower so far, done in a bit of the red Patina which I unraveled (Patina is a rayon perle thread) from the strand and then made petals from. The red center is a fake bullion in the red Gloriana perle. To make fake bullions, tie a knot in your perle thread (it doesn't work for any other type of thread than perle), come up, pull on one part of the perle and slide the other bits down to the canvas, thread up the ends of the unraveling perle again and tie off on the back. Easy!

The fake bullion technique is adapted from something the thread magician David McCaskill taught us on the ANG email list. Thanks, David!

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

New Skirt, No Flowers

My Tudor Dog Holi has the outer skirt almost finished now. This is a four step stitch. First you stitch the framework of steps that makes up the box frames. I did this in an overdyed green medium perle from Gloriana that was an experiment, not an item you can buy. (It was a gift from a dear friend who sweet-talked it out of Gloriana's owner.) Then I filled the perimeter of each box with tent stitches done in Kreinik's 5982, which is a deep green and gold (I used #16 medium braid). The third step was to fill the empty middle of the box with overdyed Kreinik in ThreadworX's yellow and orange #71072. You use a modified cashmere stitch for this.

I've not done the fourth step yet. You are supposed to add a long stitch that reaches most of the way across the box (but not all the way) in a long slanting stitch / in the same thread as the tent stitches that go around the edge. The slant echoes the \ diagonal of the underskirt and makes the patterns flow together visually.

I like how this looks so far and will decide whether to do the last step, and if so, in what thread, later.

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

Head of the Dog, Swedish Ornaments and More

Holi has a halo now, as well as ear, nose and eye touches. The black eye and nose are a few plies of Splendor in straight stitches while the pink inner ear is a few straight stitches in dark pink Designer's Dream. Note how much darker the pink is than the white fur of the ear. I had pale pink Designer's Dream but it didn't show up against the white. I had to remove those stitches and use a much darker pink before the inner ear section showed up. Remember, two light shades often are not distinct enough for the eye to separate them. Ditto two dark and two medium shades. Usually you need to mix light with medium or dark with light, etc.

The #16 braid of gold 002 Kreinik is also a long stitch that was couched down with a little gold Accentuate metallic to make it bend like a halo. I have started the background around Holi's head also. I have continued to add diagonal rows of hearts on the inner skirt. Today I'll start work on the outer skirt.

In other news, I discovered photos of two of Leigh's Swedish Dynasty ornaments which are not on her website. These are the newest ornaments in the Dynasty series, which take motifs from various cultures and use them as ornaments. Here are the official Swedish Dynasty ornaments.
http://www.leighdesigns.com/Grp826x.html

At the January trade show Leigh also offered shops two limited edition Swedish ornaments. I saw them both at Waste Knot when I visited after the Woodlawn show. I love the painted roses pattern, but I know fans of Dalish animals will love the chicken. They both are pictured in the second row of designs here. The deal was shops could buy these at the show but when Leigh ran out, they were gone. I think a shop that got the limited edition ornaments can re-order but you can't get them any other place. So if you are a fan of these, order from Playful Needle where they apparently have both or call Waste Knot which had them both last week. I know, I drooled over the painted roses!
http://www.the-playful-needle.com/Index_new.html

http://wasteknotblog.com/index.php?option=com_dfcontact&Itemid=82

You can see the other Dynasty ornament sets here.
http://www.leighdesigns.com/ImgIdx2f.html

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

Hearts, Eyebrow Brush, Fur--But Still No Flowers

Holi got fur last night. In the photo above you see the card of white Wisper I used (one strand in a simple brick stitch over two threads) and also my eyebrow brush. The brush was a gift from my friend Mimi to use to make fuzzy threads fuzzier. It is perfect to brush up the delicate Wisper to turn it from somewhat lumpy-looking brick stitch into soft and touchable "fur."

Here is Rainbow Gallery's information about Wisper. Compare the diameter of it in the photo to the purple thread you see. The purple is four plies of Splendor. Please note that RG says to double the strand on 18 count but in brick stitch, it looked too heavy so I only used one strand.
http://www.rainbowgallery.com/jaystips.htm#35

http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?ID=79

I took before and after photos but since the thread is white, you really couldn't see the difference. In person, it is very obvious how much improved the Wisper is once it is brushed left, right, up, down, etc.

I need to add the nose and eye, then sttich a bit of background around Holi's head. The reason I will do this next (as well as another row of diagonal hearts which I added to last night) is to do with the flowers I keep mentioning but not stitching....

Stay tuned!

P.S. If you have the broad Revlon eyebrow tweezers, you might want to see how they are used in gold metal embroicery.
http://thistle-threads.com.mytempweb.com/blog/index.php/2009/03/tweezers/

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