Update from Other Stars and Kirk & Hamilton Stitchers

Other folks are blog-stitching Tony Minieri's Stars or a Kirk & Hamilton piece and I wanted you to know they've posted updates on their work on the Internet.

First, Donna is reporting about the Stars experience she is having.  Right now she is still settling on colors but I think she's on the right track.
http://majtravaux.blogspot.com/2010/03/stars-post-1.html

http://majtravaux.blogspot.com/2010/03/stars-2.html

Donna also found out whose Stars piece she admired at the Woodlawn Plantation exhibit last year.  Small world!
http://majtravaux.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-have-answer.html

Sara Leigh, who belongs to the same stitching group as Donna, has her colors chosen.  They are cheerful and give me hope spring is on the way.  (Maybe.)
http://remedialstitcher.blogspot.com/2010/02/slight-progress.html

Robin King is stitching a small Kirk & Hamilton cat design.  You can watch her progress stitching the cat and its pumpkin balloon on the Needlepoint Study Hall blog.
http://needlepointstudyhall.blogspot.com/2010/02/floating-cat.html

http://needlepointstudyhall.blogspot.com/2010/03/golden-lights.html

Anyone else?

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

Eyes, Nose, Ears, Tail and Candy Cane

I've added quite a few Stash Credits this morning based on all the stitching I did last night on the candy cane dog.  Elmer is holding his candy cane now.  It's sort of awkward looking but that is how it was painted.  I am beginning to think this is not actually candy, but is a stuffed dog toy that has been through the wringer.  One of my dogs loves stuffed toys and even sleeps with them, but none are in particularly good shape after a romp with Suki who is a powerful Akita.  The candy cane may well be a much-loved dog toy being presented to Elmer's owner as a sign of affection.  That thought makes up for the slightly off-kilter and lumpy rendering of the candy cane.

I laid 2 or 3 (depending on the area's width) long lengths of white Very Velvet along the length of the candy cane and at the crook, then covered this with 3-4 layers of ribbon floss in my favorite color -- 142F-2 White.  Ribbon floss is easily snagged even by rough spots on your fingers and needs to be laid to keep the twists from making the surface of the candy cane rough. Use short lengths. Once I got the Very Velvet covered to my satisfaction, I wrapped the length with red Silk Lame Braid.   I could have used the red Crystal Braid that was used in the stocking top and toe, but I thought I'd use Silk Lame Braid to perhaps add a little more interest to the design with a slightly different red.  It was hard to get the Silk Lame Braid on the top of the candy cane smoothly.  Another ribbon floss in red might have been a better and smoother choice, but I like how it turned out.  A dog's toy won't be perfect after it has been well loved, after all.

Elmer's red collar was stitched in the same Vineyards Silk and Sheep's Silk I used for his stocking cap. The stitches on each end were long slanted ones which the center stitches were upright.  Whether leaning or upright, all stitches covered the red painted area of the collar.

His dog tag is three shades of Rainbow Gallery's Coronet Braid, which I love for its shine.  The shadow on the right is in the gold and silver mix called Vatican Gold 83B, the center highlight is the Pewter 85B, and the rest of the dog tag is the yellow Arctic Gold 82B. In all cases I used outline stitches and size 8 Coronet Braid, which fits 18 count canvas nicely.  Coronet Braid is somewhat stiff so you will need to coax it into position with your needle or the tip of a laying tool but it shines like the dickens in artificial light.
http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?ID=60

Elmer's nose is done in two threads:  the dark brown Mandarin Floss M821 and the tan Impressions 1136.  I laid a strand of the darker Mandarin Floss across the top of his nose, then wrapped it with short vertical stitches in the same thread.  The bottom of the nose is just slanted \ / stitches in the tan Impressions.

Elmer's eyes are ringed with the dark brown Mandarin Floss, then the yellow parts are done in Kreinik yellow gold #028 (size 8 braid).  I finished up with the black and white highlights in black Impressions 0020 and a white wool from my stash that is not labeled (I think it is Silk & Ivory).  All the stitches were tent stitches except for the black Impressions. There I used a cross stitch to not give too much direction to Elmer's gaze.

I finished by stitching Elmer's ears and the tip of his tail in packed stem stitches with more of the black Impressions.  All this takes a very long time to tell but it was only a few hours of stitching.

The next part is to tackle his fur.  I want to use a stitch for his fur I haven't tried before, and will test stitch two possibilities this morning before everyone is up here and the day officially begins.

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

Madonna Is Happy; Ruth is Sad UPDATED

Madonna's blog just announced that Pocket Full of Stitches in Texas has new owners starting April 1.   We already knew this but Madonna has the details on her blog,
http://frontrangestitches.blogspot.com/2010/03/oh-happy-day.html

and more information is on the PFOS website. This is excellent news!  The shop has long been a favorite of folks, particularly for their monthly clubs, and it is good to know the owners will be able to retire and leave the shop in hands of two of their employees.  Good wishes to all.
http://www.pfos.com/

In other news, I'm still futzing around with my list of NP blogs.  I am having real trouble posting Ruth Schmuff's blog address.  It's Not Your Grandmother's Needlepoint has moved here,
http://www.notyourgrandmothersneedlepoint.com/2010/02/its-starting-to-look-magical.html

but Blogger (which hosts Blog) can't find the new address, even if I enter it on my blog list.  People who click on the link to Ruth's blog get the Dreaded Not Found message.  I took down my blog list at lunchtime today and reposted it, trying to figure out a way to add Ruth's new address so you can visit, and finally gave up.  Ruth has put her new address on her old blog, so if you click on the link below, you'll be sent to the old blog and then redirected.  I'm sorry you have to do this in a roundabout manner, but Blog refuses to go to Ruth's new URL directly even though the new blog is hosted by Blogger just like the old one was.  Ruth hasn't given up, though.  She may figure something out and if she does, I'll link to the new blog directly.

Blog won't let me move the blog list to the left column, either.  It is still at the bottom of the page.  Sorry, folks.  Sometimes the Mysteries of the Blog are not solvable by mere humans!

UPDATE:  Madonna has found if she clicks on the title of Ruth's latest blog posting, the blog is found normally.  If she clicks on the name of the blog in her blog list, she gets the error message.  So if one uses Blogger and has both the blog names and the title of the latest posting up and running, you can click on the title of the last entry and make it to Ruth's blog.

I don't have this enabled as I have too many blogs listed to have their latest postings listed, too.  But anyone who uses Blogger and wants to list Ruth's It's Not Your Grandmother's Needlepoint on their list of blogs can try this work-around.  Thanks, Madonna!

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

Happy Birthday, Marty!

We miss you.
With love from Jane and Mark.

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

Elmer Has a Cap

Last night I gave the little dog his Santa stocking cap.  The red is stitched in random long stitches, slanting to show direction, using Vinceyard Silk for the bright red and Silk N Colors in a darker variegated red for the shading.  The fur trim is all French knots, just one wrap, done in Burmilana (white) and Medici (gray).  I can see lint in the photo from the wool in these threads I'll need to remove today.

You can see in the photo that I've started filling in the large snowflakes at the top using white Very Velvet.  I am not quite sure I like this as much as I like the couched lines in Very Velvet.  In a certain light the Very Velvet looks pink paired with the red Crystal braid.  I will think on this while I work on the dog's body.

Mixing whites with other whites and whites with strong colors can be tricky.  I think the white Burmilana on the dog's cap looks ok with the white in the Very Velvet but I'm not sure.  Another thing to think about.  I wasn't going to use the Burmilana and Medici on Elmer's muzzle but now I think I might want to, just to minimize any differences between the face and cap.

Do any of you stitch a lot of Santas?  How do you handle the differences between Santa's white beard and the fur trim on his red Santa suit?

I plan to pad the candy cane and stitch it tonight and then work on the muzzle.  That's The Plan anyway but things change.  Elmer is a very demanding dog!

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