Gold and White and New All Over

Gay Ann Rogers has rearranged her website to showcase various collections, update news in one place, and make a special offer of a new design in kit form (above) on perforated paper.

http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Small_Designs.html

Yiou really owe yourself a visit. Start at the home page and explore the lovely feminine world of GAR....

http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Home_Page.html

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

Squigee's Trick or Treating Stocking

As you can tell from the little thumbnails I have posted in the right (Blogspot blog) or left (Yahoo 360 blog) columns of Blog and Mirror Blog, I've already chosen what I'm going to stitch next. It's Squiggee Time in Chilly Hollow! I'm going to stitch two of Gail Hendrix's small designs that she markets under the Squiggee name. You probably have seen lots of Gail's more traditional pieces that are sold by The Point of It All. Squiggee is her line of small pieces, many of which are fun quick items. I'll talk about the lovely koi when I get to it, but first I'm going to start with the cute Halloween stocking of trick or treating kids in full costume.

This is a design that is around three inches tall and three inches wide at the toe. It's painted on 13 count (not 18 count) canvas. It is very small and won't take very long, particularly on the larger 13 count canvas. As you can see, the background is plain purple, the top of the stocking is striped oranges and purple and the kids all wear black or purple. The three beads that are their masks come with the canvas. It also has a small packet of orange beads to put underneath the striped top and the purple background. You may not be able to tell each child's black robe is painted with sparkle paint, which tells me I should use a black metallic thread on the robes to add sparkle to them as the designer intended.

I've removed the beads and buttons and put them away in a tiny plastic bag with the threads I intend to use. The stocking is on stretcher bars and I've pulled a bunch of threads from my stash. My first step is going to be stitching the two black robes on either side of the central figure. They are going to be in cross stitches in Kreinik's black 1/15 inch ribbon. I thought about doing just tent stitches, but I think I want the black robes and the hat to be slightly raised. I am stitching them first so I can see how various background stitches work with them and decided I wanted them a bit more raised than tent stitch will do.

Given my new emphasis here on technique, I need to point out I am going to lay the cross stitch legs with a laying tool and make sure I remember always to have the same \ direction on top. I am also going to complete each cross stitch before starting the next. You can do a row of XS with just the first step / for each and then work back the other direction in the row to add the top \ but since I am constantly interrupted when I stitch and it's easy to forget where you are, especially when you are stitching with black threads on a black canvas, I'm going to be careful to complete each stitch before moving on to the next.

If you want to stitch along, feel free. It's always fun to have company here at Blog. These two canvases are available from Gail Hendrix on her Squiggee website. If you enjoy visiting there, make sure you check out Gail's two blogs. Unlike what I do, she often posts different things to each blog on the same day, so visiting everywhere is a must!

http://squiggeedesigns.com/

http://360.yahoo.com/squiggeebuns2

http://squiggeedesigns.blogspot.com

Mirror blog at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com

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

Lani's Autumn Leaves Is Done

Last night I finished the Lani "Autumn Leaves" design and this morning I checked it carefully for missed stitches. Do you like it? I am just as much in love with the mix of colors as when I started this piece, and it has taught me just how important technique is in stitching. I had no idea when we embarked on this "tent stitches only" piece just how much there would be to say about how to stitch it. We talked about starting and ending threads, about how to mix various types and brands of threads, and how to make every stitch look as perfect and as much like its neighbors as possible. Believe me, I'll be thinking about perfection on every stitch, no matter what it is, from here on out. It is a lot easier to be a sloppy stitcher on pieces with a mix of fancier stitches than it is on an all tent-piece. I appreciate more than ever before why ANG gives the Princess Grace Award at their annual exhibit to a piece done entirely in this stitch. This is not easy!

To recap, this is a Lani design on 18 count canvas. The rectangle is approximately 3 inches wide and 7 long and the design is the middle of a much larger pattern which she released in a large and a small version, I guess. I started this on May 7 and finished it June 28, and even though I worked on making up several small projects I finished this year and didn't stitch every night, it took a lot longer than I anticipated.

If you would like to see tent stitch perfection, check out ANG's "What is Needlepoint?" section of their webpage (it's hidden under Needlepoint Information). This area shows off award winning stitching from recent annual seminars. Look for the Princess Grace Award winners once you arrive. These folks did a fabulous job, all in tent.

http://www.needlepoint.org/whatis.php

My next move with Autumn Leaves is to see if I can find a red or ecru tote bag so I can applique the design to the front of it. I think this would look fabulous on a red bag and red's my mother's favorite color. AND she has a birthday in September....

Shush! Don't say a word to her!

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

Thoughts on The Finished Three Camels Stocking

The little three camels mini stocking is finally made up. Hope you like it!

To recap, this is a painted canvas from Liz (the precursor company of Tapestry Tent?) that I picked up cheaply to stitch for my neighbor who loves camels. It's on 18 count and is around 6 inches tall and about 3 inches wide at the widest point.

I learned several important things finishing this piece. As you remember, I decided to use foam core inside the piece and make it up as an ornament, not as a functioning stocking. I think it is really too small for me to successfully make it a Christmas stocking. Stockings are a bit tricky to finish and I know my limits! The thinnest foam core I could find was 1/4 inch thick. While it makes for a very light weight but rigid piece, it's a bit thicker than I like. Not much you can do about that--I doubt foam core comes much thinner than what I found. So I went with a broad wired piece of trim to cover the fat edge. I'm also not sure I would use wired trim again, either. It was very easy to mold into shape but it would not tie the fancy Chinese knot I wanted to put at the toe above the glass bead that hangs from the toe. I ended up using Kreinik's 002 gold in the #32 braid thickness for both the bead dangle and the loop to hang the stocking up instead. And that doesn't show the fancy knot well. Or maybe I just didn't tie it quite right since that was my first attempt!

The real moral of finishing this stocking is to not be intimidated by roadblocks in finishing. I just changed directions when things didn't work all that well and tried other things. Another example is the little bump of beads over the edges. (Squint and you'll see them in the photos.) When I got my trim attached at the edges, there were a few places where it didn't really cover the front and back join that well. I thought that over a minute and then rummaged through my beads and found half a box of Mill Hill gold seed beads. I just did another round of couching the trim to the stocking but this time I came up, threaded three gold beads on the needle, and then went down over the trim. This is couching with beads and it puts a cluster of beads around the trim periodically. I tried to space the beads evenly but where they would hide untidy spots. I think they look nice and they add a bit of interest to the plain gold trim. This piece is pretty busy, so a fancy gold trim wouldn't look good in my opinion but a plain one wasn't quite right either. I think I killed two birds with three beads, so to speak, by hiding problems and fancying up the trim with couched beads.



The last thing I'd like you to notice is how important it is to have the bead hanging from the stocking toe. Jane and I (yes, we have the same lovely name!) realized when we were looking at photos of finished Christmas stockings how important it is to consider how the stocking will be displayed. We saw a Santa with a long coat stitched in vertical rows that looked odd hanging because the very straight ||| stitches were slanted when the stocking hung off the mantelpiece. I was just starting to stitch this little mini sock when Jane and I made our discovery. This both influnced her choice of stitches for her Santa stocking and made me look at the design of mine. I photographed the finished piece laid flat and hanging at an angle so you could see what I mean. Go to the Yahoo 360 blog and look in the right column to see "The Wise Men's Stocking is Done" photographed straight to compare how the direction matters.

I realized that Liz designed the camels to be viewed from an angle. Look at any photos of this design on my Yahoo 360 blog and you'll see I stitched it in a frame with it upright but the camels look much more real hanging at an angle. That's why I added the heavy glass bead--the make sure the camels were always seen at their best angle. It's sort of like movie stars who always want to be photographed from their best angle only. When you stitch your stockings, think about how they will be displayed and choose stitches and finishing options that will make it look its very best.

Hope you enjoyed my stitching of the three little camels stocking.

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