Wall, Eye and Sleeve Techniques

Stitching Lani's Autumn Leaves piece in all tent stitches taught me just how important technique is in needlepoint. I vowed then to talk about technique more in the fancier stitches that we use a lot these days. I think that good technical skills are the difference between two pieces, one of which is well done and the other of which blows your socks off, even though they are identical except in how the stitches were executed.

Let's start with Santa's eyes, which I described yesterday. This closeup scan shows what I did. The left eye seems larger and there is more of the skin stitches showing. In person and from a distance it looks great but not up close. I might add two tiny stitches to fill in the white area with color in that left eye. Or maybe not. If it looks good in person, why mess with it?



Secondly, here is a closeup of the wall stones that I've added on the left side. The stitch is called Linked Stitch (from Even More Stitches for Effect). It is basically five straight stitches over six threads in a row tied down by a long stitch over the middle. I am doing it in one ply of pale gray Splendor silk. When I compensated near the books, I discovered that you can pull the tie down stitch too tightly which moves the closest upright stitch out of a straight line. I am going to have to fix some of my stitches there.



Finally, here are the undersleeves. I've laid straight lines on a diagonal using three plies of Caron's Waterlilies in #162 Periwinkle, which is a mix of blue and violet. I'm going to be using Caron's Impressions in similar plums and blues for the cloak and robe so I choose this overdyed mix of the two colors for the sleeves. I will couch down the flat lines with a diagonal line of metallic (either silver or pale blue, haven't decided yet) that crosses the silk lines like the two lines that make an X. This is how it is done in Japanese Embroidery, probably to control the underlying thread better.

So far, so good.

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

The Wizard Needs a Setting

As you can see from the picture, I've been fairly busy with the Joan Thomasson Holiday Spirit wizard. He has a flagstone floor (Swirl stitch from Jo I. Christensen's Needlepoint Book, 1999 edition) in three plies of dark gray Splendor and I've started a stone wall behind him on the left side near his staff (Linked Stitch from Even More Stitches for Effect) in one ply of light gray Splendor.

This piece is going to be a standup most likely, and I feel they look odd without some sort of setting. Wizards live in stone castles, right? So the decision to give him a flagstone floor and stone walls was easy. I choose a smaller scale stitch for the wall than the floor since there isn't that much space around the sides of the wizard Santa figure. Can you see the mark where the background ends that I made from tracing around the paper pattern? I know I cut it off at the top but I crop photos as much as possible to make them faster to load on all the computers of blog visitors.

I've made a counting error in the floor stitch (it's right under his heel) but I'm not going to pull it out. I just compensated the stitches under that area. Sometimes one can be too perfect and I think a real stone floor will have areas that aren't quite identical. That's a good rationalization, anyway!

The other thing I've done is to stitch his face and hands. His eyebrows are not done--that needs to wait until after I decide on stitches and threads for his hair and beard. If you squint at his hands, you'll see dark lines marking the fingers. I used the same Splendor silk there as in his cheeks but it doesn't seem dark enough. I'm going to have to pull those stitches out and redo them.

The last thing that is finished here are his eyes. Joan Thomasson often paints a straight line for eyes on her figures but I didn't like how they looked with a row of five tent stitches, so instead I stitched two straight horizontal lines using a grey-blue Kreinik #4 metallic in parallel. The top line I pulled up with a little couching stitch; the bottom line was left straight. That gave me a sort of very long and short triangle. I put a tiny French knot in the middle of the triangle for the eye pupil. I like the effect so far, but don't be surprised if I come up with something I like better later on.

The wizard is starting to have a bit of personality now. My next step will be to finish the floor and more of the wall while I debate what to do with his silver and gold striped sleeves. Wish me luck.

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

Robin K. and the Amy Bunger Website

I got a very nice note from Robin K. yesterday on the Yahoo 360 main blog. She is Amy Bunger's webmaster. Unfortunately, she's set not to receive replies so I can't answer her directly. Since her message was so interesting, I am quoting her in full here and hope she doesn't mind the liberty.

Robin said,

"Thanks for the quick message about Amy s new website. I have been working hard & fast on it, and there is still more to come!

You mentioned all of her canvases are gone . Well, not exactly because they are now represented within the canvas category which is appropriate. (People, Nutcrackers, Christmas, Food & Drink, Fruit & Vegetables, etc.)

I plan to have a Nutcracker page for her Nutcracker Heads, and there are still hundreds of canvases to photograph for the other categories.

I really enjoy your blog and read it faithfully. I am envious of your stitching time. Lately the only thing I have done it type & photograph, and then I photograph & type.

Thanks again for the great mention. Also, would you like to receive Amy s monthly e-newsletter? I can add you email to the list. Just sign up on-line on her E-newsletter page."

Thanks, Robin. I am very glad to hear that the wonderful photos I so enjoyed will be back just as fast as you can take photos and post them to the new website design. Be assured that there are a huge number of Amy Bunger fans who are cheering you on as you work!

I already get the monthly e-newsletter but I guess I'd better update my email address as I've about to change it. Anyone else interested in getting the newsletter? The place to go to sign up is here. Of course if you already have a full mailbox and don't want to have the newsletters mailed to you when they are ready, you can still check here for the latest each month.

http://www.amybunger.com/current_enewsletters.html

Thanks again for the update, Robin. I appreciate everything you are doing to launch a new and updated website for Amy! Not stitching to have more time to treat us with eye candy is a great sacrifice and I appreciate it.

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

It's Newsletter Time Again

E-newsletters are starting to roll into my In Box here in Chilly Hollow. I have two shop ones you should see.

First of all, Amy Bunger has updated her website. All her canvases are gone, and it is more a shop-focused site now. Of course since this is new the old photos I enjoyed so much may return. You will enjoy her July 2008 newsletter and especially have fun looking at the bargain painted canvases in Amy's Attic. The above piece is a Melissa Shirley geisha wearing a koi robe. Isn't she interesting? The sale bin also has canvases from SharonG, Shorebird, and Juell. Just my kind of sale!

http://www.amybunger.com/

Chandail's newsletter mentions that TNNA is planning a needlepoint news site. Won't that be great? I'd love to hear all the news straight from the designers, manufacturers, etc. Look for their summer newsletter on the right side of the page and sign up for their mailing list on the left.

http://www.chandailneedlework.com/

I just love newsletters!

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

Wizard Influences

When Margaret's sharp eyes spotted the tiny image of the Santa I plan to stitch next, I bowed to the inevitable and shelved my plan to finish the goldfish before I started the next project. After all, I need supplies from the craft emporium before I can finish the goldfish and I won't be able to get there until next week. Can't go without stitching anything that long, can I?

So let me introduce one of Joan Thomasson's Santas, the Halloween Holiday Spirit Santa. He has a brother (the Valentine Santa) and you can see both on Joan's website if you click on Catalog, then find Holiday Spirits and click there.

http://www.stitchinstuff.com/

Joan Thomasson's website features a variety of sizes of the image of the finished product. Click on any one you are interested in to see Joan's model stitched, depending on how fast your connection speed is and how much detail you are interested in. The Wizard Santa comes in a kit. You get the painted canvas, a stitch guide with the stitches and threads Joan used to stitch the model, and a crystal bead and charms to finish the piece. The design is on 18 count canvas and the wizard Santa himself is approximately 8 inches high and 6 wide. Joan tells me that this is a Halloween spirit. The date on my canvas seems to be 1995, so this is an older piece. The stitch guide describes this piece as "the Mid-Sized Wizard" so there may be larger and smaller versions. That I don't know.

Let me quote Ms. Thomasson here about this piece:

"Magic fairly swirls around the mystical Wizard, who keeps close control on the Earth, moon and stars. From the staff, topped with a far-seeing crystal, to the trunks and baskets holding all the needed ingredients for truly special incantations (no eye of Newt or toe of frog here), the Wizard is fully prepared for almost anything. Books of spells are stacked at his feet."

So what do I do next? Well, I am always thinking about my next piece while working the current one and I have my eyes open for inspiration and ideas all the time. Here are some of the things I'm considering as I think about stitching the Wizard Santa..

John Marshall's Galactic Warrior robe reminds me slightly of the wizard Santa's outfit. Maybe I can add a frog closure like the one in the inset photo at the bottom to the front of his robe? That would be a nice touch.

http://www.johnmarshall.to/J-008.htm

Carol-Anne Conway's "Flutterbies", a Japanese Embroidery piece seen at the top of her blog (or click on Flutterbies in the right hand column of links to see the development of this piece) reminded me of the sleeves our wizard wears. Look at the purple and the pink butterflies and you'll see what I mean. The problem with duplicating this technique is that the underlying silk must be carefully laid at a diagonal to the metallic couched line that goes on top. That means also laying the padding at an angle. I'll have to think carefully to figure this all out.

http://threadsacrosstheweb.blogspot.com/

I've been watching Laura Perin's mystery blackwork piece that she is posting as a free pattern on her website. It's made me think about using a blackwork pattern for the minimal background behind the Santa. Doesn't the first step look sort of like a stone wall pattern?

http://two-handedstitcher.blogspot.com/2008/07/stitch-with-me.html

If you are eaten up with curiosity about the mystery design she is doing, here are the instructions on Laura's website.

http://laurajperindesigns.tripod.com/id30.htm


Hope this gives you an idea of where I start on a painted canvas. I collect potential ideas and start rummaging in my stash for threads that might work, then I start looking through my stitch dictionaries for more ideas.

But the very first thing I do is make a color copy of the canvas and several black and white copies. I plan to finish this as a standup piece, so I sketched an outline in pencil on one of the black and white copies to show where the standup's edge might be, then erased and adjusted the pencil line until I was happy. Then I folded the design in half right down the middle along a vertical line. Then I cut the standup ourline again so both sides match exactly. Unfold the pattern, put it on your actual canvas with the Santa heads lined up, and draw around the outline of the paper and you'll know where to stop stitching around the standup figure.

Speaking of knowing when to stop, this is enough for today.

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