The Geisha's Robe Is Done?

You may have noticed how I avoided talking about one part of The Geisha's robe--the medium dusty rose pink labels that overlap the chrysanthemums on plum body of the robe. If you watched the video showing kimono layering I found on the Immortal Geisha website, you'll probably agree that this area is a kimono layer showing from underneath. This was the most difficult part of the kimno for me to stitch as I had a lot of ideas that didn't seem to work well with either the plum chrysanthemum area or the box-covered shawl collar.

I finally did long straight vertical satin stitches (4 plies of Splendor S1035) for the bulk of the collar except for a tiny area at the bottom of the left side where straight stitches looked odd. I pulled them out and used diagonal stitches from the top of the flower to that area's left to the bottom of the kimono and that worked better. I may replace some of the long stitches on the right side of the kimono near the peach with diagonals, too. I haven't decided yet.

Once the long stitches were in, I wanted to emphasize the thin deep plum line that separates the various collar areas from each other. I thought a stem stitched line in my deep plum would be perfect but I wanted a perle type thread for that so I'd have a bit of "loft" -- round perles are higher than flat plies and so I wanted perle.

Enter Stage Left my very best friend when it comes to stitching supplies--Liz, the new owner of Needlewoman East. [Loud applause!]

I gave Liz the color number of my Splendor and asked her to rummage around to find a silk or cotton perle around size #8 that was the same deep plum, or something very similar. I hoped that there was a card of Elegance in the same color (Rainbow Gallery also sells three sizes of perle silks in colors that match Splendor and Elegance is #8 perle-sized) but that wasn't the case. Unfortunately, the closest color match was a cotton perle that was several shades lighter than my deep plum Splendor S1037. We talked it over and decided that a deeper color would work, but not a lighter one. So Liz wasn't able to help, although if I'd broadened my search parameters to a wool or silk/wool thread, I suspect she might have come up with something. You do have to think texture when matching colors. A silk like Splendor that's not really shiny will look enough like a cotton perle that a viewer probably won't notice they aren't the same thread but a wool and a silk will not match in texture.

Thanks anyway, Liz! I'll come see you for the big after Christmas sale....

[Liz bows, waves and blows kisses to you all, then exits to join the other shop owners in the audience. Many thanks to shop owners everywhere. What would we do without you?]

So I did what anyone would do who couldn't get a perle to match her floss--I made my own. It's pretty simple: Put 4-6 plies of your floss in your needle, secure it on the back and come up as usual at the starting point, then twist the needle (I went counterclockwise) until you have a tight little cord. Plunge the needle while keeping the tension on the thread so it doesn't untwist. I did my stem stitches carefully up the kimono collars, carefully checking to make sure the thread wasn't unwinding when I came up from the back. It took a while but now I have a little edge along the dark plum lines on the kimono. You can't see it in the photos but it is there in person and it raises the areas enough to give a bit of lift to the kimono's edges to frame The Geisha's face.

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

Rainbow Gallery's Christmas Lightbulb Ornament Chart

Here is a free chart for Christmas bulb ornaments in needlepoint. Note that when the instructions say you are to trace three mini sock outlines on the canvas, they mean you are to trace the three little lightbulbs.

http://www.rainbowgallery.com/images/Carolines%20Mini%20Lights.pdf

Rummage in your stash and find leftovers and stitch these in your free moments while traveling Christmas.

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

Beaded Boxes

Last night I finished the shawl collar's boxes of both colors. I did do fake eyelets in the blue boxes by using tent or reverse tent stitches all around the edge. I left the centers bare and added pink beads which are attached with a cross stitch using one ply of my deep plum Splendor S1037. I thought since the beads are all sitting on top of a thread intersection due to the way the blue boxes are painted, that a cross stitch would secure them better than my more usual doubled thread through and then stitched again with one ply on either side of the bead.

I used 4 plies of DMC 964 for the blue boxes, which is a lighter version of the teal blue thread (DMC 187) that outlines the cleaning woman's yakuta on the left side. The canvas is painted this way and I think the color looks very good with the plums and dusty pinks in The Geisha's robe.

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

Boxed Kimono

Yesterday Pat in NC mentioned that eyelets might work for the blue boxes scattered among the pale dusty rose ones on The Geisha's shawl collar. I hadn't thought of that! My idea was to use a split Scotch stitch variation where the long middle stitch is turned into two short stitches with an unstitched place in the middle where I can put one of the pretty pink beads that came with my Squiggee canvas. Last night I worked more of the regular Scotch stitches in the background and did two blue boxes on the right lapel's bottom, one in a boxey eyelet that's really just tent and reverse tent stitches (my blue squares don't have a hole in the center; they have a thread intersection) and my Scotch variation. What do you think? Right now I'm leaning toward Pat's eyelet stitch....

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

Squares on the Kimono

Last night I finished the embroidered chrysanthemums on The Geisha's robe and worked on finding the right stitch for the shawl collar. It is painted with squares scattered in an irregular pattern on it, so I wanted a background of squares, or at least as many as I could squeeze in before I had to compensate.

I ended up using Scotch Stitch with my Soie Perlee silk.

http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/98-06.php

I am not placing my Scotch stitches in a regular way--I'm scattering them into the largest areas where I can and compensating around them. The painted blocks of color are not in a regular pattern--why should my Scotch stitches be?

Note I am making sure my Scotch stitches all slant the same way. One can alternate them and stitch a beautiful pattern that catches the light but this is random enough already that I thought changing direction of the Scotch stitches would look messy.

I'll attempt to finish these little boxes tonight while I think about how to stitch the painted blue boxes they surround.


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