More Tweets

You might have noticed I've been fiddling with the look of Blog, changing the titles from pink to navy, changing the header photo, moving some things around, changing the ads and the search box, etc. I have a new header planned but I can't implement it just yet, so today in honor of the "tweets" we are getting from Colubmus, I used a bird theme. This is the view out my window of a pair of blue birds that I noticed yesterday. They may be nesting in this tree; certainly yesterday it was their outside patio as they kept watch for insects, then headed down to the ground to grab one and return to the tree to eat it. They took turns and were there long enough before the skies got overcast and the rains came for me to take photos. In the big header photo you can see them directly under the "ad" and the "en" in Adventure.

Mother Nature certainly gives us wonderful things to enjoy.

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

Halo on the Way

As you can see, I've made a lot of progress on the Blue Angel Byzantine Icon from Designing Women. I decided the white wing tips brought out the blues of the rest of the design and looked better overall than the blue Kreinik wing tips I test-stitched yesterday. It can be awfully hard to decide these things. Kreinik brought shine to the party but the deciding factor that made me go with white wing tips was that this piece when made into an ornament will be seen from a good distance. The white wings really added contrast that made the angel more noticable, especially when hanging on a Christmas tree among lights and other ornaments.

I had all the Kreinik I'd pulled out, though, so I tent stitched the rest of the top and bottom corners with it. It looks very dense next to the ligher blue ribbon floss and adds weight to the decorative arch the angel stands under. It is less impressive in the corners but I haven't put the border around this yet. I'll use gold Kreinik for that the same way I did for the Red Madonna piece.

Can you see I've added crystal beads to the spaces between the pairs of wing stitches and started attaching them to the outside of the halo? I've run into a snag with the white pearls that came with these two canvases. I planned to use all them on this piece in the white painted spots but the eye of my beading needle is too big. It won't go through the pearl holes! Today I'll hunt out a thinner thread to attach them with and a smaller sized needle. If that doesn't work, I'll improvize. Don't worry, those pearls WILL get stitched. LOL

Once I finish the halo, attach the pearls and do the final gold border, the Blue Angel will also be finished. I will then talk in detail about finishing them. I'm going to use the same technique to finish them that we are all using for the pet guardian angels we are stitching for the ANG Auction. I deliberately didn't talk about that when I was finishing six angels in a row. That would have been too depressing! But now I'll go over how I am finishing ornaments. It is not really quick but it is durn easy.

Even I can do it!

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

Tweets from Columbus

The trade show in Columbus has started and news is starting to appear. I'm collecting what I can find from designer and shop websites. So far the big news is that Amy Bunger and her staff are posting news on her Twitter account about the show. I personally would find it very difficult to confine my messages to so few characters!

You can follow the Tweets on Amy's website if you don't have a Twitter account. The latest message is on top, just like here at Blog.
http://www.amybunger.com/twitter.html

We've already seen that SharonG can make even a painted canvas of a horse's ass look great in her new items on her blog.
http://sharongneedlepointdesigner.blogspot.com/2009/06/ct35-is-newer-canvas-that-now-has.html

There are lots of new designs and stitch guides on Melissa Shirley's What's New section of her website.
http://www.melissashirleydesigns.com/gallery/?bsn=1

Ruth Schmuff has new artists in her line of painted canvases and shows them off here.
http://www.tistheseason.org/ptdproducts.php?catid=216

And here.
http://www.tistheseason.org/whatsNew.php

I have a spy at the show who has promised to write a report for us, so stay tuned for that. As other things start appearing on the WWW, I'll keep you informed. After all, there are probably new tools, new designers, new canvases, new threads and new charts we really do "need." Fortunately, Ruth Schmuff is blogging about her adventures in Columbus. Here's the first posting.
http://www.tistheseason.org/blog/2009/06/were-in-columbus.html

Hugs from the Master Enabler,
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Angel Hair (Do These Wings Make Me Look Fat?)

I'm making great progress on the Blue Angel. First, her hair. It is stitched in packed stem stitch and packed outline stitch (the needle is on the right or left, depending on which side of her face I'm working on, which changes the stitch name). using the same Wildflowers (Caron) that I used for the French knot curls on the Baby Jesus' hair in the Red Madonna piece. The color is 196 Sable, which is a mix of black and dark brown. In the photo above the right side of the hair is done. You can see I added bullions here and there on top of the outline/stem stitches to raise the bangs or indicate curls on her choulders. On the left side there are no bullions yet. Because Wildflowers is a thin perle cotton thread (you can see a strand of it on the canvas on the left), I found I could make fat bullions by using 15 or so wraps and tiny skinny ones with only 8 wraps.

Once the hair was finished, I moved on to the collar. I added a bit of blue Sparkle Braid #SK19 on top of my tent stitches to add a bit of embellishment, then stitched a row of clear Toho crystal beads (size 11/0) on top around the neckline. They barely show up in the photo and in real life but you can sense the sparkle, always a good thing for an icon and a Christmas ornament in my opinion.

Next I did the inner part of the halo, using ribbon floss as I did with Red Madonna. But this time I used Shimmer Blend #148F-32 Smoke Blu/Blu which is a lovely shade that coordinates with her robe. I used the same thread in long stitches on her wings. The gaps where the pairs of stitches meet will be filled with a bead, probably a crystal one like the ones on her neckline.

I used the same thread for tent stitches in the framework over her head, again the same thing I did for the Red Madonna, but in another color. Now I've started outlining the wings. On the left wing you see regular (not Shimmer Blend) white ribbon floss ##142-F2 White. Last night I wasn't happen with the long white stitches which I had to stitch twice (one stitch right on top of the ones that looked skimpy) so I used Kreinik's medium #16 braid in o33 on the right wing in long and skinny cross stitches. This morning I like the white wing edging better than the blue!

Guess I'll think this one over. It may be that natural light is kinder to the white wing tips and electric light kinder to the blue wing tips. Since this is a Christmas ornament, I may go with the metallic blue. These sorts of pieces will be seen in artificial light from the Christmas tree probably. I think I'll start working on the halo's outside edge while I mull this one over. Any opinions?

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

These Boots Were Made for Hanging

Boots Bailey has boots made for Christmas, both stocking size...
http://www.bootsbailey.com/Western/stockings.php

...and ornament size.
http://www.bootsbailey.com/Western/ornaments.php

I'd heard about these but never seen them so I had to share!

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