Duplicating Barkcloth

If you hang out at vintage clothing and fabric stores, you'll be familiar with barkcloth. I always associated it with the 1940s but a quick search showed me that it was popular in the 1950s-1970s. Barkcloth is a heavy (upholstry weight) cotton fabric that is slightly ribbed. It was used for curtains, pilows and casual chair coverings when I was a child and gave a tropical feel to a room. In my area I see the vintage fabric recycled into tote bags and pillows. Here is a fabric site with a good selection of reproduction fabric in typical patterns.
http://www.jandofabrics.com/products.asp?id=18&PageIndex=2&PageSize=12&viewall=True

When I looked at my Leigh South Seas Dynasty ornament (the original unstitched canvas is shown above), barkcloth was what I thought of. Doesn't the right side of the ornament look like fabric to you? The areas that aren't black have washes of color on top of the sea green NP canvas. I don't want to loose that shading and I want to make this look slightly ribbed so I choose to lay long stitches horizontally across just the green areas with one ply of Thread Gatherer's Seaform Green (a sea green-blue-olive green mix). These stitches do not cover the black areas. I will handle them differently.



The photo above shows what I have so far. I am busy couching down the silk with Accentuate 331 which is an opalescent white. The couching stitches are in a sort of brick stitch pattern, which is often referred to as Burden Stitch. It's slow going. I have to make sure I don't mess up the pattern as I jump from area to area. I started work by doing one long vertical line of couching stitches across the widest part of the area that covered as many green spots as possible. Now I'm working each section based off that. It's very slow going. You have to be careful not to pull the couching stitches too tightly or the long horizontal stitches are pulled out of straight lines.

It's not only basketweave that is slow and boring stitching!

Speaking of which, I am still working on the border of Cape Cod Dogs. I made the mistake of working on the outside padded red border last night when tired and realized I was slanting the / stitches over the Very Velvet padding the wrong way and had to pull out one length of thread. Oh, well, ripping out just reminds me not to stitch when tired. It's a lesson I need to relearn periodically!

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

From Playing with Fire to Playing with Water N Ice

Cape Cod Dog's window has been completely covered with Water N Ice and I'm continuing work on the border. Didn't finish that last night but I was slightly distracted by testing some stitches for the South Seas: Fiji ornament. So today I'd like to talk about Water N Ice a bit more. I forgot to mention that when stitching the window view on Cape Cod Dogs, I used two colors of Water N Ice. I used the original clear WT1 (which looks like thick saran wrap cut into strips) in 90% of the window but at the bottom where the view was of the ocean, I switched to Water N Ice WT2, which is blue. I hoped to make the blue water even bluer than it was painted. The last 2-3 rows are all blue. If a row of stitches overlapped water and land, I used the clear Water N Ice as I thought blue land would look odd. I like how the use of both colors continued the glassy look but gave a boost of blue to the water seen through the window.

Water N Ice comes in many colors. Here are the online links at the Rainbow Gallery website I found--
http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?ID=939

http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?ID=1071

http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?id=1215

It also comes in Navy and in the original Clear but I didn't see those colors on the color card page. In the photo above you see (top row, left to right) the blue WT2 and the clear WT1 and (bottom row) the new Pearl Ice color WT12 which has a frosted look compared to the original Clear WT1. The new frosted Pearl Ice isn't as see-through as the original Clear and has some pink and green highlights. It resembles opalescent white metallic threads which often have the same highlights.

If you are stitching a margerita glass, you will want to use Pearl Ice. If you are stitching a water glass, use the original Clear. Long stitches work better to showcase this thread's glassy or wet look.

In other news, Gay Ann Rogers is experimenting with adding videos to her website. Her first short movie is an interview with the nicest and funniest NP teacher in captivity--Carole Lake. Catch it now. I don't think it will be left up on GAR's website long.
http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Surprise_Video.html

Judy Soulitis has redone her website and announces her retirement from teaching except at Callaway and via the Internet in places like the Shining Needle Society. Be sure you look at the Sales section of her website to pick up a kit for a class you always wanted to take. Also, note that she has various section listed on the left side of the page and a slide show in the upper right hand corner. Don't want you to miss any of the eye candy because honey, she can stitch!
http://www.judysneedlework.com/

Barbara Elmore also has revamped her website and has added a blog. There is a lot to see as Barbara also makes jewelry, is a photographer and teaches.
http://www.barbaraelmoredesigns.com/Home/Godaddy.html

While you amuse yourselves I'm going to work on Cape Cod Dog's border. I've got the outside red padded edge to add on most of two sides and have the black background to tent stitch around one side still. I'm also working on the last side's red letters in cross stitch. To keep from dying of boredom, I cut a length of black Impressions and do the basketweave black background. When that runs out, I cut off a length of red Mandarin floss and cover the Very Velvet for the padded outside edge. Then I switch to a short piece of Hi-Lights to cross stitch another letter. It keeps me from being bored although progress on any of these three items of the border are slow this way.

Happy stitching!

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

Making a Boring Border Better

I didn't mention several things when I posted about the Cape Cod Dogs window yesterday. If you looked closely at the photograph then, you saw I'd already finished the inside red border (tent stitches in the silk perle Elegance) and added a new element to the border--an outside red line, broader than the thin one on the inside edge of the border. The success I had padding Ch'ing the Chinese Red Dragon's face with Very Velvet meant I wanted to try padding again, especially when Carole emailed me about her current Melissa Shirley Santa stocking (photo above).




Carole used Petite Very Velvet as padding under her stocking top. She says, "I used the Petite Very Velvet to pad and then did Ribbon Floss over it. The holding power of the PVV is awesome. My Ribbon Floss has never looked better--you can't see the individual threads. It stands up just little above the PVV background in the blue."

Carole has a second similar Melissa Shirley mini stock with a pink and white peppermint top and plans to stitch it the same way. This looks great, doesn't it? Cape Cod Dogs isn't quite as gorgeous (I don't have any red ribbon floss and believe me, I looked!) so I laid down a long line of red Very Velvet around the edge of the original black border and have been stitching slanted stitches over it using all 6 plies of a card of red Mandarin Floss. It looks very nice in person and gives the border a very nice touch. Of course I still have tons of boring background to stitch, but at least with the Very Velvet padding it looks very nice. Here's a closeup from yesterday's photo.



Wish me luck finishing the last black border background, the red lettering and the padded red border all around the outside.

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

Playing With Fire -- Cape Cod Dogs

I've also been playing with fire on Cape Cod Dogs. Was anyone betting how long I'd be able to concentrate just on the basketweaved border background? I bowed to the lure of the rest of the canvas on the 4th of July by starting to stitch the window glass. I'd decided there were two ways to handle the view out the window: Either I'd stitch it in light coverage stitches with only one ply of silk or cotton, or I'd stitch the glass with clear Water N Ice and totally ignore stitching the details of the painted view themselves. I felt either route would make the view recede into the background where it belongs.

Being ultra lazy, I chose the Water N Ice route.

Step one was to find my cards of Water N Ice (done!) and step two was to choose a stitch. My first stitch choice was Byzantine as I thought the diagonal flow would look like reflections of sun on glass. I also thought the Water N Ice, which is a ribbon-like thread, would cover better on the diagonal.
http://www.barbarabergstendesigns.com/new_page_1.htm

However, as I worked I discovered two things. First, the holes between the rows of Byzantine stitch made a prominent pattern that detracted from the view itself and secondly, the Water N Ice frayed badly at the tail end that hangs out the needle's eye. I ended up using 8 inch lengths and still having to cut off 2 inches at the needle's eye because the thread was coming apart as I worked.

What to do? Short lengths didn't stop the fraying. My bottle of Frey Check was so old it was dried up, so in the trash it went, useless to stop the unraveling of my Water N Ice. I know some folks use burning tools to seal the ends of threads. (Frey Check and burn tools listed in this link.)
http://www.fashionribbonwear.com/cosmetics.html#fraycheck

I don't own such tools but I do have a wood stove. In other words, I've got MATCHES.

[At this point the nervous stitcher may want to hide under the couch. Or at least get a stiff drink!]

I cut off an eight inch length of Water N Ice, took it into the kitchen, stood over the sink and lit a match. After it burned a second, I blew the flame out and touched the hot end to the cut end of my thread. It sealed it a bit. I put the slightly melted end went through the needle's eye. Then I stitched. Usually I didn't have any unraveling after that. Of course touching the hot end of a match is a bit chancy. Besides the danger of being burned, one won't always seal the thread completely. Occasionally I did have some unraveling.

By the way, I am stitching the window using Irish Stitch from Stitches for Effect, page 37. This is a simple straight stitch over four threads. Then you skip a channel, stitch over four threads, skip a channel, etc. The second row you drop down two threads and do a series of over four straight stitches in the empty channels. Repeat these two rows endlessly and you'll have a nice plain stitch that I found let the painted canvas show nicely and added a window glass reflection to the canvas.

Hope you like the effect. You don't see the glassy shine in the photo but it is there. I've still got to finish the border, and I'll tackle that chore along with tent stitching the thin red line on the inside of the border next.

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

Playing With Fire-- Ch'ing the Chinese Red Dragon

Last night I finished the stitching on my Leigh dragon ornament by stem stitching the fire he breathes. This took a while because I used rows of very thin metallics in orange, gold and red, working from the right side of the ribbon of fire to the left. The left edge of the fire was painted red but I put orange there on the outside edge just to make the background distinct from the flame. Occasionally I put a gold stitch on top of the red ones or an orange stitch on the gold to add a little depth to the colors.

I used Bijoux 414 (the same thin red metallic I used to tie down the silk that outlines the background squares), orange Treasure Braid #TR47 (4-strand), and gold Acentuate #23 for the fire the dragon breathes. These are all very thin metallic threads around the size of Kreinik's blending filament. It took a while to create the flames but the stem stitch is very easy. You can also cover up a bare patch easily if you didn't pack the stem stitches tightly enough as you worked.









I like how he looks a lot but I do have to say that the photographs don't do him justice. Ch'ing will go to Leigh Designs to serve as a model and there will be a stitch guide available later but I don't have the details on that yet.

I'm going to add another smaller piece to my stitching rotation now. I choose another Dynasty Ornament from Leigh, this time Fiji (the one with the palm tree on the beach) from the South Seas Dynasty series. It's on my favorite sea green canvas and is a lovely design very reminescent of photographs I see at work all the time. Photographers can't resist a beach with a palm tree leaning out toward the incoming waves. Well, who can? Not me for sure!
http://www.leighdesigns.com/Grp825x.html

I'll continue working the border on Cape Cod Dogs. Right now three of the four sides are finished. I won't do the corners of the border until later but I hope to finish the basketweave black background and the red letters on the border this week and move on to something more interesting.

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