Big Versus Little Sky Stitches

The photo above shows the old large Ming Variation stitch in the right hand side of the sky and the left side shows the smaller balloon stitch I found which is a smaller scale, less oval version of the stitch that some of us think is too large.  It was easy to pull out the left half of the sky as this is a light coverage stitch with only one ply of silk.

Here's a tip about ripping out--use the eye end of the needle to gently pull up a stitch.  If I use the business end, the sharp tip catches the silk the wrong way and I end up pulling half the ply out, not the whole thing.

Comparing the two sky stitches, I like the Ming Variation better but it isn't right for this canvas. It is too large.  So I ripped it all out and continued filling the sky with balloon stitch.

This photo shows an all balloon stitch sky with some of the palm fronds stitched in.  I'm using stem stitch and a variety of threads, but more about that later when I have more palm fronds stitched.

Thanks for your input, everyone!

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

Brenda Hart is Queen of the Universe Today

Remember this list of winners from the 2009 ANG Seminar exhibit in Milwaukee?


Category 5 Painted Design with stitch guide
(Non professional)
1 Vicky Lamers Fiona's Carnevale Mask
2 Evelyn Cavis Sweet Dreams
3 Shereen Ikeda Japanese Crane Scroll

HM Evelyn Cavins Dirty Boots
HM Susan Swan Anemones


I got a note from Brenda Hart this morning that said this,
"Jane, I thought I'd mention that Vicki Lamers, Evelyn Cavins, and Sue Swan all did their pieces in my class.  Vicki is from Tucson, Evelyn is from Santa Barbara, and Sue Swan is from Tucson.  Sue's piece is by Diane O'Leary, Evelyn's Sweet Dreams is by Sandra Gilmore, her Trail Boots (actual name) is by Boots Bailey, and as you know Fiona is by Leigh Designs.  I know I shouldn't be bragging, but I can't help myself."


Brenda, if my students had taken three of the five ribbons in a category at the ANG Seminar exhibit, I'd take out an ad on the front page of the New York Times!  Many congratulations to Brenda Hart and her students.  This is a job well done!

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

Is My Sky Too Big?

Last night I completed the sky in a variation of Ming stitch (Page 91 of Brenda Hart's Stitches for the Millennium) using one ply of my Thread Gatherer's overdyed silk (color Seafoam Green).  As you can see, I stitched right over the palm tree fronds.  If I'm careful and use a sharp needle, the fronds can be stitched on top of the background stitches without disturbing them.

However, Liz thinks that perhaps the Ming Variation #3 stitch is too large in scale.  I will think about this today and just work on Glittering Kimono couching of my H-Q rows. I don't know if Liz is right or not but if I decide she is, this is the time to rip out.  I don't want to do palm fronds until I am sure about the stitch they go on top of.  As usual when I am thinking about a stitch, I will work on another item and put this one up where I can see it as I walk around the house.  Eventually I will decide whether Liz is right.  Scale is very important in needlework. If the background stitch is too large, the piece will be an irritant.  So I'll take time to think this over.  Thanks for the critique, Liz!  We can get too close to our stitching and not see how good/bad it is!  I love getting comments from Blog readers as otherwise I have no input on my stitching at all.  There are no other needlepointers near me in Chilly Hollow.

Anyone else have thoughts about the sky background stitch?

The other thing I worked on last night is the white foam on the edges of the waves rolling into the beach.  My canvas came with a two page stitch guide.  I used the threads list to guide me in choosing threads (but I didn't follow it completely). I have not used any of the stitch suggestions until now.  The guide suggests using detached buttonhole for the white foam.  I deviated from that slightly in that I used regular buttonhole (one ply of my white Splendor silk used for the sandy beach in the background mixed with one strand of white Accentuate #311) to stitch the foam lines from left to right.  In certain areas I added a tiny French knot where the foam needed to be thicker as it spilled over the top of an incoming wave.

I have to admit it was hard to keep the silk and Accentuate strands even in the needle.  This was slow going but I like the end result. It doesn't overwhelm the water and looks real to me.

The white Accentuate was a new thread so I added one more stash credit point to my tally which stands at 25 now.  It amazes me how many threads I use on a piece and how I rarely use up a thread from my stash.  I must mix a lot of small sections of each thread.  But as I am a threadaholic, I would expect no less.

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

For Margaret

I've been pestering all the Margarets who normally post comments here, trying to find the Margaret who asked about the tulips pillow on display next to the pet guardian angels at the ANG Auction.

I can't find the right Margaret!  So, Margaret, wherever you are, here is the best photo from the ANG Auction display of the tulip pillow next to the pet guardian angels.

Email me at chilly hollowat hot maildotcom and I'll send you the Auction chairman's email address to find out more if you need to.

And for the other Margarets (you know who you are) sorry to have bothered you!

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

Making Mistakes Isn't Fatal

I got two comments this week from folks who admitted they don't stitch painted canvases because they are afraid they will make a mistake and ruin them.

In answer to these comments, above is Exhibit A, also known as South Seas Fiji from Leigh Designs.

I added the water in long random zig zag stitches using three colors of Accentuate (baby blue has no color number, medium blue #67 and navy blue 138).  I also tent stitched the white beach and tree line back in the background using two plies of dark green Splendor silk #S907 and white Splendor S800.

I like how the white beach looks but did think about adding a few French knots to the green tree area to make it more tree-like.  I finally decided against it since the palm tree's fronds cover some of this area.  I don't want to take away from the palm tree which is the main element of the design, so no French knots for now.  I may change my mind and add them later once the palm tree is stitched and I have a better idea of whether a dimensional element in the tree line will make this canvas look better or not.  But if I had added the French knots and decided I didn't like them, I could have just pulled them out again.  I might have had to rip out the green tent stitches, too but that's no big deal.  I haven't stitched the palm tree fronds yet so I wouldn't disturb them and the sky isn't done either.

I'm testing a small Ming stitch in the sky using the same Thread Gatherer overdye that I used for the green areas on the right barkcloth side of the ornament.  Don't know if I like it yet.  I wanted something rounded like clouds but this may be too regular.  I had to see how it looked with the palm tree to make up my mind.  If I don't like it, it is very easy to simply rip out the single strand of silk.

I'm not sure about the water yet.  The stitch looks good (much better in person as it sparkles like the ocean on a sunny day) but I wonder if I shouldn't have used two plies of the baby blue Accentuate.  I may rip that out and use just one.  I only used one ply of the medium aqua and one of the navy.  Does the light blue water look too intense to you?  I hoped to convey depth and sunlight by varying the amount of Accentuate (one strand versus two) but I don't know if I succeeded.  I'll think about it today and perhaps I'll rip out tonight and perhaps I won't.  It certainly is no big deal to stitch something on a painted canvas and change your mind.

Of course I do a lot of test stitching threads and stitches before I put them on the canvas and I also work from the back forwards usually so that I don't have to rip out the foreground if I change my mind about the background, but it is durn hard to ruin a painted canvas.

The one exception is congress cloth.  If you stitch on congress cloth, you enlarge the very small holes.  So if you rip out you have to be a bit careful to make sure the larger holes aren't obvious.  I've known folks to just put an empty unthreaded needle through all the holes so that the ripped out ones don't look odd!  The moral is if you are worried about ruining a painted canvas, just don't stitch one painted on congress cloth.  Easy-peasy.

If I can do it, mess up, rip out and try again and still end up with a nice stitched design at the end, anyone can.  This is not astrophysics where a mathematical error puts your calculations off a million miles.

Just be brave and try.  You can always shout for help.  Your Internet friends will be able to suggest all sorts of things, and--as a very smart woman and dynamite stitcher told me--the more you rip out, the better a stitcher you will be.

Promise.

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