Rabbit Geisha's Cheeks and Forehead

Last night I finished the neck of our Rabbit Geisha and started working her cheeks and lower chin, then moved up toward her forehead. The photo shows my progress so far. Because I am using only one strand of my Burmilana (in white, light gray and medium gray) it is slow going.

Hopefully the photo is good enough to show how the neck, face and paws all look and gives enough detail that you can see how I am slanting the cheeks and forehead stitches to make them realistic yet blend.

I'm going to have to pad the nose. I tried overstitching my pink tent stitches with my Needle Necessities overdyed pink #8 perle cotton but that doesn't look smooth enough as you can see in the photograph. I'll pull out some pale pink silk from my stash and see what I can do to raise the nose a bit.

This is only the first layer of stitches.  More will be laid on top to smooth out various areas once more of the face is done.

I did a little background last night, too.  I need to do some of that every night so I don't have miles of background to finish at the end.  I've temporarily abandoned working on Glittering Kimono.  I just can't work two projects at once when they both need concentration!

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

Sharon G's Horses' Rear Canvases

So many people commented about the SharonG canvas that was my Canvas of the Day yesterday that I wanted to post about the horses' rear designs to help folks find them.  First of all, the photo above is the one I posted yesterday.  The design is called Graphic Girls #BH 02.  This is an 18 count canvas that is 8x10, which is a pillow or framed photo size.  It's from the Horses Rear series which are all the same size on 18 count and show three horses from the rear covered in various patterns.  You can see the other two canvases in this series on Sharon's blog in the link below.  One has floral patterns on the horses and the other has Christmas motifs.  These canvases just came out last June so your shop may not have one yet.
http://sharongneedlepointdesigner.blogspot.com/2009/06/ct35-is-newer-canvas-that-now-has.html

They've been very popular so SharonG is going to design more of them, but in a smaller, single horse size.  You can read a bit more about her plans for these newest designs here.
http://sharongneedlepointdesigner.blogspot.com/2009/09/horses-behinds.html

If you, like Pat, know one of the original models of these horse's asses, you might be interested.

Jane, exits giggling here in CH

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

Fuzzy Neck

Last night I did some of the background stitching and started the first rows of the neck of the Rabbit Geisha.  The neck is dark gray under the edge of the jaw, then lightens to light gray for all the rest of the neck except for the area near the left collar.  I've not stitched that yet but it will be white.  In all cases I am using one strand of my Burmilana in the various shades in modified long and short stitch.  I used two strands (actually, one long length doubled in my needle's eye) for the paws but that looked too heavy for the neck.  I'll have to test the face and ears when I get to them to see whether I go with one strand or two.

I've also outlined the cheeks with a strand of dark gray in outline stitch.  My next step will be to finish the neck area with white Burmilana and then do a second layer of stitches in areas that look skimpy.  The face and ears will be next.  I plan to stitch the cheeks in / and \ directions, stitch the area than runs from the nose to the forehead slantly slightly this way \ and do the side of the face and the ears vertically.  I hope this directional stitching makes the face look more real.

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

BREAKING NEWS: Colonial Needle Buys Lee Needle Arts

My spies tell me that Colonial Needle (which sells needles and knitting supplies and is turning into a needlepoint distributor as they offer a painting and a model stitching service to designers) is buying Lee's Needle Arts.  Colonial Needle is buying both the leather goods and the canvases so most everything should still be available.  I know many shops, teachers and regular stitchers are breathing a sigh of relief at this news.

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

September 2009 Chilly Hollow Newsletter Article

It's back to school in September for those of us in the United States. Luckily, the classes I've found for you are taught by Mary Corbet and the lesson is mastering long and short stitch. This is a crewel stitch that gives beautiful and realistic shading that is used a great deal to create beautiful flower petals and leaves in particular. It also will shade any other object you wish to make with needle and thread. Mary tells you how to do it for any sort of shape in a series of nine lessons. Six of the lessons are posted already. Here are all the links. Bookmark this to find the other lessons when they are posted and you'll never wonder how to do this stitch again.
http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/08/long-and-short-stitch-lessons-index.html


Do the lessons make your head spin? Then you need some eye candy. Look at the details on these finished projects by customers of The Thread Garden! Click on the thumbnail photos for a better look. The second link is to a gallery of framed pieces, including a Halloween house whose framing and mat you must see.
http://thethreadgarden.com/Finishing.html


http://thethreadgarden.com/Framing%20Gallery.html


Now browse some of the fun tips Thread Garden has written in their Garden Almanac section.
http://thethreadgarden.com/The%20Garden%20Almanac/The%20Garden%20Almanac.html

[Note:  if these links won't take you to The Thread Garden, go to the framing gallery, then use the subtitles at the top of the page.]


See? Learning can be fun! Go treat yourself to a new Adam & Eve nagmetic needle minder from Kelmscott Deigns.
http://kelmscottdesigns.com/needle-minders.htm

Have a lovely back to school.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
blog at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com

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