October 2009 Chilly Hollow Newsletter Article

Fall is in the air here in Chilly Hollow, with deer and turkeys strolling through the yard and stink bugs trying to get inside to spend the winter. At least they are larger and slower than lady bugs that invaded five years ago!

It's a good time of the year to move the computer next to the kitchen door and settle down in a comfy chair to browse the Internet and wait for more deer to show up (including the darling little fawn we've watched lose his spots over the last three weeks) so I can pop out of the door like a Jack-in-the-Box and scare them away. Besides, there is a lot to see online.

The Embroiderers Guild of America has posted their 2010 Seminar classes online, and we can spend a lot of time browsing the photographs and enjoying the designs and skills of the teachers. Click on the first photo and a new window will open with navigation arrows to browse the designs in a better picture. Click on Events: National Seminar in the left hand column for more information.
http://www.egausa.org/html/sem10.html

Nordic Needle's newest newsletter is full of information about magnets. I thought I had seen every type of magnet available but it turns out those who stitch from charts have a huge variety of magnetic items to help them stitch that us painted canvas folks should browse. How about a darling little magnetic elephant on your stitching table to hold your needles until you are ready for them? Or magnetic sheets that roll up for portable chart holding on the go? Or magnet sets that are the front and back of cute animals? As an added bonus, many of the magnets they describe are on sale at the shop, plus some of Laura Perin's fabulous charted designs are on sale, too. This is a Don't Miss newsletter issue!
http://www.nordicneedle.com/newsletters/stash/36.shtml

If Mary Corbet's tutorials on long and short stitch I mentioned last month didn't interest you, how about learning how to stitch lettering on your designs? This is the first lesson. Mary will publish several that will give you the tools you need to monogram a piece or do a great name on that Christmas stocking.
http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/10/hand-embroidery-lettering-text-1.html

Hope everyone has a fun Halloween and a warm and cheerful fall!

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

Beads Storage System from Jolee

You may remember we learned about the bead storage system that has Tick Tack boxes inside larger boxes.  I discovered something similar at Michael's my local craft emporium when I went shopping with my 40% off coupon.  The Jolee's sets have inner boxes with removable lids. I'd prefer the Tick Tack box lids but I'd have to mail order those and wouldn't have a coupon, so I bought the Jolee ones instead and I'm happy with my choice.
http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayProductPage?productNum=bd0767

I bought two sets, one that is half the large size boxes and half the small ones, and one that includes half large sized boxes and half medium sized ones.  (I think there is a third set with all small boxes.)  In the photo above you see a pile of discarded Mill Hill and other brand boxes.  Everything in those boxes went into the Jolee box shown, so you see this is a very efficient way to store beads in a compact area. I can see the colors pretty well even if all the boxes are in the big box since all the boxes are clear.  This photo shows one large box and one of the medium sized boxes that stores up to three boxes of Mill Hill beads in one half the medium box.  I also put the label from one storage system in the photo, just for you to see.

The one drawback to this system is that once you remove your beads from the original packaging, you won't know what size/color/brand you have. I solved that problem by using stick on labels. I wrote down what was in a box, put the label on the clear new box, used an arrow to indicate that this was in the half box section on the right or left, and labeled the other half of the box with its color number, etc.  If you put all Mill Hill Magnifica beads in the halves of a box, you just have to write down "MH" and "Magnifica" once.  There's plenty of room for the color number and arrows for the two types of beads.  By the way, the photo above shows both of my Jolee boxes and the large and small boxes.  You can't see any of the labels I put on the outside as I turned those to the back so you could see how the boxes are constructed. I'm happy with this system, even though it isn't perfect, as my beads are easily visible yet stored in a small place.  The next time I have a 40% off coupon I'll pick up a third box and then all my beads will be put away with room to spare.  By the way, the original pricing on these boxes is $9.99 each at my local Michael's.

On a related topic, Needle Works of Austin has S-Lon beading thread sets in assorted colors on their What's New Page (if it disappears, try searching on S-Lon).  This is nice for those who like to use beading thread instead of regular thread to attach their beads and want an assortment of colors.
http://www.theneedleworks.com/catalog/

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

Mom's Perfect Christmas Gift

If there is one thing my mother likes, it is cameo jewelry.  So when I browsed Gay Ann Rogers' e-Week sale to see what charts she is selling this year, I was immediately smitten by the cameo ornaments.
http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Home_Page.html

I don't like doing counted thread pieces much, and it'll have to be done by Thanksgiving as I want to take it to her then, but what the heck--she'll love it.  Thank you, Gay Ann!

Click on the URL above and browse the links (you can skip Mail Jail which is GAR's report on what she has shipped out) to see what's on sale but note, e-Week ends October 22.

Expect to learn lots of swear words as I work up Mom's present and finish it shortly.  And keep quiet--this is a surprise!

P.S.  The image above is from Preston Reuther's website.  You can go drool here.
http://www.cameojewelry.com/

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

Sleeve Thoughts and Test Stitching

Last night I did a lot of test stitching on the sleeves, trying out various thread colors to see which looked good with my beads that match the background color perfectly.  See the swatches done in skipped tent stitches on the left?  The top dark blue is a dark blue silk perle from Rainbow Gallery, the second down is a dark blue Silk Lame Braid, and the last is DMC cotton floss in a darker shade of blue than the background.  Each was stitched, then had the dark blue beads attached on top.  The beads go where there are no stitches so that you don't have to do each stitch as a bead.  I also slant the beads like a reverse tent stitch \ so that they seem to lay / like the skipped tent stitches.  Don't ask me to explain why beads done backwards look forwards but they do!

I finally decided that no color I tested looked better than the background color so I used the same DMC cotton floss (#794) for my sleeves as the background split pavilions.  Squint at the very bottom tip of the right sleeve and you'll see beads set on top of the skipped stitches.  It's very subtle and really doesn't look like what I wanted.  So I pulled out the beads, thinking that maybe another shade of blue would be better.

I still like the idea, though, and I went ahead last night and tent stitched every other thread intersection with my DMC #794 on the left sleeve.  This is how it looks.  In person I like the texture and look of this without beads!  I know it doesn't look as good in photographs.

I will rummage around my bead stash today and see if a slightly different color bead will do better.  I still like the idea of a beaded sleeve but using the exact color match does nothing for the canvas.

Yesterday's comments talked about using a thin metallic or perhaps rows of beads or perles.  We already have sparkly thread in the dark blue areas where the sleeve lining shows and a lot of sparkle in the gold lines on the sleeves.  Maybe that's why I like the skipped tent stitches so well--they are a contrast to all the metallic already on the sleeves....

Anyone have better ideas than my current left sleeve look?  I'll try another color of bead and a thin metallic thread like Accentuate and report back tomorrow.

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

Golden Sleeves

The Rabbit Geisha's sleeves were a puzzle to me when I first looked at them.  Are those fan shapes on the sleeves?  Can I do long stitches covered by couched gold lines?  What will make the sleeves harmonious with the rest of her outfit but not blend into the background?

I finally decided that the gold lines on the sleeves need to be tent stitched.  Couching and long laid stitches just seem to be too heavy a look for the sleeves when the body of the clothing is light coverage stitches.  In the photo you see that I've managed to get all the gold lines tent stitched (using Kreinik's braid #12 in Gold 02) on the sleeves and have also stitched the gold line around the hem of the tunic and the outlines around the sleeves.  It took me several nights to get it all done but now I am ready to tackle the problem of what to put inside the blue sleeve areas.  For the answer, you'll have to wait.  I want to do another few rows of background near both sleeves so it is easy to tell how what I choose for the inside of those gold lines will look with the background as the two areas are very close in color.

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