Managing Transitions

While stitching the endless background on the Rabbit Geisha, I've been thinking about managing transitions. Sounds like a management phrase, doesn't it?  "Managing transitions...."

What I mean by this is how to make the background meet the central figure in such a way as it all looks good.  The first hint that this is important on this canvas came when the background stitch between the Rabbit Geisha's ears looked odd.  Above is how I managed this area by turning the odd space between the ears into all tent stitches in the background thread.  If you look carefully at the left side of her neck, you will see a few tent stitches there, too.
You'll also see a few unstitched areas on the right beside her nose.  I'm still thinking over what to do there.  I'll probably stitch longer horizontal stitches right over the shorter ones.

There are other transitional areas on this canvas.  In the photo above, there is a small space between two pink ribbons just under the sleeve, a larger space between the ribbons and the side of her robe, and another space between the pink ribbons a bit further toward the bottom of the canvas.  In these areas I was able to compensate my split pavilion stitches and they looked good.  I am not sure why compensation here looks fine and between the rabbit ears doesn't, but it may be because the space between the ears is angled, not a straight vertical area.

It is more difficult to pick out, but there are transitional spaces all along the bottom of the hem where the navy tent stitches meet the background stitches.  There is actually a channel left blank between the split pavilion stitches in the background and the navy tent stitch outline of the hem but you can't see it well.  In these cases you have to experiment to see whether to leave an unstitched area.  Look at the pavilion stitch between the two tassels.  In that one area I put a stitch in the blank space.  See how crowded it looks and how it bleeds over into the navy tent stitch?  I will pull this out before I go any further but I wanted you to see the difference between leaving an empty space and filling it.

So what do you do in these areas to make the place where the background meets other stitches look good? There are always ways around the problem and the Rabbit Geisha shows several:  compensate, leave a blank space, use tent stitches instead.  I recommend you just try out a variety of strategies and rip out the ones that don't work.

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

Planning Tassels and Ribbons

I've completed more of the split pavilion background of the Rabbit Geisha and started the tassels and the ribbons, although they are not that far along yet.  I decided to make the dark green tassels dark navy instead of green, using the same navy Caron Snow metallic and Splendor silk that were used on the obi and the inner sleeve trim.  I also have started tent stitching the gold edging on the pink ribbon using #12 Kreinik braid in 002 gold.  I ran out of the #12 braid so I thought I'd double up my #4 braid in 002 and see if that will substitute for the #12.  I was uncertain whether stitching the gold edging on the pink ribbon first was a good idea, so I'll probably try the inside of the pink ribbon on both the ribbons that have the edging stitched and those that don't to see which way seems to work best.  It can be difficult to stitch into holes that already have metallic thread in them and it can also be difficult to stitch with metallic thread into holes with another type of thread already there, so we'll see what seems to work here.

I want to get more background done if possible tonight so I may not have a report on the pink ribbon and the navy tassel for another day.

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

Beaded Sleeves

The photo above shows what I ended up doing with my sleeve trim.  As you know, the beads that matched the background color exactly didn't look very good on the sleeves.  So I pulled out any blue beads and blue metallics I could find in my stash and played around with them.  Most of the metallics I put away immediately as they were not the right shade of blue.  I had several choices of blue in the beads, but blue-gray seed beads I had picked up from the local bead store (they are not labeled since the bead store sells unlabeled colors of beads in various sizes so I can't tell you the brand or exact size but they appear to be size 14/0) looked like they might work.

I also had a medium blue skein of Accentuate that looked ok with the background color, so I first tried laying long lines across the sleeves with this thread.  The Accentuate when laid on the canvas was too bight a blue, so back into the stash it went and I tried attaching a few of my seed beads with one ply of my background DMC cotton floss.  It was a perfect match!

Well, the blue colors are different but the grayish blue of the slightly iridescent beads looks very nice with the rest of the canvas.  I spent last night adding beads to the sleeves.  In the photo above the left sleeve is finished and the right sleeve around 2/3 done.  I'll finish this sleeve today and try to get more rows of the background done.  I need to hurry and get as much finished on this piece as possible as I have the Gay Ann Rogers counted thread piece instructions coming shortly.

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

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