Beaded Warts

I've actually gotten some stitching done between snow shoveling sessions and trips to the basement to feed the wood stove.  (Not to mention trips to the kitchen to feed the family!)  I've gotten all the beads attached to the O'jishi mask.  I wish you could see them in person.  They look terrific!

I used gold/copper hex beads from Mill Hill's Magnifica line (#10012) in the bulk of the warts, but I did mix in a few Toho 11/0 silver lined gold hex beads (#1955-008) for warts that were painted white instead of old and for dots here and there on his nose that were tiny warts without a metallic bead cup to sit in.  The Toho beads look yellow, especially on top of the gold silk.  Mixing the two colors of beads on the canvas adds a bit of extra interest and allows me to follow the shading of the painted bumps.

In a few places I put two beads inside a bead cup stitch for the larger warts.  I hope you can see in the photograph how I mixed the two colors, used beads without a bead cup, and added two beads in some places to vary the warts.

I need to work on backstitching a lot today between shoveling sessions.  And I am seriously tempted to make a pan of fudge and eat the whole thing after all that physical activity shoveling snow!

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

What's A Threadaholic To Do?

I am pretty much stuck at home under 18-24 inches of snow, depending on where I measure.  Some of us love snow!  We eat it, we lay in it, we run around like a maniac in it.

But some of us don't!  (Especially when it is still falling.  The white streaks above are snowflakes coming down hard.)  I'm one of the latter group.  So what's a threadaholic to do when they are stuck at home four days before Christmas?  Why, do Internet shopping, of course!

Fireside Stitchery sent an email this morning reminding me of their yearly clubs which are about to start up again.  My favorite is their unique Thread Collectors Club.  Have a thread you adore that you can't get locally?  For a monthly fee, have a selection of colors sent to your door. You collect your favorite brand at a discount a month at a time.  Here are all the thread brands they offer this way.
http://www.firesidestitchery.com/fs/clubs/index.cfm?fuseaction=getClubList&CategoryId=2&showStart=1&groupNo=1

Nordic Needle also emailed me this morning.  Their weekly newsletter has specials, including a pages and pages of threads on sale.  There is a lot of Kreinik metallics available, mostly in Cord and the larger 12, 16 and 24 sizes, and they have selected colors of Silk Mori and Silk Serica also on sale.  Check out the selection here.
http://www.nordicneedle.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=NN&Offset=0&Category_Code=L06-00-00&ph=&pl=&CpField=&CpValue=&show=&SortBy=&Search=

If you are more interested in monthly canvas clubs, how about the feathers and fur group, the nature set, or the Getting Ready for Christmas club What's the Point offers?  Click on the photo of the stitched example to see the entire set.  By the way, if you are a Buckeye fan, click on the Buckeye Corner link on the left side of the page to see Ohio-specific canvases.
http://www.whatsthepoint.biz/clubs.php

That ought to keep us busy until all the snow melts!

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

December Canvas of the Month (Jane)

The December Canvas of the Month is a 4 inch ornament (on 18 count canvas) from Rebecca Wood Designs called "Down the Chimney".  Chosen by Bonnie because of its simple and traditional design, you can see the canvas and others in the series on the Rebecca Wood website.
http://www.rebeccawooddesigns.com/ornaments.asp?pageno=24

Jane writes:

This traditional design would make a lovely ornament no matter how you stitch it, but since the holiday season is always so rushed, I thought I would try to stitch it a bit differently in a very simple style.  You will need just one thread, either Kreinik's 032 frosty white in blending filament size or Accentuate #300 Opal White.  You could also go gold instead of sparkling white and use Kreinik's 002 gold in blending filament or Accentuate #023 Gold.

Now stitch snowflakes all over the canvas.  Use stitches like the Square Eyelet

http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/98-08.php

and the Smyrna Cross

http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/1999/99-02.php

as well as the Double Straight Cross

http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2001/01-03.php

and perhaps a few Upright Crosses to scatter big and small snowflakes across the design.

http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/1999/99-04.php

If you want a large star in the night sky, use the Medallion Stitch (although I'd stick to just snowflakes myself).

http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2002/Nov.php

If you are feeling particularly fancy, put a few crystal clear beads (preferably the hex shaped ones to add sparkle like Mill Hill's Magnifica beads #G11009) in the center of some of the largest snowflakes.  It will also add to the festive snow and ice feeling if you use the same beads to bead the rounded edge of the ornament in finishing.  If you choose gold instead of white for your snowflakes, use a few gold beads, preferably Mill Hill's Magnifica beads in #G11036 Victorian Gold as they sparkle more than round beads.

Finish this with either white or gold braid trim into a round ornament.  Put a piece of gold lame underneath the canvas so that more sparkle shows through.  Hang this on your tree, turn on the Christmas lights, and enjoy!

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

December Canvas of the Month (Bonnie)

The December Canvas of the Month is a 4 inch ornament (on 18 count canvas) from Rebecca Wood Designs called "Down the Chimney".  Chosen by Bonnie because of its simple and traditional design, you can see the canvas and others in the series on the Rebecca Wood website.
http://www.rebeccawooddesigns.com/ornaments.asp?pageno=24

Bonnie writes:

First of all warm holiday wishes to everyone who reads this!

This looks like a fun little canvas!  I may have to add it as an ornament to stitch for my girl’s ornament boxes.  I have these boxes with a few ornaments of various techniques that I have made over the years for them with the idea that when they leave home they will have a start for a tree of their own.  I started this the plan of adding one ornament a year, but that didn’t really work.  Some years I add two, some one, some none, but the collection is growing.

This Santa needs some rich textures for his robe and bag, but since the ornament is small there isn’t a lot of room for decorative stitches.

I would start with the Santa suit in a small diagonal brick or a tent stitch (maybe over 2) trying to match the shading with 2 colors of Silk ‘N Ivory. Since the area is so small may find it easier to just tent.    Fur trim in encroaching gobelin – Silk n’ Ivory to match the rest of the coat or a furry fiber, either one slightly brushed when done stitching.  Maybe do turkey tufting for the pom-pom on his hat.  Gloves, a simple tent stitch in Silk ‘N Ivory.  The belt would be a vertical satin stitch in Patent Leather or Ultra Suede.  And finally the boots would be a diagonal satin stitch in patent leather.

Santa’s face and his features are done in a strandable silk in tent stitch since it is such a small area.  His beard and mustache are tent stitched in a fuzzy very white fiber like Designers Dream and then random french knots over the top. May need to add a second color to get shading between beard and mustache or decide to let it all grow together with one color.  Make sure you don’t use the same fiber for his beard/mustache as you did for the coat!

For the chimney, I would use framed brick Cashmere (Amy’s Cookbook chapter 14) in an overdyed cotton for the bricks and a solid color cotton floss for the frame (mortar).  Not sure I would worry about the different shades of the sides of the chimney when picking my colors or do something simple like just change the direction of the stitches on each side instead.  Snow would be Kreinik 032 braid or Caron Snow in random upright crosses (some long upright crosses, some ‘normal’) to try to get some depth or maybe just staggered cross stitches.

I would stitch Santa’s Bag with a T – stitch (also called woven stitch) in two shades of petite very velvet.  Add gold beads on top for the dots on the bag. For the tie on the top of the bag, use a length of Kreinik braid and tie a small bow on the top of the canvas or a knot with end dangling.

And last, the sky in a  4 way continental or Alicia’s lace with a 12 perle cotton or a single strand of cotton floss, just go right over the snowflakes and then add them on top.  Snowflakes, a Smyrna cross in 032 Kreinik braid – may want to vary the size of the braid to get different size snowflakes.

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

Choosing Beads in a Blizzard

I didn't do a lick of stitching yesterday.  Not one stitch!  My excuse was the blizzard bearing down on us.  I had squeeze in all the weekend chores like grocery shopping, the special chores like filling the wood closet and finishing Christmas shopping, and the occasional chores like seeing that the bird feeder was full and the propane lantern and kerosene lamps ready yesterday.  When a snowstorm is about to hit, stitching is left behind in the rush to get ready, particularly here in CH where I have to be certain that we have enough food, wood, and water to get through a storm that is predicted to dump 16-24 inches of snow on top of us.  If the power goes out, it'll be out for a while.  No electricity means no running water, no heat, no Internet and no television.  Sometimes it means no phones, too.  I don't anticipate that we will lose power (the 6 inches we have right now is the dry, light snow that will blow around like crazy in the high winds that are predicted but it doesn't take down the power lines) but I have to be ready in case I'm wrong.   The photo above, by the way, is out the basement French doors two hours ago.  At that point we had 4-6 inches.  I took the photo when checking on the fire in the woodstove.

But the blizzard planning is over and although I am a bit sore (and likely to be more so after shoveling a foot or two of snow!), I am about ready to sit down and stitch most of the day.  I want to attach most of the beads to O'jishi in the little bead cups I stitched for them before I continue adding backstitches and whipped backstitches to the design.  I know that beads are normally the last thing to be added since your threads in your needle catches on them but I want to know exactly where the beads are as I add backstitches very close to them.

The first step is deciding what color of beads to use.  I attached several different colors and types earlier this week.  The photo is above.  The three clusters of beads on the left are all yellow Toho beads (size 11/0), then there is a Sundance round gold bead cluster, with a MillHill Magnifica hex faceted gold bead cluster, and finally  a clear Sundance bead attached with gold silk.

As you can see, the gold beads show up better.  I'm probably going with the Magnifica beads as they have a bit more sparkle, but I may toss in a few yellow beads in places where there are just a dot to indicate a bump, especially on his nose.  Those areas I didn't cover with baby bead cups.  A single bead will do well there, especially one that is yellow and will blend in with the gold silk background.

I may add some large crystal beads (not shown in the photo) but I doubt it.  We'll see how this plays out.  There is no reason I can't put more than one bead in a baby bead cup or mix colors or have one color here and another there, after all!

Everyone stay safe in the blizzard!
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow