Stars: Continuing Marilyn Monroe

I have continued to work on the first quilt block star.  In the photo above, you see the completed purple corners that surround the central star I talked about last time, plus the copper wings in stitch five and the light terra cotta flanking patterns around the copper wings that makes up stitch six.  (By the way, the photo shows the copper wings as silver but they are a light copper color.)

The corner wings were tricky to stitch as each stitch's holes are covered by the previous stitch.  These were done in copper metallic Color D4 instead of D1 which is what Tony tells you to do.  My D1 thread is DMC metallic floss which gave me fits when I tried to lay it properly for this stitch so I switched to my D4 color (Kreinik 021 in #8 fine braid).  It looks good with the other colors and the Diagonal Fishtail Areas make a nice braided corner in Kreinik metallics.

The Parallelograms that make up the fifth stitch of the Marilyn Monroe block look easy. You stitch parallel lines that are crossed by horizontal lines sort of like the # symbol.  Then you put slanted lines / on top of the first two steps and follow up by three rows of backstitch.  Simple, right?  Well, no. I found the starting and stopping points of each step a little tricky to get right.  In fact, I'm going to have to remove the backstitches from my first pair of stitches as I started them too high and they don't reach to the bottom of the block as they should.  This step is done all in terra cotta C2, which is DMC cotton floss 758 for me.

Two more stitches remain to finish the stitch block once I finish stitch five.  After that, I need to make up my mind whether to add purple metallic to the sashing blocks (you can still vote your preference on this at the poll at the top of the page but do look carefully at the borders and my progress on the first block to see how the colors will look together) and pick up a new thread to stitch the third outer border at the top.  Currently only two of the three borders are stitched.   So I have a way to go before I finish all I intend to on Stars before starting a new small painted canvas.

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

Toronto Retreat for Stitchers

If you have been charmed by the Olympics' Canadian location, you might want to take a little jaunt to Toronto in late April to the stitching retreat that Gitta's is sponsoring.  There will be two classes offered, one of which is included with your registration, and you can buy the other class project if you like.  The retreat organizers have the latest updated information listed on their blog.
http://gittasgetaway.blogspot.com/

Gitta's shop is well-known for their charted silk gauze designs.  I have a gorgeous charted violets piece in my stash, waiting until I have a hankering for another tiny project.  If I could, I'd love to go since a dear friend is helping to organize the retreat.  I know how organized she is and what fun she is planning, so I hope you will consider a little trip to Toronto to see the best Canadian stitching has to offer!
http://gittas.com/

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

For Deepa, How To Needlepoint

Deepa posted a comment this week asking about how to learn to needlepoint.  I answered her in the Comments area, but I am reposting what I said there as a blog article for those who are curious about NP and want some help getting started.

Deepa, this is a topic worthy of a long article, but I'll point you towards the American Needlepoint Guild first. I think your embroidery skills are terrific, so what you need are some projects to get started with. ANG has many many Stitch of the Month things for you to play with. Go to this website which has diagrams of many many NP stitches. There are 11 stitches presented each year, then in December (usually, but the trend now is to present the outline in January and you fill it in throughout the year to reveal the project) there is a project using the stitches. I think this is a good place to start getting comfortable with new stitches.
http://www.needlepoint.org/Stitch.php

If you aren't Deepa and you need some stitching orientation, the best place to start is Needlepoint Now's tutorial.  It has six short articles on important things, plus two free projects, one easy and one intermediate.  The tips are good, too.
http://www.needlepointnow.com/online_classroom.html

ANG also has a Kid's & Beginner's section of easy projects, most with outlined designs you transfer to your needlepoint canvas.
http://www.needlepoint.org/Kids/index.php

Of course it is easy to show charted or outlined NP on the Internet, but I will be starting a brand new small painted canvas project later this week. How about I talk about how I go about it in more detail then? Until then, read what Janet Perry says about choosing threads and stitches for painted canvases here.  It's a reprinted article but should give you some general guidelines on how Janet works.
http://www.nuts-about-needlepoint.com/how-to-approach-a-hand-painted-canvas-needlepoint

I also wrote an article about how to choose threads and stitches for a painted canvas that is on the ANG website.  You can read it here.
http://www.needlepoint.org/FAQ/phobia.php

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

Newsletters, A Magazine and a Book

Before I forget, three new February shop newsletters are available for your browsing pleasure.  In alphabetical order they are:
http://www.needlenookoflajolla.com/

http://theneedleworks.com/

http://www.stitchesintimeneedlepoint.com/

Click on the links to enjoy.

I've also discovered that Ann Strite-Kurz has a new book of her charted designs coming out in the early summer.  As usual, she offers a pre-order discount and group orders also receive free shipping.  If you enjoyed Ann's article in the January-February 2010 Needlepoint Now, you will want to grab a copy while it is discounted.
http://www.needleartworks.com/dsgnr/ask/bask/BASK12.htm

Speaking of NP Now, some back issues of this great magazine are on sale.  Details are on their home page.
http://www.needlepointnow.com/

If you are interested a bit about the upcoming March-April issue of the magazine is on the editor's blog.
http://nneditor.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/marchapril-issue-is-at-the-printer/

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

Stars: Starting Marilyn Monroe

I'm making good progress on Stars these days, probably because I'm trapped inside by snow and ice still.  Since the outer border has to wait until I go thread shopping and I'm waiting to give everyone a change to vote on what I do with the sashing, I started the first star block yesterday.  This block is called Marilyn Monroe.  It is stitched in seven stitches of varying complexity.  The first is shown above.  I used the lavender J. L. Walsh silk-wool #1074 as my A2 thread and my Silk N Colors overdyed silk 062 for the Overdye.  Tony says you can manipulate the Overdye to make all the Rhodes Lozenges the same but I wanted each one to be different in honor of Miss Monroe, who showed a different side of herself to each of us.  Sometimes she was a sex kitten, sometimes she was a comedienne, sometimes she was the little lost girl from next door.

Stitch Two fits a waffle stitch between the eight points of the star.  I used the peachy DMC cotton floss #758 for C2.  Step Three is very tricky.  The mosaic stitches that fill the corners vary their direction and threads.  I didn't get this quite right but I will adjust it as best I can.  I used the medium dark violet Splendor S1086 as A3 and DMC cotton floss 758 again as C2.

I'm laboring on Step Four but haven't done enough to make photos worthwhile yet.

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