Stars: Introducing Vivian Leigh

I need a little break before I start on the lion himself in my Stuart Plaid Lion ornament, so I've been working on the last block in the top row of the Stars piece.  This is called Vivian Leigh.  Just to remind you, my colors are:  violet (A), black (B), terracotta (C), and copper metallic (D).

The photo above shows the first four areas out of the seven that make up this quilt block.  The center square is worked first in C4 (Flair F527), then covered with straight lines using B7 (Cascade House's overdyed silk perle 9325). That whole area is topped by A6 (Trebizond silk perle 111), which seems to have pulled the straight lines out of true. I've been trying to straighten them, but so far without success.  Any ideas?

The second step surrounds the center square with a border of long armed cross stitch using B7 again.  Since my B7 is an overdyed silk perle, I got very pretty color variation as I worked each side.  The third step is to add pale terracotta kite-shaped areas around the perimeter of the center square using C5, my Impressions 3064.  Once these are all in, the fourth step is to top these shapes with a crescent stitch using just two plies of B8 (J.L. Walsh's silk/wool blend #1320).  I stopped after doing just one as it was difficult to see where the crescent went at night.  You may not have trouble if your underlying thread and the canvas color aren't as similar as mine are.  I just couldn't see easily where to put things.  I'll finish up this step late this afternoon when it is sunny.

And maybe I should start saving up for a new light/magnifier!

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

Surrounded, Crowned, and Beaded

Yesterday I finished the red crown.  To do so, first I added a few tent stitches to the empty spaces on each side of the crown and in the middle with my Elegance silk perle.  The skip tent background was showing there and I thought it would look odd because of Step Two.  The second step was to attach crystal hex beads (I used Sundance size 14 beads in color #250) with a doubled ply of my royal blue Sullivans Floss.  That helped the beads stand out a bit. In the photo the red crown doesn't show up much against the red skip tent background but in person the metallic shine makes it pop off the background.  Using blue thread to attach the beads makes them stand out, too. Notice that I slanted the beads on the right using reverse tent stitches and did the beads on the left in tent to slant them the other way.  The center column of beads were attached straight up and down in a row.

This stitched sample on 10 count plastic canvas shows how the crown was done.  The white stitches are the left to right row I stitched.  The brown stitches are the second row I worked right to left.  I stitched this on top of the skip tent background, so the next step was to add tent stitches to the empty right/left/center spaces inside the crown with my background thread so that they were completely stitched.  (This is not shown above for clarity.)  Then I attached beads on top of the tent and skip stitches.  The green thread shows how the beads were attached with different slanting threads to make them turn or stand upright.   I found this darning stitch diagrammed on page 101 of SuZy Murphy's book entitled SuZy's Darn Stitches.

Then I took my red Elegance silk perle and put 2 tent stitches all the way around the perimeter of the ornament to help the finisher.

The last thing I did last night was to attach rows of yellow beads to the ornament's metallic hanger.  I used the same yellow beads that make up the yellow stripes in the plaid and the same DMC yellow floss I used there to attach them.  The rest of the hanger will be stitched with the threads I will use on the lion.

By the way, Leigh Richardson herself suggested I use gold for the crown instead of red.  She thought that gold would be lighter than the red and I could put a gold crown in above the tail.  I may try that but I may not.  I am very happy with the canvas as it is but when the designer has an idea, it is always worth serious consideration and I thought someone else stitching the Stuart Plaid Lion might want to use gold crowns in the background.

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

My Path

Here's what I finally settled on for the background behind the Lion.  I appreciate everyone's opinions.  They really helped me decide what I liked and why.  Almost everyone who responded had a different set of likes and dislikes, all of which look good.  I just chose what I liked best personally.  No beads or metallics in the background, either.  I've decided to leave the skip tent background alone.

My next step is to put two rows of tent stitches all around the perimeter to aid in finishing.

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

More Background Paths

I worked a bit more skip tent background behind the Stuart Plaid Lion yesterday and also started back on Stars.  I'll report my progress on the Tony Minieri counted thread piece tomorrow.  Today let's just talk about the Dynasty Ornament.  As you can see in the photo above, I have the background 2/3 done and also worked crowns in the margins around the design.  Several folks had mentioned they liked the crowns in the background if they were muted, so I stitched a couple of crowns in my #8 silk perle (Elegance #E822 from Rainbow Gallery) and also a slightly smaller version in my red holographic Kreinik 1/16 inch ribbon.  It always helps me to compare things if I have the real thing to look at.

I also started playing around with the skip tent background, trying to see if I should put #8 braid in the empty spots (I used the holographic Kreinik again) or use crystal clear hex beads instead.  And if I used beads, should I use red floss or blue floss to attach them?  The next photo shows a close up of the background with all three variations.  I need to see this in good light (it was very overcast yesterday) to see what it looks like but so far I think I like the beads better than the holographic metallic. They are more subtle. I like the background but I do have to make sure it stays in the background and doesn't overwhelm the lion.  I think the red holographic Kreinik might make the background too overwhelming.  Of course I could stay with the tweedy look of just plain skip tent stitches.  Decisions, decisions!

Speaking of decisions, I made a color and a black and white copy of my design to use when I start stitching the lion.  I cut out the crowns I stitched in the margins of the canvas from my black and white copy, put double-sided tape on the back of each, and positioned them here and there on my color copy.  This helps me decide just how the crowns look if I scatter them different places.

First, you'll remember that Robin made us a mock up of the Stuart Lion Plaid with an all-crown background using Photoshop.  I think this is too busy, even when done in my silk perle instead of metallic.  It would work nicely if done on a cream colored background but since I want red, I've discarded this option.

I could use three crowns instead of an all crown background.  These seem too many to me.  What do you think?

I could use just two crowns on the right and omit the one near the fading stripes.  I think this moves the focal point too much to the right, however.  The lion is clearly looking at the fading stripes on the left.

I could drop one of the right hand crowns and have a more balanced background with a crown on each side.  I like this.  It adds weight to the  focal point on the left but fills the empty spot on the right side above the tail.

I could also use just one crown.  In this version it is located just above the lion's paw, adding to the left side focal point.  Does this make the other side of the ornament look bare to you?  If I do this, the crown has to be shrunk a bit to fit or I have to remove the fading stripes entirely and move the crown to the middle of where the blue stripe currently resides.  I do like the fading stripes but the lion reaching for the crown is a more symbolic background.

Finally, I could put the single crown on the right side above the tail, leaving the fading stripes without a crown.  This is a more symmetrical balancing of the ornament but it makes the fading stripes look a bit wimpy.

I'm going into such detail to explain the possibilities and point out that whatever you prefer, most of the options are equally valid.  To some of us, the all-crown background isn't too busy while it drives others of us nuts to have all those crowns.  It is a matter of personal taste which background you prefer.  The choice of threads matters greatly in deciding as well.  I like the holographic red crowns but adding holographic red tent stitches between the skip tent stitches seems too loud to me.  All a matter of taste....

I know a great many folks don't like to stitch painted canvases without a stitch guide because the huge number of possibilities seem overwhelming.  I find all the choices very interesting myself.  They make me think and plan and come up with ways to try out the possibilities without having to stitch and rip and stitch again.

After all this, I think I like the single tiny crown in red holographic Kreinik just above the lion's paw near the fading stripes.  But I'll have to decide about the skip tent background before I make a final decision.  Using beads or Kreinik metallic will definitely impact the crown....

Stay tuned.  This is better than the Perils of Pauline, right?  LOL

By the way, the poll seems to be broken.  No one can log in to vote, not even me, and I have to be logged in to post Blog entries! In the hope that this will be fixed today now that folks are back at work from the weekend, I'll leave the poll up until tomorrow.  You can always post your vote in the Comments or email me directly at chilly hollowat hotmaildotcom.  Thanks for your patience while I glare at Blogger.

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

A Bit More Background (and Tongue)

While everyone is thinking over their vote (or trying to make the poll work--lots of folks are having trouble but not to worry, just post a comment here or email your vote to me at chilly hollow at hot mail dotcom), I added the background stitch to the ornament.  I choose skip tent.  I wanted something rather plain in the end.  I did test all the background stitches you see on the right of the ornament first but kept coming back to the tent stitch family.  I wanted a stitch that would work with either the crowns --which can be stitched right on top--or the fading lines from the plaid, more of which can also be worked on top.  I also removed the thin silver line on the right side of the ornament which I never liked once I'd stitched it.

Right now it looks a bit tweedy.  I may fill the empty spots between each skip tent stitch seen above with a tent stitch in my red holographic Kreinik or perhaps with crystal beads.  (Or maybe I won't!)  The thread I used is Rainbow Gallery's Elegance, which is a silk perle thread around the size of #8 cotton perle.  The color is E822 which is a very pretty medium Christmas red that is slightly darker than the reds used in the plaid.

By the way, I stitched the lion's tongue a while ago and keep forgetting to nention it.  The darker red base is tent stitches in my red holographic Kreinik #8 braid, and the lighter top is stem stitch in the bright red Trio.  These are both threads used in the plaid area. In this instance I separated one of the three Trio bundles into half so I used one of the six strands you can separate this thread into.  Ordinarily I just use of of the main three bundles but this I made smaller.  There's not enough stitching to stress the thread enough to make it pull apart in the middle but I was pretty careful with my thread tension, just in case.  Trio is really not intended to be divided into 6 sections.

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