Canvas of the Month: Bonnie's Wisteria Fan

This month's Canvas of the Month is from Lee and it was chosen by Bonnie (we take turns picking a design for this Blog feature). It's one of Lee's fan canvases, the Wisteria Fan F743. We don't know the size of this canvas or what count it's on, but I will assume it is an 18 count piece for the purposes of choosing threads and stitches.
http://www.newleesneedlearts.com/files/catalog/f/album/slides/F743.html

There is a matching wisteria kimono canvas, which Ruth Dilts has done an amazing job stitching. You can buy the kimono canvas and Ruth's stitch guide (written with Joan Lohr) via your shop. Here's a photo of the matching kimono canvas.
http://store.apneedlearts.com/kimono.html

Bonnie's Wisteria Fan:

I have a small collection of fans – most which are paper fans that I purchased when I was young. I have always been drawn to them, thus the ‘call’ of this canvas to me.

I would start with the wisteria. I have seen a couple of wisteria pieces that were all beaded for the flowers – they were gorgeous. So that is a great idea, but I would try another direction. I think a strandable silk like Splendor would provide a great sheen for the flowers. Long and short stitches would work and allow the rounded edges to not be a headache. Make sure the stitches all angle towards to base of the flowers. An overdyed thread would be great to make the flowers more realistic if you can find the right color combinations otherwise just make your own shading as you go with the long and short stitch. If using overdyes I would reverse the strands in the needle so you don’t get striping, but blended colors.

Leaves would be done in a cotton overdye to give them a little depth in color, but the cotton would make them recede behind the flowers. A feather stitch would work great for the leaves or a leaf stitch if you didn’t want the center vein of the leaf. The stems would work great in a stem stitch with the same fiber. For the tendrils I see a couple of choices. A perle cotton couched with a single strand of floss would allow the couching to disappear and the twist of the perle cotton would emphasize the twist of the tendril. A whipped backstitch with a floss would also make a wonderful twist.

Lastly for the wisteria part of the canvas you have the branches. My first thought was to do a padded stem stitch band with wool, but I am concerned that would make the branches too prominent compared to the flowers. So I would try the same stitch with no padding or maybe switch to filling the branches with stem stitches. The thread with some wool provides the third texture in the wisteria – the flowers, leaves and trunk are all different!

Next I would tackle the background. This part was tough to come up with a stitch that would work. I originally wanted to do a darning pattern, but stitch direction is an issue. So I needed to find something that didn’t have a strong direction look to it when done. I think I would try a single strand of the light green color floss or a very subtle shaded overydye, so most of the wonderful shaded color would come from the painted canvas not the thread and stitching. For a stitch I would try a four way continental, a little wavy stitch or maybe a reverse basketweave would give a nice fabric look.

The bottom part of the fan would look great in a cotton overdye to give it the wood look. I would try a knotted stitch breaking the stitches at each of the divisions. The three sections on the right would be angled one way and the ones on the left in the opposite direction. Remember the sections at the bottom are reversed from the ones at the top!

Lastly we have the black edge. I am thinking a simple tent stitch in black silk. A Smyrna cross with Kreinik metallic would work for the brads. Depending on how you plan on finishing this you may want to complete some of the white area with a darning pattern of some sort with a light coverage thread like floss or #12 perle cotton. That completes this great fan!

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

Pears, Beads, and Backgrounds

Yesterday I got quite a lot finished on the little blue bow canvas from SharonG thanks to a wait in the dentist's office.  I first tent stitched the deep blue bow interiors using 4 plies of cotton floss from Carrie's Creation.  The color is Royal Blue.  Then I outlined the ribbon edge using Kreinik's holographic gold 002L in size 8 braid, again in tent stitches.  Moving on to the rest of the blue ribbon and bow, I used an overdyed silk perle from Gloriana for the darker blues and a cotton perle from House of Embroidery for the lighter blues, manipulating the colors so that the right part of the overdye shades fell in the right areas.  Both perles were roughly size 8.  The Gloriana silk perle was a test dyeing of a blue shading into purple overdye a friend got from the owner of Gloriana for me so it's not something one can buy.  The cotton perle from House of Embroidery was a set of three perle threads (black, the overdyed blues I used here, and a pretty solid sky blue) sent from South Africa that aren't numbered as to color, but Morning Glory looks a lot like the overdyed perle I used on this canvas.
http://www.houseofembroidery.com/col_chart/perle.asp 

Once the bow was finished (all in basketweave or half cross stitches), it was time to move to the background.  I originally intended to just add beads here, and using a long doubled strand of gold Accentuate, I added the beads along diagonal rows.  The beads I used are from Sundance and are small, round and very pretty.  They are size 14 and color 465.  I love them! They look just like the round candy nonpareils you can get to sprinkle on cakes.

Once I had most of the beads in, I realized that they didn't look good on bare canvas, so despite how much I like the white iridescent look of the canvas, I started basketweaving the background using Kreinik's 032C, which is the opalescent white in cord.  I will finish the basketweave today and start the finishing of this small piece into a name tag for a special present for my mother.

I'm sure by now you are wondering where the "pears" of the title come in.  Actually, I discovered from the Needlepointer's latest email that Kelly Clark has a pear club page on her website that shows photos of all the canvases in this monthly canvas series she is running, and tells one which shops are participating.  I thought you'd like to see it.
http://kellyclarkneedlepoint.com/clubs_pear

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

The Blue Bow Gift Tag

Instead of working on Stars as I had planned, I pulled out a tiny SharonG canvas from my stash. It's called Blue Bow MB22 and is from the Clasp Act series of tiny 18 count canvases designed to be put on the front of a purse as a magnetic clasp.  You can see photos of a finished purse on the SharonG website on the Clasp Act page with some of the other tiny canvases in this series.
http://www.sharong.com/catalog/mb/index.html

Blue Bow is almost 2 inches high and 3 inches long.  It isn't going to take very long to stitch.  It would be gorgeous stitched entirely in crystal beads (except for the gold dots in the background which should be done in gold beads) but I'm going to go more traditional and tent stitch the blue bow and leave the background mostly unstitched.  You can't see it from the photo, but the background is the white canvas with sparkling iridescent white threads woven in.  I want to leave that bare because it is so lovely.  I put the canvas on 5x6 stretcher bars last night and pulled threads for it.

I plan to finish this as a name tag for a very special present.  Canvases that are meant to be stitched as gift tags or name tags for a Christmas stocking are starting to show up in painted canvas lines.  Here is one from A Collection of Designs.  They call them Sock Tags.
http://www.amybunger.com/catalog/item/6258806/7869457.htm

Blue Bow is the tiny cousin of a series of SharonG larger wrapped package canvases.
http://www.sharong.com/catalog/giftbow/index.html

My friend Pat is stitching the Hearts of Love design.  Seeing how lovely hers is turning out convinced me to stitch my tiny version.
http://needleartnut.blogspot.com/2010/04/hearts.html

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

Preparing for More

Today I checked over the Stuart Plaid Lion piece, looking for missed stitches, loose beads, or any furry spot that needs a few more stem stitches.  He will head off to Leigh Designs the end of the week to be made up into an ornament that will be one of the Dynasty ornament models eventually.  If you go to the trade shows, say hello to Leigh and the royal lion for me!

I'm going to start on the next Stars block tonight.  It's called Marlon Brando and is the first block in the second row.  I've also put my next two painted canvas projects on stretcher bars.  I'll start the smaller one of these once Brando is finished.    While I am getting organized, there is plenty of stuff for you to see elsewhere.

Pocket Full of Stitches' blog is full of new products and a new summer project canvas.  Read the May 4 and May 5 entries to catch up what the new owners have been up to and check out Lena the Ballerina.
http://pocketfullofstitches.blogspot.com/

Needle Works has posted their May newsletter and it is full of new and wonderful canvases.  Don't miss the Floozies.  Sloe Gin Sadie is my favorite but your tastes may run more to champagne or bourbon or ale.
http://www.theneedleworks.com/newsletter/201005newsletter.pdf

Finally, Amy Bunger is encouraging her students to run wild with glitter glue.   I advise staying inside and hiding under your beds until Peggy puts her pen away!
http://needlepointstudyhall.blogspot.com/

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

A Touch of Gold at the Finish

Yesterday I took one last look at the Stuart Plaid Lion, trying to figure out if the lion's body and mane was finished or if I needed to add more stem stitches here and there.  I ended up adding a few highlights to the mane using a strand of Accentuate (gold #024) and then laid long stitches with the same thread across the diagonal red skip tent stitch background.   The skip tent stitches run from the NE to the SW and the long gold Accentuate stitches are laid from the NW to the SE.  Using a little Accentuate adds a bit of pizzazz to the canvas.  This is a royal symbol of the Stuart line of English kings and queens, after all!

I think this design is finished but I'll take one last look today before sending it off to Leigh to be made up into a model while I write the stitch guide.

On another topic entirely, Old World Designs' website page about their monthly club of California ornaments has updated to show photos of all the designs in stitched form.  Love that cable car!
http://www.oldworlddesigns.com/california.html

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