Dancing Ribbon Wings

Cha's Overall Progress to Date

I've been working away on Cha's wings, trying to get in as much tent stitching in the background next to them as possible.  Above is an overall view of the canvas to date.

Once I have the background next to the edge of the wing done, I can work on the wing itself. As you can tell from the photo, I'm using silk ribbon embroidery on the wings.  I started with the edge of the left wing and once the entire length was done, I went back and starting doing another row of stitches to cover the rest of the wing.

I'm changing colors to match the paint colors. When I told Leigh I wanted to use silk ribbon on Cha, she sent me a selection of colors to match the canvas.  (Leigh Designs distributes River Silks.)  It's gorgeous stuff!  I can use as long a length as I can manage without strangling myself and the ribbon doesn't fray.  It comes in a huge array of colors and also in three widths (I'm using 4mm, the narrowest).  It's easy to stitch with and fast--my wings would be done if I didn't have to do the tent stitches around them first.  If you haven't visited the River Silks website recently, you will enjoy the new design of their gallery of items stitched with their ribbons.
http://www.riversilks.com/gallery.html

I'm going to have to do the background on the other side of the left wing before I can start the red area, so you won't see progress on this tomorrow.  I'll post about something else instead of treating you to photos of more background!

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

Ruth Dilts Profiled

One of the few stitchers I know whom I occasionally see in person is Ruth Dilts.  Ruth is funny, talented and a threadaholic (a recipe for Perfect in my book).  One of the local shops has a brief profile of Ruth up on their website.
http://stitchything.blogspot.com/2010/07/meet-ruth-dilts.html

I checked out the names of the designs that are shown in the interview to help you if you fall in love.  (Of course you can always email Scarlet Thread.)  From the top down they are:  the Mystic stained glass design, Spring Garden which looks a bit like a sundial to me, one corner of the NJ Quilt design, the dusty roses and blues of the WVA Quilt, and the very pretty Feather Fan pattern.  You can find them all here on Ruth's website.
http://www.ruthdiltsdesign.com/

Ruth does a lot of design work for Rainbow Gallery, including free NP designs.  Have fun exploring Rainbow Gallery's listing of free charts here.
http://www.rainbowgallery.com/freechartdownloads.cfm?ID=12

Ruth has also done free Hardanger charts for Rainbow Gallery.
http://www.rainbowgallery.com/freechartdownloads.cfm?ID=16

I've had the pleasure of interviewing Ruth myself.  Read more about her here-
http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2009/04/interview-with-ruth-dilts-plus-stash.html

I did a short profile of Ruth's Wisteria Kimono on Blog, too.
http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2009/05/lee-wisteria-kimono.html

I own the Mystic chart.  Some day I'll stitch it, once I settle on a colorways....

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

More on the Parrot Head

Embellished Ultrasuede Parrot Head

Glenis asked in the Comments yesterday if the stitch guide I'm writing for Cha will have alternate ways of finishing the parrot head for those who don't want to attach Ultrasuede to their canvas.  The answer is Yes.  One could easily just tent stitch the head the same way the body was done, add the wide diamond and diamond ray stitches on top and then add the eyebrow as the above photo shows. Whether you embroider on top of tent stitches or on top of Ultrasuede, you'll have a pretty similar look.

I prefer the smoothness of the Ultrasuede but I know some people won't be able to buy Ultrasuede in the right plum color and some people won't like the look.  Others will chicken out when it comes to cutting out fabric and appliqueing it onto a NP canvas, even though I thought it was really easy to do.  Doesn't matter. You can stitch this canvas successfully with a very similar look to mine without ever touching a piece of Ultrasuede.

And for those who wondered, yes, I did more tent stitches on the background yesterday (sigh) and started on the wings but I did not make enough progress to do photos of that yet.

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

Learning From Blogs (and Perle Cotton)

There are a lot of interesting projects to study on various blogs.  Are you interested in how to show perspective?  Study what Ruth did with her Maggie gardening lady canvas to make each element recede or come forward.
http://www.notyourgrandmothersneedlepoint.com/2010/07/welcome-to-rose-parade.html

Here's the bare canvas Before Ruth.
http://www.maggieco.com/html/detail.php?ID=2393&Category=1&pg=1&q=watering%20can%20lady

By the way, there's a matching frame sold by Maggie.
http://www.maggieco.com/html/detail.php?ID=2433&Category=11&pg=1&q=watering%20can%20lady

Are you interested in ways to provide continuity in a design you created yourself?  Jan is facing that issue with the latest rug she is designing and writes about her solutions here.
http://threadmedley.wordpress.com/2010/07/10/mosaic-needlepoint-rug-progress-13/

Do faces cause you trouble when you stitch?  You may find Mary Corbet's analysis of faces on ecclesiastical embroidery as fascinating as I do.
http://www.needlenthread.com/2010/07/embroidered-faces-perspective.html

Before I forget, Needle in a Haystack is selling their perle cotton at a big discount in preparation for their move to a new location.
http://needlestack.typepad.com/whats_new/2010/07/anchor-perle-8-12-grab-bags-on-sale.html

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

Embellishing a Parrot Head

Embellishing the Parrot Head

Today's progress report shows the parrot head all decorated up!

This was really much easier than I expected.  I simply referred to my sketch plan to carefully continue the two stitches used on the body of the bird.  It is hard to do a straight line on top of a smooth fabric but I went slowly and carefully and did pull out lines that were too crooked.  Since I was using a small sharp beading needle and one ply of silk, I could remove stitches easily without leaving holes one could see in the Ultrasuede.

If you look carefully at the photo, you'll see that the embroidery on top of the parrot's head is done in two colors of silk--hot pink for the 3/4 wide diamond stitches and the diamond ray stitches inside the first stitch, then dark grape for the diamond ray stitches alone between motifs.

I discovered scattered hot pink stitches looked too busy but when I pulled them out, I felt something needed to be in the empty spaces.  So I used thread almost the same color as the Ultrasuede to stitch the single diamond rays.  This gave me texture where I wanted it but didn't make the stitching too busy.

You can also add texture by scattering tiny French knots or beads, but I wanted something even simpler and subtler.

For those who wondered, yes, I also did more tent stitching in the background last night.  I am trying to surround the wings at least as I am going to start on the feathery parts and I don't want to disturb the stitching along the wings with tent stitching.

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