Japan's Festival of Broken Needles (or Festival of Needles, I've heard Hari-Kuyo translated both ways) is tomorrow, February 8. I save up my tarnished needles all year for this.
http://stitchinfingers.ning.com/forum/topics/festival-of-needles
I'm not Japanese nor am I near a Japanese temple where needles are inserted into tofu and then floated away in a river, so tomorrow I will carefully package up my used needles in the prettiest box I have before I ceremoniously put them in the trash. I like the idea of honoring the little needles without which I could not needlepoint.
If you are curious about the tradition, read what Susan has to say, then click on the link to the booklet that explains the traditions around this ceremonial Shinto tradition.
http://plays-with-needles.blogspot.com/2011/02/preparing-for-hari-kuyo.html
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
Monday, February 7, 2011
Old Websites with New Faces
Labels:
Gay Ann Rogers,
Just Libby,
Libby Sturdy,
Valentines
 |
| Holly Berry Snowman from Just Libby |
http://www.justlibbydesigns.com/
Gay Ann Rogers is always changing her website to reflect the seasons and the designs she is promoting. This month she plans to sell some of her old heart charts and is posting new photos of her hearts to her website daily. She is asking folks to let her know which ones they'd like to see in the sale. This allows her to build excitement for the sale yet not have to print out instructions for hearts that folks don't want to buy instructions for. To see the show, go to the GAR website and then click on Hearts Gallery. Each day new designs will be added.
http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Home_Page.html
The moral is to keep checking your favorite websites. Makeovers happen there all the time!
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
Gold Fish Embellishment
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| Lillian Chermor Gold Fish |
Carol, thanks for the quick response on this. Shisha mirrors should work for the bubbles if you can find them in the right sizes.
Have you thought about covering the mirrors with a thin see-through fabric like tulle, appliqueing the fabric to the canvas, then doing background on top of the fabric edges to hide them? With a sharp needle you can easily stitch right though fabric. You could choose different colors of fabric for the different colors of bubbles. We can talk about this further but I'd try stem stitching around the mirror through the tulle with a ply of black floss and then basting the raw edges of the fabric to hold them in place. The basting stitches may come out or maybe you'll just do background right on top of them.
If shisha mirrors don't work for whatever reason, think about buttons. You might be able to find rhinestone buttons you could use the same way. Sequins are another alternative.
Meanwhile, see what beads, sequins, and metallics you have, ok? We are really going to go to town on this one! Do you have a fabric store nearby with a good selection of fabrics?
"I have a fair selection of beads, but Minneapolis is blessed with some of the best bead stores in the country, so I can get what's not in my stash. As for fabrics, are you thinking fancy fabrics or quilting cottons? I can get either."
I thought you might use some bits of Ultrasuede on some of the seaweed but that's not certain yet. Depending on the background stitch and how you finish the Gold Fish you might put a piece of gold lame underneath it for a subtle shine. But we have a lot of talking to do before we decide on this.
I think the blue-green would be an excellent choice for the water. The split complementary on the color wheel of blue-green is orange and red so it should work well.
"I'll check my stash for some fab colors for the water.
I've done some work with shisha mirrors, and have several sizes in my stash. I actually thought about the netting thing as well--I think that would be a great look. Gathering up the tulle around the mirror would probably be faster than trying to tack down edges, but then of course you need a way to attach them to fabric--Invisible thread would work to tack them down; a blending filament would add some extra sparkle. I had one other thought about the background. I would like to explore the idea of letting a small amount of the canvas show through; the canvas color to me is the color of sand, which would fit well with the scene."
If you want to let sand colored background show, we can space out rows of stitches to allow either bare canvas between them or position tent stitches in the background color between rows. Look at the stitches I sent and see if you like any of them and if we can modify the ones you like to allow this effect.
Think also about using brown beads as sand, perhaps scattered along the bottom of the canvas. Or bead the school of fish we talked about.
"I was originally thinking about simply not having full coverage on the background stitching to let the brown show through, but skipping stitches might work as well. In my head, I like the more random look of the sparse coverage--skipping stitches might look too planned for me. I think I'm going for overall blue, with a hint of brown. I think the beads would not be random enough, and my brain would always want to know why the water has bumps in it. I'll check out the links to the background stitches once you send those."
Some background stitch suggestions have gone out to you already. Once you settle on a color and decide if you want to put a school of fish in the background, we can talk more about background stitches.
I was thinking about appliqueing Ultrasuede for your seaweed but that depends on the size of the seaweed. It can be fiddly to stitch down very small pieces but if you are game, it'll look great. I was also looking at the tear drop seaweed and thinking maybe using Flair or something similar stitched over beads to give dimension. Look at this blog posting by PFOS. The pumpkin is done this way. You'll maybe need a teardrop bead to get the right effect, though.
http://pocketfullofstitches.blogspot.com/2011/02/spooky-stitches.html
"I LOVE the idea of the tear drops covered with the Flair. I was thinking of making a detached buttonhole net to cover something, but your idea is way easier and faster. It might make sense to insert the bead into the Flair and stitch up the excess so it covers the bead tightly. Finding these beads might be hard--I probably should not have thrown away that catalog I recently got from Fire Mountain Gems!"
Not to worry. They have a big website and when I searched on “teardrop” I got a lot of hits.
http://www.firemountaingems.com/
"As for the Ultrasuede, I'm not so sure about it. I really want the seaweed to be dimensional and I'm not envisioning how that would work with the Ultrasuede--although I guess I could applique to a slip and attach the slip to the canvas. I also wonder if Ultrasuede would be too stuff, and wouldn't have the flexibility that would create the seaweed in water effect. I was thinking something like a twisted silk ribbon would be the right weight, but I'm not sure what to do with it on the bottom edge."
Ultrasuede comes in two weights. If you use the light weight Ultrasuede meant for clothing instead of the upholstry weight, it isn’t stiff at all. I wasn’t thinking of using a long strip of it twisted like you might use ribbon. I was thinking of making xerox copies of your canvas, cutting out each squiggle in a different color of Ultrasuede, and stitching them down separately. You would have three blue shapes, two dark green ones and two light green ones. That’s what I meant about fiddly--there is a lot of cutting. The teardrop seaweed would be done a different way. Make sense? If you want to twist ribbon over the seaweed shapes, you can do that. First, stitch over the background and the fish entirely, then using a color copy of the unstitched canvas, come up with the ribbon at the top outside the margin and secure it. Then twist the free end of the ribbon and tack it down. When you get to the bottom of the seaweed, take the ribbon down into the canvas and secure it on the back. I’d use River Silks ribbon as it comes in various widths and a lot of colors. You could even mix colors and come up/go down each color separately although that is a lot of work and I’m not sure just how it would look.
How do you feel about doing the spots on the gold fish using the hot fix Swarkovski crystals? Again, it depends on the size of the dots and you'll need two different sizes of crystals. They do come in various sizes. Do you think yellow or red or gold crystals are the right color for these? I think using purple crystals on the coral red, and gold crystals on the red and yellow crystals on the purple would work but maybe that's too much color. The fish is pretty busy. Sequins might also work but I personally find it hard to get sequins in various sizes that look nice. Most of them are just plastic or foil.
"I was wondering about what to do with the dots. I was thinking some sort of dimensional stitch, like a woven or a spider web rose, but I think the sparklies would be fun. I think it makes sense to use the complement of the background color for the sparklies. I have not worked with the hot fix crystals--do they just get attached with a hot glue gun, or is there something more to the process?"
You need a special hot fix tool for the crystals. It’s sort of like a hot glue gun but Swarkovski hot fix crystals come with the glue already on their flat back side. The hot fix tool is used to simultaneously pick up the crystal and heat the back so that when you press the tool holding the crystal down on your fabric (or canvas), it sticks. I’ve used the Jolee brand and it works nicely. Here’s a video that shows how it works. The tool and the crystal and glue get pretty hot, though. You have to be careful. Here's a video that explains the process pretty well. This looks like a Jolee brand hot fix tool but they all work pretty much the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6bVc-gal9s&feature=fvwrel
I think you are going to have to go shopping for Ultrasuede, tulle, shisha mirrors, sparking buttons, crystals, and perhaps sequins and beads. Once you know what is available to you, then we can make more choices. Told you this was going to be fun as we ran wild with it!
"I'll try to get out on Sunday and do some shopping for this stuff."
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Carol Talks Water Stitches
Labels:
Gloriana,
Lillian Chermor,
stitch guides
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| Lillian Chermor Gold Fish |
that hands in front of the Gold Fish’s body. Something that is a vertical
stitch with movement. I’ll check my stitch books and see what I can come up with.” I sent Carol some stitch suggestions. She has looked at what I wrote her and responded below. Her comments are bracketed by asterisks.
The traditional water stitch looks something like the background of this
canvas from the Sundance Designs Photo Album. (Many thanks to Sundance for permission to link to these photographs!) Personally I think this very horizontal stitch would look odd intersecting with the vertical seaweed on Carol's canvas. What do you think, Carol?
***While I like this one, I do agree that it would look weird with the vertical seaweed. This canvas has a very vertical line, and I think that movement should be pulled through in the background.***
I prefer something like this gray sky background--a vertical wavy stitch.
Doesn't have to be this one but I'm thinking a stitch that is roughly shaped
like the seaweed bits dangling around the Gold Fish.
***YES!! Maybe with a subtlely overdyed thread for a tiny bit of contrast in the color.***
Carol, I like your idea of an overdyed thread with just a touch of color change. If you don't have such a thread in your stash, you might want to do a little shopping. Personally I like Gloriana's overdyed silk. There are some lovely subtle water colors in this line. Silk has the added benefit of a slight shine that mimics water's gleam in the sunlight.
http://www.glorianathreads.com/Silk_Floss.html
Carol, I like your idea of an overdyed thread with just a touch of color change. If you don't have such a thread in your stash, you might want to do a little shopping. Personally I like Gloriana's overdyed silk. There are some lovely subtle water colors in this line. Silk has the added benefit of a slight shine that mimics water's gleam in the sunlight.
http://www.glorianathreads.com/Silk_Floss.html
A more jagged edged vertical wavy stitch would work also. Do you
like the sharper edges of this sky stitch, Carol?
***NO!!***
LOL Glad you know what you like and what you don't, Carol. That makes it easier to narrow down types of stitches.
LOL Glad you know what you like and what you don't, Carol. That makes it easier to narrow down types of stitches.
Another way to go is to use a darning pattern in the background, using small
fish shapes in one thread surrounded by tent stitches in another thread in a
slightly different color or texture. Look at the base of this Easter canvas
to see what I mean. The fish shapes could be in rows, scattered at random,
or be done on the diagonal facing \ the way the fish is swimming. The fish
shapes could be beaded or stitched in a metallic thread (either a totally
metallic thread or one with metallic woven in like Silk Lame Braid) in a
similar color to the tent stitches surrounding them.
***I think this is a cute idea, suggesting a school of fish. I fear, however, that it would detract from the main focal point if its done over the entire background. I like the idea of doing them in the same color, but a slightly different thread. Maybe not all over the entire background, but just in one portion of it, like there's a school of fish off in the distance.
I like that idea! However, all this depends on the background stitch you choose. Compensation isn't the problem. You want the school of fish to "float" on top of the background stitch, not be a distraction because they are sunken into the background stitch. So you'll need to do some test stitching to see how the background stitch you choose works with the school of fish. How about applique fish in the background instead? Appliques don't sink into background and detract from it. Cut out some paper fish shapes and arrange them around the canvas background and see if you have room before you commit to this idea, ok? A 9X9 canvas isn't very big. You may not have room for a school of fish in the background.
***Would you recommend doing both the vertical stitch above, and compensating for the fish, or do you envision doing the background in tent/basketweave and putting these fish shapes in randomly? I'm pretty good at compensating, so I could handle the fish along with the wavy stitch. This idea is growing on me, especially if it's not over the whole background.***
It depends. If you choose a wavy vertical line stitch, you may not be able to do the school of fish at all if they look odd among the fancy stitches. If you want to try adding darning fish, then you could do them in the same thread as a tent stitch background but add a thin metallic (or Silk Lame Braid or a similar thread that has metallic already mixed in) to the fish shape so that the school of fish is subtle. Or you could use a different textured thread in a slightly lighter (or darker--you'll have to test stitch to see which looks better) shade for the fish. If you tent stitch the background, a subtle overdyed thread would give the background some movement.
I like that idea! However, all this depends on the background stitch you choose. Compensation isn't the problem. You want the school of fish to "float" on top of the background stitch, not be a distraction because they are sunken into the background stitch. So you'll need to do some test stitching to see how the background stitch you choose works with the school of fish. How about applique fish in the background instead? Appliques don't sink into background and detract from it. Cut out some paper fish shapes and arrange them around the canvas background and see if you have room before you commit to this idea, ok? A 9X9 canvas isn't very big. You may not have room for a school of fish in the background.
***Would you recommend doing both the vertical stitch above, and compensating for the fish, or do you envision doing the background in tent/basketweave and putting these fish shapes in randomly? I'm pretty good at compensating, so I could handle the fish along with the wavy stitch. This idea is growing on me, especially if it's not over the whole background.***
It depends. If you choose a wavy vertical line stitch, you may not be able to do the school of fish at all if they look odd among the fancy stitches. If you want to try adding darning fish, then you could do them in the same thread as a tent stitch background but add a thin metallic (or Silk Lame Braid or a similar thread that has metallic already mixed in) to the fish shape so that the school of fish is subtle. Or you could use a different textured thread in a slightly lighter (or darker--you'll have to test stitch to see which looks better) shade for the fish. If you tent stitch the background, a subtle overdyed thread would give the background some movement.
A fourth choice is to use an all over pattern like the green sky here done
in Criss-Cross Hungarian in an overdyed thread to suggest water. This
stitch doesn't have a direction but the changes in color suggest water
movement.
***Meh. Not so much.***
I've given Carol some things to think about. Tomorrow we'll talk embellishment while she mulls over the background and what she wants to do with it.
I've given Carol some things to think about. Tomorrow we'll talk embellishment while she mulls over the background and what she wants to do with it.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
Chilly Hollow Stitch Guides Blog Updated
Yesterday I updated the Chilly Hollow Stitch Guides blog with new information in the Carolyn Hedge Baird, Melissa Shirley, and Robin King articles. Just use the search box in the upper left hand corner to find the updates.
http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com/
However, there are a lot of articles about Melissa Shirley since so many folks write guides for her canvases. The update to the main Melissa Shirley article is just that she is starting to post about new stitch guides (as well as show off finished canvases and the ones she is stitching herself) on her Facebook page. To find it, log into your Facebook account and search for Melissa Shirley Designs.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com/
However, there are a lot of articles about Melissa Shirley since so many folks write guides for her canvases. The update to the main Melissa Shirley article is just that she is starting to post about new stitch guides (as well as show off finished canvases and the ones she is stitching herself) on her Facebook page. To find it, log into your Facebook account and search for Melissa Shirley Designs.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
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