Birdee Floats in Air

That's because I haven't stitched the parrot stand yet! But the firebird is done. After I transferred my sketch outlines to the canvas I stitched the whole thing in tent stitches using 5-6 different reds, oranges, and corals and a bit of Trebizond in chocolate milk for his beak and foot. Then using the same fire colors, I put stem stitch on top to show his folded wings, tail and topknot on his head. Once the background and perch are done, I will do the background around the bird and then add a bit more stitching on top of the background to build out the topknot a bit and also give him a tongue. I think he's screaming advice to the wizard on his packing!







Here's a closeup. It's difficult to see but this bird is tent stitches with some colors added on top to suggest feathers. The large photo has the three main colors I used, a yellow orange Bella Soie silk floss from Crescent Colours called Carrot Cake, a toned red overdyed cotton floss from Crescent Colors called Cupid, and an orange-red silk that may be Japanese (there's no label). I put them down at the bottom of the wizard's staff to help me decide if I could use any of these colors for one of the wizard books. What do you think? Will the big book look good in orange Carrot Cake and the little one in the red Cupid?

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

2008 Exemplary Winners

Pour a cup of coffee, sit back, and prepare to be amazed by all the wonderful award winners from the National Academy of Needlearts' 2008 Exemplary show! Click on the tiny photos for slightly larger versions.

http://www.needleart.org/Exemplary08/

The photo above is Gail Sirna's Morning Glory Santa, a personal favorite I saw in person at the 2007 ANG Seminar in Baltimore.

Remember not to drool on your keyboard....

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Beads, Cauldrons, and a Firebird

Last night I finished as much of the cauldron as I can do for now. Once the books are stitched I can add the handle and maybe even some steam rising from the black sparkly interior.

Soon I'll finish the floor stitches now that I know exactly where the cauldron's bottom and sides sit. I beaded a bit on the purple robe last night also, just a few scattered beads here and there. They are barely visible but they do add texture which was The Plan. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together!?! I hope you can see them in the photo above. I avoided putting a bead under where the moon and stars are supposed to go. They are temporarily in the correct position held down with pink hair tape that doesn't pull the background threads. I won't really attach them until everything else is done.

My final touch was sketching a firebird in the background of the design. I have been playing around with a pencil, a big eraser and my xerox of the canvas for a bit. First I tried an arched window in the background. It doesn't seem to fit the space well. If I made it in proportion to the wizard himself, the top of the arch was cut off at the top of the canvas. That looks weird. If I made it lower down, it looked like the window bottom reached to the floor. So I gave up on the window although I was charmed by the idea of stitching leaves, then vines and then a stained glass window on top. That would have been fun! But as we've already decided this is winter, leaves are really not appropriate anyway.

Next I tried a heraldic shield hung on the stone wall but that didn't go so well either. Those funny symbolic animals are durn hard to draw in a small space. I could have divided the shield into four areas and done stars and other shapes but I didn't much like that idea since there are already stars on the wizard's outfit (the beads are the center of a star shape done in pale purple Accentuate) and he also carries a moon and stars along with the earth. So Plan 2 fell apart. It probably wasn't the best idea anyway since I don't have any Joan Thomasson designs with such an item so I'd have to make it all up from things found on the Internet.

I finally sketched a firebird on a perch and I think that's going to work although my bird is a bit too large and the perch stand a bit too low in the sketch above. I'm going to have to shift it up taller and make the firebird's body and tail a little smaller. With those changes he looks good to me. I'll have to outline him in black marker so I can trace him onto the canvas . Then I can perhaps change the books so that the big blue book is red and the little one green instead of the colors on the canvas. With a red firebird I think I want the larger book in colors to match to balance the design.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Belle and Margaret, Front and Center!

I need you ladies to eyeball the globe and tell me if it is improved. In the photo above I replaced the Petite Treasure Braid lines on the Earth with a very thin DMC Metallic machine embroidery thread. It is black with a lot of highlights. This time I didn't enhance the photo a lot so you may not be able to see it all that well. In person it looks good but photographing metallics is a chancy business.

If you look at the hem of the purple under-robe you'll be able to see that I've added the three padded lines of trim. The original paint on the canvas is two lines of gold with a line of silver in the middle but I switched colors so that I have a fat line of silver nearest the hem, a line of pale purple metallic in the middle and then a narrower line of silver. All the threads are Soft Sheen Fyre Werks and I matched the silver in the Fyre Werks carefully to the silver Kreinik so that the two shades would be as close as possible.

I've also added more to the layers on the purple robe but I doubt you can see it since I didn't get very far in this step last night. Instead I concentrated on the basket next to the books at the wizard's feet. I never liked the idea of a basket much. Surely a cauldron is more likely to accompany a wizard on his travels? So I pencil sketched a likely shape on my copy of my plain canvas until I was satisfied I had the shape right and then stitched it using three threads: a black Frosty Rays used to tent stitch the interior so it had extra sparkle, a line of couched black Petite Very Velvet to make the rim of the cauldron stand out a bit (it's very hard to see but in person you can get the idea) and the body of the outside done with black Flair in Mosaic stitch (on the right of the staff) covered with long lengths of the same thread running horizontally (on the left of the staff) to hide the white dandruf and smooth the outside to make it like a real cast iron pot. Once the books behind the cauldron and the staff are stitched, I'll couch down more Petite Very Velvet to make a handle.

Do let me know what you guys think, especially Margaret and Belle.

Thanks!

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Lani's Autumn Leaves in Purse Form

I found the perfect pocketbook to use Autumn Leaves with a couple of weeks ago but dawdled about appliquing the canvas to the front until two weeks ago when the county fair deadline pushed me into finishing this piece. I whipstitched it to the front of this purse, which happened to be the right shade of red and also is made of what looks like a knit cotton. The material the purse is made from is perfect for attaching a NP canvas and then hiding the stitches with trim.

Do you like it? I hope Mom does! This is her birthday present for next month. (This is a secret, remember? Don' give it away!) Her favorite color is red and this is the perfect early autumn purse.


Lani's design looks great here. An all tent stitch piece is perfect for such a finished item. Here's a closer look.



Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow