Wizard's Beaded Edge

I have started adding beads to the edge of the Joan Thomasson wizard stand up piece. They must be done before I can add the wired Flair smoke and then stuff the piece, add rocks as weights and hand-stitch the base on. So there is a lot still to do. I thought you'd like to see the edge with the two #16 Kreinik silver threads couched down and the beads beginning to be added on top of that. I am alternating one single pale lavender seed bead from Mill Hill with a group of three crystal #14 beads from Sundance. They don't touch-each group is about 3 mm from the next. The crystal clear beads from Sundance have incredible sparkle while the larger round lavender bead is exactly the color of the purple underrobe. They look very nice. I have about 1/5 of the edge beaded and will continue to work on that tonight.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Elliot, The Summer House, and Halloween

The photo above shows the official NP inspector for Amy Bunger's website. His name is Elliot and his job is to make sure Amy's class models are perfect in every way. And that they do not contain catnip, of course!

Elliot lives with Robin, the webmaster for the Amy Bunger website, who sent me this photo. Isn't he a charmer? The house he is checking out is Melissa Shirley's Summer House. It's one of the home study canvases that Amy offers for folks who want to do directed stitching at home. You can see the real photo shoot photos at the link below. Just click on either thumbnail to actually see the house.

http://www.amybunger.com/summer_house_home_study.html

If you want to see Elliot in action when he inspected the Yellow Mustard House (also by Melissa Shirley), head over here.

http://www.amybunger.com/albums/album_image/6262614/3610741.htm

You can always see the other Home Study projects (including the other two seasonal houses) by clicking on the link at the left side of the page. Sadly, there are no more Elliot sightings there.

However, you can treat yourself to a read of the newest Amy Bunger newslettter by looking for the E-Newsletters link. After that, find the October 2008 newsletter and click on that link for a PDF file to open with the newsletter contents. Make sure you check out the amazing Halloween pieces there. Turns out that Robin, Elliot's owner, doesn't just handle the website. She's also an awesome stitcher and teacher in her own right who is into Halloween in a big way.

Lucky Amy! She's got both Robin and Elliot on her payroll!

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Laura Perin Is The Border Queen

I read Laura Perin's blog religiously. She is a counted thread designer of both realistic and geometric pieces and there aren't many charted designers active today. So I like to keep an eye on what she's up to.

Right now she's talking borders. What you see above is the border she created to mimic an expensive triple matted framing job for her version of the Gay Ann Rogers' "Mystery in a Corner" design. It is what I call a KNOCK-OUT idea.

It's not the only one she's had, either. Head over to Laura's blog and back up until you find the 10/6/08 posting about her Halloween House, then start reading forward to discover several cheap and easy ways to put fake mats and lovely borders around your pieces. You may never pay Big Bucks to a frame shop again.

http://two-handedstitcher.blogspot.com/

Laura's website lives here.

http://www.ljperindesigns.com/index.htm

Gay Ann Rogers just has finished her annual e-Merchandise week but in about three weeks you ought to be able to see various stitched Mysteries in a Corner on her website again. But nobody has a mat as beautiful as the one Laura stitched!

http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Home_Page.html

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Finishing with Beads

Over on the main Yahoo 360 blog, Madonna mentioned she didn't have much experience with using beads in finishing. I can't say it is hard--I do it all the time, after all!--but it helps to see what is possible.

Let's head over to Summer Truswell's Finishing website and look at some examples of the ornaments she makes from your stitching. Read the descriptions to both see what sorts of finishing you can order from here and see what you can do yourself. Many of the edges have beads incorporated into the trim and they all are lovely.

http://www.needleworkfinishing.com/needleworkfinishing-ornaments.htm

Great job, Summer!

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Slow Progress

Last night I attached another 3 inches' worth of Kreinik silver metallic thread around the outside edge of the wizard. It is very slow as I have to blindly push the needle with one hand inside him and grab it with the other on the outside to pull up and through. Takes forever! If I do beads on top this will be much faster as I can simply catch the Kreinik already in place with my needle. But for now, don't expect much progress. By the way, I'm still have significant problems posting to Yahoo 360 and reading comments. Apparently readers are having trouble reading Yahoo 360 and I am not able to close the poll there I did to ask you guys how you liked the feather trim.

[deep sigh]

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow