Bubbles and Eye

The title says it all--I added an eye and silver bead bubbles to the Baroque Fish over the weekend. I'm still working on the background and also the top part of the skirt. Note the front of the skirt where it should meet tent stitches has no tent there. I wanted to wait and see where the skirt stitches would logically end and then put in the tent stitches. Remember, this is an outlined canvas and you don't want those outlines to show. I want to put in the tent stitches where they meet the figure later to both hide those lines (which might show through the ecru thread) and to compensate evenly.

The eye is a length of Sparkle Rays in seafoam green covered by a lazy daisy stitch that is tacked down at the top and bottom but not in the middle. I thought it looked good as is and didn't take the loop down on the right hand side.

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

Amy Does February

The Feb. newsletter is up on Amy Bunger's website. You'll find the link to it in the text or on the left side of the page.
http://www.amybunger.com/home.html

The newsletter has details on the new Barely There DVD #6 which focuses on this JB Designs (distributed by Julia' Needleworks) canvas of 12 plain vases in a row which is above. There are many other canvases in the DVD that illustrate the technique of not covering the canvas mesh entirely.
http://www.juliasneedleworks.com/gallery2/gallery2embedded.php?g2_itemId=2390&g2_imageViewsIndex=1

There is a new YouTube video, this time showcasing the standups that one of Amy's customers stitches. The photos are detailed and give you a good idea of how the featured Santa was put together. Fans of Elliott the Cat will see him in the last shot, checking the standups to make sure their hair is all combed and makeup on!
http://www.amybunger.com/YouTube.html

The Russian Magi from the Home Study of Kelly Clark's Nativity set is ready. You can see the other canvases in this series, some stitched and some not, by clicking on Previous or Next at the upper right hand corner of the photo. I had been told Amy is pulling out all the stops on the Wise Men. Looks like my informant was right!
http://www.amybunger.com/albums/album_image/6366238/4787691.htm

I can't imagine what Amy will do with the Brenda Stofft trunk show coming to her shop soon. She's just discovered the Elizabethean Rabbit and the Elizabethean Cat. You are doomed, Amy, DOOMED! Here is Brenda's website, in case you want to check out her work before the trunk show arrives. The two Elizabethean queen canvaes are in the Cats & Dogs and Rabbits & Hares sections.
http://www.brendastofftdesigns.com/

Have fun reading the newsletter, seeing the eyelet heart stitch diagrammed, and looking at what Sarah found in her new needlepoint stocking.

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

More Basketweave and Painted Canvases

I didn't even bother with a fish eye for the Baroque Fish last night--I just basketweaved background. After all the physical activity this week I am just not worth much and stuck to what I wouldn't have to pull out later. Luckily for you there are a lot of new painted canvases pouring into shops and appearing on designer websites. So let's go look at those instead of seeing yet another boring photo of more basketweave appearing around Kandy Merric's beautiful Baroque Fish Pet Guardian Angel!

The Bristly Thistle in Michigan is starting to post photos of their new pieces on their website. I laughed at the Needlepoint Broad's Dog To Do List quite a lot and enjoyed the beautiful floral canvases from DJ Designs.
http://www.bristlythistle.com/newitems.html

HP Needlepoint has more of their Asian designs plus beautiful stylized floral pieces, gorgeous animals and beautiful oriental rug motif pillow sized canvases. They do classic designs in a very classy way. I'd like to try the small, simple Buddha canvas in or nue using a light coverage technique....
http://www.hpneedlepoint.com/SANDIEGO2009.html

The Needle Works in Austin is having a trunk show of the new Needle Deva canvases. What's better than new AND on sale if you are a fan?!
http://www.theneedleworks.com/catalog/specials.php

Needle Works is a fan of the Mary Kay Crowley paintings that DJ Designs puts on canvas. These are not new, but they are new to me. If you love the Crowley art style, these are for you to admire.
http://www.designsdj.com/MaryKay.html

Colleen at Needle Works also pointed me towards Betsy B.'s new canvases. The Christmas song canvases are perfect for a musical family. Betsy B. is known for Greek sorority and fraternity theme canvases but that's not all they do.
http://www.betsyboriginals.com/Betsy_B._Originals/Whats_New!.html


I also found A Dragon's Tale's blog through Colleen. I've seen Dragon's Tale canvases here and there, mostly the animal head purses, and am thrilled to finally see all their work. They do terrific animal designs, but are branching out into other areas. You will enjoy the brand new roll up Santas which are more detailed than rollup canvases normally are. They also have Santa ornaments based on hard candy themes. By the way, some of their Spoiled Brats canvases illustrate this blog entry. Aren't they fun?
http://adragonstaleneedlepoint.blogspot.com/search/label/Whats%20New%3A%20Roll%20Up%20Santas

That's enough fun for one morning. Hope you enjoy the show, courtesy of the many needlepoint designers who brighten our life.

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

Summer Louise Explores Scotch Stitch

I took a photo yesterday as I continued to try and clear the "black" ice off the driveway.
Black ice is ice that is almost invisible. You can't see it, so it is very easy to slip and fall if it is on your porch, driveway, etc. Many car accidents are probably caused by black ice when the driver brakes without realizing he or she is on a patch of invisible ice. We got snow on Tuesday and an ice storm on top of it Wednesday so this has been a loooong process. I think I moved 3156 shovelfuls of snow/slush/ice in shoveling the tire paths as I had to go up and down the driveway twice, once after the snow and once after the ice. I also made a trip down on Thursday to try and remove patches of ice, which is when I took this photo. The problem with ice storms in cold weather that once the ice goes down, you can't remove it. I had to put cat litter on the thick ice in front of the garage to drive out yesterday to go to work. Mother Nature is far more powerful than we are!

She also left behind great beauty as you can see in the photo. Much as I grumbled as I worked, I am grateful to live in such a lovely place.

Now on to needlepoint! I'm still pooped from all that physical activity so last night I simply basketweaved background. However, Summer Louise Truswell (finisher extraordinaire) was busy. She's posted a new blog entry in her A Stitch A Week series. This week she discusses Scotch Stitch and its variations, and tell syou how to manipulate the stitch to get interesting dimensional effects or to make a beautiful corner. All she is doing with each stitch is fascinating and makes you think that taking a second look at stitches you use all the time to come up with ways to manipulate them is very worthwhile.
http://www.summerlouise.com/2009/01/stitch-each-week-scotch-stitch.html

I look forward to next week to see what she comes up with then!

UPDATE: Just remembered that ANG's newest workshop by mail is a Scotch Stitch variation project from Marnie Ritter. If Summer's Scotch Stitch blog entry entranced you, check this out.
http://www.needlepoint.org/byMail/index.php

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

Fish Eyes

As you see, I did get some things done yesterday besides shoveling slush off a driveway that is 3/10 of a mile long.

I took out the green metallic on her bodice and tried the silver of her halo but it wasn't right either. The best looking option seemed to be to lay done long stitches in the Tiara which mixes green and gold and blue. If it looks good, it's right so there we are.

The fish has no eyes yet (they go in on top) but she does have a head and fin. The instructions had pink and rose for the colors for this area and I stuck with those colors as they look great with the blues and greens fo the clothing and wings. I used Trebizond silk which is a fat silk perle for these areas. The light pink is Duchesse Rose #511 and the deep rose is Gillyflower #429. Doesn't Trebizond have beautiful color names?

I stitched a scattering of cross stitches at the base of the fish's neck in both pink and rose to make bumps for her scales. I learned that the pink cross stitches didn't show up when I tent stitched around the XSes with my pale pink, so I put a tent stitch on top of the pale pink XSes with my Kreinik silver #4005. That looks nice and adds a bit of silver to go with the silver halo this pet guardian angel wears. The fins on her head and under her chin had skip tent in the rose Gillyflower color and I filled in the empty spaces with peach beads from SJ Designs. (#779) These beads are faceted and sparkle a great deal, making the fins look a bit wet. Oddly the peach of the beads looks good with the rose silk while light pink beads did not. More color magic I guess! You simply cannot be certain that a thread that looks great before you use it will look great when you put it in your design. The same thing is true for beads.

The fin is in all tent stitches.

I have a lot more background to do but I hope to treat myself by stitching her eye tonight.

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