The Teeth Creep Me Out UPDATED

Ok, I admit it---I am not a fan of nutcracker canvases. I will admit that I own a nutcracker canvas, though. I have the Danji Robin Hood nutcracker canvas (complete with Amy Bunger stitch guide and all the threads) in my stash. Someday....

If you aren't like me and you have $1100 USD burning a hole in your pocket, you will want to check out this eBay auction for a set of 13 nutcrackers designed by Susan Roberts with canvas, threads and stitch guides from Needle Works in Austin. They are offering a monthly nutcracker set this year but the auction is for a different set from 2006. This link is long, so if it doesn't work for you, click on the post title at my Blogspot blog. (Sorry, Yahoo 360 doesn't offer this clicking option.)

http://cgi.ebay.com/13-Nutcrackers-Complete-Kits-SUSAN-ROBERTS_W0QQitemZ130298747565QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item130298747565&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1308%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

There's a king, cowboy and cowgirl, and many more in the set. Fun to look at, even if stitching these would give me nightmares!

UPDATE: This Buy Me Now auction ended without any bidders.

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

Faking Holi's Greensleeves

Yesterday I talked about Holi's sleeve and how I planned to add the fresh greens from her over-skirt to the sleeve to make the reds and oranges Pop. I didn't mention that I was out of the Gloriana perle silk I used in the skirt. In order to recreate the overdye on the sleeve I'm going to have to fake it.

Overdyes are easy to fake. I pull as many of the shades in the original overdye as I can find (in this case I used DMC cotton floss for the three shades of green). If you look at the picture you can see I got awfully close to the original colors. I will do diagonal rows of green, switching from the darker green to the medium apple green and then to the lime green just like I did on the skirt. I'll switch the colors after about the same length of thread, too. When I'm done, you guys can vote on how close I got to mimicing the original Gloriana thread.

It is hard to get the subtle shading of some overdyes just right but if you have only a few colors, you can do pretty well. Some of you may remember the Sundance woman in a cloak piece I did oer two years ago. The designer used 8 colors of Watercolours for the clothes. I substituted DMC floss for all 8 skeins and spent 1/3 of what I would have spent on Watercolours, ending up with a pretty good approximation of the model. You can see this piece on the Yahoo 360 blog. Go to the link below if you are at Blogspot, then look for Sundance in the "tag cloud" on the left side column. Click and then scroll down to find "Sundance Beginner's Lesson-The End" to see what DMC can do to imitate Watercolours, or any other overdye, for that matter.

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

Holi Greensleeves

Despite the flaw in the image above (hopefully because the canvas lifted up slightly there when I pressed down in the middle of Holi as she lay on the scanner bed) you can see I've given up basketweave background in favor of stitching Holi's sleeve. This section is very complex and was supposed to be done in three different threads. So far I've used my two Kreinik greens, red Trebizond, peach Trebizond and am about to go shopping today for some lime green DMC so the background unstitched area can have apple green to match some of the overskirt colors. I will then add my yellow and orange overdyed Kreinik and then beads, either gold or orange or red or yellow. I am not sure about the bead colors yet. I could even use French knots instead of beads as Kandy Merric did on the original model.

She's coming right along but I can see I need to add the green to tie the sleeve to the rest of the design. Otherwise there is too much pattern going on. Well, too much for me!

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

M M 86 UPDATED

A piece of someone's history is on sale at eBay this morning. It's four feet wide by thirty inches tall. To me it looks like this was a stamped line drawing that was filled in using crewel wool. The visible lines often add to the effect of dimension. Nice job, in my opinion.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350187157840&indexURL=2&photoDisplayType=2#ebayphotohosting
The seller says this took M M two years to stitch. Note that the seller will not ship this--you have to live close enough to their Florida location to pick it up.

Let's take a moment to salute MM. Whoever you are, you did us stitchers proud!

UPDATE: This auction ended without any bids, probably due to the requirement that the item has to be picked up instead of being shipped.
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Miscellany (with Basketweave)

It's been hectic at work and I've not stitched much this week, but not to worry, there are plenty of other things going on for you to enjoy while I recharge my batteries and basketweave my background.

First, if you are a counted thread person who always wanted to join in a monthly club but they are all on painted canvases and/or expensive, here is something just for you--a line drawn series by Edith Anderson Feisner, famous for her color theory books. These little designs are called Stitching Steps. Aren't they pretty? Do a search on Amazon.com to see some of her many color books for stitchers.
http://www.threadsinva.com/stitchingsteps.htm

If you ever wanted to chart a photograph to stitch but the cost of the software put you off, this site's free charting program may interest you. Note that it's for PCs only (there is no Mac version) and the features are very limited.
http://www.iktsoft.net/kgchart-en/

If you are coming to needlepoint from the world of cross stitch or are a brand new needlepointer, you may never have used stretcher bars. Here is a tutorial by Tanja Berlin that shows you exactly how they work.
http://www.berlinembroidery.com/embroideryframes.htm#instructions

Finally, if you just want a little eye candy, you can't go wrong visiting Lillian Chermor. Her painted canvases are always on brown canvas and always very beautiful. Don't miss the new Circus miniatures! Lillian's "Breakfast of the Thrush" bell pull design illustrates this blog entry.
http://needlepointbylilliandesign.com/

Hope you enjoyed the various wonderful items. Now it's back to basketweave for me!

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