Mermaid Tails, Spooky Faces and Monthly Clubs UPDATED WITH PHOTO

Last night I carefully ripped out the Gloriana overdyed silk I had used for the largest mermaid's tail and replaced it with two plies of a mystery floss (which I think might be Aver A Soie but I'm not sure) and one ply of a Soie d'Alger silk floss. (I'm still using the Helen's Lace stitch, by the way. I think it is going to work nicely with a bit of manipulation.) The mystery floss is very dark forest green and the Soie D'Alger is more spruce in color. This adds a tinge of dark blue to the forest green. Mixing the threads gives me a less green color for the mermaid tails and matches the color painted on the canvas pretty closely. I very often don't change colors of my painted canvases since I buy them because I love the color scheme. So I am often scrambling to match the color with my threads.

I also tent stitched the face of the smaller background mermaid. Both mermaids are tanned so I am using darker colors than normal in silk for their skin and faces. There are no pictures this morning as I didn't have time to scan one. When I get a chance tonight I'll update this posting with a photograph although I have to say there is not much to see yet unless you think mermaids and dogs without eyes or noses interesting. It looks spooky to me!

In other news, Needlenook of La Jolla has updated their website with photos of six of the twelve holiday fairy pieces all stitched and made up. These are their Raymond Crawford monthly club.
http://www.needlenookoflajolla.com/events/fairies/index.html

Three Kittens has a traditional Twelve Days of Christmas club this year from Shelly Tribbey, using her little round ornaments.
http://www.3kittensneedlearts.com/3K_Needlepoint_Clubs.htm

The Needlepointer has done something interesting for their newest monthly club. They are offering Amy Bunger's 24 chapters of stitches and two binders to hold them instead of a series of designs. It's a clever way of tempting folks who don't really want a new series to stitch into parting with a bit of cash each month.
http://www.theneedlepointer.com/needlepoint-clubs.htm

Now that should keep you busy until I get a scan posted tonight!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

A Contest Challenge

Donna just wrote in the comments of Two Dogs, "For a second there I thought this was going to be - two dogs walk into a bar..."

Which gave me an idea for a contest. How about writing a joke about two dogs (or two mermaids) walking into a bar? If you can work needlepoint or other stitching into it, there are bonus points. Post your comments here or email me your joke directly at chilly hollowat hot maildot com.

The reward will be something really nice from my stash. We'll pick a winner and after consulting with them as to their color and style preferences, I will send them something from my extensive stash I hope will please them.

Ready? Ok, go!

I'll allow a week for any jokes to arrive, then I'll post the winner....

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Two Dogs

They may be missing eyes, noses or the little shading details I have yet to stitch, but we have two dogs mostly stitched now!

Note that the small dog in the background has two long stitches over his tent stitched ear to give him a little dimension, just not much. He is in the background, after all!

This weekend I will add the details that I need some time when I'm not tired to stitch. Until then, I am testing stitches for the mermaids't tails. This is what I've come up with so far, done in four plies of a special edition Gloriana 8 ply silk. The stitch is called Helen's Lace (page 31 of Julia Snyder's Backgrounds & Such). I hope that I can do the same stitch over fewer boxes on the background mermaid's tail. Since there are two of them, one in the foreground and one in the background, I need a stitch that will work both places. I'm beginning to think my thread is too bright, though.

Stay tuned to see if this works....

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Van Gogh is Done

Van Gogh is done! Hurrah!!

I finished him late last night, and started the smaller background dog with the thread unused in Van Gogh's tail. I'm doing tent stitches on the smaller dog, starting with the lightest color first and stitching rom his collar down in basketweave whenever possible, still with two strands of Burmilana. So far, so good.

Speaking of dogs, while browsing for dog canvases (preferably yellow labs--have you noticed I'm trying to find other versions of the dogs in the bar on Cape Cod and post them as the Canvas of the Day?) I discovered Barbara Russell, famous for her dog canvases, has updated her website. She doesn't just produce dog canvases, there is a white peacock canvas on her home page that has to be seen!

http://barbararusselldesigns.com/

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Bar Stools and Dog Fur

I continued working on the largest dog's body last night while thinking about the dog in the background. Pat suggested stitching him with long and short stitches which I think will work. He's much smaller than Van Gogh is and is less central to the design.

I've started the bar stools, all in tent stitches in the various shades of brown I've used already. The legs are almost all done and I've started on the stool tops. I thought about using fancy stitches for Van Gogh's stool top at least but like so many other areas in this piece, tent stitches work best as all the details are packed into small areas.

I'll work tonight on the dog but I don't think I'll finish him until tomorrow night as the knotted stitch takes quite a while. After that, I'll move to the other dog and finish the wooden bar stools.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow