More Faces and a Collar

I added a bit more blonde hair to the larger mermaid last night and smoothed out the zigzag lines on her face with a ply of my darkest skin color. I need to do a little more with the hair to cover her face more but ran out of time last night as I got distracted by the sailor.

I stitched his large collar in #5 white DMC perle cotton and the white areas of his hat ribbon in #8 DMC perle cotton. Red bits will go on top of the ribbon but I will need to finish his hair first before I do the ribbon and hat. I also did the blue highlights on the sailor's back with Thread Gatherer's Silk N Colours silk floss in the overdyed blue Delphinium. I'll see tonight if which size of the perle cotton looks better on the back of the sailor. My thought was I'd use the fatter #5 perle to make the collar stand out a bit against a back done in the smaller #8 perle cotton. We'll see if what I think will work actually does!

In case you didn't read yesterday's comments, Ginger recommended I try split stitch for a face next time I have one to stitch. She says many church embroideries use it and that it looks great. I know this, as I've long been an admirer of the ecclesiastical embroideries that Mary Corbet posts photos of on her website. Why I didn't think of using split stitch for a face I don't know! It's not like I am unused to using it. I've just never thought to do it when I had faces to stitch.

Thanks, Ginger. I appreciate the tip. For anyone who hasn't seen these English-style church embroideries, here is a taste.

http://www.needlenthread.com/2007/04/crucifixion-chasuble-historical.html

http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/05/readers-embroidery-icon.html

Amazing!

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

Zigzag Skin

As you can see, I have been busy. The mermaid tails have their beads (fewer on the background mermaid as she is further away and smaller, so needs to be less prominent), the small background, dog has his outlining and mouth, and I've started the hair of the bleached blonde mermaid in the center of the canvas.

I didn't finish last night--she needs longer hair in back--but I stopped where I did and left a thread hanging to point out the zigzag look of the blonde's face where it meets the bar. I didn't notice this until it was pointed out to me, probably because I was obsessing with the zigzag look of the arm of the mermaid in the background.

I fixed the smaller mermaid's arm by just doing a small \ with only 2 plies of silk (I used 4 plies for the arm stitches in the beginning) on top of the dark background tent stitches that looked like they needed smoothing out. Usually that is enough to at least convey the illusion of a smooth arm. Sometimes you can add one more tent stitch in the zigzag but that didn't seem to work in this case as the arm is too small. Another tent stitch made it too fat for the rest of the figure. UPDATE: If you want to compare the zigzag arm on the little mermaid now to my earlier attempt, look at the image in the August 9th Preparing for the Hairdresser entry below.

The larger mermaid's face also has this problem but I'm going to see if I can fix it another way. I'm going to put strands of blonde hair (this is Vineyard Silk, remember?) along her face. That's why the strand of "blonde" Vineyard Silk is hanging beside her face. That's my starting point. Well, it might be the finishing point. I'm not sure yet. I just pulled the thread through to show you the area I was speaking about. Some folks are really bothered by the zigzag effect on faces but there are several ways to adjust tent stitches to minimize the effect. You can't always get rid of it completely (like the mermaid arm, which is not completely smooth) but you can make it a lot less noticable.

We'll see tonight how it looks.

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

Jane Has Gone Stitching

I've Gone Stitching. While I'm working this week I've been listing to this New Jersey shop's Internet radio program. It comes out each Monday and there are six episodes to date. I'm listening to the interview with Julia of Julia's Needleworks right now. What fun!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gone-stitching

I'm also over at Marianne's blog, "Needlepoint in the 21st Century," collaborating with her on a cute 4x6 piece of what may be the Loch Ness monster. It is going to be fun, even if Marianne is already referring to me as Groucho....
http://needlepoint.storeblogs.com/2009/08/10/where-i-crow-a-bit

Not to worry. With the Internet I can be all these places and still home at night working on Cape Cod Dogs!

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

The Face That Launched A Thousand Headaches

The littlest mermaid has a face and curly red hair now. The face gave me fits. I stitched all the skin first, thinking I would then add the features but nothing worked. So I ripped it all out and restitched in my darker skin tone color since I was out of the medium shade, but I didn't stitch over the painted eyes and mouth and nose. The dark face looked odd but after I added the straight stitch of a nose (one ply), the green eyes (some of the mermaid tail dark forest green) and a little red mouth, then outlined the chin with brown and added eyebrows, she looked better. I took one ply of my lightest skin color and overstitched the dark brown tent stitches of her face and she suddenly looked better. Give her hair in French knots using the red boucle, add a few straight stitches in the boucle to give her longer hair on her shoulders and there she is! Sorry about the long green thread. I didn't realize that had fallen on the scanner but I don't have time to correct this or I won't get this article written!

As you can see, I've been working on the little dog's face (he has brown eyes and a brown nose now) and the larger mermaid's tail. After completing the first pass of the Helen's Lace stitch (where I omitted stitching the central stitch in each horizontal or vertical set of stitches) I went back and added it in another thread - the sparkly green/gold/black Glamour #2500 by Madeira. This is a sewing machine thread which is a soft metallic made from six plies twisted together. The ends come untwisted in the needle's eye but you just leave an extra length of tail in the needle's eye and cut off the unraveled bit when you tie off this thread on the back.

After that, I have started stitching over the areas where each diagonal row of stitches meet with my dark green Petite Treasure Braid #PB53 and attaching a blue/green Magnifica bead (Mill Hill bead #10079) over where the Madeira thread stitches meet with the same thread. Do you think it is too sparkly? In person it livens up the piece which Margaret said was getting too dark, not realizing that the entire design is dark. I have carefully matched the colors of the painted canvas to my threads, so I am stitching this as painted. It is the inside of a bar, after all. The only bright spot is the window and the liquor bottles behind the bar which are in the sunshine of the window.

I hope to finish both mermaid tails tonight. After that I need to do the tarty blonde's hair.

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

History Through Needlepoint (with Skulls)

Needlepoint is one of many historical embroidery styles. It happens to be **my** favorite but there are many more. Those who would like a history vacation centered on embroidery will want to "express interest" in the tour of English embroidered jackets and costumes that the Plimoth Plantation reproduction jacket folks are setting up.

http://thistle-threads.com.mytempweb.com/blog/index.php/2009/08/announcing-a-jacket-study-tour-of-england/ 

 History buffs may enjoy browsing this site that specializes in Arts & Crafts style embroidery. (Please click on Framed Needleart to see some wonderful finished examples for sale.) If William Morris' embroidery is a favorite of yours and you've never looked at Beth Russell's needlepoint kits, click on the second link and enjoy. These kits are first rate, although the designs are either stamped or silk screened on canvas. 

http://paint-by-threads.com/shop/ http://www.bethrussellneedlepoint.com/

If you are more into the curvy Art Nouveau style (related to the styles above) how about this? I choose Water Lilies from here to illustrate this blog entry. 

http://www.art-stitch.com/bourgaize/cat-ff808081172580e501172f3401f42990.html

If you enjoy exploring your favorite historical period through needlepoint painted canvases, check out some of these designs-- Elizabeth I (I think the designer is Designing Women) http://www.needlepoint.org/WhatIs/1998/Bodien.php 

If you want to stitch like Mary, Queen of Scots, this company reproduces some of her known pieces for needlepoint. 

http://www.sewexciting.com/?page=shop/view&category_id=47d7abf64882d498ca0aa53c50b664ab

Melissa Shirley has all sorts of fun canvases of women from history, ranging from Marie Antionette to Betsy Ross and even Calamity Jane. http://melissashirleydesigns.com/gallery/?cat=64 

here are more realistic portraits available. Here is Tapestry Tent's Henry VIII- http://elainemagninneedlepoint.stores.yahoo.net/kinghenryviii.html

How about a stylized King Arthur? 

http://elainemagninneedlepoint.stores.yahoo.net/nust.html 

Is Egyptian history fun for you? 

http://elainemagninneedlepoint.stores.yahoo.net/phardynkin.html http://www.leighdesigns.com/Grp822x.html http://www.theneedleworks.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21_100&products_id=231 http://www.amybunger.com/catalog/item/6278007/6754081.htm

I promised skulls, so here they are--A Dragon's Tale has their new Halloween designs on their blog and there is a skull and crossbones canvas for those into pirates (that's historical, right?) Plus they are having a sale! You can't order directly but you can ask your local shop to get the catalogue so you can browse and place an order through them. http://adragonstaleneedlepoint.blogspot.com/search/label/Whats%20New%3A%20Halloween

And by coincidence Judy Harper has posted some new Halloween outlines to copy and use and there is a skull and crossbones pattern there. If your kids are driving you nuts in these last weeks before school starts, maybe one of them would like to stitch this.... 

http://needle-crafts.blogspot.com/2009/08/halloween-time-motifs-for-projects-in.html

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! (or at least a martini) http://www.amybunger.com/catalog/item/6297823/6259691.htm

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