Mystery Solved, Skirt Stitched

Last night I redid the lower skirt of the Rabbit Geisha's kimono, using two plies of my Mandarin Floss # M912.  I like how it looks a lot.  Using just the bottom part of the Tony Minieri's Sally's Diamonds stitch looks great and is perfect in scale for this small area.  I hope to finish the skirt tonight and perhaps get more background stitching done but I doubt I'll get it all finished in one stitching session.  I hope you can see the stitch well.  I wanted you to get an overall look at the skirt in relationship to the rest of the canvas.  We often focus on the small part we are stitching currently and forget it has to look good with the rest of the canvas.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2009/aug.php

TheresaA tells me that what she calls "tick tack box" bead storage is available through Whim Beads.  She's right--here it is.  Sadly, it is not available right now as they wait for more to arrive from their supplier.  Apparently there are many folks copying this system so you can probably buy something similar like the link I found yesterday, but I think waiting for the original if you know it is good quality is worth it unless you are swimming in beads.  Thanks a lot, TheresaA!
http://whimbeads.com/cart.asp?pg=products&grp=75

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

No Photo, No Progress

Alas, last night was Rip It All Out night in Chilly Hollow. I tried doing my Half Tony stitch with one ply on the lower skirt of the Rabbit Geisha, didn't like it, ripped it out, looked at the two ply area I'd done and realized I'd made a mistake in the count and ripped all that out, too.

I've started the skirt again, trying my best with a laying tool to keep the two plies of Mandarin floss from twisting.  It eventually will look very nice but it is slow going.  Oh, well, there are always nights when I won't get much done.  I didn't even get any more of the blue background done, although I am eager to see how the background will change the face of the rabbit, so we'll just have to wait a bit longer to see progress.

Fortunately, this lack of progress isn't catching.  Ruth Schmuff has gotten a lot done on her purse canvas.  This is a class she's teaching at her shop, Beadecked and Beadazzled.  I like how the various elements are coming together.  It's not easy to do ribbon flowers and not have them overwhelm the leaves and stems and insects but she is doing this well.
http://www.tistheseason.org/blog/2009/09/zinnias.html

I've also come across what seems to be a great bead storage system.  You can see a nice photo here but there is no identification as to who makes this.  To be fair, the writer of this blog has been quite ill and I'm sure identification was the last thing on her mind.
http://worldembroideries.blogspot.com/2009/09/pretty-flowers.html

A little Googling has found something that might be the square bead tubes in boxes system.  Any beaders out there know?  Again, there is no manufacturer information or online purchase options.
http://www.bonitabead.biz/KnowledgeCntr/Details/SeedBeadStorage.html

Nothing like a good mystery to get Tuesday underway!

UPDATE:  Mystery solved?  The "master box #1150-09" about half way down the page with the smaller boxes listed underneath sure looks like this system, except for the lids.
http://www.craftamerica.com/storage_containers_page_3.htm

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

Dark Ears Versus Light Ears

The face is almost done on my Rabbit Geisha, but I looked at the above photo and decided the gray base of the ear on the right side was too dark.  I copied the shading painted on the canvas here but I think the gray is just too dark.  Fortunately, when you are using random long and short stitches, it is very easy to lighten or darken areas.  I threaded up my needle with white and added a bit on top of the gray to lighten the area.  This is what I ended up with.

I still need to finish the tip of the darker ear but I am undecided about whether to make that light gray or white.  I think I'll work some background around the geisha's face before I decide.  I think the blue background will make the fur colors look a bit different so I will wait to make up my mind.

By the way, I've used four plies of Splendor S884 to cover the nose of the geisha with long stitches.  I think I put in 6-7 of them right on top of the tent stitches that originally were the nose, and on top of each other until I got the smooth look I wanted.

So I spent the last part of my stitching session yesterday working on the lower skirt, using half of a Tony Minieri stitch.  The stitch itself is called Sally's Diamonds.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2009/aug.php

It is done in two steps but I altered the stitch into Half Tony by turning the chart for the bottom half of the stitch on its side, then sttiching that part without adding the second half on top.  It looks sort of floral when stitched and also has a long line with a rounded bulge look that resembles the tassels around the geisha's waist.  Here's the diagram for Sally's Diamonds for the bottom area from ANG's website, rotated so you can see how I am stitching this.

I am using two plies of Mandarin Floss #M912 which is a golden sand color.  Less of the paint shows than I expected, so I may try using just one ply and see how it looks.  I've not decided whether to add anything to the empty stops in the stitch or not yet.  Any stitch can be expanded/shrunk/turned/altered to suit you.  All it takes is a little imagination and some test stitching.

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

Message for Carla

Yesterday I got a nice note from Carla asking about the long and short stitch lessons that Mary Corbett is posting.  Carla tried to click on the link and got an error message and wanted help getting to the lessons.  I sent her an answer but because she uses AOL for her email, the message bounced.

I sent the message from two other email addresses and they both bounced.  So the only way to communicate with Carla is via Blog.  Sorry! AOL is notorious about blocking messages from anyone except another AOL user.  My emails probably didn't even make it to Carla's spam folder judging from the cryptic bounce messages.

Here's my reply to Carla.  Hope she can use this link but if you have trouble, try shortening the link to www.needlethread.com and see if you can find the Long and Short Stitch lesson link in the right hand column.

This is the main page link. Once you choose a long and short stitch lesson, there is a link to PDF files to download the instructions if you want to print them out.

http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/08/long-and-short-stitch-lessons-index.html

All the lessons aren't up yet (I think nine are planned) but this will tell you everything you need to know  and you can follow the lessons for the parts you are especially interested in.

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

Bunny Face

Last night was more of the same when it came to NP.  I added stitches to the Rabbit Geisha's face, filling in the area between the brow arch and the eye, working up towards the ears, and trying to get all of the first layer of the left side of the face in.  After I began to get tired, I switched to doing background.  I've not mentioned before the mechanics of doing background.  I'm using 4 plies of DMC cotton floss for the background split pavilion stitch.  DMC cotton floss has six plies, so once I use up an 18-20 inch length of four plies on the background, I use the remaining two plies doubled in my needle to work on more of the three rows of tent stitch that surround the outside of this piece.  Doing things this way means I am constantly adding to the background and the border of tent stitches so they are not all left at the end.  I'm sure there will be plenty of background to finish once the central figure is done, but I am trying to keep that to a minimum.

Tonight I'll probably mist the canvas with my plant mister so I can work the ears and perhaps some of the three rows of tent stitch around the perimeter just above the burn hole.  I'm getting close to the area where the hole was burned so I want to be careful.

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