Golden Sleeves

The Rabbit Geisha's sleeves were a puzzle to me when I first looked at them.  Are those fan shapes on the sleeves?  Can I do long stitches covered by couched gold lines?  What will make the sleeves harmonious with the rest of her outfit but not blend into the background?

I finally decided that the gold lines on the sleeves need to be tent stitched.  Couching and long laid stitches just seem to be too heavy a look for the sleeves when the body of the clothing is light coverage stitches.  In the photo you see that I've managed to get all the gold lines tent stitched (using Kreinik's braid #12 in Gold 02) on the sleeves and have also stitched the gold line around the hem of the tunic and the outlines around the sleeves.  It took me several nights to get it all done but now I am ready to tackle the problem of what to put inside the blue sleeve areas.  For the answer, you'll have to wait.  I want to do another few rows of background near both sleeves so it is easy to tell how what I choose for the inside of those gold lines will look with the background as the two areas are very close in color.

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

Canvas of the Day: Hula Cat

Today's canvas of the day is a Hawaiian cat from Patt and Lee Designs dancing the hula. This tickles me since none of the cats I'm familiar with would be caught dead in that getup. And they do NOT dance. LOL
http://www.busyneedle.com/Whatsnew/newnc2009Oct.htm

This canvas is 14 count but I think you can also buy it on 16 or 18 count canvas via the designer's website.
http://www.pattandleedesigns.com/cat_inspired_designs

This canvas comes with a stitch guide but that's not going to stop me from coming up with more ideas for her!  The first thing I'd do (after making a color copy of the unstitched canvas which I will use to place stitches on areas stitched over and then will destroy) is pick nice fuzzy black, white and gray threads for the fur and stitch the entire cat except for the pink inner ears, the eyes, the nose and the pink open mouth in tent stitches.  This includes the gray lines dividing areas of the body.  Once you are done, take a brush of some sort and brush-brush-brush the stitches to give the cat fur.  You'll want to do the fur first and then brush it before doing anything else as you wouldn't want to accidentally brush the eyes or other non-fuzzy parts.

Now go back and stitch the inner ears in silk perle (Trebizond, perhaps?), the green and black eyes in something with a bit of shine (maybe Flair? with a white stitch for the accent in a metallic thread), and the pink nose and inner mouth in pinks using something like Very Velvet that will give a velvety look.  All are in tent stitch, you understand.

Now using your white fur thread, stem stitch the whiskers on top of the black face fur.  Use your color copy to see exactly where to put them.

Now it is time to stitch the bra.  I think the bra is the perfect place for Burden Stitch.  Choose a green thread for the main vetical stitches and either a matching or contrasting metallic for the horizontal threads.  Feel free to change the color of the bra from green if you like as Burden Stitch will completely cover the canvas.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2004/jan.php

I suggest you consider Thread Gatherer's Sea Grass for the cat's grass skirt.  This thread looks like dried reeds for baskets.  I think it would look great here.  Mix several shades of greens and browns in stem stitch for the grass skirt.  The bottom rows could be attached on the back and come up and go back down in a big loop that could be secured on the back and then cut to give the skirt loose ends at the bottom.  Don't worry about matching the threads to the painted colors exactly.  They'll cover the background and it won't matter if you put brown where green is painted.
http://www.threadgatherer.com/sea%20grass%20page.htm

I think I'd run wild with silk ribbon embroidery flowers for her lei and do a large ribbon flower over her ear, but you could just do the silk ribbon flower for her hair and try turkeywork for the lei.  If turkeywork appeals to you, work it after all the other parts of the canvas are stitched and trim it slowly with your sharpest scissors.  It'll make a mess but you can cover the non-turkeywork parts of the design with paper to keep the mess from landing on them.  Here's an easy version of turkeywork from Kathy Fenchel.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2006/aug.php

Choose colors that coordinate with your bra and the flower behind one ear for the lei whether you are doing silk ribbon embroidery or turkeywork.  There are a lot of styles of flowers you can do with silk ribbon embroidery but I would try to do small orchids I think since this is Hawaii and the leis there are often made of small, fragrant orchids.

Now the background.  I would find a stitch that looks like a flower and do a wavy line in the background that runs roughly from the upper right toward the lower left so that the cat appears to have flowers following her swaying.  Do the flowers in a thread matching the background color.  Here is Brenda Hart's Medallions stitch.  Don't do this in rows, just scatter a few of the floral motifs in the background.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2007/sep.php

If leaving the rest of the background blank bothers you, consider using David McCaskill's water stitch.  If you use a metallic as one of the threads and work this stitch up to 2-3 threads of the background flower motifs, it will seem like blue ocean, which is something all of us would like to dance in front of on a summer's day.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2003/mar.php

This is a charming canvas and something that will put a lot of summer smiles into your fall and winter stitching.

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

BREAKING NEWS: Society of Soie Surfine

And in the spirit of my last post, here is the announcement for the Society of Soie Surfine, which is a group of shops selling hand dyed Gloriana very fine silk perle thread and linens for extra small over one designs.  I know a lot of us are enthralled with counted thread and sampler designs.  Hopefully some of you will be interested.

http://needlestack.typepad.com/whats_new/2009/09/announcing-the-society-of-soie-surfine.html

The Society has a blog, also, which is full of lovely photos of the threads they are dyeing.

http://societyofsoiesurfine.blogspot.com/

As a lover of fine count NP canvas and silk gauze, not to mention silk threads, I wish the Society great success!

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

Needlepointers' World

I've been thinking recently about Blog's visitors and the huge variety of personalities and styles there are in the world of needlepointers.  You all know me--I am into painted canvases and like realistic designs, wonderful shading, and designs with Asian themes.  I am a threadaholic, and there's nothing I like better than using a huge variety of thread brands on my embellished painted canvases in as many stitches as I can dream up.

Folks like me are a small subset of Needlepointers' World, though.

I expect the vast majority of us like to do projects in all tent stitches and only occasionally use a thread other than wool.  Some of us have been stitching since we were children; some of us started yesterday.  A great many of us love charts and counted thread.  Some of us are into miniature stitching and over one on linen.  Some of us adore silk gauze, some of us stitch only rugs.  Some of us refuse to use stretcher bars and some of us hate roller bars.  Some of us only stitch in hand, some of us only stitch on painted canvases.  Some of us have one designer whose canvases or booklets we obsessively collect and stitch.  Some of us will stitch anything, at least once.  Some of us are stitching for posterity or at least our grandkids.  Some of us never think of the future.  Some of us buy old NP pieces at yard sales and refurbish them into fantastic pillows and upholstered chairs and footstools.  Some of us only want the most modern looking designs, some of us prefer the Victorian Berlin wool work look to our stitching.  Some of us love the English kits and pillows, some of us want only framed NP or pieces we can wear.

When you visit Blog, you get me and my own personal style.  But don't think I don't realize there is a whole world of needlepointers Out There who are different than me.  I know you are there and I try to take your tastes and styles into consideration and try to mention things I know are more to your taste than mine.  After all, we all use needles and thread and NP canvas to stitch our dreams.

Our dreams vary, that's all.

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

Tips for Better Backgrounds

I really should have titled this tips for better horizontal stitches but that doesn't sound as good, doesn't it?  Just remember that the tips below aren't just for background stitches, ok?

The photo on the left shows the split pavilion background stitches on each side of the Rabbit Geisha canvas and the basting thread I used to make sure that the two sides line up properly.

The best way to do a background stitch is to work from the middle out to each side so that you know the sides match up, but most painted canvases have things painted in the middle that make this impossible.  So I worked the background on the right side, then did a full row on the left and used basting to make sure that the two sides lined up.  You can also just drag your needle across a ditch to see if things match but I have trouble doing that so I baste a thread.

You'll notice that I turned the canvas on its side for the picture.  This is because when I am doing a fancy stitch made up of long straight horizontal stitches, I like to work these stitches vertically.  Turning the canvas on its side allows me to stitch vertically, which I think makes for smoother stitches.

I also use a laying tool for long straight stitches, whether they are horizontal or vertical.  Long lengths of thread will twist as you stitch them and a laying tool will deal with this tendency.  You'll end up with a smoother look to your background.

Here's a close up of the image above.  In it you can see the three rows of tent stitch that surround the perimeter.  See how I am working my current row one thread outside the blue paint of the background?  Always extend the background if necessary to make your stitch look good.  I could have compensated the background and shortened the split pavilion but it looks better if you don't.

My needle is stuck in the canvas so you can see that I like to work the stitches from the bottom of the row toward the top.  (Or from closer to me to further from me, however you want to think of it.)  Susan Portra says this ensures a smoother stitch.  She also advocates taking a pin stitch occasionally underneath a light coverage stitch to keep the threads snug.

I've noticed that if I tie a knot in the end of a new length of thread and start stitching, the first stitch will often be loose.  I have been careful to run my knotted length of thread under a few stitches on the back before stitching to keep the first stitch taut.

Once I finish the row I'm working in the close up photo, I will turn my canvas the other way so that I can do the other half of the split pavilion with my needle coming up in an empty hole and going down in a full hole.  This is often called the clean/dirty hole rule.  The general principal is to bring the needle up in a hole that hasn't been stitched into if possible and when you have a hole with a thread in it already, go down into that hole with your thread.  If you go down into a hole that has thread in it already (a "dirty" hole) you have less chance of disturbing the thread already in the hole.  Make sense?  Anyone who has stitched a metallic thread into a hole already stitched with silk who disturbed the silk threads will know why this is an important rule to follow whenever possible.

I hope these tips help you with your stitching.

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