Canvas of the Day: Snow Faerie

Today's Canvas of the Day is a Christmas ornament by Sandra Gilmore called Snow Faerie.  As you can see, this is a stitch painted piece that would be very easy to do in all tent stitches and you could use specialty threads for her very nicely.  So that's what I am going to recommend in my stitch ideas--all tent stitches!
http://store.apneedlearts.com/snowfaerie.html

I would do her face first in all silks, choosing a medium blue for her eyes and a deep red for her lips very carefully to match the canvas.  If you choose a floss type thread instead of a perle type, try using just four plies and make the stitches (either half cross, continental or basketweave) as smooth and even as you can.  Stitch her golden curls and the dark navy shadows after the face is done.  I recommend a beautiful silk/wool blend for the hair and shadows.  Those threads will contrast with the silk in the skin, eyes and lips yet give you a subtle shine.  I would use the same brand of thread for the little bit of blue background visible on the left side.

The rest of the canvas is either snowflakes or the girl's white hood.  Pick whatever soft and fuzzy wool that is available to you for the white hood.  I would use Cashmere myself.  The snowflakes should be pastel metallics.  I think that Silk Lame Braid would look nice if you can match the color but personally I would use Petite Treasure Braid for a slightly more metallic bling.  If you can't get either thread, browse the Kreinik line of metallics for a color match.

Once the entire piece is stitched, take a soft brush (a new toothbrush will do) and very carefully brush the white hood to make things a bit fuzzier.  Be very careful not to brush any other areas of the canvas, however!  The thread should plump up nicely. Don't worry if it covers the snowflakes or her face a bit.  You can always trim a bit of the fuzz with your scissors.

This canvas comes with a stitch guide and finishing ideas.  You are always free to follow what the professional says instead....

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

Managing Transitions Part Three

The last thing I want to mention in this discussion on handling the transition between two very different stitches on a painted canvas is compensation.  Both Pat and I thought that I'd not stitched the compensating stitches just under the Rabbit Geisha's nose as we were going by the photograph.  In Real Life, the stitches are there, just very very small because of the compensation.  I solved this issue by overstitched the tiny compensatory stitch but I could have just made the regular stitch a tad longer.  I generally don't extend a stitch to cover one more thread as I find it breaks up the rhythm of the stitch and looks odd.  However, you may find extending a stitch a bit does work for you.

Compensation is a tough topic and a problem for many stitchers.  I almost always try to start a new stitch I'm unfamiliar with at the widest point on a canvas so that I have plenty of practice doing it before I get to the edge of the stitch area and have to compensate.

Tony Minieri wrote an article about compensation that was published in four parts in Needle Pointers magazine in the mid-1990s.  ANG has put this on their website and you can read it in the link below.  I would urge anyone who has trouble compensating to read it.  Tony breaks stitches down into various types (straight, diagonal, etc.) and then explains for each type how to compensate it on a diagonal, straight line, oblique line or curved line.  It's helpful information and once you understand the stitch you are working with, will tell you exactly how to compensate it to the best effect.
http://www.needlepoint.org/Archives.php

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

Managing Transitions Part Two

Because I've been thinking so much lately about managing transitions between various stitches on the Rabbit Geisha, I pulled out photographs of a project I stitched several years ago that had the same transitional issues but for a different reason.

The image above is my version of Shorebird Designs' small peacock M274.  This is a 5x7 design on 18 count canvas.  You can find it on Katie Molineaux's website by using the Katie's Search function on the left side of the page.  By the way, I urge you to look at the Stitched By Customers' Section. Amazing stitching there!
http://shorebirdstudio.com/

The reason I'm using this design to talk about transitions is that it was all done in light coverage stitches.  The background and leaves are one ply of silk.  I stitched those first and then was faced with the issue of choosing stitches for the bird that didn't look too heavy next to the almost not there background.

Here is a close-up of the design to help you understand what I did.  First, I decided to use plyable threads so I could cut down on bulk when I stitched the bird.  The tent stitches on the bird's face are two plies of either silk or overdyed cotton flosses.  The tiny bullions on the top of his head were done with one ply of overdyed or solid colored silks.  The French knots on the peacock's topknot were all in two plies.  I think I mixed in the thin metallic thread Accentuate occasionally here to add a bit of shine.  The upright brick stitches on the body were all carefully laid silks using two plies, with one strand of Accentuate laid on top in places to add sparkle.

Overall, reducing the number of plies on this piece worked well to integrate the bird with its background.  Of course this piece used either slanting or straight stitches, which made the blending of background and image easier.  I would have had more trouble is this piece included compound stitches made up of many layers like the fancy stitches on the Rabbit Geisha's kimono top.

I hope this gives you some strategies for managing the transitions between the foreground and background stitches on your painted canvases. I'd love to hear other strategies folks use in the Comments!  I am certain I don't know all the ways to get around this problem.

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

Managing Transitions

While stitching the endless background on the Rabbit Geisha, I've been thinking about managing transitions. Sounds like a management phrase, doesn't it?  "Managing transitions...."

What I mean by this is how to make the background meet the central figure in such a way as it all looks good.  The first hint that this is important on this canvas came when the background stitch between the Rabbit Geisha's ears looked odd.  Above is how I managed this area by turning the odd space between the ears into all tent stitches in the background thread.  If you look carefully at the left side of her neck, you will see a few tent stitches there, too.
You'll also see a few unstitched areas on the right beside her nose.  I'm still thinking over what to do there.  I'll probably stitch longer horizontal stitches right over the shorter ones.

There are other transitional areas on this canvas.  In the photo above, there is a small space between two pink ribbons just under the sleeve, a larger space between the ribbons and the side of her robe, and another space between the pink ribbons a bit further toward the bottom of the canvas.  In these areas I was able to compensate my split pavilion stitches and they looked good.  I am not sure why compensation here looks fine and between the rabbit ears doesn't, but it may be because the space between the ears is angled, not a straight vertical area.

It is more difficult to pick out, but there are transitional spaces all along the bottom of the hem where the navy tent stitches meet the background stitches.  There is actually a channel left blank between the split pavilion stitches in the background and the navy tent stitch outline of the hem but you can't see it well.  In these cases you have to experiment to see whether to leave an unstitched area.  Look at the pavilion stitch between the two tassels.  In that one area I put a stitch in the blank space.  See how crowded it looks and how it bleeds over into the navy tent stitch?  I will pull this out before I go any further but I wanted you to see the difference between leaving an empty space and filling it.

So what do you do in these areas to make the place where the background meets other stitches look good? There are always ways around the problem and the Rabbit Geisha shows several:  compensate, leave a blank space, use tent stitches instead.  I recommend you just try out a variety of strategies and rip out the ones that don't work.

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

Planning Tassels and Ribbons

I've completed more of the split pavilion background of the Rabbit Geisha and started the tassels and the ribbons, although they are not that far along yet.  I decided to make the dark green tassels dark navy instead of green, using the same navy Caron Snow metallic and Splendor silk that were used on the obi and the inner sleeve trim.  I also have started tent stitching the gold edging on the pink ribbon using #12 Kreinik braid in 002 gold.  I ran out of the #12 braid so I thought I'd double up my #4 braid in 002 and see if that will substitute for the #12.  I was uncertain whether stitching the gold edging on the pink ribbon first was a good idea, so I'll probably try the inside of the pink ribbon on both the ribbons that have the edging stitched and those that don't to see which way seems to work best.  It can be difficult to stitch into holes that already have metallic thread in them and it can also be difficult to stitch with metallic thread into holes with another type of thread already there, so we'll see what seems to work here.

I want to get more background done if possible tonight so I may not have a report on the pink ribbon and the navy tassel for another day.

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