Rushing Around Before More Snow

Today's going to be hectic as another foot of snow is expected here starting tomorrow morning, but I did want to let you guys know I did not finish the leaping deer background behind the SharonG camo bra. In the photo above you can see I fixed the deer legs that were too long, added some of my dwindling skein of Medici to the right hand column of deer, and worked my way up almost to the top of the canvas with t-stitches.  Judging from last night's progress, I will finish the background tonight.  I have about 20 rows to go to reach the top.   I can't wait!  I am dying to see how the beads look with the background.

The image above is not color adjusted.  Lots of you thought the background is too dark for the canvas so I omitted my usual step of enhancing the colors to make details more visible.  This photo maps to the actual colors better.  You probably thought the whole thing was darker than it actually is because I was artificially darkening the photo.

You may still think the background too dark (or too crowded or too something else) but that's ok.  There is no one "right" way to stitch a canvas.  It's all a matter of personal taste and my tastes could differ a lot from yours.  Suit yourself when you stitch.  You'll be happier with the end result if you express yourself, not someone else's ideas.

Now for the News portion of this blog entry.  Remember I mentioned yesterday that Anna-Marie Winter plans to add an article about doing photo transfers to her website? It's there now and is a fabulous guide to trying this technique.  Click on Transfer Printing on Canvas and enjoy!
http://www.annamariewinter.com/tips.htm

I've also discovered that Rainbow Gallery is now selling their Petite Treasure Braid ("petite" is the right size for 18 count canvas) in a set of silver and gold shades.  I love this stuff!  I hope my LNS gets some of these color sets in. It's a lot cheaper to buy a color selection than one card of each of six colors when you don't use very much of any one metallic on your stitching.
http://www.theneedleworks.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=4814

Finally, Robin has located more Medici for me if I need it for the leaping deer background for the tap pants, but I probably will mix what I have left of my skein with my Burmilana.  I am enamored of the idea of having to camouflage the fact that I'm running out of a color on the backgrounds of the SharonG camouflage bra and tap pants set.

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

By the way....

...I pulled out the deer legs that were too long last night and restitched them to the proper length.  (Many thanks to the folks who pointed this out.  Otherwise I never would have seen it.)  Then I continued working my t-stitch background around the deer and the bra and coat hanger.  I have about 2/3 of it finished.  Given the view out my window this morning, I'm likely to have some stitching time today and I hope I finish the background.  I'm eager to put beads on the bra so we can see how dominant the background really will be.

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

New Website, New Cyberclass, New Book, New Goodies

Bargello lovers are cheering Liz Morrow's new website.  It has just opened with three of her incredible patterns available for sale and with a free pattern, too.  I greatly admire Liz's designs and loved her series about four way bargello in Needlepoint Now last year.  It actually made this complicated bargello technique comprehensible to me!  Congratulations, Liz.  I can't wait to see more patterns available on your site.  Oh, the design above is her Happy New Year.
http://www.lizartneedlepoint.com/

Bedecked and Beaddazzled has just announced a cyberclass with Anna-Marie Winter starting this June.  Mark your calendars!  If you haven't visited Anna-Marie's website, particularly the tips and tricks page, go to the second link below.  She's planning to add an article about hot transfer of photos to needlepoint canvas shortly.  Personally I can't wait!
http://www.bedeckedandbeadazzled.com/cyberClasses.php?cid=89&name=Cyberclasses

http://www.annamariewinter.com/tips.htm

Are you a book fiend who has to have all the stitch dictionaries available?  Then you'll be thrilled to hear that Summer Louise Truswell has a new book out just for you!  It's called The Stitch Starts Here.  It's a collection of her favorite stitches for canvaswork, for samplers and for embroidery with a few stitching tips thrown in.  I haven't seen the book myself but I loved Summer's earlier book about finishing and I suspect this will be wonderful as well.  The book is available for your Kindle, as a download and in hard copy.  Details here.
http://www.summerlouise.com/2010/01/new-book-stitch-starts-here.html

I also have collected reports by various shops of goodies they are receiving from the TNNA show.  Amy Bunger's shop has the new Sundance Bead Explosion kit that is an introduction project to various beads and beading techniques.
http://www.amybunger.com/catalog/item/6331829/7674100.htm

Nimble Needle has new threads in stock.
http://thenimbleneedle.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-threads-for-2010.html

The Point of It All is beginning to receive their painted canvas orders and posted photos of a few on their blog.
http://blog.thepointofitallonline.com/2010/01/new-canvases-galore.html

Ridgewood Needlepoint has thread zappers in stock.  They have one in the shop to play with in case you live close by and have an irresistible urge to go zap some Flair.
http://ridgewoodneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2010/01/thread-zap-tool.html

Aren't we lucky to be living in the 21st Century when there are so many wonderful things to buy to help our stitching?!

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

Blog Note on Photos

Before I forget, I need to mention that the new format for Blog doesn't have as wide a margin as the old format I was using until I accidentally pushed the wrong button and deleted it.  (Yes, I have a backup for that format but I decided to change it a bit.)  This means that photos which were fully visible in the old format may not be in the new.  Any photo that heads an article has a border around it.  If I uploaded a larger photo than will fit the new format, the right edge's border will be missing.  Click on that photo and you'll see the larger image.

Actually, clicking on any photo should reveal a larger size unless I deliberately made the largest size visible.  Hope this doesn't disconcert anyone!

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

What Is Wrong With This Background Part Two

I really appreciated all the input I received in the Comments when I asked Blog readers to try and find the problem with the background of the bra canvas.  You guys found a problem I didn't know about--I never realized that some of the deer have longer front legs than others!  (I'll fix that tonight before I continue the t-stitches around the deer.)  For folks with dyslexia, the deer legs all look alike until someone points this out.  I'm grateful for your sharp eyes.  I suspect I made the mistake on one deer and didn't catch it, then looked at the long-legged deer and copied his stitching on his neighbors.  The moral is to do your counting from your chart, not from the motifs you've already done.

However, this isn't the problem I know I have and I am quite pleased you didn't see it.  The end vertical column of deer on the right hand side is stitched with a different thread and a slightly different color than all the other columns of deer.

The bulk of the leaping deer are stitched in Medici color #8505 which is tan.  I had a full skein of this and thought it should be enough for the deer.  I think it would have been except that I decided to use cross stitch instead of half cross stitch.  Somehow the fact that I was going to use twice the amount of thread than I originally planned didn't register in what I laughingly refer to as my brain!

So I rummaged around in the stash and found a similar tan in Burmilana #3744. It is slightly more yellowish in hue but a good match.  I did the right hand column deer in it using tent stitches instead of cross stitch except for the top partial deer which is in cross stitch with the top \ stitch done in my Medici to camouflage the fact that I am using a different color.  The bottom / stitch is in my Burmilana.

You may be able to see the color difference in the third deer from the top in that right hand column.  Working from the bottom up, I added the top \ stitch in Medici but the top half of the deer is just Burmilana in underlying / tent stitches.

Of course I could have posted an SOS here and on the ANG email list and someone would have scrounged up a skein of Medici 8505 for me, but there are other ways of coping when you run out of thread, especially when you are using cross stitches.  It seemed a good idea to go another route here in case you find yourself in the same fix in the future.

When I get to the tap pants' background, I'll probably stitch all the deer in tent stitches and then randomly top some of those / stitches with Medici or with Burmilana.  That will hide the thread change even more.

Since no one spotted the color differences and I can barely tell myself even knowing where to look, this workaround will do well.

Besides, isn't it fun to know that a canvas with a camouflage theme has camouflaged thread in the background?  LOL

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