A Bit More Background (and Tongue)

While everyone is thinking over their vote (or trying to make the poll work--lots of folks are having trouble but not to worry, just post a comment here or email your vote to me at chilly hollow at hot mail dotcom), I added the background stitch to the ornament.  I choose skip tent.  I wanted something rather plain in the end.  I did test all the background stitches you see on the right of the ornament first but kept coming back to the tent stitch family.  I wanted a stitch that would work with either the crowns --which can be stitched right on top--or the fading lines from the plaid, more of which can also be worked on top.  I also removed the thin silver line on the right side of the ornament which I never liked once I'd stitched it.

Right now it looks a bit tweedy.  I may fill the empty spots between each skip tent stitch seen above with a tent stitch in my red holographic Kreinik or perhaps with crystal beads.  (Or maybe I won't!)  The thread I used is Rainbow Gallery's Elegance, which is a silk perle thread around the size of #8 cotton perle.  The color is E822 which is a very pretty medium Christmas red that is slightly darker than the reds used in the plaid.

By the way, I stitched the lion's tongue a while ago and keep forgetting to nention it.  The darker red base is tent stitches in my red holographic Kreinik #8 braid, and the lighter top is stem stitch in the bright red Trio.  These are both threads used in the plaid area. In this instance I separated one of the three Trio bundles into half so I used one of the six strands you can separate this thread into.  Ordinarily I just use of of the main three bundles but this I made smaller.  There's not enough stitching to stress the thread enough to make it pull apart in the middle but I was pretty careful with my thread tension, just in case.  Trio is really not intended to be divided into 6 sections.

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

A Fork in the Road UPDATED

After I worked a bit on the background last night, I realized we've reached a fork in the road.  Let me explain.

I always intended to work some of the lines up into the plaid and have them fade away into a background of darning stitch patterns.  I planned to use a fleur de lis for the darning stitch as that is a prominent part of the Stuart royal court of arms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Stuart

But I never found or was able to create a small enough scale fleur de lis to fit into the background space.  I did find a lovely little crown pattern in SuZy Murphy's SuZy's Darn Stitches, which is a book full of darning stitches for borders or backgrounds.  In the photo above you see two crowns from page 101 done in the 1/16 inch Kreinik holographic ribbon.
http://www.threadneedlestreet.com/booksndptstitches.htm

The dilemma comes because I don't think I have enough space to work both fading lines and the crowns.  Do I rip out the lines that are in the empty background space and just fill it with crowns?  Do I rip out the crowns and just do a few more lines?  Or do I stop here and go with what I have stitched, just filling in the background with tent stitches around what is in the photo above?

I am having trouble deciding and I'd like input.  Therefore I am about to post a poll at the top of Blog for folks to vote on their favorite background. I'll wait a couple of days until I have another Stars block finished and we'll see what the poll result is before I take the right fork, turn left, or stay on my current road.

UPDATE:  To vote in the poll, you have to have a Blogger or Google account.  If you have neither, just post a comment below.  I'll count those in as part of the official poll vote.  Robin sent me a photoshopped photo showing an all crown background which I've added on the left.  This will help you decide.   THANKS, ROBIN!

While you debate, you might want to visit the new Pocket Full of Stitches blog.  The shop has transitioned to its new owners and is having a sale on current stock.  The day's sale is announced through the blog postings about the Designer of the Day.
http://pocketfullofstitches.blogspot.com/

You will want to visit the shop itself to see their announcement of the two new monthly clubs for the year:  Kelly Clark's Pears set and the Renaissance Designs' Halloweenies ornaments.  PFOS is famous for their monthly clubs and a favorite of many stitchers. I am really glad the original owners were able to find someone to take over the shop so that it continues after the retirement of its founders.
http://www.pfos.com/

Speaking of clubs and Halloween, I just stumbled across Needle Orts' Halloween ornament set.  These are different and fun for the holiday stitcher.  They are all on this page mixed in with the nutcracker club canvases.
http://www.needleorts.com/category_results.cfm?Category=16

I'll go set up a poll while you browse.  See you back here shortly!

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

Yeller

I decided I wanted something a bit different for the yellow stripe in the plaid half of this ornament, so I pulled out a tube of size 15 yellow hex beads (they are not labeled as to manufacturer but are slightly smaller than Mill Hill's Magnifica G11011 beads) and attached them in horizontal rows, using a doubled single ply of yellow DMC floss to attach them in an upright line.  Once I finished all the horizontal lines, I turned the canvas on its side and worked the vertical lines horizontally.  I thought that would work best and I am pleased with the outcome.  As with the royal blue stripe, one row of yellow is worked up into the pink background area by stitching a group of beads, then two single beads.

I need to finish the silver rows.  I haven't done the row just under the tail on the right and some of the silver lines will extent into the plain upper background so I have more work to do before I can say that the plaid is stitched.

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

April 2010 Chilly Hollow Newsletter Article

I am writing this the week before IRS Day, on a cold day with lots of sunshine. I think Spring has started to arrive in Chilly Hollow and I hope it is well underway wherever you are.

The About.com guide to needlepoint has posted a spring looking bamboo framework chart meant for an initial. She also has created an Asian looking alphabet to use in the center. These are neat!
Here is the bamboo framework,

http://needlepoint.about.com/od/patternsbytype/ss/BambooFrame.htm

and here is the alphabet.

http://needlepoint.about.com/od/patternsbytype/ss/AsianAlphabet.htm

Spring always makes me thing of Asian designs. If you are like me, Jane Zimmerman's newest cyber class for the Shining Needle Society is shown here. It's a pretty thing, isn't it?

http://www.janezimmerman.com/Site/CyberClasses.html

However, not everyone is a fan of Asian themes. Not to worry. Jane is about to publish a new stitch dictionary, all background stitches. This is not a huge book, so it's not expensive, but it will be useful.

http://www.janezimmerman.com/Site/Small_Books.html

In other book news, Linda Corirossi's books are coming back into print. I own her first book and use it often to find stitches.

http://ridgewoodneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2010/04/great-news-linda-coriossi-books.html

Finally, I've found mention of a place to get famous people NP canvases. If you've ever wanted to stitch Abraham Lincoln, this is the place!

http://needlepointofview.com/2010/04/14/presidential-needlepoint/

Have a great spring, everyone!
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Jagged Silver

Yesterday was hectic so I only finished the silver lines in the plaid, couching a doubled line of #8 braid with a 1/16 inch length of the same Kreinik holographic silver.  It is harder than you would think because the metallic threads catch other loose threads that are on the back and bring them forward, even if you think you had them secure.  It also is hard to keep the 1/16 inch ribbon smooth as you work.  I can see in the photo that there are 1-2 places where the thread twisted that I didn't notice.  I'll fix that before continuing the silver lines up into the background.

Pat asked the in the Comments yesterday what I planned to do with the background.  Wait and see....

Jane, teasing here in CH

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