Remember the Cape Cod Dogs?

While finishing up the Nordic Snowman, I also have been busy attaching this Elizabeth Mumford reproduction canvas to the front of a  corduroy bag I picked up at Target on sale last summer.  Remember Cape Cod Dogs?

My husband likes it so much that he wants me to stitch one for the granddaughter's birthday.  Which is in less than a month!!!!!

Eeeeeekkkkkkkkkkk!

Here is the finished canvas before it was whipstitched into position.  You can re-read my stitching adventure with this piece, complete with swearing at the dog's ear, by using the search box at the top left. Just enter "Cape Cod Dogs" or "Elizabeth Mumford" and my blog entries about this should come right up, last on top.

The silver starfish are from the local crafts emporium's jewelry-making section.  I must have spent $16-17 on the purse and the starfish charms but it does look like a million bucks.

I splurged yesterday on a $12 canvas purse for the granddaughter and instead of working on Stars, I will start stitching a small canvas from my stash to attach to it.  Details tomorrow.

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

The Nordic Snowman Is Done

The Nordic Snowman is done!  Hurrah!  My next step will be to assemble him into a stocking.  Stockings are not difficult although turning small stockings right side out (they are often assembled with the wrong side facing out) can be painful.  I have some nice red velvet for the back side and some pretty blue silk moire for the lining.  I'll pick up trim today as all the trim I have is a bit too fat for this small stocking.

When I finish a piece, I always thinks about what I learned, what went particularly well and what I wish I'd done better.  I certainly learned about how to mix various white threads in a piece in this one!  I also was very careful about the threads on the back side since I didn't want any of the ends on the back side causing shadows behind the white areas.  I stitched most of the whites first and was careful to not put starting knots or weave ending threads in bright colors too close to white areas.  This seems to have worked out well.  I am particularly happy with the fur trim on his stocking although I don't like the fur ball at the base of his stocking as well.  It is a little too prominent.  Next time I might try using a thinner thread than Faux Fur for French knots fur.  I also am very happy with the red bow around the stocking.  There I mixed Kreinik's red holographic thread with a regular dark red Kreinik metallic for shading and it looks very nice.  The new Kreinik holographic thread is very shiny and in the right place, it looks terrific.  It also holds up well with other metallic threads so you can use it for jewels in a gold crown and not have the jewels be overwhelmed by the gold setting.  Holographic Fyreworks from Rainbow Gallery is a similar thread but it only comes in one width so I would choose Kreinik holographic when I could, just because it has the flexibility of a stitcher being able to choose thread sizes.

Hope you have enjoyed watching the Nordic snowman evolve.  After I tackle finishing the stocking and doing some other finishing that I've let pile up, I'll be back working on the next quilt block in Stars for a New Millennium.

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

Bada Bling (or The Sopranos' Needlepoint Magnets)

Yesterday I was surprised by a set of magnets a friend sent me.  I knew they were coming but not what they looked like.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the magnets were half inch rhinestones!  They are called Bada Bling and are available from Dreamhouse Ventuers. Sadly, they aren't on their website.
http://www.dreamhouseventures.com/

The magnets come in a set of two, probably assorted colors like mine.  The back sides are very strong.  I almost tore the packages trying to separate the two sets from each other!  Once I got them apart, the rhinestones serve as a great place to park my needles.  They are not strong enough on the front to hold my scissors securely but on the back they are.  If you don't mind parking scissors under your canvas, the Bada Bling magnets will do a good job.  Just think of it as hiding your sharp, pointy things out of sight, ready to whip them out and use them when threatened. LOL

Here are what the magnets look like in their packages.  The top image shows me using all four to hold Cape Cod Dogs in position as I appliqued it to the front of a tote bag.  Worked like a charm, especially since the magnets are quite strong.  I prefer this to pinning the needlepoint in place in this case since both the stitched canvas and the bag itself are thick and not suitable for holding with regular straight pins.

If you love using stitching magnets like I do, these are definitely worth searching out.  And if you want something more subtle, yet cheerful, check out the Zecca magnets that PFOS have at their shop.
http://pocketfullofstitches.blogspot.com/2010/05/strong-little-magnets.html

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

Faux Fur and Fake Stars

Last night I finished the bits of violet on the Snowman's clothes and the packages on the ground, then decided to tackle the two remaining areas--the fur trim on his stocking cap and the stars in the sky.

Above you see my materials--Rainbow Gallery's Faux Fur and some metal bits I got at the bead store.  I think the decorative metal bits are prefect for a little boy's stocking.  If this stocking had been intended for a girl, I probably would have used tiny glass pearls or perhaps blue crystals, but this stocking is for a rowdy boy.  Metal studs seemed to be something he'd like better.  They make good snowflakes or stars, whichever you think the white dots on the blue sky are.

I attached them with the same Burmilana I used for the background of diagonal mosaic stitches, coming up in the center and going back down around the outside edge.  Hopefully the edges don't abrade the thread and they all fall off before the kid graduates from high school!

If you want to look for similar metal bits online, I believe these are bead caps, intended to be used as the top/bottom of a large bead in jewelry.  They may be spacers instead, which are metal bits that go between beads in jewelry.  They were fifteen cents each, not too bad for bead stuff.

The Faux Fur is from my stash.  It is 85% acrylic and 15% wool.  It's a rather thick thread compared to many of the fake fur ones available.  I'd say it is around the diameter of #8 perle or perhaps as fat as a full strand of DMC cotton floss.  I used it to fill the center of the stocking cap brim with French knots, then along the edge where the original design had tendrils of white sticking up, I came up close to a French knot, rotated the thread and needle until I had a tightly twisted thread that started to double on itself, then went down at the tip of a tendril.  This gives a twisted single stitch that looks similar to the French knots but is not round.  In the photo above you can see the finished brim and how I started the furry ball at the top of the stocking cap with French knots clustered in the middle. I'll probably do more twisted tendrils around the edge of the ball than I did on the brim.  But I am not sure about that yet.

Once the ball is done, I think this piece is finished. I'll need to carefully check it for missed stitches, then pull out my stocking finishing instructions and see if I can make this up into a real Christmas stocking.

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

A Nose and A Name

I've been busy working on the reds on this design, which got me started on the red top of the stocking.  I decided to put the recipient's name there using red holographic Kreinik and stitch the background around the name with my bright red Trio.  In this case I want the name to be rather subtle, not stand out.  Since Christmas items often are seen in artificial light, I think the shine of the holographic Kreinik will show the name off in the small stocking's natural setting, which is on a Christmas tree among many other ornaments and lights.

The first thing I need is an alphabet, so I started browsing Carrie Pieniozek's site where she has many free charted alphabets.
http://www.freepatternsonline.com/xscharts/alphabets.htm

The red top is 5 threads high, so I need a small alphabet.  I can add to the top of the stocking but since I don't want to make the name a focus of the stocking so I don't want to add much height.  That means I'm looking for letters that are 5-7 stitches tall.  After a little browsing, I settled on alphabet #33.
http://www.freepatternsonline.com/xscharts/page/abc33.htm

That's it stitched in the photo at the top of this article. You'll notice that it is up over the red area quite a bit.  That's my test stitching.  I count things out carefully to place the letters but I've discovered that letters often don't look exactly right even if they are, because the letters give the illusion of space around them.    The E and the N are the same width but the E looks wider because of its horizontal orientation and the fact that the base is longer than the top.  You have to adjust for those things and eventually I did.  By the way, it is in two shades of red as I was using up leftover plies of Trio and since this is a test, it doesn't matter what colors I use.

As I transferred each letter to the red band at the stocking's top, I made the A one stitch longer on the left side to make everything look right.  Alphabet #33 is 6 stitches high, so I increased the height of the red area from five threads to eight so there is a red row above and below the six rows of lettering.  As I work the real letters, I pull the letters above that are my pattern out to make room.

As you can see, I've also stitched in the snowman's carrot nose.  It is simply orange Medici wool.  I stitched two horizontal long stitches down the length of the nose, then did a row of straight vertical stitches across the orange area.  Then I did a slightly slanted vertical row.  Finally I ended this with another row of straight vertical stitches.  I could have done a fancier nose but I think this looks exactly the way I want it to.

Here's a photo of my progress to date.  I have to finish stitching the name and the violet areas, put brown stems on the apples, then tackle the stars in the sky and the fur trim on the stocking cap to finish.  Since I'm so close to getting this done, I need to rummage in the stash to see if I have red velvet for finishing.

Jane, sighing at the thought of finishing, then waving to KM as I exit

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