My Tombstones

The cemetery is starting to come to life.  (Did I just say that?!) I've completed the stone cross except for two missed stitches I found this morning as soon as I picked up the piece in the sunlight. I'll fix that later today.   I have the lettering done on the cracked tombstone and am almost half finished covering it in stitches.  As I've said before, once the tombstones are finished, I will work on the grass.

I chose a variation of cashmere stitch for the cracked tombstone.  This area slants / toward Luna's feet (actually, almost everything in this composition points to her).  So I wanted a diagonal stitch that slanted the same way and one that had some texture but not too much.  I want it more prominent than the cross but not so much that it detracts from Luna herself or the crow sitting on top of the cross.  Some test stitching lead me to diagonal cashmere.

I've just had a thought.  What would it look like if the diagonal cashmere slanted the other way?  Would that counteract the intent of the designer or make the tombstone even less prominent?  Any thoughts?  I'm not changing it, mind.  I just wondered....

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

Today's Calmer

Last night I worked a bit on the tombstones next to Luna.  I'm basketweaving the cross, being careful to match the subtle shading as much as possible. I've figured out the lettering on the cracked tombstone and will be working on its background once the cross is done.  That will be a while.  It takes a lot of time to basketweave an area smoothly, particularly when you are constantly changing colors.

Once the cross and cracked monument are finished, I will work the grass around their base.  But first I need to find a fourth color in my stash for the shadows on the cross.

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

ANG Seminar Reports UPDATED AGAIN

I've been eagerly waiting for folks to get back from ANG's Seminar in Columbus, OH to hear all about it but the pickings are slim so far.  Fortunately, Melita reported in on her experience.
http://melitastitches4fun.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/ang-seminar-2010-trip-report/


Melita won a first place and the Princess Grace Award (given for an all basketweave piece) for one of her original designs.
http://melitastitches4fun.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/beautiful-ohio/

She also showed another original piece that was almost as highly rated by the judges.  Both are described on her blog.  Congratulations!
http://melitastitches4fun.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/madam-carina/

UPDATE:  Melita has added the third piece she showed to her blog.  It's great fun to read how this design evolved.
http://melitastitches4fun.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/points-of-tranquility-sky-earth-and-sea/

Jan is also back from Seminar and has two photos of the events in her write up.  Sounds like a great time, doesn't it?
http://stitchlady.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/back-from-seminar/

I hope more information appears as folks get home, unpack, and are finally over whatever bugs they picked up after not enough sleep, too much excitement and the rigors of air travel.

UPDATE: Kelly has posted about her seminar experiences, including classes and the goodies she bought.
http://sweetneedleofmine.blogspot.com/2010/10/small-packing-tragedy-strikes.html

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

CanvasWorks and More

Today I don't have access to my bookmarks and can't post any progress photos since Beloved is downloading an update to World of Warcraft.  It's been almost 12 hours since he started the download and since WOW claims they have 12 million subscribers, all of whom are trying to download the same things, the computer is tied up for another couple of hours still.

So why don't we go look at the CanvasWorks trunk show that Nimble Needle has posted on their blog?  Canvasworks doesn't have a website so this is a rare glimpse of their work.  The top blog entry is a plea for help finding beading ribbon, but four of the next five postings are all CanvasWorks canvases.  These are lovely classic designs, perfect for all basketweave in your most favorite thread in the world.
http://thenimbleneedle.blogspot.com/

The mathematically inclinded might like to check out this posting.  I have no idea what a Hilbert curve is, but it makes great NP!
http://thenimbleneedle.blogspot.com/2010/09/math-monday-mathematical-needlepoint.html

On another topic entirely, thanks to Kathy's Unbroken Thread blog (crewel embroidery mostly), I discovered Map Muse.  It tells you where to find embroidery, needlepoint and cross stitch shops when you travel.  If you are going anywhere, check it out.  (There is also a way to add shops that they have missed, so if your favorites aren't in the system, add them to help out your fellow stitchers.)  Kathy used it to find a lot of fun places on her last trip but I'd love more feedback about whether this is useful for all parts of the U.S.  The site itself is very cluttered and full of ads but if it works, we can overlook that.
http://find.mapmuse.com/interest/stitch-shops

Gay Ann Roger's e-Week sale has started.  Time to stock up on her patterns because e-Week is just once a year and what is offered changes.  Some of the designs are brand new, some have been seen but never offered.  If you are a counted thread person, this is a Must Visit sale.  Make sure you read the E-Week News & Views section if you plan to buy anything, or if your favorite GAR design isn't pictured.
http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Home_Page.html

Because it is Halloween, how about a monster scissors fob?  The growling bead cracks me up but there is a more traditional Halloween fob at her Etsy store.
http://mymarkdesigns.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/rarw-monster-fobs/

Finally, Stitcher's Workshop is having a big sale this weekend, starting Friday.  If you are in Arkansas, please visit.  If not, an Internet visit will do.
http://www.stitchersworkshop.com/blog/?p=407


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

Luna Grounded

Luna Unstitched

No, Luna the Vampire has not been sent to her room.  I'm sure she has been a very bad girl indeed, but I'm not about to go there.  Passing judgement on a needlepoint canvas character is a sign of something that isn't really healthy, right?

I'm talking about how to stitch a ground for Luna to stand on.  I mentioned earlier that the canvas design already reads "ground" when you look at it.  Check out the bare unstitched canvas above.  See what I mean?

But I still wanted something there, something solid.  You may want to look at Rachel's posting about how she handled this same problem with a Paddington Bear she stitched.  She cleverly changed the color of her background stitch to indicate ground.
http://www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk/wordpress/2010/10/12/a-bear-called-paddington/

However, I'm not going to stitch Luna's background. I think I probably will leave the custom gray canvas with the speckles unstitched.  So that solution won't work for me.  Ok, what kinds of things do you find on the ground in graveyards?

Bad Tombstone Stitch!

Paving stones!  So I stitched block stitches.  I think they look very much like ground in an unobtrusive way.  I used a ply from the six ply Planet Earth Fibers line of silk floss.  I like how it turned out.  However, I am not happy with the stitch on the cracked tombstone.  It's too prominent.  A friend pointed out that I have two tombstones and a bird in that area to deal with and I might want to make at least one of them very muted.  So out came the tombstone stitches and I have something else in mind.  I also decided to add one more paving stone to the ground.  Here's what I ended up with.

Final Ground Treatment

What do you think?  Note that I have not added rows of compensated stitches around Luna's hem or at the very bottom of the canvas.  I decided that would not look as good as what we have here.

A suggestion of ground is sometimes enough.  But now I'm wondering if I should take that last paving stone out again....

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