"Mine" by Sandra Gilmore of Once in a Blue Moon designed this very cute canvas that had been languishing in my stash for a couple of years. I had started the Jacquard stitch for the sky and then left it as a UFO (UnFinished Object) for over a year. I was inspired to pick it up again when we had the Patty Paints trunk show in Florida. I purchased two of her sparkly pumpkins with the idea of having 3 coordinating pillows made.
I had intended to leave the tent stitches in between the Jacquard blank, but I don't know how exposed canvas holds together over time. I first tried a Kreinik #16 for the tent stitches, but the color was wrong and the braid too fat. I had a Neon Rays that was a good color, but the thought of stitching that much with the slippery devil of a ribbon took all the fun out of that section of canvas. I settled on Treasure Braid, taking two stitches over the exposed star areas. I liked the richer shade and its lower profile. I haven't decided whether or not to add star buttons or to leave it as is.
The cat's eyes (and the pumpkin's) are Kreinik glow-in-the-dark braid with 005HL for the black slits. Her nose and gray outline are tent stitched with Very Velvet. I love the stitch I used for the cat's fur. I found it on a blog "Melita Stitches 4 Fun." It is shown, with permission by David McCaskill, in her blog about her sunflower canvas. I had toyed with the idea of using a different stitch for each section of the cat, but I love the overall pattern I got from using just this one stitch with black Silk & Ivory.
The pumpkin was not painted with a glittery finish, so I used Gold Rush 14 to tie it to the sparkly canvases by Patty Paints. I used the Nobuko stitch for the main body, but I didn't love stitching it (the Gold Rush was hard to pull through) and I think I could have chosen something that would look better. However, these camvases are just for fun and I could hear my friend Linda using her favorite line when I want to rip something out--"What are you NUTS???"
Next up: the purple polka dot pumpkin.
I don't know what mesh size this is - but perhaps the #12 Kreinik braid would have worked - that's what I use on 18 mesh. Also, I never use Neon rays, preferring either the YLI Ribbon Floss - or lately, the DMC Satin Floss, which is much easier to use than Neon Rays, and very effective. This is a cute and simple canvas!!
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