Wednesday, July 21, 2010

"Mine" needlepoint design by Sandra Gilmore

After finishing two Christmas stockings in record time, I decided to get into the Halloween spirit.

"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.

1 comment:

Possibilities, Etc. said...

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!!