Susan Portra's Vintage Bird Cage class

I started my day with Susan Portra's class "The Vintage Bird Cage", canvas by DJ Designs.  Susan was her usual ebullient self, always good for non-morning people like me.

After many days spent sorting, donating and packing up over 25 years' worth of "stuff" (we sold our house on Lake Michigan), I realized,  yet again, that I have a thing for both boxes and birds.  I have quite a collection of both and this canvas had to be mine.  It is a Limoges-style hinged box with birds in a vintage cage.  It's going to be a beauty.

A few of my favorite things:  learning to stitch a Pinched Cross...seeing the wonderful effect of a woven plait stitch done in two close shades of the same color...getting a PROS laying tool as part of the kit.,.round Rhodes surrounded by beads to make medallions...and best of all, Susan shared some of her students' amazing work.

Brava!

More fun with Sandy Arthur

My second winter market class was taught by Sandy Arthur and sponsored by Sundance Designs and others.

The coolest technique used on the Heart canvas was a pulled thread stitch.  We've all seen the section on pulled threads at the back of the needlepoint "Bible" written by Jo Ippolito Christensen, but I for one, have never used any of the stitches.  I'm not sure where I will use that technique again, but I am delighted to have put my toe into the M.N.A. (Master of Needlepoint Art) section of Jo's book.  (One of the best things about classes is being exposed to new things and opening your mind to new possibilities.  Duh.)

More of my favorite things...ironed Sparkles with added bling provided by Sundance beads and sequins; many wonderful border stitches, ruching and ruffled River Silks.  I see this canvas as a stand-up with feet for Valentine's glamor.

Sandy used Painter's Thread Ribbon Floss Cotton and Painter's Thread Pearl Cotton size 12 in the kit.  Good news about Painter's Thread--Threadnuts is distributing the entire diverse line of Painter's Threads and they are all in stock.  Hooray!

Next up--Susan Portra's "Vintage Bird Cage" hinged box by DJ Designs. 

Thanksgiving March fini

Thanksgiving is now done.  Good thing - the class begins Wednesday May 30.  I had some fun with the ribbons for the sunflowers and felting the clouds.

Thanksgiving part 2

Making more progress now.  Should be ready to start the class later this month.

Thanksgiving march begins

I love creating stitch guides for Ashley Dillon's marches.  It's like dressing up little dolls in costume.

This little Indian girl has a beaded outfit and headband and is carrying a bowl of late summer corn.

March Madness - part 3

Yankee Doodle Dandy plays the drum dressed in a fine coat with a woven belt.  And, he stuck a feather in his cap.

Spooky times with Brenda Hart at the Bristly Thistle

We had a wonderful 3 days with Brenda in October. Strangely enough, there were more than a few Halloween canvases in the store!

Brenda will be visiting us next March 16-18 2012.

Creeps from Needle Deeva

As many of you know, the first canvas in "The Creeps" series by Needle Deeva has arrived. I saw all the finished models at the Columbus market, fell in love and will (selfishly) be stitching the complete set for myself. I had intended to show this as a new canvas in progress, in my stitching rotation, but I had so much fun I finished it in no time at all. The extremely talented Robin King wrote the stitch guides that come with each canvas. Her guides are always very clearly written and illustrated and I always learn something new--a new thread, a new stitch or a combination of the two. My favorites from the Pumpkin were the two composite stitches. The best part about this 9 month club is that you can pick and choose your canvases without signing up for all of them. And of course, you can always go "back in time" if you change your mind and pick up an already released canvas.

Columbus 2011 day 2

Some of my favorite canvases so far
* A 3D crow by Melissa Shirley on 13 count canvas; he comes with a hat and a monocle.
* Also from Melissa, gorgeous orchid purses and fanciful startfish
* From Kelly Clark, 6 witch’s hats that are so wonderful, you want them all. They come with a stitch guide, too.

* Dede Ogden has painted two views from a sitting room. My favorite is a view of the Eifel Tower through the window of a pied-à-terre.  It reminds me of trips to Paris when we rented an apartment instead of staying in a hotel. The second view is from an elegant New York apartment with a fabulous view of Manhattan.
* Labors of Love has new clip on birds to add to our collections, all of them colorful and fun.

I started the day with a fun class taught by Cynthia Thomas. The canvas was a Halloween House by DC. I’ve had a couple of customers stitch the canvas and I wanted to see what Cynthia could do with it. She taught us a technique borrowed from gold work for two of the lollipops that I can’t wait to try on other canvases. Her stitch guide and instructions were, as always, top notch.

Tips from Cynthia:
* When working with Planet Earth Opal or Vineyard Silk Shimmer, use a larger needle to keep the metallic from coming up short at the end.
* Cynthia demonstrated how to separate Lorikeet, a 9 strand overdyed wool that gives many of us fits. She started by teasing the ends of the thread apart—you can see that it separates into bundles of three. The best way to pull the strands loose is to hang a weight (like the one from Puffin Co) from the end. The real key, though, is patience.

New threads—at least for me
* Rainbow Gallery has introduced 17 new colors for Silk Lame’ for 18 count and new colors for Neon Rays +. The very coolest new Neon Rays + is a white sparkly ribbon that glows in the dark.
* YLI has an organic cotton ribbon floss that comes in the 26 Painter’s Thread colors. I love the texture—a little primitive—and can see ruching it for great effect.

Easter March part 3

Stitching the little girl in the Easter March brought back fond memories of dressing our girls for Easter Sunday and the Easter egg hunt that always followed.  For myself as a child and for our girls, egg hunts continued into the high school and college years, where fooling the eye and the brain became a diabolical game.

This little girl's hat is stitched in two sizes of the Double Nobuko.  I tried appliqueing River Silk for the ribbon, but no matter how subtle my efforts to attach the ribbon, the result was not good.  I used the same ribbon in an Outline Stitch for the final result.

Her hair was stitched with 2-3 strands of Lorikeet using a long bullion needle and the Bullion Knot.

I didn't care for the way the dress was painted mostly white, so I took the richest pink and stitched the dress with two strands of one of my favorite threads, Floche.

This happy little blonde is even able to ignore her little brother, who is kicking up the back of her skirt.

Easter March part 2

I'm finishing up the Easter March--this is a photo of the flowering shrub at the lower right of the canvas.

In each 4 x 4 flower I tried: 1) 4 size 14 beads, 2) 2 x 2 Cross Stitches, 3) 2 x 2 Upright Crosses and 4) Smyrna crosses (not shown).

The beads would have driven my class nuts and I don't think the effort was at all worth the effect

The Cross Stitches would have overwhelmed the shrubbery; the Smyrna crosses were even more overwhelming.

The winner was Upright Crosses. Another option would have been a single size 11 bead placed in the center hole.

Time to write the stitch guide!

Christmas March Epilogue

Earlier I tried to add the final touch to the Christmas March by using hot fix Swarowski crystals for the stars. Trying to get those small (2mm) critters to work with the recommended tip did not work at all. The crystals kept getting jammed into the tip and the round end of the hot tip left a circular dent in the threads. After more than a few choice words, I gave up and added beads as the final idea in my stitch guide.

And yet I couldn’t bring myself to bead the stars on my canvas. After some time, I decided to try the crystals one more time.

The solution was to use the spatula-shaped tip and the index finger from my left hand. After heating the tip, I used my small tip tweezers to place the tiny crystal in place. With the hot tip pressing down on the crystal from the top, I used my left index finger to push up from below. This kept the tip from leaving an imprint because my finger made the crystal the highest point on the canvas. I held the hot tip down until I felt the heat on my skin. Another hint: once the glue has started to melt, pick up the tip to make sure placement is perfect. If not, use the tweezers to move it to the right spot and then press down until you can feel the heat.

And the stars sparkled in the night sky….

Non-Tacky Solutions for Holding Beads

Alice Borge gave this tip for holding your beads while you stitch with them. Start with a 20% off coupon from Bed, Bath & Beyond. Buy their hotel blanket and cut it into a rectangular shape. Pour your beads onto one side and bead away. When you are ready to take a break, just roll up the rectangle like a jewelry roll and tie with a ribbon or thread. No sticky beads!

To make Tacky Bob Just Plain Bob, cover one side of the inside with paper. If you want to make it special, choose a scrapbook paper to coordinate with the exterior design. I don’t know if the hotel blanket material will work because I haven’t seen/bought it yet, but take a fabric that will hold beads (not felt) and cut it to fit the other side of Tacky Bob. The sticky side will hold the fabric and the fabric will hold the beads.

Bead-utiful! (sorry, youngest daughter has begun family punning competitions...)

Bird and Worm canvas by Zecca

I so love taking classes from Robin King—her models are inspiring, her stitch guides are as close to perfect as humanly possible and she is just plain delightful to be with.  The beauty of her stitch guides is that even if it is 2 in the morning, you have such precise photos and directions that it’s like having Robin right there explain.

When I first saw the class canvas, I gave a little start because the canvas was so small compared to my mental image from the class promotion photo.  It didn’t take long to realize that Robin had packed that little whimsical canvas with lots and lots of fun stitches and threads.  The result is a doable project in bright cheery colors and enough different stitch and thread combinations that the project will stitch up like magic.

Christmas March completed!

My Christmas March is finished, except for the stars and the extra rows outside the design.

Here are a few things that changed in the process of teaching the class.

1.  Kreinik drastically changed the color of the #8 braid I was using. Luckily, my class was able to trade with each other so no one had to rip out any stitches.
2,  After seeing how much my polar bear picked fibers and fur out of thin air when stitched with Petite Very Velvet in white, a couple of stitchers switched to Vineyard Silk for the bear.  Much better.  Note to dogs:  stop shedding.
3.  For the wheels, one of the stitchers left the blocks until last.  This allowed her to anchor a thread in the center of the wheel, letting it hang free on the front of the canvas.  She used the thread to show the right direction for the random long and short stitches, rotating it as she stitched.  Much easier than trying to imagine the proper direction.
4.  I had originally stitched the base as a modified rice done entirely in Burmilana.  To beef it up a bit, we added Kreinik #16 for the underlying cross stitches.  That also left a bit of sparkle at the corners and center of each block.  Will I go back and back stitch mine to make it better?  What are the odds?
5.  One of the stitchers went to four ply for the sky, instead of my 3 ply because she is having the canvas made into a pillow. 

Keep stitching and stay warm.

Christmas March part 5

For the background I used a Wave Variation from Brenda Hart, starting with the dark sky area.  For the lower area I chose a Diagonal Hungarian stitch, again from SuZy's Lite Stitches.  I loved the effect when I started on the left side of the canvas, but as I spent literally hours using my Dazor to adapt the stitch to the other lighter areas I came to the realization that it was the right stitch in the wrong place.  I ended up using the Wave Variation throughout the background.

This project is almost finished...soon I can move on to another wonderful canvas - the Easter March!

Christmas March part 4

The moon is one of the last items I stitched.  I needed Santa's stitches to help anchor the Kreinik #8.  I used an open stitch called the Four Way Continental D from SuZy's Lite Stitches.  I tried filling in the open spaces with Accentuate and decided that the open version was much better.

Happy Thanskgiving!

Christmas March part 3

I toyed with the idea of stitching the bear entirely in cut turkey work, but with so much else going on (and not wanting to spark a rebellion in the class) I kept it simple.  He is stitched mostly in Petite Very Velvet using basketweave.  The hat has style, though.  It is stitched in the Diagonal Knitting stitch with satin-stitched tassels.  French knots separate the tassels from the ties and there is fur (faux, of course) trim to add warmth and elegance.  You could also add a bead in place of the French knots for a more dressy effect.

Christmas March part 2

Last Friday at our reception for Sharon G, one of my customers said “Michele, doesn’t your Christmas March class start in two weeks?” Yikes! Nothing like a little time crunch to focus the mind.

So, on Sunday, with plenty of sports to watch on television, I buckled down and stitched the Christmas tree. I started with the beads, breaking “the rule” about stitching beads last. I wanted to place them when I could still where the artist had painted them and I didn’t want to refer back to a photocopy for placement. I used a combination of Mill Hill iridescent beads and Sundance size 14 beads, attaching them with my favorite beading thread, Prisms.

Taking two different skeins of Boucle’, one overdyed and one solid, I stitched the tree needles using a satin stitch. I cut the overdye into two parts, giving me one length of light green and one of medium green. I had thought about stitching the lighter areas as though they were snow-covered, but I didn’t like the idea of the snow from the tree blending into my snowgirl. I decided that the effect that I wanted was of a moonlit tree.

The ornaments were originally stitched as Smyrna crosses with Kreinik #12, but I thought they got lost in the foliage. I then stitched over the Smyrna crosses with YLI Ribbon Floss in the Shimmer Blend version and they popped right out. The star was stitched with the same Ribbon Floss—I stitched two vertical lines slanting inward and topped them with two horizontal lines to make the star shape.

And now, back to work—the next Giants playoff game starts at 7:30.

Let the Christmas March begin!

 It seems like weeks since I had a chance to sit and stitch. I told a customer that I feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, only my tornado dropped me on an Island named Amelia, in a small mountain of packing boxes.

A couple of nights ago I finally set up my stitching nest in the living room. I have a comfy spot in front of the television with my System 4 stand and my Dazor lamp.

I picked up the Christmas March again and did some touch up work on Santa's coat. I then worked on his candy cane staff. The first step was to stitch a chain stitch with perle cotton #3 "inside the lines". Step 2 involved satin stitching the cane with a very light cream Flair. In step 3 I used a red and a green Petite Frosty Rays for the candy cane stripes. The colors I chose were more muted than the traditional bright red, white and green. I managed to loosen up a little and stitch the stripes in a less than precise fashion. This Santa has a hand-crafted candy cane to go with his patchwork and patched coat.

My boss is letting me go early today, so I'm going to sneak in some more stitch time....