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.

Landscape Stitches Book

We just received the new book from Little Shoppe Canvas Company, "Landscape". This is the first of a series of books to be published, each based on effects for a specific category. "Landscape" includes stitches for clouds, flowers, grass, mountains, sand, shrubbery, sky, snow, soil, stone, trees and water.

I saw a rough draft of the book at market and placed an order on the spot. Now that it is finished, I love it even more and here's why:

• the categories for natural scenery stitches are all things we stitch often
• the book is small and lightweight, but packed with ideas each category includes a great variety of stitches, many of which are not in other books that recommend an effect each of the stitches is numbered and shaded for multiple layers
• each category includes important factors to consider when stitching for that landscape effect
• stitch hints are provided for each category to optimize stitch and thread choices
• each chapter begins with a stitching example that shows how to create a specific effect using a combination of threads and stitch.

This book is a welcome addition to my personal library of needlepoint books.  We have them in stock now.

The Ark Monkey House

Hooray!  Except for the part where I ran out of my silk floss, the Monkey House from the Ark is complete.

I love the stitch I used for the red walls--I found it in Jane Zimmerman's "Canvas Embroidery" Volume One.  The inspiration stitch is a "variation of basic Scotch alternated with elongated Cashmere".  I reduced the row height by one stitch, used 3 strands of silk and the result looks like wood shingles.  The best part is that I only had to rip out one previous stitch to replace it with what I think is the perfect one.

Back to the rooftops of the Ark!

The Ark part 5

I've been watching the Dodgers play the Cubs at Wrigley Field, stitching away at the main roof.  (Da Cubs are losing.)  Next, to mix things up, I'll finish the turtles and snakes on the main deck.

I am stitching the teal roof line in two long rows of continental.  In several 3-D classes I have taken from Ruth Dilts and Joan Lohr, I learned a very important tip.  Keep your finisher happy--stitching corners that will be bent by splitting the stitches at the corner.  Stitching the teal areas in basketweave would make bending the canvas more difficult.  Hopefully, the continental rows will allow for a clean, crisp edge.

Ark part 4

The great thing about working on the Ark is that if you can't think of the perfect stitch for an area, you can stitch something else while your brain works on the  problem.  The other great thing is that 6 of us are stitching this together and we are bouncing ideas off each other.  The solution for the diamond area kept eluding me.  I tried stitching a Rhodes the same size as the nearby black rectangles in the pale green.  Boring!  A fellow stitcher suggested a black beaded rectangle in the center.  Since I was going to bead the painted rectangles, this turned out to be the perfect answer.

Ark races - second leg

I'm not sure how clearly you can see this, but I have tried two different threads for the same stitch.  One of them will be ripped out....  One side is Trebizond in the perfect colors, but I don't like the loft or the sheen.  One could argue that the roof of the Ark is wet and therefore shiny, but I want a somewhat more rustic finish.  I switched to 2 strands of Soy Luster which I love.  The strands lay perfectly flat, the color works and the roof doesn't overwhelm the windows.

Now back to the Ark race!

Ark races

I'm having so much fun with this canvas because there are so many different pieces to work on--I can't get bored!

For the main deck of the Ark, I've used an overdyed thread and a random width, random length Cashmere stitch.

The snakes are a simple padded satin with the top layer a Gloriana silk floss.

I will admit to obsessing over the turtles.  I started with the idea of beading them in their entirety, but I would like to finish this piece with my sanity (mostly) intact.  I did bead the black lines and then the obsessing began.  I tried a Kreinik #12 for the gold section of the turtle on right, but felt that it was too flat.  I left the basketweave with that thread on the two sides of the turtle.  For the center, I cross-stitched each thread for a higher profile.

For the turtle on the left, I bumped up to a Kreinik #16 and simple basketweave.  The result:  6 of one, 1/2 a dozen of another.  Maybe the next time I have turtles to stitch, I will bead them.  Maybe.  But only if Brenda Hart makes me.