Easter is coming!

It's a beautiful, sunny, warm day on the island.  With nothing to do but cook and stitch without guilt, it's a perfect day.

I'm working on the leader of the Easter March, the Easter Bunny.  I'm using Silk & Ivory and an encroaching Gobelin over 4 for his fur.  I tried Silk & Ivory for his arm to bring it to the forefront, and ordered Trio for his body.  The Trio was not nearly as white as the Silk & Ivory, so I ended up not using the Trio.  The fatter thread has been just fine for the areas that are stitched in Basketweave and I can sculpt the fur to add dimension.

If I had been thinking ahead, I would have stitched his body first and fluffed it up with my nap brush.  Now I am using a combination of the nap brush and Judy's Boo Boo Stick to bring up the nap.   A credit card or store loyalty card is perfect for protecting the areas stitched around his body from the brushes.

My next fix will be to redo the lower part of the basket--it needs to come out from the canvas.  Since my first attempt is never going to rip out, I'll be working over it.  Now, back to "work".

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.

Needlepoint Decorating

I played hooky from the shop yesterday and a wonderful time touring 4 homes in our historic district. They were all beautifully decorated for the holiday season, but one house in particular stood out for me and my fellow needlepoint addicts.

The owner of the home had stitched quite a collection of needlepoint ornaments and she displayed them in imaginative ways.  Ornaments were hung from cabinet knobs, door handles and hung on the side of lampshades.  I’ve also seen wreaths and garlands that were adorned with needlepoint ornaments.  Whether you have a huge collection of needlepoint ornaments that more than fill a tree or you have just begun your collection, you can spread holiday cheer throughout your home.

Happy Holidays, Michele

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.