Melitastitches4fun's Blog

Our ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter’s first Stitch-in for 2024 was Saturday. We had a nice turnout with 9 people in person and one on Zoom for a couple of hours. We lucked out with the weather-mild and sunny!

Beth brought her framed Southwestern Pots. It was really framed beautifully. She’ll bring it to our March meeting when Kristen will bring hers too. I helped Beth get back on track with A Spring Sampler. Lori and Patrick are coming along nicely with theirs.

I worked on the borders for Imperial Topaz by Sue Reed. I did change 3 strands of Splendor to 1 strand of Silk Lame Braid Petite so I could see more of the Kreinik Braid that stretches corner to corner. And, I skipped the small upright stitches over 2 to see more of the Braid.

I finished the border Monday but got sidetracked and forgot to post this. I’m very happy with how this turned out. Thanks again to Linda for leading us through the project and picking threads which is key to getting the motifs to show.

As a reminder, Needlepoint Now sells reprints, which are available for $3 at https://www.needlepointnow.com/product-category/project-reprints/.

Note: Gifted canvas to friends, Mona and Kirk. It goes with the color scheme in their living room! Glad it found a home.

Our ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter’s Stitch-in was Saturday. Several of us were all ready for Christmas and enjoyed an afternoon of stitching.

I never like to count much at a Stitch-in. So, I stitched the corners boxes in the evenings prior to the meeting.

I also stitched the large crosses and couched according to the instructions for the zigzag appearance. The zigzag is evident because Linda guided us through the thread selection. The contrast between the crosses and the top stitches was essential for the pattern to be seen.

That left the thread blending gobelin rows to fill in, which was easy to do and talk. I got 2 corners done during the Stitch-in and the other 2 last evening while watching TV.

Linda, from Main Line Stitchers chapter, has been leading this project presenting a short explanation of the next section. These areas employed a simple thread blending formula that used 3 values to make 5. Many times in shading, you can’t find 5 gradual color differences within a particular color. Fortunately, this is very effective.

Serendipity, the Stitch used, overlaps on one canvas thread, which I think helps make it appear as a gradual color change.

All ready for tomorrow’s meeting and the next section. Three more areas to go!

I did get good contrast between the threads so that you can see the pattern in the couching which are the 4 areas surrounding the center large rectangle. It was easy stitching, but you do have to count correctly. I’m ready for the next area. I am looking forward to my ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter meeting on Monday’s night to get Linda’s tips on the next area.

Getting the Square Rhodes color matched and reflected went well. I got all the colors in the overdyed thread, 168 Rainforest, represented. Counting that far away from where you stitched was a bit tough because the first stitch in the Square Rhodes stitch is not one of the corners. I was off once, but thanks to double-checking, I caught it relatively early and was able to reuse the thread. I needed about 32″ to stitch three of them. All the top stitches point towards the center.

All the slanted gobelin stitches surrounding the Square Rhodes in the 4 quadrants are pointing to the center as well. So I wouldn’t forget the slant while talking at our Saturday Stitch-in, I had already started with the inner most over one stitch and the over 2 with Neon Rays in some of each quadrant. I did have to take my curling iron – a must when working with Neon Rays. But, no mistakes. Not a very exciting portion to stitch, but it was a rainy weekend here, and I finished it. Yes, the north, south, east, and west sides are purposely not closed in.

Continuing on with the first rectangle for the center. I stitched the gobelin outline at home because I didn’t want to count wrong at the Central Jersey Chapter (CJC) Saturday Stitch-in that I was invited to join. They worked last month and this month on my Festive Fireworks from NeedlePointers (July 2017). I really enjoyed seeing theirs. Linda M worked them on a single piece of silver sparkly canvas each motif with a red, white, and blue gobelin border which looks really fantastic. Sue is stitching them for Christmas ornaments in red, green, and white. It was so nice of them to invite me. Such a nice group. I took Autumn 3-Ways for Show and Tell because it was their chapter who held the workshop.

In line with their patriotic themed project, I demonstrated the Or Nue Flag. Most had not heard of this technique and were quite interested. One woman even finished a flag after lunch.

So I could start stitching Imperial Topaz there, I prepared 6 bundles of 4 strands each that was needed for the Mosaic stitch to fill that area. Linda, from Main Line Stitchers, is leading this project and suggested 4 strands by eliminating the middle value of the coral rather than 5 originally suggested. The 4 strands laid well on the diagonal. Good call. I made good progress during the day and finished up in the evening.

Because Waterlilies has 12 strands and I started with a 30″ length, I had enough of the same overdyed thread to complete the entire center. Had I needed another length of the overdyed for part of the area, the color differences in the overdyed thread may have been evident.

I liked the Waterlilies 168 Rainforest because it’s muted and selected the Color B (coral) thread, AVAS Soie d’alger 2921 Rouse Ancien, to brighten the Waterlilies and provide the contrast. One of the colors in Waterlilies looks like a shade of AVAS 2921 which means black would have been added to AVAS 2921. I didn’t want the exact match because that would wash out the crescents. In fact, Sue mentions that you do not have use any of the colors from the overdyed skein for Color B.

I cut the thread just where the shade close to the coral would start the crescents near the center solid diamond. The stretch of thread that follows offers a nice cross section from the skein of Rainforest.

The value contrast wasn’t what I expected but there is contrast of color and temperature (reviewed my notes from Laura Smith’s lecture, “The Seven Ways of Color Contrast”; excellent talk).

I’m ready for our July ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter meeting Monday night.

ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter is starting another counted needlepoint project now that Circles is done. Needlepoint Now sells reprints for $3 (https://www.needlepointnow.com/product-category/project-reprints/). We began Imperial Topaz by Sue Reed with a road trip to Busy Lizzy, a store (open on limited days behind her home) owned by one of our members, Cleo. Two of our other members and employees, Karen and Louise, were holding down the fort the Saturday we went. Linda, who already stitched the project and who is leading it helped Lori, Buff, Kristen, and me pick out threads in 3 color families which work with the overdyed thread selected. On a second road trip to Fireside Stitchery to meet 2 other members, I switched from the blue I had chosen to a blue-green that Betsy recommended. All set now!

My overdyed is Waterlilies Rainforest 168.

Color A (blue green) threads are Splendor S869 Dark Green Aqua and Silk Lame Braid Petite SP214 Lake Blue.

Color B (coral) thread is AVAS Soie d’alger 2921 Rouse Ancien.

Color C (peach) threads are Splendor S1150 Deep Flesh, S895 Dark Flesh, and S1149 Light Peach Flesh; Neon Rays N117 Medium Peach.

Kreinik #12 Braid 0013 and 1/16th Ribbon 013 Beige.

At our June meeting, Linda discussed how to find the color matching portions of an overdyed skein. Sue Reed wrote a very complete article about that topic in Needle Pointers magazine March/April 2021 page 22 in the same issue) on “Color Matching Hand-Dyed Threads”. Selecting portions of overdyed threads for manipulation and thread blending are the 2 main lessons in this piece.

No matter the light source, the Coral appears brighter in the picture than it does in person where it is slightly muted.

I am celebrating Happy Thread the Needle Day which is an entire day devoted to stitching! Hope you got some stitches in today. Even one length of thread stitched per day will allow you to progress on a project. Enjoy your time!