Both ANG CyberPointers and ANG Mainline Chapter decided to do the Ornament Quartet by Marilyn Owens from the 2011 Chapter Handbook (http://www.needlepoint.org/CPB/images/Ornament-Quartet-Composite.jpg). And, I have finished the String Art one. Looks nice but I think I made up a new stitch by accident! Look closely at the Walneto. They don’t match. So, does that make it a Meleto? I realized when I saw Ann’s at our December Chapter meeting – she was leading us through the design & had pre-stitched the ornament. Everyone agreed that mine was fine and not worth ripping out.
It is on a light green canvas & I used Perle Cotton #8 Color 3041, DMC Floss Color 3041,Pebbly Perle P66, and Kreinik #8 braid Color 023. I have to do one more ornament of the four for a set of . . . I don’t know which of the remaining 3 designs I will select but I know what it is going to be a set of.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, Christmas Ornaments, Christmas Trees, Melita's Other Completed Pieces
Our ANG Main Line Stitcher’s Christmas meeting is tomorrow night and I have been working steadily over the past few days in order to finish this for the meeting. I “stole” it last year because I thought it was beautiful and I love Christmas ornaments! I talked about this piece previously (https://melitastitches4fun.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/christmas-trees/). But, I found the tree pattern from Stitch Landscape by Little Shoppe Canvas Company for the middle tree (16) that I selected quite difficult and time-consuming. I think that is why I put off working on it for so long. So, I switched to tree pattern 13. And, I switched to slightly less bright white threads (Fuzzy Stuff FZ27 and Arctic Rays AR3). The grass was supposed to be grass pattern 4 but the top cross thread looked messy. So, I skipped that and added some white Fuzzy Stuff to add the effect of fallen snow. For the snow just below the trees at the top part of the grass, I layed Snow (00 White) by Caron and couched it with Fuzzy Snow. Then, I layed one thread of Fuzzy Stuff on top of the Snow and couched that with Fuzzy Stuff.
There is no way that I’ll pay extra for a rush to finish it so that it can hang on my tree for this year – but I finished stitching it! Thanks again Connie!! Happy Holidays. And, what will I “steal” tomorrow tonight???
Yeah – I got the borders all stitched! Except for turning corners, it turned out fine. I must have restitched a few of them 6 times trying to get the reverse to work. If I got one right it was by accident. I finally gave up & moved on. The only thing that I can think was wrong was if I was stitching the rows left to right & I should have been going right to left. I’ll know & most you will know but the average person won’t. And, it’ll still open & close just fine.
Can you tell which is the right side & which is the wrong side? You can’t tell from the blackwork!
When you fold the edge you will leave a row of holes empty. That’s the best way I can describe it. And, this is the best picture I can get.
Maybe someone at our meeting will be able to show me what I was doing wrong. I expect I’ll do another Ort Box with 18 count at some point. I have some canvases left. About 12 of us ended up working on it. I missed last month’s meeting but I heard that at least one has applied the lining. And, she was helping another to understand the instructions. I’m anxious to see one of us finish a box! I bought the lining at a Jo-Ann’s Fabric Store. I got a red.
As you may recall, not long ago I showed Sky 23 from Stitch Landscape by Little Shoppe Canvas Company. My one negative was that the diagrams do blur a tad when you open to the 2x size on iPad but not so horrible that you can’t look at it. Elaine from Little Shoppe Canvas Company commented that an upgrade was coming – it came.
But, when I went to upgrade on my iPad, I got a message that I needed iOS5 or greater to upgrade. Well, I’d just bought this iPad in Sept 2011, so back to the Apple store to find out what was going on. I found the oldest clerk in the store to help me. And, he was patient, helpful, & explained that I am supposed to plug the iPad into my computer & the upgrade will practically occur by itself. Yeah, sure. I was not optimistic but I went home to try. I never knew that I was supposed to plug this into the computer – you don’t get manuals any more!
Well, messages automatically came up all right – but it told me that in order to upgrade the iPad, I had to upgrade iTunes version to 10.2 or greater. You got to be kidding me! Can’t they ever just STOP upgrading I lamented to myself, knew “they” wouldn’t, & bit the bullet.
So, I bravely went to apple.com, looked at the support tab, & then downloads. Amazingly, I located the right thing & it worked!! It took hours to do it it’s thing – it must have needed a ton of updates because as little as I use iTunes, I recall ignoring those annoying pop-ups telling me an upgrade was available. But, this latest upgrade went much smoother. Maybe “they” are listening to us computer light weights & making it easy for us to stay in the game.
So, back to the iPad for its update & it worked as easy as the Apple clerk had said. Then, to the app updates on my iPad for Stitch Landscape & it worked!! And, the diagrams at 2X are clearer. I only wish the pictures showed the improvement because even though they weren’t bad before it was worth the effort!! So, thanks to Elaine for her update & Apple for making updates easier. And, I’ll probably still ignore updates until I am forced to download.
Before 
After 
I went to Rittenhouse Needlepoint to get more Arctic Rays (AR2) & Fuzzy Stuff (FZ15) but they were out of FZ15, a very bleached white. It was fortuitous because I prefer the more natural FZ26. And, they had an antique white (FZ27) with Fuzzy Stuff (AR3) that I think will be nice as the 2 background trees keeping the whitest one in the front center.
Here’s the first tree (center whiter one) from different angles so you can see the fluffy effect of the thread.
I like the pattern because it resembles branches going in different directions cathing the snow – it is Tree 16 from Stitch Landscape.
I got the blackwork finished & the bottom. I really had to focus doing the blackwork (Area 7 – top photo). I enjoyed it because it was a challenge but I wouldn’t choose to do a lot of it!
On the bottom square, I wish the overdyed thread on the one diagonal had some red & white in it. But, I didn’t notice that as I was stitching. I didn’t even notice it until I looked at the picture!
Now, I can remove the canvas from the frame, cut the squares apart, & stitch the edges down!
Well, I did have to go to the store for more threads because I’d already cut most of my DMC skeins in shorter pieces. Oh well – so much for using up stash.
I found I needed 40″ to complete the row of double upright crosses for Area 3 (blue Kreinik #8 051HL), 40″ for each set of 3 Rhodes stitches for Area 4 (blue DMC 825) & 40″ (folded in half) for each V of upright gobelin stitches for Area 5. On 14 count, doubling the DMC #5 provided excellent coverage. And, it seemed easier to do each V separate rather than turning 90 degrees to work the second. Area 6 are Sprats Heads worked with 54″ folded in half to make a 2 ply coverage as well in white DMC #5. This is still working up quickly & as our monthly meeting approaches, I hope to complete the blackwork as well.
We are off and running with the Ort Box. Directions were graciously provided directly from Marilyn Owen. And, Karen Milano at Nimble Needle gave us a very nice discount for INTERLOCKING canvas by the yard (of plain white 14 count, metallic silver and metallic gold 14 count, and plain white 18 count). Thanks to both!! Then, I cut it up & taped the edges for everyone in advance.
However, I didn’t fully read the directions (there is a lot to make such a small box) & didn’t see that the metallic interlocking canvas will be harder to put together. But, a couple of us are electing to give it the old college try, including myself. Some pros & cons of 14 count vs 18 count: the 14 count will be a slightly larger box & require thicker threads such as DMC #5 Perle Cotton as opposed to the smaller 18 count box that calls for DMC #8 Perle Cotton & Floss.
The directions for the blackwork go up to row 3 then you are to repeat directions for rows 1 & 2 alternating. So, diagrams 8A & 9A are key. I used the grayed out stitches as reference for stitches just completed. Because I’ve never done blackwork before, I practiced first. And, I finally saw the pattern. If others struggle to get it, these are my tips:
Row 1 stops at stitch 25 (as pictured in 8A)
Row 3 stops at stitch 19 (as pictured in 10 but also 8A)
Row 5 stops at stitch 13 (as pictured in 8A – stopping for shorter row)
Row 7 stops at stitch 7 (as pictured in 8A – stopping for shorter row)
Row 9 is only stitch 1
The odd rows all stop with the stitch going down and to the right.
Row 2 stops at stitch 22 (as pictured in 9A)
Row 4 stops at stitch 16 (as pictured in 9A – stopping for shorter row)
Row 6 stops at stitch 10 (as pictured in 9A – stopping for shorter row)
Row 8 stops at stitch 4 (as pictured in 9A – stopping for shorter row)
The even rows all stop with the stitch going straight down.
I also put the rest of the rows into a diagram for my chapter members & photographed it row by row.
I used a red, white, & blue over dyed thread for Area 1 & Area 2 (on silver metallic canvas). I don’t have enough of the over dyed to do it for the blackwork. You really do need at least 7 feet for 14 count. So, I am weighing options! One way or another, I’m using my stash.
After replenishing my stock of Gold Rush 14 (WG84C), I was able to finish the sky. I have decided to to use Stitch Landscape, an iPad app, exclusively to select stitches for this piece.
Stitch Landscape is by Little Shoppe Canvas Company. And, the app is $10.99 at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stitch-landscape/id469541089?mt=8 (I have no financial connection to them or sadly, Apple). The landscape categories are clouds (28), flowers (27), grass (40), mountains (41), sand (30), shrubbery (18), sky (40), snow (27), soil (18), stone (18), tree (30), tree bark (12), & water (25). So, I think I should be able to find enough suitable stitches to finish this ornament which consists of sky, trees, & snow with 354 stitches to select from (the Description on iTunes says there are 370 stitches & within the hints section there could be more)! The diagrams are very clear at the smaller iPhone size. They do blur a tad when you open to the 2x size on iPad but not so horrible that you can’t look at it. And, the diagrams are easy to follow.
The Stitch Hints for sky are very helpful as they speak to what colors to select for the dynamics of the sky (fair weather, storm, time of day), coverage. For my sky, I reviewed the 40 patterns, narrowed down to 6 potential & selected pattern 23. It is difficult to pick this up on the stitched canvas. I have found that darker colors do not tend to display patterns as well as lighter ones. Here are 2 pictures to show that pattern I selected & to display the differences between the 1x & 2x for those you considering purchasing the app.
And, I love how the Gold Rush is dark black & blue with the sparkles when stitched. I still have to fill in some falling snow and I think you can see the slant of the stitch just enough to aid the impression of falling snow.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, ANG Stitch of the Month, 2010
I was remiss in getting my finished “Promise of Mystery” designed by Sue Reed to the framers until late 2011. It got stuck in a corner & I forgot about it. But, I got it back shortly before Christmas! It is in a simple frame with an inner silver border & outer black border.
It was fun watching the piece develop over the year-long project. I think that the ANG Stitch of the Month is a wonderful resource with clear & thorough instructions (https://www.needlepoint.org/page/SOTM). AND, it goes back to 1998!! It is a member-only feature of ANG except for the 1998 design, Norwich Delight by Beth Robertson. By allowing that design to remain available to the public, it really promotes the mission of ANG which is:
The American Needlepoint Guild provides a stimulating and challenging environment through nationwide educational programs, a national publication, and Seminars & Exhibitions in which members: develop creative potential, serve public and professional constituencies, support faculty members in the joint pursuit of excellence in teaching and research, and promote intercultural understanding through the needle arts.
While this is the only one I’ve done (to date), I really appreciate the many designers over the years & the behind the scenes work that goes into the Stitch of the Month year after year!! I’m very happy that it is finally completed & hanging. Yes, I found a spot for it!!
Since posting this in 2011, I have stitched several other of the Stitch of the Month designs and have contributed my own design to the pieces. Crescent Journey joined the others in 2023!
While I have enjoyed this design for many years, I am now gifting this piece to my hairdresser, Carol. With limited wall space, I’ve got to make room for newer pieces! I’ve taken a better photo. It still doesn’t reflect the sparkle from the Kreinik and beads.
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