The last of the quartet ornaments is finished.
I used the same threads as before but back to using 2 strands of Pebbly Perle (P66) because now that is running low. Stayed with 2 strands of DMC Perle #8 (3071) because I had plenty of that left (and still do). And, I did go back to the solid light purple Kreinik #8 braid Color 023. This will also be for a set of bookends.
Another particularly good tip for me from CyberPointer’s Chris L for the double upright crosses was to do the full pattern before attempting the outside edges. That allowed me to get the hang of crossing in the proper direction before doing the partial crosses which are required as part of compensating. I have tended to think that compensating should not be necessary if the design is layed out purposefully. But, as I stitched this, I decided that it can serve as a border while maintaining the continuity of the design. And, in a sense, it makes the piece expand beyond the edge. How do you feel about compensating stitches around the edge?
I have one more set of bookends to make for a gift. Now, I have to pick different threads because the Pebbly Perle and Kreinik stash is depleted and because I want to work with something else! And, I need to find a pattern.
Another of the quartet, the Bargello Ornament, reached completion and worked up quicker than the first two. I stayed with the same threads but used them differently. I didn’t unstrand the Pebbly Perle (P66). I thought it would like nice to be round and match the roundness of the Kreinik thread (271). Now, I am almost out of that Kreinik, the one with the slight green and purple coloring. So, if the last ornament calls for Kreinik, I’ll have to use the solid color again. And, I ran out of DMC floss 3041, the contrasting purple color floss. But, I had plenty of the DMC Perle #8. So, I used that for the border and corner motif. Looks great. I have since replenished that floss.
I am so glad to have Chris L. from CyberPointers’s notes – her tip about following the chart carefully where you turn the corners on the border was fantastic. You get into the rhythm of going over 4 threads and can easily miss that it is over 3. I did much less restitching than I likely would have without the tip!
The Pattern Couching Ornament is now done as well. It is on the same light green canvas & I used Perle Cotton #8 Color 3041, DMC Floss Color 3041, Pebbly Perle P66, and Kreinik #8 braid Color 023. But, I added DMC Floss Color 3042 between the darker rows of the inner corners because I didn’t want a solid mass of dark color as Marilyn describes on page 2:6. And, I didn’t want to leave it blank. So, the next shade lighter worked out well. And, instead of a contrasting #12 braid for the center pattern couching, I used a #16 braid Kreinik Color 271 that has a hint of green throughout it and matches the other Kreinik nicely. I do not have a single #12 Kreinik in my stash! But, #16 worked fine.
I have chosen this one (after consulting with my husband) to accompany the already completed String Art Ornament as an insert for a pair of bookends. I am thinking about using mylar to place behind each insert because there is enough canvas showing through that it might look good. Thoughts? Has anyone used this? And, does anyone know who/what type of store sells mylar? I have not taken time to google and search that out yet.
I found a nice deal on the bookends at Kmart and thought instantly of using these designs as singles for the inserts. They are Joe Boxer Frame Bookends measuring 5.5″ x 5.5″ x 3.15″ with the insert area measuring 4″ x 4″. I always keep my eyes open for different ways to display needlepoint! I especially like these because they don’t need to go to the finisher and will make a nice gift without costing a lot of money!
The Nun’s Stitch Finishing stitch works perfect and I found polyester sewing thread with my basting threads! It is thin and so it didn’t add any bulk to the edges. I thought I was careful when cutting but apparently had not pulled as tight as I should have for one stitch and it got snipped when I cut along the channel. I decided to go back and reinforce with 2 stitches on each side of the snip just to be on the safe side.
As a reminder, 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).
On to the next ornaments in the quartet! I am pleased with how the first 2 came out and want to see the next couple.
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.
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