Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, ANG Stitch of the Month, 2011
Between needing the bars for the upcoming EGA Seminar, getting the proper color DMC for cording, and having a free day (thanks to a PGA golf tournament), I was able to do the finishing for the individual motif from Flowers of Italy by Ro Pace, an ANG Stitch of the Month from 2011.
Using the same colored DMC floss as the tent stitch to cinch the 2 sides together.
Heather is leading this piece starting in September. The original was done on Congress Cloth but I will do them on 18 count canvas. I’ll probably do four of them as a unit and the rest as individual ones.
The finishing of the waffle went faster than usual. I stitched 3 rows of tent stitch around the motif. I laced the sides down over a piece of Craf-tex (thanks to to surplus from Linda’s Boutique). I cut the corners a tad to decrease bulk.
I used Scotch Tape Runner, a double-sided tape to hold the backing in place on a second piece of Craf-tex.
The cording was a double cording of matching DMC Perle #3 (thanks to Nanda for picking it up for me).
Again, using the matching colored DMC floss I attached the cording. Perhaps using a thread I can see (as opposed to Sulky invisible thread) made things easier. Or, perhaps that both sides were together before attaching the cording helped decrease the complexity of stitching.
I was worried that the laid threads would get messed up with all that handling but a little careful adjustment fixed a couple of strands that were askew.
Thanks to a rain delay for the golf game, I will work on another ornament!
Filed under: ANG Stitch of the Month, 2011
My ANG Main Line Stitchers is gearing up the next counted project. We usually have 2 pieces working because not every project appeals to everyone.
Heather will be leading Flowers of Italy by Ro Pace, the 2011 Stitch of the Month. It’s one I kept looking at but have been intimidated by some of the diagrams. She’s got a camera at home to demonstrate the stitches over Zoom at our meetings. I’m looking forward to seeing the technology utilized. I’ve only seen a camera used by a teacher a couple of times.
The original design was done on Congress Cloth and that’s what Heather did. So, I stitched the Waffle Stitch on 18 count canvas. I used 4 strands where 2 are used on Congress Cloth. It’s about 2.5″ and will make a cute ornament. More practice finishing! I think I’ll stitch a couple of rows around the outside before finishing it. I don’t want to mess up the laid threads.
There are 12 motifs in all. I might do 4 motifs in a larger diamond arrangement for framing. We’ll see what happens as we progress.
Directions are free for previous Stitch of the Month pieces to all members of ANG.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, From Dawn to Dusk by Textured Treasures
When we introduced the project, From Dawn to Dusk by Textured Treasures, to my ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter this past fall, I stitched one of the motifs on 18 count in Christmas colors as a single motif for an ornament.
I decided to do 2 more ornaments in Christmas colors because I like 3s and because I wanted to try an Interlaced Maltese Cross. If you don’t lay the foundation correctly in Step 1, then the interlacing in Step 2 won’t work. I got it right on my second attempt.
This was the third motif in Twilight Too. All three had the same instructions as From Dawn to Dusk but written for 28 count ground. So, I used the same threads as the first ornament. Just needed to figure out where to use the threads and how many strands.
Nothing difficult in the second motif in Twilight Too except color matching the Anchored Vandyke. I think I’m using a discontinued Needle Necessities 153 (overdyed red thread). It’s 6 stranded. So, I used 3 strands on the North-South areas from one length and 3 strands on the East-West areas from the second length. It turned out good.
To start the finishing, I used newly purchased fusible web and just to be 100% sure nothing would ever happen to the iron again, I used a pressing cloth! All went well.
At some point I am hoping finishing will come more naturally. If I don’t do it regularly, it takes me time to get the swing of it again. But, I am happy with how it turned out.
In October, I’ll be taking an irregular shaped ornament finishing class from Kelly Starke. So, I think my third ornament will be good for that class.
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!
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, From Dawn to Dusk by Textured Treasures
The third motif required needleweaving which was easier and faster than I expected and fun. The color matching is with N-S and E-W because one length could do two of the four legs.
There are 4 Spider Webs. I enjoy making these but I couldn’t tolerate the spokes being uneven as they had diagrammed. So, out it came. This is the same 12 x 12 space but has 9 spokes evenly distributed. Plus, I prefer the center to be an eyelet rather than crossing side to side with an extra spoke added in. It’s so much easier to keep the center centered. So, here’s my diagram.
The other odd thing is that they say go over one and under one spoke where you should under two, back over one, and under two again. Here are my Spider Webs. Very happy!
The rest of the background went along smoothly except that working on 28 count is tougher on my eyes than even 24 count. I found a tube of Autumn Seed Beads (probably 11/0; manufacturer unknown although they are marked Made in Japan). They are a lovely mix of yellow, green, and amber. The amber was perfect. I needed 37 beads and had way more than enough. They added a lovely final touch.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, From Dawn to Dusk by Textured Treasures
Back in October, my ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter started From Dawn to Dusk by Textured Treasures (you can find them on Facebook). The full design is 12 motifs done on 18 count canvas. But, they also sell the instructions in batches of three done on 28-count on Lugana and four motifs individually (count unknown). I think I am working on 28-count Cashel linen or Lugana.
In December, I added the outer border but didn’t feel it was blog worthy!
Well, I decided to get back to it for my Saturday Stitch-in project today. So, I had to stitch some difficult areas over the last couple of days. Kristen has given us some good tips for the motifs. The Mexican Stitch in the corners of the center motif and the raised Chevron Stitch were very challenging stitches. The Mexican Stitch would make a good background.
I color matched my overdyed thread in the first two motifs so, I will have to color match in the third! I still have a few beads to add. In the left motif, I used the largest yellow section of the overdyed thread for the diamond Rhodes and the darker colors for the Algerian Star eyelets.
I’m going to focus on this piece until it’s done!
I’m finally getting back to Circles: Theme & Variations by Lois Kershner, the ANG 2008 Stitch of the Month. A few of my ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter members are stitching this too. I expanded the diameter to about 8″ to use as a cover for the white wicker basket I made a few weeks ago.
The next pattern tackled was the 2 Round Bargello units seen on the right. I used 5 strands of the second to lightest of 5 shades of blue from the package Chameleon, Shades of Africa, Two Oceans. I repeated the Smyrna Cross Eyelet Combination used in the Circular Buttonhole. I also used the white ThreadworX again although I removed one ply so it wouldn’t be too overwhelming. There will be lots more of the Round Bargellos.
I did use a slightly lighter blue marker for the upper sections before working from the darkest Round Bargellos up towards the lightest ones. Working them in all one color is easier than switching colors but it makes a nice effect.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, ANG Stitch of the Month, 2008
My ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter is stitching Circles by Lois Kershner, the ANG 2008 Stitch of the Month.
We tackled Spider stitches in November (I forgot to post). The Ribbed Spider was first up. I’ve done Spider stitches before so I was surprised to see that Lois recommended making the spokes go from one side of the circle’s perimeter to the opposite side. Instead of crossing side to side I went into the center hole. I believe the spokes will stay straighter. And, other sources show the spokes going into the center hole.
The overview shows the N, E, S, and W spokes each going over 10 canvas threads and the 4 diagonal spokes over 7 canvas threads. Perfect location to get the same number of wraps on all spokes. When I got to the end of the spokes and didn’t think another wrap would fit, I added one last wrap.
Lois showed a multicolored Spider and Lisa stitched both hers that way. I had never tried switching threads mid-spider. So, I had to try it. It would be quite dramatic to see the colors radiate outward. A bit tedious to switch threads too often the way I imagine radiating and my blues won’t work because they are too close or too far apart in color difference. But I did use light blue in the center, a medium, medium-dark, and back to light to try switching. I love how wrapping these differently makes them so different. Very happy with both.
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