Filed under: Sculptured Knot Garden
This garden has depth & variety that a larger garden (8” x 8”) can accommodate. There is even a water fountain. By adding some padding in several areas underneath stitches, I have added contour to the topography. Last year, one of our members offered suggestions for basic garden designs & stitches that work well in a garden. And, as you can image, no 2 were alike. I’m not a big French Knot fan but I worked some in along the inner border & used Raised & Palenstra Knots in order to call it a “Knot” Garden.
I had to place the finished piece inside a shadow box because I was afraid of dust. NOT that my friend & co-worker, Roya, who I gave it to as a gift upon completion, is a bad housekeeper!! We all get dust. Anyway, the shadowbox was quite an ordeal. When I realized the cardboard sides would show, I added straight stitches along the sides to cover them. Then, I had to tack down the piece to the cardboard so it would lay flat along the bottom – the fountain JUST fit – only slightly touching the glass. Once I had it fully attached to the cardboard & bent the sides fully, it puckered more than I had expected! Well, that just added a little more to the contour of the topography!
In this garden, I used the following stitches:
Outer border: Triangle
Inner North & South borders (top & bottom): Raised Knots with Colonial Knot centers
Inner East & West border (sides): Lazy Daisy, Straight Stitch, & French Knots (for simple flower design)
Large corner areas (listed in a clockwise manner starting at the NE corner or 1 pm):
- French Knot on a Stick
- Detached Buttonhole with a few layers of felt padding
- Web Stitch Wrapped with 2 rows of Rosette Stitch
- Milanese Pinwheel
North & South horseshoes: Turkey Work (I used a thread that expanded in volume beyond my expectation and covered the flowers of the inner portion of the horseshoe. Since I wasn’t going to rip it out, I had to cinch them together using a matching floss near the surface where it wouldn’t show. I learned that Turkey Work isn’t my favorite stitch & using floss would have been a better choice.)
East & West horseshoes: I don’t know if what I did has a name but necessity is the mother of invention & I sure didn’t want to do anymore Turkey Work. So, I took a chunk of a flexible cloth hair band & stitched up & over it using an overdyed bouclé.
Outer area between arms of horseshoes: Ringed Daisies
Inner area between arms of horseshoes: Raised Knots with Colonial Knot centers
Inner center area of horseshoes: Tied Windmills & Knots to fill in the spaces
Center portion: Jessica inside Walneto
Fountain: Needleweaving (over a stiff wire which had been bent in half & placed up through the canvas before stitching)
Ground covering: Not sure of the name of this stitch. If anyone recognizes, please let me know. Thanks in advance. Sharon (ANG Yahoo group member in St. Charles, MO) suggested T-stitch which I found in Stitches To Go by Suzanne Howren & Beth Robertson. But this stitch is longer. So, I flipped through that book again & found it. It’s called Woven. Thanks Sharon for getting me to the right book!!
Stitch books used:
- The Needlepoint Book by Jo Ippolito Christensen
- Stitches To Go by Suzanne Howren and Beth Robertson
- Stitch Sampler by Lucinda Ganderton
- Elegant Stitches by Judith Baker Montano
- Sculptured Needlepoint Stitchery by Ella Projansky
Filed under: Pruned Knot Garden
I love this frame. It was a fleamarket find. And, I’ve made 3 attempts to fill it.
Which of the 3 attempts do you prefer for the frame – or should I keep trying?
Looking forward to your input – in the form of a comment as I can’t figure out how to post a poll.
First, I attempted this abstract design trying to match the colors using diamond eyelet & tied windmill:
Then, I was practicing with various stitches & thought this garden would be better but it ended looking a little overgrown to me:
So, I redid the piece to tone down or pruned the variety stitches from that of the previous piece:
Filed under: Pruned Knot Garden
I got my garden under control! Only 5 stitches were trimmed from my 4&1/2” x 3” area but the difference in stitches made for a cleaner garden:
Far left & right walkway: Alternating Cashmere
Outer rectangular portion (listed in a clockwise manner starting at high noon):
- Byzantine
- Triple Leviathan
- Tied Windmills
- Ringed Daisies
- Double Crossed Diamond
Corners of inner square portion: Couched Boucle (dark green) & Criss Cross Hungarian (grey/brown over-dye)
Inner diamond portions: Inner: Woven Cross filled in with Squared Palestrina Knot, Raised Knot, Colonial Knot & French Knot (nice variety of knotted stitches)
Inner diamond border: Upright Crosses
Center portion: Walneto surrounded by tent
Divide walkway from planted areas: Couched Boucle (light green)
Stitch books used:
- The Needlepoint Book by Jo Ippolito Christensen
- Stitches To Go by Suzanne Howren and Beth Robertson
- Stitch Sampler by Lucinda Ganderton
- Elegant Stitches by Judith Baker Montano
Filed under: Overgrown Knot Garden
Last year our chapter worked on a knot garden. Before I tackled the large garden, I practiced in a 4&1/2” x 3” area. My garden became a little overgrown with stitches! I fit all these stitches into that small space:
Far left walkway: Alternating Hungarian Diamond
Far right walkway: Triangle
Outer rectangular portion (listed in a clockwise manner starting at high noon):
- Byzantine
- Double Leviathan
- French Knot on Stick
- Spider Stitch
- Rhodes
- Byzantine
- Cameo
- Belly Button
- Wound Cross
- Shell & Cross
Corners of inner square portion: Criss Cross Hungarian
Inner diamond portion (listed in a clockwise manner starting at 1 pm):
- Algerian Eye with Palenstra
- Diamond Eyelet Variation
- Smyrna Cross
- Double Crossed Diamond
Inner diamond portion is filled in with Cross-stitch (white) & Mosaic (light green)
Center portion: Walneto
I liked some elements but not others. I knew I could do better!
Stitch books used:
- The Needlepoint Book by Jo Ippolito Christensen
- Stitches To Go by Suzanne Howren and Beth Robertson
- Stitch Sampler by Lucinda Ganderton
- Elegant Stitches by Judith Baker Montano
After finding this Framecraft ceramic mauve bowl with gilded metal lid (on sale), I went into my jewelry stash (from flea markets) & found the rose from a necklace that I could sew onto the lid for a handle. Then, I created a simple design for the lid from my stash. It is a smaller variation of the Pavillion Steps from The Needlepoint Book by Jo Ippolito Christensen. And, the 3 colors I used (mauve, pink, & gold) are placed differently than in the diagram but as Jo wrote, 3 colors are essential to obtain a 3-dimensional effect. The little bit of gold Kreinik (#4 very fine) used in the pattern complimented the rose handle & the metal lid without overpowering the small lid. It now holds some small miscellaneous needlepoint aides & an eraser which gets a lot of use!
Filed under: 9-step Value Scale
9-step Value Scale Threads:
9 – Black (DMC floss #310): Vineyard Silk S538*, Trio T12, Petite Very Velvet, V601, Fuzzy Stuff FZ02, DMC Floche 310
8 – Gray (DMC floss 3799): Trio T40*, Petite Very Velvet, V616
7 – Gray (DMC floss 413): Trio T207*, Trio T208, Fuzzy Stuff FZ19*, Splendor S1118*
6 – Gray (DMC floss 317): Trio T57*, Trio T103*, Flair 610*, Silk & Ivory 57*, Splendor S889
5 – Gray (DMC floss 414): Vineyard Silk C106*, Planet Earth Dusk*, Fuzzy Stuff FZ01*
4 – Gray (DMC floss 318): Vineyard Silk S536*, Flair 593*, Impressions 1072*, DMC Floche 318*, Splendor S891
3 – Gray (DMC floss 415): Trio T58*, Impressions 1046*, Vineyard Silk S535*, Fuzzy Stuff FZ36*, Snow 09* Silver*, DMC Floche 415*
2 – Gray (DMC floss 762): Trio T113, Vineyard Silk S539*, DMC Floche 762*
1 – White (DMC floss blanc): Trio T02, Fuzzy Stuff FZ15, DMC Floche blanc*, DMC Perle #8 blanc
*Indicates thread was used in some part of the pictured needlework.
Some threads I placed in a particular value could be debated (but I had to place them somewhere).
Filed under: 9-step Value Scale
I wanted to utilize the 9-step gray scale that I learned about in Mary Shipp’s design class. And, I wanted to practice with stitches from Stitches For Effect/Stitches To Go by Suzanne Howren & Beth Robertson. But, I did not get the effect of dark (upper left) to light (moving down & to the right). And, the stitch selection didn’t help. I think this is an example of trying to do too much in one piece. I forgot about the One-Three-Five Rule from Mary’s lessons. Next time, I’ll eliminate either many of the stitches I selected or many of the thread types I selected or both!
And, you may have guessed, that’s why I am using shades of gray in ANG SOTM 2010 Mystery project – I have quite a large stash now!
Filed under: Thread Play
You won’t be surprised when I tell you I took Mary Shipp’s ‘Understanding Color’ class – that was in May 2005. When I created this piece, “Thread Play” for one of the lessons, she said I gave her “quite a shock”. Tasked to experiment with various effects that you can get with various threads, I prepared 25 samples. I’ve included close-up pictures of 2 of my favorites.
After Mary Shipp’s Understanding Design class, I created this color wheel despite her comment that available threads are not available for a full 24 hue color wheel. Next time, I’ll do a 12 hue color wheel.
My DMC floss color #s are listed below.
Note: * indicate those of mine which differed from Mary’s suggestions.
Legend: yellow (y), green (g), blue (b), violet (v), red (r), orange (o).
y: 973*
y-g-y: 907
y-g: 906*
g-y-g: 701
g: 700*
g-b-g 991
b-g 3765
b-g-b: 517*
b: 825*
b-v-b: 797*
b-v: 796*
v-b-v: 791*
v: 333*
v-r-v: 550*
r-v: 327*
r-v-r: 3685*
r: 666*
r-o-r: 606*
r-o: 608*
o-r-o: 740*
o: 970*
o-y-o: 740*
o-y: 742*
y-o-y: 972*
After the “First Steps” samplers (July 2003), I began designing a piece to use the 31 stitches which I’d just learned & was finished stitching it by Jan 2004!
Because I’d wanted to stay with blocks like the samplers I had just finished, I thought of bricks in a fireplace. The selection & placement of stitches was somewhat complicated by certain stitches which have a raised effect. I wanted a balanced effect. And, the 3 shades of red enhanced the brick effect while the Byzantine stitch helped create depth.
The hardest part may have been deciding what to put on the mantle. I do have notes on this project. And someday, I’d to recreate the fireplace using the same layout with a different background, various objects sitting on the mantle, and with stitch selections in the fireplace appropriate for an intermediate & advanced stitcher.
I named it after Fireside Stitchery in Frazer, PA. And, my “Fireside Sampler” was finished just in time to become a housewarming gift for friends, Jim & Deb.
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