It’s been a month since I worked on this! I still want to finish by Labor Day. But, each row is short. So, not a problem.
As you can see, I colored the whole area with a light blue copic marker B00, Frost Blue, just in case there are some open stitch patterns.
The Crossed Gobelin (Block 16, 5th blue block from the right) was fun to stitch and I like the effect of the pattern. Just a little bit of the canvas shows. Looks like a good water or sky stitch.
Starting with the blue block on the right (#12) moving to the left (#19), I used the following threads (1 strand unless noted):
12 – Entice E212
13 – Pebbly Perle P07 and Pebbly Perle P58
14 – Merino Wool 98R/45622
15 – Splendor S965 (2 strands)
16 – Bella Lusso 540
17 – Planet Earth 6 ply Silk 1106 (2 strands) and Bijoux MMT437 (4 strands)
18 – Planet Earth 6 ply Silk 1105
19 – Elegance E862
Filed under: General comments
A couple of sites link to stores listed by state & Canada and/or Australia. However, all addresses are not current. Some may not exist anymore. But, it’s a good place to check.
At CBKneedlepoint.com and
At Sudberry.com
At needletravel.com, they list all types of fiber and fabric stores. A little tougher to distinguish needlepoint from others but nice for people with interest across various crafts. And, I can usually find something of interest to look at. Love the colors of fabrics for quilting.
Filed under: A Dusting of Snow by Gail Stafford, ANG Keystone Garden Chapter
The Dusting of Snow piece from class with Gail Stafford is coming along nicely.
I added snow to the first of the center bushes, have the Dogwood tree in place, filled in the upper right sky in both colors, stitched all 9 distant trees, and the gazebo. I was worried about disrupting the smoothness of the roof with the branches of the Dogwood. So, I wrapped the thread around the padding threads and tacked down sparingly and closer to the single brown thread. I like the rounded effect. It would not have worked out to do that for the whole tree because I couldn’t maintain the tension without twisting. Maybe if I had wrapped a thick wire. I’m very happy the Dogwood tree is done. That was challenging.
Taking a break before working more of the center bushes, the leaves on the trees, and the rest.
My other ANG chapter, Keystone Garden, celebrated their 25th anniversary as a chapter by bringing in Gail Stafford to teach A Dusting of Snow this weekend. We just payed for the kit and the chapter paid the teacher’s expenses. Nice! And, thanks to Jeanne H who did a great job organizing the event. We had almost two dozen in class with members from ANG’s New Jersey Needle Artists and Main Line Stitchers chapters joining in on the fun. It’s always great to see our NJ neighbors.
This is a lovely, award-winning piece of Gail’s from a couple of years ago. It’s a comfortable size (design area 7″ x 5″) and Gail gives us a line drawing with a partial painting of the design on Congress Cloth.
Gail has another view of the same gazebo, Arrival of Spring, that she’ll be teaching at ANG Seminar in Houston in August (registration is still possible). This is a gazebo near her home. With her permission, I am posting the photo of the actual gazebo, what her stitched gazebo looks like, and my progress after our 2-day class.
The instructions are great and Gail was fantastic. Checking on us and catching 2 of my mistakes before I got too far along. It makes sense that she’s great teacher because she is also a college level math teacher. Gail shared her process of designing, knitting, and teaching which I found particularly interesting. This is going to be fun seeing the scene develop.
Filed under: Brandywine Chapter, Edward Scissorfish Scissors Holder, Embroidery Guild of America
Fortunately, I am taking this class from Cleo now as it is the last time she’ll be kitting it (too time consuming). Thanks for your efforts Cleo! It’s an “encore” piece from 9 years ago which several members hadn’t finished yet and others were working on a second or third one in different colors (purple, green, or red). Edward Scissorfish Scissors Holder is from Beadalot, L. A. Hall Designs.
The beads are brighter than pictured. I just can’t get over how many beads we got! Cleo said we have plenty of extra beads. The fish is about 4 inches long without a tail.
We cut out a paper pattern as the foundation and sewed it together and turned it inside out. There are some basic areas marked for us to follow on the wrong side. We’ll stitch right over the paper. I got further on the left eye. It moved along quickly under Cleo’s direction. We’ll work on our own until our next class on July 31. It’s coming along swimmingly!
This is the third of the Christmas Diamonds by Kurdy Biggs from the Needlepoint Now November/December 2015 issue.
This has the same colors as the first diamond and is also on a white canvas with silver sparkles. I added some small (3mm) silver bugle beads and did the beads a little differently than diagrammed. The same size beads are inside the border Jessicas.
I finished the Jessica border during my last Saturday afternoon with my ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter (always the 4th Saturday at Starbucks on Lancaster Ave in Wayne, PA from 11 am to 3 pm).
No changes to the threads or beads from the first diamond. The threads are Kreinik #4 Braid 1432, Entice E248, Silk Lame Braid Petite SP118, Splendor S988, and Treasure Braid TR277. The beads are Miyuki Delica Beads 15/0 DBS0166 and Sundance Beads Size 11 and Size 14/15 Color 327P; the beading thread is from Sundance too in Teal and Turquoise colors.
I have enough thread and beads to do the third but I’m getting ready to take a couple of classes. So, I will probably not stitch the second diamond. But, I would like to see them all stitched. And, the finishing should be done at the same time. What to do!?!
Lorraine of Colour Complements gave everyone at ANG Seminar in 2018 a sample of her lovely hand dyed threads. I got a dyed green/gold DMC #5 Perle Cotton (my favorite fall colors). In the package was also DMC #5 Perle 500 solid green and Anchor Floss 392 solid beige grey. I’d already been getting her newsletter and love seeing her combinations of colors in all the threads she dyes. So, I was very happy to see it in person.
I came across her package of threads recently and just after seeing a stitch pattern in Painted Canvas Embellishment: An Idea Book by Carole Lake and Michael Boren called Budapest Stitch. The sample of the hand dyed thread was only 5.47 yards. So, I stitched the over 3 straight stitches until I ran low on thread and made a symmetrical shape (4 units × 4 units of the Budapest Stitch to form an inner square). Each unit looks like a mini 4-way star bargello pattern. The 5.47 yards got used up faster than what I expected. I wanted something bigger. So, I made an outer square with the solid green perle cotton which turned out to be a nice contrast.
At that point, I was still considering a round (4″) ornament or a square (3 & 1/2″) coaster. But, adding compensation stitches of the Budapest Stitch seemed perfect for a circle.
That left small areas for the Hungarian Stitch with just enough of the hand dyed thread to fill in 4 Hungarian Stitches on each corner creating some movement of color towards the edge. For the rest, I used 4 strands of the beige grey floss.
For the squares, I went to Sandra Arthur’s Shapes of Needlepoint, Series I for 4 x 4 square stitches. That size would allow some canvas to show thereby framing the fill-in stitches. I selected stitches that would allow me to use the solid green perle cotton and 2 strands of the beige grey floss. These three patterns seemed to be enough variety for a small ornament: Leviathan Stitch, V Stitch, and Padded Scotch Stitch.
Thanks Lorraine for the threads! This ornament was a lot of fun from a design point of view too. And, it’ll be fun to watch out for other stitch patterns that would work up with just a few threads.
Just in time to post for the Memorial Day weekend! All the red rows are done now!
For the bottom row, the instructions called for 2 blocks to put the date and your initials and one block of basketweave. But, I didn’t want to do that.
So, for the first block (from the right), I basketweaved a star and the last block (on the left), I basketweaved a heart. Every flag needs at least one star. And, the heart is because I love stitching this piece and I love the USA. For the second to last block, I created a Staggered Mosaic Variation. Using a different color especially for the small cross stitch would make them more evident. The 3 patterns are diagrammed below.
Block 8 has an additional upright cross between the Half Rhodes for more coverage.
Au Ver A Soie 100/3 is a single ply highly twisted spun silk. Of the threads used so far, it has a different looking texture that I really like. It becomes more evident on longer stitches such as Block 11 (from the left) but can be seen with shorter stitches if you look closely as in Block 14 and 18. The Access Commodity website says that it would take 4 strands to cover on 18 count.
Starting with the block on the right (#1) moving to the left (#19), I used the following threads (1 strand unless noted):
1 – Needlepoint Inc Silk 502 (3 strands) and Needlepoint Inc Silk 503 (2 strands)
2 – Elegance E820, Au Ver A Soie 100/3 SMS 499, and Pepper Pot Silk 017 (1 ply)
3 – Entice E239 and Bella Lusso 764
4 – Pepper Pot Silk 018 (1 ply) and Planet Earth 6 ply Silk 1005 (2 strands)
5 – Splendor S820 (2 strands) and Kreinik #8 Braid 5505
6 – Pepper Pot Silk 017 (1 ply) and Pepper Pot Silk 018 (1 ply)
7 – Silk Lame Braid Petite SP08 and Splendor S1005
8 – Soie d’ Alger 4624 (2 strands) and Bella Lusso 764
9 – Needlepoint Inc Silk 502 (1 strand) and Needlepoint Inc Silk 503 (1 strand)
10 – Splendor S1005 (2 strands)
11 – Au Ver A Soie 100/3 SMS 499 (2 strands) and Kreinik #8 Braid 061
12 – Elegance E820 and Kreinik #8 Braid 003V
13 – Pepper Pot Silk 018 (1 ply), Soie d’ Alger 4624 (2 strands), and Kreinik #8 Braid 061
14 – Bella Lusso 764, Au Ver A Soie 100/3 SMS 499 (2 strands), and Kreinik #8 Braid 5505
15 – Splendor S820 (2 strands) and Elegance E820
16 – Needlepoint Inc Silk 502 (2 strands) and Kreinik #8 Braid 421
and Pepper Pot Silk 017 (1 ply)
17 – Planet Earth 6 ply Silk 1005 (2 strands) and Planet Earth 6 ply Silk 1009 (2 strands)
18 – Au Ver A Soie 100/3 SMS 499 (2 strands), Silk Lame Braid Petite SP08, and Soie d’ Alger 4624 (2 strands)
19 – Needlepoint Inc Silk 502 (3 strands) and Needlepoint Inc Silk 503 (2 strands)
Looking forward to getting into the blue threads!
Happy Holidays to all and especially our military and veterans.
Congratulations to Kayla on her graduation! She followed in her father’s footsteps and has become a teacher. But, she shares her love of animals and especially of dogs with both her parents. So, I thought she’d appreciate this design. I already stitched her favorite animal, a family of 3 penguins! Bill and I wish her all the success and happiness life holds for her.
The design, Paw Print Love Paws, is a free image on Pixabay. There were several variations of the design online. I traced it and then adjusted slightly. The design area is not large (3&1/2″ x 3″).
I used Vineyard Silk Shimmer for the letters and paw print. L is stitched with Diagonal Mosaic, paw with Basketweave, V with Diagonal Cashmere, and E with Reversed Mosaic.
The background is Alternating Continental using Subtlety Y899.
The border is DMC #5 Perle 801 for the Continental stitch on both sides of Kreinik 1/8″ Ribbon 052HL laid and couched with elongated crosses using DMC Floche 433.
I should always get the finishing item beforehand. I love this frame but I needed to make the right and left borders wider. So, I added an additional border on each side and like it better anyway.
The Diagonal Victorian Step stitch in Block 6 (from the left) was tricky. I really had to move along stitching the unit which Connie conveniently highlighted in the diagram. And, even with that, I was very appreciative of seeing the compensation diagrammed for me.
I used just 1 strand of silk on Blocks 5, 6, and 9 which provided full coverage because of the stitches (Oblong Cross, Diagonal Victorian Steps, and Alternating Slanted Gobelin, respectively).
Starting with the block on the right (#1) moving to the left (#19), I used the following threads (1 strand unless noted):
1 – Pepper Pot Silk 018 (2 plus not laid) and Pepper Pot Silk 017 (1 ply)
2 – Silk Lame Braid Petite SP08 and Needlepoint Inc Silk 503 (2 strands)
3 – Kreinik #8 Braid 003V and Bella Lusso 764
4 – Planet Earth 6 ply Silk 1005 (2 strands) and Elegance E820
5 – Splendor S820
6 – Planet Earth 6 ply Silk 1009
7 – Pepper Pot Silk 018 (2 plys not laid)
8 – Soie d’ Alger 4624 (2 strands) and Kreinik #8 Braid 421
9 – Au Ver A Soie 100/3 SMS 499
10 – Splendor S820 and Splendor S1005
11 – Needlepoint Inc Silk 502 (2 strands) and Kreinik #8 Braid 061
12 – Bella Lusso 764 and Entice E239 and
13 – Soie d’ Alger 4624 (2 strands)
14 – Elegance E800 and Silk Lame Braid Petite SP08
15 – Au Ver A Soie 100/3 SMS 499 and Kreinik #8 Braid 061
16 – Pepper Pot Silk 018 (1 ply) and Pepper Pot Silk 017 (1 ply)
17 – Splendor S1005 (2 strands) and Kreinik #8 Braid 5505
18 – Planet Earth 6 ply Silk 1005 (2 strands)
19 – Bella Lusso 764
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