Decking the horse with holly

Where has August gone?  There's been too much painting and not enough stitching this month for my taste, but I haven't given up on my Toyland Rocking Horse canvas!

I decided to concentrate on the garlands of holly decorating the horse and the bottom of the rocker.  The holly combined two shades of green Burmilana:  two strands of the darker green in tent stitch for the veins and two strands of the lighter shade in satin stitch for the leaves.

Before working the holly on the rocker, I needed to finish the two packages between the duck and the toy soldier.  The silver package was worked in a diagonal mosaic stitch with Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #001.  The purple package received a gold bow in satin and tent stitches using Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #002.

Next up:  stitching the rest of the rocker itself between the gold decorative trim.  Encroaching gobelin is a slow stitch, but I shall persevere!

A satisfying moment

Stitching has been slow lately, with a lot of painting to do and a column to get ready.  I finished the gold line at the bottom of the rocker with Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #002 and filled in below it with the Burmilana in tent stitch.  I then resumed work on the background with Vineyard Silk Classic "Tea."

Am I ever glad I chose the Nobuko stitch for the background!  I could probably work this stitch in my sleep and find compensating along the curves to be a breeze.  Nevertheless, when you've been working down two sides of a canvas and finally reach the bottom, there's that moment of truth:  will the sides meet in the pattern evenly?  The answer is YES!

I just used up the sixth skein of Vineyard Silk Classic and still have two more skeins waiting in the wings, so no problems there.  It's amazing how much mileage you can get with this thread--like the Energizer Bunny, it keeps going and going and going!

Now, where was I?

It's been a while since the Toyland Rocking Horse canvas has appeared here--it's been waiting on the back burner for other more immediate projects to be finished.  This is what it looked like when I resumed stitching.

As you can see, I've made an effort to catch up with the background after the Vineyard Silk Classic "Tea" arrived to work it in the Nobuko stitch.  And there's quite a bit of background, indeed!--the design area is 17 inches high and 19 inches wide.

The rocker also takes up a fair amount of space, so I've been alternating my stitching between the background and outlining the bottom of the rocker with Burmilana #3506 in basketweave.  I had to pick up some Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #002 for the gold highlights on the rocker.  Some of the gold line along the bottom just isn't visible anymore--it's possible that it's worn off, since this canvas is 20 years old.  I want to stitch the gold line and the areas outside it, so filling in the encroaching gobelin stitch inside the gold lines is easier to do.

Highland Lighthouse, new and improved

Sometimes when you're on a stitching roll, you work straight through until the piece is done.  Such was the case for the Highland lighthouse canvas, which is now already to go for the class in September!

DMC #5 perle cotton #B5200, 310 and 415 provided the tower, with a smidgen of Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #221 for the beacon.  The fence was worked in DMC #5 perle cotton #318.

The outbuildings were stitched in DMC cotton floss:  #349 in a slanted gobelin stitch for the roof, Blanc for the siding, #415 for the shadowing and #414 for the windows.

I didn't have enough grassy green variegated thread in my stash, so I decided to make some, using one strand each of two green Burmilana shades worked in a diagonal mosaic stitch.  Dark green Impressions in French knots formed the little bush in front of the fence. 

There's only one more non-blog stitching project to complete before I can get back to my rocking horse!