Peace on Earth, good will to all

Here is our lighthouse tree for 2016, with 99 lighthouse ornaments and holding!  We were going through some home remodeling in the last eight weeks and have slid into Christmas on the proverbial banana peel.

The Kansas crew is here to help us celebrate, with the Dallas contingent arriving in time to ring in the New Year.  Mama is happy when her chicks come home to roost, and as they say, if Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

Wishing everyone a happy holiday season and a lot of needlepoint in the New Year!

Massachusetts postcard -- finale

With all the little details accounted for, the Massachusetts postcard is ready for the finisher!

The turkey combined two shades of Felicity's Garden in an ancroaching Gobelin stitch for the body and three shades of heathery Burmilana in a long/short stitch for the feathers.

The roof and outline for the barn were worked in tent stitch with DMC #5 perle cotton.  The side and door were formed with slanted Gobelin stitches, the front in a diagonal oblong cross stitch, and the window in a Scotch stitch variation--all with DMC cotton floss.

The flowers at the corner of the frame were worked in satin stitches with Vineyard Silk Classic Bright White, with Burmilana leaves and French knot centers using DMC floss.

I particularly like the colors in this postcard for the "colonial" feel they convey!

Rounding the bend

The dark green lower frame of the postcard is now finished, using Impressions in a diagonal mosaic stitch.  The date at the bottom was filled in with tent stitches of the same Impressions used to work the Nobuko background of the inner scene.

The cranberries at the top of the center scene were worked in an encroaching Gobelin stitch with Vineyard Silk Classic Claret, Bonfire and Sizzle.  The stems were created with tent stitches of brown DMC #5 perle cotton and the leaves with two strands of Burmilana in a satin stitch.

What's in a name?

The answer to this blog post's subject line question is simple:  Petite Very Velvet!

PVV has to be one of my most favorite threads.  When stitching with basketweave, and particularly in darker colors, the individual stitches of PVV blend into one another to create a seamless effect that I really like.  And the loft of PVV creates a higher profile against the Vineyard Silk Classic background here  to make this area of the postcard really look like a banner.

The lower part of the center scene has been worked with Impressions in a Nobuko stitch, one of my favorite stitches.  I think of Nobuko as my "Where's Waldo" stitch:  you know I'm going to use it somewhere in a project--it's just a matter of where.

The lower frame of the postcard has been started on the right, using Impressions again but this time in a diagonal mosaic stitch.  This stitch will be easy to compensate around the flowers in the corner and the date at the bottom of the postcard.

Needle-blending, again

Work on this little postcard began with the sky, which has been needle-blended using three values of DMC cotton floss.

With the canvas turned upside down, I began at the horizon , basketweaving four canvas threads high with four strands of DMC floss 3325 and staggering the bottom stitches so as not to create a line.  Subsequent rows of six canvas threads high were worked in the following recipe:

Row 2:  DMC floss 3325 - 3 strands, DMC floss 3841 - 1 strand
Row 3:  DMC floss 3325 - 2 strands, DMC floss 3841 - 2 strands
Row 4:  DMC floss 3325 - 1 strand, DMC floss 3841 - 3 strands
Row 5:  DMC floss 3841 - 4 strands
Row 6:  DMC floss 3841 - 3 strands, DMC floss 775 - 1 strand

The background behind "Massachusetts" was stitched in basketweave with Vineyard Silk Classic Shell.