Fenway Park at 100--An update

What happens when a needlepoint designer, designer/stitcher and needlepoint finisher collaborate for charity? Good things!

The radio-telethon held at Fenway Park this past August to support the Jimmy Fund raised more than $3.4 million for patient care and cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. The 100th birthday commemorative pillow designed by Cape resident Melinda McAra, finished by Marcia Brown, also from the Cape, and stitched by me brought in $410.99 for the cause! Pretty cool, don't you think?

No more cold shoulder

Working on the back of the December angel tree-topper, I've been raiding my stash for threads. I've lucked out on some of the specialty threads, since I evidently haven't touched them since I stitched the front of the angel two years ago.

Still waiting for me were the burgundy Petite Very Velvet and the Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #080HL for the trim on the angel's shawl. And I had plenty of DMC floss #902 for the rest of the shawl, too.

I resumed stitching the skirt in basketweave--I'll definitely need more DMC floss #3726 to finish it. Then I took a break and worked the angel's halo with the same Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #002V that I'd used for the wings. The outside edge and radii were worked in tent stitches with the inside worked in satin stitches.

One thing that's been bothering me as I've worked on the skirt is the trim at the bottom--it's looking a little too plain. Now's the time to make any changes, before I get too far along with the skirt. Stay tuned!

Pardon my back

Work on the back of the angel tree-topper began with the wings, using Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #002V in the Nobuko stitch. So far, so good!

The front of December angel's dress was needle-blended, so I needed to continue as I began. Using four plies of DMC floss, I progressed through four values of one color family: DMC floss #778, 3727, 316 and 3726. This photo was taken when I'd made my way to four full plies of DMC floss #3726.

I don't think I'll have enough of this thread to finish the skirt, so I'll move on to other areas and check thread quantities before making a trip to my LNS for reinforcements.

Already half-way there

I was quite disappointed when the tree-topper angel canvas I'd been working on turned out to be poorly painted. The stitch count for the front didn't match the back, which would have produced a cock-eyed mess for a finisher had I gone ahead with the tree-topper idea. I finished stitching Emily as a one-sided ornament--pretty, but one-sided.

Then it hit me: I already had the front of an angel that I dearly loved, tucked away safely in a drawer for more than two years. It was the December angel, painted by Judy Harper for me as December is my birth month. I stitched it for her Nov/Dec 2010 column in Needlepoint Now, blog-stitching it with her permission in August of that year. She insisted that I keep it, but I hadn't decided how to finish it. Now I know!

I got out my graph paper, carefully counted the stitches from the finished canvas, and then painted the outline on canvas in mirror image. I decided to simplify the flowers on the angel's skirt, adding just a sprig of holly at the bottom. I'll be stitching this back as my next project--just for me, a one-of-a-kind angel that will have much more meaning for me than any canvas I could have purchased.

Drumroll, please....

Amazing!--I actually finished two projects in a week's time. But the most recent finish is a doozie and a long time in the making!

Yesterday I put in the final stitches on the Nellie's Imari canvas designed by Judy Harper. The finish came ten days shy of three years since I began the project. It usually doesn't take me that long to stitch a canvas, but other projects would take precedence and I'd put Nellie aside.

It's stitched entirely in Vineyard Silk Classic and Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #002V, and is destined to take pride of place on our living room sofa. I promise to show a photo when it's made into a pillow!

A star-studded finale

In my last post, I mentioned that while Emily the Angel's skirt had been stitched, it seemed a little plain. Some embellishment was needed, but what form would it take?

I considered some French knot flowers on her skirt--but flowers generally have leaves, and I didn't want to add any green to the canvas. So I thought long and hard about what I could add, taking my cue from one of the colors I'd already used.

With the Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #2094HL that I'd used at her neckline and belt, I started randomly stitching stars and individual tent stitches on top of the basketweave background. The top-stitching doesn't obscure the needle-blending but does provide a little more visual interest.

Despite the fact that Emily has just a one-sided personality, instead of being the tree-topper she was originally destined to be, I'm happy with the way she turned out. She certainly was an economical little angel, since all the threads I used came from my stash. A tree-topper angel will have to wait for another day!

At it again!

I finished stitching the background of Emily's skirt--needle-blending again!

If you choose the right color family of floss, the effect of needle-blending is quite subtle. So subtle, in fact, that you won't see very much difference at all between the first few combinations of thread color.

In the photo at left, I'd started with four plies of DMC floss #3753 in basketweave, staggering the bottom stitch every other canvas thread so a line wouldn't be formed across the skirt. I moved on to three plies of DMC floss #3753 and one ply of DMC floss #3752, stitching five canvas threads deep. Continuing to subtract one ply of lighter floss and adding one ply of darker floss, I snapped the photo when I'd finished three plies of DMC floss #3752 and one ply of DMC floss #3753. As you can see, it takes awhile before the skirt starts to darken.

The photo on the right shows the finished skirt background. I stitched four plies of DMC floss #3752 across the canvas, then started cutting in DMC floss #932 in a 3-1, 2-2. and 1-3 ply combination. By the time I reached the bottom of the shirt, I was using four plies of DMC floss #932. I then used this same floss to stitch the fold lines that I'd previously skipped.

Is Emily finished? Not yet! While pretty, her skirt looks a little plain to me--I'll be back with some final touches soon!