Happy Birthday, America!

Independence Hall, Philadelphia--the birthplace of The United States of America 240 years ago tomorrow with the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

I designed and stitched this piece four years ago for the July/August 2016 issue of Needlepoint Now to mark the 40th anniversary of the American Needlepoint Guild (ANG).  ANG's anniversary celebration took place during its annual seminar in Philadelphia. 

The sky behind Independence Hall is definitely the largest area I've ever needle-blended!

A Valentine for me

Before the holidays, I started working on a little baby gift for a friend's new grandchild--a 3-D block that spelled out "Baby" and incorporated  the child's initials.  Just for fun, I decided to take the 3-D concept one step further and created a birdhouse for myself that's called "Love Nest."  And it's all stitched just in time for Valentine's Day!

As you can tell by the photo, I just love the color pink!  The roof was worked in a horizontal diagonal cashmere stitch with Watercolours "Flagstone."  The love birds were worked in a satin stitch with Vineyard Silk Classic "Bright White," while all the greenery was stitched in French knots with Impressions #5061.  Except for a little Kreinik metallic for the lanterns flanking the front door, the rest of the birdhouse was stitched with DMC cotton floss. The "roofing materials" were all I needed to purchase--the rest of the threads all came from my stash.  A very economical Valentine's present for myself!

Good things come to he who waits

Remember the photo at left from 2011?  I had blog-stitched a Baltimore rowhouse based on plans DH had made for his model railroad.  Finally--over the holidays, he finished this section of his layout, with not one but three rowhouses!

Mind you, DH is an old-world craftsman, scratch-building all his structures, then creating roads and a backdrop in which to place them.  Cars of the period (circa 1950), people, lamp posts and trees are added.  Finally--argh--he "weathers" them to make them dirty so they look real.  Certainly this isn't something needlepointers would ascribe to, but hey, this is model railroading at its best!

I've been working on a bunch of things since I last blogged, and hope to be able to show something for myself soon.  But I promised to show his finished magnum opus when it was finished, and I think you'll agree the wait was worth it!  See why the two of us rub along so well?

A tree grows in Baltimore

The Baltimore row/alley house is finally finished!

I popped in the last window shade on the far right--three plies of DMC floss #543 in a horizontal interlocking gobelin stitch, and was then ready to attack the tree.

To make nice fluffy French knots that would make the tree stand out from the building, I chose Silk & Ivory "Broccoli." I added a few tent stitches at the base of the tree using DMC floss and the tree was done.

And what do I work on for my next project? I'm leaning toward another lighthouse adaptation--what do you think?

Window dressing

I've been ticking off all the little details on my "to-do" list for the Baltimore row/alley house, and I'm almost finished.

To recap, let's start with the lamp post. This was stitched with Kreinik #16 medium braid #005 and #5520. Why medium braid, when I generally use #12 tapestry braid? I find the finer weight in dark colors, particularly black, to be a little too thin in certain applications.

With all of the lighted areas of the windows completed with DMC floss #745 in a satin stitch, I started in on the window shades. I wanted to emphasize that each of the three sections on this block is an individual housing unit, so I treated the shades for each differently. On the left, I used two plies of DMC #842 floss in a horizontal interlocking gobelin stitch. For the center unit, I worked alternating vertical rows of tent and stem stitch with three plies of DMC floss ecru, with a horizontal row of stem stitches at the bottom.

Two plies of brown Burmilana formed the doors, with the transoms worked in tent stitch and the doors in slanted gobelin stitch. For the tree trunk, I used three plies of another shade of brown Burmilana, again in slanted gobelin stitch, to be sure it would stand out sufficiently from the bricks behind it.

One more window shade, the leaves of the tree, and the tiny bit of ground at the base of the trunk remain to be stitched, and this project will be a wrap!

All bricked in!

TA DA! I finished stitching all the bricks on the Baltimore row/alley house. I used up a goodly chunk of the second skein of Sheep's Silk "Lingonberry," but I didn't count the bricks as I went along. I'm a committed stitcher, but I'm not totally crazy!

I'm continuing past the base of the tree working the sidewalk in Nobuko stitch with DMC #5 perle cotton #644. And to reward myself, I began stitching the window sashes in shadow inside the previously-worked frames using DMC floss #415 in tent stitch.

While I'm itching to stitch the little lamp post, I need to decide first what thread I'm going to use. There are still a lot of little details to work out on this canvas, but at least I feel I've reached a major milestone!

Plodding along

It's been hard to find time to stitch on the little Baltimore alley house lately. Sometimes I feel like one of those Chinese acrobats who used to keep seven plates spinning on top of bamboo poles. The second he had the seventh plate spinning, he'd have to go back and give the first plate another twirl!

So when I finished bricking in the center unit, it's not surprising I got a little carried away! I filled in two of the darkened basement windows with a satin stitch using DMC floss #414

I then moved on to the sidewalk under the partial unit on the right. This is being worked in a Nobuko stitch with DMC #5 perle cotton #644, a pretty good match for cement.

I haven't rummaged in my "foliage" bag yet--for some strange reason, I keep all the threads I use regularly for grass, bushes and trees in one plastic bag. I need to pick just the right shade of green for the leaves on the tree and make sure I have enough. If not, I'll need to run over to my LNS--I owe Barry a dozen Nutcracker Suite ornament canvases anyway!

Heading toward the basement

I've added more "marble" to the row house in preparation for stitching more bricks!

After framing the two doorways with floss, I worked the trim under the windows with a slanted gobelin stitch over three threads. Two of the three basement windows have been framed, one stairway completed with more slanted gobelin stitches, and the other begun.

With that much completed, I couldn't resist filling in the basement bricks on either side of the far right stairs. I'm pleased with the shiny effect of the "marble" against the brick facade.

There's a lot more construction to do before I can begin the little details!

Row house progress

DH informed me the other day that, technically speaking, this is an alley house, not a row house--alley houses having two floors whereas row houses have three. Just as well, I thought--one less floor of bricks to stitch!

I've made it all the way across the top of the second floor, framing in the windows with floss as another course of bricks gets closer. Outlining the windows and doors is a nice break from working all these oblong cross stitches! I've gone through an entire skein of Sheep's Silk "Lingonberry" at this point, but luckily have two more skeins waiting in the wings!

I have some canvas painting and another canvas to finish this week--it remains to be seen how much progress I make on little Bal'more!

Tweaking as I go along

As DH was taking the photo of the Baltimore row house canvas that I showed in my last blog, he remarked casually, "You didn't add any dentil moulding to the top of the building." "You didn't have any in your drawing," I replied. "No," he said, "but I'll probably carve some when I build my version."

After deleting a few expletives, I counted the canvas threads between the capstones. Yes! I hadn't painted the dentils, but I sure as heck could stitch them! So the cast-iron trim at the top was worked in DMC #5 perle cotton white and #415 in a combination of tent, mosaic, and slanted gobelin stitches.

For the marble trim around the windows, I chose white DMC floss. I'd initially thought of blending in a ply or two of gray to simulate the look of veining, but some experimenting on doodle canvas only produced some dirty-looking marble.

Choosing a thread for the bricks was easy: my hands-down favorite for bricks is Sheep's Silk "Lingonberry," a silk/wool blend with a subtle overdye. The stitch I'm using is a diagonal vertical oblong cross with the canvas turned 90 degrees. The design shows one full and two partial housing units, but butting the bricks together on doodle canvas didn't provide a distinct line between these areas. So I added the line with a single row of tent stitches using DMC floss #919. Another instance in which it pays not to paint a master for a design until you've stitched a model!

For once, I let DH do all the research for this design, so I wasn't aware of the unique screens sported by these homes until Cyn Davis of Maryland left a link in her recent comment:

http://www.paintedscreens.org

It seems William Oktavec, a Czechoslovakian immigrant, began painting brightly colored designs and scenes on the window screens of row houses in Baltimore in 1913. Painted on the outside only, the screens allowed residents to look out but prohibited passers-by from looking inside unless there was a light source in the room. Check out this link to find out more about The Painted Screen Society of Baltimore!

Now to get back to brick-laying!

Just for fun

One of the reasons DH and I have stuck together harmoniously for so long is that we have many interests in common, architecture being one of them. My interest in architecture is manifested in the "Doorways to the Past" series and my adaptations of lighthouses to needlepoint. DH is an avid model railroader, who has scratch-built virtually all of the buildings on his extensive HO scale layout. Even before we moved from Texas five years ago, he was designing on the computer his dream layout for the new house on the Cape.

He's recreating a section of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad extending from West Virginia to "The Big City" (aka Baltimore) circa 1950, when steam engines were being phased out for diesel locomotives. When he needs a particular style of building for which a kit is unavailable, he researches, designs and builds one--a case in point being the mill he created a few years ago that was featured in Model Railroader magazine. Just recently, he determined that the buildings he needed to transition from farmland to The Big City--Baltimore row houses--would have to be developed from square one. A photo of the cardboard mock-up he created is at top left. I decided to take advantage of all his research and the design he'd generated on the computer to create a needlepoint version, shown on the right.

Baltimore row houses were constructed in the mid 1800s to fill the need for low-cost working-class housing created by the Industrial Revolution. Their appearance was distinctive: cast-iron trim flanking the top, red brick construction, and window trim and front steps of marble. So proud of the ability to own their own homes were these workers that the sight of them scrubbing those marble steps to keep them gleaming was common.

A century later, many of these structures had fallen into disrepair and were demolished by fire or the wrecking ball. Before the recent economic downturn, however, some developers moved to restore the buildings to once again provide affordable inner-city housing. I'll be stitching this canvas as my next project, returning a small stretch of row houses to their once-pristine condition. And I see a lot of bricks in my future!