Dressing Mother Ginger and celebrating a blog birthday

Most of us have heard the expression "My, how time flies when you're having fun." It's hard to believe that The Cape Stitcher is two years old today! My thanks go out to all of you who have taken the time to visit and watch my progress in bringing painted canvases to life!

Now to Mother Ginger! I've made my color choices, and not for the first time am I glad that I never paint a master for a design until I've stitched the model. Mother's cap and shawl remain white, worked in satin stitch for the cap and diagonal mosaic stitch for the shawl using Vineyard Silk "Bright White." But I've changed her dress to a gray, using DMC #5 perle cotton #318 in a Nobuko stitch for the bodice and hoop skirt and tent stitch for the sleeves, which are outlined in DMC floss #444. Her face has also been stitched in basketweave with DMC floss #950.

With these elements in place, the color choice for the background became clear: a royal purple to set off the colors of the other costumes, intersected by vertical lines of gold metallic to emphasize the vertical composition of the design. I'm using DMC floss #550 in rows of side-by-side mosaic stitches and Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #002 for the gold stripes.

A good start! Now I'll work from top to bottom, adding background and costumes as I go.

Act II, continued!

Next up in my new series based on The Nutcracker ballet is Mother Ginger, the title character in the last divertissement, or independent dance, of Act II. Tchaikovsky based this character on the nursery rhyme Mother Gigogne, or the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, and derived inspiration for the music from a French folk song.

Unlike the other entertainments provided at the banquet for Clara and the Nutcracker in the Land of Sweets, this one is a light-hearted frolic. The character of Mother Ginger, traditionally played by a man on stilts, lumbers onto the stage wearing an enormous hoop skirt and garish wig. At a musical cue, Mother opens the front of the skirt and an assortment of children--lucky members of the ballet company's school--scurry out and scamper around the stage.

When I worked up this design two years ago, the hardest part was including seven figures in a diamond-shaped ornament 4-1/2 inches high by 4-1/2 inches wide! Revisiting this canvas, I didn't change the composition, but I will need to make some decisions about color to make Mother Ginger and her brood come to life!

Exit stage right

Coffee, the Arabian dancer, has finished her performance!

With the background completed, it was time to add the final details to her veil. A couple of months ago, I had picked up some interesting new--to me, anyway--threads for a Sailor's Valentine that I was working on. I didn't use the thread for that project, but vowed to find a use for it, as the colors were so appealing.

To finish off the veil, I used DMC Color Illusions #5 perle cotton #4030 in a satin stitch. In some variegated threads, the space between color changes is too great to use in a small space, but this one was just perfect. No need to "cut and paste" the thread to achieve the right gradation of color here! The weight of the perle cotton makes the veil stand out from the background, and the light playing off the twist in the thread gives the illusion of transparency, which is just right for a gauzy veil.

Next up: I'll continue with another character from Act II!

Still working behind the scene

Now that the slanted gobelin stitch section of the jacquard pattern is finished behind little Coffee, I've started filling in with tent stitches using DMC floss #869.

Notice that the direction of the jacquard pattern--from bottom right to top left--is opposite that of the veil which covers part of Coffee's face. This "opposition" creates tension and adds to the exotic flavor of the overall design.

I've trimmed the veil itself with Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #014 which will make it easier to fill in this area later.

I'll be back on Friday with a finale, but in the meantime, hope all of my readers have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving Day!

Making it easy for myself

I decided to work the background for the "Coffee" canvas in a jacquard stitch, so before I picked up needle and thread, I picked up a permanent marking pen! I certainly don't mind counting threads--after all, I am a stitch painter--but I didn't want to struggle with compensating around the central figure that interrupts the continuity of the jacquard pattern.

Once I had marked where all the tent stitches in the pattern would fall, I began stitching on Coffee's costume. Her halter top was worked in slanted gobelin stitches over two threads and the harem pants in a Nobuko stitch, both using Trio "Natural," a silk/wool blend that provided enough loft to raise these areas above the background. I then trimmed both top and pants with Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #014. Her face, trunk, arms and feet were stitched in basketweave with DMC floss #841.

I've started working on the background, using DMC floss #842 for the slanted gobelin stitches in the jacquard pattern, and will finish this area before filling in with the tent stitches.

Coffee time!

The second canvas in my series of ornaments based on The Nutcracker ballet is the Arabian dancer, who symbolizes coffee. This lithe little lady appears in Act II as the first in a series of divertissements, or independent dances.

Poor Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky ran into a serious problem as he was composing the music for the ballet: half-way through the first act, he had exhausted the story line of E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and Mouse King, the tale upon which the ballet was based. The original story ends with the battle between the Nutcracker and the Mouse King, and the rodent monarch is defeated when Clara throws a shoe at him.

Tchaikovsky decided to treat the rest of the ballet as the unfolding of the young girl's fantasy, in which the Nutcracker becomes a handsome prince who takes her on a magical journey through the Land of the Snowflakes to the Land of Sweets. A sumptuous banquet is held in the Land of Sweets for Clara and her Nutcracker, and Coffee leads off the entertainment. Tchaikovsky's inspiration for the music to which the Arabian dancer sensuously sways was actually a lullaby from Russia's Georgian province.

Do come back and watch my progress as Coffee comes to life!

When the clock struck midnight....

....I finished the Herr Drosselmeyer canvas!

I first finished the background, working tent stitches to frame the Scotch stitches, using Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #003.

On to the inside of the clock case, where I used DMC floss #938 and white for the inside border and the dial. More DMC floss #938 in basketweave filled in the area behind the clock weights. I used two plies of DMC floss #310 in cross stitches for 3, 6 and 9 o'clock positions and two upright stitches to strike midnight.

Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #002 in half-mosaic stitches decorated the corners around the dial, with vertical long stitches forming the clock weights.

I'll move on to Act II of The Nutcracker on Saturday to begin my next canvas!