Checking off the colors

I kept a promise to myself and finished all the white background on the Nellie's Imari canvas--a major milestone!

Moving on to the fourth corner medallion, I finished the last area of navy and then filled it in with the red. I worked the leaves around the stylized flower with the pale peach, then switched to the bottom border and filled in the remaining areas needing that color. I also added the last little bits of gray thread. Four colors down, six still to go!

Thus inspired, I worked the diamond band under the vase. I'll finish outlining the red areas in the bottom border next--I just may see an end in sight for this project!

Emily--coming and going

Not to worry--I haven't given up on the Nellie's Imari canvas. But DH commented the other day that all of my recent progress photos look the same--there are so many color changes in the design that a couple of days' work really doesn't show that much progress. So I've decided to add another canvas to the two I'm already working on.

It was years ago, when we still lived in Texas, that I saw the canvas posted here. It was a virtual fire sale on eBay, and I hated the idea of such a graceful little angel without a home. While in the style of a well-known designer of angels, this canvas has no designer's name whatsoever--the first time I think I've seen an unmarked canvas. I decided to give the angel a name--Emily--for the simple reason I like the name!

Emily is a poster child for what NOT to do with a needlepoint canvas: you never fold it! But the seller evidently didn't want to bother securing a mailing tube for the 11 x 18 inch canvas and, instead, folded it down the middle and stuck it in an envelope. Luckily for Emily and me, the fold--now somewhat discolored from years of being stored away-- is in the center of the canvas and doesn't effect the design area at all. So when I mounted the canvas on stretcher bars, I stretched the living daylights out of it and the buckle in the center pretty much flattened out.

I'll be stitching Emily as a tree-topper--I have close to 30 angels stitched and finished over the years and I think I've finally convinced DH that they need their own tree for the holidays. So stay tuned!

Plodding along

I've now finished the border on the left side of Nellie's Imari. For those of you who thought I'd be done with the whole piece by now, dream on! This is a mighty large canvas!

The next section I'll be working on--the white background on the bottom--is tricky. I have fairly long arms for someone my size, but the canvas is on 20-inch stretcher bars. If I turn the canvas 180 degrees to stitch the area between bottom center and the medallion in the bottom right corner, I can't reach that far. And I can't switch to a scroll frame to finish the piece because the margins aren't that big. Judy Harper stitched everything "in-hand" and could never understand why I bothered with stretcher bars.

So I'll muddle through somehow--I've promised myself to finish all the white background before delving into any more colored thread!

More progress on "Nellie"

Time sure flies when you're having fun!

Since my last post, I started work on another major project, under the radar screen, and have been painting canvases. My studio/office is in the basement, a great place to hide out when the humidity and temps start to rise. I usually stitch at the kitchen table, where the light is good and I can keep my eye on "the girls," our two little pooches. But when the heat rises, stitching with silk/wool blends creates a wicked case of sticky fingers.

So I switched over to work on Nellie's Imari, which uses Vineyard Silk Classic and Kreinik braid--a little easier for summer stitching. I need to stitch a fair amount of white before I can move on to another color, which sometimes means skipping around a bit to finish off a strand of colored thread. I decided to concentrate on one area at a time and have actually now finished the center section--a TADA moment!

I'll move next to the third border panel on the left--the white background is already done, so I can pop colors in and scratch that area off my to-do list.

Downtime

Last week was busy but productive: I signed off on the proof for the next issue of Needlepoint Now on Wednesday and submitted the copy and photos for the following issue on Thursday. The subjects for both pieces were original, and my brains were broken!--I needed some soothing stitching to help me decompress.

So I pulled out what probably is my favorite canvas of all time: Nellie's Imari by Judy Harper. The name of the piece is derived from a friend of Judy's mother who owned an antique Imari plate. The design area of the canvas is a whopping 16-1/2 by 16-1/2 inches on 18 ct. canvas. I began stitching it on Sept. 1, 2009, and at first spent quite a bit of time working on it. When my life became more complicated, I'd pick it up and put it down from time to time, last showing it here on the blog when it was about one-quarter finished. As of today, it's about two-thirds completed.

I'm stitching the piece exclusively in Vineyard Silk Classic and Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #002V--all in basketweave. Two and one-half of the side borders and almost all of the center square are finished--I keep adding a little more white background, then switch to another color for some variety. I'm getting close enough to see an end in sight, and would love to have it finished by Sept. 1 of this year. Time will tell!

A quick stitch

This little ornament certainly didn't take long to finish!

Since my last post, I finished filling in the zig-zags of the jacquard pattern with Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #002 in tent stitch. I then worked the background of the center circle in basketweave, using four plies of DMC floss #422.

To add a little depth, I worked the holly leaves in a satin stitch with dark green Petite Very Velvet. The berries were formed with French knots, using a full six plies of
DMC floss #321.

Now I have two ornaments ready for the finisher, so they'll be back in time to deck the red and gold tree for the Cape Cod Hospital Auxiliary's Holly Berry Bazaar!

Zipping right along

It's amazing how quickly the stitching on a piece can progress when the particular stitch you're using has already been painted on the canvas!

With the tent stitch zig-zags painted ahead of time, I made quick work of filling in the slanted gobelin portions of the jacquard stitch background. I used four plies of DMC floss #321 for this section.

I've started to fill in the tent stitches with Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #002 in the top right corner. When the gold section is completed, I'll move in to the center to finish up this ornament!