A piece for Shane

"Yes, Mom, I know it's been awhile since I called..." Sorry for the long break. Between a bit of family upset, a minor illness, and a whole lot of lassitude, I'm back in the blogging chair. The metaphorical blogging chair, that is.

Here is the result of about four days of work on a piece for Shane. Who is Shane, you ask? My daughter's fiancé! I have to get this done for him because everyone in the family MUST have one. I'm not going to tell you what it is yet though I'm sure it's fairly obvious, especially if you look through my blog history.

It's actually from a Dimensions kit from 1996. I've become so used to over-dyed floss these past few years that I'd forgotten about "blended floss." Some designers use the entire palette of floss colors of DMC or Anchor. Some, like the Silver Lining's Marc Saastrad use DMC and 

Anchor combined to create a palette of over 700 colors. But back in the 80's and 90's, we did a lot of "blended floss." Take strands of different colors and put them together in your needle to create a third color. The large rounded object in my photo (just for fun, let's call it "the moon") is done with two strands of yellow floss and three strands of pale brown. In real life, it looks a bit like straw. The rest of this round "moon" will be stitched with only five strands of yellow.  This creates a texture I wouldn't get with a single color and a uniformity I wouldn't get with over dyed floss. I really need to remember this trick. You'd think that doing it in half crosses would go faster but I have to constantly check on the tension of all five threads in each stitch.

In more news, the Shoreline Stitchers Showcase here in Southern California was held last month. I entered four pieces. I was a bit frustrated that I had so little to choose from but I just haven't gotten a lot completed recently. Some years it seems like I get nothing completed and then other years lots of big projects get completed. This was not a period of high completion. Sigh.

This is Jonathan's stocking. It is an all-over cross stitch design and took a second place ribbon. I love this design.

Here is Jonathan and Michal's wedding sampler that won a first place blue ribbon. Again, you can't see it in the photos, but the designer called for the bells to use a whole lotta blending filament, gold in the gold areas and white in the white areas. This made the bells look metallic. 

My Around the World in 80 Stitches box won a second place. Not bad for something I was considering throwing out.

Here are my Gingerbread House ornaments stitched on perforated paper and with lots and lots of beads.

And here are the backs.

The Wedding Sampler is Done

My daughter's wedding sampler is done!

 This is the 1Corinthians Wedding Sampler by Stoney Creek. As with most needlework, the photo can't capture what the piece actually looks like. For instance, both the doves and the bells look like they are the same white but they're not; the doves are the natural soft whites and grays you'd expect but the bells are stitched with a white metallic blending filament to look more like painted metal. The gold upper part of each bell is stitched with gold thread and iridescent pearl blending filament while the same gold thread is stitched with a gold blending filament to create the gold bands and clappers. Iridescent stitches are randomly placed in the greenery to look like dew drops. The two hearts on the top are stitched with the iridescent gold colors on the edges and then filled with gold metallic back stitched lines. The effect is a soft shimmer balanced with the matte of the roses and doves and is quite pleasing.

I recently went to see a Lichtenstein exhibit and realized how easily his work translated into photographs because it was, like the graphic art that inspired him, flat and uniformly finished. Really, when you've seen a good quality photo of his work you've pretty much seen the piece (though you should go to an exhibit if you can because his art really is fun). However, so many other artists make texture and finish so much a part of their work that even the best photo can't truly capture it. I remember the first time I saw Van Gogh's Starry Night. I'd seen that image all my life but the real piece was so alive in comparison. Needlework is like that too. While my piece is done in a uniform cross stitch, the gloss of the floss laid in uniformity contrasting with the gleam of the metallics against the matte of the fabric make a contrast that can't be well translated into a photograph.