I haven’t blogged in forever! You must be missing me terribly. LOL! To be honest, I’ve been a little burnt out after the Dallas show. I didn’t want to look at a canvas, no less stitch one. Needlepoint overload!
But, I’m back in the saddle. My needle has been burning through this canvas by Melissa Prince.
I know . . .her again. LOL! I just love her designs. And I needed a design with really calming, muted colors after all the bright designs I’ve been stitching for the last few months.
I don’t usually share my works in progress. But since I’m nearly done, I figure I’ll have it finished and the guide written by the time we can get kits together.
I have to be honest . . .this piece is really difficult! It’s hard to do it justice. I’ve actually ripped things out a number of times, which I only do under penalty of death.
I started with the blue pumpkin. Let’s just say my first attempt did NOT work out. I had used two strands of a Silk ‘n Colors and it was too heavy. All the beautiful shading got totally covered up.
I think I like what’s going on now. I need to get a little more in and then I’ll decide. But I like the texture the stitch is giving to the pumpkin. I’ve spent WAY too much time looking at images of pumpkins lately.
Next I moved on to the crow since I was frustrated with all things pumpkin at that point. I found some threads in a Thanksgiving kit I bought years ago (and of course haven’t finished) that I thought would be fun in this piece.
The top of the hat is not for the feint of heart. It’s that dreaded Buttonhole on Bar. I hate doing it but I love how it came out. What was really hard about the crow was his body. I had to figure out where to delineate between the breast, the wing and the tail feathers. So, I decided to use two different stitches and stop them where the shading became more pronounced. I just have to bead the moon and the spider and then he’s done!
I waited as patiently as I could to stitch the sunflowers. I try to leave ribbon work till the end so it doesn’t get messed up after I’ve spent so much time making each petal look the way I want it.
I had no idea what the center things was supposed to be so I asked Melissa. Apparently it’s a budding sunflower. Google that. It’s really quite interesting. I can’t wait to show you what I have in mind for that.
The leaves were tricky because of the shading again. It’s been a while since I’ve stitched what I call a “pretty piece.” Meaning one with lots of shading. Those always used to be my favorite kinds of designs, but lately I’ve been stitching a lot of color block and stitch painted designs. I love stitching both kinds of designs. They’re totally different in how I treat a canvas. I tend to use a lot of techniques, as opposed to stitches when I stitch a piece with a lot of shading so that I can get the effect that the designer was going for. But, sometimes it’s nice to use straight up stitches. It still amazes me how many different things we can do on a needlepoint canvas. I love designing a piece with stitches and making them all work together.
Well . . .I better get back to stitching so I can get this piece finished up. I hope you love this piece as much as I do!
I just love them!
They’re fresh and funky, with lots of room to play with stitches and techniques.
