So I haven't picked up a needle in a week.....

that's right, had visitors here in cool Colorado from the ovens of Arizona. We usually get a lot of visitors during the Summer which is wonderful. So not only was my stitching interrupted but also I didn't have any "Stress Tabs" aka M&M's, on hand to get me through. Since I went on the sugar wagon about 3 years ago there's nothing in this house to rely upon anymore, sniff, sniff. But I did survive the stitching drought and am very anxious to get back to my Lite Stitches project and finish up Gay Ann Roger's Red Kitty Sampler (you didn't know about this, first mention) which is about half way done. Will try to get a picture up in the next day or so and then I need to get to stitching a few obligatory canvases.

It seems I never stitch anything for myself. Is this the same for you? I have a few things I want to do, but gifts, requests and classes seem to keep me busy all the time. Not to mention the fabulous enabling publication, "needlepointNOW" that has 3 projects calling to me in just one issue. It's ridiculous really, there oughta be a law, or rule or etiquette guidelines in place about putting so many fabulous projects in one place. No affiliation, just a great fan. Those wonderful Kimono ornaments on the front cover nearly stopped all progress on anything else. Thankfully I didn't have everything I needed to start the first one. Whew, that was a close call to deepening my UFO pile.

I guess I should get to gettin' if I'm going to stitch this afternoon. Hope you're working on something that brings you joy. Take care til next time.

Suzy Murphy's Lite Stitches Workshop

The technique known as "lite stitches" or "shadow stitching" is one that I hadn't tried before until a few weeks ago. Suzy Murphy came down to Colorado Springs from Wyoming to teach her class, "Lite Stitches," named for her book with the same title. Very, very fun way to learn something new. Suzy is an entertaining teacher and kept everyone "in stitches" throughout the weekend! Ahem.

Using fewer strands of thread than is traditionally recommended for the canvas gauge, along with a handsomely painted canvas, I learned how to achieve beautiful subtle color and textural effects allowing the painted design to show through the stitches. This method is used in conjunction with skipping over canvas threads covering only every other one. This way there is no need to blend threads and eliminates the painstaking matching threads to canvas paint.

An obstacle I encountered using this technique became apparent when I tried to hide my tails and away knots. You just have to use common sense where to bury or begin threads on an open canvas, if it shows through, it's not the end of the world but try again to hide them where they will be least noticeable.

So most of the stitching in the photos was completed during the first day of the class so you can see just how quickly using these methods show fast progress. The textures created by using metallics and skipping stitches are subtle but beautiful. Are you able to see the effect created when using a white thread over both the snow and into the the blue mountains? It's a great shading technique and so simple. To be continued soon......

Rio Rincon WIP

I continue to experiment with adding pictures. I was hoping I could just leave a link on the side of the blog where the pictures would be opened, but I haven't figured that out just yet.

Rio Rincon is a canvas designed by southwest artist Terry Medaris. There is a very large line of similarly painted canvases available and I have 3 more that when completed will be framed alike. I am nearly finished with this first piece and with Terry's stitch guide it has been a fast and fun project. I plan on using some of the same stitches for the other pieces in the collection. I particularly like the "Pattern Stitch" used in the sun with overdye. Other stitches include Padded Cross Stitch, Reverse Mosaic, Victorian Step and others. Threads used are metallic braid, ribbon floss, floss, overdye, Watercolours, Neon Rays, Fiesta, wool and rayon floss. Not much left to stitch, then I will tackle the beads. I don't really enjoy beading, the needles are so thin and sharp I end up wounding myself with nearly every bead!

Chinese Lanterns

The Chinese Lanterns needlepoint came from a charted graph in "Classic Stitches" magazine. It was a very fast project to stitch as it was done completely in DMC Perle Coton, so no stripping of threads. In addition it is stitched in only one stitch, straight Gobelin. I thought it was really neat using only one stitch to create a variety of textures.

For example the gold lantern looks like a layered stitch, but it is a very simple 2 vertical over one horizontal or 2 horizontal over 1 vertical, yet it creates a very textured surface.

"Classic Stitches" is a British needlework publication in which I have no financial interest, simply a very happy subscriber. The subscription is fairly pricey, I suspect because of postal rates coming from across the pond, but it is well worth it featuring several different forms of needleart in each issue. You can check it out at http://www.classicstitches.com/ just for fun.

Moving right along...NOT!

Well I definitely thought I would be much further along building this blog by now. Thing is, I am unfamilar with where everything is, like where do I get a counter, or more to the point, why do I get a counter??? I see other blogs filled with fun things to "press" and calendars and seemingly more options for formatting. Well, I'll keep looking.

Last night I went to a friend's house for dinner and stitching; together we are creating a needlpoint design of a place that we both have interest in. Neither one of us are designers so we are moving forward at a snails pace which doesn't surprise me. In general we both are fairly methodical in our approach and luckily have many other stitching projects to hold our interest when this get's bogged down. So far we have stitched the outline and have assigned symbols for each space in the design. More details to come.

I call my friend a turbo stitcher as I have never seen anyone stitch at a break neck pace before. It doesn't matter that she's working on 32 count, in the dark, with one hand tied behind her back, she's just plain fast. And good. Her work is quite amazing. I just don't have the discipline to do anything fast, except maybe gain weight.

Two projects, one I'm about to finish is Rio Rincon has been a fun project stitching up quickly. The other is completed, Chinese Lanterns, was also an unusually fast project to stitch. Since I got the chart out of a magazine this project came in under $10 total. No, not including the framing. The framing, yes that is a whole other price point.
So here's the latest submission. Thanks for visiting.