Finished/Framed/Finally

I've been waiting for the mat to be cut so I could frame and finish this piece. I took this as a class by Suzy Murphy from her "Suzy's Lite Stitches" book. The canvas was beautifully painted by Liz at Tapestry Tent Designs, making it difficult to mess up on this project. (You may refer to my post of 5/28/08 for more information on the class).

A variety of threads were used including, Impressions, Flair, Balger Braid, Petite Very Velvet , NN Overdye Floss, Rainbow Gallery HiLights, and Anchor Floss. Stitches used are Tent, Random Long and Short, Encroaching Gobelin, Double Twill, Hungarian Bargello, Double Hungarian and Horizontal Parisian. With the exception of the Elk, the stitches and threads were chosen to let the painted design show through.I have never used a bunka brush before and I can see that I could have used a little heavier hand on the body of the Elk. I am overall pleased with how it turned out and will present to my husband for his home office. I had planned on putting this in a box top but the finished size of the design is 5.5" x 6" making if difficult to fit into a standard box top so I decided it would have to go into a frame. I could have extended the stitching except for the painted part of the design. I do wish designers might consider standard sizes when determining their designs' size; however, I understand that the creation takes priority, finishing second and I am sure this is a consideration when possible. Thanks for visiting today.

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......