Brain storm! I know, I'll try to locate a stitch guide and I did just that. So proud was I when I came across the guide on Susan Portra's website, http://www.bringyourcanvastolife.com/ and wasted no time in ordering it. You might say I was all over it like a spider monkey!Sent promptly, I was thrilled to get started. Which unfortunately didn't happen. Other priorities taking over, the guide was kept in it's express mail envelope and later discarded as empty. What?!? What!?! Felt like forgetting to buy a lottery ticket and your numbers came in. Despondency immediately setting in, I thought of re-ordering it, but that would have been what any normal thinking person would have done. I, on the hand, decided it was a lesson better learned if I just figured out the stitches on my own. Well this always holds up my progress and it took working about 6 months off and on to complete the project.
I knew I wanted to put it in a large Sudberry tray I had purchased earlier because they were on sale. At that time I didn't have anything particular in mind for the trays, yes, I said trayssss. Two separate mats were then cut and purchased, a black and red, and it turned out that the black was the best choice. The red perfectly matched the tray, but it was just too much red.
The wall background was stitched in #5 perle coton, the geisha's hair was all done in either Medici wool or #3 perle, all bodices used Sparkle Rays and all hair decoration was done in Flair. The "floor" was stitched in Silk and Ivory.
The green/black figure was stitched using, NN Floss Overdye, Neon Rays+, and Medici for the star shapes; Petite Very Velvet, Krenik braid, Razzle Dazzle, Mandarin Floss, and Soy Lustre Shadows for the 2nd geisha; the center figure was stitched using mostly perle coton, some Pebbly Perle, Sparkle Rays, and a little Treasure Braid. For geisha #4 I wanted to use Gloriana's 9 strand wool because I had it in my "signature color" which is turquoise. May not have been the best choice or else I could have used a different stitch where coverage would have been successful. Also used on the 4th geisha was Razzle Dazzle, Flair and Petite Very Velvet for the obi and red accents in Sparkle Rays. The purple geisha has Mandarin Floss, Sparkle Rays, couched Krenik Fine Braid Overdye and Treasure Ribbon.
These were really a blast to do, I was held up mostly because I wanted to find tiny little hair things (look like chopsticks but aren't). I scoured around all the scrapbooking supplies where there are always miniatures of real things but had no luck. So I used a variety of metalics and velvets instead. The geisha's final resting place will be on a black chest located in my daughter's upstairs guest bedroom; happily entertaining her overnight guests. Hmmm.
I am so excited this is done and I will have Rio Rincon up when it returns from the framers and as posted earlier, my pesky kimono should be constructed over the weekend. Wooooooooo Hoooooooooooooo. I am sooooooooo looking forward to playing in my 2009 queue! If you made it down this far to what must have seemed like an unending blog entry, I thank you very much for stopping by today.
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