mandarin-floss

DMC recently published these four charming gingerbread ornaments to stitch. The charts represent the icing on these decorated “cookies,” you add the cookie by either your stitching or your ground.

If you don’t want to stitch the ground, think about using perforated paper in ecru, brown evenweave fabric, or ecru canvas. If you want to use canvas, but want it darker think about painting or coloring it.

If you want to stitch the background, look for cookie colors in floss, Mandarin Floss, or stranded silk. You’ll want something matte because cooked cookies aren’t shiny.

Then pick more shiny threads for the icing. The models from DMC (pictured here) are stitched just in white, but you could also use colors. Think about a thread with some glitz such as Neon Rays, Satin Floss, Silk Lame, or even some metallics.

If you stitch them on perforated paper you finish them by cutting them out. How’s that for quick and easy?

See more here:
Gingerbread in Needlepoint – Free Pattern

Superbowl Stitching

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2008-02-04 08:02:29. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Keri Designs Hibiscus Hawaiian Quilt ornament

Yesterday was the Super Bowl and it was a game I actually wanted to watch. Then there was House (great episode), then there was the Jane Austen biopic (not very accurate) on PBS. This made for a seven hour stitching binge.

The Gay Ann Rogers classroom on SNS (Shared Needle Society) is a free group of stitchers in a Yahoo group who work on Gay’s lovely projects. They had a Stitch-in for the Super Bowl, we were all encouraged to stitch. I decided to take the day and work on the charming Hawaiian Quilt ornament from Keri Designs.

Stressless stitching, it’s done in Basketweave with T Stitch for the background. I only used threads which I hadn’t put away, back into the stash. The blossoms are a great coral shade of Spring II and I used almost all of it. The yellow and green are Rainbow Gallery’s Mandarin Floss, the navy is thinned down DMC matter cotton (no longer made( and the background is Rainbow Gallery’s Nordic Gold in white, which is one of my favorite backgrounds.

As you can see from the picture above, it’s quie charming. I only need to finish the background and stitch the green border. It was a perfect project for a day of TV watching, not so big I needed to look around it to see the TV, not so challenging, I needed to think too much, and small enough I could feel like I made progress.

Good day all around! I’m making it the car project and should finish it later in the week, probably on Wednesday.

Read the original here:
Superbowl Stitching

Blog Stitching — Needlepoint a Ladybug

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

My stitching for Super Bowl Sunday was to start working on the Ladybug. I love ladybugs, always have (but then I’ve never lived in a place with major infestations of them. This one is the Two-spotted ladybug, but there are many other kinds, not all of them red.

The red is stitched in Criss-cross Hungarian, above, using Silk & Ivory. I find the rhythm of this stitch very comforting and I like that it stitches up fast.

The head and spots are stitched in Basketweave using black Silk & Ivory, but I wanted the spots to look very round. Round is a problem in needlepoint. Jessicas make things round, but have far more texture than I want here.

The solution is to use Whipped Backstitch, above. You can make the outline thick or thin and the wrapping turns everything into a nice round shape. Since I didn’t want the outline to be too obvious, I used Mandarin Floss for it. I’m trying to decide if I want to do the same thing for the gold dots once I get there.

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See the original post:
Blog Stitching — Needlepoint a Ladybug

Needlepointing Houses – Come Stitch with Me

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Colonial houses, especially the ones of Colonial Williamsburg, are one of my favorite things. I grew up in a neo-colonial house (it looked like Mt. Vernon). I loved Williamsburg when I went there when I was 10. One of the things I love about Annapolis is all the charming colonial houses.

I’ve been asked recently about needlepointing houses, which poses some interesting problems. As a result I’m putting together a free project on stitching houses, our new Come Stitch with Me project.

Our project will have four houses on it, all colonials. One will be brick, one stone, and two wood. hey can be stitched as a set or individually as ornaments. We’ll got through the process together, talking about threads, stitches, and techniques for stitching windows, paths, grass, and roofs.

We’ll even spend a little bit of time “decorating” the houses for the holidays.

The class will start next Tuesday. I’m hoping to post a lesson every couple of weeks. At the end the project will be available as a free eProject to download after signing up for the mailing list.

To begin with assemble some materials for the project. You’ll need 18 mesh canvas, about 12″ square. You will also need to gather some threads. For roofs, you’ll need a matte, dark gray thread, Mandarin Floss would be good for this (M858 or M898). For glass panes, you’ll need dark gray and light blue this metallic (Kreinik #4, Treasure Braid Petite, or Sparkle Braid – Kreinik 025 & 014, Treasure Braid no gray & PB09, Sparkle Braid no gray & SK13 ). You can also use floss for this. For the frames of the windows, you’ll need white pearl cotton. For brick, pick an overdye in a brick color (Watercolours 164 or 217, Cinnabar or Chili For stone, and overdye in a stone color (Watercolours 246 or 247 – suede or dark suede, Threadworx 1118). The wood color is a bit harder, for this use floss and pick two colors you like from this Williamsburg palette. You can use threads from your stash for many of the details.

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