Roofs and Domes

I stitched this for an American Needlepoint Guild Charity Auction. I have no information about the designer of this canvas, it came with no stitch guide, no instructions of any kind. I don't actually remember choosing this, so I'm going to blame it on Jane-Beth or one of our American stitching friends. I'm sure it was thrust into my hand with a comment along the lines of "see what you can do with that, clever-clogs".

What could I do with it?
It was a painted canvas, so the colours, roughly, were already set. I could have worked the whole thing in basketweave, letting the colours do the work of showing the design, but though that would have been much quicker, it would have been much less interesting. Instead, I decided that I wanted to throw stitches at it to give each building its own texture.

I can't claim to be well travelled, but I've been about a bit and I've noticed that not only do buildings in different countries and regions have different shapes, they have their own local textures. (Even modern concrete and glass has a different feel in different countries.) The buildings on this canvas looked as though they came from different places so, in my mind, they cried out 'Texturise me!'

I used a different stitch or variation for every building and roof, but used a Kreinik gold somewhere in every building to unify the whole. Looking back through my notes, I used Basketweave, Diagonal Brick, Lattice, Satin Stitch, Milanese, Brick, and Jaquard Stitch. The threads were Anchor and DMC, both floss and perle.
Because each area was quite small, I never reached the 'hate' stage on this piece, though as usual I did have to struggle with compensation in some places.

It took me 86 hours to stitch Roofs and Domes.

Halloween

Every year the American Needlepoint Guild holds a Charity Auction of needlework donated by members.
One of the joys of stitching something for the auction is that you can choose a canvas that looks as though it would be fun to stitch but which you wouldn't necessarily want to own permanently. In 2010 I chose two different canvases. The first was Halloween. I don't know who the designer was, and there were no instructions or stitch guide, only the painting on the canvas.
I'd love to hear from anyone who recognises it.

Obviously, being Halloween, it had to be 'loud' and the letters had to be in the same stitch. I had the ugly pumpkin orange and just knew it was what I wanted. I considered making the O the same colour as the other letters, but decided that the silhouette witch would look better against the sickly yellow. The background had to be night-like, and in a stitch that was complementary but sat back from the letters and figures. It had to be a dark blue, black tends to be deadening, and grey would never have worked, neither supporting or clashing with the orange.

The figures were fun. I did most of them in tent stitch, but I used fluffy threads for the cats and the owl, and a variegated wool for the tree. The green of the goop from the cauldron had to be yucky of course and the pumpkins had to have lit up eyes and mouths. The witch, following the best traditions of wicked witches, had to have stripy stockings and purple hair.

Halloween, with apologies for the  over-run

It was fun to choose colours that went together, but didn't quite, if you follow me, and I enjoyed playing with ideas for the figures. It took me 88 hours to stitch Halloween.

Crossing The Spectrum

This was the second of the two classes I took in Milwaukee. When I saw the picture in the Seminar Brochure I fell for the colour gradations. It is stitched on Congress Cloth using Splendor silks and Kreinik #4 braid. I love Congress cloth, and Kreinik and I don't think I'd used Splendor before I took this class.
Then I got to class and discovered thread blending. That was cool, and not a concept I'd really considered. Once I tried it I could see that it was both easy and difficult. The easy bit is to take two strands of one colour and one strand of another and stitch with all three. The difficult bit is to find colours that lend themselves to it. Sue Reed is an expert at it. I just followed the instructions, but I could see that it was another useful lesson.

The thread blending happens in the outer border where the colours merge as they zig-zag round the main design, which kind of reminds me of a portcullis. My poor photography does not do justice to the variety of stitches we used, Cross Stitch, Scotch Stitch, Slanted Gobelein, Tied Cross Stitch and Eyelets. I had lots of fun stitching this.

Crossing The Spectrum was designed and taught by Sue Reed. She has to be the most patient person I know, and one of the most knowledgeable on Needlepoint. She was always happy to answer questions and repeat demonstrations, and she was generous with needlepoint tips.

Crossing the Spectrum measures 7.25 x 7.25 inches and is framed up to 12" square. It took me 150 hours to stitch.

Persian Star

Still in Milwaukee.
After tourism, Seminar. I took two classes in 2009, The first was "Persian Star", designed by Jane Zimmerman and taught by Leigh Shafer.

I chose this class for a number of reasons.
I've always been drawn to the geometric and I liked the design when I saw the picture in the Seminar brochure. Then I read the class description; Novelty Japanese fillings, novelty pattern couching on metallic foundation, Burden Stitch, Lattice on satin and layered satin patterns. What wasn't to like? What I did miss was that there was pre-work. Approximately 3 to 4 hours it said.
A word on pre-work. It has to be accurate. Get it wrong and you throw the whole design out of kilter, so don't hurry it or skimp on it. When the teacher tells you it will take so long, it's best to allow a couple of hours more. The pre-work on Persian Star, outlining the main shapes, took me 6 hours. When I'd finished I swore I'd never do a class with pre-work again.

Cool or what? The design is thread heavy, with layers of stitching one on top of the other. The Burden Stitch was indeed a burden until I got the hang of it, and the various lattices and fillings were a lesson in accuracy. One stitch out of line and it sticks out like a sore thumb.
Unfortunately, Jane Zimmerman, who created the stitches and the design, was unable to teach the class, but Leigh Shafer stood in for her and was an excellent substitute, cool, calm and patient. Under her guidance we tackled a little of each stitch and by the end of two days I was confident that I could finish Persian Star at home.

Persian Star measures 9½" square, mounted in a 15" square frame. Including pre-work and class time it took 132 hours.