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.