Sudoku

At Homewood Embroiderer's Guild we've been playing Sudoku. Needlepoint Sudoku!

We ran the project as a mystery and finally revealed the last bits last night, so I can show what I've been doing. The idea came from Needle Pointers Magazine article by Marilyn Owen. Needle Pointers is the publication of the American Needlepoint Guild (their site is a treasure trove).

In September we handed out two sudoku puzzles to complete (I'm not good at this, I went right to the cheat sheet!). In November we handed out instructions for the borders and materials lists. Last month we took a shopping trip to Designer's Desk for those needing supplies. And finally last night everyone received a copy of the magazine with complete instructions and final tips and ideas.

One puzzle becomes your guide for what color or group of colors you place in each square of the design. The second puzzle is the guide to what stitch goes where. You list your fibers 1 to 9.  You may have one color, two, three, whatever.  For my final sampler instead of color I listed type of fiber--#1 is wool, #2 floss, #3 perle, etc. since I have basically slight variations of one color.  You can use nine different colors or, say two shades of blue, two of green and cream--then you can select light blue (1), dark green (2), cream (3), dark blue with light green (4), and mix them up until you have nine combinations. Puzzle one tells you what color combination to stitch in what square.

Then you select nine stitches. Each little square is twelve threads by twelve threads, so any stitch divisible by three or four will work.  Cashmere, alternating Scotch, basketweave, laid and couched designs, or more complex stitches. The magazine provided a nice variety. I used them all in the ornaments at the bottom. For my sampler I used stitches from the magazine and some others I like and did my own thing.  Puzzle 2 tells you what stitch to use in what square.

I began my borders with Watercolors thread, in the center above. It looked mild in the skein but turned out quite bright once stitched.  Too bright for the colors I'd selected to use to fill in the squares--I felt the borders and fillings would compete too much.

So I regrouped and searched my stash for navy threads. I ended up with a mix of shades of dark blue and navy with a blue metallic. (the surprising thing about color is that when I selected the Watercolors, I didn't see any blue in it at all, purple, aquamarine, and a brownish-orange, but not blue. I was shocked by how large the patches of medium blue were! Looking at the photo now, I wonder what I was seeing--the blue's obvious to me now. But not in the store. And that brownish-orange? School bus yellow in bright light.)

I'm still not sure I like it but I think it's better than the wild mix I had before. It also amazed me how many skeins of "navy" I selected only to find that they were all very different colors. They range from purplish to greenish. I added the midrange blues to provide a bit of contrast, but they, too, vary a bit. I decided I liked the variety. 

Stitching the squares is like popcorn! I can't stop once I begin. The braid-stitch borders worked up quickly, too.  This is a really fun project.

While I was regrouping, I decided to experiment. I made two "nine patch" designs using the sudoku games as the basis, with two very different palettes.  I followed the stitch designs in the magazine for these, but must say I "cheated" some on the colors to make the red and green ornament come out balanced.  But, hey, it's my game, my rules!

WIPs and FOs!

I had a busy weekend. I completed my first afghan rectangle for the Legal Loopers project and began the second. I completed the entrelac section in my diamond tote and am back to working rows. The stripe pattern from the top repeats and then the base is knit. It seemed to balloon up in the entrelac section--I'm very happy to be bringing it back to manageable size with the knit rows.
I've shown two of these before but this photo is better. Here are the three Japanese pastries I made from kits sent to me by my niece. They're now hanging on my office file cabinet.
On our way back from the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair on Friday, we stopped at Village Needleworks in Westmont. I picked up this painted canvas keyfob and stitched it Friday night and Saturday morning. Mostly it's floss but I found a sparkly blue mystery fiber to add to the floss for the water. It will be a Christmas gift.

Long weekend projects

The first thing I did last weekend (once I found the missing cut fabric squares, mentioned here) was begin the kits for the crewel chatelaine project I'm teaching in July. This represents between 8 and 10 hours of work. I didn't stop for much all day. The needles are snuggled into felt pieces, the design fabric cut, finishing fabrics cut, and all of the Appleton crewel wools measured out and allocated. I still have to print the design onto the fabric (the part I'm most anxious about turning out right) and finalize and print the instructions.On Sunday I worked on the edging for this pillowcase--it came to me with the embroidery complete. I'm working on the second of the pair.Early Monday morning I completed step two of the altar cloth--adding a slightly less raised line down the center of each arm. It's been passed back to the church.On Sunday and Monday I worked on this scissors case. The Watercolors are what makes it work--it's pretty mindless. It's all lined and has scissors tucked inside. And quickly Monday night I finished up some bookmarks for the EGA's literacy outreach and Hammond Reads (more here).

Martha Stewart Moment!

This weekend I had a "Martha Stewart" moment and made biscotti from a recipe in the now defunct Mary Engelbreit magazine. I wrapped pairs in parchment paper and tied them with overdyed perle cotton to give to friends here at work today. The three shown got a little overdone--they're mine!

For a first attempt I think they came out pretty good and I've had some good comments. I think I'd like them a tad less sweet next time.

I also finished the Santa ornament this weekend. I took pictures and notes on the finishing and plan to post a tutorial.

Stars!

This wonderful Star Temari ball was a gift from World Embroideries. I couldn't wait to get my paws on it! It now resides in our living room where I can see it all of the time. It's surprisingly heavy and solid and very cool--thanks!

Well, the transmission problem looks likely to be the expensive one, not the cheaper possibility. We're now looking into who we'll have fix it and where. My husband has a scanner that reads codes so we knew it was the transmission, but a friend has a better one that reads more specific information and he used it to diagnose the more specific problem this weekend.

We took ourselves to see Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino Sunday. It was a very good movie. It hit me hard, but then most things do. But it was very good.

I've worked my way through about 7/8 of Drums of Autumn. I find myself picking up words and speech patterns from the book. By the time I finish rereading the last two I'll likely have a Scots accent! Even knowing what happens, it's a riveting read. (I generally rocket through Diana Gabaldon's books the first time I read them because I have to know What Happens. My second time through I go slower and savor.) The movie and book filled up a lot of my weekend.

I did pull out another older project. Actually, this one is newer than most in my pile, but it's been on my mind. I began this piece in a class by Catherine Jordan last April at the EGA Great Lakes Region Seminar (blogpost here).

(BTW, this year's seminar is coming up soon--check it out here. It is very definitely well worth it.)

I made a lot of progress, but since it's mostly layers on top of layers, it may be hard to tell. At seminar I completed most of the tree trunks and began to stitch leaves on the trees. I began with the biggest tree in front and then realized that may not be the best idea.

I left that stitching in but rethought the rest and began from the back, stitching the leaves I thought would show through or be taller than others. Then I added leaves for the middle layer of trees. Now I'm back toward the front and am working on those leaves and have begun thinking about the foreground. Even if I mostly cover an area that's already been stitched, things peep through and add a feeling of depth.

Last night, just as I lay down in bed, it came to me how to stitch the mossy path--underside couching. It worked well with the very fragile velour thread. I got up early this morning (very rare for me) to stitch the path. (I was tempted mightily, but I knew that if I got up last night to do it, I'd probably botch it from being too tired.)

Taking photos like this is also very helpful. Looking at it I can see areas where I want to go in and add more background or change the shape a bit. I was worried that the little tree on the far left would be too bright but I think it's okay now that I've seen the photo.

I've found it interesting to note that most of what I'm picking up now is on canvas. I wouldn't have put needlepoint at the top of my list if asked but, well, there it is!

Needlepoint bracelet

Thanks to everone who commented on my two March challenge pieces. I really appreciate the feedback.

Next week I'm teaching a class at my local embroidery group. It will be a needlepoint bracelet I made for myself a year ago. I spent the weekend restitching the needlepoint squares as samples and also so I could chart it because the first time I did it I just sat down with thread and a scrap of canvas and stitched. Some of the squares were obvious (basketweave, waffle, leviathan) but others were mysteries.

I really got into making little squares and ended up with two sample sets. I also sorted through the bracelets, added adhesive squares to my package of things to bring---to stick the finished needlepoint squares into the bracelets. (I ordered those a while ago from the wonderful people at Memory Maker.) I've seen these bracelets at Jo-Ann's, too. I got my designs charted, too. So the class is ready to go.

I stitched the original bracelet and lilac samples with Needle Necessities Kreinik #12 braid overdyed. I loved working with it and one skein was plenty.

Each needlepoint square is 12 threads by 12 threads on 18 count canvas. I've decided to post it all here so you can make your own fun bracelet, too.

The second set of stitches is done with Laura Wasilowski's hand-dyed perle 5 and I just had fun stitching. I ripped as much as I stitched and had an enjoyable rainy Sunday.

The stitches are row 1: random from the center, a spaced-out Leviathan (every other thread) (this is the name by which I know this stitch but when I looked it up for a link, the stitch by that name was the same as what I know as Smyrna Cross so I couldn't find a chart for it) and web stitch. In row two I tried a spiral, pinwheel design, an eyelet with some tie downs--I did one layer of very spaced out eyelet stitches, added diagonal stitches at the corners, another layer of eyelet to fill in and then I wove in another diagonal stitch at each corner, Pekinese stitch. The bottom row is satin stitch, plaid stitch, and knit stitch.

I couldn't find links to these last two, although I know there are out there somewhere. Plaid stitch mimics weaving and you can use it to duplicate tartans and other weaves. I just let the random colors of the thread make the pattern. Knit stitch is just two slightly elongated tent stitches (down 2, over 1), alternating direction \/\/\/\/. Each horizontal row encroaches on the previous row and the result looks like knit fabric.

To finish, cut the squares apart three to four canvas threads from the stitching, trimming the corners on the diagonal. Coat the back of the needlepoint with glue (I use Tacky). Then rub a light coating on the back of the unstitched canvas. This will soften the canvas. Once the canvas is pliable, fold it to the back of the stitching and make sure it's glued down. The only tricky part of this is keeping the glue that gets on your fingers off of the front of the stitching. Just take it slow and be careful.

Use a double-stick archival product to stick the finished squares into the bracelet. (Remove and discard the photo and plastic, unless you want to use one or more of your bracelet squares for photos. Instructions for that come with the bracelets.) I just prod and cram the needlepoint into the bracelet bead square opening, tucking the corners into the openings if possible. Some stitches are easier than others. The stitches with the least thickness, especially on the back, work best.

Since your sitches will be secured with glue, you don't need to worry about being careful about really securing the stitching with long tails and weaving in. I kept my tails very minimal and looked for ways to stitch without a lot on the back.

I have not yet tried the finishing on the squares with a lot of open canvas. I'm leaving those for the class so we can all learn. It could be that they're a mistake (which is why I stitched 11 squares (I cut out and didn't photograph two) for a bracelet that only needs six--earrings, anyone?)

It's done--well mostly

I finished the final row on the sampler this weekend. It's only mostly done because the instructions included a tent stitch border with a row of twisted chain to "finish" the sampler (and make it easier to frame or sew into a pillow). I've begun this in the upper right of the picture (which is the bottom according to how it was worked--the sampler's bigger than our scanner bed).

I've begun the rows of tent using basketweave and added a bit of the twisted chain (and ripped, and added, and ripped). The instructions call for two strands of the wool. I didn't like the look so I tried it with a half-step (kind of a back-stitch chain). Didn't like that, either. Then I tried a half-step chain with the perle. No good. This version, which I like, is a twisted chain using perle 3. I think it will provide a nice finishing edge. After I looked at the scans, however, I've decided to rip what I've done and twist the stitch away from the sampler rather than toward it.

Before I scanned most things, I would photocopy them, just to catch this type of thing. I didn't see it at all in the stitched piece.

I spent Saturday having a blast painting and embossing and bleaching fabrics. I used the Take It Further challenge as an excuse to finally try out my Shiva Paintsticks (I've had them since last April). I also wanted to try embossing on fabric, something mentioned in the Fiber&Stitch group. And I had a bleach pen just sitting there waiting to be used!

I spent most of the morning pressing the fabrics, adding freezer paper backing to hold them straight. I also measured, cut and applied freezer paper grids like the grid I drew in my last TIF posting. And finally I made some freezer paper cutouts to use as stencils for practice.

Then I got down to the fun. Here are some samples. I'll post more later on. These two hearts used freezer paper masks and were my first experiments with paintsticks.

They were pretty easy to use, like fat crayons. I found that the gold and silver sticks were crumbly and the tips pretty much crumbled off as I removed the outer dried layer. The purple stick was a sale item I found, it's a glitter paint stick. It is very glittery.

I think my flower is pretty lame.

Then I did this Fleur de Lis rubbing, again with a freezer paper stencil. That's more like it. I used a honey comb stencil--I'd read somewhere that bees were Napoleon's symbol and I always think of the Fleur de Lis as very French.

These designs aren't what I'll use for the TIF design, but were steps leading there.

Cindy: I visited Albuquerque and Santa Fe once many years ago and would love to go back. I had fun exploring your blogs (I'm jealous you got to see BB King last year--my hubby wasn't up to it). I have a friend doing the cirque des circles design, too, and pointed her your way.

Thanks for the comments, Wawanna. I really enjoyed your Krystal Joy blog.

holiday gifts

My friend Jenny always sends the very best presents. This year for Christmas she gave me a needlpoint pincushion kit. Not a stitcher herself, she nonetheless finds unique designs made by small designers that are always great fun.

Here is the kit cover, the colors and my beginning row and the designer information. This kit is for charted needlepoint and is very complete with all of the threads, canvas and a lovely coordinating backing fabric.

Jenny also sent an incredible book. It is in two languages and I don't know what they are other than Eastern European (one is cyrillic and the other roman letters). The range of topic is amazing--embroidery, sewing (with patterns), knitting, weaving...anything to do with textiles is included. If anyone can identify the languages, I would be most apprecitative. Even without the text, the pictures and charts are quite complete and detailed... Here are the covers and some of the pages from this book. I've never quite seen anything like it and am finding all sorts of inspiration. I hope you do too.