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I love it all: embroidery, canvaswork, quilting, crochet. So much to do, so little time.





Monday, October 28, 2013

Late IHSW Post: La Calabaza!

Hey Blog Buddies,

This is my latest IHSW post ever!  International Hermit and Stitch Weekend was a week ago!  I've been quiet the past two weeks because I've been working away on Debbie Stiehler's Autumn Pumpkin Patch.  (Calabaza is Spanish for "pumpkin.")  My original plan was to stitch half of a football-shaped section, but when I got to the halfway point I decided to go ahead and finish the rest of the section...

 
So now I have two footballs instead of one:
 
They're just like two peas in a pod.
 
From now on, I'll probably stick with the
original plan of stitching just
half a football at a time.
I was really burnt out at the end
from laying all of the 4-, 5- and 6-ply floss
which is called for in the various sections.
But I wanted to move this long-neglected project along,
and I made significant progress.
 
 
Here are a couple of the sections deconstructed.
This is the top left section on the left football above,
to give you an idea of the scale of the project:
 
The first step here was to lay the metallic ribbon in a grid.
You'll notice that it covers a good portion of the canvas.
 
The next step is stitching a double upright cross
using (at least) 4-ply of DMC.
We are covering up all that pretty ribbon!
 
(Sorry for the blurry photo!)
There are more upright crosses
in an Anchor floss that's an almost-identical orange.
You may be able to see some tiny
areas of white canvas still peeking through.
The ribbon is really hiding now!
 
Can you tell the difference in the oranges?
I can't, either in the photo above or in real life.
The last step is to cover the tiny bare areas
with regular cross stitches in lime green.
It gives the finished section sort of a tufted look.
And the ribbon underneath does add some shine.
Not all of the sections had four steps,
but all had two or more.
 
 
(Now you know why this took so long...)
 
Here is one of the plaid designs:
 
First step:  back stitch on the diagonal.
 
Next, fill in the same color pattern
with basketweave stitch,
and you can see the plaid start to take shape.
It's almost a no-brainer.
 
This week I'll be stitching on Part 2
of my Winter Logs SAL.
It will be a soothing break because it is all
Caron Watercolours with a couple of
#16 Kreinik braids thrown in--NO laying!
 
That's it from here.
Hope you had a good weekend,
and thanks for visiting!

8 comments:

cucki said...

Wow it's looking so pretty..
Hugs x

Carol said...

Oh, my! That is so pretty--looks like it must have taken a very long time to stitch!!

Dani - tkdchick said...

Wow your canvaswork skills are pretty cool.

Teresa S. said...

I only have the outline finished on this one. Yours is coming along wonderfully!

Julie said...

It's beautiful, it was lovely to see the close up pictures and see how it all comes together to give off the lovely effect.

Chris said...

Wow!I am loving this, Thanks for showing the section detail. Love seeing the way the stitches are laid down.

Angie said...

Lovely

Anne said...

Your footballs, a.k.a. pumpkin, look fantastic!