SPIRAL TRELLIS - February Stitch Exploration 09

The stitch for February's Exploration 09 is the Spiral Trellis. If you clicked on the second link you would see how beautiful and perfect are Sharon B's examples. I have not yet reached that level of expertise, but I like the stitch and plan to attempt more experiments.

The link I just mentioned directed me to 3 excellent tutorials. Still I had trouble in the beginning. As with most knotted stitches it takes me awhile to get thread wrap right. My first attempt was actually the plain trellis stitch that is worked back and forth in rows, whereas this trellis is worked continuously so a spiralling line of knots results. I looks very much like beading. After frogging my rectangular trellis fill, I went straight for a heart shape in spiral. I should have known better!

A & B are built up too high before decreasing, and the stitching lines aren't flowing. In B in used a chain stitch foundation, an I idea I read about on Elizabeth M's blog Quieter Moments. Elizabeth thoroughly researches stitches and is gracious to share her experiments. Trust me, Elizabeth can find the ultimate innovations possible in a stitch, and not only that, her needlework is supurb. Back to the doodle rag, my use of the chain ( I later learned from Elizabeth she used a reverse chain) was so I could add embellishing stitches to fancy up the dimensional heart. I was thinking of a lacy valentine. I forget what I had in mind adding a second row of backstitching around C. When I remember, I'll get back to it. I did make a heart, but it's sloppy . For D, I switched to a #3 pearl hoping it would help me see the knots and bars better. You can see it didn't work for me. I had a sloppy lacy top (I wasn't going for "lacy"), I lost the heart outline, and I still couldn't wrangle those knots into flowing lines. Didn't get better with E when I returned to #5 pearl.

Here is a continuation of the sampler I began last month. My designs are a little large to cover up the linty cloth underneath. I stitched a number of figures and ripped them all out , even though one of them was quite interesting. I wanted to see if I made an s-line into a snaky shape, could I build it up to create a third dimension. Answer, absolutely! Unfortunately it was weird looking. After building up the sides and finally drawing them together in a single line of knots, I had a leech! I would have saved it as a curiosity on my sampler had I not realized I needled in all the way around instead of needling out.

While the cloth still held together I went where I should have in the first place -- to a circle. I'm glad I went with the overlapping circle design because it gave me the opportunity to try for variation. I began with the navy circle and finally got the lines to spiral nicely. If I'd stuffed it, it would be a dome, but I let mine peak slightly so it actually resembles a Chinese hat. The light blue area is actually a partial circle, but I was still able to achieve the swirl by ending at one side and bringing the thread up again at the beginning. The partially eclipsed circle with the stripes was constructed exactly like the light blue one.

You can see I finally got a heart filled in. I'm not completely happy with the way the swirling knots come together in the center, but it's a start. On the other hand, I am very pleased with my 4-color spiral.

CHICKEN SCRATCH

This is the beginning of a sampler for Stitch Explorations 2009, a challenge in stitching techniques from Sharon Boggan. January's study is Chicken Scratch. It is basically weaving through straight stitch anchors and is a needlework commonly stitched over a checkered fabric. A typical example might be a gingham apron embellished, which could be fancy for a hostess or simple as a young girl's 4-H project. To me the traditional look is nostalgic, homey, the textile equivalent of comfort food.

I decided to begin a sampler for the 09 stitch explorations. I've admired Sharon B's rollable sampler and also liked the way she incorporated some current event. I just happened to begin my sampler the day of a presidential inauguration, and I chose patriotic colors to record my stitching. The cloth is a light gray hardanger fabric, and with the exception of the sparkly white, my threads were all basic cotton floss and #5 perles. This sampler is for me as I play and experiment with the stitches, so I don't worry about counting threads and proper centering; I just eyeball it.

What I tried to explore here was using different stitches to accomodate the weaving and also the use of multiple colors. The first solid across block of stitches is a failed experiment. I was going to weave small circles around large cross stitches. When it didn't work out, I added more stitches just to make it decorative. The first two circles in the following row are woven through stacked arrowheads. The next circle I think might be interesting in larger scale. I wanted to see what it would look like if three colors were used to weave concentrically through three straight stitch anchors. I couldn't get it to look right, so I switched to just one color for the weaving. You'll probably have to look at the enlarged picture to see the staggered effect. The fourth circle also utilizes 3 straight stitches in varying lengths as anchors. Fifth circle is another dud. The final segment has circles woven through 3 rows of cross stitch.

The next band is where I went from neat circles through even cretan stitches to freeform cretan stitching. I really love the irregular circles and the odd shapes formed in the negative space. In the final band I began with close set cretan stitches with the second row alternating points. The uneveness caused the top and lower circles to slant, while the center circles stayed normal. I think the effect might be more interesting had I reversed the threads. The rest of the band was more freeform play. It may appear like a couched thread, but what I actually did was scatter arrowhead stitches in varying size and orientation, then wove the thread as randomly as I could through the V's. Thread tension didn't show up when I sketched the idea, so the outcome was not as interesting as I'd hoped. Maybe more v-stitches in a different color and another color for threading. In fact I think I need to do just that to fill in that area and make the January segment look more balanced.

ANGELIC MAKEOVER

The before angel is below. You can see I've made her halo larger, added a butterfly hair ornament, a magic wand and lots more fibery stuff including tulle and hand dyed scrim.

PROSPERITY DOLL

As previously mentioned, January's project in Chaska Peacock's Creative Sparks group was to create a doll that would represent us and what prosperity meant to us individually. We were to make dolls from a technique Chaska taught us that involved wrapping a wire armature. She gave us two examples of her own, one with her picture for the face and the other with a mirror face. You can see other examples from the class on her website

I initially had major reservations about using my own likeness on this doll. I learned a tragic lesson in being careful what one prays for, and I've avoided petitioning for personal favors ever since. After some deliberation I decided I could make a doll that simply represented prosperity,

good fortune and things people usually wish for. If I clarified in my intent that none of my loved ones would suffer as a consequence of fulfillment, then generalized wishes would be okay. I was going to include names of those with whom I'd most want to share the luck inside a tubular fabric bead I would make. Wouldn't you know the doll exerted its own creative guidance and eliminated the dilemma altogether.

As the doll took shape I noticed masculine characteristics. Not only did my doll choose to be male, he chose to be magical, as in anything-is-possible magic. My doll morphed into a genie!

Unlimited wishes could be mine for the asking. Neverending stash came immediately to mind -- after world peace and abundance for all, of course. I could wish for the moon. Instead I opted for the world on a silver platter (that ought to cover about anything).

Here are the details. I painted my guy red and named him Red Genie. I wrapped his arms with size 8 perle cotton floss. I wanted him dressed in red, but I only had small pieces of silk from my CQ stash, so instead of one robe, he sports separates. The paisley fabric was only long enough to cover from high waist down, so I made a tube and gathered both ends. I deliberately put the seamline down the front and ruched it slightly to give the suggestion of harem pants. I made slippers with curlicue fronts from air dry clay and painted them gold. They just peek out at the bottom and purposely look off-balance because, hey!, he's tripped over Happy Cat, who facing front has his right hand raised to bring personal riches and facing back has left hand up to promote good business and many customers. I don't have a business or clients, just covering the bases. One never knows. An apron of claret hangs from the neck down and is bordered with a piece of woven ribbon that repeats around the neck. A leftover snippet of paisley made a sleeve and draws across the back to blouse over the gathered waistband. Two rectangles of red silk stitched together in the back with gold metallic make a shawl that covers the bare shoulder. The ends cross in front beneath the arms for an added detail. He has some wired beads around the neckline and a handmade Chinese knot with charms hangs as a pendant (found it at a local Chinese restaurant). I used French wired ribbon for a sash and simply twisted the ends at the side to make a fan shape. Red Genie's turban is a swirl of silk chiffon from one of my dye batches. Atop it is a miniature Christmas ornament that is "bejeweled" and shaped like a turban or oriental onion dome. My man's face is glued to a bottle cap glued to a flat filigree medaillon.

He is looking down in shock as his silver tray spills. The tray was cut from the foil vacuum seal from a coffee can; a piece of lace is the doily.