Monday, September 1, 2014

Back At the Beach (again)...

I promised you a look at my finished new canvas (and the resulting stitch guide)....
          so here it is -- SHELLSCAPE, by Sandra Gilmore:


This was soooo fun to work on; and very different from the stuff I usually stitch!
There are lots of areas that need to be done in Tent/Basketweave Stitch, but I truly
enjoyed the simplicity of those sections.  Although I did jazz it up a bit
by using lots of "blended needle" work -- mixing thread types or colors, to add
subtle depth and texture to the large flat areas like the dunes, sea, and clouds....


And I used a LOT of variegated threads -- for the sea, sand, borders, shells, coral  -- 
well, almost everything!  Even the table ledge with its enlarged blackwork pattern is done 
with a "driftwood" looking variegated #8 pearl cotton by ThreadworX.

And you can see that most of the items are slightly padded as well.  I was surprised how fun 
the conch shell was to pad and stitch; if you look closely you can see that I used 
two variegated peachy threads for the outer conch shell - the lighter one on the top half,
 and the slightly darker one on the lower half:


I left the big white flowers for last, and I'm very glad I did.  Barbara Elmore, a designer 
who I consider to be the Queen of Embellishment, was kind enough to send me a sample
of a new ribbon she is marketing (through Sundance Designs) called RETRO RIBBON.
She suggested I give it a try for my floppy flowers -- and 
she was soooo right -- it was perfect!!


The 5/8" wide couture ribbon really mimicked the crinkly petals of a mantilla poppy; 
and I very carefully flattened, twisted or poofed each petal in place, before tacking them 
down with small couching stitches.  The ribbon also has a slightly transparent texture, 
so the yellow painted canvas showed through enough to create an interesting effect 
as well...  I was so impressed with the finished look of the flowers, that I asked Barbara 
to send me a bit of green RETRO RIBBON to add a few dimensional leaves!

So if you want to celebrate the end of a lovely summer
or perhaps you just love a good beach canvas,
please contact your local stitchery store to get this SHELLSCAPE 
canvas and stitch guide from FLEUR DE PARIS.
You can also order just the stitch guide from my website....

HAPPY END OF SUMMER, STITCHERS!