A Couple Quick Progress Pics

In the interest of actually stitching a bit, tonight’s post will be short and sweet. I leave you with a couple of quick peeks at Magi #3 and his companions…

Enjoy!

Fun with Composite Stitches

So what is a composite stitch, you ask? It’s a stitch that is made up of combinations of other stitches, often layered on top of each other.

The sleeve on Magi #3 is stitched with a fairly simple composite stitch. It starts out with a simple lattice of a medium weight metallic in gold.

This metallic is tied down with upright cross at each intersection, using a lighter-weight silver metallic.

And in all of the open areas, an upright cross is stitched too, this time in a few plies of silk floss.

The result is a rich-looking “fabric” that looks complex but is actually very straight forward. You can barely see the silver metallic, but it helps the entire presentation by holding down the diagonal lines of gold and adding just a touch more shimmer.

This is by no means the only composite stitch in The Magi. Perhaps the most challenging of these is found in the robes of Magi #2. The stitch seen here has no fewer than 6 steps to complete.

What fascinates me about these stitches is thinking about how the designer created them. This isn’t a matter of simply picking up a favorite stitch book and filling in an area. Creating composite stitches requires either a) a lot of time so that you can try out various combinations or b) a VERY good intuition on what stitch diagrams look like. Or both.

So the next time you’re trying to figure out what stitch to put in an area, consider if that area could us a bit more texture that just a standard stitch out of a standard book of stitches. Then try playing with adding various stitches on top of a light stitch. And see what you can come up with.

Two Down, One to Go

It’s amazing watching these lovely Magi come alive with just a needle and a bit of thread. Here is Magi #2 in all his glory.

My favorite part of this one is a technique that’s used in all three Magis. Strangely enough, it’s one of the least showy parts of this Magi’s garments: the underskirt (if that’s what it’s called).

The very front section of his robes, below his sleeve, is stitched simply with long stitches of #4 Kreinik braid, couched every four threads with a very thin matching metallic. The result is that it looks like the skirt is made of a sheer, glittery fabric, though that unfortunately does not come across in the photographs.

Ink: An Unusual Embellishment

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that my Magi #2 pictures from yesterday were from September. So if it looks like I’m much further along today, it’s not that I have smoking needles. I’ve just been such a slacker in the blogging department that I have plenty to catch all of you up on!

One of the last steps on Magi #2 (as on Magi #1) was the applique of Sensuede.* For Magi #2, the applique is used in one section in the robe, and also as the Magi’s hood.

Here’s how the hood turned out when the applique and trim were put in place.

It doesn’t look bad, but it seems to be missing some dimension. It’s a bit flat until the addition of an embellishment you don’t normally see in needlepoint: a tiny bit of ink. Specifically, the judicious use of a brown Micron Pigma pen.

Four nerve-wracking minutes later, the hood was no longer flat:

I did find that it helped to smudge the ink just a tiny bit while it was still wet. It’s not exactly realistic, but we’re talking about a guy without any facial features here. It works for me!

*As an aside, and to answer a few questions I received when first writing about Sensuede: Dorothy Lesher tells me that Sensuede is just ultrasuede (though I’ve seen plenty of ultrasuede that wouldn’t be as nice to work with). Specifically, it’s the name given to some of the ultrasuede sold by Nancy’s Notions. You can buy a sample pack of this, with pieces plenty big enough to work with, at a very reasonable price.

Reminding Myself that it’s Just String!

Poor Magi #2. He sat in this state:

…for over a month. Why, you ask?

Because I had forgotten. I had forgotten my mantra. It’s JUST STRING!  I had a block. It wasn’t as if I couldn’t fix it if I didn’t like it.

You might be wondering what specific technique had me avoiding this lovely project for a month. You’re probably thinking it’s something terribly complex, and that I had visions of ruining the project.

Alas, no, I’m more of an idiot than that. Complex stitches are a challenge to me, and I relish them.

The part that had me stumbling used the dreaded “R” word. Can you guess?

RANDOM.

And here’s how dumb I am. It wasn’t even completely random through the whole section. It was a line of bargello. Yes, I said bargello. As in, once the first darn line is in, the rest just follows along.

And it held me up. For a month.

All I had to do was this…

  …and then fill in above and below that line.

Let the virtual head-slaps begin.

Magi #1 gets some BLING!

Many needlework projects call for individual beads or charms. But how often do you really get to jazz up a project with a glitzy chain of Swarovski crystals?

Check out the bling on Magi #1!This length of chain is very similar to the one found here, except the crystals used here are only about 2mm across. They are attached by simply couching between the crystals.

There are actually two strand of crystals on Magi #1 in Dorothy Lesher’s The Magi.  Here he is in all of his glory. Can you find the other crystals?

This is the reason I love taking classes. You never know what new technique you'll learn that you can use for any number of future projects.

Applique on Canvas, Made Simple

Who knew that appliquéing a fabric to congress cloth (a common 24-ct canvas) would be so simple?

Step 1: Start out with a slightly stretchy, non fraying fabric.

I am completely sold on the Sensuede that came in my kit for The Magi. As its name implies, it’s a faux suede. It’s soft, yet not very stretchy, comes in great colors, and does not fray at all. (And I just learned that it’s made completely from recycled polyester fibers.

Step 2: Cut out the shapes to be appliquéd from the fabric.

It doesn’t sound like it, but this is really the most complicated part. For this project, we started with a cutting out a paper pattern that was “roughly right”.  That pattern is then flipped over and traced on the back of the fabric/Senseude. This “roughly right” shape can then be cut from the fabric.

Then, spend an hour shaving tiny pieces off of it to make it exactly fit the desired shape. No, I’m not kidding. It really took me an hour. Who knew? I ended up with two precisely trimmed pieces of fabric (see left), but there was a LOT of trimming. See? Here’s the scrap pile!

Step 3. Stitch it to your canvas using teeny tiny stitches, spaced as closely as they need to be.

In my case, this didn’t have to be very close. My stitches are about 3/8” apart, since I have some embellishment to add later that will help hold the Sensuede in place.

Surprisingly, the stitching took a total of 15 to 20 minutes for both pieces. The advantage of using a non-fraying fabric is that you don’t have to turn under the edges.

That’s it. It’s really easy!

Magi #1 is getting there. Just a bit more embellishment, and he’ll be done!

A Sneaky Way to End Threads

Have you ever had difficulty figuring out just how to secure the ends of a thin, slippery thread?

That dilemma turned up I was stitching away on Magi #1. One area was covered only in long stitches in a thin metallic thread, couched every so often by more thin metallic thread. There really wasn’t much bulk on the back of the canvas to allow me to bury the thread ends and be assured that they wouldn’t work themselves loose.

I tried hiding a few backstitches underneath the couched thread to start and end threads, but those backstitches peeked out a bit and looked bulky.

For a light stitch like this, sometimes you have to forget about trying to bury the thread ends within the same area. Instead, look at what stitches will eventually be in the surrounding areas. Aha! The area right next to this one is going to be covered with a faux suede applique. Perfect!

For the Magi, I simply brought the threads over to the to-be-appliqued area, then used a simple L-stitch to start or end the thread. (Ok, truthfully, this thread was so slippery that I actually went over the L-stitch a couple of times, but that was the idea anyway.)

Here you can see where I have a few L’s (or +’s) in the empty area.

 

And from the back…

Of course, the area you’re ending the threads in doesn’t have to be eventually covered in an applique. It could be any heavy-coverage stitch that covers up your tiny thread ends. I could have just as easily ended the threads in the blue area on the other side, which is just long satin stitches.

One word of caution, though. Please be aware that if you’re trying to do this with a thick thread, your L-stitches are going to be bulky, and may distort whatever is placed on top of them. With a skimpy thread like this, though, the only thing that might be a concern is if the tiny stitches will peek out from under whatever will be placed over them. With a suede-like applique, I have no worries about this for my Magi!

If you try this technique, please let me know how it goes!

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Just in case you were wondering about how I was progressing with The Magi (designed by the very talented Dorothy Lesher), thus far I have only been stitching on Magi #1. Here he is so far:

I am having a lot of fun with this piece, so despite my previous comments about changing out projects more frequently, I haven’t picked up anything else in a while! But that’s how it goes sometimes…

The Magi Online Class

Several years ago a stitching friend went to a seminar and ended up with one of the most drool-worthy projects I’ve ever seen. That lovely creation was Dorothy Lesher’s The Magi.

Earlier this year, I was thrilled to find out that Dorothy was going to be offering The Magi as an online class through the Shining Needle Society. The class was fully kitted, complete with painstakingly hand-drawn canvas, several yummy silks, spools and spools of metallics, Swarovski crystals, and fabrics for applique. 

Don’t these colors just scream royalty?

And yes, I have started it. But that’s another post…