I showed you this embroidery piece a week ago when I was trying to decide what to work on next.
This is a rare blue embroidery piece from Fez, Morocco – 19th century. It was part of a Museum Exhibit called Windows on the Mahgreb. One of the stitches used was the Algerian Eye, so I’m thinking that would be a good stitch to incorporate into the design of the needlepoint version. Below are the threads I will be using. I pulled out the yellow and found a couple other threads that will work with the White Gold color of Snow.
I want to focus on the darker shades of blue and red, but other shades will be used as well. I started by stitching the ribbon edges first. I used navy blue Very Velvet and the Gobelin stitch over two threads. I haven’t figured out everything for this project yet, so we’ll have to see how things develop.
This shows how far I got with the first card of Very Velvet. The inner area is 5 inches square. The whole design will be just over 8 inches square.
I spent about 4 intense hours in my needlepoint room today and finished the Medallion Rug! It has turned out even better than I had imagined. I’m so pleased. And now I’ll take tomorrow off and then work on the newly adopted Patchwork Quilt rug on Sunday.
67 days (9 weeks and 4 days)
29 skeins of Silk & Ivory (9 skeins of Classic Navy for the background)
We’ll get it framed, probably next month. I had planned to hang it in the needlepoint room, but my husband suggested today that we hang it in the open stairway leading to the second floor. We’ll have to think about it.
Next week I’ll tell you about the next project. Thank you all for your suggestions on what to do next. It will probably be the Moroccan Ribbons while I work on motifs for the new Teal rug. Have a great weekend!
I’m sure that many needlepointers are like me: I have UFOs (unfinished objects), kits that haven’t been started, a few painted canvases waiting my time, and in my case new designs rolling around in my head waiting for a turn to be stitched. But at the local ANG chapter meeting on Monday night, we were presented with a chance to adopt a large project that another member would not have the time to finish. I loved it the minute I saw it, but didn’t claim it. No one else did either. When I got home, I told my husband about it and he wondered why I didn’t say I wanted it. Then Tuesday morning, I decided I had to have it and made phone calls. It didn’t cost me very much, but it’s worth so much more. May I present my new canvas -
I don’t see a designer name on it. It’s on 10 ct. canvas and measures 4 feet by 5 feet! A small portion in the upper left corner has been stitched, so I will start by finishing that square and then continue from there. What makes this even more wonderful is that it came with all the wool thread to stitch it and a five foot frame with the canvas attached!!
I’ve shown you a photo of my small needlepoint room and how crowded it was when I put together my new frame from Christmas. With this new, larger frame coming I had to do a lot of work in a hurry. I moved furniture around and stacked everything else under the desk and on the desk, etc. When I was finished, I had the short wall cleared and ready for the new frame and rug.
You can see the thread caddy against the wall and the basket of all the yarn to complete the project. I’ve pulled out some of each color of wool now and put the rest in the closet. My Moroccan rug and frame sits in front of this one now. I will only work on the new rug on Sundays – slowly does it. It’s all done in basketweave. The rest of the week I’ll work on my normal projects. I have no idea where this will go when it is done, but I figure I’ve got a year or two to figure that out. I’ll show this on the blog a couple times a year so you know how things are going.
I’m so happy to have this beautiful rug! He’s found a very loving new home.
I’ve worked hard for several days and I am making progress. Two octagons are finished and two more are getting there. And lots of strands of navy have been used. I originally thought that 6 skeins of navy would be enough to do the entire background. No such luck. I opened the 8th skein yesterday and I still have a ways to go.
Today’s goal is to finish the 3rd and 4th octagons and work my way down to the bottom left corner of the background. If I can get that much done today (big maybe), then I will be able to finish the rug by the end of the week. That’s what I’m hoping for and planning.
Here’s the rug this morning before I start my stitching.
See you on Friday – hopefully with a completed rug!
The center medallion is finished! It took more than a skein of Claret to fill in the background.
With that done, I moved to the top of the rug and started to work. The first of the Twisted Ribbon borders is now done and you can see below that I’ve started stitching the first of the Octagons for that motif row. I’ve also filled in a lot more Classic Navy for the background.
So what I have left to do is the Octagon motif row, another Twisted Ribbon border and a lot of background. You can see a line across the canvas just to the left of the first Octagon. This is where the Navy background will end. I’ll alternate between these two areas each day till everything is done. The background goes quickly, so I’ll do 3-4 strands of Navy after I do 2 strands of threads on the Octagons.
It’s now looking like this rug will be done by the end of next week!! It always amazes me how quickly I get these rugs finished. Time certainly does fly when you’re having fun!
I need to start planning a new project. It takes several weeks to select the motifs to use, decide how to stitch them, and plan the layout. I said I had four ideas that have calling to me and I have a color scheme selected for each of them. Let me show you – then you can help me decide where to go next.
1. A pillow using the colors from the medallion rug and using some of the motifs from the rug and maybe some new ones as well.
2. Moroccan Ribbons – This is an antique embroidery (on the top) and I love the shape of it. What I want to do is take the shape of the outer ribbons and then do all the stitches and patterns to fill it in completely on my own. I’ve already selected the colors – navy, garnet, and a touch of yellow gold (shown on the bottom). I’ve pulled lots of different threads so I can make decisions on them as I plan the layout – a sparkling center perhaps. Maybe the White Gold Snow instead of yellow?
3. I love working on my large rugs, but I’m wondering if I shouldn’t stitch a smaller sized one. I’m thinking of 5 X 7 on Congress Cloth (which would just under 7 x 10 on 18 ct). I have several hanks of Needlepoint Inc. silk that would make a nice, soft palette rug.
4. The next large rug will be the same style as the Blue Middle Atlas rug. Different colors and different motifs. As with all of my larger rugs, this will be stitched on 13 ct. canvas using Silk & Ivory.
Since I haven’t started working on the motifs or layout in detail for any of these projects, I could start the planning process for any of them and have one ready to go in another 2-3 weeks. I’ll start thinking about another large rug (in the teal above) but I think a change of pace for a month would be nice.
So what does everyone think? What should I spend my evenings planning? I want to do them all, so I just need a push in the right direction for the first one to work on. And thank you all in advance.
With two more skeins of Claret in hand, I went to work on the medallion yesterday afternoon. The Sparrows now are done for all sections of the medallion. Then I started in on the background. I finished the second section and have just started the third section. I’ll continue working on the background a little each day.
While waiting for the trip to the LNS, I worked on the rest of the rug Sunday afternoon and Monday. The Skeleton border is now complete all the way around the rug. With the Diamond motif framework already complete, so I started filling in the diamonds using four shades of red.
Next up – finish filling in the diamonds, add the Twisted Ribbon border along its top edge, continue to work on the medallion. The white, unstitched portion is growing smaller by the day. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for the completed rug. If only I could stitch faster.
With just a few weeks left on this project, I’ve been thinking about what is up next. I have four projects that I want to do. I have colors chosen for them and will put up a post in a day or two and let you help me decide what to work on next. Stay tuned.
The medallion is coming along nicely. The border has been finished and I’ve completed one quarter of the background for the Sparrow. A second set of Sparrows has been stitched and I’ve started the background, but don’t have enough Claret to continue right now. I’ll be going to the LNS on Tuesday morning and will spend Tuesday afternoon working on the medallion before I post again on Wednesday.
I knew I would be stitching downstairs this afternoon, so I stitched some areas to be ready for that. I’ve almost finished six skeins of Classic Navy background. I finished the framework for the Diamond motif band so I can start filling in the Diamonds today. I’ll also stitch the rest of the Skeleton border. Those are my plans for this afternoon while I watch the football playoffs. Here is the rug right now.
Before I post again, I hope to get the next Twisted Ribbon border added above the Diamond motif row. Then I’ll be able to start the Octagon motif row. It’s a wonderful feeling to see the end in sight now. Wish I could find more time to stitch so I could finish faster. Tomorrow night will mark 8 weeks on this rug. I had estimated that it would take 3 months – 12 weeks. I’d like to finish a little sooner than that if I can. Of course that also poses a problem – What am I going to do next? I have nothing planned at the moment. I’ll have to spend some time each evening working on that.
The center medallion motif is complete. Many people who commented said I should draw some of the colors from the outer borders to add to interest and to tie all the pieces of the design together. Of course I had an advantage there, since I knew that was what I would do for the center of the medallion already. But it was great to hear from so many of you and see what ideas and suggestions you had. Thank you! And you can comment again today about the Swallows if you want – too much, looks good, tear them out, whatever. I hate to rip out stitches, but if most of you think it’s just not worth it, I’ll take the time to rethink it. Thank you again, in advance.
I’ve decided to add the Sparrows to the medallion center. I did a sample first, traced it onto paper and cut it out. Then I could lay them in different places to see where they would look the best. Then I stitched two Swallows in one of the four segments of the medallion. I’ve marked the canvas so that the Swallows will be in the exact same places in each of the four segments. Then I started stitching around them in Claret, the lightest of the five red colors I’ve been using. In order to keep the stitching neat and easier to stitch, I’m going to change the stitching direction of the Basketweave for each segment to match the Diagonal Mosaic I used for the outer row of the center medallion. So here it is where I left off yesterday afternoon.
Because I spent so much time playing with the background of the medallion, I didn’t quite finish the Snake border. I’ll finish it today. I’ve started stitching the framework for the first motif row as well. I’ve counted and marked the canvas for each of the motif rows and the Twisted Ribbon borders so I know where the Navy background should end. I’m almost to the point where I’ll have very long rows of background to stitch and don’t want to have to tear out stitches if I don’t pay attention and stitch too far.
I’m running low on Claret thread and will have to make a trip to the LNS early next week, but I have lots of things to work on here. I’ll start by finishing the Snake border around the medallion. Then I can work on the framework for the first motif row, do a little more on the medallion background, and always do a little Navy background every day.
The rain continues here in Northern California. Yesterday they finally decided that El Nino has arrived and we should be very wet for the next few weeks. After three years of drought, it’s nice to listen to the rain when I go to bed each night. This is the perfect weather for stitching and reading. I plan to do both a lot over the next few days.
Let’s start with the medallion. I worked on this Saturday morning, filling in more of the border around the Snake motifs. Then I added a row of Cabernet around the inside of the center motif and then a double row of Bordeaux. I hope to finish the border and the inside of the center motif for the next post.
A question for all of you watching this -
Will the center be okay if I just fill in the area surrounding the center motif with the lightest red?
Or do I need to add a small motif to the surrounding area? I’ve been playing with a Sparrow motif that would point to the area where the the arms of the motif meet.
Depending on your answers, I may do one sparrow to see how it will look and then you can comment a second time.
Saturday afternoon and then again on Sunday, I wanted to watch the football playoffs (American football). Since it is more difficult to work on this large project downstairs, I decided I would only work on the outside borders. As you can see in the photo below, I got quite a bit done. The borders are done all the way up the right side and I’ve got over half of them done on the top of the rug as well. I’ll finish the Twisted Ribbon and Star borders today. Then I’ll be able to start on the first of the Motif bands. Things are moving along a little faster now and I’m happy!
I’m also pleased with this last photo. It’s a very dreary, wet day in Northern California. We expect up to 8 inches of rain by Friday. I worried about taking photos today, but with the new Ott lamp set up beside the new frame, the colors are very true to the colors of the Silk & Ivory.
This is a rare blue embroidery piece from Fez, Morocco – 19th century. It was part of a Museum Exhibit called Windows on the Mahgreb. One of the stitches used was the Algerian Eye, so I’m thinking that would be a good stitch to incorporate into the design of the needlepoint version. Below are the threads I will be using. I pulled out the yellow and found a couple other threads that will work with the White Gold color of Snow.
I want to focus on the darker shades of blue and red, but other shades will be used as well. I started by stitching the ribbon edges first. I used navy blue Very Velvet and the Gobelin stitch over two threads. I haven’t figured out everything for this project yet, so we’ll have to see how things develop.
This shows how far I got with the first card of Very Velvet. The inner area is 5 inches square. The whole design will be just over 8 inches square.
