In a previous post, I told you I was working on a new website. It’s coming along, but won’t be ready till the end of April. I thought I would share my vision with you today.
What I want to do is a whole site related to Adapting Art to Needlepoint. I will gradually build it up as a resource for anyone interested in adapting art to needlepoint. I will include information on:
What is adaptation
Where to look for inspiration – links to websites and books on the topic
Doing the research
How to select motifs
Ways to adapt the motifs, such repeating, combining, subtracting, etc.
Choosing your colors
Determining what stitches to use
I will be writing articles about each of these steps and a second sets of articles about my Moroccan adaptations to illustrate each step. I hope this grows over time to cover many types of art (pottery, rugs, ceramics, tiles, etc.) from cultures all over the world.
I’d love to hear your opinions and ideas. What would you like to see? What cultures are you interested in? Leave a comment here or send me email using the email link in the right column.
16 days to design the motifs and do a sample stitch of each.
Exactly 5 weeks (35 days) to stitch.
Time just flew on this project and I can’t believe I completed it so quickly. Here is the original rug that I used for inspiration. When you compare the two rugs, you’ll be able to see the motifs I used.
The rug is not as long as I thought it would be (I can stitch but I can’t do numbers?). It’s 15.5 inches tall and 28.5 inches long. In all I used 20 skeins of Silk & Ivory. I actually used a little bit more, but had to rip out a couple areas when things didn’t go according to plan.
On my screen the colors look very accurate. I put it on the landing of the staircase, went up one step, and leaned over to get a bird’s-eye view.
This came together so quickly for me. When I study a rug (or other piece of art), I pick out motifs that I like and might work together and ideas and stitches just pop into my head. Like the Rhodes zigzag (the first of the zigzag in this rug). When I saw the little squares in the middle, I knew I had to use the Rhodes stitch. Creating the little Comb motif around them took a little longer. The same little triangles appeared in many places, but I wanted a different combination of stitches each time I had to fill in a triangle area. Those came to me quickly, without too much thinking or trial and error. The hardest motif was the center zigzag. This was repeated twice in the center of the original rug. That’s the only motif where I had to play and try out 3 or 4 different ideas before I was satisfied. I enjoy choosing the colors for a project and it was easy with this project because it had to match our master bedroom.
I’m very pleased with this project and can’t wait to get it framed and hung in the master bedroom. Since my husband “commissioned” this piece, he can’t wait to get it framed as well. He’s thrilled.
Thank you all for coming along on this journey! Now I need to take a few days off from stitching, get the needlepoint room back in order, and decide what’s next in my study of Moroccan art. And I have stitch guides to write too.
While you’re waiting for the final of the Blue Rug, let’s talk stitch guides. I’m working on a complete overhaul of my website, so work is going on and changes are being made. I won’t be selling the coasters or boxes on the the web site and they will be deleted the middle of April.
Now might be a good time to take another look at all those designs I’ve created (www.threadmedley.com). Are there designs that you would like to stitch? I’m working on stitch guides right now and will do stitch guides for those designs if they are requested.
In the works right now:
1. Another set of 3 patchwork coasters
2. A set of 3 Moroccan coasters
3. My henna design
I’ve had one person ask about a stitch guide for the blue rug! I plan on doing this but have some work to do first. I did the rug on 13 ct canvas using only Silk & Ivory. I want to play around with some of the motifs using other threads on 18 ct canvas. I think people would prefer that. I will post photos of those samples as I get them done. Then I can write a stitch guide using both sizes of canvas. I will need to figure out how much thread is needed for 18 ct. as well.
You can leave a comment here about any stitch guides you might like. Or leave a comment on the website. Or send email. In the meantime, it’s on to the last of the Nose variations on the blue rug and then the Fish Skeleton to finish. See you on Sunday for the finale!
The missing thread arrived late Monday, so Monday night I stitched the areas that needed the Latte color. Then I completed the Nose Version #2. Yesterday I worked on the last zigzag but wasn’t able to complete it. It’s sunny and warm in Northern California today, so I’ll sit outside this afternoon and finish the zigzag and do the little separator band. Tonight I’ll work on Nose Version #1.
Here it is right now – at about 25 inches. Almost there!
I’m an organizer, a planner. I’m not a good estimater. Despite my bests efforts to order enough thread to complete this rug, I’ve run out of one of my colors. At the LNS the only Silk & Ivory color they didn’t have was (you guessed it) the one I am out of. I ordered it online on Thurs. afternoon, it was mailed Fri. and should be here Monday.
With one color missing from my threads, I decided to continue on my way and get as much done without that color as I could. Here are the two motifs I’ve been working on since the last post. The Little Squares Zigzag is done except for the middle of zigzag. I need the stitches in light brown before I can do the light blue stitches. The light blue separator band is done, but doesn’t have the zigzag stitch over it (uses the same light brown). I’ve started the Nose Variation #2. I’ll finish it today by stitching the remaining areas with cappuccino and outlining the blue diamonds with yellow. Then I”ll repeat the last of the zigzag motifs.
Here’s my progress so far. When these two motifs are completed, the rug will be about 23 inches long. I’m still hoping to have it done by the end of the month. That’s gives me just over a week and I think that’s doable.
Things are moving along nicely. I’ve completed the triple band and the third version of the Nose motif already. It now measures just over 18 inches.
I like the way the triple border (before and after the middle of the rug zigzag) makes the zigzag stand out. The two-tone blue diamonds that were done in the middle zigzag also make the zigzag pattern itself stand out.
I just started the next zigzag, which takes the most time. After that, it should really speed up to the end of this project. My goal is still the end of the month.
I finally reached the middle of the rug. You haven’t seen this motif yet – so look at the original motif from the rug first. It’s a busy and complicated design inside the zigzags, so it’s taken a while to get something that I like.
I started by doing squares in Natural and then the zigzag in dark blue. That was the easy part and it was done quickly.
Filling in the zigzag took a lot of time as it had three separate designs. The little squares were the most time-consuming. I used Latte, Citron, and Ahoy. The diamond shape above and below the zigzag was filled with a border of Coffee Bean then triangles of Ahoy and True Blue. The triangles along the upper and lower border were done in Sprat’s Head using two colors – Cafe au Lait and True Blue. I’m pleased with the look of this last new motif.
So I’ve now reached the middle of the rug and it’s just over 15 inches. Since it’s on stretcher bars now, you can see how the entire rug looks.
Next, I’ll stitch the triple border again and slowly work my way through all the motifs a second time – in reverse order. I’ll continue to post twice a week so you can see how things are going. My original thought was it would be finished in April, probably by the 10th or so. Right now, I think I might be able to get this done by the end of the month. Time to start thinking about what I will work on next in my study of Berber and Moroccan art.
Today is the triple border. This band will be stitched on each side of the zigzag motif in the middle of the rug. I used Nutmeg for the plain bands and did not stitch over them with another color as I did in all the other separator bands. Between them I did rows of basketweave in Natural. Then I added the small motif on top of it.
Then I decided to put the rug on stretcher bars. It’s hard to work with, but I was worried about all the scrolling and what it would do to the long stitches I’ve used throughout this project. At least now, I can once again show you the whole rug in each post. So here is the rug so far – about 12 inches long. I’m working on the center zigzag now and it will be a couple of days before it’s done. Part one is finished, but there is a lot of filling in to do.
The photo below is the motif I was supposed to work on next, the last of the smaller motifs. It just didn’t work out. It didn’t have nice, easy straight lines that could be documented easily in a stitch guide. And, as you can see, I didn’t have the background filled in either. That background became a nightmare. So I ripped out what I had done on Saturday night and went back to the drawing board.
I looked at the Middle Atlas rugs again and played with motifs on graph paper. Deciding I didn’t like any of them, there was only one thing to do – create a motif on my own that would be similar to the two Nose motifs that are completed and would work with the rest of the rug. On Sunday night, I started stitching again. Here is the first part of the motif. I used what I am now calling Jan’s Sprat stitch to make the diamonds. You can also see the next plain band that separates the motifs, in Cafe au Lait this time.
Then I filled in the interior diamond with Latte and Natural. The triangles were treated differently this time. I alternated True Blue and Ahoy across the row. After fighting with this motif for two days, I’m glad I ripped out the original version and created this new one. I think it looks much better and it fits nicely with the other motifs that are completed.
I’ve scrolled the rug now, so I can’t take a picture of the whole rug as it is today. It’s now 11 inches long. Next up is the triple border that will separate this motif from the largest of the zigzag motifs. That motif will be the middle of the rug.
I finally finished the second zigzag motif. I forgot to put in the little separating band before starting the new motif, so I had to rip out what I had done the first evening. Then got back to work. The separator band is light blue this time. For the zigzag motif, I started with the dark blue, then added the small crosses in yellow. Outlining the yellow with Natural took quite a while.
Filling in the diamonds took three passes. First the dark blue again, then Latte, and finally light blue. Finishing the triangles, I used Cappaccino and then top-stitched with medium blue. These sections work up quickly and I finished last night.
The rug at this point is 9 inches in length. About a third of the rug is now complete and the full rug photo is below. Since this is on a scroll frame, I had to take the photo last night so I could take the time to roll the completed sections out of the way. So you won’t be able to see the whole rug for a while, unless I decide in the next week to take it off the scroll bars and put it on stretcher bars. That would be very large and hard to work with, so I can’t decide if I should do that or not.
Next up is the last motif I posted before actually starting the rug. I’ll start that tonight. Only 6 more inches to reach the middle of the project. Don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see this completed!
