Stash and Storage

I have a deadline this week and haven’t had time to stitch on the rug. I’ll be back to it in a couple of days.

I’ve noticed a lot of posts lately about the stashes we all have and how to store them. I thought I would add something to the discussion.

Like all needlepointers, I have a stash and I’ve tried a lot of ways to organize it – I’m an organizer and it drives me nuts when I can’t find what I need. A few years ago I found a website (www.bestscrapbookshelf.com/) that sold scrapbook supply organizers and bought one. It’s a mini-tower and you customize the drawers the way you want. The cabinet is maple and is heavy and strong. You put it together but it’s very easy. The drawers pull out in just a second so you can rearrange them if you want.

This first one has drawers that are one inch and two inches deep. That’s all they had at the time. The next year they added a three inch drawer and I had to order another one. I needed the storage, right?

You decide how many of each size drawer you need and order. As long as the total number of inches is 19, you’re good to go. These slide out easily so when I’m pulling threads I pull out several drawers and put them on my desk and I can easily see what’s available and try out different colors and types of threads to see what will work together.

I organized the threads by type. Two one inch drawers are the left are for Kreinik by size. Two inch drawers contain perle #8 threads, floss and perle #5. The right side has some three inch drawers which are perfect for all the Rainbow Gallery threads on the large bobbins. Middle drawers are all my silks and the top drawers are silk/wool threads.

This handles most of my stash. But I do have a storage cupboard on another wall. The top is a very deep drawer and I use this for floss, etc. that I have wound on bobbins.

This gives me the full range of the floss when I’m starting a new piece. The are over-sized bamboo silverware drawers. I can stack three on top of each other in this storage drawer. This top one is floss.

Like many others this summer, I’m working on some smaller projects hoping to reduce my stash. There are some threads I wouldn’t buy again, so I want to use them up and make room for those I love and want to buy more of. I don’t have the biggest stash out there – but I sure like adding to it. This summer my stash and I are both on a diet. Wonder who will win that race.

High Atlas Rug – Progress 6

I haven’t completed much in the last few days. I finished the rest of the black and yellow bands in the second insert and started on the two small borders below the yellow band. Here is the original version on top and my adaptation on the bottom.

The first border is a zigzag and I find it interesting that it doesn’t seem to continue all the way across the band. That, or the colors changed and the zigzag is less visible. Mine has a very pale yellow forming the zigzag and a brown in the center of the two yellow stitches. These were done in Splendor silk thread. The background was then stitched in Cappuccino, using straight stitches.

The black border was done with one strand of two ply in black Trio. Like the starting border, I wanted to keep it a little less filled in since I would be stitching over it. The top stitching is done with very pale beige Splendor. I have fewer lines in my adaptation since I am using a smaller number of rows for these borders. These two border appear a total of four times in the rug and they will all be stitched using the same colors.

I started working on the motifs along the left side, but ran into problems where I went up one side and then down the other to fill in the background and they didn’t match up. I had to pull out half the background for the motif and then stitch it again. There is now a problem with one side of the motif where the dark brown outline doesn’t look good. And I don’t like the light green around the C shapes. So I’ll be pulling out more stitches before I can continue. Hopefully, today will be a better stitching day.

Here is the rug so far. I now notice that I should have rotated the photo so the beginning black border would be across the top since I’m working it from the top down.

My plan for today is to correct the problems with the motif on the right and then take it off the scroll bars. I’ll pencil in all the rest of the lines for the rug and then put it onto stretcher bars. Over the next few days I want to finish the black border and add motifs to make the whole rug even across the top of the black border. It will then measure 7 inches and be about one third done.

High Atlas Rug – Progress 5

I have completed the two motifs on the right side. As I was filling in the background color, I noticed that one of the little C shapes was facing the wrong way. I ripped it out and did it over and then completed the motif. I also added a smaller motif below it, since the first motif is a little larger than the others.

This will be more of a problem with the center band, because there are 3 shorter bands in the middle, not a continuous band like on the left and the right. I need to get the two small borders above the yellow bands done before I add anything else to the middle band so I know how much room I have for motifs. I think two more will fit, but I need to be sure before I stitch anymore in the middle.

The next project was to work on the second insert for the top of the rug. The original is shown on the left and my adaptation on the right. The originals are fuzzy and I’m having trouble figuring out what to do to adapt them. My adaptation isn’t that close to the original but it was the best I could do at the time. I don’t like it that much. When I repeat this insert at the bottom of the rug, I will have to change the colors and see if that will improve the look.

Over the next few days, I will finish the second insert, repeat the motifs from the right side on the left side, and start the two small borders below the yellow band. Once that is done, I can decide how many more motifs will fit in the center and continue to stitch more motifs on the left and the right.

I have this on scroll bars right now and I won’t be able to go much farther without having to scroll part of the design out of sight. Over the weekend I’ll have to move it to stretcher bars. This will make the project harder to work on, but I’ll be able to take photos of the entire rug for each post.

Here is the rug as it looks right now.

High Atlas Rug – Progress 4

I finished the insert. I’m glad I took out the off-white stitches until I finished the black background. It looks much better now. And I’m pleased with the Brick stitch. It does look like it was woven and it’s starting to move along nicely now.

Then it was time to work on the motifs in the bands that run along the outside edges and up through the center of the rug.

For all of the bands in this rug, I’m stitching the motifs using stitches other than the horizontal Brick stitch. That way they will show up a little better. And it’s adding a little more texture to the rug. The top motif is one I’ve already shown you. I stitched it using the Scotch stitch. Each time I use this motif, I’ll change the colors a little. This version looks good, but I’ll try some lighter colors with the next one. I don’t want all the versions of each motif to look the same.

The second motif is a simple cross. I haven’t seen this motif in any of the other rugs I’ve studied. Each version I see on this rug has a simple formula for color. Dark colors for the interior and the outside edge, with lighter colors for the middle section. I used Basketweave for the two dark colors, and Gobelin for the lighter color. You can see that I haven’t quite finished the background color around this motif.

Then I moved to the band along the outer edge. I didn’t get as far as I wanted on this side. I’ve stitch one motif and started to outline it and then stopped. I’m trying to decide if I should put in the background before I do the outlining. I also have to outline the main motif with very dark brown.

The plan for the next few days is to finish this motif and add one more above it to even things up along the right side. Once that is done, then I’ll work on the insert on the left. I don’t think I’ll have time to complete the entire insert, but we’ll see. When the second insert is done and the two motifs from the right side are added to the left side, the rug will be 6 inches long. Then it will look a lot better – it will have more of a personality. Here’s how it looks right now.

High Atlas Rug – Progress 3

This rug is definitely progressing slower than my other rugs. Lots of details and separate sections. I finished the band with the large X boxes and decided to work on the first of the six inserts next. These inserts are each four and a half inches wide and four inches tall. As shown in the original section below, there is a band of plain yellow at the top and bottom of the insert. Within the black band is a design motif.

I used one strand of 2 ply for the yellow section. Nothing hard, but does take time to complete. Then I worked on the motif next. It’s partly done in the photo below. I think I’ll take out the off-white stitches until all the black has been stitched around the motif and then put the off-white stitches back in.

I used 4 ply of the black for the first pass on the right. This makes it very thick and doesn’t let the canvas show through when I’m doing stitches across 1 thread to set up the brick pattern. Then I switched to 3 ply for the rest of the background and it’s covering well. I’ll try to finish that part up today and work on the yellow band across the top of this insert. After this insert is done, I’ll start working on the motifs in the bands to the left and the right of this insert. We’ll see how far I can get by Monday, when I’ll post again.

This is how the rug looks this morning, after a week of stitching. The insert I am working on will be repeated at the bottom of the rug on the opposite side. I’ll change the colors too, so it won’t look exactly the same.

High Atlas Rug – Progress 2

I’ve made progress on the X box row. Let’s start with another look at the original motif.

I showed the start of this motif in my last post. You start by making the large X in each box using the main background color. The second step is to fill in the background around the X. You can see that there isn’t just one color for the background of these boxes. I decided to use 5 different colors. The box on the outside edge is brown done in Splendor. The middle X has a pale yellow background, also in Splendor. The other 3 colors are a very dark brown and two other colors area a lighter and darker shade of the background color. I like things orderly and I knew this rug would be a challenge for me. This row was easy to lay out since there were 9 boxes. The next photo shows the 5 different background colors.

A few comments on threads. I’m using one strand of Trio for the rug. But I know that I may need to ply up for some sections. When you pull the Trio apart, you get 3 strands of 2 ply. If I need to add to this, I’ll try 3 ply first. If that doesn’t work out well, then I’ll do 4 ply. The darker the thread, the more I might need to add a ply or two. The canvas shows through on the darker shades more easily than the lighter shades. I’m finding that if I work a little slower and don’t pull the thread so much when I complete a stitch, the better the coverage. The same thing is happening with the Splendor. When you pull Splendor apart, you get 3 strands of 4 ply. In the section that I’ve stitched, the yellow is 4 ply and the brown is 6 ply.

One step left to complete this motif. I need to use the background color to completely fill in the squares. I haven’t finished all of this step, but will continue to work on it today and again tomorrow night.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we’re going to the King Tut Exhibit in San Francisco. We’ll be home before dinner, so I will have some time to stitch tomorrow evening. When this row is completed, I’ll probably start a few motifs in the left, right, and middle bands. I’ll also start the first of the yellow sections of the large square inserts. There are no motifs in the yellow portions of these boxes, so it’s a good thing to stitch on while watching TV. Here’s the rug so far.

I have 6 more  boxes to go to finish this band. I’ll work on it as much as I can today. I usually stitch on my rugs about 4 hours a day. The air conditioner is already on here. It was 94 tomorrow and will be a little hotter today. Not what you would expect in Wine Country, is it? Then it will ease off to the 80s the rest of the week. Even with air conditioning, I find that working longer than an hour gets my hands too hot while using this 50% wool thread. So I break it into about 4 shorter stitching periods. In between stitching, I work on the computer to get motifs done. I’m not used to designing on the computer, but I’m working on it more for this rug. Another goal for me – getting the stitch diagrams for the motifs done before stitching them in the actual rug. So far, so good.

High Atlas Rug – Progress 1

I finally have started the stitching on the new rug. Using a HB pencil, I sketched the outlines for the first part of the rug. This is hard to see because of the pencil marks, but it gives you an idea of what the areas will look like.

I started with the band that runs across the top of the rug. It’s done completely in black Trio using the Brick Stitch done over two thread horizontally. I know that you will be able to see some of the canvas through the stitches, but I don’t want to pack this section tight, because I will be top-stitching over it. The practice stitching for this really looks good, so I’m hoping that I’ve finally found the right stitches to use for this type of top-stitching. I finished that part last night. On the left below is the original of the first two sections. On the right is the start of the black band that I have completed.

After the black stitching was completed, I started the zigzag line on top of it. This is done over twelve threads, going into the canvas one stitch before the top and the bottom of the band. I’m using Splendor for the top-stitching. I pulled the Splendor apart and took  one set of four strands. I did not separate the four strands at all. It’s easy to work with and isn’t slipping around at all on the piece. I’m pleased so far.

Then I went back and started stitching the Sprat’s Head stitch in each of the triangles formed by the zigzag lines. Normally, Sprat’s Head is done with two threads between the stitches. I did them with four threads between each of the stitches. I wanted a more open stitch this time.

You can also see that I’ve started the X row as well. That will take a few days to completely finish. The background color is used for the X and for the border around each of the squares. The background for the X will vary from one to the next, using 3-4 colors – some lighter and some darker than the background color. I’ll play with different combinations as I go. I haven’t made any decision on which colors to use. I like seeing what comes to mind as I stitch. Though there isn’t much to see at this point, here is a photo of the rug so far. It’s only been 2 days. It will grow as the days and weeks go by. See you in a few days.

How to Adapt Needlepoint – Step 7

Step 7 – Do the Layout of the Rug

Time for the final step before I start stitching. Early on I showed you a plan for the rug – just the bare bones of the layout following the layout of the original rug. Now it’s time to figure out where the motifs will be placed on the rug that I will be stitching. The original is quite complex and has motifs crowded into the various bands, sometimes putting two small ones on top of each other. I want to be a little more organized than that. Since I’m working on a smaller overall size, that will also limit how many motifs I can stitch on the rug.

I started with a large piece of graph paper with 8 squares per inch. Using four squares for one inch of the rug, I drew out the general layout so the rug will measure 13.5″ X 26″.  Then I got out colored pencils and started filling in the colors and some of the motifs. (I didn’t have enough variation in the brown colors, so I’m using an orange for one of the medium browns.)

Though I would like to sketch out the entire rug before I start, I haven’t figured out all the motifs yet, so this one is not complete. I’ll continue to work on it over the next week or two, but will actually start the stitching in another day or two.

This close-up of the beginning of the rug shows where I will start my stitching. I’ve figured out the beginning border using black Trio and it will have the very light beige Splendor stitched on top of it. The practice stitching for this looks pretty good. It will go onto the computer tonight. I’ll also put the large X box into the computer tonight. The background for the large Xs will vary across the row.

Other motifs that I have completed will go into the computer tomorrow so most of them will be done before I start the stitching. I won’t try to do the whole rug now, just the motifs on the computer. The whole rug will come later.

As I work on color decisions, I use the color stick you see at the top of the graph paper. I have actual samples of the threads that I will be using wrapped around a piece of cardboard and taped down on the back. There are six shades of brown (the background color is the third color from the left – Peanut Butter). There are two shades of yellow, a light green, and an off white and black that are not shown. The background is a medium color, so the motifs will be stitched using a combination of the lighter and darker browns, along with touches of light yellow, light green and off-white. Many of the motifs are repeated throughout the design, so the colors used to stitch them will vary. This adds a little more variety to the design. The other rugs that I’ve done were always done in bands that went across the entire width of the rug. This rug is different and is more of a challenge when it comes to layout. If I don’t like how one section is going, I may decide to take out a planned motif and put in another in its place. I don’t make ALL the design and color decisions before I start.

Like the Berber women who create the original rugs, I have an idea in my head about how I want it to look and I’ll make changes as I go to accomplish what I see in my head. The Berbers don’t have anything written down before they start working on a rug. Many women will work together to create a rug, but the person in charge is the only one who knows what that plan will be. Neighbor women, family, and even the husband of the designer will wander through the house while a rug is being worked on and give their opinions and suggestions, which may or may not be included in the rug. Wouldn’t that make things interesting?

Hopefully, I’ll be able to post on Saturday and show you how the stitching gets underway.

Grandgirls and Needlepoint

I’m home after a short trip to visit my three grandgirls – ages 9, 10, and 13. I arrived Thursday evening and we waited until Mom and Dad left for work early Friday morning to get busy on learning needlepoint.

I decided to start them with plastic canvas and knitting yarn. Easy for them to work with and they can handle it without stretcher bars, etc. I brought three sizes of squares that I had cut and packed for them and about 9 different colors of yarn – not full skeins since I wanted to see how they did before investing a lot of money. They each did a little square (15 stitches by 15) to learn how to do basketweave. They learned and stitched quickly, so we moved on to creating a simple design with triangles and squares. The photo below shows Ansley’s (age 10) design and Cohen’s (age 9) design.

From there, they created everything on their own. Letters became a big thing. Keaton (age 13) created a design of her and then made an E square for her best friend Erin.

We started running out of plastic canvas and yarn by lunchtime, so Daddy took us to a yarn store where the girls picked out 3 solid colors and 3 variegated colors. When I came downstairs Saturday morning, this is what I found.

All three girls were at work, two of them for over an hour by the time I got up. And Cohen was finishing an M for Mommy (it was done before breakfast).

While the girls were at the movies with their Uncle (my second son), Mommy and I went and found more yarn and plastic canvas. They loved that but didn’t have any time to start on the new colors because we went to a 4th of July party.

Sunday morning I taught them a couple more stitches, including Scotch Stitch which they all started working on. It’s perfect for making little dog collars for the chihuahuas. Later in the day, Ansley put on a fashion show so everyone could see the new dog collars. That’s Taco in pink and green and Pip on the right in turquoise and plum.

I took along a Christmas ornament of 3 little cats. I wanted them to see what they can do with basketweave and what they can work on soon, when Grandma buys them painted designs. While at the party Sat. night, I was stitching inside (too hot and humid for me outside). I stopped to talk with some of the people who came through to get snacks. When I looked down, Cohen had the ornament. “This is where I go next, right?” she asked with the needle in the canvas in the correct spot going up a row!

Sunday night, Keaton’s best friend Erin came over and spent the night. At 12:30 am Monday, Mommy checked on the girls and they were needlepointing away. So we now have 4 new members of the needlepoint community. Three and a half wonderful days. I came home tired (got up at 4:00 am California time) but very happy. Now back to designing a High Atlas rug. The girls got to see how I go about this and the threads that I will be using.

How to Adapt Needlepoint – Step 5 Again

Step 5 – Part 2 Practice Stitching and Starting Layout

I’m still working on motifs for the new rug. Here are two more I can share.

I don’t have a name for this motif. I’ve never seen it before, but I like it. I don’t have any of the dark brown yet, so I used black in this adaptation. The canvas shows through on the black stitches. I’ll need to rethink the stitches on this some more.

The second motif is one I used for the first time on the Anti Atlas rug. I think it looked better in green. I may need to change some of the colors.

After working on some of the motifs, it’s time to put them together and start laying out where the motifs will appear in the rug.

The bands with the X squares are continuous, so I don’t need to design anything for that band.  The long bands the top and bottom are continuous and have lots of motifs, some of them very close together. At times there doesn’t seem to be a pattern to the design either. I’ll have to plan how I want to do these long bands before I start working on them. There are also two bands through the middle that are long continuous bands. Then I’ll have to plan the three short bands across the middle of the rug.

One way of planning these bands is to put the practice stitching pieces together to see how they look. It’s easy to rearrange them until I find an order that I like. Here’s what the 4 piece I have stitched look when put together. Do they look okay? Should I change the order some? What else needs to be added? Should any of them be repeated within the band? I’ll need more motifs before I make any final decisions.

I’ll be visiting my granddaughters (and two of my sons) for a few days. While I’m away I still have things to work on.

I’ll be teaching the girls to needlepoint! We’re going to have a lot of fun.

The rug was starting by using “twining” so I need to see what that is and if I can use it.

I need to decide how to do the narrow black and white bands – at the beginning and in the yellow and black areas.

The black sections have larger motifs that I need to figure out.

See you in a few days.