I worked on the zellig yesterday and completed it! I started by working on the space between the outer framework and the 8-point star. I started with the dark green triangles stitched in Kreinik 1/16 ribbon in Vintage Emerald so it wouldn’t have much of a shine. The arrows were stitched in floss using the traditional Mosaic stitch. Half the tops were stitched with the same color as the squares that are done on point. The other half in a shade darker. The rest of the arrows were stitched alternating the two antique mauve shades from the outer corners. I had tried the lighter shades for the arrows and they just didn’t show up against the green canvas. These are still fairly light, but I’m hoping they’ll look okay. I didn’t want to use any new colors at this point.
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Then it was on to the center. I started by stitching the interior 8-point star created by the squares. I used the traditional Mosaic stitch for this. Then I used Basketweave to separate the small 8-point star from the center. This was done in Kreinik #8 braid. The center – I’ve had several comments saying that it looked like a garden, so I decided to play on that! I used 4 strands of floss and laid it carefully in a circular Rhodes stitch. Then I went around the circle a second time, using a dark wine #4 Kreinik braid. And here is the final photo – all done!
My version is drastically different from the one Anne stitched on The Cape Stitcher, but we started with the same design and used mostly floss. This is why I keep telling you to play and have fun when you needlepoint. If you hadn’t been told, would you think that Anne and I used the same design? Each version is wonderful and reflects the personality of the stitcher.
Next time you pick up a project to work on, think about making a few changes – change one or two colors to fit your own decor or change a stitch to one of your favorites. Have fun!!
The second border is something new for me. The small photos I have of these rugs doesn’t give me the best view of some motifs. Making them bigger just causes them to become blurry pixels. So I created this motif to look like what I could see and don’t know how accurate it is. It was created using just long cross stitches over 4 threads. I did the 3 rows of Ginger stitches first. Then the Natural stitches go from the middle of one Ginger cross stitch to the middle of the next one. I like it. The Rhodes Stitch at the corner was done with 3 colors. I like to experiment with this stitch. Maybe just 2 colors would have been enough.
The last step was to go around the pillow one more time in Cappiccino – Gobelin over 4 threads this time. Using the darker color for the inside and outside border sets the border off from the rest of the pillow and also unites the whole pillow.
And finally, the whole pillow which is now complete. It measures just over 9 inches square.
Then I needed to stitch the side borders. After stitching the V stitches, I added a darker turquoise Sprinkles for the little running stitch between them. The eye motif is brown Impressions with the same Sprinkles for the + in the middle. Purple beads were added for an extra punch. These side borders are busy, but I feel the heavier motifs on the top and bottom give them a balance.
Time for the lattice around the large star in the middle of the design. The lattice was created by long stitches in overdyed Kreinik braid (purple and turquoise). Then a bead was added at each intersection. Here is a photo of the corner, all finished.
The final touch was to do 4 long stitches in purple Fyre Werks Hologram. And here is the final photo. A very bright version which I really like. Though I’m partial to the original version too.
Here is the original rug so you can compare it with my adaptation. My colors are a little softer but close to the original. And mine is definitely smaller in size.
Despite my grumbling about the dandruff, I think she turned out nicely. She’s similar to the original, but not identical. There were more motifs on the original. There was no set pattern for the vertical bands and the star bands, and I felt some were too crowded so I made them cleaner and simpler. Over the weekend I’ll post one more time about this rug, telling you about my favorite parts.
Anne commented about the basketweave squares for this set after the last post. Each of the basketweave square took a full skein of floss. I didn’t have 3 skeins of the green I wanted to use, so I stitched the green squares with Anchor #8 perle cotton. I thought the #8 perle would be easier to stitch with and would look great. For some reason it looks like a lightly overdyed color. That’s probably the light is being reflected off the thread in a different way than the floss. Looking at the completed rug and studying it’s overall design and effect, I think the basketweave squares done in floss look much better. Here’s the finished rug.
My thoughts on this rug -
This project used a lot of threads I’ve never used before so I made some discoveries along the way. There were four kinds of silk including ribbons. The ribbons were new to me and were used to make the flowers down the center of the piece. I love flowers but I’ve discovered I’m not good with real flowers or silk flowers. The silk ones are fun to play with, but I need more practice on them. I love that Terry gave me so many different threads to play with. Some of the flowers combined ribbons with other threads to add more dimension to them. The centers were done with french knots in several different threads and lots of beads, some a single color and some combinations of different beads.
The close up shows a few more details. The central flowers are done with buttonhole stitch – one layer on the right and two layers on the left. The centers were done differently. The multi-color flowers are done with a thread that varies as you stitch, fat at some places, thin in other places. That was fun to stitch with. You never know what look you’re going to get. And Terry included more than enough thread and beads to complete the project. I have lots left over and will have to think about something special I could create and use all those luscious threads. In the meantime, I’ll need to get this made into a neck roll pillow to display it properly. Thank you Terry for a wonderful design. 
I wanted to use what I had on hand, but did make a trip to the LNS to see if I could find a Petite Very Velvet in olive, which is one of the threads used by Laura. There is nothing even closely matching the olive colors I would be using. So back home to find what else I had that I could use. I pulled out everything I had in olive and then picked out the threads I would use. I had the dark olive Ribbon Floss so I didn’t need to substitute for that. I also needed a Petite Sparkle Ray and Fyre Werks in olive. I couldn’t find a Sparkle Ray that would work though I did have a Frye Werks. Then I tried the two shades of Neon Rays + (one light and one dark). I decided they worked well with the olive perle I would be using. I decided to use both of these instead of the Petite Sparkle Rays and Fyre Werks. That left a decision on what to use for the Petite Very Velvet. I ended up using Frosty Rays. I think it works well with the other colors. It was used in all three of the wider ribbons. The overdye is Watercolors – Prairie Grass. I like the way it turned out, using colors of my own choosing and a few change in threads as well.
We tried many combination of mats before deciding on the one shown. Off-white next to the rug. Then a light blue gray. And finally the larger dark wedgewood blue. The frame is oak but is darkened along the inside edge which seems to add a little more depth. It’s still raining here in Northern California and I opened the blinds completely to get as much light as I could, though it’s still a little lighter on the left side. I still love this rug and hope others I create will be as gorgeous.
And the other things include a new Moroccan Rug from the Anti Atlas in the far south of the country. Information about this will be posted next week as it’s on the May list of things do. Be prepared for something very different!
Laura calls this a Color Study, so I decided to change the colors to do a little studying of my own. You start with an overdyed thread and then pick colors from that thread to create the design. Laura also suggested putting in one color that was not in the overdye, as an accent or surprise. Laura used green for the surprise color in her stitched design above. I decided to stitch this on Congress Cloth instead of 18 ct. canvas, so the threads I selected were floss, perle cotton #8, and Kreinik #4 braid. I started with my overdye.
This is Wildflowers from Needle Necessities (1062 – Pastel Sunset from ThreadWorX). I wanted to use yellow as the main color, but there aren’t a lot of shades of yellow and it would be hard to tell them apart in the piece (light and medium just look too much alike). I picked the blue-green as the main color and added yellow, rose, and a touch of peach. Then I needed my surprise color – I picked orchid.
This design is done in two passes. The first pass puts in the main quilt designs. The second pass fills in around them. I enjoyed stitching this and like the color combination. I don’t do much stitching with yellow, but now that it’s done I think I’ll call it “Sunny Days” as a compliment Laura’s design. It’s fun to see it come alive as you stitch. When you start, you’re not sure exactly how it will look when it’s done (if you change colors like I did), so it keeps you moving to see what will happen next.
