Cushions And "Our Lady"....
It Has been a While, Dear Readers, since I showed you any of my stitching projects, and that is in great part because it has been a while since I have been stitching them! With the completion of the stitching on the tiny Tapestry Cushions last summer, I felt the need to start another tiny scale (thread count wise) project right away because I enjoy it so much! It was full summer, the days were hot and long and the nights were short so daylight was abundant and the tiny thread count projects require good lighting! I dug around in my stash and found the above kit waiting for me. I had purchased it quite a while ago at one of the Miniatures Fairs.... it is another kit by Phyllis Stafford (now deceased) who also made the Baktiari Carpet kit and the Chinese Dragon Carpet kit (although I added the dragons to that one), so I felt ready to tackle this one. Believe me, it has been a challenging one!
To begin with, it is another 40 count mesh design, like both the Chinese Dragon Carpet and the Baktiari Carpet, but it has a much larger variety of threads! There are twelve colors of cotton threads, five colors of metallic threads, of two different types, and 5 colors of silk thread of a type I had not stitched with before! The end product will be about 2.5 x 3.75 inches so it is not large, but it has a great amount of detail.
Add to that the chart is the old fashioned symbols only kind.... although I think it would be very hard to chart the different thread types if you were only using a color chart! But that is a large number of different symbols/numbers to keep track of! I will confess that the first time I opened this kit I took one look at the chart and decided I was not ready to work on this yet!
But last July, I was eager to get started! I had been stitching those 50 count cushions with gold metallic thread mixed into the designs and had gained confidence! But where to start?! There are very few large blocks of one color in this project. And the counting needed for every single part required relentless accuracy.... no room for jumping around or re-designing parts with this kit! And because the metallic threads were such an integral part of the design, and used Abundantly.... yes, very very challenging! I decided to start with the eyes as they were easily identifiable on the chart, and I could approximate the positioning in the overall cloth.... no going back!
The story behind this kit is that near where I live is a Polish immigrant community of long standing who brought their "church" with them from Poland along with an icon of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa. Occasionally when my sister visits with me we go to church services at this Church where the icon lives. Phyllis Stafford, the kit designer was familiar with this church and made the kit of their icon in miniature. When I saw the kit in the offerings at the Miniatures Fair, I recognized the icon and thought it would be fun to stitch! The deep black lines on The Madonna's face are where the original icon was damaged by thieves who attempted to steal it, and no amount of "mending" has made the gash disappear!
The process of stitching requires constant thread-changes....you can only count so far when the stitches are random gold pieces of a complex design... but you have to make sure they are in place first for the more complex designs.... it is complicated! I did the reverse for the metallic thread "gems" in the white band of the headcloth... I left the "gaps" for the metallic threads to be stitched later. I did this in part because they are random single stitches in a place far from other bits of that color.... easier to start and end the thread with the surrounding parts already stitched! But I made a counting mistake at the bottom end of the design...! No way to fix it later when I discovered my mistake. And the metallic threads are profuse in the clothes and in the Haloes of Mary and Jesus.
The picture on the kit package is fairly small,
it actually is printed to "finished size" which is very handy,
but it makes stitch details in the picture difficult to see.
I was at first quite puzzled about the "white ribbon bows"
that she "wore" on her headdress....
only to realize as I was stitching them that they are tiny angels....
one at each ear for both Mary and Jesus!
Of course, the original angels in the painted icon
might be easier to recognize...
I was quite enchanted when I realized what they were!
In this picture the angels for Jesus are still incomplete.
And the ones for Mary still need the two blue and one red
metallic stitches for the eyes and mouth!
And then there is the challenge that there are both
gold and silver metallic threads used lavishly in the Halos....
and the clothing... and keeping track of where you are
on the chart and where you already stitched....
constant counting and double-checking!
Did I say I wanted a challenge?
And trying to make the clothes for Jesus.... and the halo...
And Jesus' hands...
Their clothes are stitched with the silk threads...
"Ping Ling" silk which you have to separate
the threads and use two to stitch with.
They are quite "bouncy" and twist abominably
so you need to be very careful how you
pull the threads through...
and start with a short length!
I made some boo-boos in the metallic pattern in Jesus' sleeves,
but honestly, it is hard to tell!
I spent many peaceful summer mornings
outside on my porch stitching
while the birds sang and the crickets hummed!
Here I have been filling in the background of the halos
with the gold cotton threads.... in three different shades!
Keeping track of which row you are on...
and adding the gold or silver metallics
when I discover a missed stitch....
there were a few where Jesus' halo
and Mary's headscarf join together.
And then the weather changed...
Autumn was coming the light was fading...
this project went on the back burner!
But Oh, yes, those little Tapestry cushions..... !
They "just" needed to be stitched to a backing, stuffed etc....
At the last minute before cutting these
little squares apart, Dear Readers,
I had realized I should stitch an extra row
of plain background around each one to give more
"seam allowance" for stitching these into pillows.
Then I separated them....
and I have already shown the finished
Astrological Cushions on the blog last Fall.
For the Tapestry ones I had several possible
backing options in my stash as you can see above with the Deer cushion.
In the end I decided not to use only one color for all six cushions!
And I even had options for the cording that goes around the seams....!
In this case a varicolored Perle cotton that could be used selectively
since the length needed was short for each cushion.
And I decided that since the back of the cushion and the front
are never seen at the same time.... and that the cushions
would not be all in one location... (that would be too much!)
I could mix and match to my heart's content!
It was really random and spur of the moment
as each cushion was being stitched!
The cat was the first completed...
I know... the corners are not done very well....
they are hard to turn inside out!
But it really is not very noticeable in the end.
They are all stuffed with small beads so
they have some weight and can be shaped a little.
The bunnies came next....
don't they look wonderful together?
Here you can see the slow over-stitching
that attaches the cording around the seams.
It covers the little bits of silk mesh that show
when the cushions are turned right side out.
There! The squirrels are finished too!
These were done over many weeks last Fall.
And the hounds too! they do look happy together!
I am so glad I decided to add the second hound!
And yes, the Deer cushion and the Unicorn cushion
have also been completed....
but I didn't get good pictures of them in the dollhouses yet.
And lastly, the Dragon carpet has had the
"little gold leafy" details added to the main area.
This design has always had a few parts that mystified me!
The gold "accents" are scattered very widely
through the design and add a bit of "sparkle" to the pattern,
which is why, I suspect, they are there.
Because I moved parts of the pattern around
to accommodate the dragons, the gold bits got re-arranged,
and I deliberately skipped some of them altogether,
and added some where I thought they could balance the design.
And because I didn't like the "gold bits"
that were in the original design's corners...
I changed them completely!
I decided instead to take the tiny original central circle design
and bring it out to the corners too!
And that's as far as I have gotten on this project.
We are back to the dark time of year
and it is too easy to make mistakes
when stitching in poor light!
So none of this is recent work, Dear Readers,
(Because, yes, I am still working on the Christmas Card....)
but all of it worthy of showing here...
Just a little overdue Stitching Up-date
on the Tapestry cushions and "Our Lady of Czestochowa"!
