Choosing colours for the Blue and White Room

I got some little pots of historical paint colours, having checked out which wall colours were possible circa 1700.  Stone colour was popular, as was a dark blue and a yellowish ochre, so I grabbed some examples of those and painted some swatches so I could look at some blue and white plates against the colours.

I like this dark blue, but it's a bit predictable with the blue and white.

I like this stone grey, too, but it's a little dull for this particular room.  I want this room to be quite pretty :)

Okay, now we're talking!  Elga sent me some photos of her own delft-ware against a yellow wall.  You can't beat blue, white and yellow, can you?  I think this is very pretty.

Here's some plates against the red wallpaper:

And here's the same plates against an earth-toned paper:

What do you think?

Bellpull stitiching done

Yesterday I finished the stitching on the bellpull -- I'm in the process of hemming it and adding the pewter top and a tassel on the bottom!

I've learned that one should never carry a dark coloured thread from one area of the canvas to another, because it WILL show up behind a light background :)   Good lesson to learn!

And I learned how much I love stitching on silk gauze. I'd like to thank the Petitpointers and my other friends in the mini world for your encouragement to give this a try!

What skills have you learned in the mini world that you never thought you'd have?

My Mum's Edwardian Roombox -- post Christmas photos

Last Mother's Day David and I built an Edwardian-era 1:12 scale roombox for my Mum, and we've been filling it with goodies ever since :)

Tuesday is usually the day I spend with my Mum, hanging out with her, shopping with her, helping her with things.  Well, we had a great time yesterday, and I got a chance to take some photos of how she's arranged her roombox to incorporate her mini Christmas presents.

I think she's arranged things really nicely :)  I love you, Mum!

Links for petit point sites and resources

Bobbie Schoonmaker's Afshar rug on 40 ct silk gauze

Needlepoint is the general term for embroidery worked on a counted canvas or fabric using tent stitch (continental stitch) and basketweave stitch.  Gros point is the larger scale stuff, worked on size 16 ct canvas and above (16 ct to 8 ct per inch).  What we use in the miniaturist's world is petit point.  Definitions for petit point vary, but the current consensus seems to be that petit point is small scale needlepoint, especially on silk gauze, smaller than 18 ct (22 ct, 32 ct, 40 ct, 48 ct up to 100 ct!)

START HERE :)

Petitpointers group on Yahoo:  the best, most active group of people doing petitpoint on the Internet.  Most of the members are working on silk gauze, in the 40 ct range and smaller, but they're VERY welcoming of all people, including beginners, and there's no pressure to do anything but have a good time at whatever level you're working at.  Very inspirational, and a very supportive group of people.

ABOUT PETIT POINT

The Needlepoint community at About.com

 Miniature Needlework Society


SHOPS SELLING SCALE PETIT POINT KITS, CHARTS AND SUPPLIES

Micro Stitchery -- IGMA Fellow Bobbie Schoonmaker's charts and kits available here, most of them on 40 ct silk gauze.

Miniature Home -- IGMA member Melissa Boling's charts and kits here, most on 40 and 48 ct.

Janet Granger --  Beautiful charts and kits, mostly at the larger end of the petit point definition (18 - 32 ct, some on silk gauze).  She also sells some supplies.  Great starting place for beginners!

Mini Stitches -- Annelle Ferguson's site, with silk gauze kits (mostly gorgeous samplers) available

Stitches in Miniature -- some very pretty carpet designs on 22 ct canvas.

Magic Miniatures -- historical works of art charted for petit point -- some very high count charts (70 ct) and many more at 40 ct.  Charts only, some can be downloaded, which is convenient.  A wide variety of subjects.

Felicity Price -- Patterns and kits on 22 ct canvas.  Some really lovely designs -- I have her book, too :)

Cookie Ziemba -- gorgeous kits for miniature crewel work (okay, it's not petit point, but it's beautiful :))

Janet Granger Willow pattern bellpull in progress

Months ago I ordered two kits from dolls' house needlepoint artist Janet Granger:  a cushion kit on 18 ct canvas and a blue and white bellpull on 32 ct silk gauze.

That bellpull kit has sat in my workroom for months, waiting for me to get up the courage to try stitching on silk.  Well, I started it a few nights ago, thanks to the encouraging effect of hanging out with the Petitpointers group on Yahoo and looking at their amazing work on silk gauze.

It's inspiring, I tell you!

So here I am, a couple of days later, with the design all stitched and a new obsession -- stitching very small things on gauze.  This is about half an inch wide, by the way.

This looks very messy -- I'm sure I'll get better at it -- and I totally botched the whole "find the centre of both the gauze and the chart and match them together" thing, because I was running out of room at the bottom of the piece and had to excise about 5 stitches from the pattern :)  You can see how close it's getting at the bottom!

But it's a very pretty pattern and surprisingly easy to do.  Actually, I found it easier to stitch on 32 ct gauze than on 32 ct evenweave fabric or canvas -- because the warp and woof threads of the gauze are so fine, the spaces are bigger, and easier to see.  And it's VERY satisfying because the whole thing is so dainty.

Close up of the top of the pattern.

I'm starting a resource list for petit point links and shops, largely to organize my own collection of links, but also in case it's of use to other people.

Finished carpet in the bedroom and start on Blue and White Room

Here's the finished carpet in the bedroom, with its edges hemmed :)  I've always loved oriental carpets and can't afford the real thing, so I think I'll start a collection of needlepoint ones in miniature!

Here's the start of work on the fireplace wall in the Blue and White Room.  I'm still hemming and hawing over the wallpaper.  This pattern is based on a scrap of early 18th century wallpaper which I laser printed.  I can do it in other colourways, too -- but I chose red because I didn't want my blue and white china to disappear against its background.  I want to mount blue and white plates in an arrangement above the fireplace, comme ça:

Okay, it's not period, but it's yummy :)  Photo from Better Homes and Gardens found at http://bijoukaleidoscope.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html

The wainscotting will be painted a coordinating colour to whatever I choose for the wallpaper.

What do you think?  There's the dark red, or I could do a dark blue, which might still give me enough contrast with the china, or I could go sort of goldy-ochre-orange which would be complementary to blue.  Or maybe I should do high panelling and paint it in an ochre or red? Decisions!

Anatolian Transylvanian carpet done!

I finished the carpet for the WAM bedroom two days ago, and it's just waiting for me to finish off the edges :)  I'm so glad to have it done, and I'm really happy with it.

I've been working on the Blue and White Room -- I've got the fireplace wall almost done, but no pictures yet.

And I've chosen my next needlework project:  I want to make a cushion for this beautiful chair by John Ottewill, so I've made a little paper pattern and now I need to design and stitch the thing :)

I wish you all a very good New Year's Eve, and a Happy New Year!

William Morris-inspired footstool needlepoint chart

Happy Boxing Day (which is what we call the day after Christmas)!

I hope for those of you who celebrate Christmas that you're having a wonderful holiday season!

In my Mum's stocking yesterday were a number of dolls house miniatures for her Edwardian roombox.  One of them was this little mahogany footstool (made from a McQueenie's Miniatures kit), which I covered with a piece of original needlepoint.

I wanted to use Janet Granger's Tree of Life needlepoint footstool kit, but forgot to order it in time, so I made this pattern up, based on a William Morris design.

I ran out of time to stitch the extra ecru background to properly cover the stool, so I tea-dyed the white fabric around the edge so it wouldn't be so noticeable :)

This was stitched on 32 count canvas, but would look even better on 40 ct silk gauze, I think.  Still, it's the smallest scale bit of needlepoint I've produced to date, and I was very glad to give it to my Mum :)

As a belated Christmas present, here's the chart for this.  As always, please feel free to make it for your own use or to give as a gift, just not for commercial use (without asking me first) :)

Download the .pdf file for the William Morris-inspired footstool needlepoint chart

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Eve

We had a last day of shopping and running around today, and tonight everything is quiet, except the wind outside!  I don't think we're going to have a white Christmas here in Nova Scotia -- the lovely snow from a week ago is all gone :(

I've got some last minute baking to do tomorrow, some last minute sewing and some present wrapping, and then I'll sing with the choir at our 10 pm Christmas Eve Eucharist.  Then we'll be all set for Christmas!

On Christmas Day my Mum will come over about 1 pm and we'll open our presents.  One of the nice things about a strictly adult Christmas is that everyone involved gets to sleep in!  Our current tradition is to focus on the small sorts of gifts that fit in Christmas stockings, rather than give large or expensive presents to each other.

I'm just cooking a small dinner, just for my Mum, my husband David and me.  We're going to break with the traditional turkey, so I've got a lovely roast beef which I'll prepare with Yorkshire Pudding, roast potatoes, green beans, carrots and gravy.    We've got a Christmas pudding for pudding for my English husband and my mum, and I'll have something yummy, maybe whip up some meringues.  Or I'll just eat part of the Terry's Chocolate Orange I hope is in my stocking!

Then we'll lie about, feeling stuffed and happy, and snuggle the cats ...

Will our Christmas pud look like this?  I doubt it!

But for now, I need to get back to my mini-stitching which I hope to share with you tomorrow.  I'm needlepointing a cover for a little footstool for my Mum's Edwardian Roombox, as part of her Christmas stocking gifts, which will include a lot of minis for her room!  I like the design, which I made myself, but I managed to lose one version of it, so I've been stitching like a mad thing for the last day, trying to redo it!

I hope all your seasonal preparations are going well :)

It's snowing!

Photo of St John's Anglican Church, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. copyright AndreHugosPlace

After weeks and weeks of rain or fine days, we finally have some snow today!  It's falling very prettily here in rural Nova Scotia in Canada, where we've been spared the harsh weather hitting many other parts of the Northern Hemisphere (including, bizarrely, the UK). 

Okay, there's not quite enough snow to equal that in the photo of St John's above, but we're getting there :)

St John's is the church I go to.  Isn't it beautiful?  It's in a style called "carpenter Gothic" because the shipbuilders of Lunenburg didn't have stone, they had wood and mad woodworking skills :)  It's the second oldest Anglican church in Canada.  It actually burned down in 2001, a year before David and I moved here from Toronto -- and the parish rebuilt it exactly as it was (but with improved systems).  For the first few years I was in Lunenburg we worshipped in the Parish Hall as we watched the church rise, literally, from the ashes.

I'm singing with the choir this Christmas, and our service of Lessons and Carols is on Sunday morning, one of my favourite services of the year. 

Anyway, I hope you're all well, whichever Hemisphere you're in, and whatever the weather's doing!

Nina