Hear Ye... Hear Ye...

Hi Eveybody... Robin here.

I'm the Town Crier today... it's my pleasure to spread the word.

First of all, here's a message from Amy regarding the Eyelashes for the Haunted House:

• "The eyelashes that I used are the ones in the upper right-hand corner of her picture. They will all look good but people always want to know which ones." -- Amy Bunger

Also, in the comment section of Cat Walk, Melinda had a question about the Peyote Beading on Dr. A's coffin. I am posting Melinda's question with Amy's answer as it might be helpful for others when they get to that point of their stitching:

• Melinda:  "This is off topic but I am struggling with the peyote beading on Dr. Acula's coffin. I understand the concept of what we are doing with each row of beading but I can't translate that into actually doing it. My beads on the second row will not stay in place at all. After about 4 attempts tonight on the second row, I am just not "getting it". Amy's instructions are quite detailed but if there are any other suggestions or hints, I would appreciate hearing them. Thanks!"

• Amy Bunger:  "The second row of the peyote beading is the hardest. I also had problems keeping the line straight. Will try to give advice from memory. Put a finger of your left hand under the string of beads to lift them off of the canvas and help to stabilize them. Aim the needle up or down away from the beads as you slide it through each bead on the return trip. Hang in there....I really mean it, the second row is totally the hardest to do. In row three the beads stay pretty much where they are supposed to, making it a piece of cake. After row three I wished that there were more rows to work!"

In my world, last evening I stitched the Harvest Fairy's wings. Today I am working on her face.  She is looking pretty good. Once I got her dress and boots finished, she started to have confidence in me and eased up her attitude. 

preview of Harvest Fairy

Just as a reminder, the Harvest Fairy is the new Melissa Shirley/Debbie Mumm canvas (MSD DM-09) which will be released in the January 2011 TNNA Long Beach Winter Market. I will be teaching her canvas at the Market, as well as my Stitch Guide will be available through Melissa Shirley Designs.

Well, that's all for now. Enjoy the weekend. Thanks, Robin

Dr. Acula's face

I 've really enjoyed working on the Dr.'s face and the orange lining of his coffin.  I loved working with the overdyed ribbon.  I didn't worry about laying it straight.  I just worked on keeping it puffy.  Then I tackled the details of his face.  I used a size 24 Chenille needle...small and sharp.  As usual, Amy has provided a great diagram.  I made a slight change.  

See where my laying tool is pointing?  Well instead of taking my stitch into that spot as it is diagramed, I took the stitch straight up to where I put a red dot on the diagram.  If you look at your picture closely, it appears that the top of his lip does not go out as far as the diagram shows.  I hope Amy won't mind me showing part of the diagram  in order to show you what I did.  I followed the diagram at first, but it just didn't look right.

I  have another diagram correction for you.  Diagrams # 11 and #12 are not correct.  These are the diagrams for the side of the coffin and the top of the coffin.  It is a Bargello type stitch which should step down one canvas thread four times, and then it repeats.  The diagrams show the first two stitches stepping down one canvas thread but then skips down two canvas threads for the third and fourth stitch.  It should not do that.  Look carefully at the picture to see what I mean. 

 

Here is another peek at W. Herr Wolfe.

Making progress.

I use to edit videos for a living for FedEx.  I know more about airplanes than I care to know.  Once I did a segment on fan blade blending.  The jet engines suck a lot of air through what look like giant fans.  The blades get dented by stuff, and that effects flight.  I didn't need to know that!

Anyway, I have come to realize that my stitching style is a lot like the way I use to edit videos.  I would lay down the voice and sound track.  Then I would go back and do the special effects.  I liked to quickly do the easier part and that left me more time to work on special areas.  I seem to I have carried this pattern over to my stitching on the Halloweenies.  I attack different areas that I hope to finish quickly so I can spend more time on the special areas. The only problem is that I run out of time each month.  At FedEx, I was known to stay all night to meet a deadline.  But now that I am retired, I am much less disciplined.  So I ask your forgiveness for not finishing each character each month.

I had planned to stitch all day on Tuesday.  But ended up spending the entire day with my husband.  We slept late.  Then we went to Target, then to Best Buy, then to the bookstore, then to TCBY for ice cream.  Then we went to the grocery and came home and made bean burritos.  Then we went for a two mile walk.  Well, try stitching after a day like that.  But it was a GREAT day!

I hope to get more done during our month off.  I plan to set the house aside and continue with the characters in the months we receive a kit for the House.  I am making progress on Dr. Acula.  But where does the time go?


The October E-Newsletter from Amy's will feature some finished Halloweenie characters.  So look for it at the end of next week.  You can sign up for a newsletter alert here.

Have a great weekend.

Dr. Acula's unhappy pumpkin and his cape.

Have you ever seen a more unhappy pumpkin?  As I get ready to do outline stitch for the stem,  I got out some 24 Chenille needle's I picked up at the shop Saturday.  Amy recommends a small sharp needle for outline and stem stitch.  I love the Bohin needles.

Before doing the outline stitches on the unhappy pumpkin's stem, I decided to do the cape.  It's a nice little stitch, but there is lots of compensation.   The stitch also leaves some canvas threads showing.  The black canvas threads don't show, but the gold do.  See the edges of the cape below.

We will be edging the cape with some gold.  I decided to do some black tent stitches so I would have a clean slate, as it were, to lay the gold upon.

That's better don't you think?  Now I won't have to worry about gold canvas threads peaking out.