Jo's stitching 2022

[Steam.Jo]

Another sneak preview:



On the right hand side the stitching has just reached the rear legs.

It takes about twice as long to do the stitching which includes the single metallic Kreienik thread and you cannot even see it in the photos I think this camera is too clever and is cancelling it out I will have to read up on photographing sparkly stuff

Jo

[Serinde]

It's still impressive, though! We've all worked with metallic thread enough to imagine what it must look like. Beautiful.

[mags]

It is gorgeous

[rcperryls]

It's still impressive, though! We've all worked with metallic thread enough to imagine what it must look like. Beautiful.

I agree. It's annoying when the metallic thread doesn't show up in the photo, but it does show up in my mind's eye when I look at this really beautiful piece!

Carole

[Steam.Jo]

I have been having a play with my Nikon TG-6 that does all sorts of much too clever stuff to see if I can capture the sparkly stuff. It seems that a lot of the sparkling we see is a function of having binocular vision and light being reflected differently to either eye. So that means the art of the possible is limited.

The next attempt was to see how I could remove the clever filtering so I took a few pictures using RAW. I don't know how to drive the Nikon photo editing suite of software but I did manage to capture a couple of views that prove there is sparkly stuff:



You can see in this first image that I am stitching with two different strands plus one strand of the metallic. I like to try to encourage the metallic strand to sit at the top of the placed stitch to maximise the reflectiveness.

A couple more attempts to capture the shiny bits:





Needless to say I am not impressed with the camera's ability to capture the true nature of the piece. Its a bit like when I use this camera to photograph a beetle which has a metallic sheen and the photograph make it look dull.

Jo

[rcperryls]

I would probably have broken the camera trying to do what you have just accomplished. I, like most people, rely on smart phone photos for my pictures. One thing I learned many years ago was that to capture the true color of objects, photos needed to be taken in sunlight. My DH was an artist and to capture the true color of his paintings would take photos in sunlight. It was amazing how much difference it made. Of course cameras are much better now and you are much more technically astute than I am so you probably already knew this. Seeing the close up detail is great. This dragon is truly going to be magnificent.

Carole

[Arianwen]

Absolutely gorgeous Jo! Having just finished my own dragon I know how finickity stitching with filament thread can be.

And well done in managing to get shots of the thread at work! very tricky!

[mags]

Ooh can definitely see sparkle. Well done on the photos. I only know point and click

[Steam.Jo]

Thank you I only wish the camera could capture the effect better.

I had a wander about on the internet just now after Adrianweb's enquiry about washing pieces of old embroidery and having watched a few videos that said use cold water and soap suitable for delicates found out that Bothy threads have done a number of videos available on Utube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BothyThreadsLtd/videos one of which was on embellishments and they mentioned "Sticky Mats" = a Sticky silicon mat which is washable . I looked it up and the jewellery people use them for stopping their beads/jewels from escaping and as I have a few beads to add to this I have ordered some on Fleabay. I will tell you if they are any good.

Back to this piece. It is hot again. I normally do a couple of hours stitching in the morning before breakfast but today I was out gardening before the sun made it too horribly hot. I came in for lunch and I am not going out in it again as it is much too hot so I have been stitching. Now it is time to stop so I can do dinner I thought I should provide you my Sunday update:



So a bit more on the lower part of the body and a bit more of the first of the rear legs. I will be back on my stitching after I have eaten dinner

Jo

[Arianwen]

Jo - They can also be called Tacky Bob's and I think Lakeside needlecraft stock them occasionally. I know people get on with them really well but I've not tried them - I'll keep an eye on how you get on!

I know what you mean about the heat - I hung out some washing earlier but I've just been sat in the throughdraft of my house so its not too bad but it's not cool.

I'm working tomorrow and totally not lookking forward to being in the blazing sun all day!

Thanks for doing some googling - I have done some myself but not got the confidence to try yet.

I am loving seeing your dragon emerge from the fabric - He/she is going to be so majestic when he/she is done!

[Steam.Jo]

Hopefully this is the last day when the weather is too hot to go outside so a quick look at how far I have got with this piece:



I am hoping that it will be cooler tomorrow and I will be able to go back to Lovely Mum in the Conservatory.

Jo

[rcperryls]

this just gets more beautiful with every update. I hope the weather does get cooler for you for lots of reasons including your being able to stitch outdoors, but you are certainly making wonderful progress on this piece so your time is most certainly not being wasted!

Carole

[Steam.Jo]

Ahhhhhhhhhh I started the top two toes on my dragon's right rear foot in the wrong place:



They are out now.

While I want to finish off correcting this before I start my jobs for the day I will have to leave it for now. Now I know I got it wrong, I will keep remembering that failure until it is back in the right place

Jo

[mags]

Sorry you had a visit from
I have to do a grid on large projects as I would be miscounting all the time.

[rcperryls]

Sorry you had a visit from
I have to do a grid on large projects as I would be miscounting all the time.

I never knew about gridding before joining the forum (never knew about a lot of things before joining ). I'm not sure I would even know how to stitch anything but very small projects without a grid now. And even with a grid I have had Mr visit on occasion . Your dragon is one of my all time favorite pieces.

Carole

[Steam.Jo]

Thank you ladies, I am pleased to say yesterday I finished weeding out the empty onion bed and every hour I needed to let my back recover so I used that as an excuse to put the toes back in:



Initially the stitch holes in the evenweave from the unpicked stitches was noticeable but this morning looking closely at the area it is totally invisible

I am not sure about gridding out the work. I don't like the idea of marking the fabric .

Jo

[fccs]

His toes are fabulous (just like the rest of him).

[mags]

I am not sure about gridding out the work. I don't like the idea of marking the fabric

I understand that - I stitch my grid with cotton.

[rcperryls]

His toes are fabulous (just like the rest of him).

I agree. I love this piece!

I was also very concerned about the marking the fabric the first time I used the water soluble ink pen for gridding. I've never had a problem and if using a new fabric I always test it before starting to grid. It has always washed out. With large projects(like HAEDs) the stitches cover the grid. Now I'm so dependent on it, I hate to think what my stitching would look like without one.

Carole

[Arianwen]

Naughty Mr Frog! Glad you seem to have sorted it with very little trouble. The dragon looks awesome especially his toes!