Tulip Model Update & Silken Treasures

There still isn't much spring outside at Gracewood, but Tulip's Praise is making me feel like it has arrived inside. Here is my update on the model's stitching. I wish it were more, but after a winter of being able to be happily homebound we've had to start the chores of spring from pruning to fertilizing the orchard and rose beds. We're in that short window between winter snows and spring rains and our stitching and painting have to take second place for a few weeks.

I'm very happy with the colors and fabric I chose for this piece. I'm finding them truly joyous :)

You know already that I love working with silk floss, but I really love all silk textiles. There is a wonderful exhibit at the Textile Museum featuring the woven silks of the famous Katagawa family of weavers. I find them exceptionally lovely and inspiring - Silk Textiles

Royal kimono fabrics

Coromandel Framed and Floss Selections for Harvest Hum

The Frame Guys, see links, have once again provided what I think is just the right frame for a piece. Here is Coromandel in its bronzed wood frame and it gives just the effect I was after. I do like this design a lot, I'm sure there will be similar ones to follow :)

Since Trust is going very fast, I've chosen the floss and fabric for Harvest Hum, since I hate that stitching frame to be empty!

I had a rather good selection of silk floss on hand and happily was able to choose from my stock so nothing has to be ordered. I'll be using an 18 count ivory Aida and the floss will be a combination of silks from Carrie's Creations and Vikki Clayton's HDF.

The conversions are as follows -

DMC 920 Copper md - HDF's Terra Potta 4325
DMC 922 Copper lt - HDF's Terra Potta 4321
DMC 728 Golden Yellow - HDF's Liquid Gold 4177
DMC 3821 Straw - HDF's Yellow Spice 4163
DMC 3362 Pine Green dk - Carrie's Valley Green
DMC 3363 Pine Green Lt - Carrie's Garden Green
DMC 504 Blue Green Lt - HDF's Jadeite 2461
DMC 368 Pistachio Lt - HDF's Yerba Mate 3135
DMC 718 Plum - Carrie's Plum Passion
DMC 154 Grape - Carrie's Purple
DMC 552 Violet med - Carrie's Violet
DMC 781 Topaz - HDF's Rum Scullion
DMC 434 Brown Lt - HDF's Bird Feathers 4107
DMC 869 Hazel Nut Brown vy lt - HDF's Jackalope
DMC 3820 Straw Dk - HDF's Carveza 45

I think the DMC I chose while charting will work well, as would the conversions to Anchor. I just love working with silk floss and that is why it is what I choose for stitching the pieces myself.

Fabric & Floss

These last few days I have done some editing of the Heart Note Alley chart, changing a few bands that weren't working for me. When I first put them together it was more to get an overall feel for the piece and now as I'm getting ready to put floss to fabric it is time to finalize the design. Though there will doubtless be some changes as I stitch the particular bands, I think I can safely say that the design is as final as it can be at this point in the process. And this is what it looks like.

I also spent a fair amount of time looking at silk floss considering possible colors. In our very rural area there are no brick & mortar shops I can go to to actually see floss so I ordered some online, hoping that the actual colors were close to what my monitor was showing. Thankfully, most were and after trying many combinations of possibilities, getting rid of the 'disturbers', I've decided the color palette.


For fabric I'm using Zweigart's 18 count Aida cloth in ivory. I've tried many types of fabric over the years and I come back to such an evenweave because I simply enjoy how it feels, looks and stitches. I have friends who do gorgeous work on linen and this design will hopefully work well on whatever type and count you might prefer yourself.

The floss I'm using is silk. Since first trying silk floss I haven't used anything else, again it is just what works for me. This time I'm using silk floss from both Vikki Clayton's Hand-Dyed Fibers collection and some from Carrie's Creation Threads

The palette will be three shades of green, three of mauve and two purples.
From Carrie's Creation - Wild Orchid (dark mauve), Violet (medium mauve) and Garden Green (dark green)
From Clayton's HDF - Wrasse #3315 (medium green), Wrasse #3313 (light green), Ultra Violet #2121 (light mauve), Sue-Purple #6115 (dark purple) and Sue-Purple #6109 (medium purple)

I began doing some sample stitches to see which color I want to use for the border, hopefully you can get an idea of what they look like in the photo below. The second group with the medium green won and will be the border.

As soon as I receive full skeins of the selected colors I'm more than ready to get started!