Monday, February 2, 2009

Feel Like I've Built a House


Here's a photo of the current progress on my mantle canvas. I apologize for the shadow in the upper right hand corner, I think that was caused by the flash bouncing off the magnifier off to the side.
For this section, the actual fireplace itself, I completely ignored the stitch guide which accompanied this canvas.

Hopefully, you can see that there are quite a few stitches here intended to simulate an architectural effect. I spent a lot of time researching what I was trying to achieve. First of all, we don't have a fireplace in our home, which worked to both my advantage and disadvantage. The advantage was, I had no idea what my real fireplace might look like, and just how much detail there might be. On the other hand, I could be putting in way more detail than ever could exist in real life. What I was trying to demonstrate was a beautiful, carved wooden mantle, with lots of detailed woodworking. Some of the stitches I used here were the Quick Stitch (from my Stitches for Effect books, Robertson & Howren), various gobelin variations (made up on my own), elongated tent & reverse elongated tent (from 176 Stitches to Unlock Creativity, Snyder & Hardin), and Triangular Rhodes & Rectangular Rhodes, again from the Stitches for Effect series, Roberston & Howren). There is also a cashmere variation for the floor; my inspiration was Amy's Cookbook for Stitchers. I spent time looking through all my books, and my old Needlepoint Now Magazines, searching for ideas that would work. I hope it all works. Certainly, should I ever GET a fireplace, I have plenty of thoughts about the woodwork!

I have now started on the inside of the fireplace, where the fire is. Here, I find myself going back to the stitch guide. Now that I have (hopefully) conquered my cold (with the help of a lot of sleep this past weekend and modern medicine), I think I will be done with this canvas soon, so you can see the completed work.

Later, D

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love what you've done. It looks very architectural, and I'll bet you had a lot of fun with all those stitches. Now I have great expectations for the fire!
Nannette

Anne Stradal said...

That mantel is absolutely gorgeous! I's obvious you've done research into the architectural details, and it certainly has paid off. Well done, and can't wait for you to light the fire!

Nimble Thimble said...

WOW! WOW! WOW! What a fabulous job. I'm working on a stocking that has a fireplace and yours inspires me to do more than just a couple of padded satins and bricks.

Anonymous said...

That fireplace is absolutely stunning!

Possibilities, Etc. said...

This is awesome work!!

Edy said...

Gorgeous Fireplace! I love it!