Outlining the stone

For the purple and yellow stone building, I decided to use a horizontal interlocking gobelin over 4 threads.  When you look at the original canvas, you can see that the blocks are outlined.  I tried stitching the blocks without outlining, but they all blended together and showed no separate space.  Therefore, I decided to do a backstitch around each block to give it some additional depth, as shown here:

As a caveat, I thought that this stitch would stitch up quickly but it is taking much longer than I expected and goes thru a lot of thread.  Hopefully, I will get this area done soon and can then move on to another area.

Yellow and Purple Block Stitch Choices

After stitching the doorway the same as the Blue Arch, what horizontal stitch would best for the stones? Out came the scratch scrim to start playing.  There were several experiments tried and they each had issues:

The two stitches with their variations considered were the Reversed Continental and a Horizontal Interlocking Gobelin.  The Reversed Continental was rejected because it was cumbersome to stitch with the Flair and didn't provide enough texture.  The enlarged Reversed Continetal would have too much open space and need too much fill.  Now let's see if the interlocking gobelin is better.  The sample over 2 threads size had a scale that was too small for the area to be stitched.  But it  probably could be used for the top of the building. The 3 thread version had appeared too uneven.  The 4 thread version seems to be the right scale.

Now which fiber to use: Flair, Neon Rays, or Splendor?  The Flair looks nice, so far.  The Neon Rays seems to snag for this stitch and is too shiny.  Fortunately I was doing this testing at my local shop, the Rose Cottage, during the Thursday night stitch-in and was able to get some feedback.  The winning choice?  Splendor!  Rationale being we need an area to rest our eyes from all of the busyness of the piece.  Here is the start of this area in 6-ply Splendor and 6-ply Gumnuts:

Since the block areas seem to be blending into one another, some black backstitching as an outline may be needed.  To be continued in the next post...

Large purple dome building

After completing the small purple dome building, the large one appeared a little easier to tackle.  I started with the vertical stripe area.  While examining the stripes, the purple stripe to the left of the candle minaret seemed out of place and lacked continuity of the building.  So I took artistic license and changed the purple to yellow and the aqua to yellow.



The horizontal stripes were the next area and they required some counting and compensation.  There were 12 threads to the right of the candle minaret, so a stitch that was 2x6 would be a good size.  I wanted it to look a little bumpy like detailed trim on a building.  An oblong Smyrna cross stitch would be a good fit.  The shape was perfect for the right side, but the left needed some compensation.  The stitch was worked from right to left as shown in this diagram:

On the far left , the stitch would be cut off, so a partial stitch was done.  Only the areas that would be visible were stitched.  When the second row was started, I had it line up directly underneath the first row so they would look like blocks.



The last area to be stitched was the roof.  I chose a criss cross Hungarian using a 4-ply Splendor and a 3-ply Gumnuts as the accent thread.  The Gumnuts is heavier than the Splendor, so fewer ply are needed.  I started stitching on the right side so I could get a feel for the pattern.
The tricky part was when I went to the left side of the roof, the minaret was in the way and was affecting the count.  Out came the paper and pencil and I had to actually draw the compensation.  The solid lines indicate the location of the minaret tower.

Small purple dome building

It's been a busy 2 weeks with the High Holidays and other family concerns.  So I finally am getting back to post.  There was a choice between the large purple-roofed building and the small purple-roofed building in the right panel.  I was concerned about how to stitch the roof, so I started with the smaller building because there was more room for error and it was more in the foreground.

The purple and yellow diamonds were intriguing and became the starting point.  The trick was to determine a stitch that would not add bulk and lay fairly flat but also show off the shape.  Again, using the KISS method, a straight stitch following the painted area seemed the best choice.  I counted the area and discovered that it was an even count, so the center would need to stay open.  The threads used were Splendor S881 and S909 in a 4-ply.  The lengths of each of the side triangles were to be the same.  The stitching direction was also important.  To emphasize the dimensions, the top and bottom triangles were stitched horizontally and the sides were stitched vertically.

I wanted the dome to look like roof tiles with a touch of sparkle.  The stitch used was Old Florentine in Splendor S872 in a 4-ply and Frosty Rays Y360 in backstitch as an accent.

The stripes were easy to stitch because they were small and shouted horizontal straight stitch.  The blue area was in Threadworx 010241.  Since this is an overdyed thread and I didn't want a stripe appearance, I took 6 ply, separated them, and then reversed 3 plies to create a tweedy effect.  The purple area was in Petite Sparkle Rays PS42.

And as always, the stitch guide:

Zigzag tower + Progress report

Finishing the rest of the zigzag tower was fun!  For the windows' wall, Splendor was used for a random length split gobelin.  I thought by varying the lengths it would look more like stucco.  To create a smoother look, the needle came up thru the stitch above.  This helps remove the "dimpled" look.  The green band needed to match the color tones of the adjacent candle minaret.  Using the same threads as the minaret, a scotch stitch was used with each alternating square reversing the slant direction.  The tie was done with the Kreinik Fine #8 braid crossing over the completed scotch stitch.  The overall effect repeated the zigzag.  The last area stitched was the tower top which I wanted to look like a beacon.  Again using the KISS method, the yellow was stitched with Flair in a straight stitch and the blue was stitched with Fyre Works.  To help smooth out the rough edges between the yellow and blue, a backstitch in blue was used.

Here is the stitching guide:

And here is the progress report:

Zigzag tower windows

The windows of the tower are perfect rectangles that are 4 threads wide x 12 threads high.  What an invitation to try something!  I wanted them to appear with a little sparkle to represent light, but not too sparkly.  Their color was a very deep purple, almost black.  In my stash I found a Splendor (S881) with an Accentuate (140) thread.  The Accentuate was more purple.

After looking thru my books, I decided on using a horizontal Oblong Rice Stitch.  The next decision was what should the large cross-stitch be: the Splendor or the Accentuate?  Out came the sample scrim to try them out.  The sample on the left had the Splendor as the base.  This looked to be too sparkly and too much purple for the desired look.  The Accentuate sample on the right had a hint of sparkle and was deeper in color value.

Here is a finished window:

Zigzag tower

Continuing the color theme, I decided to follow the dark green and headed to the Zig Zag tower where the green repeats in a band.  The main focus in the tower is the actual zig zag so that became the starting point. After hunting thru my books for ideas, I thought that a straight gobelin with some sparkle in the blue area and a brick stitch for the teal would be good.  I guessed wrong.  Here is that result:

The blue was nice, but the teal looks too busy.  So it became rip-it, rip-it.

I started over with the keep it simple method using a straight gobelin for the teal.  Here is that result:

 Definitely a better result!  The blue was a Silk Lame and the teal was a Pebbly Perle.  These threads gave some vertical accents and a little puffiness.  The next step...finish the zig zag tower.