http://www.amysgoldenstrand.com/

Amy's Golden Strand, Memphis, TN (2026)

01/21/2025

Now you are ready to stuff the ornament. I like to use cotton roping, which is the cotton the hair stylist uses around your ears to catch the drips of the perm solution. It is also fabulous for padding areas of stitching. Use a cheap (but smoothish) wooden chopstick to push the cotton into all four corners of the ornament. The blunt end will not push through the ornament and the rough surface of the wood will catch and push the cotton into place. Stuff, stuff, stuff, more is better than not enough, and once you close up the last bit of the seam you will need to gently knead the stuffing up into the top corner with your fingers. Finish closing the seam with the same thread and stitch and anchor under the cross stitched seam snipping off the final tail of thread. FINISHED!

The second ornament was to celebrate a new happy home. I used a straight on photo of the front of the house. I used a graphics program to upload the photo and size it to the 6 x 6 that I wanted but you can also use a copy machine that has an enlargement capability to get a photo to the exact size you want. Place a piece of tracing paper over the photocopy and trace only the rough outlines of the house, bushes, flag. Make the lines bold and black so they can be seen through the canvas. Tape the drawing to a table and then tape the blank canvas over the drawing. Use a pencil or a permanent AND WATERPROOF marker to draw the pattern onto the canvas.

Once the canvas is stitched, don’t forget the Continental around the edge, finish it with the same technique shown for the sunglasses design.

01/21/2025

Close the seams with a crossed stitch, stitching over the Continental Stitches along the edge of the ornament. Start with a couple of whip stitches at the fold in the canvas and then work up the side of the ornament stitching one canvas thread ahead of previous stitches, catching both sides of the ornament. The next stitch should move back one canvas thread stitching through both sides of the ornament but through holes that already have a stitch in them. The next stitch moves forward one canvas thread ahead of previous stitching. This will form a crossed stitch along the side edge of the ornament, strong and covers well. Anchor your thread under the cross-stitched edge when you reach the top of that side and clip off the tail of the thread. Repeat on the other side of the ornament.

I purchased some tassels that had long hanger loops and tied two knots in the hanger loop close together at the tassel end. I cut between the two knots and glued the cut ends to prevent fraying. I used E6000 Fabri-fuse for all gluing on this project. Test it on threads/tassels to be sure the color won’t bleed and follow all instructions on the tube. Now I had a tassel with a knot at the top and a loop with a knot at the bottom. I placed the knotted end of the tassel in the fold at the bottom of the design and glued it in place using a liberal amount of glue and then folded the canvas around the knot and clipped it tightly closed. Repeat this putting the knotted end of the loop in the fold at the top of the design, glue, clip. Leave the piece over night to let the glue set completely.

E6000 Fabri-fuse is very thick glue that dried clear and flexible. It did not leave moisture stains on my needlepoint and I used quite a bit of it. Experiment first on some scrap fabric to see what it will do. I cannot advise you on whether this will hurt your needlepoint over the years or how it reacts to heat/cold/or other environmental changes. I wasn’t too worried about it since I was not making ornaments for the White House Christmas Tree, just family fun ornaments.

Now you are ready to close the seam from bottom to top of the design. Anchor your thread under stitching at the bottom of the seam and work the crossed stitch closing as before. Once just past the center (where four seams come together) work two or three larger cross stitches with the stitches worked diagonally so that they catch the corners of the seams already closed, you will then continue with the previous crossed stitches to close the top quadrant. Stop stitching when you still have an opening of 2” to 2.5” (as shown below) so that you can stuff the ornament.

01/21/2025

I know that I have been FB silent for a few months but I have been busy working on gifts and couldn’t post progress until they made it their new homes.

For Christmas I designed two 6” squares from photos. This first square started as a photo of two people on a special day. The faces and clothing, even the building behind them was too complex for my design skills so I concentrated on the sunglasses they were wearing and then added a bit of tropical greenery and sun to represent the location of the event. For background I used Brick Stitch with a mix of solid and over-dyed floss for sky and a simple Bargello line pattern for “water” or surf using 4 intensities of color. I did work a single row of Continental all the way around the outside edge using a thread color that would blend in with the background area.

When finished, I removed the canvas from the stretch bars, made sure that the canvas was still straight by comparing the corner of the design to the corner of a piece of paper. Fortunately I didn’t have to block it. My next step was to trim around the edges leaving 4 canvas threads outside the Continental edging and then carefully notched the corners, as seen below.

Fold the extra canvas to the back of the stitched design and use the tip of an iron, a seam presser, or a hot glue-backed gem applicator (it is amazing what I can find in my tool drawers) to press the extra canvas so that it will stay folded to the back.

The first step in sewing the square design into a diamond-shaped stuffed ornament is to fold the design in half and sew the sides closed. Anchor a strand of thread (same as the Continental) under the back of the stitching coming up at the exact center on the side of the design. Fold the canvas like a taco shell with the anchored thread hanging out of the fold. Use clothes pins, binder clips, or Clover Wonder Clips (show below) to pinch the canvas edges together so they won’t shift while you stitch them.

11/22/2024

Amos died on Sunday November 17th, just a few days short of his 9th birthday. It was quick and unexpected. He had a very special fun morning of play and big breakfast and then he went over the Rainbow Bridge to be with my husband, Bob, sitting on a porch watching everything that passes by.

Amos was a great dog, they all are, and I loved him very much. He was not old and he was not sick, it was just his time.

Sweet Mo and I will carry on. We are sad but we are keeping each other company and enjoying lots of time with family and friends. We have decided to leave our cover pictures as they are for the moment, maybe forever.

10/29/2024

I am so excited about the new colors from ThreadworX. I only ordered the 6 new colors of cotton floss and AVAS silk and I know they have new colors in other thread types as well. I am already seeing places to use these. So much fun and wealth beyond belief to have so much color in my life. All of these over-dyed threads are subtle in color changes so they will be easy to use “full strength” but mix them with a strand of matching thread if you are looking for a more subdued color change. I LOVE over-dyed thread!

Silks from top to bottom
Harvest Pumpkin (my fav)
Deep Purple (bat color maybe)
Pink Flames (woo woo)
Jungle Green (more greens are always needed)
Blue Sapphire (rich and powerful)
Highlighter (incredible)

Cottons from top to bottom
Vivid Yellow (lemony)
Hawaiian Orchid (great floral)
Cajun Spice (I need a jacket this color)
Toffee Brown (warm puppy)
Orange Starfish (peachy)
Concord Grapes (gorgeous blue)

Order any or all of these from your LNS…

10/27/2024

I am being pokey but I am also working on a Christmas present, which is a bit more pressing. I cannot post that or I will spoil the surprise.

I love the wing and have posted the diagram for you to use if you wish. The wing is worked in Florentine Teardop with beads. This is a “variation” of Florentine Teardrop replacing the five lighter pink “teardrop” stitches with strings of beads. NOTE! The diagram shows 7 beads in a string for the long center stitch but it took 9 beads to cover the area. Work all of the Bargello-like stitches first before you start adding beads. The beads didn’t get in the way but you want stitching all the way around the beaded area before you add them.

To make the bead strings stay straight and behave well on the canvas, work one long stitch from bottom to top with either 2 or 9 beads, depending on which stitch in the pattern, and then make tacking stitches over the beading thread between beads. Just one tacking stitch of course between beads on the “two” string but at least four tacking stitches between beads on the “nine” string. After the tacking stitches are worked, holding the original long stitch and beads tight to the canvas, make another long stitch through the beads from bottom to top to tighten and align the beads. I know it seems labor intensive but it makes a huge difference in the effect.

Black stitches in the diagram are worked using 4 strands of Splendor S991.
Gray stitches in the diagram are worked using 4 strands of Dinky Dyes Stranded Silk 133 Jindabyne.
Red stitches in the diagram are worked using 4 strands of Dinky Dyes Stranded Silk 157 Claremont
Attach Sundance Size 14/15 Seed Beads #1637 using Smoke or Black FireLine 4 lb or Black nylon beading thread.

I will talk about “how much” is needed once I have more information. I started with 1 skein/card/vial/bobbin of each and will work one side of the bat and pray that I have enough to work the other side. I figure if I don’t have enough the dye lot won’t make much difference from one side of the critter to the other but it will if I have to change in mid-wing. I am pretty confident that the Splendor, beads, beading thread will all be ample…the over-dyed threads are why I am holding my breath.

10/24/2024

My “after the fact” test for the background is complete and a fairly happy story.

Using a tape measure I found the center top (marked with a pencil line outside of the design area) and then continued a row of background stitch across the orange area. I find that I am way off center BUT I am visually centered nicely over the higher ear of the bat. That makes me happy because that is more of a focal point than the sides (which will be different) as well as the true center which is over the lower ear. What a lovely serendipitous moment. It always makes me happy when I “luck out.”

I also tried the beads in the wing and like those but I will post a better picture later and list the threads/beads used.

10/23/2024

As I work the pattern across the wing I “count” through the ribs of the wing so that the stitch is compensated to look continuous through the area.

This is different than what I did on the opposite sides of the body. The opposite sides of the body are just on a canvas line and then started to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye. This is true compensation where each stitch is kept in order and position with the others even when they skip an area. When the canvas design is complete this carefully compensated pattern will appear to be a complete wing with the little bony ribs lying on top.

Will I have enough thread???

10/22/2024

When I first started the stitch for the wings I decided that it was important to have the stitch pattern a mirror image from one side of the bat to the other. It is always easier to address this early. I didn’t stitch much on the right side, just enough to find the starting point that would line up across the bat’s body and continue the pattern of the stitch in a mirror image. On the right side of the bat the stitch starting to head down the chevron of the pattern is the mirror image of the left side ending at the body with the stitch at the top of the chevron (very wordy, I know.)

At first I was thinking I would start at the “elbow” of each wing, but visually it is better to line up the stitch pattern on the same canvas thread. You might want to try basting across the area to give a distinct visual of the “same canvas thread.”

Just thought I might mention here that I just plunged in with my background area, which may turn out that I have to rip it all out if it winds up being too far off kilter. I did not center the design vertically OR horizontally!!! Again basting lines would have been helpful or at the very least I could have started at the center of the canvas under the bat’s head. 20/20 hindsight is killer! When I get back to the background area I will pick up along the bottom edge and work toward the center under the bat’s head and then decide whether I hate it and rip, or can live with it and leave it in.

10/21/2024

I haven’t gotten very far on the wing because I spent half the day in the car! Tomorrow I will be stitching with a friend so I might have more to show.

This pattern is starting out with one solid and two subtle over-dyed colors. One of the overdyed is a tad more red and the other is a tad more blue. Once I try putting the beads into the mix I will list the threads (if they work).

10/19/2024

I have gotten a little farther along and I like it over all of the colors of the background…happy to check off one thread and stitch. The Splendor S1000 color gives just the right amount of dull gray with a touch of green in it to represent iron without being too important, which a darker color would be. It is difficult to choose the correct thread for a background before the “star of the show” is stitched but I like to stitch the areas of design in the order of depth in the picture: background, wing, body, face, bones, claw. Sometimes it isn’t possible or feasible to work the background first for a variety of reasons. This stitch and weight of thread pose a few issues with anchoring your thread, but using Pinhead stitches, weaving outside the design area, and creative pathway it is doable.

Next I will experiment with the wing idea that I have and see how that goes. I have half of my threads and beads packed up in preparation of moving my studio into my house, which is causing a bit of a struggle to find the threads. What the heck, I am just going to dive into my stash with what I can find and see how it goes.

Picking stitches and threads for a canvas is a bit like writing a story without words. I am happy to share tips and ideas and more that welcome any suggestions and comments that you have for me. Share photos too…love it.

Amy's Golden Strand

01/21/2025

01/21/2025

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11/22/2024

10/29/2024

10/27/2024

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10/19/2024

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