Dec 2014

Snow Bear - stitched by Cindi D. - Huntington Beach

This beautiful stocking, designed by Liz Goodrick Dillon and distributed by Susan Roberts is a wonderful example of using simple stitches and getting great effects. The bottom half of the background is all encroaching gobelin.

The secret to the wonderful fur on the bear.......start with a base of 1 strand Burmalan doubled in the needle and stitch the entire body as shown on the graph. THEN go back over the body with 2, 3 and 4 strands of Burmilana executing random long and short stitches and using up to 7 shades of Burmilana from white to dark grey. Start with more strands over the base and thin out to just 1 or 2 strands on top for the final shading. It's not easy and when you think you're done-keep going.

Chart for base of fur on bear-over 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2

The beautiful pearl garland was created using pearl shank buttons, #15 silver beads and bicone crystals. Each canvas hole that the button was going into was carefully widened with an awl. The button was inserted in the enlarged hole and secured on the back first with a tiny safety pin (coated in clear nail polish) and then the pin was tacked down with beading thread. After the pearls were in place each pearl was encircled with a string of #15 silver beads and couched in place. Finally, between each pearl a bicone crystal was threaded with #11 silver beads on each end and stitched between the pearls.