When I chose the  image of this red temple in the snow, one of the qualities of the print that I loved the most was all the red in the image. Having lived in Taiwan, I could easily imagine this red temple and, having lived in Iowa, I know what snow looks like.

What I didn’t imagine was how varied and complex the shading of the reds would be when I was taking an image and turning it into something stitched. The eves in the image appear almost black in some places. Solid red, no matter how dark, even a deep burgundy, wasn’t going to give the impression of depth and shadow.

I tested the deepest red but the color was too flat. I added some black and it looked like stripes – awful! Then I asked my husband and he looked and looked (as he does when considering an important question) and pronounced “browns”. So I tried it…and it worked…beautifully! You can see the two sets of thread combinations above, one for the darkest part of the eaves and one where it gets a bit lighter.

The base threads are Caron Impressions and the others are DMC cotton floss. The darker set of threads are Impressions 2010 and DMC 310 (brown) 433 (deep gold) and 377 (a slightly rusty red). The lighter set of threads are Impressions 2011, 3031 (brown) 434 (deep gold) and 347 (rusty red).

The next step was to decide how many of each thread to use in the mix. Above, you can see 1 strand of Impressions 2010, two strands of brown 310, two of gold 433 and two of rusty red 377. I started with one Impressions thread and two of each of the DMC floss but played around with the mix as I wanted the shade to be brighter.  Adding another strand of the gold or a strand of the lighter rusty red to the dark mix worked well. I don’t have a formula, as I experimented as I went along. I’d put all the threads into my needle and, without knotting the end, make a stitch over two threads of canvas. This allowed me to see what the effect would be and then pull it gently out. If I liked it I would then carry on stitching and, if not, I would change the balance and try again. This is NOT a fast way to stitch! Separating the threads, putting them together and testing the combination took a long time but the end result is worth all the time and care.

You can see that the color and the shading is lovely and you can even imagine the light coming through the trees and illuminating a bit of the eaves from below. The gutter between the roof and the eaves I stitched using the same color combination.  On top you can see some puffy couched grey wool for the snow resting on the gutter. I love this technique and it works perfectly here.

The gutter was stitched using a straight stitch over two threads over back stitch laid down for padding. Above you can see the back stitch before I covered it on the lower roof.

Here you can see the grey wool being laid and ready to be couched down. The most important thing when doing this is to make sure you leave enough slack in the thread you will be couching so it can be puffy. Don’t pull it tightly against the canvas or it won’t make those pretty ruffles. I use a mix of grey threads again to give it a bit more life.

Now I’ve finished stitching the eves and it’s time to move on to the building. I think I’ll begin with the little one story bit you can see on the left. Time’s moving quickly and I’d best get back to work!

There has been so much stitching going on that I haven’t written as I’ve gone along so this will be a bit jumbled. We leave soon for England and the piece needs to be at a point where I can finish the stitching in three days and leave one day for mounting. The problem is, I’m not sure how to determine when there will be only three days of work still to do!

After stitching the eves I did move on to the top part of the temple building and the small building on the left. I stitched them using a mix of reds and browns but after living with it for a few days decided that it looked messy. My husband agreed – in the nicest possible way! – so I took it out. This poor piece has had so much taken out it’s a miracle that the canvas is still in good shape!

As I worked I covered the finished stitching with plastic wrap stitched loosely to the canvas outside the design area. I tried using tissue paper but it just floats away or falls on the floor. I didn’t leave the plastic wrap on the piece when I was finished with the sky but it did help prevent the snow from getting dirty.

The details on the tree were especially fun to do. I took some floss in a medium tan/brown/pink and stitched around the bark. To stitch through all this wool you have to use a sharp needle and I found a thin one was best. I’ll probably outline the tree with the same thread but will wait until I can talk to my tutor to make sure my idea will work. This is one place where I don’t want to take stitches out.

Here is the stitching on the smaller building that I took out. In fact, if you look at the photo above this one you can see a tiny bit of fuzz left on the canvas. There are two things about this stitching that didn’t work for me: the right hand edge, where I’ve tried to show perspective and the corner just looks daft and the mixed threads look too stripy and messy. In the photo above you can see that using the same stitch – double linked cross – but Impressions threads in single colors in the needle worked much better. I did change shades of red, getting lighter as I worked towards the bottom. The single color in the needle seems to have worked well here and, although I did mix the colors in the rows to make the shading gradual, I didn’t mix the threads.

Next time a close up of the work! You can see my worked packed up and ready to go to England in a beautiful bag Jane made for me. I called British Airways and spoke to a lovely lady who assured me they would let me carry this down the gangway where it would be carefully put into the hold for the flight and I could pick it up in the gangway as I got off. I hope it all works out! We’re flying away to England today and soon you’ll be hearing from me as I work with Kelley Aldridge in Bristol! I can’t wait!