Saturday, May 23, 2009

Napkin Rings for Summer Tables: Watermelon and the 4th of July!

Since I won't have time to stitch these, I went ahead and painted them to give you an idea of what can be done. The flag thing has been brewing in my head for quite a while, - and also others with flag themes, like 6 Flags over Texas or Florida, etc.

Anyway, on this one, I think I would do the red stripes and the stars with beads - and Kreinik gold or silver metallic for the dividing element. The white stripes would work well in simple T-stitch for a bit of subtle texture.

The watermelons are arranged so that when the seam is made, there will be a whole motif on the back.

As for color, I can see maybe a bright chrome yellow background with white flowers and orange centers. The flowers could be outlined with Kreinik 032 for a bit of sparkle, and the petals in smyrna crosses with something very shiny, like DMC Satin Floss. OR - the background might be a "summer sky blue" (I will have to ask Anne Stradal which DMC floss is that color, as she is able to tag the beauties of nature on Cape Cod with #'s.)

Remember that these are 5 1/2" long, but could be lengthened to 7" for a cuff bracelet (with rounded ends as shown in a previous post) or 8" for a bangle. Even belts would be fun in these designs.
Here are the charts - just print them out and draw them onto canvas with the appropriate drawing pen. I outlined the stars on the flag with a light blue one when drawing - with the thought that white thread would cover it better than it would black. (Sharpie ultra fine point) I rarely paint anything I'm going to stitch myself. I also used the blue on the flowers on the watermelon piece.

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