Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The Needlepoint of Politics


A week from today Americans will vote for a new President. If you are a political junkie, you can stitch while you blog, campaign for the candidate of your choice, or just dodge the constant phone calls from people looking for your vote.

The original political needlepoint came from Mary, Queen of Scots. An explanation of some of the symbolism she used in her spot motifs is here.
http://www.millennia-designs.com/tapestry-cross-stitch-embroidery-kits/76/90/88/

The state of New Hampshire, famous for its first primary voting (the votes that select a candidate from each party) sells political NP items such as coasters, luggage tags and dog collars.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/01/04/primary-needlepoint/


Susan Treglown does a donkey painted canvas. Donkeys are the mascots fo the Democrats.
http://elainemagninneedlepoint.stores.yahoo.net/democratdonkey.html

Here is the Susan Treglown elephant, the Republican mascot.
http://elainemagninneedlepoint.stores.yahoo.net/repel.html

Very serious Democrats, by Julia
http://elainemagninneedlepoint.stores.yahoo.net/friendonletf.html

Ditto Republican by Julia
http://elainemagninneedlepoint.stores.yahoo.net/friendonletf1.html

Chaparral is having a political animal stitch-in. Here are finished models. Put your cursor in the middle of one and click to see a nice big photo.
http://www.ndlpt.com/html/kits.html

The photo illustrating this blog entry is (probably) a plastic canvas rendition of Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for President. It was stitched by Stephen Savage and comes from his Flickr account. Sadly, I can't find any stitched portraits of John McCain. He just doesn't have a face that lends itself to caricature.


Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow