Interview with Ruth Dilts (Plus Stash Enhancement)

It has been an action-packed week for me when it comes to interviews. When I took a vacation day last week and hit all the shops, I had a companion egging me on--Ruth Dilts. You probably know Ruth from her Needlepoint 101 and Needlepoint 202 books which explain how one stitches a painted canvas. These are great beginner books, full of tips scattered throughout each example. She diagrams a lot of useful embellishment stitches for painted canvases and tells you what threads she used and why as well. Great little books!

I have met Ruth off and on throughout my time in Virginia as she lives close to the shops I frequent and teaches at several of them. She also occasionally demonstrates needlepoint during the Woodlawn Plantation and the Loudoun County Sampler Guild exhibits. I've always enjoyed talking with her and managed finally to arrange a time to hang out with her and have lunch. We had a blast! I meet Ruth at Waste Knot since it was most convenient for me and some of her stitching is on display there.

I arrived before Ruth and got in some shopping. I picked out a peach Silk Lame (SL29) and a pale apricot Petite Sparkle Rays (PS76) to pair with similar shades of Baroque Silk for my next painted canvas project. I also bought a tube of #11 Sundance beads in peach 580 in case beads look better with my Baroque Silk than the Petite Sparkle Braid. (I am planning ahead for what I plan to stitch when the pet guardian angels are done, you see.) I also picked up two colors in Lorikeet, which is the 9 ply wool from Gloriana. I bought the lovely Lacquered Gold to pair with my Gloriana silk floss Old Gold, and a skein of Lorikeet Elizabethean Green Dark because it looks like dark forests in the shade. And I bought a skein of Burmilana in dark violet #3943 just because it was pretty and I like Burmilana. This is where I picked up the Stitch & Zip coin purse for my niece, by the way. Once I had everything I needed, I browsed the Mindy trunk show, enjoying a rare chance to see a lot of her work at once, including new designs which aren't on her website yet. More about that tomorrow.

Then Ruth arrived and we had a lovely visit. Ruth showed me her work on display. I've admired Lee's Wisteria Kimono for years. Ruth and Joan Lohr both stitched this piece for a class they just taught together. (Joan's version is in the background of this shot. Can you tell Ruth blended shades of silk for the green background of her kimono and Joan didn't?) I have to say the wisteria blossoms done in ribbon are magnificent! I'm going to have to try ribbon stitch on needlepoint. It's not really that hard. Can you see the Woodlawn ribbon Ruth won for this piece lying at its feet?

The frowning witch in the cat's eye glasses next to the kimono is one Ruth stitched years ago that she says people love. It's a Melissa Shirley witch named Lucy Lastic. Lucy has bats flying in the background and a purple fringed skirt and black boots. (I told Ruth I had a skirt like that in the late 1960s but it was brown. I had cat's eye glasses, too, but my hair was never orange and rust red. LOL) If Ruth teaches this design again she'll have to adjust the threads since the French overdyed wool that made the witch's bullion curls is no longer manufactured, but there are quite a few new threads she can use to substitute for a similar effect. Lucy's a charmer, regardless of her hair style!

Ruth has been busy stitching several large Leigh designs. Sadly, I was not able to see the Carnavale mask "Rossana" or the pink Las Vegas Showgirl "Bergere" but Ruth told me about them. There's a stitch guide for Rossana now but the pink feather stitches on the show girl proved impossible to explain in a stitch guide. The photo of Rossana is from the stitch guide cover. Isn't she magnificent? I wish I'd seen her at Woodlawn but she was hiding in a dark corner and I missed her.

By the way, the dog cushion in the background near the cute Mile High Princess Halloween angel is also a Woodlawn award winner. It is one of the Paper Russell dogs distributed by DJ Designs. I especially like how the unrealistic purple and blue shadows add to the atmosphere. This piece was stitched by someone who'd just lost their own dog and it has additional meaning for her because of what she lost. The stitching is really good on this piece. It deserves its ribbon.

There are a series of dogs from the same designer for sale at Waste Knot. I know they had the Dachshund, Golden Retriever and the German Shepherd with the soulful eyes in the shop. There were others but I'm not sure which ones now. Perhaps the White Lab and the Maltese?
http://www.designsdj.com/paperrussells.html

It was a lot of fun looking at everything with Ruth. Especially interesting was the stitch guide from Aristeia for Melissa Shirley's Stitching Bird . I took a photo of an inside page of the guide for you to see. Instead of the normal diagrams in stitch guides, Aristeia's diagrams resemble hand drawings in colored pencil. I thought the diagrams were clear and easy to follow. Ruth tells me they do all their stitch guides this way, whether they are for Melissa Shirley or guides they write at their shop for customers. The stitch guide I saw is described in the first link below, followed by the store website if you are curious about their work.
http://melissashirleydesigns.com/galcol/index.cgi?index=1234372601_10330&col=123

http://www.aristeianeedlepoint.com/

At this point we packed up the traveling circus and drove to Needlewoman East, hoping to see the Leigh Showgirl. Sadly the shop owner was away (her father is ill) so we missed out. I consoled myself with a hug from the former owner, Sue Jennings, who was filling in behind the counter. (Sue wouldn't let me take another picture of her, much to the chagrin of her fan club!) Then I treated myself to two cards of sale Splendor silk ribbon in ivory and in purple, a spool of Kreinik's 329 which I need for the Tony Minieri Glittering Kimono piece, a spool of my favorite Trebizond silk perle color--Scarlet 4017, and just for fun, a skein of Caron's Wildflowers in 196 Sable because the nice lady helping me said it makes magnificent tree bark. I know I have trees and tree bark in my stitching future so I bought it. Then Ruth and I took a break for lunch, which is when we really got to talk.

Ruth's dad was in the textile business, which I find fascinating as the gene for design and pattern obviously was there. She teaches all over the U.S. and designs counted thread pieces, as well as writing books. You can do a little exploration on her website. I am particularly fond of her Birthday Gem balls. Ruth is the person who introduced me to Mill Hill's Magnifica beads, which have an extra sparkle and depth of color not in their regular line of beads. Until I saw her Birthday Gem balls in person, I didn't know how great these beads are mixed with silks in NP.
http://www.ruthdiltsdesign.com/index.html

Ruth's latest charted design is called Mystic. It's an Art Deco piece, inspired by a piece of stained glass seen in an antiques shop in Mystic, CT. I saw it at Woodlawn last year where it won an award. It's lovely but in silver and black and gold, it didn't speak to me. Until now when I saw it in greens! A friend stitched it for Ruth in different colors and it was made up into a tote bag. Isn't it lovely? Ruth held it for me to photograph (that's her pretty quilted jacket in the photo) in two different shots. I am enamoured with this design now! Ruth is about half way through designing another Art Deco-inspired piece. She revealed one hint to me--it will be on bright yellow NP canvas using the Splendor #5 silk perle and Gloriana silk floss in the photograph. Ruth is still working out the design so she doesn't know what other threads or colors would be present but she wanted a lively Art Deco design to complement the cool elegance of Mystic. This is still in the planning stages although she has her basic design already. I can't wait!

Sadly, Ruth and I had to part eventually. I made my last stop at Scarlet Thread on the way home where I saw Mystic and Ruth's Birthday Gem balls on display as she is teaching there soon. Silly me, I was too tired to think to photograph them for you! But you know I was having too much fun with Ellice and Donna and all the goodies the shop has to offer to remember. I picked up two threads just because (Sparkle Braid in SK33 pinks and blues and Silk N Colors in the lovely blue shades of Japanese Sea) and a little box of SJ Designs beads which are a pretty gray blue. I also bought mauve Magnifica beads (#10026) and a card of the little square magnets I like because they are both very strong and small. Then I had a great deal of fun looking at finished counted thread pieces on display with Ellice and at Gilt Sylke Twist with Donna. Isn't it too bad we can't do something like this every day? But then I'd be broke and it wouldn't be such a special memory.

Thank you for all the fun and the lovely pieces, Ruth. Blog readers especially love seeing your beautiful stitching! It just wish they'd all be there with us, fondling thread and talking about needlepoint in all its many interesting forms.

If I mentioned anything that caught your fancy, here are the websites for all the shops I visited in the order I visited them. Just call them up and say Jane & Ruth sent you!

Waste Knot's website
http://www.wasteknotneedlepoint.com/

Needlewoman East's website.
http://www.theneedlewomaneast.com/Welcome.html

Scarlet Thread's website.
http://www.scarletthread.com/

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