I've been thinking about what to stitch for the ANG Auction in Milwaukee in 2009. I rummaged around in my pile of painted canvases, trying to pick something that would bring ANG big bucks and be fun and educational to stitch. (Blog has standards, after all--if it isn't fun and I'm not going to learn anything, why am I stitching it?) I know that very large pieces and sets draw lots of bidders and since I'm not up to stitching a rug for ANG, I needed to find an ornament set I might do that would interest the folks with the money in their pockets.... That's when I remembered the old issue of Needlepointers pictured above.
See those angel ornaments? Those are the Household Pet Guardian Angels, designed by Kandace Merric. (first pet in Needlepointers magazine, October/November 1996). I've always thought they would be a fun stitch but what am I going to do with them? With the dogs and the cat so rambunctious, we don't do a Christmas tree for the holidays. Well, the Auction sounds like a great idea! Then I really got to thinking. Why not invite you all to stitch one of the angels, too? We could have a great pile for Auction! I think if we stick to not altering the stitches and using the same color in tent stitches for the background, they would look great in a riot of colors, sort of like folk art.
Naturally it didn't take long for me to realize that not everyone has a stack of old Needlepointers on their bookshelf. Fortunately, the designer Kandy Merric herself and the ANG Board came to my rescue at this point. They have agreed to let me scan and distribute the instructions for a pet guardian angel to folks who will stitch that one for the Auction.
Kandace Merric has also kindly agreed to stitch two angels herself which will be unique and not one of the six original designs. I am not sure which household pets she will do--a lot depends on how the animal head shapes work with the angel outfits she has in mind--but there will be two mystery angels to join the cat, the dog, the rabbit, the rat, the fish and the parakeet designs in the original set.
I owe a huge debt of thanks to Ms. Merric who has agreed to come out of NP teaching retirement (she concentrates her attention these days on dog rescue groups in the NYC area) to not only allow me to do this project, but to contribute to it herself. I also am very grateful to ANG's President Barbara Richardson, to Sandy Rodgers the editor of Needlepointers who helped point me to the right place for permission, and to Ann Strite-Kurz who contributed encouragement and a contact email address for Ms. Merric. No matter whether anyone else stitches an angel for the Auction, this has already been a huge group effort.
Next time I'll post a bit about the individual pet guardian angels and how I plan to organize this project.
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
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