February 2009 Chilly Hollow Newsletter Article

Sometimes it seems like winter lasts forever in Chilly Hollow. If you feel the same way, this month's newsletter article is for you because I'm going to talk about stitching flowers.

First, the eye candy--here is a silk and metal embroidery sampler from Jane in the U.K. with a lovely floral center. Click on the little picture to see the whole thing. Gorgeous!
http://www.newblehome.co.uk/embroidery/page.html

When you have flowers, you need butterflies, right? This comes from Carol-Anne, also in the U.K. She's a very talented practitioner of Japanese Embroidery.
http://threadsacrosstheweb.blogspot.com/2009/02/travelling-books-introduction...

Now that your fingers are itching to stitch Spring, how about learning a new technique? Needle'n Thread to the rescue! Here is Mary Corbet, explaining Or Nue. She makes it look easy.
http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/01/or-nue-goldwork-in-color.html

Mary also posted two fascinating articles on her blog about needle painting, which is a technique from crewel embroidery that uses long and short stitch (mostly) to create beautifully shaded flowers. The first article demonstrates how much better needle painting looks when stitched in one thread instead of two. Remember, the flowers that Margaret stitched are done in crewel wool. You may not get the same results when you are stitching with silk or cotton or rayon, but reducing the number of plies may well help you if you are not happy with how your needle painting looks.
http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/01/when-less-is-more-in-thread-painting.html

The next day Mary followed up with a tip from Trish Burr, who is one of the pre-eminent practitioners of needle painting alive (the other being Helen Stevens). You may find this useful when you next try needle painting.
http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/01/thread-painting-tips-follow-up.html

Finally, more eye candy. If you haven't seen Trish Burr's website, what are you waiting for?!!!
http://www.trishburr.co.za/

And if you aren't familiar with Helen, here's a Gallery of her work from her site. Amazing! Is it just me, or is Mother Nature an endless source of beauty and inspiration for us needle artists?
http://www.fritillary.co.uk/hmsslideshow/hmsportfolio.html

Here's to Spring!

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