2009 Woodlawn Plantation Needlework Exhibit

The 2009 Woodlawn Plantation needlework show is in its 46th year. It looks good for something nearly as old as me! This year there was lots of NP and not much XS or beading (although the winner for a miniature piece was the Lavender and Lace Designs "Angel of Winter" on at least 32 count fabric with tiny little crystal beads clustered around the angel's neckline meticulously stitched by Kennth Toon).
http://www.tiag.com/images/designs/LL-33.jpg

Several lovely original pieces were exhibited, such as the two Adam and Eve clocks by Marie Driskill that won a blue ribbon and a Judge's Choice award.

UPDATE: These pieces are charted as counted thread designs and available from the designer at this website--
http://blackberrylanedesigns.bigcartel.com/

The smaller rectangle clock features Adam and Eve and the tempting apple tree with the snake coiled around the trunk as the clock face; the other clock is a long rectangle of a clock face with a full scene of A&E under the tree (still with snake around the trunk) but this larger design has blue skies with clouds and birds flying, a little creek, a peacock, a deer, a fox, and down in the foreground, the lion & lamb resting together. It was surface embroidery and in a somewhat primitive style. A docent and I talked about it, me claiming A&E motifs aren't popular these days and asking why this choice, and the docent saying look at all the animals-it's an excuse to stitch wonderful animals. She was right, of course.

I saw many more pillows than usual (the number have been increasing the last 2-3 years) and a lot of flower designs, often framed. I particularly remember two lovely framed single thistle flowers in an Arts and Crafts style, each with curved and symmetrical leaves. Both were by the same stitcher (Anna Garris Goiser) and beautifully framed. Classical design in crewel wool doesn't get any better than this. One thistle won a very deserved blue ribbon. Crewel is coming back, by the way. I saw several crewel pieces in the traditional wool (a chair seat and a long wool coat covered in a crewel landscape of flowers and birds) and several more pieces in NP with crewel-style patterns.

I only noticed one Japanese Embroidery piece that showed a swallow flying among the plum or cherry blossoms on trailing tree limbs. But there were lots of mermaids! I've seen many mermaid motifs in samplers (this area is a hot bed of the repo sampler movement) but these were NP. It always amazes me to see stitchers simultaneously and independently decide to stitch the same subject matter. This year there were no Easter canvases at all, but last year there were 15-20 rabbits, Easter eggs, ducks, Fabrege eggs, etc. The Halloween designs were not as frequent as in the past but Christmas designs are holding steady. How on earth do we all decide to stitch (or not) the same themes at the same time? I can understand why some years there are many Japanese Embroidery pieces and other years there aren't many. These are large piece done for the various stages in JE study, and the people who showed last year might not have finished the next stage in time to show their work.

Speaking of Christmas pieces, there were two artificial trees full of cute ornaments on display and almost 10 large Christmas stockings, all lovely. But my favorite Christmas piece didn't win any awards. It was just charming, a cat with a crown on its head and a flying scarf out on the snow with a mouse friend (also with a scarf) examining the wrapped presents stacked on the ground, each with a bow and its own cat paw marked name tag. The snowflakes in the sky, the expression on the cat's greedy face, the little pointy nose of the mouse, they all combined to make me smile. The piece was very nicely stitched by Marla Frazier and I enjoyed seeing it a lot.

UPDATE:  This is a canvas by Lee which turned up in 2010 on the Destaashing Blog.  I decided to update the 2009 Woodlawn report with the photo of the unstitched canvas above. You'll have to imagine the finished design!
http://stitchingdestashing.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-kat.html

Geometric designs in NP had lots of wonderful representative pieces. My favorite was probably Cheyenne Dyarman's original bargello piece, full of lots of color and many patterns. She won the Emma Mathison ribbon which is for the outstanding "junior" stitcher's piece. Young AND talented? Nothing makes me happier (or more jealous).

I saw Carole Lake's In a Purple Passion in peach,
http://www.carolelake.com/TeachingPieces/PurplePassion.htm

three versions of Laura Perin's Amathyst Dreams hung together (a black and silver version; a red, green and gold one; and a blue and green colorways) as well as a blue and green piece that I think is her Amber Waves. You can see both of Ms. Perin's designs here. Click on the thumbnail photos for a better look.
http://www.theneedlepointer.com/needlepoint-canvases_artist.asp?ArtistID=159

For once, the geometric stitchers showed none of Susan Portra's designs. This is the first year I've been to Woodlawn that I have not seen a Susan Portra piece on display but these are out of print long ago and with her website closing, they are probably going to continue being scarce. This U.K. shop has a nice selection, however. Bring Your Canvas To Life will be open until the end of this month and also has some of her charts. If you ever wanted to stitch one of Susan's pieces, I think you'd better buy your chart soon.
http://www.westendembroidery.com/s_portra.html

http://www.bringyourcanvastolife.com/page/page/3354979.htm

I forgot to mention the samplers. The large room where you enter the plantation is always full of samplers. I did notice this year how many large samplers there were and how many were the monochromatic all-over patterned type. The two big winners in samplers were a blackwork band sampler by Melissa Nichols that alternated bands in red, blue and green on what seemed to be 40 count linen (each stitch perfect, by the way, and the docents claim also perfect on the back side!) and a red one by John Kazmaier with slightly oriental motifs arranged as if it was a rug. Here are two links to explore. The first has lots of reproducation samplers. These are big at Woodlawn.
http://www.samplersrevisited.com/reproduction.cfm

The second shows typical one-color samplers. The ones on display at Woodlawn come from a variety of designers but I know Long Dog Samplers are highly esteemed by counted thread folk.
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/longdog/catalogue.html

Medieval knot gardens appeared in several forms--my favorite was the book cover on small count linen by Catherine Jordan which is an original piece. The garden there was walled with a large front gate and a small back one. Wisteria spilled over the front in exquisite tiny French knots while the four little green gardens, divided by crossed paths with symetrical patterns of green. They must be herbs and trimmed shrubs. It was lovely! Luckily, I found a photo on her website although when the photo was taken, the design was not mounted on the book cover yet. I am very tempted to give this piece my I'd Take It Home If I Could Award.
http://www.catherinesdesigns.net/samplers1.htm

Catherine also entered a second piece, one of her hand dyed linen boxes. It had a high rounded oval lid heavily padded and custom fabric dyed by Catherine to be clouds in a blue sky. The sides of the box had trees in autumn colors along the edges of meadows and fields. I wish I could have seen all the sides! I know there was a rising sun and suspect there were other wonderful things to see! Here is Catherine's website. This box isn't the one I saw but this will give you the idea. Her stitching is exquisite and the hand dyeing very subtle and beautiful.
http://www.catherinesdesigns.net/Painting_and_color.htm

A second garden you won't want to miss if you actually get to the show is the bird's eye view garden rug stitched by Diane Mitchell. It is an original design, laid out like one of those architectural plans of a garden with a brick patio, a terrace with the cat snoozing, and lots and lots of plants, all seen from above. The stitcher carefully matched plant colors in her garden to a tray of threads, according to the docent. The garden is very elaborate and the rug quite large, probably 2 feet wide by at least four long and it was a tremendous amount of work to stitch, all in tent stitches, on 18 count. The stitcher obviously put a lot of work into designing the rug, stitching it and of course maintaining the large garden it memorializes!

Until I saw this blog entry, I wasn't sure I'd mention the stitched chair I saw. It was turned to show the side so I am not sure if it was this one but you get the idea. It would be a fun challenge for a counted thread/surface embroidery fan.
http://lovetostitch99.blogspot.com/2009/03/peacock-stitching-chair-by-cats.html

Dorothy Lesher's gold metallic dragon was on display in the formal parlor. I wish it hadn't been on the far wall to the left of the chimney. This piece needs a close examination to see the various textures of all the different gold thread types.
http://www.needlepoint.org/Seminar-08/classes/4day/40813.php

Elena Miagkova's surface embroidery white feather peacock was in the same room. This piece mixed white feathers with lace eyelet "eyes" and some crewel type flowers into something quite special. The folk art influence on this piece is obvious but it doesn't belong in any one category. Actually, a mix of influences was apparent in quite a few pices on exhibit. Lois Fisher showed a ribbon embroidery piece done on paper with a watercolor background which was lovely. Kathleen M. Olex stitched a mixed blackwork and tent stitch portrait of autumn leaves which was gorgeous enough to pick up a Judges Choice ribbon.

I don't want you to think that the traditional was overlooked. Kaffe Fassett's shells pillow was on display, charming me with its subtle coloration and perfect tent stitches.
http://www.resurgence.org/gallery/kaffe-fassett/kaffe-fassett.html

Two of Mindy's Asian quilt designs were also done in tent stitches, with texture provided by various thread types. Three pages of Mindy's Asian quilt patterns start at the link below. They are lovely and always popular at Woodlawn.
http://www.mindysneedlepoint.com/asian_default.htm

And there were slip on mules and sandals, pocketbooks (I particularly liked the golden elephants on coral red bagette purse), a stained glass window pillow, and many many more pieces which would not surprise anyone transported from 1973 to see the show. It's just that the threads are modern and the designs first rate. That brings traditional needlepoint to the 21st Century and is a hallmark of our times.

As usual there were many Asian inspired designs. I loved Lee's wisteria kimono, and
http://www.silk-road-needle.com/images/Website/Lee%27s%20Needle%20Arts%20006.jpg

Sophia's paper umbrellas fan and
http://www.needlenookoflajolla.com/storedir/products.php?cat=116

the lovely little turquoise "takeout" box purse with a geisha and double cherry blossom pattern (number 15 on the designer's website).
http://www.dirksdesigns.com/ddc/keeg/designs/des_handbg.htm

One of Tony Minieri's teapots (the Washington, D.C. one with cherry blossom sprays and an American flag hanging in the background) made a lovely showing, plus there were a great many animal canvases. In fact, if it hadn't been for all the flower canvases, I would have said animal canvases of all shapes, sizes, styles and colors were the coming thing in NP design. I saw The Cowardly Lion, Victorian kittens, a fat modern cat, colorful butterflies, a giant ladybug and even larger bee in the midest of a very stylish border, a dormouse at a picnic, dog portraits, chickens, fish, owls, circus monkeys, and much more. There was even a frog dressed to shop carrying her Shop Til You Drop tote bag. All those animals personify stitching today. They were in NP, XS, blackwork, were in all styles, sizes and made up into all sorts of pillows, framed works of art, even a doggy bag lunch bag sporting a dog, tongue hanging out over his sporty bandana.

Woodlawn this year is traditional but mixes styles and threads to show a great diversity and also a clear interest in the flowers and animals of our natural world. I hope you enjoyed a brief report on the exhibit and what I saw there.

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