Robin (And Amy Bunger) Help With the Dog's Ear

Wednesday when I posted the photo on the left to Blog, I got a nice note from Robin King, who is Amy Bunger's webmaster and who also teaches at Amy's shop. Robin let me know that she had just uploaded a photo of Amy's latest Home Study canvas to the Amy Bunger website and she thought one of the techniques Amy used on the Nativity shepherd piece would work well for the ear of the Cape Cod dog I'm stitching. Here's the link to the photo Robin told me about--

http://www.amybunger.com/albums/album_image/6366238/5301486.htm

Look at the lamb the shepherd is holding. Robin sent me this close up later in the day of the little lamb's ears. Amy did them in needle weaving. Robin thought perhaps I might want to consider needle weaving the ear on my dog. So last night I took out some of my Burmilana and doodled various ears on the edges of my canvas. I tried detached buttonhole instead of needle weaving first. This makes it look easy but I think I need a framework at least on the sides.
http://www.brazilian-dimensional-embroidery.org/stitch_instructions.htm

Like this.
http://www.stitchopedia.com/ButtonholeStitchDetached.html

These two blogs talk about the pitfalls you run into doing detatched buttonhole. I decided that my Burmilana is just too thin to do detached buttonhole successfully. I can barely see the previous row's buttonhole to stitch through it for the next row!
http://juststring.blogspot.com/2008/11/stitch-study-1-detached-buttonhole.html

http://jowynn.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/the-knotted-detached-buttonhole-stitch/

So I looked up needleweaving in Jo I. Christensen's Needlepoint Book. It's on page 367 of the 1999 version if you own this wonderful reference book. Basically you put in two parallel lines as a foundation, then do a herringbone stitch over them, weaving back and forth.

It makes one nice raised ridge, but this is not the version of needleweaving that Amy did on on the little sheep. Robin, with Amy's permission, kindly sent me the diagram of her way of doing this stitch above. Click on the photo to see a larger version. I've been testing needleweaving in the margins of my canvas to see how it looks with my Burmilana and how many strands I should use if I put it on top of the already stitched dog's ear. Hopefully by tomorrow I will have come to some conclusions about the two versions of needleweaving (Jo Christensen's and Amy Bunger's) as they apply to my canvas and threads. Testing is essential at this stage because every stitch, no matter how wonderful, won't work with every design and thread.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Listening to Barbara Bergsten UPDATED

Rcently I've been really enjoying reading Barbara Bergsten's blog. Barbara designs painted canvases and blogs about her newest pieces and how she is stitching them.
http://createneedlepoint.typepad.com/create_needlepoint/

Barbara's summer intern is busily painting and stitching her first NP design, The Fashionable Lady. It is a delightful elegant woman in black and hopefully a canvas that Barbara will offer one day. UPDATE: You can already order Erin's 1930s woman via Barbara Bergsten Designs. Contact information is here.
http://www.barbarabergstendesigns.com/contact_us.htm

And Erin talks more about her experience learning to design and paint a NP canvas (with contact information) here.
http://createneedlepoint.typepad.com/create_needlepoint/2009/07/more-news-from-erin.html

Barbara herself is stitching a poppy pillow that uses what she calls "sister stitches" for the various flowers. Sister stitches are stitches which are very similar and which can also be used in mirror images of themselves. Because they have a lot in common, you can use a large number of stitches to keep from getting bored that don't look like a mess because of their family resemblance. This is an important technique and one that I use when I can. Barbara shows it off very well on her blog.

After you finish browsing, bookmark this site. Not only does Barbara have fun things to see, she is creating two color stitch diagrams of a huge variety of stitches which will liven up your stitching. To see the current diagrammed stitches, look in the left hand column for "bbd Stitch Diagrams." Click there and enjoy!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Dog's Head in Knotted Stitch

The head of the largest dog on the Cape Cod Dogs canvas is coming along. I've ended up starting the stitch at the collar by turning the canvas upside down and working from the top of the collar down to the top of the dog's head. If you look carefully at the 3-4 stitches that are above the dip in the collar, you can see I started the stitches there lower than the ones above the straight line of the collar. I thought that would look better than having large compensation stitches right above the collar where they would be very noticeable and the difference in the line does look like a turned neck. So I lucked out there.

Knotted stitch is very easy to switch colors with. I could have (but did not) do the long stitch in one color and the top tie-down stitch in another to further blend colors. I'll leave the black eye and pink mouth unstitched and do those later. I hope to finish the head tonight and then start on the long back of this dog.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Dog Fur (Or, Jane Climbs Out of a Rut)

As you probably noticed yesterday when examining my floor boards and bar, I've started stitching the largest of two labs on Cape Cod Dogs. I'm using two strands of Burmilana, which is a wool/acrylic mix that comes in a thin strand. Here are the colors available. Note that there are solids and also mixes of shades called twills, tweeds and heathers. These combinations of colors will give you a very natural look or in the case of Twills, a striped effect of contrasting colors.
http://www.needlestack.com/WebStore/Thread/Madeira_Burmilana.html

I left the strands of the two solid colors I'm using (the lighter is stitched on the back, the more golden from the collar up) lying on the canvas so you could see what this thread looks like. I enjoy using Burmilana, especially for furs. I had intended to use random stitches (a variation of long and short stitch from crewel embroidery) for the dog, but I use it a lot and have noticed a great many folks are very nervous of stitching animals this way. I find it an easy and forgiving stitch but it does take a while to do, so I thought why not branch out and try something else? So here we are. What you see is Knotted Stitch from page 47 of Julia Snyder's Backgrounds & Such. It is a long slanted stitch, similar to Interlocking Goblein except that it has a tiny reversed tent stitch that ties each long stitch down in the middle. I suspect it has other names but I haven't taken the time to see if I can find Knotted Stitch in other stitch dictionaries under another name. [Note that I found Knotted Stitch on page 49 of More Stitches for Effect.]

I have discovered that you need to carefully lay the long stitches for a smooth look, which I am going to need here. I will blend the two shades of tan on the dog's face and probably on the middle of its back to suggest highlights and might add a third shade of brown around his ears. I also will probably top stitch a thin line around his ear with a darker brown. I am not quite sure how this will work so I am going to stitch his face first as it is a smaller area to rip out if this doesn't work the way I think it will. I may rough up the stitch slightly to make it fuzzier also. Haven't decided yet on that.

If you study the picture, you'll see two slightly raised stitches on the left side of the dog near the collar. These are two tent stitches I put in to compensate the edge of the dog's body. They really don't look like the rest of the stitching so I'm only doing full stitches for now until I figure out how to stitch the edge without having the stitches that compensate stick out like this. I may switch to one strand of Burmilana when I do the compensation stitches....

Back to my rut of stitching animals with long and short stitch and random variations of it.

Sue Dulles and Mary Corbert are both writing about long and short stitch and how they work it to realistic effect. Mary is an embroidery teacher, and promises videos later of a project she designed you can work along with her to learn how to do long and short stitch. Sue is a needlepointer. Either or both will have great ideas and help if you want to try a realistic animal or flower in this stitch. Here's Mary's first two postings--

http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/07/long-and-short-stitch-shading-lessons.html

http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/07/long-and-short-stitch-shading-my.html

And here are Sue's, which uses her dog portrait as an example. I highly recommend that you read along and learn how to do long and short stitch. It really does create realistic animals!

http://sudukc.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/week-end-stitching/

http://sudukc.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/how-i-random-stitch/

http://sudukc.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/random-pictures/

After all, if the Knotted Stitches don't seem to be turning out well, I'll probably go back to random long and short to stitch the largest dog. The small dog in the background will probably be in long and short or in tent stitches as it is quite small, too small for Knotted Stitch. So I'll fall back into my rut on this piece elsewhere, but I wanted to try something different and something that more folks would be comfortable trying on their canvases of animals.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Learning From the Masterful Sharon Garmize

I ran out of time this morning writing about stitching the wooden bar's top and the floor of Cape Cod Dogs before I was able to mention where I got the idea. I read the needlepoint magazines and my stitch books religiously, studying all the projects and photographs with an eye for great ideas I can use elsewhere. Now that there are so many blogs by stitchers, designers and shops, the places to rummage around for ideas on the Internet are endless. But some sources are much better than others, and no one is a better stitcher than the needlepoint designer SharonG.
http://www.sharong.com/

You've probably admired her canvases with their beautiful shading for years. She's one of my very favorite designers as I love realistic designs with beautiful shading, but her designs cover much more. Her art also includes abstract and funny canvases; she immortalizes anything from a fountain pen to a corset to a scarecrow to alley cats to the rear ends of horses. She is Talent Personified. I devour everything she says on her blog. Look at this entry.
http://sharongneedlepointdesigner.blogspot.com/2009/06/ct35-is-newer-canvas-that-now-has.html

Now look at the second photo, the one called Maria's Door (canvas D31). SharonG was stitching this to create a stitch guide for her design and posted a photo of the unfinished canvas. Click on the image to enlarge it and study it carefully. Look at the stone steps and how she changed direction of the darning stitches to show you the side of a step versus the flat top. Study the ruined wall and see how the direction of the stitches change on either side of the wrought iron gate. Notice how she uses different stitches on the sections of the wall to show different materials or a shadow. SharonG is a master of stitching painted canvases as well as designing them.

Looking carefully and critically at what she did with this piece showed me how important stitch direction is for darning and light coverage stitches. When I bought Cape Cod Dogs I knew I wanted to use light coverage stitches for the floor and the top of the bar; when I saw SharonG's canvas of the ruined wall, I knew I would have to take into consideration the flow of the stitches and which direction they were oriented in order to make the wooden planks look good. The bar top itself is on a slant, so I used slanted stitches. (Well, the stitches are horizontal but they run diagonally, giving the slanted effect of stairs seen from the side.) I tried running my stair step stitch on the bar's top with the canvas sitting upright but discovered that I needed to turn the canvas on its side with the window section at the top to make this stitch work.

The floor boards are oriented vertically | with a vanishing point in the back wall. So I stitched those horizontally with a thread that exactly matched the paint in the front section (which explains why you can see these stitches better in the back where the thread and the paint contrast).

You can call me a student of SharonG, as well as an admirer of her painted canvases.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Which Way Does Your Floor Board Lay?

It's been another hectic weekend in Chilly Hollow but luckily the stitching for the top of the old wooden bar and the floor in the Cape Cod Dogs bar went quickly. With just one ply of the darkest brown floss from the wooden shelves, I did an over 4/under 1 darning stitch for the floor. The top of the bar was a stair step like stitch over four threads done on the diagonal. After the stitches were in a few long stitches in a contrasting thread added the edges of the boards. Very easy stitches but the trick is to figure out the direction to lay them that will give you the best effect.

In the photo above you can see the floor darning stitch best in the background near the wall where the thread color doesn't match the painting underneath. This stitch was a _ stitch done horizontally like this ____ - ____. The little - is the thread of the needlepoint canvas the real thread goes under before coming up to cover another four threads of the canvas.

The bar darning stitches are best seen covering the white patch of sunlight reflected by one of the glasses. To do the stairstep stitch, I turned the canvas on its side so that the window area was at the top. As I said, these are easy stitches (it took me less than 2 hours to do both areas including the top stitches that are the edges of the boards) but I did spend some time experimenting to see which way the stitches should run and which side of the canvas should be facing the top while I stitched.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Interviewing Eileen and Elizabeth (Part One: Eileen)

Anyone who gets into an email conversation with me runs the risk of being interviewed for Blog. Last spring when I discovered the Door canvases Ridgewood Needlepoint offers I asked Eileen Aird the shop owner to let me know when all the models were stitched so I could update the information here. She was kind enough to send me photos of each of the seven doors and then submit to an interview about them, her shop and how she got into needlepoint.

At the same time I was busily pestering the Needlepoint Broad for an interview since I've fallen hard for her nostalgic state vacation postcard designs. Imagine my surprise when Elizabeth Hess the owner of Needlepoint Broad said she'd be happy to be interviewed but she had company right now--her twin sister Eileen of Ridgewood Needlepoint was visiting!

So we have two interviews in back-to-back weeks with the only identical twins I know of operating on the business side of needlepoint. Since Eileen's interview was further along, let's start with her and the story of Ridgewood Needlepoint and those Doors. You can see the website information about the Doors here. I will scatter the photos of each door throughout the interview so you can enjoy and compare them easily to pick out your favorite.

http://www.ridgewoodneedlepoint.com/index.php?p=dolls

Autumn Door

Eileen says the Doors were designed for her shop by Nancy Chapman who is her custom painter. Nancy also works for Needlepoint Broad occasionally, and the Doors will eventually be available through Needlepoint Broad although for the next year they are shop exclusives. I asked Eileen where the idea for seasonal doors of various architectural styles came from. She said, "One of my employees had a Christmas ornament of a door; in addition, I had several customers who wanted to do a small series of doors. Consequently, I decided to do a series based on the seasons. Actually, I love doing things with short and long stitches but that doesn't work as well for buildings. This series was more challenging for me but I enjoyed the challenge!"

Christmas Door

Here's the rest of my interview with Eileen whose words are blue so you can tell my questions from her answers.

First, the doors. I know they are a "club" at Ridgewood and that you taught one of the doors as a class for your customers. In fact, I will be teaching several other doors in the fall and winter depending on interest. Probably Christmas (again), the Patriotic Door, Autumn and Summer.

Patriotic Door

Otherwise folks get a door canvas with threads and instructions every other month? They get a canvas and instructions every other month. Since so many stitches could supply a needlepoint store with their stash, we made the thread kit optional. We also offered a choice of either six or three doors.

Hanukkah Door

Does one get a choice of a Christmas or Hanukkah door for the end of the year? Actually, we started with Christmas or Chanukah because there is such pressure to complete items for Christmas. But yes, they get a choice. Obviously, a "club member" could choose to do both Christmas and Chanukah and eliminate another door or just do all seven.

Valentine Day's Door

Is there a cutoff date for signing up? No, we can still add people; we just add them to the existing cycle I.e. new people would start with the Valentine's Door. Each door is $85 for the canvas and stitch guide.

Now, about the shop. How long has it been open? Ridgewood Needlepoint opened in April 2002. What possessed you to go into the business? I had always visited needlepoint shops when I traveled and thought that I would enjoy owning one. I have been very impressed with some in my travels. I lived in Wellesley, MA for almost two years and enjoyed going to Wellesley Needlepoint very much.

Spring Door

Was the fact that your twin sister is a designer a big influence you? Or were you the influence, getting her interested because you had the shop and needed her to do a few canvases for you? I opened the shop first and Elizabeth was a frequent visitor. She attended some shows with me and saw some designs that she thought would translate well into needlepoint.

Have you always been an entrepreneur or saw a need or did the local shop start to close and you bought it? There was no local shop but I do have a business background. I had decided that I didn't want to be in corporate America anymore. With my kids entering their teen-age years, a local business had distinct advantages.

What's the story behind your entering into selling threads and charts and canvases and the rest? It was just time to purse a lifelong dream. And because I love painted canvas, the shop deals primarily with painted canvases although we do some charted designs at Ridgewood Needlepoint. The things I stitch are usually whimsical in nature or animals. Owning a shop forced me to develop an eye for different types of canvases. And of course, for someone who loves color, what could be better than owning a needlepoint shop.

Summer Door

Do you and Elizabeth have a family history of needle arts and/or business that got you both started down this path? Although we had both dabbled in some needle arts as children, we then started needlepoint in our early 20's. I was a more consistent needlepointer. Elizabeth did some knitting and some other crafts. I was such a poor knitter that even my mother wouldn't wear the sweater I made! Although our mother didn't do any craft, our father's mother knitted.

Now that you are on the business side, what surprised you the most? I'm always amazed at how much inventory is needed! And how important it is to buy different types of canvases. There's a canvas for every taste.

What is the most fun about owning a NP store? Shopping! What plans do you have for the future? We plan to offer more classes. Right now, I'm working on a beginner's class.

Is the website going to expand, you plan more classes, you want to physically expand the shop, etc.? In the past year, I've been much more active with our blog. [Jane forgot to add a link so you could visit it so I've updated this.]

http://ridgewoodneedlepoint.blogspot.com/

I would like to offer some canvases through the web site. I have toyed with becoming more of an internet seller, but I enjoy the personal contact with customers and teaching them. I am a firm believer that it is very important to support the brick and mortar stores. They provide the local knowledge and teaching. And for me, needlepoint is about the colors, the colors and the threads. I need to touch and feel.

Has the economic downturn brought changes to the business that you can see in your customers' behaviors? Are folks splurging on a feel-good canvas, staying at home and stitching stockings for the grandkids instead of traveling in retirement, etc.? We are seeing as much as a downturn as I expected. Stitchers always need to stitch but I've been surprised that the finishing has stayed consistent. Or can you see a difference? The major difference I see in the business versus when I started, is that people often come in wanting a specific canvas. Internet browsing has made the customer much more familiar with the canvas designers.

Is there a local bias in what your customers want in turns of designers? There are regional differences. We sell a lot more Yankee and Mets Stadiums than we do Red Sox (Fenway Park). [Jane, whose husband is the largest Red Sox fan in captivity, faints at the mention of the hated Yankees.] In the rest of the country, I believe a much higher percentage of the needlepoint is Christmas related. We almost never sell nativities.

Do you carry a lot of designs that appeal to folks in the NY/NJ metropolitan

region? We certainly carry some designs that are geared for the NY/NJ metropolitan area. For example, a big seller is "Jersey Girls Don't Pump Gas [available from the Needlepoint Broad]. And another big seller for us has been the New York Midtown Stocking (we call it Rockefeller Center Stocking) by DJ Designs. We also sell lots of belts which I understand you couldn't give away in California.

http://ridgewoodneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2009/05/jersey-boys-dont-pump-gas.html

http://www.annieandco.com/designers/dj/images/dl501.jpg

Do you think your customers buy what folks in Texas, California, Florida and the Central States buy? Of course, some things have universal appeal. I bet "Good Night Moon" by Silver Needle sells all over.

http://www.silverneedlect.com/products.php?category=16

Has owning a shop made you a better stitcher? Owning a shop has definitely made me a better stitcher. In order to teach, I've taken many classes to increase my knowledge and my techniques. In addition to technique classes, I've taken classes on color and design. Owning a shop enables me to recommend stitches for far more canvases than I could every stitch. And I am also exposed to many wonderful stitchers, too. I've found that after I've finished a major project (The Doors, Summer Girl, The Paper Doll Club), my stitching bumps up a level. It's one of the great pleasures of needlepoint -- you can always continue to learn and improve.

Do you have time to do any stitching now except for store models? You are right and virtually everything I stitch goes into the store. But I do lots of stitching. I do most of my stitching at night watching TV. Right now, I'm hoping to finish my Rockefeller Center stocking. I am also taking Carole Lake's Straight Stitches (taught by an employee who took the class) and Construction Stitches by Beth Robertson and Susan Howren. I am also taking Tony Minieri's Back to Basic class on a monthly basis.

Do you have any advice for someone thinking about opening a NP store in their own home town? Although you don't need to be in the center of town, I have benefited from easy visibility from a major street. Knowledgeable and friendly employees are very important because they are the store.

Eileen, thank you so much for sending me the photos of the Doors, for answering all my questions and of course for being one of the fabulous needlepoint twins!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Christmas in July 2009

Yesterday was my annual road trip to the Xmas in July sale at Needlewoman East. Grab your beverage of choice, put up your feet and ride along with me.

I almost always arrive early since the trip to NW East can take me anywhere between 75 and 120 minutes one way. I have to assume that it's going to take forever with traffic so I got there before the 10 a.m. start. This is what I found outside the store--Liz the owner (standing) and the former owner Sue Jenning's sister Sally (seated) having their last minute cigarette before the madness begins. Sally holds a gorgeous Melissa Shirley dragonfly canvas that a fellow shopper --who ducked out of the photograph, gosh she is fast on her feet!--planned to kit out with threads during the bargains. I had my own canvas to pull threads for and we had a happy 15 minutes dodging each other at the Gloriana silk rack.

The lady on the right is the luckiest woman on the planet. I ran into her browsing the charts. She was on this side of town "running an errand for a friend" and decided on a whim to drop in the store to look at the counted thread instructions. She asked me what everyone was doing crowded into the shop and learned that she had decided to show up at the best sale of the year. Her eyes are closed because she is laughing uncontrollably as I told her what was up, dropped to my knees and took her photo for Blog. Lady, this is what happens when you do favors for your friends. Live right and a sale drops into your lap!

By the way, I found Ruth Dilts' Mystic among the charts on the bookshelves and bought it. I've been drooling over this piece for a while and finally overcame my fear of counted thread. It is stunning in green so I might have to try it in blues...

http://www.ruthdiltsdesign.com/newest.html

I wanted threads and beads for a project this fall so I rummaged around, picking out bargain silk perle, looking for Kreinik colors I hate to run out of, etc. Liz has the new #12 Kreinik (perfect for 13 count) overdyed metallics from ThreadworX, by the way. There were a lot of happy folks chatting, pulling threads, grabbing that expensive canvas they have lusted after since the last sale, and looking over the Evertites and floor stand and the catalogue for the shelving system of their dreams. I ran into a man whose current project has 95 different colors who is in great need of organization and we talked about the Container Store's and other versions of rolling thread carts. Hope something I said helps, guy!

I took a few moments to look at the current CBK Needle Collection truck show because they own rights to one of my favorite designers, Edie & Ginger. This photo shows the diversity of the designs they handle. An Edie & Ginger Three Wise Men stocking is below a Get the Point sugar skull canvas (it comes in pink, too!). I wish I had browsed longer since I discovered the geishas that Get the Point does on their website later. I would like to have seen these in person. To browse, click on the Canvas of the Day photo to go to the CBK website. Lots to see there! By the way, the geishas you see on the right are a long rectangle of three from Edie & Ginger. It's lovely but I couldn't get the whole thing into the photograph and still have enough detail for you to see what I did. {I decided I had better include the CBK website address here for those who don't read this blog entry today.]

http://www.cbkneedlepointcollections.com/ProdList.php?page=2&cId=8&cpId=11

My final fun NW East photo is from when I made it to the front of the checkout line. I found these in the glass case where one pays. They are called Needle Bling--tiny jewels set in a magnet to hold your needles. They come in single crystals (see link below) or

http://store.apneedlearts.com/needlebling.html

in tiny shapes like butterflies or strawberries set with sparkling jewels. The single jewels cost about $5 and the shapes with many crystals cost around $10. Click on the tiny photos for a better look at some of the choices. These are distributed by the Elizabeth Turner Collection but they are not on their website.

http://www.amybunger.com/accessories.html

My favorite was the tiny hand delicately holding blue diamonds that might be a flower. Very Victorian! Although the little crown was durn cute.... I did not buy, though. I have plenty of magnets already and I had a second stop in mind=Waste Knot! Since I live so far from shops and these two are within a ten mile radius of each other and since the shop owners have a Communist Plot going to completely empty my wallet (they carry very different stitching things) I drove over to see what Lori had in stock to tempt me.

Somehow I got through the Kathy Schenkel trunk show (those little mini stockings with stuffed animals are wonderful--for proof look at the header of Blog which features the hospitality stocking) without buying anything but I did have to buy a new book. Are you familiar with Julia Snyder's three little tall and narrow books of stitches? I've never seen them in person before but Lori had all three in stock. I took home "Backgrounds" and will do a book review when I've had time to read it. You can see the covers and pick up a copy for yourself online at Amy Bunger's store.

http://www.amybunger.com/books.html

There were new threads at Waste Knot and boy, did I have fun looking at them! The photoon the right is of EdMar's boucle, a twisted and kinky (not in that way, get your mind out of the gutter!) rayon thread used in Brazilian embroidery. Wouldn't the pastel overdyes make gorgeous flower beds or a hanging basket?! I love the shades of green available. This is a new thread to me. It is supposed to be couched mostly but I think long stitches and loose French knots would work also and one might even try bullions. It wouldn't matter that they were messy as the whole point of this thread is to give the effect of flowers or flower centers. Mother Nature is often not even and symmetrical. Here's a close up look at boucle.

http://www.edmar-co.com/catalog/threads/boucle.html

And here are some of the colors available.

http://www.nordicneedle.com/CTGY/I03-01-00.html

The other "new" thread at Waste Knot is an old favorite from GlissenGloss, Estaz. This is a fuzzy thread that is sort of like a feather boa made of thin cuts of nylon. It is perfect for couching and for long stitches as well. Got a witch who needs a bad hair day? Estaz is perfect! I was very glad to see it as they have new colors and only the counted thread place that closed carried it in the past. I took a photo of a range of colors but there are many more available, all loud and glittery and glitzy. Lori thinks the two sizes of packages contain the same amount of thread but the new large clear envelopes don't have a thread amount on the label. You can see more colors here.

http://www.juliesxstitch.com/oscart/index.php?cPath=22_329

The final photo isn't of a thread that I saw at either shop (although it is on order for Waste Knot) but since we talked about it there, I thought I would post photos of some samples I've received courtesy of a fellow threadaholic. This is Memory Thread from DMC.

It is a thread wrapped copper wire, a bit smaller than #5 cotton perle and a bit larger than #8 cotton perle. You can bend it into endless shapes. I think it is perfect for couching a name on a Christmas stocking, for bendable flower petals and leaves, for twisting grapevines, etc. The photo above shows some of the colors available. I hope you can see the silver and gold. I think from studying the DMC website that there are various diameters of this thread-wrapped wire but I can't be sure. It is marketed for jewelry and scrapbooking and other crafts. If you find it locally, study the package carefully to see what you are getting. I think the Desire line of memory thread has thicker wire inside. Some types of memory thread may be acid free. Sorry I can't be more exact about this but the DMC website doesn't make it easy to know exactly what the differences are in the various lines of "memory thread."

http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=4918538

Once I stitch with this I'll report back but you should read what Judy Harper said about it on her blog when she stitched with it.

http://fairy-crafts.blogspot.com/2009/05/patchwork-with-dmc-showing-new-threads.html

Well, this is about enough road trip for the day. I did finish stitching the square liquor bottle on the shelf in Cape Cod Dogs last night and I'd like to finish up the shelves themselves today so I'd better get started on that. Hope you had fun at the Christmas in July sales with me.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

French Knot Newsletter and Clubs Galore

The French Knot in Texas has their summer newsletter available on their website now. What fun!

http://thefrenchknot.com/newsletter.html

Of course the big news are the photos of their Petei Santa club canvases for the year but there are other clubs such as their ornament of the month canvas (all with Western themes) and the monthly little boot club and their Raymond Crawford Noel series. I chose two Petei Santas for your viewing pleasure but do follow the links and explore a bit to see more of their offerings.

If through some miracle you don't find something to tickle your fancy, not to worry. There are other new monthly NP clubs available all over. How about a series of Kathy Schenkel Santas?

http://www.whatsthepoint.biz/clubs.php

Or consider this amazing nine Santa banner from 2 the Point.

http://www.topoint.com/canvasclub_banner.htm

I've told you about the monthly California canvases from Old World Designs but the photos of the finished round ornaments are finally on their website.

http://www.oldworlddesigns.com/california.html

Finslly, how about Pawley Island Needlepoint's Witches Circle or their Christmas ornament extravaganza?

See? Something for everyone! Have fun exploring.

http://pineedlepoint.com/?task=ornaments&id=1

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Still More on Brown Shelves

Last night I rummaged around in my stash and came up with DMC cotton floss # 801 which is a dark cinnamon brown to use as the medium brown shade in the shelves. And it works! I have not done anything with the tweed mixing of my light and dark shades yet. I might do what Cleta suggested and stitch right on top of it with a ply or two of the 801, but I haven't decided yet. I'm concentrating on turning the framed item into a square bottle, which is what I hope to do tonight.

Then it'll be time to tackle the top of the wooden bar and the floor. But I'm getting tired of brown!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Brown Tweed?

Didn't get much done last night on the liquor bottle shelves as we were watching a good science fiction thriller (Push) which I needed to pay attention to. I am starting to think the contrast between the dark shadows and the lighter wood is too stark and I don't like the tweed look of blending my light and dark browns. It may be back to the drawing board on this but luckily it is just tent stitches. They are tedious to rip out but if one is careful they don't damage the canvas when removed....

I'll work on South Seas Fiji tonight while I mull this over.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Mermaids Instead of Vampires UPDATED

If you are rolling your eyes because your teenager is wild about books featuring vampires, or if you have noticed all the vampire movies and cable tv shows, then you might wonder why this phenomenon hasn't hit the world of needlepoint yet.

http://tvguide.sympatico.msn.ca/Bloody+addictive/Interviews/Features/Articles/090617_trendspotter_vampires_LY.htm?isfa=1

It has, except instead of vampires, we have canvases covered in mermaids. Leigh Designs has a new series of eight large (12x24 inches) canvases called Sirens. Her mermaids are elegant, graceful creatures with a slightly creepy edge. I can definitely see these babes luring sailors to their doom!

http://www.leighdesigns.com/Grp440x.html

Kelly Clark has a new pair of mermaids, a blonde and a redhead, who are more childish looking, but their names (Diva and Vanity) hint at a darker side.

http://www.kellyclarkneedlepoint.com/new

The redhaired Vanity is my personal favorite but you'll love seeing what this shop has done with Diva.

http://www.needlepoint.com/blog/?p=191

I could go on and on but I'm running out of time this morning. My point is that the mermaids above aren't just decorative designs--they illustrate dangerous allure or human failings like self-centeredness, etc. I think the popular vampire stories are really talking about what we are or wish we were. That's why these fanciful creatures are so popular.

Anyone else have a favorite mermaid canvas?

More mermaids--TS Designs doll

http://www.stitchers-paradise.com/Painted_Canvases/PC_Ladies.html

Dream House Ventures mermaid bookmark--

http://www.pineedlepoint.com/?task=productdetails&id=1298

The Point of It All mermaid belt--

http://www.thepointofitallonline.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=157

Cooper Oaks and Patti Mann mermaids--

http://www.threadneedlestreet.com/Ndptwhimsical.html

Karen Grant mermaid stocking cuff--

http://www.theneedleworks.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=3210

UPDATE: Judy reminded me of the fabulous mermaid rollup she stitched. It's a Squiggee design and it is FABULOUS! Here are some of Judy's ideas for stitching her.

http://fairy-crafts.blogspot.com/2008/11/joy-of-painted-canvas.html

Barbara Bergsten has a wonderful mermaid sized to work as a purse insert or just a cute little framed piece to remind us of the beach.
http://www.barbarabergstendesigns.com/NPC14%20Mermaid%20Needlepoint.jpg

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Meaning Behind Cape Cod Dogs

Cape Cod Dogs they don't chase cars they like to pick up girls in bars!

I have been meaning to write a bit about the meaning behind this canvas for me. I've gotten several comments about this design really meaning men were dogs, but for me, this isn't the case. I chose the design originally because I knew it would make my husband laugh. He lived along the Massachusetts coast for around ten years and loved the place and the people, so this very typical local dive celebrates that time in his life.

The artist Elizabeth Mumford has many paintings similar to this one--featuring mermaids paired with other creatures and funny sayings in the border. If you browse a bit on her website you'll see many designs that are like Cape Cod Dogs. These are signature elements of her painting style.
http://www.elizabethmumford.com/

There are mermaids as nurses, mermaids decorating the Christmas tree on a cold winter night, or in the kitchen with a Golden Retriever cooking. You should know that there is a famous tavern on Nantucket called The Black Dog which is named after the founder's black lab mixed breed dog. Dogs are often symbols of the ocean-faring folks in Massachusetts.

Knowing that and that Ms. Mumford replaces women in her art with mermaids, the mermaids and dogs in Cape Cod Dogs are stand-ins for the regular people who live on the Cape. So this piece is a tribute to those folks who were my husband's friends, but symbolized by magical creatures. That's one reason I stitched all the liquor bottles in sparkling metallics. These are magic potions instead of beer and cheap hard liquor or wine, capable of turning the most normal bleached blonde into a mermaid or her suitor into a fabulous cuddly talking dog. Or in making the bar a home-away-from-home for people who are out for a drink and good conversation with their neighbors and friends.

Cape Cod Dogs is the friendly and comforting Cheers bar of the tv show brought to life by needle and thread and populated by fabulous creatures.

At least that is how the design is playing out in my head. That's the fantastic thing about painted canvases, you see. One takes the original artist's design and turns it into something personal and unique....

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

New Wine and Champagne Glasses (Plus Wood)

As you can see, I've redone the wine glass by the mermaid's hand, stitching in slanting long diagonal stitches in one strand of clear Accentuate paired with one strand of red Sulky machine sewing thread in the Holoshimmer 145-6014. Sulky makes lots of styles of thread for machine embroidery. Holoshimmer looks like a thin strip of Fyrewerks if you are familiar with that thread.

The wine glasses just above the dog's whiskey glass have been redone as well. They are in two shades of blue Accentuate and my clear 300 Accentuate, one strand in tent stitches.

Here's a closeup of yesterday's glasses for comparison purposes.


I like the new version of barware, although I probably will outline the red wine glass with a thin black thread which is how it is painted once the bar top is stitched.

I've started on the wooden wall and shelves behind the bar. The wall itself is completely stitched in my Soy Luster Solid Color #Sedona Hills 176, one strand, in Alternating Oblong Cross, a stitch I found on page 22 of Stitches for Effect. This is my long skinny cross stitch done over three horizontal threads. Do one skinny cross stitch, drop down a thread, repeat the stitch, jump back to the original position and stitch, drop down again, etc. In the photo it looks like brick stitch but in person you can see the Xs and also some of the paint underneath. I am hoping this looks like the rough texture of a plywood wall. These beer joints all along the ocean south of Boston are thrown together things, meant for the summer trade and then expanded as more people live in the area year around.

The line that separates the plywood portion from the shelves of alcoholic beverages is just continental stitch in some of my light brown Trebizond silk perle. I also stitched the white frame at one side of the window, using white DMC cotton perle in size #5. This is not my favorite thread (I prefer #8 perle for 18 count) but it raises the section that was stitched to make it more like woodwork. I switched to #8 white DMC cotton perle for the round duck head piece on the wood panel and also used the smaller size on the square framed thing I plan to make a square bottle of liquor. Various thicknesses of thread can really come in handy. It's one thing that makes the Kreinik line of metallics so important to me--I can choose from various thicknesses in the colors for various effects.

The edge of the shelves is a line of continental stitch in another shade of Trebizond silk, but this time I unraveled the Trevizond's perle twist to give me three plies. Trebizond unravels on me as I stitch and I tried using it this way to see if that looked as good as regular Trebizond (on the wall under the window) and stitched easier. I like how it looks, although it isn't as raised as the Trebizond under the window. But that's ok for what I'm doing. When a thread misbehaves, if you can't set fire to it (I kept my Water N Ice from unraveling as I worked with it by touching a blown out hot match head to the end) then try using it another way.

The last thing I've done is to start on the background of the shelves. I am basketweaving this in three shades of brown. I discovered yesterday that the dark brown Sampler Thread I planned to use is actually dark olive brown so I pulled a skein of #838 DMC cotton floss out and used it for the darkest shadows (4 plies). I've finished those and have started on the lightest background using my Needle Necessities overdyed cotton # 125 (also 4 plies). The medium shades will be a mix of these two cotton flosses, probably half and half although I'll experiment to get the look I want of something between the very dark brown shadows and the cinnamon brown highlights. By the way, I'm mostly turning Cape Cod Dogs upside down for my tent stitching of the shelves. They are easier to reach without touching other stitched areas that way.

I really have gotten into this piece, leaving poor South Seas Fiji languishing, but I never was a big fan of rotations because I get obsessed with what will happen next in my stitching. Think of Cape Cod Dogs as a really good soap opera....

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow