Lee is Closing and More Trade Show News

It's all over the Needlepoint Internet World this morning that Theresa Lee is closing her business. Goodbye to all those gorgeous kimonos, the floral and Asian designs, the fantastic leather goods, and much, much more! Of course everybody should get to retire and we wish the Lee family a wonderful fun retirement and excellent health while we scramble to pick up those items we always thought we'd get Next Year.

The piece above is the Lee one that tempts me recently. Sadly, I can't afford it right now. I'll keep my fingers crossed and keep saving my pennies.

Ruth Schmuff has posted some wonderful photos of things that caught her eye on her blog. Note what she says about Derek Lawford's new line....
http://www.tistheseason.org/blog/2009/06/columbus-market-day-1.html

Homestead Needle Arts has some new photos, too.
http://www.homesteadneedlearts.com/thelatest.html

The Busy Needle posted photos of the new things they ordered at the Dallas trade show in April. Since many of these things are just now showing up in the shops, here is what they saw. I'm told Leigh is showing smaller ornament-sized versions of the new Guadalajara line at this trade show, for example.
http://www.busyneedle.com/Newsletter/index.htm

Amy Bunger and her staff are still tweeting occasionally. Am I the only one that wishes there was a photo version of Twitter?
http://www.amybunger.com/twitter.html

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Beads and Wire

Last night was Wrestling with Beads Night. It doesn't look like much work but to finish the beaded edge of the halo and then attach the pairs of pearls took a lot of time. I set each halo bead individually which is time-consuming. Then I had trouble with the pearls because only 4 of them had holes big enough to insert even the smallest beading needle I own. And I have some pretty small ones!

Enter the wire threader, which you see above in the photo. These are my favorite type of needle threaders. They are cheap and usually easy to find. I used to buy mine at Walmart for 3-5 for a dollar before they stopped carrying sewing goods. I recommend when you buy them you take them all out of the package and line them up on a counter and put a drop of Superglue on each where the tiny wires connect to the base. Once the glue dries it will keep you from pulling the wires out as you tug a thread through a tiny needle's eye. This extends the life of the wire threader a very long time. Usually I have to toss my wire threaders after a year or two because the wire tips are bent, not because I've yanked the wires out.

When I have a bead with a hole that is too small for my needle, I pull out the wire threader and insert the wires into the hole, then thread the bead as if I was threading a needle. That's how I attached the pearls to this canvas. It takes forever, I'll warn you. You have to thread your needle on a knotted length of your thread, and attach it securely on the back of your canvas, then come up where you want the bead to go. Remove the needle, put the wire threader through the pearl, pull the thread through the hole. Remove the wire threader and put a needle, any needle, back on the thread and sew the bead securely to the canvas. Then come up where you want the next bead to go and remove the needle, put the wire threader through the pearl, and repeat. It takes a while to get all this done when you are attaching a dozen pearls!

When I finished I celebrated by adding a few little gold Mill Hill Petite beads on the arch framework to set off the blue Kreinik stitches and also echo the gold background. I think they look nice.

The last step is to put the gold Kreinik border around the outside of this piece. I'll do that tonight and get started on the finishing of these two pieces. I plan to talk about finishing in detail, so pull up a chair and take notes. Finishing is pretty easy if you know what you are doing.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow