More about Halloween

The Rebecca Wood Halloween canvas of the tug of war in the tomb between the skeleton and the mummy got so much comment that I found the series on Rebecca Wood Designs website.  The series is numbered 023 and starts on page two of the Halloween designs and continues into page three.
http://www.rebeccawooddesigns.com/halloween.asp?pageno=2

Speaking of Halloween, Needlenook of La Jolla has a photo of the "Halloween Kids" set that won a blue ribbon at the Milwaukee ANG Exhibit on their home page.  Click on the photo for a better view.  While you are there, don't miss the 50% off painted canvas link or the 40% off animal canvases link.  There are some real bargains there for canvases that are highly sought after.
http://www.needlenookoflajolla.com/

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

I Won! I Won!

About every other week I have time to sit down and listen to the Gone Stitching Blog Talk Radio show that happens each Monday afternoon.   They are always fun to listen to since Renee from the Gone Stitching Shop in New Jersey interviews designers, thread manufacturers and the other people who provide all the goodies we need to make our needlepoint beautiful and fun.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Gone-Stitching

Each week the guest interviewee picks a winner from the previous week's emails.  And each week the guest interviewee brings something wonderful to Gone Stitching to offer as a prize in the following week's drawing.  I enter each week, mostly to offer support to Michele and Renee but I never thought I'd win.  But I did!

Today brought me my fabulous prize from Colonial Needle, whom you know as the importers of Colonial and John James brand needles, and also as the company which just bought Lee Designs, famous for their canvases and leather goods.

You see my prize above:  A set of gold John James needles (sizes 20-28), a set of platinum John James needles (same sizes), two combination threader/thread cutters, and the new John James "Pebble" which is an oval container of a set of their regular needles in sizes 18-24.  The Pebble and one of the threaders immediately went into my travel needlepoint bag so that the next time I visit my family I will have everything I need to stitch while I am there.

When I start my next two projects I'll try out the gold and then the platinum needles so we can see how they stitch and how well they stand up to my acid hands, which remove the plating off regular needles (not to mention do a number on my car steering wheel).  I now follow Amy Bunger's recommendation and toss all the needles used after a project so that I am always using new, good needles.  I think I will use the gold and platinum needles from the start of a project to give them a fair test, although I am dying to use them NOW.

But my very favorite thing in the prize box is my new Gone Stitching magnet with the shop logo of a frog with a giant threaded needle over his shoulder, marching happily off to go stitching.  It's on my refrigerator already!

Many thanks to Renee and Michele at Gone Stitching and a special thank you to Terry Collingham of Colonial Needle Company for such a special prize.  I am going to use and enjoy these special needles with my next projects.

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