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| Jennifer Pudney's Girl Talk |
Two interesting articles appeared in the Blog-o-Sphere yesterday. I thought I'd post links here and we could talk about them.
First of all, Madonna adds her thoughts to the Why Buy A Stitch Guide? debate. Of course since I sell stitch guides and promote them on the CH Stitch Guides blog, I am firmly in the Stitch Guides Are Good camp. In my opinion a stitch guide is like a stitching friend who gives you advice when you are stuck, has suggestions for threads and stitches, and who generally lends a hand with your current piece. Everybody needs a stitching friend, especially those of us who rarely see other needlepointers, much less get to stitch with them. But what do you think? A lot of folks think stitch guides discourage creativity and promote over-embellished design.
http://frontrangestitches.blogspot.com/2010/07/to-guide-or-not-to-guide.html
The other article is authored by the About.com guide to needlepoint. Cheryl says she has gotten a lot of complaints lately about shops and has posted a poll asking for readers' comments about the shops they've visited. So far only a few people have voted but the number who say they've visited shops that were ignorant of what they sell and/or were rude to customers is shockingly high. Go vote and then those of you who travel a lot, please tell us if this is widespread.
http://needlepoint.about.com/b/2010/07/18/rate-your-recent-lns-experiences.htm#gB3
By the way, the illustration above is a Jennifer Pudney "postcard" design called Girl Talk. Apologies to the men among us! We know you are out there and are fabulous stitchers but I couldn't find any men/women talking canvases to illustrate this article.
http://www.needlepoint-for-fun.com/shop/Kits-/Jennifer-Pudney-Small-Kits/p/Girl-Talk.htm
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
5 comments:
Chalk up a yes vote for stitch guides! Although some are overdone in terms of embellishment, they are only a GUIDE and can be changed or adapted. Many stitchers are excellent technically, but just don't have a vision of how to incorporate different techniques correctly into a painted canvas - stitch guides solve the problem and provide a great learning experience. (This comment is probably biased as I am currently bogged down with stitching and writing guides for a new quilt series.)
When I first started stitching needlepoint, I needed a stitch guide because I was not familiar with the many different stitches. Using these guides helped me to understand what works (and what doesn't in some cases) and because of that education, I now feel comfortable picking my own stitches. That being said, there are some canvas designs (and some days) where I don't want to have to work that hard and just want someone to tell me what to do, and I love having the option of a stitch guide. I do not always buy them but love having the option.
About LNS; I have a really good one and as recently as last week they spent well over an hour helping me pick threads for a large canvas. I've also traveled out of town to purchase and for the most part I've been thrilled with the shops and their staff. One shop even brought in a sandwich for my friend and I so we could continue to shop and not have to leave to get lunch. They went above and beyond for us! The one shop where the owner was not very helpful will not be on our future trips to that city.
Some of us need lots of help and hand-holding with painted canvases. Thank you, Jane, for your personal help and for keeping such a wonderful blog. I read it every day and think "I'd never have thought of that!"
I am a big fan of stitch guides. I have been needlepointing for many years but it was always "just" basket weave. Evidently I was late to the embellishment and special stitches party. Several years ago when I picked up needlepointing again (after a short detour into knitting), I realized that everyone had left me behind in the dust with what they were doing with painted canvases. So, I am still catching up and find stitch guides to be invaluable. Not all stitch guides are created equal I have found. Some are a little over the top with fiber choices and stitch choices and some assume that you know things which maybe you don't. But a guide is just that - it's a suggestion for a way to do something. And I am open to any suggestions out there!
The LNS discussion is an interesting one. My LNS is about 25 miles away so it isn't exactly local. The next closest one is a couple of hours away. I don't visit the local shop much any more because I feel as though the owner's focus seems to have shifted more to the knitting arena - offering lots of knitting classes, knitting books, knitting magazines, etc. I can understand how needlework shops try to be all things to all people just to survive these days but when your interest is needlepoint and things never seem to change much in that area of the shop, you end up moving on somewhere else. That somewhere else for me is the internet. I receive excellent service with excellent attitudes behind it at all the shops I visit via the internet. However I always make a point of finding the LNS whenever I visit someplace new.
Sometimes I use a guide, sometimes not. Even then I am prone to change something due to that "my canvas, my perogative" additude I picked up somewhere??! Anyway, the local Cross Stitch shop is where I buy a lot of my fibers and she orders for me when need be. The local needlepoint shop is never recommended by any of us. Such a shame. I do check out shops when I travel and always let you know how they are!
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