Toronto Retreat for Stitchers

If you have been charmed by the Olympics' Canadian location, you might want to take a little jaunt to Toronto in late April to the stitching retreat that Gitta's is sponsoring.  There will be two classes offered, one of which is included with your registration, and you can buy the other class project if you like.  The retreat organizers have the latest updated information listed on their blog.
http://gittasgetaway.blogspot.com/

Gitta's shop is well-known for their charted silk gauze designs.  I have a gorgeous charted violets piece in my stash, waiting until I have a hankering for another tiny project.  If I could, I'd love to go since a dear friend is helping to organize the retreat.  I know how organized she is and what fun she is planning, so I hope you will consider a little trip to Toronto to see the best Canadian stitching has to offer!
http://gittas.com/

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

For Deepa, How To Needlepoint

Deepa posted a comment this week asking about how to learn to needlepoint.  I answered her in the Comments area, but I am reposting what I said there as a blog article for those who are curious about NP and want some help getting started.

Deepa, this is a topic worthy of a long article, but I'll point you towards the American Needlepoint Guild first. I think your embroidery skills are terrific, so what you need are some projects to get started with. ANG has many many Stitch of the Month things for you to play with. Go to this website which has diagrams of many many NP stitches. There are 11 stitches presented each year, then in December (usually, but the trend now is to present the outline in January and you fill it in throughout the year to reveal the project) there is a project using the stitches. I think this is a good place to start getting comfortable with new stitches.
http://www.needlepoint.org/Stitch.php

If you aren't Deepa and you need some stitching orientation, the best place to start is Needlepoint Now's tutorial.  It has six short articles on important things, plus two free projects, one easy and one intermediate.  The tips are good, too.
http://www.needlepointnow.com/online_classroom.html

ANG also has a Kid's & Beginner's section of easy projects, most with outlined designs you transfer to your needlepoint canvas.
http://www.needlepoint.org/Kids/index.php

Of course it is easy to show charted or outlined NP on the Internet, but I will be starting a brand new small painted canvas project later this week. How about I talk about how I go about it in more detail then? Until then, read what Janet Perry says about choosing threads and stitches for painted canvases here.  It's a reprinted article but should give you some general guidelines on how Janet works.
http://www.nuts-about-needlepoint.com/how-to-approach-a-hand-painted-canvas-needlepoint

I also wrote an article about how to choose threads and stitches for a painted canvas that is on the ANG website.  You can read it here.
http://www.needlepoint.org/FAQ/phobia.php

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