Needle Works Newsletter (Floor Stands)

The December 2010 e-newsletter is now posted on the Needle Works' website.  Besides the more normal announcements of sales and classes and great photos of finished pieces, this issue has nice photographs of floor and lap stands from K's and System 4.  When you are trying to visualize how well a certain brand will work with your stitching setup, photos like these are invaluable.
http://theneedleworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/201012newsletter2.pdf

As always, I recommend you try these out before you buy but that isn't always possible.

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

The Dragon

The third problem canvas belongs to Sandy.  It's a dragon from Leigh Designs and is a discontinued design, so it's not on the Leigh website.  Sandy writes about this design:

"This is not a 'problem child' in that I'm stuck at a point - I've not started it.  I have purchased the threads - Silk Lame by Rainbow Gallery and Silk Opal - by Planet Earth.  I'm open to other threads, but really like the ones I've picked up - the Lame is for the wings and the Opal for the body.  I have no clue what stitches to use on it, as it is very detailed, so I'm open to any and all suggestions. The canvas is for my son. 

m excited about you accepting me as a volunteer for our blog, which I'm not a blogger myself, I have started to read several on a regular basis and love seeing what people are doing.

The canvas is I think 20" wide by 24" tall, so it is a nice size canvas.  The dragon himself is about 15" wide and maybe 18" tall from the end of the tail to the tip of the wing.  It is on 13 count.  I like to cover my canvas most of the time - although Leigh is such a wonderful artist that it's a shame to cover her work.

I picked the Silk Lame for the wings and the Opal for the body - hadn't thought about adding a true metallic on the underbelly, I like the idea. [Jane suggested using a Kreink metallic or possibly beads for the scales.]  I had thought of doing the Flair for the smoke and fire - I saw it done for bee wings and loved the way it was stretched over a stitched area where you could see through it.  

Leigh Design's Dynasty Ornament Red Ch'ing Dragon

I posted a close up of Ch'ing above because my Leigh Designs Chinese Dynasty Ornament has packed stem stitch using very thin metallics for his fire. Just another idea to think about.....

I have not used the Opal either, but it is similar to a Vineyard Silk I used on a Painted Pony angel for my son and I loved they way it stitched up - just enough glitz to know it was there, but didn't over power, so I'm hoping this is the same.

As you can see I love working with the fibers, which is why I think I really got into needlepoint vs. X-stitching.  While x-stitching I discovered silk threads and love using them all the time, there just isn't the variety that you find for canvases.  So while I have a nice size stash of linens for my x-stitching, my thread stash is ever growing.

Looking forward to hearing from you. "

As you can see, I've suggested a few things to Sandy already.  While we wait for Erica to finalize plans for the Lee kimono, I'm posting this to get started on the next problem canvas.

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