Reviews

Personally I hate buying things sight unseen. Given my isolated location, this means I rarely purchase the latest book or tool or whatever until it has been out a while and all my friends tell me this is a Must Have.   Fortunately, I have a LOT of friends!

Linda of Stitching Sisters picked up her grandson's Christmas Santa ornament (so cute!) at her local and splurged on Kelly Clark's stumpwork sampler canvas and instructions booklet at the same time.  I think this is a kit, so you can't buy just the booklet.  The canvas shows various motifs and the booklet shows you how Kelly creates stumpwork for each section.  This is perfect if you want to try stumpwork on a painted canvas, learn something new and then recreate the techniques somewhere else.  I've been dying to see this, so the photos are very helpful in evaluating whether I want to splurge.
http://nystitchingsisters.blogspot.com/2012/11/finishing-and-stash-enhancement.html

To add to the information Linda posted, here is Kelly's finished sampler and (second link) her instructions for creating an amazing goldfish.  She makes it look easy!
http://kellyclarkneedlepointhandbook.blogspot.com/2012/09/kellys-new-sampler-stumpwork-naturally.html

http://kellyclarkneedlepointhandbook.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-koi-and-turkey-preview.html

On another topic entirely, Inspirations magazine is well known to embroiders for its wonderful and varied projects.  It is now available in eBook form for those with electronic devices that run Android or iOS software.  Here's Mary Corbet's review.  Looks like it works for every flavor of device, too.  (Kindles can't run every Android app even though they are an Android device, for example.)  However, you should be aware Mary uses Macs so she only tested how it works on those.
http://www.needlenthread.com/2012/11/inspirations-magazine-e-readers.html

This makes me happy as it means the magazine is more widely available, which is important to folks like me who can't buy an individual copy of the magazine except via mail order.  It also makes me a little sad as the real thing has just taken one more step down the road of digital content only.  Progress is a two-edged sword, isn't it?

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com