Blog Changes and More News

I've been tweeking Blog a bit over the last month, trying to add various features as well as fiddling with the layout. My goal is to have something easy to read that has the tools you need to find things but that isn't cluttered.

There are two search boxes on Blog. The upper left hand corner search box looks for things on Blog (and nowhere else) that I've written. I'm aware that once blog entries are pushed off the front page to earlier pages that many folks can't find things. That's where this box comes in. Each blog entry I write is carefully keyworded with the name of the project, the designer, if it's about shop news or newsletters, about a stitching exhibit or the TNNA trade shows, whether it covers beads or is about a new thread from a certain manufacturer or a new stitch I'm trying. Search on these things and see what comes up when you can't find what you want or if you are interested in seeing what I've written (if anything) on that topic. Treat this search box as a treasure hunt and see what you can find!

The other search box is in the left hand column about halfway down the page. This is a new search tool Google (which owns Blogspot) offers. It is called a "custom search" and I had to enter common keywords in setting it up. I think it is supposed to weed out topics not related to NP in any Internet searches you do. I am not sure how well it works since the site gets a fraction of a cent any time it is used and I consider it unethical for me to test it but you might want to give it a try. I've noticed that searches on "needlepoint" using Google are less and less useful these days. I get a lot of eBay sales and a lot of results from sites that are just lists of keywords and ads which try to get you to their location where they hope you'll click on an ad and bring them revenue. I hope this special custom search box will avoid some of those problems! I'd appreciate feedback on how well this works if you test it yourself.

Microsoft has a new search engine called Bing which I've had fun using. Got to www.bing.com and enter various terms and see what you find. I like to choose Images to get pictures as my search result and then to add designer names to find stitched examples of someone's work. This morning I used "needlepoint Leigh Designs" to find all sorts of wonderful Leigh needlepoint canvases, stitched and unstitched, along with articles about folks who stitch her things.

I need to go through the blog listing again and remove blogs that don't post often and add those that do. The list is automatic and is generated from the list of blogs I follow but the system has problems. Not every blog I watch is shown (I removed the non-NP blogs manually) when it updates. Some blogs don't have RSS feeds enabled so they can't be followed on blog readers and via automated blog lists. If you have a blog about NP and post often but it doesn't show up on my list, email me at chillyhollow athot maildotcom and I'll try to add it. No guarantees, though. Blog occasionally flat refuses to do what I want it to. Hummm..... Sounds like the dogs, my husband, my boss and many other things in my life. LOL

In the Other News catagory, Amy Bunger's July e-newsletter is up and it is fabulous! Amy's written a fascinating article about how to choose the right color of thread when you are stitching with beads and there is a full report (with pictures!) of the Amy Bunger shop's visit to the Columbus trade show in June. Amy's also stitched two wonderful pieces, one a Halloween Boo! sign that you have to see and the other a fabulous donkey for the Kelly Clark Nativity set that is part of her shop's monthly club for this year.
http://www.amybunger.com/current_enewsletters.html

Have fun reading the newsletter. All of the Amy Bunger monthly newsletters are great but the beading tips in this one and the report on what the TNNA trade shows are like is a must-read. And there are pictures of some of our favorite designers! If you ever wondered what the real Maggie behind the Maggie Designs line looks like....

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

What I saw at Market, by the Booth Bimbo

This morning I have a report straight from the TNNA show from Joanne C., who graciously agreed to tell us what she saw there as a guest blogger. Now, here's Joanne--

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In the interest of full disclosure, I had always, always, always (you get the picture) wanted to go to Market. Or for at least 20 years when the summer market used to be in Chicago, where I live, and the shop owners always said, we’ll take you, and I never got to go. So when my very good friend Elizabeth bought “Needlepoint Now” six months ago and asked if I’d help her staff her booth during her first-ever Market, I spent about 10 seconds thinking about it and then said, “are you KIDDING? I’d love to go!” The only bad part was that the Booth Queen called me the Booth Bimbo, even though I referred to myself as the Booth Minion J.

I can’t judge how much space this trade show takes up, but it’s a lot. Hundreds of thousands of square feet – the aisles started their numbering at 100 and ended at 1700. I’m not going to say much about the knitting people except they have better sweaters than we do. Knitting is very much an international industry and there were vendors there from Britain, Australia, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, the US, Canada, Japan, etc, ranging from vendors with 15 booths to those who are more “cottage industry” with one. I really didn’t go over to the knitting side because I was afraid I’d be sucked in again and my hand surgeon would refuse me another cortisone injection to fix an acute tendonitis attack caused by knitting.

Besides, I was too busy looking at needlepoint, cause it was all over. I had more than enough time to walk around when I wasn’t in the booth, but I kept gravitating back to the same few booths. Melissa Shirley is my favorite painted canvas designer and I couldn’t stop going to look at the beautiful things she had displayed. I’m sorry that I didn’t get to meet her and act all “fan girlish” but she wasn’t there due to a family commitment. Her work was unbelievable and it was a privilege to see it all in one place to see her range. A lot of her new things are on her website, including some great new flower purses (the 1306 series) that could also be pillows, and a big gorgeous black crane (number 1288) that was partially stitched, and a HUGE Santa that must have been 4 feet tall, he had a really cute face. The ladies in the Melissa Shirley booth were wonderful to talk with and I’m sure I drove them nuts with my “visits.”
http://www.melissashirleydesigns.com//gallery/?bsn=1

Jane had asked me to look at three particular designers – Leigh, Mindy, and SharonG. I am not a huge fan of Asian pieces so I didn’t really know what to look for, but there were some gorgeous, gorgeous geishas, showgirls, great pumpkins, and my favorites, the Guadalajara flowers. These were big, abstract, boldly colored flowers on contrasting brightly colored canvases.
http://www.leighdesigns.com/ImgIdx01.html

The beautiful things on Sharon G’s website looked even more beautiful in person – the “horses behinds” she’s got in Christmas, abstract, and floral themes are adorable, I’m looking forward to seeing these stitched. She’s also got some new florals with abstract flowers and striped backgrounds that taper down from being three threads wide, then two, then one, then scattered, just dying to have a big fancy embellished flower.
http://sharongneedlepointdesigner.blogspot.com/2009/06/ct35-is-newer-canvas-that-now-has.html

I loved Mindy’s canvases. My friend Elizabeth lives in Eugene, Oregon, so I’ve been in Mindy’s shop several times and seen a lot of her work, but she had a lot that I hadn’t seen since my last trip there in April, including her signature beautifully painted canvases designed to go in Stirling bags. She showed a lot of canvases with mixed media trims – resin buttons with contrasting faces, wooden buttons, lace trims, ribbon trims, funky spherical balls on funkier stockings, buttons as tree toppers on great Halloween and Christmas trees, and a great collection of Halloween canvases that I don’t remember seeing before – she’s painted a lot of plaid and it was fabulous. Oh, and the purses! Mindy’s done great purses for years but she had some new shapes. I think I have to have the round one….
http://www.mindysneedlepoint.com/new_default.htm

[Jane adds, "Here is the Stirling leather goods website. If you click on Designer Links you'll see two Mindy abstracts that fit the purses."]
http://www.stirlingcases.com/products.php

The trend I picked up on was PINK – everyone had something pink. Lani had some gorgeous, gorgeous pink canvases – abstract patterns with sea shells in the center dying for light stitches, Ruth Schmuff had great pink ornaments, there was a beautiful pink stitched and beaded Melissa Shirley purse in her booth, Mindy had pink, Julia had pink, you get the picture. I love pink, so maybe I was just attuned to it. Purses were also really popular, everyone is showing purses.

[Here is Lani's pink rose pillow and a new Melissa Shirley animal canvas--a chameleon. The second link below is the pink purse Joanne loved.]
http://www.tistheseason.org/blog/2009/06/columbus-market-day-1.html

http://www.melissashirleydesigns.com/galcol/index.cgi?index=1245457247_13532&col=4

[Ruth Schmuff's pink ornaments are here, about the middle of the page.]
http://www.bedeckedandbeadazzled.com/whatsNew.php

[Lani's model page shows off glorious stitched examples of her work.]
http://www.lanienterprises.com/finished_models_imgs.html

This experience made me realize how hard our shop owners work for us – they spend money on travel, lodging, food, and registration to walk around for three days, looking at everything, talking to designers, taking notes, deciding how to best spend their allocated funds on things they think will please us. They have to buy for a whole range of customers whose tastes range from the funkiest new painted canvas to little Christmas ornaments to canvases with pre-stitched centers and canvases that zip into eye glass cases. In talking to them, I realized they can’t just buy what they like, cause if you don’t have what your customers want, they’ll go elsewhere.

I met or was reintroduced to a bunch of fascinating people, all of whom loved to talk about needlepoint as much as I do. Including Amy Bunger and Robin and Jill from her shop, and Kelly Clark (who is just as nice as you’d think she is – she remembered my name when I went back to talk to her the day after I met her, and this was after she must have met 15 million people, and her work was spectacular – the new barnyard animals were adorable!! ), and Anne who is the genius behind Gloriana (who invited us for a road trip!), and Liz from DMC who came over to show us the new “Memory Thread”, very cool, and Ada, who is the designer behind Eye Candy (distributed by Ruth Schmuff), Ada uses color soooo well, and Cathe Ray who owns Needle in a Haystack, and Wendy Harwood who owns Aristeia in California, and Cynthia Thomas from Houston who does extraordinary stitch guides and had the best job at Market cause she got to go from booth to booth, talking to designers about doing stitch guides for them.

[Here are the Kelly Clark barnyard animal canvases along with her other new pieces.]
http://www.kellyclarkneedlepoint.com/new

[Here is the DMC Memory Thread.]
http://www.dmc.com/majic/pageServer/0t010001kd/en_GB/Desire.html

I also got to take off my “Needlepoint Now” hat and put on my “Seminar Faculty Committee for ANG” hat – I talked to a lot of people about plans for Columbus in 2010 and San Antonio in 2011. All in all, I had a great weekend, and if you ever get the chance to go to Market, all I can say is, GO! Thanks for inviting me, Elizabeth – I’m ready to be the Booth Minion again anytime!

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Thanks, Joanne. You are the ideal booth babe reporter and we do appreciate hearing all about the newest needlepoint items that will tempt us in the months to come.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Chillyhollow's Plan for the 2009 ANG Auction

Through the kind offices of the designer Kandace Merric and the permission of Needlepointers magazine, I am able to share the instructions and line drawings for the Household Pet Guardian angels with folks who wish to stitch one or more angels for the ANG Auction in Milwaukee in the fall of 2009. Please note that the copyright of these designs belongs to Ms. Merric and the American Needlepoint Guild, so do not share your instructions with folks not working these for the Auction.

There are six Pet Guardian Angels: the Renaissance rat, Medieval cat, Tudor dog, Victorian parakeet, Baroque fish and Georgian rabbit. All the animals are dressed in period costume using colors appropriate to their period. The dog has three head shapes to choose from--the Westie which you see in the model--Ms.Merric raises West Highland White Terriers--a Dalmation and a Golden Retreiver . You don't have to stick to the colors and threads used in 1996-1997 when these were originally published in the magazine. Kandy Merric explains thatshe used cotton perle, Paternayan wool, Medici wool and Kreink metallics in her original instructions because these were easily obtainable at that time. If you have these threads, go ahead and use them if you like, but feel free to play around with other threads and colors. Ms. Merric loves it when a stitcher is bold enough to change colors!

However, I am asking everyone to stitch their angel with the same background color (ecru) using tent stitches. Use either DMC's color Ecru in cotton floss or cotton perle, or Splendor silk in color #961. If you want to use another thread brand, match the color to DMC Ecru or Splendor 961. I think it will be best if everyone trims their angel with Kreinik #32 braid in either gold or silver, as well. These are your constraints--use 18 count canvas, the background must be in tent stitches in ecru, and trim your ornament in either silver or gold #32 Kreinik braid. No matter what colors you dress your Pet Guardian Angel in, the same background color in tent stitch and Kreinik braid trim will make them all look like a set of folk art angels.

Pat Miller and I are working out easy finishing instructions for everyone to follow so that we can all make up our own angel in a similar, but easy manner. Feel free to have yours professionally finished if you like--just remember to trim with Kreinik #32 braid in either silver or gold. Also remember that we all will have to mail our angels to the ANG Auction chair the end of June 2009. That's the deadline and there is no wiggle room for it. I will keep track of everyone who is stitching an angel and let everyone know the address to mail their angel to in a reminder email later on. I will stitch all six designs myself publicly on Blog. Feel free to follow along when I get to your angel. I'm stitching them in random order as one takes my fancy, and hope to do one a month from now until early June.

The Pet Guardian Angels vary a bit in size (they are roughly 6+ inches long and 4+inches high) but they all fit on an 8 X 10 inch size of 18 count needlepoint canvas with margins of roughly 2 inches of unstitched canvas all the way around. The instructions are in PDF form if you don't have the necessary back issues of Needlepointers (see list below). You need to email me at chilly hollow athot maildot com which angel you are interested in and wait patiently for me to get the instructions to you. It won't be right away as I'll wait a week to see how many emails I have to send and organize things so that all the cats go out one day, all the fish the next, etc. I'll post my progress in sending instructions on Blog so you will know roughly when your PDFs should be in your email box. If you have the back issues of the magazine and will work from it, please email me which animal you are stitching and I'll remind you of the deadline for the Auction and where to send your animal as well.

Here are the original dates of the six Needlepointers where you can find the instructions if you have the back issues:

Medieval Cat - October/November 1996

Renaissance Rat - December 1996-January 1997

Tudor Dog - February/March 1997

Baroque Fish - May 1997

Georgian Rabbit - July 1997

Victorian Parakeet - September 1997

Ask any questions you can think of by emailing me at chillyhollow athot mail dotcom or posting a question in Comments. If you just can't see yourself stitching one of the Pet Guardian Angels, never fear--ANG has many styles of canvases that need stitching. Look at the 2009 Auction List (link below) and see if anything catches your eye, then email the ANG Auction chair to make sure it's available.

http://www.needlepoint.org/Auction/2008/canvas.php

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

2009 ANG Auction Scheme

I've been thinking about what to stitch for the ANG Auction in Milwaukee in 2009. I rummaged around in my pile of painted canvases, trying to pick something that would bring ANG big bucks and be fun and educational to stitch. (Blog has standards, after all--if it isn't fun and I'm not going to learn anything, why am I stitching it?) I know that very large pieces and sets draw lots of bidders and since I'm not up to stitching a rug for ANG, I needed to find an ornament set I might do that would interest the folks with the money in their pockets.... That's when I remembered the old issue of Needlepointers pictured above.

See those angel ornaments? Those are the Household Pet Guardian Angels, designed by Kandace Merric. (first pet in Needlepointers magazine, October/November 1996). I've always thought they would be a fun stitch but what am I going to do with them? With the dogs and the cat so rambunctious, we don't do a Christmas tree for the holidays. Well, the Auction sounds like a great idea! Then I really got to thinking. Why not invite you all to stitch one of the angels, too? We could have a great pile for Auction! I think if we stick to not altering the stitches and using the same color in tent stitches for the background, they would look great in a riot of colors, sort of like folk art.

Naturally it didn't take long for me to realize that not everyone has a stack of old Needlepointers on their bookshelf. Fortunately, the designer Kandy Merric herself and the ANG Board came to my rescue at this point. They have agreed to let me scan and distribute the instructions for a pet guardian angel to folks who will stitch that one for the Auction.

Kandace Merric has also kindly agreed to stitch two angels herself which will be unique and not one of the six original designs. I am not sure which household pets she will do--a lot depends on how the animal head shapes work with the angel outfits she has in mind--but there will be two mystery angels to join the cat, the dog, the rabbit, the rat, the fish and the parakeet designs in the original set.

I owe a huge debt of thanks to Ms. Merric who has agreed to come out of NP teaching retirement (she concentrates her attention these days on dog rescue groups in the NYC area) to not only allow me to do this project, but to contribute to it herself. I also am very grateful to ANG's President Barbara Richardson, to Sandy Rodgers the editor of Needlepointers who helped point me to the right place for permission, and to Ann Strite-Kurz who contributed encouragement and a contact email address for Ms. Merric. No matter whether anyone else stitches an angel for the Auction, this has already been a huge group effort.

Next time I'll post a bit about the individual pet guardian angels and how I plan to organize this project.


Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow