Thinking About Going to Market

Arlene Cohen of Works by ABC is a counted canvaswork and cross stitch designer who is just ramping up into being a pro.  As part of that process, she went to the Nashville Market in early March to stick her toe into how it all works.
https://worksbyabc.com/2020/03/14/nashville-needlework-market/

Arlene is walking a path many a designer has gone, trying to go from single sales to a larger audience.  We wish her great success!

If you are curious about Arlene's work, don't miss exploring her website.  It's fascinating.  Here is the counted canvaswork section for starters.
https://worksbyabc.com/designs/canvaswork-patterns/

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright March 15, 2020 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Turning a Historical Display of Dishes into Needlework

Arlene Cohen has a new needlepoint design, inspired by a museum exhibit.  
https://worksbyabc.com/2020/01/24/how-a-dining-table-becomes-needlework/

https://worksbyabc.com/2020/02/07/an-influential-museum-exhibit/

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright January 24, 2020 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

It's Good For You!

Need a reason to stitch? It's good for you!
https://worksbyabc.com/2019/01/08/how-craft-is-good-for-our-health/

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright January 8, 2019 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

From Molehill to Mountain (with Color) UPDATED

Arlene Cohen writes about the color education she got from Pamela Gardner's "From Molehill to Mountain."
https://worksbyabc.com/2018/11/20/an-education-in-color-theory-and-stitch-variation-part-i/

https://worksbyabc.com/2018/11/28/color-theory-and-stitch-variation-education-part-ii/

https://worksbyabc.com/2018/12/01/color-theory-and-stitch-variation-part-iii-the-last/

Pam Gardner's book is out of print now.  I think eBay, the stash sales sites, and some of the shops that have a large stock of charts for the counted crowd are your only option to find this book.

UPDATE:  I understand Pam Gardner will sell her Molehill to Mountain directly.  If you are interested, email Pam at fmtmneedleworks@gmail.com. Thanks!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright November 20, 2018 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Ready to Exhibit at Woodlawn 2019?

Arlene Cohen has a nice article on her blog about her first entry to the Woodlawn Needlework Exhibit. Mail order entries to the 2019 show will soon be accepted, so read all about Arlene's first exhibit piece and discover links about the show and how to mail your own recent pieces to be shown in March.
https://worksbyabc.com/2018/12/04/woodlawn-needlework-exhibit/

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright December 4, 2018 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Arlene Changes Everything

Arlene Cohen of WorksByABC is always tackling new challenges in her needlework. She does a lot of original designs and sells charts for some of her work, too, but it is her adjusting of her current design (one of Threedles's complex geometrics) that intrigues me today.  If you are afraid to change anything in a kit or chart, listen to Arlene and be brave.
https://worksbyabc.com/2018/10/16/ch-ch-ch-changes/

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright October 17, 2018 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

The Antioch Mosaic UPDATED

Arlene Cohen has a new website to sell her designs and there is also a link to Arlene's blog.  One thing you'll want to read is her story about the inspiration behind and the evolution of her Antioch Mosaic design. It is a fascinating story!  If you are charmed, check Arlene's "Gallery" section to see more of her original work.
https://worksbyabc.com/2018/10/02/the-antioch-mosaic/

https://worksbyabc.com/2018/10/04/the-antioch-mosaic-part-2/

https://worksbyabc.com/2018/10/07/a-last-bit-about-the-antioch-mosaic/

UPDATE:  Colour Complements shows off some of their overdyed threads used in four of Arlene's designs.  Lovely!  If you like it to, follow the link to Arlene's Etsy store.
https://colourcomplements.com/2018/10/needlepoint-55.html

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright October 14, 2018 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

ANG 2017 Exhibit Winners

Folks are starting to post photographs on Facebook of the ribbon-winning pieces they exhibited at the 2017 ANG Seminar Exhibit which is going on right now.   This is Arlene Cohen's "Spanish Savonnerie," worked on 40 count silk gauze with one ply of DMC cotton floss from a chart by Natalia Frank. It won a President's Choice ribbon, a blue ribbon and a Judge's Choice ribbon.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1633692563331906&set=gm.1510727965671023&type=3&theater

This is an original design by Karen Garinger called "Lip Service."  It won a blue ribbon for original design.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1440347112750804&set=gm.1497350873675399&type=3&theater

Melita won two ribbons. This won an Honorable Mention but I am not sure in what category.
https://melitastitches4fun.wordpress.com/2017/08/30/herringbone-happening/

Melita's original Challenge piece won a third place in Independent Project Category, not too shabby given all the competition!  This is a Marilyn Owen design with Melita's selection of threads and beads and she says this will be in the upcoming ANG Chapter Project Book.  Thanks for the clarification!
https://melitastitches4fun.wordpress.com/2017/08/28/scotch-stew/

Lynn won a blue ribbon and a First Time Exhibitor's ribbon.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1487513334697560&set=pcb.1498452290231924&type=3&theater

Beth also won a blue ribbon.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1536720276349699&set=gm.1496771683733318&type=3&theater

Cynthia Thomas won a blue ribbon in the Professional without a Stitch Guide category for this Debbie Mumm/Melissa Shirley charmer.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1685249334826687&set=gm.1501281669948986&type=3&theater

Sue won a second place for this lovely Hollyhock House, counted design by Gay Ann Rogers.
https://www.facebook.com/860462527326471/photos/a.860479107324813.1073741828.860462527326471/1484460141593370/?type=3&theater

Julius won a first for the Youth Division!  Hurrah!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155679204376060&set=gm.2046089058953471&type=3&theater

Connie Glenn Camp won both a second place AND the Beth Robertson Award for her Raymond Crawford camel.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10210280086984373&set=gm.1513811012029385&type=3&theater&ifg=1

Kurdy Biggs won a second place and a Hilton Award for one of her original designs.
https://www.facebook.com/kurdy.biggs.9/posts/1595613813846858

Vicky DeAngelis won two awards, the Small Masterpiece and Wearable Art Awards.
http://mostlyneedlepoint.com/where-has-the-time-gone-2/

My favorite awards are these—The Lifetime Achievement Award went to David McCaskill and the People's Choice Award went to Philip Bush for his 50 Daisies/Flowers. Can't wait to see a photo of that!
https://melitastitches4fun.wordpress.com/2017/09/03/seminar-2017-wrap-up/

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright August 28, 2017 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

A Pincushion Homage (Arlene Cohen)

Arlene's Pincushion and Ribbons

Recently Arlene and I realized she'd never shared her red and white pincushion with Blog.  She exhibited this at the 2013 ANG Seminar and won two major ribbons for it, too.    This is an original design, worked in sections on linen and assembled according to the plan Arlene worked out for it.

Arlene wrote this about the photographs she sent me:

"What a thrill that a long awaited book has finally been published!  In 2011, an extraordinary exhibit of 651 red and white quilts, all collected by Mrs. Joanna Rose, was on display in the Park Avenue Armory in New York City for six days.  It is an amazing collection and was an amazing display of it and I was so very fortunate to be able to see it in person.

We needleworkers find our inspiration in all sorts of places – sometimes in the beauty of a design created by others and sometimes in the stunning display of work in another (but related) medium.  Attending that exhibit and the ability to allow it to “live on” with me through an iPad app at the time, I evolved into the planning and creation of a needlework piece.  

Sadly, the iPad app stopped working a few IOS upgrades ago and it is no longer even available in the App store. But, lucky for us, the book of all the quilts, with some wonderful accompanying essays, has finally been published!  Getting it in my hands has encouraged me to share a bit about my pincushion project all over again.  I entered this in the 2013 ANG Exhibit in Anaheim and was thrill when it won both a first place ribbon (for Adapation, Non-Professional) and the Small Masterpiece ribbon that year."

I found a series of photographs of the quilts that inspired the pincushion on display here.
http://www.aiga.org/justified-2012--case-study--infinite-variety/

Here is the book Arlene refers to.
http://www.amazon.com/Red-White-Quilts-Infinite-Presented/dp/0847846520

Here's Arlene's Artist Statement that she wrote for the ANG Exhibit.

A Pincushion Homage to

Infinite Variety:  Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts

In March of 2011, I walked into the Park Avenue Armory in New York City, lookedp and all around, and was simply amazed.  Six hundred and fifty-one red and white quilts collected by Joanna S. Rose were on display in the most creative and stunning quilt exhibit that I have ever seen.  Along with the thousands of other visitors who poured into the Armory during those five days the display was up, I was simply enthralled.

Even while still there, I knew that I wanted to find a way, in my own needlework, to relive and reinterpret the experience.  In the days that followed, I was able to revisit each quilt individually since the organizers had created an iPad app for all to download and enjoy.  Yes, it was such a unique experience to have witnessed the display, but I also recognized the beauty of each individual piece, be it humble or dazzling.

I was not alone in my reaction and response to this truly extraordinary exhibit.    In the two years since, I have read about a number of quilt guilds that were inspired by this show and created their own red and white quilt challenges.  I am not really a quilter.  How then might I create a way to pay homage to this quilt exhibit using needle and thread?  I began to make sketches in a graph-paper notebook, breaking down many of the quilt designs to penciled-in squares. What to do with these graphed designs?  I imagined something simple, in keeping with the spirit of the collector and most likely the quilt makers themselves.  Mrs. Rose found most of these quilts in flea markets decades ago. As written in the exhibit’s materials, these quilts “are not prizewinners at fairs nor ones that have been passed down in families, cherished by several generations.  They are, rather, ordinary coverings, the creators largely anonymous, their provenance obscure, not meant for company beds or best use.”

In my needlework, I enjoy working on a small scale.  And so I chose the humble pincushion as the means to gather and recreate some of my favorite geometric designs from the quilts in the Armory display.  A small sampling from that magnificent exhibit, it is my homage both to the quilts and to their makers.

In the design process, I began by looking carefully at all 651 quilts on that iPad app, spending hours studying the entire collection and making a list of those that caught my eye both for the inherent beauty of their design and their geometric qualities. I narrowed my list to about fifty quilts, took screenshots of them, and printed them on paper.  This allowed me to see them all at the same time, with papers spread all around me in an array. 

Somewhere in my research on pincushions, I happened upon a hexagon shaped design, familiar to me as a quilt pattern often called Grandmothers Flower Garden, and the vision of the three-dimensional end product began to take shape.  I began to draw quilt designs on graph paper, some lending themselves to the hexagon shapes for the top of the pincushion and some better left for the rectangular sides.  I graphed many more than I knew I could use, although did not graph all fifty that were printed.

Finding the right thread was its own challenge.  The precise shade of red and the requisite fineness for the 32 count linen fabric were my guiding principles.  After some trial and error, I settled on a Gutermann silk thread.  I started with the hexagons on top using mostly cross stitches, anxious for the vision in my head to come to life on fabric.  However, even as I stitched, I knew it just didn’t look right:  I was stitching the hexagons right next to one another.  As at the Armory display, the layout of the individual pieces was critical – it might enhance or, in this case, detract from the overall effect.

Wisely, I set this pincushion project aside for several months.  The graphed designs held my imagination, but it would take some time before I could commit my mind and my fingers to taking up that red thread again and starting over from the beginning.

But, commit my mind and my fingers I did.  Spreading out the hexagons made all the difference for visual breathing room on the top.  I then realized that the diamond shaped areas in each “corner” of the hexagon needed attention.  There was already enough variety in the hexagons on the top and so I chose to stitch a simple skipped cross stitch to fill each diamond. When I began stitching the rectangles for the sides of the pincushion, I realized the size I had planned was just wrong.  If I stitched them as I originally intended, the height of the pincushion would be out of scale to the width.  At this point, I decided to make a three-dimensional paper mock-up of the finished product. The graphs of the rectangular sides show how my thinking evolved.

I knew how I wanted all these pieces to come together, but I struggled to make the finishing of my little pincushion precise and crisp. Then again, a pincushion is supposed to be a functional item and sometimes function and beauty can go hand in hand in less than precise ways.

To this day, I am intrigued and fascinated by the magnificent exhibit that inspired me to create this piece.  From time to time, I search on the internet to see if the vague plans for a future mounting of the exhibit or a forthcoming book have come to fruition.  The answer for now is not yet.

My pincushion is my homage to Mrs. Rose’s collection of red and white quilts and the extraordinary exhibit of them.

Thanks for sharing, Arlene!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright October 3, 2015 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

ANG Seminar Exhibit 2014: Arlene's Rhododendrons

Because one of this year's ANG Exhibit winners is a friend of mine, I persuaded her to write a bit about the silk gauze piece she submitted which won not only a first place ribbon but the Small Masterpieces Award!  Arlene Cohen generously wrote about her award winner at ANG, and also let me know she won Piecework's contest this year for the needlework category.  Plus she has been to Winterthur with an exhibit she thinks some of Blog's readers might enjoy.  Thanks, Arlene!  We can't wait to see what you stitch and exhibit next year.

Let me turn Blog over to Arlene....

Rhododendrons, By Arlene Cohen

*****************************************************

"Some pictures are attached for my piece that I submitted to the ANG exhibit this year. I've also sent the statement I wrote; I know these are not required for non-original pieces, but I loved the opportunity to simply write out the background and inspiration for doing this piece. Two years ago, when Seminar was in Philadelphia, I was able to drive down for a few hours to see the Exhibit (and bookstore and such). I LOVED that artist statements were sitting out by the pieces and for any piece, I could pick up the paper and read through the background. I don't know if this is a regular practice at Seminar Exhibits (I hope it is!), but I so wish more of those words could be/would be published as part of the December issue of NeedlePointers. Frankly, what I REALLY wish is that everything, pictures of pieces and artist statements were available online, at the same time that folks are able to see them in person, during Seminar week, but I know that will never happen. Anyway, feel free to use these pictures and words in anyway you wish.

Artist Statement:   Rhododendrons

Perhaps it was the very long winter. Perhaps it was the endless snow shoveling to dig out my car again and again. Perhaps it was the frustration of plans constantly changing, constantly relying on their “snow date” options. But, more so than ever, I was anxious for spring and for the bloom of flowers and the signs of renewal.

During the late winter/early spring months, as snow was finally melting, but the landscape was barren, my eyes lit on an issue of a cross stitch magazine in a store. On the front cover was a picture of a delightful design called “Rhododendrons.” These blue-violet flowers were in just the palette of colors that most attracts my eye. And the image of flowers, of spring, were exactly right for the moment. Putting aside plans for what was to be my next project, I decided this design was exactly what was needed.

Designed by Lesley Teare in the UK, this pattern was published in Cross Stitch Gold issue #41 (US version; UK versions of the magazine are numbered differently as I have learned). It was designed for 14 or 18 count cross stitch on fabric. But, my desire was to do it a little differently, to preserve the delicate feelings as we marched closer and closer to spring and flowers in bloom, by working this design on a small scale. I chose 40 count silk gauze as my ground material and used tent stitches instead of cross stitches. Since the palette of colors is what first drew me to the design, I did not change any of the called for DMC floss colors.

I will be glad to have these bouquet of flowers in view when next winter comes around.

Next, I wanted to share another little win in my world. Piecework Magazine runs a contest, seemingly every other year. The theme this year was Words in Needlework (I think inspired by a pair of old knitted gloves with Bible verse in them, featured in an issue in the past year or so). I won first place for the Needlework category with a piece I created featuring the poem by John Taylor from 1637 titled "In Praise of the Needle." The five first place winners are featured in the Sept/Oct 2014 issue, likely available right about now in stores (I know I can pick it up in my local Barnes and Noble) and can be seen here:

http://www.interweave.com/needle/piecework_magazine/contests/2014-words-in-needlework-winners.asp

Last, perhaps to share with readers sometime soon: yesterday, I traveled down to the Winterthur in Deleware. The big publicity from them in the past months has been the exhibit of costumes from Downton Abby (perhaps you mentioned this on your blog? don't remember, saw it in so many places). But, opening just last week was an exhibit on needlework, titled 'The Diligent Needle: Instrument of Profit, Pleasure, and Ornament.'   Lovely pieces, interesting background, and the ability to purchase a booklet of the entire exhibit (pictures of pieces and all signage) for $8 - not bad! I liked the organization of the exhibit into four areas: Diligence, Profit, Pleasure, and Ornament.

The introduction sets up the whole exhibit: 'For centuries, instruction in needlework was an important part of the a young woman's education. Both plain sewing and fancy embroidery required considerable time and effort to learn. As a result, women took great pride in their work. Needlework skills might be used to earn a living, to embellish clothing and household furnishings, or to simply create objects of beauty.'

There is a needlework symposium in October, part of what appears to be a three year cycle of both exhibits and symposiums focused on needlework. I was lucky enough to attend in 2008, but dates in this year simply don't work for my real life."

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright September 14, 2014 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.