It's Starting to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I don't have time to get a photo of my progress on O'jishi for you this morning so how about we enjoy the lighthouse ornament tree that the designer Anne Stradal (ABS Designs) has put up?
http://thecapestitcher.blogspot.com/2009/12/its-beginning-to-look-lot-like.html

Over here look at the great ornaments that Margaret just got back from the finisher!
http://cranecottage.com/stitchingblog/?p=1333

Barbara Bernsten's penguin series' latest bird is totally cute.  I love those boucle Xmas trees.
http://createneedlepoint.typepad.com/create_needlepoint/2009/12/needlepoint-penguin-with-trees.html

If you need a last minute present (that doesn't even need wrapping), how about treating yourself to Orna Willis' first cyberclass?
http://ornadesign.blogspot.com/2009/12/cyberworkshop-is-here.html

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

Listening to Barbara Bergsten UPDATED

Rcently I've been really enjoying reading Barbara Bergsten's blog. Barbara designs painted canvases and blogs about her newest pieces and how she is stitching them.
http://createneedlepoint.typepad.com/create_needlepoint/

Barbara's summer intern is busily painting and stitching her first NP design, The Fashionable Lady. It is a delightful elegant woman in black and hopefully a canvas that Barbara will offer one day. UPDATE: You can already order Erin's 1930s woman via Barbara Bergsten Designs. Contact information is here.
http://www.barbarabergstendesigns.com/contact_us.htm

And Erin talks more about her experience learning to design and paint a NP canvas (with contact information) here.
http://createneedlepoint.typepad.com/create_needlepoint/2009/07/more-news-from-erin.html

Barbara herself is stitching a poppy pillow that uses what she calls "sister stitches" for the various flowers. Sister stitches are stitches which are very similar and which can also be used in mirror images of themselves. Because they have a lot in common, you can use a large number of stitches to keep from getting bored that don't look like a mess because of their family resemblance. This is an important technique and one that I use when I can. Barbara shows it off very well on her blog.

After you finish browsing, bookmark this site. Not only does Barbara have fun things to see, she is creating two color stitch diagrams of a huge variety of stitches which will liven up your stitching. To see the current diagrammed stitches, look in the left hand column for "bbd Stitch Diagrams." Click there and enjoy!

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

Thoughts for the Day UPDATED

Blogs are great places to post your opinions and receive feedback from others who care about the same things you do. These blog entries from other stitch-bloggers have important topics for us to read and ponder. First, here is what one new shop owner says about needlepoint magazines.

http://rittenhouseneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-issue-of-needlepoint-now.html

My new Needlepoint Now magazine just arrived. The new format is becoming clear. There are new columnists, a new emphasis on publishing stitch guides for painted canvases which one can buy in the local shop and then stitch via the printed guide, and guides to new products and books as usual. I am a bit wary of totally abandoning line drawn designs in favor of charted pieces (although the Carole Lake/Tony Gerdes design is very clever!) and stitch guides for painted canvases which folks have to buy, however beautiful (and that Melissa Shirley flower purse is to die for!). I like the free-form line drawings one can fill with any color or stitch as I think that encourages creativity.

Speaking of any stitch, here is a new designer's take on where the emphasis on fancy stitches is taking us.

http://needlepoint.storeblogs.com/2009/07/13/the-fancy-stitch-monster

UPDATE: Marianne explains herself more here.
http://needlepoint.storeblogs.com/2009/07/14/iconoclast-me

I love fancy stitches myself, although I did do a piece entirely in tent stitches last summer. Remember that? It is surprisingly hard to do an all basketweave piece with even tension if you are constantly changing colors and thread types. I think the fancy stitches are easier for novices to execute well, but maybe I'm wrong. When you are looking at NP from the perspective of 21 years' stitch experience, you are not really understanding the beginner's problems.

Does anyone else think that what Marianne and Stephen are talking about is a return to the basics in needlepoint? I do know that what we online needlepointers do often has no relationship to the bulk of needlepointers who haven't discovered the online world we live in. There are even shops which discourage the use of stretcher bars, using anything except plastic canvas for a beginning project, only sell Paternayan wool, etc. Of course there are stitchers who deliberately only tent stitch designs but that is their preference, not something imposed on them because they and their shop don't know anything else!

It dawned on me after reading Ruth Schmuff's blog entry (link below) that although I use a lot of tent stitches on projects, I also use a great many fancy (and expensive!) threads. A personal challenge may be for me to blog-stitch something entirely in DMC cotton, something that isn't expensive for a beginner to try. Something along the lines of the outlined Sundance lady in a shawl project I did three summers ago to show how to fake expensive overdyes using DMC cotton....

http://www.tistheseason.org/blog/2009/07/new-stitchers.html

Now, something we all can agree on--

http://needleprint.blogspot.com/2009/07/support-your-needlework-store.html

I'd love to hear your thoughts on any or all of the above!

Jane, sending hugs to all stitchers everywhere from CH

UPDATE #2: The designer Barbara Bergsten adds her thoughts on her blog.
http://createneedlepoint.typepad.com/create_needlepoint/2009/07/decorative-needlepoint-stitches.html

UPDATE #3: Margaret adds her own thoughts to the discussion. Anyone else?
http://cranecottage.com/stitchingblog/?p=1136

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

Playing With Fire -- Cape Cod Dogs

I've also been playing with fire on Cape Cod Dogs. Was anyone betting how long I'd be able to concentrate just on the basketweaved border background? I bowed to the lure of the rest of the canvas on the 4th of July by starting to stitch the window glass. I'd decided there were two ways to handle the view out the window: Either I'd stitch it in light coverage stitches with only one ply of silk or cotton, or I'd stitch the glass with clear Water N Ice and totally ignore stitching the details of the painted view themselves. I felt either route would make the view recede into the background where it belongs.

Being ultra lazy, I chose the Water N Ice route.

Step one was to find my cards of Water N Ice (done!) and step two was to choose a stitch. My first stitch choice was Byzantine as I thought the diagonal flow would look like reflections of sun on glass. I also thought the Water N Ice, which is a ribbon-like thread, would cover better on the diagonal.
http://www.barbarabergstendesigns.com/new_page_1.htm

However, as I worked I discovered two things. First, the holes between the rows of Byzantine stitch made a prominent pattern that detracted from the view itself and secondly, the Water N Ice frayed badly at the tail end that hangs out the needle's eye. I ended up using 8 inch lengths and still having to cut off 2 inches at the needle's eye because the thread was coming apart as I worked.

What to do? Short lengths didn't stop the fraying. My bottle of Frey Check was so old it was dried up, so in the trash it went, useless to stop the unraveling of my Water N Ice. I know some folks use burning tools to seal the ends of threads. (Frey Check and burn tools listed in this link.)
http://www.fashionribbonwear.com/cosmetics.html#fraycheck

I don't own such tools but I do have a wood stove. In other words, I've got MATCHES.

[At this point the nervous stitcher may want to hide under the couch. Or at least get a stiff drink!]

I cut off an eight inch length of Water N Ice, took it into the kitchen, stood over the sink and lit a match. After it burned a second, I blew the flame out and touched the hot end to the cut end of my thread. It sealed it a bit. I put the slightly melted end went through the needle's eye. Then I stitched. Usually I didn't have any unraveling after that. Of course touching the hot end of a match is a bit chancy. Besides the danger of being burned, one won't always seal the thread completely. Occasionally I did have some unraveling.

By the way, I am stitching the window using Irish Stitch from Stitches for Effect, page 37. This is a simple straight stitch over four threads. Then you skip a channel, stitch over four threads, skip a channel, etc. The second row you drop down two threads and do a series of over four straight stitches in the empty channels. Repeat these two rows endlessly and you'll have a nice plain stitch that I found let the painted canvas show nicely and added a window glass reflection to the canvas.

Hope you like the effect. You don't see the glassy shine in the photo but it is there. I've still got to finish the border, and I'll tackle that chore along with tent stitching the thin red line on the inside of the border next.

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

Kimonos and Cottages (and More)

I know I'm posting on an irregular basis these days with my computer in the shop--I have to take advantage of any computer access I get. I should be back on schedule next week. Until then, how about we look at the Glittering Kimonos progress as two folks work on Tony Minieri's Stitch of the Month project he did for ANG? Liz has finished stitch two, in a lovely shade of sage green.
http://lizartblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/sotm-section-2.html

Jan has picked her colors and has her line drawing on canvas.
http://stitchlady.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/ang-stitch-of-the-month-project/

Rittenhouse has posted photos of a stitch guide they are doing in the shop. It is always fun to see what various guides look like.
http://rittenhouseneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2009/03/art-fun-of-stitch-guide.html

I love seeing finished projects myself. Can anyone identify the designer of the two little heart projects Cyn just posted photos of?
http://cyns-stitches.blogspot.com/

Gail Hendrix has a great slide show of some of her painted canvas designs on the bottom of her blog home page. I love the animals (the fox chasing the hound is really funny) and the creative and different interpretation of the Twelve Days of Christmas designs she did, but the illuminated manuscript page with the dragonfly and narcissus plants is outstandingly beautiful.
http://squiggeedesigns.blogspot.com/2009/03/teaser.html

The final eye candy for today is Barbara Bergsten's Staffordshire cottage canvases, all stitched up for Chaparral Needlework which will offer them as a canvas club this spring.
http://createneedlepoint.typepad.com/create_needlepoint/2009/03/staffordshire-cottages-series.html

I'm stitching away on my Renaissance Rat's tent stitch background, which takes forever but at least you won't miss not seeing pictures of that! And the computer should be back from the repair shop early next week.

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

Happy Dancing All Over

I'm not getting much done in Chilly Hollow due to my work obligations but there's a whole lot of stitching going on the Blog-o-sphere.

Barbara Bergstein has just finished her mermaid canvas (see Feb. 18, 2009) for a purse and has started a seahorse (Feb. 20). Her seahorse posting is especially interesting as she talks about the things she must consider as she chooses threads for this new project. You might enjoy scrolling down and reading about the Silk Lame thread (mermaid tail) and Boucle thread (mermaid's blonde towsled curls) she used on the mermaid project as well. Lots of fun going on at Barbara's blog!
http://createneedlepoint.typepad.com/

The Linda half of the Stitching Sisters just got her latest project back from the finishers--it's an amazing stitching toolbox. This you have GOT to see!
http://nystitchingsisters.blogspot.com/2009/02/stitch-is-finished.html

Anne Stradal has posted another tutorial on blending colors for a sky on her Cape Stitcher blog. It shows off one of her beautiful lighthouse canvases very well and tells you something of its tragic history.
http://thecapestitcher.blogspot.com/2009/02/mississippis-lonely-lighthouse.html

Finally, Pat has finished her Tudor Dog in the household pet guardian angel series. It will go off with its brothers and sisters to the ANG Auction in Milwaukee next fall to raise money for ANG programs. Someone is going to love this as much as I do! Thanks, Pat. Your dog and rabbit are simply beautiful.
http://needleartnut.blogspot.com/2009/02/royal-angel.html

Hopefully I'll get some stitching done this weekend so I can add wonderful items to Blog also.

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

More New Things

Lots of people are posting new items on their websites and blogs. This morning Ruth Schmuff has put up photos of a new stocking that is a pair with her lady almost hidden by wrapped presents. She's right-this is the perfect stocking set for the sophisticated couple in your life.
http://www.tistheseason.org/blog/2009/01/santa-stockin.html

Ruth is also showcasing her new scissors and laying tool cases.
http://www.tistheseason.org/blog/2009/01/needlework-accessory-cases.html

Barbara Bernstein has finished her needlepoint belt. FAB!
http://createneedlepoint.typepad.com/create_needlepoint/2009/01/finished-needlepoint-belt.html

Summer Truswell has finished stitching the new ANG Workshop by Mail piece. It's a Marnie Ritter sampler and beautiful. Summer has links to where to order the design and notes she wrote up as she worked it. The original model is silver, peach and coral, judging from the photo on the ANG website.
http://www.summerlouise.com/2009/01/marnie-ritters-scotch-ya.html

Liz Morrow has just finished a turquoise and terracotta version of the fabulous Susan Reed piece Imperial Topaz. The original was pumpkin, copper and royal purple but this one is just as lovely in Southwestern colors.
http://lizartblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/imperial-topaz.html

Finally, Janet Perry has posted a summary of the TNNA market on her website. There are no photos but there are some URLs to use in hunting for photos.
http://www.nuts-about-needlepoint.com/?p=1475

Have fun browsing!

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