Kreinik's Paillettes

If you were a fan of "Faith," the 17th Century reproduction jacket that Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts stitched, you will want to read about paillettes.
http://kreinikthread.blogspot.com/2017/08/sequins-elevate-your-stitchery.html

"Faith" was covered in hand made silver paillettes.  The effect is astounding in candlelight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9LzE3jdCTw

Kreinik's paillettes are a great touch if you want to add elegance to a design, especially if it may be seen in candlelight occasionally.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright August 13, 2017 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

This and That

Since the lion stitching is pretty slow going right now, I thought I'd post a general message about this and that rather than boring you with a photo of the Stuart Plaid Lion that isn't too much different from what I posted yesterday. One doesn't eat a watermelon in a minute, you know!  Besides, there is lots of interesting stuff in the stitching Blog-o-Sphere you might like to know about.

First of all, Ruth Schmuff has put her first CD of stitches on the iPhone!  Cell phones don't work well in Chilly Hollow or I would be trying to figure out how to afford a smart phone, all the wonderful apps, and a monthly cell phone bill that would keep me in needlepoint threads forever very nicely, thank you.  I hope more folks than Ruth and SuZy Murphy take advantage of smart phone technology so we have more stitch information on the go.  These smart phone apps are terrific for the Big City Stitcher on the go.
http://www.notyourgrandmothersneedlepoint.com/2010/04/another-giant-step-for-needlepoint.html

Anyone who has followed the story of the 18th Century reproduction embroidered jacket will want to pick up the newest issue of Victoria magazine next week.  It has a feature article about the creation of the jacket.  If you are interested in a behind-the-scenes peek at what it takes to have a magazine publish articles on needlework, you will want to browse Tricia's blog to read how much work was involved to get this published.
http://thistle-threads.com/blog/

Remember Elmer, the candy cane dog canvas I just finished stitching?  (photo above)  He's one of the animal canvases from Kirk and Hamilton, an English painted canvas design team.  Needlepoint.com is having a trunk show of their canvases and says that they create the Elizabeth Bradley designs.  Interesting tip about a great new company!  Here's the blog entry with more photos of Kirk and Hamilton's more classic designs.  If you go to the home page of their website and look at What's New, the very last 8-10 canvases are new Kirk and Hamilton designs with their signature mix of humorous Christmas pieces and traditional designs.
http://www.needlepoint.com/blog/?p=451

In other gossip, remember Hope Hanley and her books about needlepoint?  Her daughter stitches for The Point of It All in D.C. and the shop blog features some of her current work, including a huge dog rug her mother designed.
http://blog.thepointofitallonline.com/2010/04/staff-spotlight.html

Lovers of all things Asian like me will be enthralled with Jane Smith's new Japanese Embroidery project.  With the help of her JE teacher, Jane has simplified a wood block design of a Japanese woman playing with a yo-yo and transferred it onto silk.  She is starting to stitch it in the JE style.  You can see the first stages here and start to imagine all the work she is going to do.
http://nuido.blogspot.com/2010/04/playing-with-colour.html

Watching her work is tempting me to start an original design myself, but that will have to wait.  I have too many things to accomplish already this year.

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

Throwing Rocks, Making Ripples

I am sure you have heard the debate about patronizing local needlework shops versus spending money online or in the big box craft stores to buy supplies we need for our stitching at a better price.   You have never heard it described this way, though.  Before you head off to read the article in the link below, the Thistle Threads blog is written by Tricia Wilson Nguyen and all the other folks deeply involved in recreating a17th Century embroidered jacket they have named Faith.  Recently Tricia has been talking about the costs of mounting a museum exhibit, how publishing a book about needlework is done,  and other topics about the business of needlework and museums.  It's a fascinating discussion.  If you want to start reading other articles about this topic, click on the header title to go to Home, then look for the March 18, 19 and then 23rd blog articles.
http://thistle-threads.com.mytempweb.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/last-word-on-pennies/

Every time I mention a new tool, book or thread, talk about some of the lovely designs I've seen here and there, every time I add to my Master Enabler points,  I am sending ripples out into the stitching world, ripples you see and react to as we all bob on the ocean called the Internet.  Hopefully the shops, tool and thread manufacturers, teachers, designers and writers feel the ripples I have made and benefit from them.

Now go make some ripples of your own....

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

History Through Needlepoint (with Skulls)

Needlepoint is one of many historical embroidery styles. It happens to be **my** favorite but there are many more. Those who would like a history vacation centered on embroidery will want to "express interest" in the tour of English embroidered jackets and costumes that the Plimoth Plantation reproduction jacket folks are setting up.

http://thistle-threads.com.mytempweb.com/blog/index.php/2009/08/announcing-a-jacket-study-tour-of-england/ 

 History buffs may enjoy browsing this site that specializes in Arts & Crafts style embroidery. (Please click on Framed Needleart to see some wonderful finished examples for sale.) If William Morris' embroidery is a favorite of yours and you've never looked at Beth Russell's needlepoint kits, click on the second link and enjoy. These kits are first rate, although the designs are either stamped or silk screened on canvas. 

http://paint-by-threads.com/shop/ http://www.bethrussellneedlepoint.com/

If you are more into the curvy Art Nouveau style (related to the styles above) how about this? I choose Water Lilies from here to illustrate this blog entry. 

http://www.art-stitch.com/bourgaize/cat-ff808081172580e501172f3401f42990.html

If you enjoy exploring your favorite historical period through needlepoint painted canvases, check out some of these designs-- Elizabeth I (I think the designer is Designing Women) http://www.needlepoint.org/WhatIs/1998/Bodien.php 

If you want to stitch like Mary, Queen of Scots, this company reproduces some of her known pieces for needlepoint. 

http://www.sewexciting.com/?page=shop/view&category_id=47d7abf64882d498ca0aa53c50b664ab

Melissa Shirley has all sorts of fun canvases of women from history, ranging from Marie Antionette to Betsy Ross and even Calamity Jane. http://melissashirleydesigns.com/gallery/?cat=64 

here are more realistic portraits available. Here is Tapestry Tent's Henry VIII- http://elainemagninneedlepoint.stores.yahoo.net/kinghenryviii.html

How about a stylized King Arthur? 

http://elainemagninneedlepoint.stores.yahoo.net/nust.html 

Is Egyptian history fun for you? 

http://elainemagninneedlepoint.stores.yahoo.net/phardynkin.html http://www.leighdesigns.com/Grp822x.html http://www.theneedleworks.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21_100&products_id=231 http://www.amybunger.com/catalog/item/6278007/6754081.htm

I promised skulls, so here they are--A Dragon's Tale has their new Halloween designs on their blog and there is a skull and crossbones canvas for those into pirates (that's historical, right?) Plus they are having a sale! You can't order directly but you can ask your local shop to get the catalogue so you can browse and place an order through them. http://adragonstaleneedlepoint.blogspot.com/search/label/Whats%20New%3A%20Halloween

And by coincidence Judy Harper has posted some new Halloween outlines to copy and use and there is a skull and crossbones pattern there. If your kids are driving you nuts in these last weeks before school starts, maybe one of them would like to stitch this.... 

http://needle-crafts.blogspot.com/2009/08/halloween-time-motifs-for-projects-in.html

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! (or at least a martini) http://www.amybunger.com/catalog/item/6297823/6259691.htm

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

Our History and What It Teaches Us

I should be working on my Woodlawn report since I have the computer controls right now, but when I read the following on how the Plimoth Plantation folks are figuring out reproducing birds on their 17th Century embroidered jacket, it gave me a piece of the puzzle that is samplers.
http://thistle-threads.com.mytempweb.com/blog/index.php/2009/03/bird-butts-a-long-tail/

I don't "get" samplers. Folks here love them, though, and over the years in Chilly Hollow I have seen a lot of the reproduction and also the modern samplers. But the reproduction pieces, ones either modeled on old samplers or that exactly reproduce one stitched in the 18th-19th Century, don't appeal to me much. Many of them are pretty big so stitching them is a sustained task. What accounts for the charm? What am I missing?

Reading the above, I think they are time machines. They put us in the shoes of our stitching ancestors and teach us how much we have in common with them, as well as exactly what makes the stitching we do today different from the stitching done in 1814.

By the way, the example above is Mary Cottam's 1814 sampler, charted and sold by Scarlett Letter.
http://www.scarlet-letter.com/rsdescr/19thengl/cottam.htm

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

News, Good and Bad

If you have been following Plimoth Plantation's stitching of their reproduction 17th Century jacket, you will have been a bit shocked to find the museum is laying off staff and isn't going to display it as planned. But they are scrambling to get the jacket finished, are going to have it displayed at two unnamed museums, have transferred the blog describing the action to another owner, and are generally busy as little stitching bees regardless. This thing is going to happen, economy or no.
http://www.plimoth.org/embroidery-blog/2009/03/16/project-changes/

In happier news, Sue reports on the NAN exhibit in Kansas City. She also shares her own entry (second link).

http://sudukc.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/wonderful-world-of-needleart/

http://sudukc.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/my-nan-entry/


The latest award winners aren't up on the NAN website yet but if you aren't familiar with their work, please take a tour. This is a fabulous resource for free patterns and for wonderful pieces of stitching art to explore.
http://www.needleart.org/

If you are feeling a little down with all the things going on in the world today and with the long winter not really over yet, how about we do something totally different and visit with a seamstress in Kyoto? This week she reports on the doll festival that celebrates girl children. It's wonderful, as always, and a good antidote to the blues. The photo above is a Hani Matsuri doll, by the way.
http://www.wabei-mono.com/blog/2009/03/20/and-a-happy-belated-girls-day/

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