Woodlawn Photos from 2010 and 2011

Lots of locals exhibit at Woodlawn Plantation each March and many of them use the same framer, Brit's Gallery.  I just realized that the framer's website has photos of some of the Woodlawn pieces they have framed.  Click on Woodlawn 2010 and Woodlawn 2011 to see some nice stitching!
http://www.thebritsgallery.com/

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

Woodlawn 2010: More Silk Ribbon Embroidery

Remember the bamboo design all in silk ribbon that I admired so at Woodlawn last month?  I got a message in the Comments section of that message from the piece's stitcher this morning which tells more about the design and the silk ribbon embroidery.

The stitcher writes:
"Thank you very much for your compliments and the attention to this important piece!! This was very special piece for me to stitch. The canvas was a wedding gift from the designer, Keri Duke of Keri Designs. I used 39 spools (5 meters each) of 100 percent silk ribbon from River Silks, a wonderful company that my Parents started in 2003. This is the only kind of ribbon that will withstand this kind of stitching abuse. Since I have been asked about this piece and have had stitchers interested in stitching it, River Silks will be adding this piece to their arsenal of Kits To Go. Your favorite fiber arts store can order it for you. 

For more inspiration and ideas for stitching with ribbon, please visit the riversilks.com and click on "Finished Projects" You will be able to see a wide variety of pieces stitched with River Silks ribbon from First-Timers to Professionals! Can you guess which one is which? After that, please explore the website and learn more about our fabulous ribbons!

Thank you again, please don't hesitate to contact me with questions regarding this piece."

Happy Stitching!
Lynn Krynicki Bayer
"Green Bamboo" stitcher
lynn@riversilks.com
River Silks LTD

Here is the canvas on the Keri Designs website.  By the way, the design is reversed there.  I flipped it in the photo above to show the way I saw it at Woodlawn.  There it was framed in a simple black frame and didn't have the green fabric at the top and bottom that I remember.
http://keridesigns.com/needlepoint_enlarged.php?entry=13&entry_table=entries_13&entry_id=9

The River Silks website.  The bamboo piece isn't shown there in the Kits to Go section yet.
http://www.riversilks.com/Site/Site/RIVER_SILKS_SILK_RIBBON_.html

Many, many thanks to Lynn K. Bayer for answering the questions I had about this piece.  I should point out I have an indirect commercial relationship with River Silks as I write stitch guides and stitch models for Leigh Designs canvases and Leigh Designs is distributing River Silks right now.  But I had no idea who stitched this piece until the comment showed up this morning.

Sure glad we know more.  It was a lovely piece and I am glad that it will be available as a kit.

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

Woodlawn 2010: Tiny

One of the most charming pieces I saw at Woodlawn was a tiny cube of birds sitting on power lines against a blue sky.  The cube itself was perhaps two inches per side.  It was well stitched all in tent stitches.  The photo doesn't show the subtle sparkle in the background that metallic threads added.  Oddly, I don't remember the gold stars in the background but they are obvious in the photograph in the online Woodlawn album.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/4416828793/in/set-72157623455198693/

You can see the unstitched canvas by Kathy Schenkel here.
http://shopthestitchery.com/item_441/Birds-on-a-Wire-Cube--Kathy-Schenkel.htm

She has a whole Tiny Cube series, most of which are visible on the Needle Nook of La Jolla website.
http://needlenook.com/designers/ks/ks_3.html

Actually, there were a lot of tiny pieces that were show-stoppers at Woodlawn this year.  You can't tell it from the photos but the Best in Show award winner set are all about 2 inches tall and perhaps 3/4 of an inch wide.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/4417592876/in/set-72157623455198693/

There were also quite a few pieces on silk gauze.  This little bird is typical. [Note that Carol S. wrote me that her bird was on muslin instead of silk gauze.  This was a Tanja Berlin class.  Thanks for the correction, Carol. I blame the lighting at Woodlawn instead of my old eyes for the mistake.  LOL]  The second link to what I think is a counted thread design is a bit more unusual.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/4416826109/in/set-72157623455198693/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/4416830295/in/set-72157623455198693/

All the tiny things I saw were wonderful but I might have to stitch that little Kathy Schenkel bird cube.

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

Woodlawn Plantation 2010: Pillows

Judging from the online photo album that Woodlawn Plantation folks posted of all the ribbon winners for 2010, it didn't seem that there was much embellished needlepoint on display.  The photo album is a bit deceiving.  I saw quite a few embellished pieces, some of which won ribbons and are in the photo album, but their photos don't show the many stitches very well.  And many of the more embellished pieces did not win ribbons, so they aren't pictured.

Woodlawn has two classes of "canvaswork" defined in their guidelines.  One is Canvaswork Traditional. This uses one to four stitches such as "needlepoint, Bargello or petitpoint."  The other is Canvaswork MultiStitch, which uses "five or more embroidery stitches on canvas."  Using that definition, at least two-thirds of what I saw at Woodlawn was Canvaswork Traditional.  And half of the Canvaswork Traditional was executed in all tent stitches using a mix of metallic and non-metallic fibers.  The other half had 1-3 other stitches besides tent used as accents, such as the background or border.

This trend of all tent pieces using a mixture of different thread textures, especially with metallics for accents, has been going on for at least the last three years.  A second trend, of pieces with traditional themes (such as Art Nouveau, Navajo rug patterns, crewel-type florals, bargello, quilt pattern blocks, Chinese fretwork with flowers, or Medieval) made into pillows has been coming into focus for two years or more.

When I first taught myself to needlepoint in 1988, most painted canvases were intended to be made up into pillows.  In the last 15 years, framed needlepoint has been more a trend but there is great interest in needlepoint that can be made into useful items (shoes, purses, etc.) lately, and I think there is a renewed interest in making pillows.

From the award winners photo album, this floral pillow is a perfect example of what I saw at Woodlawn.  I don't remember it having any metallic in it but I think the flowers were a silk blend and the background wool.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/4416823511/in/set-72157623455198693/

These two primitive pieces were mostly tent stitched with a few other stitches as accents and with metallic threads incorporated.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/4417590688/in/set-72157623455198693/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/4416826847/in/set-72157623455198693/

This Halloween pillow used lots of fancy threads and a few stitches besides tent.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/4417591074/in/set-72157623455198693/

This rooster pillow used what looked like a silk/wool blend for its all tent stitched design.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/4417590150/in/set-72157623455198693/

There were several Navajo pattern pillows, but this is the only award winner.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/4417592522/in/set-72157623455198693/

Here's a quilt block pattern pillow.   It's very traditional except for the more muted color scheme.  I think it and the Navajo pillow were both executed in all tent stitches.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/4416825893/in/set-72157623455198693/

If you look at the technical skill of these pillows, the quality is high. Believe me, I know how hard it is to do a piece in all tent stitches!  We might think of them as boring but the photos in many cases are not detailed enough to see the beautiful stitching, a few fancy stitches tossed in as accents, or enjoy the beauty of the chosen threads.  We have to remember that there are probably 75,000 needlepointers in the United States alone (from the last TNNA survey) but only 8-9,000 of them belong to the American Needlepoint Guild.  Far fewer participate in things like the ANG email list.   Those of us online and obsessed with needlepoint are probably a small percentage of a traditional craft.  The only way to expose those without the time or interest to explore all that NP can be is to exhibit more at places like Woodlawn.

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

Woodlawn 2010: Silk Ribbon Embroidery

Since there is so much Woodlawn Plantation information this year and even photos of ribbon winners, I'm not going to write one large article about the 2010 exhibit.  Instead, I'll just mention things I noticed over several blog postings.  I don't want to repeat what you've already read or seen elsewhere, after all.

I saw a great piece of silk ribbon embroidery at Woodlawn. It didn't win a ribbon so it's not in the photo album Woodlawn Plantation folks posted online. I'll have to describe it for you:  It is a tall and narrow piece, probably almost three feet tall and perhaps a foot wide, framed in a plain glossy black frame. The design is of bamboo, a large round upright stalk and a smaller curved stalk making a sort of backwards D shape. Both stalks were covered with tiny branching stems and bamboo leaves. 

The piece was 100% ribbon embroidery. The bamboo stems and leaves were in 5-6 shades of green, ranging from a very dark, almost black, green to pale green for the smallest and newest bamboo leaves. The background was done in upright straight stitches using cream silk ribbon. The stitches varied randomly in length but the overall effect was of either handmade paper or a fabric either painted or stitched in the Japanese style. It was very effective. 

I think the size helped make this a wonderful piece. The amount of background helped give the silk ribbon embroidery room so that it didn't look crowded and the overall size of the piece helped make the silk ribbon look natural from a distance.  This really did give the impression of a Japanese painting on rice paper.

The stitcher's name was Lynn Krysicki Bayer and I think that the canvas was labeled Commercial, meaning it was a painted canvas.

I browsed all the great silk ribbon embroidery shown on the River Silks website and found this Terry Dryden piece to show you a vaguely similar background.  

http://www.riversilks.com/Site/Site6/FEATURED_ARTIST_TERRY_DRYDEN.html

This piece opened my eyes to what silk ribbon embroidery can do for a background.  Thank you, Lynn Bayer!


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

Future Fun

I took last night off from needling.  Instead I read through my Stars for the New Millennium book, looking at the directions for the next quilt block, which is in the top row to the right of Marilyn Monroe.  This block is called Clark Gable.  The star pattern for Gable is make up of six sections, most of them repeated four times.  A lot of color B is used in this design which will be a challenge for me as my color B is black.  I expect some fancy footwork to make black-on-black patterns show up.  We'll see how it goes. I'll start this tonight.  I hope to get most of it finished by the time I leave for Easter vacation on Friday.  Blog probably won't be updated on the weekend as I won't have easy computer access and probably won't get any stitching done while I'm away.

The Tardis is going with me as it is a birthday present for my niece.    I'll let you know how she likes it.

I went to the Woodlawn Plantation exhibit yesterday.  I met friends for lunch and a browse among the stitching, then I left them to make a slightly meandering way home via three shops.  I didn't buy a lot, just a blue star-shaped bead at In Stitches, two skeins of red Trio that were on sale to try, my favorite color of Kreinik (4002, a milk chocolate/silver mix), a red Hologram Kreinik to try, a skein of royal blue Vineyards Silks, and a card of red Splendor at Needlewoman East, and a packet of Piecemakers needles,  a skein of navy overdyed Gloriana Lorikeet wool, and a pair of stretcher bars in the size I need for the next project at Waste Knot.  I will update my stash credit number by removing 7 from the total shortly.

The blue star bead is for the Tardis.  Last night I glued a straight pin into the bead hole and today I stuck the decorated pin through the Tardis' door to hold it closed while it is wrapped.  The inner core of the ornament is finishing foam, so the pin will stick there safely and keep the door closed.  I included a photo above.

I also put my next painted canvas on stretcher bars.  But that is a tale for another day.

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

Woodlawn 2010 People's Choice Award?

I got an email last night from Amanda who was told at the Woodlawn exhibit that Catherine Jordan's little tree set has won the People's Choice Award.  I am not sure the docent who told Amanda this is right--surely the People's Choice voting has not closed so soon?--but I am sure Catherine Jordan's work is fabulous!  Here is the set in question.  There are more photos of these pieces from other angles in the photo set.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/4417592876/in/set-72157623455198693/

Here is Catherine's website.  Many of the designs shown there have won at Woodlawn in the past.
http://www.catherinesdesigns.net/index.htm

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

Melita's Woodlawn Report

Another kind person has posted a report about their trip to see the Woodlawn Plantation exhibit on their blog.  This time the visitor is Melita.  You can read all about it here.
http://melitastitches4fun.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/woodlawn-roadtrip-2010/


She's provided a link to the photo album of the ribbon winners. If you want to look up the items that won awards she mentions, enter the IMG number in the search box. BEFORE you push Enter, use the Search pull down menu to choose Preservation Nation's albums so that you don't get results from all over Flicker.


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

Another Woodlawn Report

After I begged shamelessly, Donna has posted a review of the Woodlawn Plantation exhibit on her blog.  She was a docent at the show and tells us a bit about how the show is laid out this year and remarks on her favorites.  It's a two part article and here are both links.  The photo above is the Jeff Kulick piece she voted for in the People's Choice award.  I shamelessly ripped it out of the Woodlawn photo album so you could see how wonderful it is.  This is almost certainly an original design.
http://majtravaux.blogspot.com/2010/03/request-re-woodlawn.html

http://majtravaux.blogspot.com/2010/03/woodlawn-part-ii.html


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

More About Woodlawn 2010

Before you ask, no, I haven't had a chance to get to the Woodlawn Plantation needlework exhibit yet.  Now that the weather has cleared up, I hope to go this week or next, depending on all the appointments scheduled during this time that were postponed from February due to four feet of snow.  I am not sure I will write much about the show, however.  After all, we have a photo gallery to visit and some folks have blogged about it already.

Once again, here are all the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners.*
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/sets/72157623455198693/

The owner of The Point of It All, the best known needlepoint shop in Washington, D.C., writes about her visit here.
http://blog.thepointofitallonline.com/2010/03/woodlawn-needlework-exhibition.html

Susan visited Woodlawn yesterday.  Here's all about her trip with her friend Carolyn.
http://plays-with-needles.blogspot.com/2010/03/woodlawn-needlework-exhibition-2010.html

As Susan says, a separate photo album has been set up to showcase the Japanese Embroidery on display.  You can visit the pieces here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48391823@N08/sets/72157623484841405/

Donna's been serving as a docent.  I hope once her stint is done she writes about the experience in detail and talks about the pieces she fell in love with and why.  My own limited docent experience tells me you really have time to study the pieces when you are a docent and learn more than a quick visit's study allows.
http://majtravaux.blogspot.com/2010/03/view-from-tuesday.html

Claudia on the ANG email list wrote that this is the Best of Show winner.  *She mentioned that she thinks not all the award winners are in the ribbon photo album (the first link above).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/4416829235/in/set-72157623455198693/

I know they don't have the award for The Piece Jane Would Take Home If She Could listed.

You'll have to wait to hear about that.

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

Woodlawn 2010 in Photos

As promised the Woodlawn Plantation exhibit is viewable in photographs this year.  Here is the link to the photo album.  I think what we see are all the first, second and third place winners.  Note the stickers on the id labels.  Blue is for first place, red for second and orange for third place winners. The name, age (junior or adult), state and technique are also on the labels.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/sets/72157623455198693/

This is a really great idea and I commend Nelly's Needlers for doing this.

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

Reminder: Woodlawn Exhibit Opens March 1

The Woodlawn Plantation Needlework Exhibit opens Monday, March 1st and is open daily from 10 a.m. through 4 p.m. every day in March.

To whet your appetite, here is a photo of one of last year's ribbon winners, courtesy of Nimble Needle.
http://thenimbleneedle.blogspot.com/2009/05/nimble-needle-class-spawns-award.html


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

Woodlawn Exhibit Take in Changed Due to Weather

Details on when you can hand deliver your pieces for the March 2010 exhibit are posted on their website.  I'm told there is going to be an exhibit of Japanese Embroidery this year, so if you are a fan, don't miss this show.
http://woodlawn1805.org/

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

Woodlawn Deadline February 11

The deadline for sending needlework to Woodlawn Plantation for their March 2010 show is February 11.  Show information, hours, and a link to the brochure application that has to accompany each entry is at this URL.
http://woodlawn1805.org/2010-needlework-exhibition/

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