NJNA's News

NJNA's latest e-newsletter is out.  As usual, it is full of ANG news, both local chapters and the upcoming Seminar.  There's news about finishing and kits for beginners, a new club, an Olympic chart (and a French poodle), and the fact that Absolutely Needlepoint in Miami has been sold and will become Stitch Miami in September 2024.  

https://blog.njneedleartists.org/2024/07/27/whats-happening-at-njna-7-27-24/

As always, a fun read.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow

Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com

and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

© Copyright July 28, 2024 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Let's Move to Delray Beach

Here's why. 
http://www.stitchesbytheseainc.com/var/m_4/4b/4bc/271378/339525-stitches-by-the-sea.pdf

Oh, did I mention it is 15 degrees in Chilly Hollow at noon?
http://www.stitchesbytheseainc.com

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
@ Copyright 2013 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Hey, There's RANDI!!

Oh, look! There's a profile of Randi of The World in Stitches in the Littleton online newspaper.  What fun!  Sadly, the interviewer doesn't understand how technology enhances our stitching but still, it is a nice profile of Randi and the challenges that all shop owners face in the 21st Century.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/littleton/newsnow/x1745249772/The-World-in-Stitches-in-Littleton-competing-with-technology

Many thanks to the Needle Retailer for pointing this out on Facebook.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
@ Copyright 2013 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

The For Sale Sign's Out

Little Shoppe of Stitches is for sale!   Call Elaine at the shop if you are interested.
http://www.littleshoppeofstitches.com

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
@ Copyright 2013 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Status Thimble NOT Passing into History

UPDATE (also via Facebook--thanks, Deborah):

Hooray! We were able to find a new home, so we will be able to move – not close. I can’t begin to tell you how pleased – and relieved – we are.

Our new address will be 4220 Olympic Avenue, San Mateo, CA 94403. This is just off El Camino and 42nd Avenue, up from Mollie Stone’s grocery store and fronting on the same building as Always Quilting. We will be just three minutes south of the Hillsdale Shopping Center and 12 minutes south of our present location in Burlingame.

We are excited about our new location. The parking is free and the lot is immediately in front of us. We will have fresh paint, new carpeting and even heating! We hope you will come to visit us from Monday, April 16th – onwards, although I’m sure we will still be rearranging and be rather messy. We’ll also do a new schedule of classes as soon as possible.

Our store hours will stay the same: Mondays through Saturdays 10 – 5, with Thursdays open until 7:30pm. We have a very congenial stitching group on Thursday evenings from 5 to 7:30 and you are welcome to join us (no charge).

We look forward to seeing you.

Susan Bryant

Phone (650) 344-1737


Via Facebook--Status Thimble in Burlingame, CA will be closing April 5.  Because the shop is in California and I'm in rural Virginia, I never got a chance to visit, but I always loved her shop newsletters which were fascinating excursions into history and stitching.
http://www.thestatusthimble.com/

On the other hand, some landmark shops just keep hanging on.  Needle in a Haystack is 14 today and is having a sale to celebrate.
http://needlestack.typepad.com/whats_new/2012/03/its-time-for-the-2012-eggcellent-anniversay-sale.html


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

Shop News

It must be something in the air because two of my favorite shops are moving in July.

Needle in a Haystack in Alameda, CA is moving to slightly smaller digs with better parking.  Here are the details.  Click on "Our Move Week Is July 12" to read even more as exact moving day plans are made.
http://needlestack.typepad.com/whats_new/2010/06/were-moving-in-july.html

Needle Works in Austin is moving right now.  They hope to reopen at the new location July 1st.  The second link is to their June newsletter which has photos of the new interior and a map for visitors.
http://www.theneedleworks.com/

http://www.theneedleworks.com/newsletter/201006newsletter.pdf

Good luck on the move!  I'm sure it'll turn out as well as Exclamation Point's new revamped website did.  They have two great videos now, one on the home page and one on the Canvases page.  Fun to watch and I'm told this is a very very nice shop to visit if you are ever in Saratoga, CA.
http://exclamationpoint.org/

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

Shop News

There's been a lot of shop news going on while I was looking the other way.  First of all, M's Canvashouse has expanded.  They have a new shop in Louisville, Kentucky which expands their presence in Lexington, Kentucky.  The owner, Meredith Barnhill Willet, is well known as the co-author of Knots, Fur and Turkeywork, the owner of Elizabeth Turner Designs, and for the superb finishing her shops do for the stitcher who needs canvaswork shoes, purses or other items. If you live in Kentucky, you'll want to visit either shop when you can.  If you are not local, you can see a bit about both shops in the videos posted on their website.
http://www.mscanvashouse.com/

The Needle Works' new shop in Austin, Texas is going up fast.  Construction of their new and larger store is moving along quickly to meet the July opening date.  You can see photso of the vaguely Craftsman style building on the shop blog.  Click on New Store in the Categoruies list on the left side of the page to read more about the interior.
http://www.theneedleworks.typepad.com/

I don't know about you, but I find this expansion news heartening during this bleak economy with so many out of work.

By the way, this isn't shop news but Martha Stewart has a new book out on crafts, especially sewing.  DMC went to the book launch and reports on their blog about the shindig with plenty of pictures.
http://dmc-threads.com/?p=1252

If you aren't familiar with Martha Stewart, check out her website.  The recipe and project database (which I worked on at my former job) is fabulous to browse.
http://www.marthastewart.com/

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

French Knot Newsletter and Clubs Galore

The French Knot in Texas has their summer newsletter available on their website now. What fun!

http://thefrenchknot.com/newsletter.html

Of course the big news are the photos of their Petei Santa club canvases for the year but there are other clubs such as their ornament of the month canvas (all with Western themes) and the monthly little boot club and their Raymond Crawford Noel series. I chose two Petei Santas for your viewing pleasure but do follow the links and explore a bit to see more of their offerings.

If through some miracle you don't find something to tickle your fancy, not to worry. There are other new monthly NP clubs available all over. How about a series of Kathy Schenkel Santas?

http://www.whatsthepoint.biz/clubs.php

Or consider this amazing nine Santa banner from 2 the Point.

http://www.topoint.com/canvasclub_banner.htm

I've told you about the monthly California canvases from Old World Designs but the photos of the finished round ornaments are finally on their website.

http://www.oldworlddesigns.com/california.html

Finslly, how about Pawley Island Needlepoint's Witches Circle or their Christmas ornament extravaganza?

See? Something for everyone! Have fun exploring.

http://pineedlepoint.com/?task=ornaments&id=1

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

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

More New Things

Some new items are showing up in the shops already. Amy Bunger's on-line store has started posting photos of new floral canvases here. The newest things are at the top of the page.
http://www.amybunger.com/flowers_fruits_vegs.html

Janet Perry clued me into a new strong magnet that is unusual in that it has a metal heart design on top. If you ever wished those decorative magnets were stronger or that the top didn't block the magnetic forces, this might be the set for you. A photo is on the left side of this article.
http://store.puffinco.com/servlet/-strse-33/Puffin-and-Company-Needle/Detail

Finally, Old World Designs has started to post photographs of their new club, The Twelve Days of California. Instead of a Christmas theme, the round ornaments all showcase California icons. Three designs are on their website now. You'll have to bookmark the site and check later to see them all.
http://www.oldworlddesigns.com/california.html

They also have a neat purse kit based on a Zecca canvas (a little more than halfway down this page) that is a sort of Country Style Goes Crazy. It looks like a really fun thing to stitch.
http://www.oldworlddesigns.com/classprojects.html

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

Back from Market and Reporting In

More shops are back from the TNNA trade show in Columbus, Ohio and reporting in about what they saw and what they've ordered. Here are the most recent reports in alphabetical order. First is Chandail Needlepoint in Texas.
http://blog.chandailneedlework.com/2009/06/18/oh-the-canvases-i-saw-at-market.aspx?ref=rss

Key Stitches, also in Texas, reports in.
http://www.keystitches.com/Key_Stitches/Blog_%40_the_Key/Entries/2009/6/16_Just_back_from_market!.html

Now from Pennsylvania, Rittenhouse Needlepoint.
http://rittenhouseneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2009/06/back-from-columbus.html

My final blog entry is a report from Bristly Thistle in Michigan about the classes Michelle took. The trade show isn't just to buy--TNNA offers classes to introduce shop owners to new products and ideas. There are a lot of fascinating ideas here, and they don't cost a cent!
http://bristlythistle.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-i-learned-in-needlepoint-school.html

Many thanks to everyone for posting about what we all missed.
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

More New Trade Show Items

Designers and shops are starting to update their websites with the latest new items. Needle Works in Austin has added a PDF file with photos of new Mindy painted designs and their What's New page has photos of some of the large Leigh Designs Guadalajara pieces. Nothing on the small Guadlajara ornaments yet. Click on What's New to browse painted canvases or on Mindy to open the PDF file with photos of her work.
https://www.theneedleworks.com/new.html#new

BetsyB Originals has a small slide show up of their new pieces. Although BetsyB is known for their sorority and fraternity designs, I think you'll really enjoy the new Twelve Days of Christmas series which resembles painted French porcelein.
http://www.betsyboriginals.com/Betsy_B._Originals/Whats_New!.html

There are a few more new canvases up on the Melissa Shirley website but it just went down (probably either crushed under the weight of fan visits or to add more items). Check it out and return if it is still not available now. She's always worth the wait!
http://www.melissashirleydesigns.com/

Right now everyone who went to the trade show is doing laundry, answering their emails and taking naps, but new items will start showing up in the shops over the summer and early fall.

Until then, how about NP cumberbunds? Which are spelled c-u-m-m-e-r-b-u-n-d also. My way is a regional variant. So now go wonder about my accent....LOL
http://www.needlepoint.com/blog/?p=114

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

Tweets from Columbus

The trade show in Columbus has started and news is starting to appear. I'm collecting what I can find from designer and shop websites. So far the big news is that Amy Bunger and her staff are posting news on her Twitter account about the show. I personally would find it very difficult to confine my messages to so few characters!

You can follow the Tweets on Amy's website if you don't have a Twitter account. The latest message is on top, just like here at Blog.
http://www.amybunger.com/twitter.html

We've already seen that SharonG can make even a painted canvas of a horse's ass look great in her new items on her blog.
http://sharongneedlepointdesigner.blogspot.com/2009/06/ct35-is-newer-canvas-that-now-has.html

There are lots of new designs and stitch guides on Melissa Shirley's What's New section of her website.
http://www.melissashirleydesigns.com/gallery/?bsn=1

Ruth Schmuff has new artists in her line of painted canvases and shows them off here.
http://www.tistheseason.org/ptdproducts.php?catid=216

And here.
http://www.tistheseason.org/whatsNew.php

I have a spy at the show who has promised to write a report for us, so stay tuned for that. As other things start appearing on the WWW, I'll keep you informed. After all, there are probably new tools, new designers, new canvases, new threads and new charts we really do "need." Fortunately, Ruth Schmuff is blogging about her adventures in Columbus. Here's the first posting.
http://www.tistheseason.org/blog/2009/06/were-in-columbus.html

Hugs from the Master Enabler,
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Stitch By Stitch Times 76

I've just discovered the amazing gallery of seventy-six stitched pieces on Stitch By Stitch's website. Click on the link to open a new window with the slide show. I saw the Christmas Door I have also stitched, bangle bracelets (which the Washington Post said in yesterday's paper are In this year), a headband, gorgeous purses (look at that monogrammed one with the raised letter on the beautiful background!), and lots of lots of nutcrackers in all sizes, shapes and designs.
http://www.stitchbystitchneedlepoint.com/photogallery.html

I was feeling sorry for myself not going to the trade show in Columbus this weekend to see all the new designs, but this slide show is almost as good.

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

Amy Bunger Strikes Again

It's the first of the month and Amy Bunger has the June newsletter up on her website.
http://www.amybunger.com/current_enewsletters.html

As usual there's a stitcher's profile, a stitch of the month diagrammed for you, a glimpse of Amy's own stitching (the elephant for the Kelly Clark Nativity set she is doing as a monthly club class is amazing), and much more. I grabbed a typical before and after image from the What's New section of her website to illustrate this article as an introduction for those who aren't familiar with Amy's stitching. The top is the bare canvas and the bottom canvas is what Amy did with it. The canvas is by Beth Hunt/Damarj and can be purchased from the Oriental canvases page if you are interested. I think all Beth Hunt canvases come with a stitch guide by Amy so you can recreate the effect yourself and learn something interesting from a master stitcher.

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

Ugly Scissors and a Goodbye

Yesterday didn't get off to a good start--it was raining (AGAIN-I swear that I am going to mildew!) and I got an email from Scarlet Thread--you remember the fun I had there just a couple of weeks ago, right?--saying that they are closing. Much weeping must be going on in the counted thread community in northern Virginia. The shop carries a huge variety of the overdyed cottons and silks that repo sampler and chart folks adore. I will miss it, myself, even though it was never my primary shop. I just hope the two needlepoint shops in the area (Needlewoman East and Waste Knot) take up some of the slack for my friends who love charts and history.

Some good things happened yesterday. I continued my Basketweave Marathon on Holi's background. I think a couple more days and she'll be finished! Hurrah! I love finishing one project and starting another, don't you?

I also heard about these Dovo scissors in Gay Ann Roger's cyber classroom in the Shining Needle Society. Gay Ann's students are mostly counted thread folks and may of them swear by Dovo scissors. No one here carries Dovos so I haven't seen them to give a review but judging from the technical skill of my fellow students, these are worth seeking out. These are called "ugly scissors" by Maxine. You can see why!

http://www.creweljewels.com/DOVO-3-5-Extra-Narrow-Curved-Scissors-p/30125.htm

I think I'll go work on my basketweave again and dream of new scissors instead of mourning a shop that is about to vanish. Things change, and not always for the better, but that is Life.

Hugs to all from CH-me

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

Our Intrepid Reporter Colleen

Needle Works of Austin's blog is posting photos of new items Collen the shop owner saw at the TNNA show and ordered. It's not always clear who designed what but given how tired the shop owners must be, I am surprised Colleen even managed to post news on her shop blog. But we are very glad she did!

http://theneedleworks.typepad.com/the_needle_works/2009/01/day-one-of-market-did-i-get-into-trouble.html

http://theneedleworks.typepad.com/the_needle_works/2009/01/cant-sleep.html

http://theneedleworks.typepad.com/the_needle_works/2009/01/more-marketmy-mind-has-been-racing-all-night.html

Keep up the good work!
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Videos and Cleveland and a Newsletter

How's this for a mish-mash of a blog posting! LOL

First of all, The Point of It All has a bunch of how to do needlepoint videos. I've seen them mentioned several places already but haven't had time to view them. I hope they are useful to you. One tip--turn the sound down or mute it before you click on the link.

http://www.monkeysee.com/play/11638-needlepoint

Are you from Cleveland or do you have friends for whom you'd enjoy stitching a Cleveland ornament? Wool and Willow has delightful souvenir ornaments of the city.

http://www.woolandwillow.com/Cleveland_landmarks.htm

Finally, Stitches in Time has a newsletter up that is fun to read. The link to it is at the top of this page. The Stitchers Gallery is full of finishing inspiration as well.

http://www.stitchesintimeneedlepoint.com/

Enjoy!


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

New Website, New Newsletter

Chaparral Needlepoint in Texas has revamped their website and also posted the Summer 2008 newsletter. The newsletter links are right under the box to sign up for the newsletter. You owe yourself a visit to check out the over-the-top finishing style they are famous for!

http://www.ndlept.com/

If there are two items in a photo, often you can see a larger photo of each separately by clicking on the one you want to study in a larger photo. The photograph above is from their 4 piece smaller canvas club series using Melissa Shirley's Circus Dogs designs.

The email I received announcing the newsletter mentions they have a shipment of Bohin needles from France. I am curious about these. Anyone used them?

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Shop News

Since it is so boring in CH right now (I didn't stitch last night, I moved furniture and cleaned last night in preparation for the new recliners arriving today), I thought you might like a little shop news.
First of all, Pocket Full of Stitches has photos of some of their stitched Mindy tree monthly club canvases up. These are called The Enchanted Forest.

http://www.pfos.com/OtherClubs/EnchantedForest/MindysEnchantedForestClub.htm

They also have updated their retreat pages to show off projects and dates of special events during the year.

http://www.pfos.com/Retreat/retreatpage1.htm

Chaparral has written to say the shop has been sold to Sally Anne Wilson who has already been working there. Although there is going to be some painting and rearranging of items, the shop will remain essentially unchanged. But Sally Anne has brought in some of her personal stash to sell at a nice price since her stitch time is going to go downhill rapidly now that she owns the place. If you are in the area, stop buy and say hello and browse. If you aren't local, check the website for a Canvas Works and Betty Smith trunk show.

http://www.ndlpt.com/

Do you know about Etsy? It's an online crafts emporium. Shakespeare's Peddler, a well known cross stitch shop in Mississippi, has opened an Etsy shop to sell charts and other items which have been discontinued or which she has only a few of/

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5637497

Now, I'm off to vacuum some more. Gotta get ready for the weekend when I plan to put my feet up and stitch-stitch-stitch!