Look What Jane Did

I've been busy writing a stitch guide for Squiggee's little goldfish canvas. You can buy the canvas (the stitch guide comes with it) from Gail Hendrix's eBay store or at any needlepoint shop.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250293634199&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=015

You can also find it by looking through Squiggeeland's eBay store.

http://stores.ebay.com/Squiggeeland-Needlepoint

Of course if you were paying attention here, you could just have followed along as I stitched, but sometimes it is nice to have everything organized in one place in hard copy.

Particularly if you are evacuating from the path of a hurricane! Stay safe, everyone!!!!

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

Who Am I?

Nancy C. left a message over at the Yahoo 360 Blog location saying she would welcome more personal information. Sorry, Nancy, it took me close to two years to feel comfortable posting a photo of myself here. All I really want to say is that I am a tad obsessed with needlepoint and I am talkative, which I think you can pretty much figure out for yourselves!

I have a friend who reveals everything about himself, his wife and child on his blog which is read by easily half a million folks each day (and many more on big news days). I can't do that. Perhaps it is a generational thing. Folks in their mid-30s and under do this all the time on Facebook and other social sites. But I need my privacy.

Guess I could point out that my personality leaks out through everything I write, through the designs I choose to stitch, though the books I read and review, and the stitching products and websites that catch my eye.

Otherwise, let's just call me the International Woman of Mystery!

I'm hiding behind the Leigh Designs canvas called Allegra above, by the way.

http://www.rebeccascrafts.com/detail.cfm?ID=6419

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

A Frog for the Wizard

"Frogs" are the knot closures you see on clothing. Here is a large selection, all quite fancy.

http://www.voguefabricsstore.com/store/catalog/Chinese-Frog-Closures-orderby0-p-1-c-182.html

I wanted to create a frog for the outside of the Joan Thomasson wizard's blue robe. These are a bit too fancy as the area I'm working in is quite small but you get the idea.

Using two of my Sweetheart Tree paillettes and a bit of my blue Accentuate, I stitched down the paillettes as if they were buttons, one on either side of the edge of the robe, coming up in the center hole and going down at the edge three times with each stitch spaced equally. These tiny stitches are almost invisible because the Accentuate is thin and the same blue as the background stitches.


By the way, this stitch is a mosaic variation from Brenda Hart's first book. Now you know why ANG just gave her the Literary Award for 2008!

In the close-up photo on the right you can see everything a bit better. The second step was for me to connect the two paillettes with two strands of silver Petite Treasure Braid. I had real trouble with color here. The background of the robe is blue so all the pretty blue metallics I chose for this area disappeared into the background. I tried purple but that was too strong against blue, so I ended up with silver threads. I had thought I might do the gold trim in blue the same way the silver and lilac trim is handled on the purple under-robe but I think now I've locked myself into using silver. Blue trim won't look as good as silver would now that my frog is silver.

There are a ton of ways to create frogs. You can couch elaborate shapes like the samples on the Vogue page, you can use lazy daisy knots connected by a straight line, you can use tiny buttons or sequins or paillettes like I did here. A lot depends on the canvas you have and the space you have to work with. Our wizard has a simple frog but he's a simple guy.

I stitched a few silver stars on his robe with my Petite Treasure Braid after I took the photo above. I am not sure I like them so I will look at them again when it's daylight and see what I think.

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

Buttons, Beads and Charms

When the counted thread shop only 30 minutes from me put everything on sale as they closed, I realized just how many buttons, charms and beads that counted thread and cross stitch designers offer these days.

I knew about Just Another Button Company, but I had no idea their line was so large and varied!

http://www.justanotherbuttoncompany.com/catalog.php

My very favorite buttons come from Susan Clarke Originals.

http://www.susanclarkeoriginals.com/

Just Nan has a huge number of charms for her designs that work well anywhere.

http://www.justnan.com/charms.htm

The Sweetheart Tree has even more, many of them sterling silver, small and quite delicate. In fact, I own several packages of crystal clear paillettes and plan to use some on the wizard's clothes. My paillettes are very small (they cover about 3 threads on an 18 count canvas at most), faceted on the front like sequins but with flat backs covered in paper to help the metallic shine.

http://www.sweethearttree.com/cgi-bin/charm.pl

But more about that tomorrow!

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

Even More Monthly Clubs

I'm still reading my Needlepoint Now and still discovering more monthly clubs. We'll get NC Pat to spend $$ on one of these surely! LOL

Krazy Kat Fiberhaus is offering The Thirteen Days of Christmas from Renaissance Designs with the stitch guides from Pamela Harding. Only two of the canvases are shown, but if you click on the photo you'll get a much better view. The second link shows what are probably --but only maybe!-- all the designs from this set.

http://www.krazykatfiberhaus.com/?p=26

http://www.renaissanceneedlepoint.com/dozen/n144.html

Little Shoppe of Stitches is into baking in a big way. Their newest club is called Gingerbread Buddies. Click on the thumbnail and you can see 8 of the cookies all decorated for your stitching pleasure. Click on the second link for the whole set. Thumbnail photos there give an even better view of a single cookie. Yum!

http://store.littleshoppeofstitches.com/lishcacl.html

http://store.littleshoppeofstitches.com/gingerbreadmen.html

Needles and Threads of Ruxton has what they call "The Original Stitch and Bitch" club. It's all colorful canvases of dogs stitching (and one Siamese cat). Sadly there are no photos or information on their website but you can call and ask for photos.

http://www.needlesandthreadsofruxton.com/index.php

Needleworks in Austin has a Susan Roberts nutcracker series which is notable for the interesting clothing the nutcrackers wear and the fact that there are female nutcrackers, something I rarely see. Indulge your inner Nutcracker Ballet here.

https://secure.theneedleworks.com/new.html#2009

Old World Designs is going to start Melissa Shirley's little Christmas candy canes in October. They look good enough to eat! This is a class, not a monthly club, but you might talk them into selling you the stitch guide and the canvases for your own private club experience. This shop offers a lot of "canvas-to-go" projects which can be adapted to your own club as well (second link below).

http://oldworlddesigns.com/Candy_Canes.html

http://oldworlddesigns.com/classprojects.html

Stitches From the Heart has releaves sixteen small Jean Hilton Christmas ornaments in a set of two chart booklets. Again, this is not a monthly club per se, but you can easily do this as a monthly series at home using threads from your stash. It's like inviting Jean over once a month to talk about needlepoint! There are no pictures except in the ad so call for details. You can see other Jean Hilton designs here--and contact information is conveniently located at the top of the page. No excuses not to buy, Pat, in other words. LOL

http://www.stitches-heart.com/jeanhilton/


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