Finally We Have a Finished Fish

Here is the Baroque Fish Household Pet Guardian Angel, finished and ready to swim in her watery glory!

I especially love her halo and the beautiful little boxey stitch on her skirt, which like most of the stitches for these angels I've never seen before. Even if you don't want to stitch a pet guardian angel of your own, you can use these unusual stitches, most of them small in scale, elsewhere. I also love the gradual change of her skirt from the Caribbean blue at the bottom to the watery green near her waist.

Thank you, Kandy! This one turned out great. Now I need to turn my attention to finishing this weekend. And yes, I'm going to stitch the Renaissance Rat next.

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

Do You Love a Good Mystery?

The reason I asked is that ANG's website has posted the line drawing for the 2009 Stitch of the Month project. It's a stylized patchwork kimono and obi sash with mandarin collar! You are supposed to print out the line drawing to transfer to your canvas, and then pick an overdye with three colors for the project without knowing really what it will look like in the end as none of the stitches that go in each area have been revealed yet. That is the mystery.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2009/jan.php

Note that you need to click on the line drawing and numbered diagram to get larger images to print out, then enlarge the line drawing 200% on a copy machine to get a line drawing that is 8 ¾ inches wide by 10 ½ tall at the tallest/widest points. You may have to enlarge the drawing a bit more than 200% to get the right sized line drawing to put on a 14x14 inch piece of 18 count canvas. Printers can print slightly larger/smaller depending on the printer's settings.

If the idea of transferring a line drawing onto NP canvas has you breaking out into a cold sweat, visit my Yahoo 360 blog and see how I do it. Easy as loosing your favorite scissors!
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-7rjKEjEyc6.dskPWsp8S8mzUleA-?cq=1&tag=tracing-outline

Why do you want to do this? Well, the designer is the fabulously talented teacher Tony Minieri. Joey explains--with illustrations--why you want to study under the man known as The Headmaster.
http://journeywithjoeyb.blogspot.com/2008/04/tony-minieri.html

Janet Perry has blogged a bit about Tony himself and also done two blog entries that discuss choosing colors from your stash and choosing colors based on an overdyed thread to help you get started.
http://www.nuts-about-needlepoint.com/?p=1558

http://www.nuts-about-needlepoint.com/?p=1560

http://www.nuts-about-needlepoint.com/?p=1563

I've heard that ANG's Cyberpointers online chapter is considering stitching this together. You will have to join the chapter to participate, assuming they actually vote to do this project together, but anyone who already belongs can vote for doing the project and participate in the discussion.

I'll probably be stitching this myself on Blog, using congress cloth. So if you want to tackle this mystery project, you are going to have plenty of help in cyberspace.

Time to pick an overdye with three separate colors, find a piece of 14 inch square eighteen-count NP canvas that coordinates with your colors, start looking for a variety of threads in those colors, and print out that line drawing!

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

In Stump's Honor

You may not be into dogs or know that the Westminster dog show was this week and the winner was a ten year old Sussex spaniel. You may enjoy the story, however.

1=39002">http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/9205684/'Stump'-wins-Westminster-show-as-oldest-dog?MSNHPHCP>1=39002


To keep this on-topic, the photo above is a stitched Sussex spaniel from Pegasus, which specializes in dog charts.

http://www.pegasusor.com/detail.cfm?ID=656

I also particularly like this stitched pillow of a spaniel. It's probably a cocker spaniel but it does look a bit like Stump's pretty reddish brown coat.

http://www.richardrothstein.com/spaniel-pumpkins-needlepoint-pillow-pilct2205.html

Many, many folks do painted canvas dog portraits. Here's a small sample of painted canvases and kits. Google any designer name with "dogs" and "needlepoint" and see if you can find your favorites.

http://www.needlepointheaven.com/dog-needlepoint.html


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

Anchor Update

I posted a message to the ANG list about Anchor discontinuing some colors in their line of pearl cottons and received some information from various folks there I should mention. Elizabeth from Dames of the Needle mentioned that "Presencia will be coming out with pearl cottons in their line that will match the colors being discontinued. While there may be dye lot differences these colors will be around, but produced by another company. They were announcing the addition to the pearl cotton line at the San Diego TNNA show."

Here is the Presencia website. This is a Spanish thread under the brand name Finca, but it's available in the U.S. and you can order directly from their website.
http://www.presenciausa.com/

Eileen from Ridgewood Needlepoint mentioned Anchor is basically dropping their #3 pearl weight threads, which is the fattest perle cotton. Some colors from the other sizes of their perle cottons are being discontinued but the real impact is on those who need the #3 Anchor perle cottons. So check your stash and any projects you plan on stitching in the future to see if this impacts you.

Many thanks to Eileen, Elizabeth and of course Denise for bringing this up in the first place. Our shop owners and designers are THE BEST!

Denise owns Threadneedle Street.
http://www.threadneedlestreet.com/

Eileen owns Ridgewood Needlepoint.
http://www.ridgewoodneedlepoint.com/

Elizabeth owns Dames of the Needle. Visit them all and have fun browsing!
http://www.damesoftheneedle.com/

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

Needlepoint News

I've got many tidbits of news for today. First (and most importantly), Denise at Threadneedle Street has posted a list of all the Anchor perle cotton threads with the colors which are being discontinued on her website. If you need any of the Anchor perle cottons, check Denise's list and buy the ones that will disappear ASAP. Denise says she has many customers who are just realizing that Medici has been discontinued and can't find the colors they need. Don't let this happen to you with Anchor perle cottons! Again, none of the Anchor floss colors are being discontinued. This just applies to some of the perle cotton colors which they will no longer make. Here is the website page, which links to a PDF file. Thanks for looking out for us stitchers, Denise!
http://www.threadneedlestreet.com/AnchorPearl.html

Chaparral's e-newsletter announced that they have three new clubs joining the current Merry Christmas series which spells out the words in sparkly letters. They are going to do the Kelly Clark Nativity series of thirteen canvases (there are three other pieces in the series which are optional), a set of Staffordshire houses (based on the Staffordshire china houses I suppose) finished with velvet roofs, and a mini-series of Melissa Shirley's Valentine postcard kids similar to the old fashioned Halloween and Christmas series from the last two years. None of this is shown on their website yet but if you live in Texas close to the shop, you can see some models on display. Watch this area of their website for more information late this month--
http://www.ndlpt.com/html/series.html

Nordic Needle has posted wonderful information about SuZy Murphy's newest book, SuZy's Mini Stitches. I've been wondering just what was in this book so I was delighted to see a photo of the cover and read a description of the contents.
http://www.nordicneedle.com/PROD/1385.html

Finally, the American Needlepoint Guild has started their 2009 Stitch of the Month program. This year the design is from Tony Minieri. You can see Glittering Kimono on the ANG website. The design is posted now along with the list of threads you will need. You are to trace the line drawing on your canvas and then starting at the end of this month, the stitches that go in each section will be revealed. It's a fun departure of the more usual way this has worked, with the design not appearing until December after you've had a chance to master the eleven monthly stitches shown before the unveiling of the design.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2009/jan.php

On a more personal note, I'm still stitching away on my Baroque Fish from the Household Pet Guardian Angel series but I'm pretty busy in my real life so I'm not getting much done. Of course, you aren't too interested in seeing my background basketweave progress anyway! I will post a photo when everything is finished up.

So stay tuned. Lots of fun stuff going on in cyberspace, even if the most excitement in my house these days is getting the taxes done.

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