In Need of Inspiration?

Are you in need of Inspiration? Then run--don't walk!--to the Stitchamaze website and sign up for the e-newsletter. Perhaps inspired by the writing she is doing for Needlepoint Now magazine, Rosalyn Cherry-Soliel is sending out a newsletter packed with links, information and photos of her current projects, and planning to release a DVD about her work next summer. Whether you plan to tackle canvas collage or not, you will love reading about her art needlepoint.
http://www.stitchamaze.com/joinmailing.aspx

If your inspiration needs different food, how about reading Mary Corbet's review of Embroidered Flora and Fauna?
http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/03/embroidered-flora-fauna-book-review.html

Are you a threadaholic or bitten by the History Bug? Then you will want to seek out the Spring 2009 issue of Sampler and Antique Quarterly.
http://thistle-threads.com.mytempweb.com/blog/index.php/2009/03/article-on-gilt-silk-twist/

Finally, if you just need eye candy in your life, try searching Flickr. Type in flowers or Siamese cats or landscapes or toys or anything else that catches your fancy and explore the photographs folks have published publicly on that topic. I am using Flickr for inspiration for the flowers that will cover Holi's halo eventually.
http://www.flickr.com/

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

Nifty Tools

Yesterday was pretty blah in CH. The weather was lousy (cool, overcast, damp, dark, etc.) and I worked on the tent stitch background behind the pet guardian angel dog Holi. Nothing worth mentioning.

But there was a surprise in my mailbox! A friend sent me one of the above. It's called a Snag Nab-It and it is intended to grab snagged yarn ends and return them to the back side of that pretty sweater you just knit/bought/wore. I could have used it Monday instead of my crochet hook on my chenille cowl neck sweater with two slight snags on the sleeve.

If you can't tell from the picture, the Snag Nab-It is a long needle (it's about the diameter of a size 18 tapestry needle, but much longer) without an eye on the rear end. Instead, it has grooves to catch a snag and pull it back into place. The person who sent it to me hoped I could use it on the misbehaving tied off ends of my rayon threads on Holi. I certainly will get good use of it there!

Here's an online photo. These things run between $2-$2.50 USD so shop around.
http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?PRODID=prd10300&AID=1489912&PID=2187177&SID=Aa5zAASjFrg24SrxKPRxG2SGu6ywPQOd

Speaking of unusual tools, how about the bead spinner that Sue Dulle mentioned on her blog? Here it is in action. I want to buy one just to watch it!
http://www.beadspinner.net/page/page/3437207.htm

Do you use any unusual tools in your needlepoint? Comment below or email me at chilly hollowat hotmail dotcom and I'll report about it for you.

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

The Gingerbread House Series

Squiggee has just posted photos of all her gingerbread houses on her blog. I had no idea there were so many! I have always loved the blue and white Snow & Ice House, but you might prefer the log cabin, the castle, the pepermint stick house, the barn, one of the two Halloween houses, or maybe the thatched cottage or one of the fairy houses. Or one of the others....
http://squiggeedesigns.blogspot.com/2009/03/gingerbread-houses.html

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

Finally There Are Flowers

I've been dropping very large hints that Holi would have flowers somewhere on her person and last night I finally arrived at a point where I could start adding them. When I first saw the set of six pet guardian angels, I thought they should hold something in their paws. I didn't have a clue what until Holi started to evolve in my mind. The colors she wears were originally sparked by a photo of crepe paper flowers, after all. Since Holi celebrates those flowers and the Indian Festival of Holi (color), it seemed appropriate to add folk art style flowers on her halo and in one paw. She holds my interpretation of the hibiscus that has a third bud opening here in CH this morning. The center of the flower is 4-5 pink French knots in my pink Trebizond, surrounded by petals in the orange Panache and red Patina and a touch of the same red medium silk perle by Gloriana that makes up the braid on her sleeve in a French knot next to the pink ones. Folk art flowers are shaded with bright colors, after all. I used these two sources which both have images of Mexican floral embroidery for inspiration.

http://alliesinstitches.blogspot.com/2009/01/oaxacan-embroidery.html

http://worldembroideries.blogspot.com/2009/01/huipul-from-central-america.html

Holi's halo has one lazy daizy flower so far, done in a bit of the red Patina which I unraveled (Patina is a rayon perle thread) from the strand and then made petals from. The red center is a fake bullion in the red Gloriana perle. To make fake bullions, tie a knot in your perle thread (it doesn't work for any other type of thread than perle), come up, pull on one part of the perle and slide the other bits down to the canvas, thread up the ends of the unraveling perle again and tie off on the back. Easy!

The fake bullion technique is adapted from something the thread magician David McCaskill taught us on the ANG email list. Thanks, David!

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