Road Trip! (July 2009 Chilly Hollow Newsletter Article)

It is summertime! If you are staying home this summer like me, you can still visit various needlepoint landmarks via the shop reports summer travelers are posting on the Internet.

Let's visit The Needlepointer in Washington State first.
http://squiggeedesigns.blogspot.com/2009/07/squiggee-saysthe-needlepointercool.html

Threadneedle Street is in Washington also.
http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/07/threadneedle-street-in-issaquah.html

Needle in a Haystack is in California...
http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/07/next-stop-needle-in-haystack-alameda-ca.html

...as is Lacis.
http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/07/last-needlework-stop-lacis-in-berkeley.html

And finally, here's Nordic Needle, in North Dakota.
http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/07/nordic-needle-in-fargo-north-dakota.html

I wish we'd all been on this road trip! All of these shops are famous among Internet stitchers. To see them in person would be wonderful but pictures and reviews are the next best thing.

By the way, since it is July, you can celebrate Christmas in July by treating yourself to the Needlepoint Bargello Christmas Ornaments e-book found here.
http://bargelloneedlepoint.com/get-your-copy-of-the-bargello-needlepoint-christmas-ornament-series-ebook/


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

783,919 Pages Views at Yahoo 360

Sometime yesterday Yahoo 360 shut its doors. When I go to the URL, I get a message directing me to the Yahoo Profile where old content is archived. It's no substitute for a real blog and I can't see posting things there as there is no easy way to navigate. If it was the record of my life in high school, it wouldn't matter but Yahoo Profiles don't work for me now.

Sad to see it go, however. The last count I was able to take was 783,919 page views and there are 400-800 page views a day right up to the end, down from 1200-2000 page views in the wintertime when more people seem to read Blog.

I hope all those folks know where to go now and can read Blog!

The photo above is a close up of the cactus flower that bloomed last night on the front porch. The plant itself is over five and a half feet tall now and at least 30 years old. It bloomed for the first time last year. The flowers open at night and close the next morning. I am testing a new photo format so this is a test but I thought you might enjoy seeing such transient beauty. By lunchtime the flower will have closed and started to shrivel up. In a few days it will fall off the plant, leaving a cluster of three needle-sharp spines behind.

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

The Final Two Pet Guardian Angels

The last two pet guardian angels arrived in Chilly Hollow today and were photographed, then wrapped up and put in the box that will deliver them all to the ANG Auction Chairman for the fall auction in Milwaukee.

The last ones are very special. They are two originals stitched by Kandace Merric, the designer of the original set who not only kindly gave permission for me to share the out-of-print instructions with stitchers for the ANG fund raiser, but who out of the blue volunteered to stitch two completely new angels to be sold at auction also. You'll notice that these two angels have blue Medici wool backgrounds like the original six and that they are finished with blue silk moire backgrounds instead of the felt the other Auction angels wear on the back. I want them to stand out from the angels stitched by volunteers so that the lucky auction winner knows these are the originals!

Above is the 20th Century pet guardian angel, a sugar glider dressed in Art Deco robes. Here is a second photo of her before finishing. The color is a little more true and more details are visible. Doesn't she have the sweetest face?!

This is the 21st Century Gecko pet guardian angel, dressed in stitches and threads meant to evoke space and the metal and plastic outfits astronauts wear. I wish you could see the delicate silver stars and see the gentle sparkle of the ecru trim, standup collar and fancy sleeve decoration on this angel. It is beautifully stitched. In the background you see the sugar glider's back side, just to give you a flavor of how beautifully finished these two pet guardian angels are.

Here is a photo of the gecko before finishing, which shows off the stars a bit better.

Aren't these amazing? If you would like to see all the pet guardian angels destined for the auction, click on the photo of Needlepoint Plus magazine on the left. The original set are also shown. I can't thank Kandace Merric enough for her support for this project. When I mail off the angels tomorrow I will be a bit sad to see them go but they are going to raise funds for ANG and show off the dedication and stitching skills of the volunteers who made them and the wonderful designs that Kandy created for our stitching pleasure.

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

Thoughts for the Day UPDATED

Blogs are great places to post your opinions and receive feedback from others who care about the same things you do. These blog entries from other stitch-bloggers have important topics for us to read and ponder. First, here is what one new shop owner says about needlepoint magazines.

http://rittenhouseneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-issue-of-needlepoint-now.html

My new Needlepoint Now magazine just arrived. The new format is becoming clear. There are new columnists, a new emphasis on publishing stitch guides for painted canvases which one can buy in the local shop and then stitch via the printed guide, and guides to new products and books as usual. I am a bit wary of totally abandoning line drawn designs in favor of charted pieces (although the Carole Lake/Tony Gerdes design is very clever!) and stitch guides for painted canvases which folks have to buy, however beautiful (and that Melissa Shirley flower purse is to die for!). I like the free-form line drawings one can fill with any color or stitch as I think that encourages creativity.

Speaking of any stitch, here is a new designer's take on where the emphasis on fancy stitches is taking us.

http://needlepoint.storeblogs.com/2009/07/13/the-fancy-stitch-monster

UPDATE: Marianne explains herself more here.
http://needlepoint.storeblogs.com/2009/07/14/iconoclast-me

I love fancy stitches myself, although I did do a piece entirely in tent stitches last summer. Remember that? It is surprisingly hard to do an all basketweave piece with even tension if you are constantly changing colors and thread types. I think the fancy stitches are easier for novices to execute well, but maybe I'm wrong. When you are looking at NP from the perspective of 21 years' stitch experience, you are not really understanding the beginner's problems.

Does anyone else think that what Marianne and Stephen are talking about is a return to the basics in needlepoint? I do know that what we online needlepointers do often has no relationship to the bulk of needlepointers who haven't discovered the online world we live in. There are even shops which discourage the use of stretcher bars, using anything except plastic canvas for a beginning project, only sell Paternayan wool, etc. Of course there are stitchers who deliberately only tent stitch designs but that is their preference, not something imposed on them because they and their shop don't know anything else!

It dawned on me after reading Ruth Schmuff's blog entry (link below) that although I use a lot of tent stitches on projects, I also use a great many fancy (and expensive!) threads. A personal challenge may be for me to blog-stitch something entirely in DMC cotton, something that isn't expensive for a beginner to try. Something along the lines of the outlined Sundance lady in a shawl project I did three summers ago to show how to fake expensive overdyes using DMC cotton....

http://www.tistheseason.org/blog/2009/07/new-stitchers.html

Now, something we all can agree on--

http://needleprint.blogspot.com/2009/07/support-your-needlework-store.html

I'd love to hear your thoughts on any or all of the above!

Jane, sending hugs to all stitchers everywhere from CH

UPDATE #2: The designer Barbara Bergsten adds her thoughts on her blog.
http://createneedlepoint.typepad.com/create_needlepoint/2009/07/decorative-needlepoint-stitches.html

UPDATE #3: Margaret adds her own thoughts to the discussion. Anyone else?
http://cranecottage.com/stitchingblog/?p=1136

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

Beer and Cookie

This weekend I made Nancy's Tudor Dog (Schnauzer) up into an ornament. Cookie is in the photo above. Isn't she pretty? You probably can't see the subtle pink and blue overdye color in the metallic threads but it adds a great deal to the delicate look of her clothing. She's a handsome dog!

There are two more pet guardian angels on the way to me. Kandace Merric has designed two new angels, one for the 20th Century and one for the 21st. I can't wait to see them!

While I wait I'm still stitching beer bottles. I've started adding other fibers to the metallics I started with. See the yellow bottle on the top row? Its label is stitched in yellow silk so that it looks a bit duller than the glass bottle. I've also added vertical and horizontal straight stitches across the tent stitches on some bottles, like the big black and blue bottle to the right of the yellow bottle. It has tent stitches in medium blue metallic topped by long horizontal stitches in navy blue metallic. Since I used only two plies of my Bijoux and Accentuate, the painted area shows a bit, giving this bottle some real depth. See the glass sitting on the bar near the dog's paw? I stitched that with long stitches in Water n Ice (the original clear color). Does it look like glass to you?

More later. I want to get back to South Seas Fiji.

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