And the Winner Is... UPDATED

I've heard about two of the ribbons given out at ANG's Milwaukee Seminar Exhibit. Rosalyn Cherry-Soleil won Best in Show as well as some other ribbons (I don't know which) for her Chinese Drama Masks by Leigh Designs. This is the piece featured in NP Now twice this year and it's on her website in the video she did about her work. You can see the video at the second link if you are interested.
http://www.stitchamaze.com/pieces-in-work/dramamasks.aspx

http://www.stitchamaze.com/about.aspx

And one of Brenda Hart's students (see below) won for a version of the Leigh's "Carnavale Fiona" mask. Here is the unstitched canvas so you can get an idea.
http://www.amybunger.com/catalog/item/6289632/6745549.htm

Congratulations to the winners and all the exhibiters. Wonderful needlework goes to the exhibit each year that doesn't win a ribbon but that wins the hearts of the exhibit goers.

UPDATE: Carole Lake kindly typed all the winners listed in the daily Seminar newsletter and sent them to me. She's not seen the exhibit yet but I am sure folks who are there will report in.

Category 1 Original
Non professional
1 Marla Frazier Flow Windmills and Waterwheels
2 Karen Garinger Sacramento
Hon. Mention Lee Ann Estep Monet's Pond

Professional
1 Roselle Hirschfelt The Breeze Some Water and a Wee Bit of Soap
HM Joan Thomasson Rainbow Connection
HM Marilyn Hall Fair Winds and Following Seas

Category 2 Adaptation
Non Prof
2 Carol Sylvester All the Difference

Professional
1 Joan Thomasson Creation Sampler In the Beginning
2 Phillip Bush Intimacy

Category 3 Independent Project
Non Prof
1 Maida Crown The Lily Quilt
2 Karen Garinger Hot Stuff
3 Dee Schlect The Hart where it Loves

Prof
1 Kathleen Brennan Patches
2 Barbara Hayden Cedar Fever
3 Pat Rusch The Sewing Chest of Nantucket Sister Sailor

HM Summer Louise Truswell Twister
HM Kathleen Brennan Twister


Category 4 Painted Design w/o stitch guide
Non Prof
1 Maureen Jahn Midtown Manhattan Christmas
2 Larry Block Or Nue Purse
3 Susan Beekman Santa Pops In

Prof
1 Rosalyn Cherry Soleil Chinese Drama Masks
2 Amy Bunger Nativity
3 Cynthia Thomas The House at Bitchy Witchy Hollow

Category 5 Paintd Design w stitch guide
Non prof
1 Vicky Lamers Fiona's Carnevale Mask
2 Evelyn Cavis Sweet Dreams
3 Shereen Ikeda Japanese Crane Scroll

HM Evelyn Cavins Dirty Boots
HM Susan Swan Anemones

Prof
1 Vicky DeAngelis Halloween Town

http://www.needlenookoflajolla.com/events/needledeeva/images/group2.jpg

3 Katherine Becker A Dozen Faberge Eggs

Category 6 Class Project
Non- prof
1 Neva Pruess Curved Intrigue with Border
2 Maxine Fulton Beautiful Birches
3 Faye Robinson Winter Whites

HM Kay Simonds Sweet Treats
HM Neva Pruess Mt Fuji Village
HM Irene Mast Mystery in Corner
HM Melinda Palmer Angulations

Special Awards

Creative Inspiration Joan Thomasson Creation Sampler
Wearable Art Larry Block Or Nue Purse
Small Masterpiece Carol Sylvester All the Difference
Silk and Metal Marily Hall Fair Winds and Following Seas
President's Choice Faye Robinson Winter Whites
Princess Grace Dee Schlect The Hart where it Loves
Sampler Karen Garinger Sacramento
Founders Award Neva Pruess Curved Intrigue w Border
Judges Award - Fishel Philip Bush Intimacy
Judges Award- Van Cleve Creation Sampelr
Judges Award- Halpin Rosalyn Cherry Soleil Chinese Drama Masks
Hilton Stitch Award Kathleen Brennan Patches
Christmas Award Amy Bunger Natifvity
First Time Exhibitor award Vicky Lamers Fiona's Carnevale Mask
Wisconsin State Award Maida Crown The Lily Quilt
Milwaukee Award Amanda Wood Venetian Delight
Best in Show Rosalyn Cherry Soleil Chinese Drama Masks

Thank you VERY much, Carole!

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

Try, Try Again

Over the weekend I decided that although I liked both my black tent stitches (Splendor silk) and my couched Silk N Colours (in Seafoam Green; you can see the skein above next to the canvas) held down by a strand of clear Accentuate, they didn't look good together. So I spent a lot of time deciding what stitch would look great with my black tent stitches. The above is what I came up with--just long stitches laid carefully to meet in the middle of large areas and to cover small areas. The overdyed colors of Seafoam Green look very much like the shading of the painted canvas so I am quite happy.

What do you think?

By the way, I did another round of May stitches on Glittering Kimono. I think I am half finished with one side of the jacket trim. One cuff is finished, too. So I have to rip out the mistake in the other cuff and finish it, then complete the first side of the jacket. After that I will have to work on the other side of the jacket edge and then tackle the top around the collar. I'm leaving the most complicated part to last you see. That'll give me lots of practice doing this stitch.

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

Purple Versus Black

I worked a bit on the H-Q row of couched stitches for Glittering Kimonos last night, kept going by my mental debate over which stitch would look best in the black areas of my "fabric" side of South Seas Fiji.

I tried knotted stitch (the stitch used on the large Cape Cod Dogs) and padded tent stitch (which is just a long length of thread laid diagonally across an area and then covered in tent stitches) and thought about more couching (shudder). I considered interlocking Goblein but finally ended up using basketweave and a few continental stitches in the black area as you see above.

My tent stitches are done with two plies of Splendor silk in black S801 which gave me a velvety black surface that wasn't too thick. I tested both Impressions (a silk/wool blend) and Baroque Silk (a silk perle that can be plied into three parts) and decided those were really too dimensional. I like the slight sheen of Splendor anyway. The other two threads have a sheen also but you need a longer stitch than a tent stitch to see it in Baroque Silk in my opinion and Impressions doesn't have quite as much shine as Splendor. After all, Impressions is 50% wool.

I didn't get a lot done last night in the black areas as I also couched another 2-3 sections of the sea green with my overdyed Thread Gatherer's silk. It looks very pretty but is tedious to do.

In the photo above I've laid out two grape colored threads so you can see what the black areas are supposed to be painted to look like. (On the left is Splendor S1026 and on the right Gloriana Grape.) They are very pretty with the colors of the design but I still prefer my black patches.

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

Back in Fiji

My experiment at alternating projects (Cape Cod Dogs and South Seas Fiji) didn't work too well. When I started Cape Cod Dogs I was finishing up my little Leigh ornament of the Chinese red dragon Ch'ing and could alternate between the concentration needed for Ch'ing and the boring basketweave of the border around Cape Cod Dogs. Once I started South Seas Fiji while Cape Cod Dogs was well underway, I had to think on both pieces.

Obviously this overloaded my brain power and I put South Seas Fiji away. Now that Cape Cod Dogs is done (I'm still looking for the perfect tote bag to put it on, though) I am ready to pick up where I left off on South Seas Fiji. I think I can do a set of May couching stitches on the Glittering Kimono mystery project each night and once that is done, work on South Seas Fiji. The best laid plans rarely work out the way you think they will but we are flexible here at Blog and will try juggling two projects again since Glittering Kimono has a repetitive section to tackle that I want to take in small steps to avoid mistakes.

Because it was early July when I started South Seas Fiji, I'm going to repeat what I said about it then below. You also need to remember that I have a copy of this design that is not standard. The black areas on my canvas are supposed to be grape. Leigh thought she caught and destroyed all the mistakenly painted ones and offered to replace it, but I like my unique and special black version. Besides, I can always put some grape thread on the black leaves to see if I like the effect and switch colors if I like the color by stitching with a dark grape-colored thread. Here is what Fiji is supposed to look like. This link shows all the South Seas ornaments in case you are curious.

http://www.leighdesigns.com/Grp825x.html

I've posted a photo of my progress to date above. Remember, I've only stitched part of the right side. Nothing else has been started yet.

Ok, I'm quoting myself here, just to bring everyone up to date:
If you hang out at vintage clothing and fabric stores, you'll be familiar with barkcloth. I always associated it with the 1940s but a quick search showed me that it was popular in the 1950s-1970s. Barkcloth is a heavy (upholstry weight) cotton fabric that is slightly ribbed. It was used for curtains, pilows and casual chair coverings when I was a child and gave a tropical feel to a room. In my area I see the vintage fabric recycled into tote bags and pillows. Here is a fabric site with a good selection of reproduction fabric in typical patterns.
http://www.jandofabrics.com/products.asp?id=18&PageIndex=2&PageSize=12&viewall=True

When I looked at my Leigh South Seas Dynasty ornament (the original unstitched canvas is shown in the left column), barkcloth was what I thought of. Doesn't the right side of the ornament look like fabric to you? The areas that aren't black have washes of color on top of the sea green NP canvas. I don't want to loose that shading and I want to make this look slightly ribbed so I choose to lay long stitches horizontally across just the green areas with one ply of Thread Gatherer's Seaform Green (a sea green-blue-olive green mix). These stitches do not cover the black areas. I will handle them differently.

The photo above shows what I have done so far. I am busy couching down the silk with Accentuate 331 which is an opalescent white. The couching stitches are in a sort of brick stitch pattern, which is often referred to as Burden Stitch. It's slow going. I have to make sure I don't mess up the pattern as I jump from area to area. I started work by doing one long vertical line of couching stitches across the widest part of the area that covered as many green spots as possible. Now I'm working each section based off that. You have to be careful not to pull the couching stitches too tightly or the long horizontal stitches are pulled out of straight lines.

It's not only basketweave that is slow and boring stitching!

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

Barbie Plus Jonathan Equals Needlepoint

I've been chuckling over the Barbie inspired needlepoint pieces that Jonathan Adler is creating this year. Ruth Schmuff tells the story better than I do on her blog.

http://www.tistheseason.org/blog/2009/08/barbie-goes-needlepoint.html

Jonathan Adlar's needlepoint pillows are always graphic and fun, although as Ruth says, we could stitch them in a more interesting way. If you are curious about his other housewares, always tongue-in-cheek and fun, read this profile. There's a bit about his needlepoint but the article is more about his ceramics. I love the three white ceramic hands in the photograph!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/fashion/27CRITIC.html?_r=1

If you are more a Barbie fan than an interior designer, not to worry--I have something just for you to read. There are photos of the Barbie needlepoint, too!

http://www.shelterpop.com/2009/08/27/barbie-and-jonathan-adler-a-match-made-in-heaven/

This last URL has links to the real Barbie Malibu beach house which you can see in a slide show or on YouTube. The video has Jonathan Adler as your tour guide.

In other Non-Barbie news, I did another two sets of the H through Q couched rows of the May stitch on the Glittering Kimono piece last night. That is about an inch of the trim along the edge of the jacket. It takes me around 45 minutes and is about all I can do without starting to get confused. So I'm going to start doing a set of H-Q rows each night and then will put the piece down to stitch South Seas Fiji.

I won't have the Glittering Kimono caught up by September 1st when the September stitch for this mystery project is supposed to be posted on the ANG website but I just can't get it done before then, not with constant interruptions and being tired at the end of a long day.

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