I finally made time to watch the eighth (and latest) DVD in Amy Bunger's "How'd You Do That?" series of programs about needlepoint stitching this Thanksgiving. Amy's webmaster Robin sent me this DVD and #7 (The Ins and Outs of Needle Weaving) a few weeks ago to review for Blog readers. Many thanks to both Robin and Amy!
This DVD has Kelly Clark on it but not in a teaching role. Amy does all the teaching this time. Her topics cover raised spider stitches, ribbed woven stem stitch, ribbon roses and stitches like Jessicas, Waffle Stitches and Herringbone Strap Stitch that end by being woven under previous stitches. I thought I understood raised spider stitches until I watched this DVD and discovered all the variations possible!
Like all her DVDs, this one has great close-ups of the stitches being taught and lots of examples of finished pieces to look at. Again, like all of Amy's DVDs, the finished canvases are credited at the end by designer and stitcher in case you fall in love with a design.
Amy covers round, oval, donut, and crescent shapes covered by raised spider techniques. She shows you mistakes to watch for and explains how to do various raised spider stitches if you are left-handed instead of right-handed. She talks about various padding materials you can use to create even more dimensional raised spiders. You will see a great many examples of finished stitching (shells, wagon wheels, olives, buttons, flowers and even horns on sheep) that use the techniques she teaches, and you will learn just how and where to anchor your stitches so that you don't distort your canvas by these techniques. It's a very thorough examination of spider and woven stitches that even tells you how to compensate when the thread you want to use is very thin or very thick.
This DVD is an excellent follow-up to DVD #7's needleweaving lessons. I would recommend buying both of them if you are interested in learning everything possible about woven stitches of all kinds. Still, this is a somewhat esoteric technique. These two DVDs don't have the mass appeal that earlier DVDs that talk about stitching clothing, or hair or fur do. On the other hand, I learned a great deal about woven stitches and where to use them that I did not know before I watched the program. And if you purchase both #7 and #8, you will have just two places to learn about woven stitches instead of having to look up the techniques in dozens of places. That's probably why I never realized that there are so many variations on raised spiders: I'd never seen them all in one place before.
This is a qualified Buy, as it is an important resource on spider stitches that can be used in lots of areas on embellished needlepoint pieces, but perhaps not the DVD you should buy if you can only afford one or two of Amy's. I'd also recommend buying both #7 and #8 if you are really interested in these types of stitches.
If you want to see the entire list of Amy Bunger DVDs available, check her website.
http://www.amybunger.com/DVDs.html
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
