Need a Kit? Or a Magazine?

There are some fabulous kits (canvas, threads and stitch guide) available these days.  Remember the Floozies from Leigh Designs?  ThreadworX has done stitch guides that come with a thread pack for the first of the series and plans to stitch them all. Here's Alehouse Annie.  I want to go out partying with her!
http://threadworx.com/floozies

Terry Dryden has many of her teaching kits for sale. I've seen Whirlygig in person and it is fabulous!  Please note that Terry adds new kits to this page periodically so bookmark it to revisit occasionally.
http://www.terrydryden.com/gallery-of-designs-for-sale/

Stitchery Square has several Barbara Elmore kits for sale at 10 percent off.  I don't know if the prices on this page include the 10 percent or not.  You'll have to ask.
http://www.stitching.com/stitcherysquare/newfeatures.html

Jody Adams has quite a few copies of old Needlepoint Now magazines for sale at her Etsy store.  Most are $7 each (plus shipping and NYS tax if you live there), which is more than they usually go for on eBay but you may want an issue you haven't been able to find there.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/JODYdirect?section_id=6574942

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

Stars: Marlon Brando Block Done

How do you like Marlon?  I finished the block itself last night.  The rice stitch borders proved unexpectedly easy once I realized that each  corner and the two flanking triangles were stitched as a unit.  I'd tell anyone about to stitch Marlon to remember to turn your canvas so that each corner is in the same position as the chart in the book before you stitch, however.  It is really easy to get the positioning wrong if your canvas isn't oriented the same way as the diagram.

The colors gave me fits, though.  Tony asks folks to lay down the foundation, then tie the corners of the rice stitch crosses with four shades of crewel wool in color B. (He used Appleton crewel.)  My color B is black so getting four shades of black wasn't easy!

The first thing I did was change 2 strands of A4 (A is violet for me) into one strand of terracotta C5 (Impressions 3064). You may remember that in the last step, the little violet wings around the center square that I stitched were supposed to be terracotta.  I simply switched the colors so that my bottom layer was terracotta instead of violet.

I am not at all hesitant to change colors and threads on this piece since I choose my own colors and will have to deviate from the instructions to make this all work well together.  I would encourage anyone working this piece to take a similar approach.  If something isn't working the way you'd like, change it.

Then I worked with my black threads that tie down the underlying terracotta layer to try and make them get darker on the outside and lighter on the outside.  I did this with texture.

B3 makes up the inner tie downs.  Mine is Burmilana 3641 (a doubled strand) which is charcoal and slightly fuzzy.  B4 is the next set.  I used Gumnet's Tulips fine crewel wool in 999.  It is a darker black and fuzzier than the Burmilana.  Instead of using my B5 thread, I choose B7 for the next step.  This is my Trebizond silk perle in color 111, which is a glossy black that is smooth.  It's darker than the first two threads.  I ended the series with B2 instead of the B6 I'm supposed to use.  My B2 is Gold Rush 18 (color G031C) which is a lovely chainette thread in sparkling black.

I'm sure you can't tell much from the photos but in person this is a little darkening of the blacks in the corners.  That's the price I pay for choosing black as one of my colors.  Other folks will have a very pretty shading in their Marlon Brando corners.

The last step before I put this away for a while is to do the sashing below and to the right of Marlon and extend the outer black border a bit on the left side of this block.

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

New Designs and Products UPDATED

The Internet is full of new products and news from the online world of needlepoint this week.  Lots of folks have photos of new designs or new products that have arrived at their shops.  Working more or less alphabetically, let's start with Patt and Lee's new dog canvas (shown above).  They are known for their cats so this is a welcome addition to their design portfolio.
http://pattandleedesigns.blogspot.com/2010/05/dog-just-finished.html

Squiggee is showing off her button faces that are paired with some of her new canvases.  It is a new and different way to embellish a painted canvas that I think will be very popular.
http://squiggeedesigns.blogspot.com/2010/05/heads.html

Nimble Needle has some neat new items in their shop.  I've never seen a pocket flask with a needlepoint panel before.  It would look great with a monograph on a plaid background!  They also have great photos of some of the watch band kits from L'Esprit de France.
http://thenimbleneedle.blogspot.com/

UPDATE:  Here's a second version of the pocket flask for your viewing pleasure.
http://blog.thepointofitallonline.com/2010/05/sip-and-stitch.html

Pocket Full of Stitches has posted many photos of new designs and new products in the last 3-4 entries of their blog.  Don't miss the needle tins, the new Elizabeth Bradley kits, photos of the threads that come with the Kelly Clark monthly pear club, and of course a sneak peak at the Ruth Schmuff hearts canvas that will be featured in the May Needlepoint Now magazine.  The Needle Index Book is just plain useful, too.
http://pocketfullofstitches.blogspot.com/

Finally, Ridgewood has posted photos of the Stitch n Zip Kindle covers. I've been dying to see these!
http://ridgewoodneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2010/05/kindle-covers.html

Truly, we are lucky to have such a huge number of needlepoint treats available to us.

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

Stars: Marlon's Wings

The four little pairs of triangles around the center are the next to last step for this quilt block.  They don't look like much, but they were a struggle for me because the thread choices Tony wanted used in this step didn't work for me.

The wings are made up of five horizontal lines covered by a series of short vertical lines arranged in a stitch one/skip one pattern.  You are supposed to use C8 (which is Flair for me) as your horizontal lines and top them with C5 (which is Impressions). C in my color scheme is terracotta.  You'll notice that my wings are violet instead and they are all in my A10 color of Wildflowers 6042.  I decided I wanted to tone down the Frosty Rays bow tie shapes which are very raised in my version of Stars by using another color than their terracotta.  My wings are textured and match the center light violet arrowhead shapes.

The last step is rice stitches around the perimeter of the design but the threads and color pattern seems to be different according to the shape the rice stitches fill (either little triangles or the corner squares). I expect to conquer most of this tonight and then work on finishing the two sashing sections underneath and to the right of Marlon Brando.  I probably will not work the outside black border until after the sashing is finished.

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

Stars: Marlon's Center

I managed to overcome my counting problem with the copper mirror image of the purple petal shapes yesterday.  The next step is to put bow tie shapes between the petals and mirror image of them and tie them down with another thread.  Then you fill the corners with a latticework tied down with cross stitches.

Now to the threads used--my colors are violet (A), black (B), terracotta (C) and copper metallic (D).  The bow ties are done in C6 which is a pale terracotta Frosty Rays #Y332 for me and tied down with B9 which is my black Neon Rays N01.  Tony has you bring up the tie down thread in the hole between the two mirror imaged petal areas, then put in the bow tie.  To end you sink the tie down thread in the same hole it came up it.  It's a neat way of helping you find the hole under the bow tie's middle.

The corner latticework is where I went off the rails, deviating from Tony's recommended threads of B10 and A1.  I wanted to use a thinner base thread so some of the bare canvas terracotta color shows, so I switched to B2 (Gold Rush 18 color #BD31C) for the framework underneath and tied it down with the A1 I am supposed to use (which is Impressions 6043, a darker violet than the center violet).

So far the Marlon block is more raised than the top layer of stitches, but Mr. Brando was a Big Boy, wasn't he?  I included as much of the top row as I could squeeze in so you see how the whole design looks so far.  There are two more steps to go but they both involve layers of stitches so I expect I will be working on this for 2-3 more days.

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