Down Memory Lane

I've been revisiting Judy Harper's Possibilities blog, thinking of Judy and enjoying her art and creativity.  And I found one last gift from Judy--a new shop blog to follow.
http://needlenicely.blogspot.com/

Thank you, Judy.  Get better fast.  I really need that Frida Angel I've been begging you for....

By the way, here's another fun blog.
http://tapestryfair.blogspot.com/

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

The Needlebook, the Geisha, and the Queen

Remember how excited I got when I saw Susan's new needlebook?
http://plays-with-needles.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-book-of-needles.html

The only thing missing from Susan's article (besides her saying she would sending the needle book to Chilly Hollow) was a tutorial on making them.  Thanks to DMC's blog, I have a link to instructions!  This needlebook is also Asian in feel as it uses a free XS portrait of a charming geisha for the cover.  Here's the how to.
http://meari.blogspot.com/2007/06/needlebook-instructions.html

Here's the direct link to the geisha pattern, which is called "J is for Japanese Embroidery."
http://www.brookesbookspublishing.com/Freebies/J_Japanese_Embroidery_Pub.pdf

Speaking of Susan, she is starting a new series of blog articles about a Queen.  Want to see some of the new William Loves Kate/William Marries Kate samplers?
http://plays-with-needles.blogspot.com/2011/02/royal-inspired.html

Here is Susan's Majesty.  She's inspired by crazy quilting but a needlepointer could create their own Queen very easily.  Needleworkers have the skills to move between needle arts if they are brave enough to try something new.
http://plays-with-needles.blogspot.com/2011/02/welcome-your-majesty.html

Now here is where we start to see Susan building her Queen.
http://plays-with-needles.blogspot.com/2011/02/becoming-queen-part-i.html

And here she explains quite a bit about English coronation gowns and how Queen Elizabeth II's gown is replicated on Your Majesty.
http://plays-with-needles.blogspot.com/2011/02/becoming-queen-part-ii.html

I know this isn't needlepoint, but it is about fantasy and aren't we all stitching a fantasy of some sort as we work?   Right now I'm dreaming of a slinky vampire walking through a graveyard but soon it'll be another geisha....

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

The Gold Fish and More

Mary Lake Thompson's Gold Fish

In non-Luna stitching news, Carol writes she's found four more skeins of the dark teal Empress Silk at Edwardian Needle.  She is still a little worried she won't have enough silk for the background, but the folks at Edwardian Needle suggested that she alternate her Swirl stitch row done in Empress Silk with two rows of tent stitch in her Cire nylon floss instead of one row. Clever idea, don't you think?  Personally I think she'll have enough thread but then I probably would only use four plies to cover the background.

Carol has decided she'd like to use all Cire on her fish as the nylon threads look wet to her.  She's pulled some colors to choose from (above).  She has also found two sizes of topaz colored crystal sequins to use for the dots on the fish fins.  So things are moving right along.  I need to get busy and turn up some stitches for Carol to use on her fish to help her choose colors.  A thread may look totally different when stitched than it does in the skein.  Hopefully I can get to that this weekend.

While we all weren't looking, Joey had a birthday.  Wait'll see what she did to celebrate!  Next time, invite us too, ok?
http://theneedleworks.typepad.com/the_needle_works/2011/02/joeys-60th.html

Speaking of Texas, fans of monthly clubs will enjoy a peek at some of the clubs and a canvas with threads and stitch guide that Needle Works in Austin is stitching.
http://theneedleworks.typepad.com/the_needle_works/2011/02/what-have-we-been-up-to.html

After the 2001 ANG Seminar, a lot of people were interested in finding this Clarice painted canvas which was exhibited there.
http://www.needlepoint.org/WhatIs/2001/the_bird_lady.php

Nimble Needle has it!
http://thenimbleneedle.blogspot.com/2011/02/bird-lady-by-clarice.html

The Nashville trade show over the weekend is one of the big cross stitch venues for shops to pick up goodies.  Want to see what Sara Leigh bought for us?  Scarlet Thread specializes in kitting up counted canvaswork projects so you can see both the chart cover and the colors used to stitch the model.  (Hint: if you liked Needle Delight's Rainforest Crunch, you'll want to click on this link.)
http://stitchything.blogspot.com/2011/02/fresh-from-nashville.html

New books are starting to show up in the shops (I have friends who just got their copies of SharonG's Simply Essential Needlepoint Stitch Explanations.  I hate them.)  Here's another review of June McKnight's Spooky Stitches.  By the way, SharonG is saying her second book will be about landscape stitches.
http://www.nuts-about-needlepoint.com/spooky-stitches-book-review

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

Odds and Ends and Bangs

Last night I worked on Luna's hair and started the cloak trim. Although the purple Empress wool from Pure Palette I have is too heavy for the cloak lining, it makes beautiful tiny French knots as you see in the photos.

You probably won't see Luna again until I finish the cloak trim, lining and her hair.  I need to cut down on the number of redundant photos I post here, so we'll talk about other things until I am able to show you these items finished.  

Speaking of other things, Judy Harper continues very ill.  Apparently her family has turned off any eBook purchases on her Elegant Whimsies website but the website and her two blogs are still there for now.  It distresses me to know Judy is seriously ill since we carried on a lively correspondence and a running debate over just how much embellishment is too much on a canvas.  Judy always argued for restraint although she was a big believer in beading a canvas using the "use skip tent stitch then fill in the empty holes with beads" approach.  Here's Judy's Blogger profile which says what Judy is in just two sentences.  Keep those good wishes coming!

http://www.blogger.com/profile/00301188397987608400

If you are curious about the tiny colored sequins that Needlepoint Tool Time has in stock, Tisha has posted a bit more information about them as well as listing shops that stock them.

http://stitchplaywithneedlepointtooltime.blogspot.com/2011/02/details-about-micro-sequins.html

ABS Designs has posted all of the Nutcracker Ballet ornament series that Anne blog stitched here so we can see the set together.

http://thecapestitcher.blogspot.com/2011/02/nutcracker-series-reprise.html

http://thecapestitcher.blogspot.com/2011/02/nutcracker-series-part-two.html

Rittenhouse has posted an interesting article about NP portraits on their website.  It's a good read with plenty of eye candy illustrations.

http://rittenhouseneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2011/02/portraits-in-needlepoint.html

If animal portraits are more your style, check out the dog and wolf examples from Barbara Russell at Nimble Needle's blog. (Feb. 22 and 23, 2011 if you are late to the party.)

http://thenimbleneedle.blogspot.com/

Are you a NP book collector?  If so, you'll want to take a peek at the books PFOS profiles on their blog.  Many are Julia Snyder's but not all.

http://pocketfullofstitches.blogspot.com/2011/02/interesting-books.html

Finally, these are for bargain hunters.  Ruth Schmuff has a Groupon (Groupon is a group coupon) deal going. 

http://www.notyourgrandmothersneedlepoint.com/2011/02/groupon-coupon-for-bedecked-and.html

Amy Bunger is doing a sale of the week for each Friday-Sunday.  Keep an eye out tomorrow to see the limited sale items for this weekend.

http://www.amybunger.com/online_3day_special.html

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

Housekeeping

Over the weekend I went through my Blog photo albums and deleted a bunch of photos.  Blog has a limit of how many photos I can upload and I am at 52% right now.  I took down all the Canvas of the Day photos I could find, plus I removed photos from articles that I thought I could do without.  If you are reading old Blog articles and find a photo missing, that's why.  I just can't keep everything.

If you blog using Blogger, you may want to log into your Picasa web albums also and see if you need to delete photos.  I've found that partial uploads and duplicate photos are common and these stay in your photo album until you manually delete them one by one.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com