Book Review: Spooky Stitches

Here's another book review of June McKnight's Spooky Stitches.  I've posted two reviews of this book already but each review seems to share more information, even if just in photographs of the inside, so I've linked to this one also.
http://stitchything.blogspot.com/2011/03/things-that-go-bump-in-night.html

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

Adding to the Monthly Club Choices

Adding to the monthly clubs for 2011, The French Knot has announced they are going to offer a Holiday Train club (Little Shoppe Canvas Company), Kelly Clark's Pears and also the Tassels clubs, a Nativity Series (Winnetka), and a Halloween Tree (from Collection of Designs).  Everything  but the Halloween Tree is on their website.  Don't miss their annual Petei Santa series (naturally).  By the way, right now Petei isn't adding new things to their line. If you have always wanted to do Petei Santas, don't delay.
http://www.thefrenchknot.com/current-series.htm

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

Newsletters and a New Alice Peterson

I am late reminding everyone that the newsletters for Needle Works and Amy Bunger are available on their websites.  Here they are, Amy first (alphabetical order).  In her newsletter you can see plenty of neat new products to aid the needlepointer as well as see Amy's terrific Halloween House framed.
http://www.amybunger.com/f/Amy_s_e-newsletter_March_2011.pdf

Needle Works has a great explanation of the differences between basketweave and continental in their newsletter (page four).  If you ever wondered about following the weave of a canvas for basketweave, you will see what is meant here.  The directions are for both right-handed and left-handed stitchers, too!
http://theneedleworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/201103newsletter.pdf

By the way, the email that announced Needle Work's March newsletter mentioned that Alice Peterson has a new website.  Alice Peterson is known especially for their stitch and zip products but they also have a great line of floral designs.
http://www.alicepetersoncompany.com/

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

Show and Tell

This morning's show and tell is brought to your by Tapestry Fair which has posted a lovely finished version of one of Leigh's cowgirl canvases,
http://tapestryfair.blogspot.com/2011/03/show-and-tell.html

and by Ridgewood which shows off two different versions of a canvas that folks are stitching in class there,
http://ridgewoodneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2011/03/coat-ladies-class.html

and by Melinda who is showing off her finished Amy Bunger Home Study canvases and enjoying the new class from Ruth Schmuff that just arrived in the mail.
http://melindaslivingthegoodlife.blogspot.com/2011/03/halloweenie-family-portrait.html

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

Woodlawn 2011: Overall Impressions

This year's Woodlawn exhibit differed from past years' exhibits in that there were many fewer samplers than in the past, and more of those big Mirabilia ladies done in cross stitch than I've seen recently.  (If you don't follow XS, there is an example in the link below.)  When I first started going to the exhibit, these were everywhere but they have died out over the years only to start a comeback this season.
http://yarntree.typepad.com/needlework_news/2011/03/charlotte.html

It seemed to me there was more beadwork and surface embroidery than I've seen recently.  A lot of the show was needlepoint although there were a few pieces of Japanese Embroidery and smocking and some crewel.  The needlepoint designs were both geometric counted canvaswork and painted canvases but there was a significant number of original designs, which makes me very happy indeed!

The counted canvaswork interested me because I saw no Susan Portra charts (for the second year in a row) and only a few Jean Hilton designs.  Instead, there were many more charted pieces designed by folks like Debbie Rowley, Laura Perin, Carole Lake, Ro Pace, Michael Boran, Orna Willis and others I couldn't immediately place.  It seems to me that counted canvaswork is having a renaissance.

The painted canvas pieces were predominately tent stitched.  There were some embellished pieces but not many.  Unlike last year, the majority of the tent stitch pieces seemed to me to have been stitched using the popular silk/wool blends, with some notable exceptions like the large rectangular fish pillow in the main parlor which was beautifully tent stitched in metallics for the fish and solid silk/wool for the seaweed background.

This year I didn't notice any color trends, but as usual, there are enough animal- and Christmas-themed items for them to have their own display rooms.  There were many floral designs and quite a few Asian-themed pieces (although perhaps not as many as in past years).  As usual there were a good number of Halloween pieces but I didn't notice much in the way of Easter rabbit or egg designs.

I was impressed by the number of junior pieces (under 18) this year.      But before I talk about some of the pieces I admired, let's take a break.  I'll be back later with the rest of my Woodlawn report.

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