Choices

Are you wondering why I listed so many choices for a background thread on the cat topiary garden piece?  Because there are many many choices, all of them right, when it comes to stitching a painted canvas.  So how do you choose?  You pick things that express your personality and how you see a canvas.  That makes one of many choices the right one for you.  Here's a great example.
http://ridgewoodneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2011/05/same-canvas-stitched-and-finished.html

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

Book Review: Landscape Stitches UPDATED

Here's a review of the new Landscape Stitches book from Little Shoppe Canvas Company.
http://bristlythistle.blogspot.com/2011/05/landscape-stitches-book.html

UPDATE:  A second review
http://ridgewoodneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2011/06/stitch-landscape.html

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

The Latest Monthly Club News

Serendipity Needleworks is starting a Christmas ornament club and they are starting out in style with a Melissa Shirley Santa.  I don't know what the rest of the series will be but this is certainly worth bookmarking to keep an eye out.
http://serendipityneedleworks.blogspot.com/2011/05/jolly-santa.html

Ruth Schmuff Designs has announced their latest monthly ornament club.  It's silly, sassy, sparkly SOCKS.  The stitch guides are by Vicky DeAngelis so you know they are going to be fabulous!
http://www.notyourgrandmothersneedlepoint.com/2011/05/silly-sassy-sparkly-socks.html

By the way, if you like hearing the story behind the clubs, here is what Vicky has to say about her Silly Sassy Sparkly Socks stitch guides.
http://mostlyneedlepoint.com/05/31/838/

On the Do It Yourself side of monthly clubs, I suspect some stitchers will want to stitch a dede village from her collection of 3-D building canvases.
http://www.dedesneedleworks.com/special.html

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

The Real (Needlepointed) Pirates of the Caribbean

In case you saw the Pirates of the Caribbean 4 movie opening, you might like to see what Kathy Schenkel and Peacock Alley in Michigan did.  By the way, bookmark this shop and visit them on Facebook.  They are starting to be a force in the online NP shop world.
http://www.peacockalleyneedlepoint.com/Peacock_Alley_Needlepoint/Pirates_of_the_Caribbean.html

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

Insights and the New

If you are a new needlepointer or returning to needlepoint after a few years, you will have faced the fact that there are charted, painted, hand painted and stitch painted designs.  What the heck is all that?!??!  Rittenhouse Explains All in this cogent article.
http://rittenhouseneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2011/05/stitch-painted-canvases.html

If you are looking for a totally new and different painted canvas, check out what the new design team at Needlepoint Etc. Hawaii has done!
http://needlepointetc.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/friday-may-20/

http://needlepointetc.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/tuesday-may-24/

Did you know that painted canvas designers send catalogue notebooks to the shops full of their latest designs?  The next time you visit a trunk show and don't see what you are looking for or you just can't find the perfect canvas in stock, ask your shop owner for a peek at them.  Squiggee tells us all about hers here-
http://squiggeedesigns.blogspot.com/2011/05/squiggee-gchendrix-catalogs.html

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