Friday, June 25, 2021

Free Hearts for Hospice Charts from NAN

The National Association of Needle Artists has added a section of free heart charts to their website.  These are intended to be used for the Hearts for Hospice program.  The designs are from graduates of the NAN certification program and they are lovely.
https://needleart.org/publications/free-patterns/?fbclid=IwAR318-cVylTtXvZgfA-3yBpzAKdNAkWqVbTvalQmlE3uoSP-_lHoyVltnoA

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright May 28, 2021 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Thursday, June 24, 2021

A Free EGA Stitch-a-long

I'm not too familiar with the Embroiders Guild of America (EGA) but apparently they have a free stitch-a-long project that sounds interesting for needlepointers.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright May 25, 2021 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Stretcher Bars: The Movie

While exploring KC Needlepoint's blog yesterday, I found this series of videos about stretcher bars, perfect for those who wonder how they work.  This video shows how to assemble them.

As you can see, you will need two pairs of stretcher bars the size of the outside dimensions of your canvas.  If your canvas is 6x8 inches, you will need a set of six inch bars and one of eight inches.  Usually a shop will tell you the design dimensions (not the outside ones) but you can always call them or email and find out what size stitcher bars are needed.  

This video shows how to mount a canvas on the assembled stretcher bars.  KC Needlepoint uses thumbtacks but I use heavy duty staples.  This is stitcher's preference.  

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright May 1, 2021 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

The Poor Man's Amazon

It's habit these days to automatically go to Amazon to order books, but it's not a great idea for many needlepoint books, most of which are self-published.  Amazon's pricing can be astronomical, much more than you would pay at a needlepoint shop for the same book.  I was happy to hear about ThriftBooks, described as "the poor man's Amazon."  A stitcher over the mountain uses them all the time, so I paid their website a visit.  

Entering "needlepoint" in the search engine, I got thirty pages of results, most of which are actually needlepoint-related.  Prices generally are in the $5-15 range, although some books are more expensive, such as Rosey Greer's Needlepoint for Men, which runs just over $70.  There are a lot of classic Bargello books from the 1970s available, although most of the charted alphabet books are "temporarily unavailable."  I saw a lot of nice bargains.

Condition is listed, but if you want your books to be in excellent condition, you'd do better to buy from NewNeedlepoint which is fanatical about only selling books in very good condition or better whenever possible.  Prices are higher, but you get what you pay for.

Wherever you choose to shop for needlepoint books, happy hunting!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright May 22, 2021 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Monday, June 21, 2021

Email Feeds of Blog Postings End July 2021

Google just announced that they are ending the widget that powers email feeds of blog postings on July 2021.  So shortly you will no longer get a notice that Blog is updated.  Sorry, but I have no control over this.  It's possible that another email widget will be made available but there are no guarantees.  I suggest you use Feedly or Feed Burner or Bloglovin or another RSS reader to keep up with postings of blogs that use Blogger like I do.

Of course, Blog updates daily so you can bookmark and visit each day.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright April 14, 2021 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.