The StitchIts Sweater Collection

My trip last week to Needlewoman East included a careful inspection of the current trunk show. No matter how good the pictures are you see online, nothing beats seeing painted canvases in person. So I look over all the NW East trunk shows carefully any time I get to visit. I don't want to miss anything!

This time the trunk show on display was by StitchIts, not a designer I know much about. They specialize in simple designs, not the realistic canvases I prefer. Not my cup of tea usually but I enjoyed their little sweater patterns. I photographed my favorites for you to see. Looks like they are on 18 count canvas, and all are in primary colors with contrasting polka dots in an all-over pattern. Each sweater comes with a series of 2-4 themed buttons in matching colors, and it is the buttons that set these designs apart. If you look closely you'll see the teal green wizard-castle-dragon buttons, the brown dog with a white bone, the three elfs on a blue sweater, and the tiny Nativity Mary, Jospeh and Baby Jesus. [NOTE: This image is on my main blog. The link is below.]

I've put a second image on my mirror blog (above) that shows the bright green cowboy boot, hat and cactus sweater; the one in blue decorated by the toy ship/airplane/truck; the red bowling pins and ball; and finally the brown trout and fish basket sweater. These are an easy and quick stitch with outstanding embellishments. There are a great many more of these (I saw at least 25 different sets of sweater canvases and of course their line has much more than sweaters), all very cute and all a perfect easy present to stitch for someone, or even for yourself.

By the way, if you love buttons with your canvases, Mindy and Squiggee also offer great buttons that match or enhance a painted canvas design.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Mighty Bright's Clip-on Light/Magnifier

I've been saving up for a Dazor light/magnifier for a while since my old light/magnifier died. They are expensive so I purchased a battery operated travel light/magnifier to stand in until my piggy bank is full again. The photo you see above is what I bought--a Vusion Craft Light by Mighty Bright.

It has a very bright LED light with a high and low setting controlled by the black button on the top of the light, a two inch magnifier that enlarged to twice the normal view through an "optical grade" acrylic lens, and a base where it stands upright until you need to clamp it on your frame. The clamp is large enough to handle my stretcher bars and ahoops, and the box says it will fit over Q-Snaps as well. The base has a large round magnet on the underside. You can put the light/magnifier in the base under a latch so it can sit on a table or hang sideways off the refrigerator when not in use. It takes three AAA batteries and is probably not meant for continuous use, just for travel. It seems to weigh about a pound and doesn't add substantially to the weight of any project I want to stitch holding the frame in my hand. The two necks bend separately in any direction--and stay there--to light or magnify your canvas (or both) as you stitch. You can buy an adaptor to plug into the wall and use like any electrical appliance but for me that would interfere with clamping this on my canvas. This AC adaptor costs extra and you have to buy it separately if you want it.

I've stitched a bit with my Vusion Craft Light and so far I like it very much. But I don't need a lot of light or much magnification and I don't mind the very small magnified area. I also don't need "true" illumination and don't mind a slight bluish ast from the LED lights. I am not sure it is wildly durable, however, since the clamp is plastic. I think a lot of clamping and unclamping might eventually break it.

Shop around on the Web before you buy something like this. I found it here on sale for $23.99 and no shipping charges. It came to me via UPS about four business days after I ordered it. I think it also might be available from Needle in a Haystack in California although I don't see it listed on their website now.

http://www.lampsplus.com/Products/desk-lamps/Type_Book-Lights/08118/


Here it sits on the base. Can you see how much the magnifier enlarges the base itself? I find it very useful and perhaps it'll meet some of your stitching needs also.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Anne Jerlow's Kite Kimono UPDATED

I found a kite kimono from the late Anne Jerlow up for sale on eBay today. Isn't it pretty? The design is around 14 inches square on 13 count canvas and comes with threads and a stitch guide. The price is already quite high, but I thought you'd like to see more from the late Ms.Jerlow than just the geishas canvases which decorate Blog now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Kite-Kimono-BEST-THREAD-LOT-EVER-Hand-Painted-Canvas_W0QQitemZ330242118228QQihZ014QQcategoryZ3107QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItemor%20Tiny%20URLor Tiny URL

http://tinyurl.com/53g98b

Enjoy!

UPDATE: This canvas (with threads and stitch guide) sold for $565.00 plus $8.60 shipping. WHEW!

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Internet Still Down

My Internet connection is still mostly down at home, sadly. The phone company is due next Friday. I hope the problem is in the phone lines and they fix it then. The tornado caused some damage here (though not at my house) and since we have voice communication, I'm not a high priority. Sorry!

However, I managed to squeeze in a trip to my LNS Friday and saw several things you probably would enjoy hearing about.

First, are you familiar with ribbon floss? I saw large 100 yard spools of ribbon floss for sale, perfect if you are using a lot of it in one big project or over several smaller pieces. I like ribbon floss a lot and if you do also, see if your shop can order a larger quantity than usual for you. Needlewoman East had spools of white with metallic woven in, purple with metallic and shiny gold. If you are not familiar with ribbon floss, you can see it on the YLI website. Click on Needlework on the left, then on ribbon floss. The large spools don't seem to be on the website.

http://www.ylicorp.com/

I also saw two new Leigh round ornament canvases, the ones on 18 count that now come with round rings to hang them from once they are stitched. These were on the pretty aqua green canvas with part of the design realistic and part abstract pattern. They are called the South Seas Dynasty ornament series. You can see them on Leigh's website below. The two in stock at NW East were the palm tree on the beach/zebra stripes and the orchids/red floral fabric pattern. I liked them a lot and wish I'd seen the reclining women. I might have bought one of those! Maybe those were sold already. All of these are very tropical and look like a fun stitch.

http://www.leighdesigns.com/Grp825x.html

DMC's Stitch-opology game was on display. NW East was taking signups to order sets, but I don't know the cost. Are you familiar with the board game Monopoly? Stitch-opology is based on Monopoly. It has aqua green houses and purple hotels, silver tokens based on stitching motifs, and squares with skeins of threads from DMC and stitch names on them. You can see more about the set on the DMC website.

http://www.dmc-usa.com/majic/pageServer/1l0100028r/en_US/Stitch-opoly.html

I took some photos of a trunk show from StitchIts for you to see but that has to wait until I can post photographs. These have to be seen to be admired!

More when I am able to post.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Internet Down

I'm sure you are wondering where I am, but things here are fine despite the tornadoes and severe thunderstorms we had Wednesday night. Except my home Internet connection isn't working. Things that don't work are changing each time I try to log on, too.

So you may not hear from me again until Monday if I can't fix the troubles myself. I'll be basketweaving my brains out, though! So you go stitch some, too, ok?

Hugs to all from Jane, still lurking in Chilly Hollow

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow