The Needlepoint of Politics

A week from today Americans will vote for a new President. If you are a political junkie, you can stitch while you blog, campaign for the candidate of your choice, or just dodge the constant phone calls from people looking for your vote.

The original political needlepoint came from Mary, Queen of Scots. An explanation of some of the symbolism she used in her spot motifs is here.
http://www.millennia-designs.com/tapestry-cross-stitch-embroidery-kits/76/90/88/

The state of New Hampshire, famous for its first primary voting (the votes that select a candidate from each party) sells political NP items such as coasters, luggage tags and dog collars.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/01/04/primary-needlepoint/


Susan Treglown does a donkey painted canvas. Donkeys are the mascots fo the Democrats.
http://elainemagninneedlepoint.stores.yahoo.net/democratdonkey.html

Here is the Susan Treglown elephant, the Republican mascot.
http://elainemagninneedlepoint.stores.yahoo.net/repel.html

Very serious Democrats, by Julia
http://elainemagninneedlepoint.stores.yahoo.net/friendonletf.html

Ditto Republican by Julia
http://elainemagninneedlepoint.stores.yahoo.net/friendonletf1.html

Chaparral is having a political animal stitch-in. Here are finished models. Put your cursor in the middle of one and click to see a nice big photo.
http://www.ndlpt.com/html/kits.html

The photo illustrating this blog entry is (probably) a plastic canvas rendition of Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for President. It was stitched by Stephen Savage and comes from his Flickr account. Sadly, I can't find any stitched portraits of John McCain. He just doesn't have a face that lends itself to caricature.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

No Flair, Beads Instead

Now that the beaded edge is finished around the wizard, I turned my attention to the smoke coming out of the cauldron at his feet. I had intended to use wired Flair to create this effect and pulled out cards of orange, black, lilac and grey Flair trying to decide which color looked best. As I laid the various colors on the canvas, it struck me just how small a space the smoke needs to occupy. The base of the smoke should be less than 1/4 an inch and the top where it twisted and turned and vanished into nothingness (i.e., should be plunged to the back of the canvas) was another 1/4 inch. That's really half an inch only and I just didn't think that Flair with wire inside was going to look its best in such a small space.

I really liked how the crystal Sundance beads looked so I used them instead, starting at the cauldron and laying a line of 4 beads across the surface of whatever potion the wizard has in his cauldron. The next two lines were three beads each, then I moved up a bit and did a row of two beads, then just two single beads scattered to show the smoke (and perhaps bubbles?) were rising and disappearing into thin air.

I used a ply of red silk to attach the beads, and you can see a little of it in the photo above. However, in person you don't see the red. It does not show through the crystal beads' middle. They must be lined with silver instead of actually being clear. They look clear when you use them but the couching thread along the edge was more of the grey silk from the background. I didn't realize the silk didn't show when I attached beads to the edges of the piece because the silk was so close to the clear bead color.

Although this is not what I'd planned to do, I am happy with the look. I'll just remember that you need at least 2-3 inches to use wired Flair to get a good effect the next time I'm tempted to use it.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Sophisticated Socks

Since I showed off one insider shop photo yesterday, I thought I'd show off another today. The great picture above is the stitched version of one of the Kelly Clark Sophisticated Socks that are a monthly club from Needle Nook of La Jolla. I begged, pleaded and whined until I got my hands on a photo of a finished sock. This club just started and the photos of the socks stitched aren't available but I got my hands on one.

You can see all the naked canvases here.
http://www.needlenookoflajolla.com/events/kclarksocks/index.html

Hopefully all the stitched sock photos will be posted here soon. Until then, click on a sock and the large photo beneath will show it in detail.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Wizard's Beaded Edge

I have started adding beads to the edge of the Joan Thomasson wizard stand up piece. They must be done before I can add the wired Flair smoke and then stuff the piece, add rocks as weights and hand-stitch the base on. So there is a lot still to do. I thought you'd like to see the edge with the two #16 Kreinik silver threads couched down and the beads beginning to be added on top of that. I am alternating one single pale lavender seed bead from Mill Hill with a group of three crystal #14 beads from Sundance. They don't touch-each group is about 3 mm from the next. The crystal clear beads from Sundance have incredible sparkle while the larger round lavender bead is exactly the color of the purple underrobe. They look very nice. I have about 1/5 of the edge beaded and will continue to work on that tonight.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Elliot, The Summer House, and Halloween

The photo above shows the official NP inspector for Amy Bunger's website. His name is Elliot and his job is to make sure Amy's class models are perfect in every way. And that they do not contain catnip, of course!

Elliot lives with Robin, the webmaster for the Amy Bunger website, who sent me this photo. Isn't he a charmer? The house he is checking out is Melissa Shirley's Summer House. It's one of the home study canvases that Amy offers for folks who want to do directed stitching at home. You can see the real photo shoot photos at the link below. Just click on either thumbnail to actually see the house.

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

If you want to see Elliot in action when he inspected the Yellow Mustard House (also by Melissa Shirley), head over here.

http://www.amybunger.com/albums/album_image/6262614/3610741.htm

You can always see the other Home Study projects (including the other two seasonal houses) by clicking on the link at the left side of the page. Sadly, there are no more Elliot sightings there.

However, you can treat yourself to a read of the newest Amy Bunger newslettter by looking for the E-Newsletters link. After that, find the October 2008 newsletter and click on that link for a PDF file to open with the newsletter contents. Make sure you check out the amazing Halloween pieces there. Turns out that Robin, Elliot's owner, doesn't just handle the website. She's also an awesome stitcher and teacher in her own right who is into Halloween in a big way.

Lucky Amy! She's got both Robin and Elliot on her payroll!

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow