New Threads from Ruth and Fabulous Stitching from Ruth

Ruth Dilts, enabler of the week here in Virginia, sent me a list of the new threads she saw at market from Rainbow Gallery. They, along with Kreinik, are one of the largest thread manufacturers here in the U.S. so many of us will see the following in the shops soon. Here are the colors and their names. The link is to the What's New part of the Rainbow Gallery website so you can look at photos. Just click on the hyperlinks to go to the sections that intrique you.
http://www.rainbowgallery.com/whatsnew.cfm

Silk Lame 13 CT.
LB04 antique Rose
LB 05 Avocado
LB 13 Sky Blue
LB26 Raspberry
LB28 Burgundy
LB30 Orange
LB 31 Copper
LB50 Fuchsia
LB57 Christmas Green
LB58 Dk Christmas Green
LB659 Liliac
LB60 Camel
LB62 Dark Sand Gold

Silk Lame 18 CT.
SL 57 Christmas Green
SL 58 Dark Christmas Green
SL 59 Liliac
Sl 60 Camel
SL 61 Sand Gold
SL62 Dark Sand Gold
SL 63 Emerald
Sl64 Deep Avocado

Fyre Werks Soft Sheen
FT 57 Meriot
FT 58 Gold
FT59 Tawny Gold
FT 60 Melon
FT 61 Wisteria
FT 62 Granite

Neon Rays Plus
NP 133 Iris
Neon Rays
N 131 Pale Iris
N132 Lite Iris
N133 Iris

Treasure Braid Petite
PB73 Black Hill Gold
PH08 Royal Blue
PH09 Purple
PH11 Pink
PH12 Dark Turquoise
PH13 Copper

Very Velvet and Petite Very Velvet Same colors
Powder Blue
Medium Violet
Cream
Lite Pearl Gray
Pearl Gray

Water & Ice
WT 12 Pearl Ice [note that Ruth says this one was a big hit at Market]
WT 13 Aqua
WT 14 Ocean
WT 15 Rain Gray
WT 17 Barely Rose

Petite Frosty Rays
PY410 Lite Periwinkle
PYT411 Dark Periwinkle
Crystal Braid
CR 17 Aquamarine
CR18 Brite Red

Ruth Schmuff, another enabler of the highest order, is tempting me with photos of two designs from the Columbus trade show. The first design isn't finished. It's from her line of canvases and a stitch guide is promised so you can stitch your own carrot walking her brocoli dogs. Really. You have to see this to believe it!

The second photo is from Leigh Designs and is my favorite of the new large Guadalajara canvases. I just love that pink flower....

Both pieces were stitched by master embroiders and are works of art. Enjoy!
http://www.tistheseason.org/blog/2009/06/were-home.html

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

What I saw at Market, by the Booth Bimbo

This morning I have a report straight from the TNNA show from Joanne C., who graciously agreed to tell us what she saw there as a guest blogger. Now, here's Joanne--

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In the interest of full disclosure, I had always, always, always (you get the picture) wanted to go to Market. Or for at least 20 years when the summer market used to be in Chicago, where I live, and the shop owners always said, we’ll take you, and I never got to go. So when my very good friend Elizabeth bought “Needlepoint Now” six months ago and asked if I’d help her staff her booth during her first-ever Market, I spent about 10 seconds thinking about it and then said, “are you KIDDING? I’d love to go!” The only bad part was that the Booth Queen called me the Booth Bimbo, even though I referred to myself as the Booth Minion J.

I can’t judge how much space this trade show takes up, but it’s a lot. Hundreds of thousands of square feet – the aisles started their numbering at 100 and ended at 1700. I’m not going to say much about the knitting people except they have better sweaters than we do. Knitting is very much an international industry and there were vendors there from Britain, Australia, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, the US, Canada, Japan, etc, ranging from vendors with 15 booths to those who are more “cottage industry” with one. I really didn’t go over to the knitting side because I was afraid I’d be sucked in again and my hand surgeon would refuse me another cortisone injection to fix an acute tendonitis attack caused by knitting.

Besides, I was too busy looking at needlepoint, cause it was all over. I had more than enough time to walk around when I wasn’t in the booth, but I kept gravitating back to the same few booths. Melissa Shirley is my favorite painted canvas designer and I couldn’t stop going to look at the beautiful things she had displayed. I’m sorry that I didn’t get to meet her and act all “fan girlish” but she wasn’t there due to a family commitment. Her work was unbelievable and it was a privilege to see it all in one place to see her range. A lot of her new things are on her website, including some great new flower purses (the 1306 series) that could also be pillows, and a big gorgeous black crane (number 1288) that was partially stitched, and a HUGE Santa that must have been 4 feet tall, he had a really cute face. The ladies in the Melissa Shirley booth were wonderful to talk with and I’m sure I drove them nuts with my “visits.”
http://www.melissashirleydesigns.com//gallery/?bsn=1

Jane had asked me to look at three particular designers – Leigh, Mindy, and SharonG. I am not a huge fan of Asian pieces so I didn’t really know what to look for, but there were some gorgeous, gorgeous geishas, showgirls, great pumpkins, and my favorites, the Guadalajara flowers. These were big, abstract, boldly colored flowers on contrasting brightly colored canvases.
http://www.leighdesigns.com/ImgIdx01.html

The beautiful things on Sharon G’s website looked even more beautiful in person – the “horses behinds” she’s got in Christmas, abstract, and floral themes are adorable, I’m looking forward to seeing these stitched. She’s also got some new florals with abstract flowers and striped backgrounds that taper down from being three threads wide, then two, then one, then scattered, just dying to have a big fancy embellished flower.
http://sharongneedlepointdesigner.blogspot.com/2009/06/ct35-is-newer-canvas-that-now-has.html

I loved Mindy’s canvases. My friend Elizabeth lives in Eugene, Oregon, so I’ve been in Mindy’s shop several times and seen a lot of her work, but she had a lot that I hadn’t seen since my last trip there in April, including her signature beautifully painted canvases designed to go in Stirling bags. She showed a lot of canvases with mixed media trims – resin buttons with contrasting faces, wooden buttons, lace trims, ribbon trims, funky spherical balls on funkier stockings, buttons as tree toppers on great Halloween and Christmas trees, and a great collection of Halloween canvases that I don’t remember seeing before – she’s painted a lot of plaid and it was fabulous. Oh, and the purses! Mindy’s done great purses for years but she had some new shapes. I think I have to have the round one….
http://www.mindysneedlepoint.com/new_default.htm

[Jane adds, "Here is the Stirling leather goods website. If you click on Designer Links you'll see two Mindy abstracts that fit the purses."]
http://www.stirlingcases.com/products.php

The trend I picked up on was PINK – everyone had something pink. Lani had some gorgeous, gorgeous pink canvases – abstract patterns with sea shells in the center dying for light stitches, Ruth Schmuff had great pink ornaments, there was a beautiful pink stitched and beaded Melissa Shirley purse in her booth, Mindy had pink, Julia had pink, you get the picture. I love pink, so maybe I was just attuned to it. Purses were also really popular, everyone is showing purses.

[Here is Lani's pink rose pillow and a new Melissa Shirley animal canvas--a chameleon. The second link below is the pink purse Joanne loved.]
http://www.tistheseason.org/blog/2009/06/columbus-market-day-1.html

http://www.melissashirleydesigns.com/galcol/index.cgi?index=1245457247_13532&col=4

[Ruth Schmuff's pink ornaments are here, about the middle of the page.]
http://www.bedeckedandbeadazzled.com/whatsNew.php

[Lani's model page shows off glorious stitched examples of her work.]
http://www.lanienterprises.com/finished_models_imgs.html

This experience made me realize how hard our shop owners work for us – they spend money on travel, lodging, food, and registration to walk around for three days, looking at everything, talking to designers, taking notes, deciding how to best spend their allocated funds on things they think will please us. They have to buy for a whole range of customers whose tastes range from the funkiest new painted canvas to little Christmas ornaments to canvases with pre-stitched centers and canvases that zip into eye glass cases. In talking to them, I realized they can’t just buy what they like, cause if you don’t have what your customers want, they’ll go elsewhere.

I met or was reintroduced to a bunch of fascinating people, all of whom loved to talk about needlepoint as much as I do. Including Amy Bunger and Robin and Jill from her shop, and Kelly Clark (who is just as nice as you’d think she is – she remembered my name when I went back to talk to her the day after I met her, and this was after she must have met 15 million people, and her work was spectacular – the new barnyard animals were adorable!! ), and Anne who is the genius behind Gloriana (who invited us for a road trip!), and Liz from DMC who came over to show us the new “Memory Thread”, very cool, and Ada, who is the designer behind Eye Candy (distributed by Ruth Schmuff), Ada uses color soooo well, and Cathe Ray who owns Needle in a Haystack, and Wendy Harwood who owns Aristeia in California, and Cynthia Thomas from Houston who does extraordinary stitch guides and had the best job at Market cause she got to go from booth to booth, talking to designers about doing stitch guides for them.

[Here are the Kelly Clark barnyard animal canvases along with her other new pieces.]
http://www.kellyclarkneedlepoint.com/new

[Here is the DMC Memory Thread.]
http://www.dmc.com/majic/pageServer/0t010001kd/en_GB/Desire.html

I also got to take off my “Needlepoint Now” hat and put on my “Seminar Faculty Committee for ANG” hat – I talked to a lot of people about plans for Columbus in 2010 and San Antonio in 2011. All in all, I had a great weekend, and if you ever get the chance to go to Market, all I can say is, GO! Thanks for inviting me, Elizabeth – I’m ready to be the Booth Minion again anytime!

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Thanks, Joanne. You are the ideal booth babe reporter and we do appreciate hearing all about the newest needlepoint items that will tempt us in the months to come.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Byzantine Icon Ornaments Are Done

Here are the Byzantine icon ornaments, all done!

The Blue Angel has a single line of the beads I also used on her halo all around the edge to hide the join.

The Red Madonna's corners--I used the same red beads as on the halos--gave me fits. The painted 13 count canvas was really stiff and the corners didn't quite meet the felt backing in the way I wanted. No problem, add a second line of beads just at the corners.

Beads hide a multitude of sins....

I'm sorry you can't see the gold lame, gold paint, metallics and beads shining on these two pieces. They are little gems in person but don't photograph well.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Finishing Made Easy: Front to Back to Edge

Now that the needlepoint covers the finishing foam that has gold lame on one side, let me explain something I didn't make clear when I was stitching the two little Byzantine icons. These designs are on 14 count canvas that has been covered with gold paint, then the figures and borders were painted on top of the gold. All that gold paint makes the canvas a bit stiffer than normal and when I ripped out stitches on the border, I discovered that this dulled the paint. If you purchase such a canvas, be very careful ripping out in areas that won't be covered by thread.

However, when you don't stitch an area at all (like the gold background behind the angel and the Madonna and Child figures), the gold paint looks great, especially with a piece of gold lame underneath it. I showed off the two finished pieces at Scarlet Thread yesterday and folks asked about the gold background. It is bare naked NP canvas, but it doesn't look like it. The gold lame definitely adds to the paint and make the background interesting-looking enough that the people in the shop commented on it and asked what made it look the way it does. Definitely consider trying this on any piece that could use some sparkle, particularly if you have light coverage stitches or no stitches at all in areas.

Ok, back to finishing. It's time to stitch the needlepoint and gold lame piece with its hanger to the back piece of finishing foam. To do this, all you need is a sharp sewing needle and thread that matches the color of your felt. I use a thimble but this isn't necessary. You can substitute DMC cotton floss for sewing thread if necessary but I prefer regular sewing thread as I feel it is stronger and more suited to finishing chores.

First, put the NP piece on top of the felt finishing foam and compare how well they fit. You probably will have to trim the finishing foam a bit but leave the felt alone. Right now it is fine that it is bigger all around than your needlepoint canvas front. Since my finishing foam was self-stick, I had to pull the felt back off the foam a little around the edges but if you are careful you can easily do this. Just don't yank. If I had glued the felt to the finishing foam, my glue would be applied about an inch from the edge so that I didn't have to pull the felt away there. You will need to remove just a sliver from the edges of the foam, just enough that it is very slightly smaller than the front NP piece. Now use your banker's clamps (or clothes pens or straight pins) to attach the front and back. Once things are just the way you want them, you can trim the felt edge so it is a tad more than even with the NP on the front. This gives you a bit of felt to overlap the edge a little. Now start sewing the front to the back. Pinch the front and back together hard with one hand as you go and be careful not to put stitches very far into the front of the piece. Because your sewing thread matches the felt on the back, stitches there will be invisible but they will show on the front if you aren't careful. If you need to trim the finishing foam on the back or the felt a bit, you can easily do so as you work. Remove the clamps and put them elsewhere as you work.

You will end up with an ornament ready to hang but with a slightly rough edge where you will see the stitches that attach the front to the back. This is why ornaments have trim or beads around the edges. They hide this edging.

The last step in finishing the ornament is to cover the edges. I use gold braid trim or beads or both to do this, depending on what the ornament looks like. You can also use ribbon. Beading an edge is tedious work but it seemed to enhance the Byzantine Icons so that is what I did. If I'd attached trim instead, I probably would not have sewn the front to the back completely before sewing on the trim. I normally cut a length of trim and then put one end inside the ornament at the top near the hanger, then sew the trim all the way around to the top again, where I tuck the other end of the trim inside the ornament, complete attaching the front to the back, and then finish sewing the trim. Note that you can also use glue but due to several unfortunate accidents, I prefer sewing. It takes a lot longer but for me it looks better in the end.

Now, if someone will help me remove pieces of self stick finishing foam from my pants, we will be done!
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

The Meanings of Original Needlepoint

Things sweep across the Internet in waves, just as if God had turned on the neon light that said, "Discuss Color" and we all obeyed. This week I noticed a lot of postings about original needlepoint and its very personal meaning.

This artist is needlepointing book covers with motifs from the Jane Austen books. It is a very personal way to treat her favorite books. It looks as if the stitching is photographed, then turned into a paper jacket for the book. This is actually a great idea for a special gift to your family. Stitch a family portrait and make book jackets from the finished piece for each sibling or child.
http://www.lmullock.com/janeaustenprideandprejudice.html

This fashion writer is amused by and a bit jealous of a needlepoint belt a friend owns that his sister stitched to memorialize various important things in his life.
http://guestofaguest.com/things-we-love/the-case-for-th-needlepoint-belt/

Finally, I think you'll be as touched as I was by Althea's story of the Frank Lloyd Wright piece she stitched for a friend.
http://bargelloneedlepoint.com/stitching-frank-lloyd-wright-in-bargello-needlepoint/

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow