New Things On the Way

TNNA's trade show in Columbus, Ohio starts next week, so folks are beginning to post messages about the new things that will be available for shops to purchase then.  Here is the class Barbara Bergsten will be teaching at the trade show.  Barbara is a master at choosing stitching "sisters" so that the different parts of her designs are stitched differently but harmoniously.  By the way, if you click on the "New, New, New!" title above this article, you'll go to links showing Barbara's catalogue of designs and her stitch guides.  She's unique in that each canvas she designs comes with a free stitch guide that you download from her website if you want to use it.  It's a great way of distributing guides to students who have computer access.
http://createneedlepoint.typepad.com/create_needlepoint/2010/06/needlepoint-class.html

Are you a fan of Mindy's painted canvases like me?  Check these new designs out!
http://pocketfullofstitches.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-pieces-from-mindy.html

How about Julie Mar?  Do you love her designs from nature?  This shop has new designs in stock.
http://bristlythistle.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/new-julie-mar-needlepoint-at-the-bristly-thistle/

Janet Perry has written a summary of new products she's heard about on her blog.
http://www.nuts-about-needlepoint.com/new-in-needlepoint-june-2010

Ruth Schmuff has a stitched sample of one of her new canvases on her blog.  I used it to illustrate this article.  Isn't the Queen a scream?!
http://www.notyourgrandmothersneedlepoint.com/2010/05/queen-speaks.html

Finally, I have three thread reviews I thought you'd like to see, even if these threads aren't brand new on the market.  They still may be new to stitchers and shops who haven't stocked them yet.  Robin King shows off an original project she designed for a charity auction and explains how she used DMC's memory thread on it.
http://needlepointstudyhall.blogspot.com/2010/06/m-and-dmc-memory-thread.html

Want to try something not widely available here in the United States?  Stef Francis' Silk Impressions is a lovely thread.  If you want to buy some, there are links in the review to a shop in Massachusetts that sells it.
http://bargelloneedlepoint.com/thread-spotlight-silk-impressions-by-steph-francis/

Were you curious about the Silk Lame Braid I used on the little mermaid?  Here's a brief review.
http://bristlythistle.wordpress.com/2010/05/30/new-needlepoint-thread-silk-lame/

Everyone who is going to the TNNA show, travel safe and have fun. Come home with great things for your shops for us, ok?

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Stars: Stitching Eva Marie Saint

After stitching my brains out on the little Melissa Shirley mermaid and also finishing two purses this week, I'm not ready to work on assembling the little Nordic snowman into a Christmas stocking, so it's back to Stars for the New Millennium for me.  I've started the second block in row two, which is called Eva Marie Saint.

There are nine steps in this block.  As in all of the blocks so far, each section repeats either four or eight times, which means I finally master a section after the second or third try.  This can get tedious but fortunately most of the sections are small.

In the photo above I've done steps one and two, which are Burden stitches on the horizontal in an upright cross shape and then Burden stitches on the diagonal.  The same threads are used and in the same pattern of couching but the side "petals" look darker because they are on the diagonal. Interesting effect!   I didn't expect this to happen.

In this photo I've started step three, which is adding chevrons around the center.  There will be three more chevrons, which took more time than I expected for something that looks simple in the diagram.  I am not wildly experienced in working from charts, though, so perhaps I don't recognize what is going to be hard and what isn't yet.

As always, my colors are violet (A), black (B), terracotta (C) and metallic copper (D).

If you'd like to see other Stars projects underway, Sara Leigh has posted progress photos from her stitching group of the various colorways they've chosen.  I love seeing the various colors folks have chosen.  Each one is different and beautiful!
http://remedialstitcher.blogspot.com/2010/05/sunday-was-stars-day.html

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

A Giveaway

Since we were just talking about the beaded pattern couching, I have been meaning to give away my extra copy of the March/April Needlepoint Now that I received when we switched to a post office box this year.  My copy took so long to be forwarded from the street address I thought it was lost, and NP Now sent me a replacement.  (Thanks, Elizabeth!)  Naturally three weeks after the replacement issue arrived the original showed up with stickers all over it as it was shunted here and there.

This issue has beaded pattern couching diagrammed in the Leigh Deisgns flower piece on the back side of the magazine stitched by Brenda Hart.  You can read all about the issue here and even see Brenda's piece by clicking on the link to the Back Cover.
http://www.needlepointnow.com/back_issues/2010/2010_03/2010_03.html

I'm going to give my extra copy away to a random person who comments on this blog article.  So post a comment and I'll pick a number based on the first, second, third, etc. person who comments.  If Blog won't let you comment, don't worry, you can still enter the drawing.  Just email me at chilly hollowat hotmail dot com and I'll include you.

You don't need to give me your mailing address or anything, just write a comment and post it or email it to me.  I'll announce the winner Sunday to give everyone a chance to read this blog posting. The winner can then let me know where to mail the copy.

Good luck!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

The Final Product: The Mermaid Purse

The little Melissa Shirley mermaid's bullion curls are all finished, and I've added a length of holographic Kreinik to make a hair clasp, so it is time to attach the canvas to the canvas purse I bought.  Because the purse is such thick canvas and the needlepoint piece is small, I decided to attach it to the pocket of the purse with glue.  So I laid the canvas upside down on a piece of waxed paper and using my Aileen's Tacky Glue, I ran a bead of glue all around the outside edge of my stitching.  With a toothpick, I smoothed out blobs so that every part of the outside margin of the stitching had glue on it in a smooth layer.  Then it dried all day.  That evening I cut out the canvas at the glued edge, one thread from the stitching, using my regular scissors (not my embroidery scissors--NP canvas is too tough on them).

Then I put glue on the pocket and along the back side of the needlepoint at the edge.  Carefully aligning the canvas to the pocket, I put the needlepoint on and pressed down hard.  Then I put a skinny book inside the pocket and put more books on top of the pocket so the glued needlepoint was pressed down hard to dry.

Once the purse dried overnight, I removed the books and checked how everything looked.  As I'd suspected the one thread I cut outside of that wasn't stitched showed on the top and bottom of the needlepoint, but not on the sides.  On the sides the pocket trim hide the raw edge.   This is easy to fix, however.  I just strung enough of my lemon-lime green beads to cover the top on waxed thread, then glued the line of beads along the top and a second string along the bottom of the canvas, hiding the raw edge.  Trim is wonderful!

Here's the final result, which is all wrapped and boxed up ready to mail to the Birthday Girl.  Note the glass heart attached to the zipper pull in the two last photos.  That was an added touch, something I picked up on sale at the local crafts emporium to fancy up the purse even more.  Many thanks to Melissa Shirley for allowing me to post photos of her design here as I stitched like the wind to finish it in time for the Big Day!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Finishing Touches

BEFORE

I believe it is the little finishing touches that lift a project from "good" to "very good" or maybe even "fantastic."  Above is a Before photo that shows the mermaid before I added a few touches to the design.  At this point I had added a few straight horizontal stitches to her bra to connect the two breastplates.  A bathing suit top just doesn't look right to me without them. I used the same red Elegance silk perle that makes up the straps to the top.  Adding those few stitches completed the look for me.  Without them that area bothered me and you know how it is--if something on your stitching bothers you now, you'll never be able to look at the piece without it still bothering you later.  Much better to deal with the issue (whether it involves ripping out or not) now while you can and avoid the irritation later!

The second photo shows the backstitching around the mermaid's hands and along her chin (using one ply of the rose Splendor that makes up her cheeks) to define these areas.  Added these few stitches really added a lot to this design.  Without them, the chin and neck blended together and the fish and hands also were hard to tell apart.  See what a difference a few threads make?

By the way, in the above photos I'm starting to add her hair, all in bullions using a great crewel-sized wool called EPiC.  I don't know where I found this wool locally (I think Needlewoman East but I am not sure), but it is great stuff.  My color is the overdyed "multitone" Apricot.  It is light apricot to almost orange in color and makes great bullions.  My own opinion is that a tightly twisted thread makes the best bullions although I have done them in one ply of silk.
http://www.allpointsyarn.com/APYYarnBiz/epic_yarns/epic_wool_yarns.htm

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow