Chilly Hollow Stitch Guides: Artists Collection

I've added a new entry to the CH Stitch Guides blog.  This time I'm writing about Artists Collection*, which represents three separate designers, all of whom offer stitch guides for some, many or all of their canvases.  You can visit my other blog by clicking here--
http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com/2010/08/collection-of-designs-with-guides.html

*Sorry, I mistakenly wrote A Collection of Designs. Palma caught it, so thank you very very much!

If you haven't voted on which Patt & Lee canvas I should stitch (see yesterday's entry for the choices), please either use the poll above or email your choice to me at chillyhollow at hotmaildotcom before you leave. Thanks!

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

Charting a Mystery, Melissa Shirley, and Threads

Ruth Schmuff's Harvest Mystery

Thistle Needleworks is having a Melissa Shirley trunk show for two weeks.  You can see the canvases in the show (on sale at 20% off the normal price) on their online store here, or if you are in Connecticut, check out directions to the shop on the shop website (second link below).
http://store.apneedlearts.com/meshtrshcoau.html

http://www.thistleneedleworks.com/directions.html

ThreadworX is looking for photos of pieces stitched with their threads.  Want to be in their winter Journal issue?  Details here.
http://www.threadworx.typepad.com/the-needleworx-journal/2010/08/submission-requests-fall-holiday-issue-.html

My final tidbit of news is that Ruth Schmuff has charted her last mystery class so that fans of charted work can stitch it on plain instead of painted canvases.   The photo above is the pink-orange-brown original version of Harvest Mystery. Her blog shows what a little blue can do!  Ruth says she plans to offer charted versions of several of the canvases in her line now, so if you love counted canvaswork, keep an eye on Ruth's blog.
http://www.notyourgrandmothersneedlepoint.com/2010/08/funny-what-little-color-change-will-do.html

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

Help Me Choose A Patt & Lee Design

As you know, needlepointers work from charts, on painted or printed canvases, or work an outlined project. So-called painted canvases come in many flavors: there are hand painted canvases that are done by human beings, there are “stitch painted” canvases where special trouble is taken to make sure that the design is painted on so that there is never any question as to what color goes where, and there are printed designs put on by machine. The printed designs used to be either silk screened or stamped but there are digital printing processes available these days that put the old silk screened canvases to shame.

Because printed canvases are done by machine, they are usually cheaper than a painted canvas done by a person due to the labor savings. These designs have a bad reputation because in the past the quality was poor. Many of the printed designs I saw twenty years ago were askew and on poor quality canvas. There was nothing to tempt a stitcher to spend his or her precious free time working these things. More recently eBay sellers began to offer iron transferred designs on interlock canvas but often didn’t understand which designs will stitch well. Buyers ended up with a lovely canvas that it is impossible to stitch.

Of course times change and so does the equipment that transfers a design onto needlepoint canvas. Designers like In Good Company use something called giclee painting to produce canvases that are excellent quality at a good price.
http://www.needlepointbyingoodcompany.com/

I’ve been talking back and forth with Patt of Patt and Lee Designs about painted canvases, the image problem giclee painted canvases have, her company, and the technical difficulties of printing a design on needlepoint canvas which is not always straight.

Patt tells me she started out designing her own work because the kits she bought drove her crazy with their registration problems. She switched to working from charts, then bought a software program that would create her own designs in needlepoint and cross stitch. She wondered if her designs would sell and started doing iron transfers of her designs onto interlock canvas. They sold and she built up a following of repeat customers. However, the iron transfer canvases weren’t really up to her quality standards, so she kept looking and discovered giclee painted designs. A local shop bought some of Patt’s work, and well, the rest is history!

Patt and Lee Designs offers both beautiful giclee' painted as well as hand painted designs. Her line of hand painted designs are stitch painted. I will be focusing and blogging about one of her giclee' painted designs.  But which one?
http://www.pattandleedesigns.com/

Patt graciously offered to send a canvas for me to stitch publicly to show off the high standard giclee painted designs today. When I was charmed by several, she laughed and sent both of them to me. You, Blog readers, are going to choose which I stitch. Here are the candidates.

Asian Inspiration

Asian Inspiration Sampler - The number of this canvas is Ai-16 and it is one of Patt’s earlier designs. It is on 18 count Zweigart mono canvas and is 6 1/4 inches long by 5 inches high. I love the Asian feel of this design, especially the lovely variety of borders and the iris variety I know as "purple flag." The kanji symbol stands for love. Pat says the iris bring a message of friendship and appreciation, making this a perfect present for someone you treasure.
http://www.pattandleedesigns.com/asian_inspired_designs

Pirate Cat

Pirate Cat Wants Candy - This is one of Patt’s most recent designs which debuted at the TNNA trade show last June.  The official name is Hi-55.   Patt has a wonderful series of dressed up cat canvases which have a slightly old-fashioned feel lightened by their humor. This is just one of a group of Halloween cats she's done, many of which have their own stitch guides.  I wouldn’t dare not hand out the fish-flavored treats if this cat showed up on my doorstep next Halloween! Pirate Cat is on 18 count Zweigart mono canvas. He’s 6 inches long and 3 3/4 inches high.
http://www.pattandleedesigns.com/whats_new_for_2010

The colors on both canvases are strong and true and I can’t see any areas where the painted lines don’t match up to the canvas threads. Neither design has fine lines or curves that will be impossible to translate into NP stitches. So now we choose!  Or rather, you choose.

I’ve posted a poll above where Blog readers can vote for Pirate Cat or Asian Inspiration Sampler. Whichever canvas gets the most votes, that’s the canvas I will stitch! So think it over. Do you want to see flowers and koi and fancy borders? Or do you want to watch me dress the Pirate Cat in all his fancy duds?

Note that the poll will stay up for several days at least. I want to give Blog readers who only show up every 3-4 days a chance to make their preference known. Vote early but not often! LOL

May the most popular canvas win.

By the way, if you can't vote in the poll, just email me your choice at chilly hollow at hotmail dotcom and I'll add your vote to the poll.

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

My List

My list of things to tell you is getting way too long again.  While I futz around with Stars, I need to tell you about items on the list so I can cross things off and start adding to the list again.

Bwahahahaha!

First of all, Busy Needle in Tucson is having a 25% off sale on in stock Halloween items (kits, canvases and charts) through the end of August.  Better get busy browsing!
http://www.busyneedle.com/Themes/Holidays/Halloween/index.htm

I just noticed that ANG's next cyberclass features Ultrasuede appliques.  Registration for this Orna Willis class starts September 1 and the class itself starts after the month-long registration period.
http://www.needlepoint.org/CyberWorkshop/index.php

If you want to explore this technique on your own, you need to check out Orna Willis' blog.  She uses shaped Ultrasuede on several of her projects and has posted two videos about how she does it there.  If you are late reading this, look for the August 24, 2010 postings.
http://ornadesign.blogspot.com/

Lamb

Remember the Canvas Candy glass ornament/needlepoint canvas sets I mentioned already this week?  Ruth Schmuff has posted photographs of all the pairs on her store website.  There are over 40 of them.

Doghouse in Winter

Pick the ones you are interested in, click for details, then click the little thumbnail to see them all.  (Of course, if you happen to be in the Baltimore area, you can see them in person.)
http://www.bedeckedandbeadazzled.com/products.php?catid=234

Finally, Carolyn Hedge Baird has released her next book. It's called Needlepointing in Your Nest.  I have no idea what it is about, but since it premiered at Chaparral last week and she teaches there often, I bet they can tell us all about it.
http://www.ndlpt.com/index.html

Ok, that's everything on my stitching list except for "finish Cary Grant block on Stars."  I'd better get busy on that.

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

Skulls Cell Phone Case Finished

As you can see, the cell phone case is finished. I sewed the snaps inside the lining so a phone can be secured inside, then whipstitched the lining to the NP outer case.  The final touch was adding narrow trim to hide the join.  I deliberately let a bit of the lining show above the trim to add to the interest.

I'm happy with how it turned out.  The video doesn't show the sparkle well (it is almost blinding in the full sun) but you can see the color changes from the beads in the above.

Do you think the new owner will like it?  LOL

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