The St. Charles Gossip

Barbara Bergsten Won't Tell!

The St. Charles Gossip would be me--I have tidbits to share about what designers are going to bring to the St. Charles wholesale market. This is what is known as a Cash and Carry show.  Shops can buy what the designers bring and cart it home with them.  No waiting for things to ship later.  When your shop owner gets back from St. Charles and recovers enough from all the excitement to show up at your LNS, they will have the latest items for you to enjoy.

Barbara Bergsten will be at St. Charles.  She's not telling what she is bringing except for the No Peaking canvas above.  LOL
http://createneedlepoint.typepad.com/create_needlepoint/2010/09/tnnas-fall-needlecraft-market-.html

I've heard that Melissa Shirley is introducing a new artist but there hasn't been even a whisper what the designs will be like.  We'll have to wait and see what she posts on her website this weekend.
http://www.melissashirleydesigns.com/gallery/?bsn=1

Leigh Designs' new series is called Ladies of the Night.  Photos will be revealed on their site Sunday.  I guessed what Leigh was doing so I've seen photos of the series.  It truly isn't like any other painted canvas I've ever seen.  All I'll say is it's on custom canvas....
http://www.leighdesigns.com/

I know that Needle Works isn't going to the St. Charles show but they ordered new designs sight unseen from their favorite designers and promise to post photos on their blog next week as the shipments arrive. So this is going to be a good site to watch.  The Sept. 1 blog entry already shows off Brenda Stofft's newest Halloween designs.
http://theneedleworks.typepad.com/

Speaking of Halloween, Squiggee (Gail Hendrix) has some wonderful new pieces for St. Charles.  There's a witch with a green complexion, and a scardy cat!  And there is a wonderful witch's house, too.
http://squiggeedesigns.blogspot.com/2010/09/st-charles-sneak-peak.html

http://squiggeedesigns.blogspot.com/2010/09/peaking.html

http://squiggeedesigns.blogspot.com/2010/09/still-peaking-at-st-charles.html

Finally, for the counted canvas folks, here are new items from Shakespeare's Peddler.
http://shakespearespeddler.blogspot.com/2010/09/just-facts.html

As things are revealed, I'll post links here as I find out about them.  Until then, how about reading Janet Perry's review of the self-finishing Timeless Tote clutch purses?
http://www.nuts-about-needlepoint.com/timeless-totes-self-finishing-clutch-product-review

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

Remember O'jishi?

O'jishi

Remember the Japanese Noh Theatre mask of the stylized lion I stitched as a model for Leigh Designs last winter?  He's going to St. Charles as a pillow for the Leigh cash and carry show there.  Our wonderful shop owners can visit him there.

O'jishi in Final Form

Of course us regular stitchers won't be there as it is a wholesale show, so Leigh said I could show him off here.  The magnificent finishing is by Marlene's in San Francisco.

I am very proud of how this light coverage piece turned out.  Hope you enjoy seeing the finished version and that you get to see him in person at St. Charles.  Everyone travel there and back safely!

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

Pirate Coat and Collar

Coat is stitched.

First, here is a photo of the finished pirate coat.  My second thread choice was Just Right, making ripping out a pleasure, not a pain.  I do love it when things come together!  The next step is stitching the collar and collar trim.

Collar is stitched.

As usual, I considered the collar's shape when picking a stitch.  Doesn't that curve of the right collar look like bargello?  I went with simple straight satin stitches that make up a sort of vertical Bargello Wave pattern to make the right side collar stand out against the Dotted Swiss shirt and the Long Upright Cross Stitch coat.  I can use more or fewer plies to make the collar heavy enough to look good with (not dominated by) the shirt and coat.  I used the same silk thread on the collar as on the coat.

Unstitched Pirate Cat Canvas

Compare this photo of the unstitched Pirate Cat to the stitched coat photo above.  See how I stretched out the long silk stitches to cover more of the gold trim area?  There's a reason for that--I plan to use detached buttonhole for the trim.  Because of the way detached buttonhole is done, I don't want as much gold paint showing.

The final step before starting detached buttonhole is to stitch the collar on the left side.  For the left side collar, I used tent stitches and also covered all but one row of gold stitches.   Now all that is left is the collar trim.

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

Right Stitch, Wrong Thread

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Anyone new to stitching painted canvases will occasionally make a mistake and have to rip out.  You'll choose the wrong stitch, the wrong thread, the wrong color, etc.  Not to worry.  This is normal and good.  Being able to recognize a mistake and fix it is a skill any good stitcher wants to cultivate!

Actually, anyone--new to painted canvases or not--will make mistakes and have to fix them.  Since I'm writing this with folks new to stitching needlepoint canvases without help in mind--and I made a mistake I've ripped out--I thought I'd talk about mistakes in detail today.

The photo above shows my first attempt at working the Pirate Cat's coat.  I wanted to use a textured stitch in red because the coat is painted red and because the Dotted Swiss stitch I used for the brown shirt is textured.  I didn't think that a smooth coat next to the raised stitches of the shirt would look good.  The texture of the coat and shirt need to be similar.  Of course I could use the same stitch both places, but what's the challenge in that!?!

When choosing clothing stitches, I find it helpful to think about what I believe the clothing would look like in real life.  Since I think of a pirate's coat as being rough, perhaps made of wool, I rummaged in my stash for red threads with some wool or wool-like texture.  I came up with a nice bright red Vineyards Silk.  Then I went through my stitch dictionaries, looking for something that was both textured and slightly vertical in feel.  I was thinking of a corduroy coat, you see, and corduroy is made of vertical lines.  I found Long Upright Cross Stitch and it turned out to have the perfect texture, not too rough or prominent, but able to stand up to Dotted Swiss and look enough like a corduroy coat to make me happy.  (If you are curious about Long Upright Cross Stitch, it is roughly like the top diagram on this page except the vertical stitches are over four threads, not two.)
http://www.threadneedlest.com/Upright_Cross_Stitch.html

I'm happy with the stitch but if you look at the photo above, you can see the red Vineyards Silk thread I choose is too orange in tint and the thread itself looks too heavy to me.  I had planned to top stitch the orange and blue fold lines in the coat but I don't think that'll look good on such a heavy thread.  So it's back to the drawing board.  Out came the Vineyard Silk thread and I rummaged in my stash some more, only to find a nice dark garnet Soie de Alger which turned out to be exactly what I had in mind.

The Right Thread and Stitch

Ripping out is a good thing.  That's how you get just the effect you want!

Tomorrow I'll show off the finished coat and talk about stitching the collar.

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

Lots of Monthly Club News

Chandail Circus Club

In the last month a great many shops have posted news about their new monthly clubs, or updated already revealed clubs with photos of stitched models.  I've collected all this information for your viewing pleasure (in no particular order) since I know these clubs are wildly popular.

If you are a fan of Kelly Clark's designs or just like Christmas, this Heritage Ornament club is just the thing for you.
http://www.needlepoint-knitting.com/kelly-clark-heritage-ornaments.htm

Needle Works has posted photos of all the stitched purse ornaments in their club.  Very cute!  I just wish the photos would enlarge.
http://theneedleworks.com/purses/

There are photos of the Kelly Clark pears club, too.
http://theneedleworks.com/pears/

The Circus has come to town at Chandail Needlework with a series of ornaments from Kirk & Hamilton.  Click on "Larger Size" under each photo and prepare to be amazed and amused.
http://www.chandailneedlework.com/series/CircusCircus.php

Ruth Schmuff is offering an Atomic Christmas ornament club for the retro 60s fans among us. These Eye Candy canvases are totally fun and totally unlike anything else.
http://www.notyourgrandmothersneedlepoint.com/2010/09/its-atomic-christmas.html

If you prefer setting up your own club and using threads from your stash, And More has a cute selection of hearts of the month.
http://www.artistscollection.net/Artists_Collection/Hearts_of_the_Month.html

Along the same line, Artists Collection has angels of the month canvases.
http://www.artistscollection.net/Artists_Collection/Angels.html

Pocket Full of Stitches has glimpses of their Christmas tree club canvases on their blog, and...
http://pocketfullofstitches.blogspot.com/2010/08/these-firs-really-are-fabulous.html

...they have updated their website page for their Haunted Night Letters club  finished stitched models, AND...
http://www.pfos.com/ChristmasClubs/Kelly%20Clarks%2012%20Days/PocketFullofStitchesHauntedNight.HTM

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjboYvys159fRZ_JlBbSHnldL98_5vLK16DXgAJbVCP8fFJUuemie8kF31JjXCsozZBf_21E5WPCmsiIaQz6QwXMKrC2MQ82pQZUVqUDQ4ip8P4uslux0CsnHBF0Wb5ltTYA9L2DAoUNSj7/s1600/HauntedNight.jpg

...there are photos of their cupcake club canvases that look good enough to eat.
http://pocketfullofstitches.blogspot.com/2010/09/cupcakery.html

Finally, Pocket Full of Stitches is going to do something fun in conjunction with the seasonal tree stitch guides from Eye Candy that Needlepoint Now is going to publish starting with the September/October 2010 issue that is just now being mailed--they are kitting up each tree as the guide comes out in the magazine.  If you are stitching these trees and want PFOS to pull together thread kits for you, here are the details.
http://pocketfullofstitches.blogspot.com/2010/09/have-you-seen-most-recent-needlepoint.html

Here's a bit more about this issue from the editor of NP Now's blog.
http://nneditor.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/septoct-issue/

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