College Needlepoint UPDATED

Once stitchers started blogs where they posted photographs of their work, I began to realize how popular college and Greek fraternity/sorority stitching is.  I've started to collect places to see examples of such canvases.  Kathy Schenkel has a nice selection of college mini socks and a baseball team sock, too.
http://thenimbleneedle.blogspot.com/2012/11/college-mini-socks-and-few-others-too.html

College football teams seem to have a lot of painted canvases for their fans to celebrate-stitch.  Here's a collection from a Texas shop.
http://theneedleworks.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=21_48_211

Here are more college-themed designs.
http://enrichedstitch.com/13-days-until-christmas/

A lot of the Carol Dupress candy canes have college themes.  (She's distributed by Susan Roberts if you are hunting online.)  Here are just a few examples.
http://theneedleworks.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=candy+cane+dupree&x=0&y=0

There are college stockings,  too!
http://thenimbleneedle.blogspot.com/2012/12/college-days.html

UPDATE:  Just heard that Keep Your Pants On creates lots of college and sports-themed canvases.  They are distributed by CBK.
http://www.cbkneedlepoint.com

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

More Christmas Stitching

There have been so many wonderful photographs of Christmas ornaments posted that I have more for you to enjoy, now that the madness of Christmas prep is over and you are sitting down with you feet up before packing away all the decorations and thinking about dieting in 2013.  Check out the bells on this cowgirl!
http://eyecandyneedleart.blogspot.com/2012/12/bells-on-her-toes.html

Mer's animals and packages in a sled piece is terrific fun.
http://www.mersworld.com/2012/12/18/christmas-needlepoint/

Pat has two new Loretta Spears ornaments for Christmas.  Each side is a different set of colors, too!
http://needleartnut.blogspot.com/2012/12/merry-christmas.html

Liz has two cats for Christmas.
http://lizartblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/black-calico-cats-finished.html

Casey's tree is full of Christmons ornaments.
http://theyoungneedlepointer.blogspot.com/2012/12/my-christmas-tree.html

Wait'll you see the Boston-themed mini socks that Stitch Boutique Boston posted!  There's a slide show at the bottom of the page with even more than the three posted in the body of the blog entry.
http://www.stitchboutiqueboston.com/blog/?p=364

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

Dame Judi Dench and Her Embroidery UPDATED

Recently a bit of an old interview with Matthew MacFadyen has started circulating on the World Wide Web again, with the section that talks about Dame Judi Dench and her stitching highlighted. I finally managed to find the original source for you.  Mr. Macfadyen starred in Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly and Dame Densch and this was a publicity interview after the movie came out in 2005.
http://www.darcylicious.com/drupal/node/115

The stitching part is at the end, the last two paragraphs.  Sadly, neither of the actors interviewed can describe what the stitching is like except that it is all swear words.  I can't find any photographs, either.  Perhaps she is working one of the Subversive Cross Stitch kits?
http://www.subversivecrossstitch.com

UPDATE:  Another news article on her work.  Still no pictures.  :(
http://starcrush.com/judi-dench-subversive-needlework/?trackback=fbshare_top

UPDATE #2:  More info in the next to last paragraph.

http://www.darcylicious.com/drupal/node/115

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

ScottLee Colors

Arlene's Award Winning ScottLee

By now most of us have the January NeedlePointers magazine that showcases all the award winners from the 2012 Seminar.  I got a question about two weeks ago about the colors Arlene Cohen used in the blue and ecru version of Jean Hilton's "ScottLee" that won an award at the Philly Seminar exhibit.  Arlene was kind enough to have sent me photographs of her piece that I used on Blog last spring so I emailed her and asked if she had a thread list.  This is what she said in reply:

"I originally saw Scott Lee on a blog and was intrigued by the complexity of stitches and such, although I admit quite turned off by the colors.  When I heard that the pattern was available for purchase, I did buy it, thinking that I could do something about the colors.  I read Jean's introduction that she was inspired by a rug in her home and that just clicked with me.  The rug under my dining room table is a just a basic floral with a blue background and that became my inspiration.  

I just now pulled out my pattern book to confirm what I suspected, which is I only have partial notes.  As I went along, I know I changed decisions about threads and colors and never wrote it down.  I also found the overall piece a little too "busy" and tried to tone that down both with colors choices and by changing some stitches in the inner parts. 

The biggest thing to know is that I originally stitched all the Jessicas (I believe that is 166 of them) in the border in DMC Pearl #8 in 794.  As I progressed with the piece and began bringing in more blue in the center, I decided that I was really really unhappy with that blue in the border.  Out came all those Jessicas and back in they went with Splendor 1029.  I think with four strands? I knew that if I didn't change that blue, I was never going to be happy - a great lesson.

Here's what I can put together:  for blues, I used a lot of Splendor 1029, with some 1030, and some DMC 793 for the Perle Cottons as needed.  For the tans, it was a lot of Splendor 926, 927, and 928, with DMCs 841, 842, and ecru as needed for some stranded parts and for Perle Cottons.  I used some green and rose (I think both DMC, 316 and 367) as highlight colors, as my rug has, but truly kept them to highlights, again finding the original pattern had too much variety of color for me.

I hope this is helpful!"

It is very helpful, Arlene.  The folks who are interested in trying your version are going to be happy to know all this.  Thank you and Happy New Year!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

Petitpoint in Vienna

Somewhere on the World Wide Web yesterday I ran across a mention of this Viennese shop that sells petitpoint pieces. I didn't make note of who mentioned it as I was sure I would remember. Oops!

Thanks, whoever you are.

The items for sale are traditional petitipoint, worked in the Berlin woolwork style.

Enjoy browsing the goods. I can't get any of the photos to enlarge but maybe your machine will work better with the site.  I was eager to see the hand mirrors better since my Day of the Dead lady has one in her bony hand but alas, the site doesn't like my Mac.
http://www.petitpoint.eu/english/aboutus.html

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com