Want to Learn Needle Painting? Planning and Sketching

Dog Unstitched

Once again, here is my Leigh Designs canvas of the Miami Gold Digger, with the little dog I plan to needle paint.  Note that the animal is semi-realistic and that it isn't too large.  For your first needle painting attempt,  you probably should start small.  This canvas is 18 count and the dog itself is approximately two inches tall and a bit over three inches long at its widest point.

Once you have picked a canvas with an animal you want to needle paint, then it is time to take a careful look at the canvas and start planning. The best way to do this is to copy the canvas animal in black and white. 

Black and White Copy

If you look carefully at the dog in the black and white version, you can see the shading lines that Leigh Designs painted on it.  These lines are what you will be trying to reproduce in your needle painting.  But before you go any further, you need to take a good luck at what the dog is made up of.  In the photo, the dog has large ears, chubby cheeks, prominent eyes and nose and forehead, front paws clearly defined and a tail.  The rear end is much less defined as the rear legs and body are tucked under Mia's arm.  All this means that you will want some parts of the dog to stand out and some parts to be less prominent.  I like to make things more prominent with padding but there are other ways to do this.  You can use beads and bright colors, too.  With a white and gray dog, bright colors are out, so I planned to use padding on the cheeks, forehead and ears and to add beads for the eyes.

I am going to use stem stitches for the bulk of the dog's body, with a few straight and slanting lines where needed.  To help me keep the fur look accurate, I drew pencil lines on my black and white copy of the part of my canvas with the dog.  You do this by imagining that you are petting or brushing the fur with the pencil.  If you use a pencil, you can erase and redraw the lines until you are satisfied.  This is what I ended up with. Note that my marks are in blue ink so they are visible to you.

Lines to Guide Stem Stitches

Note that things change as you stitch.  You may not end up with fur that flows exactly this way but at least you have a plan.  Next time we'll talk about the various areas I stitched and how my plan changed over time.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright December 17, 2015 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Oh Christmas Tree!

Stitch By Stitch's blog has a fun pictorial essay on stitching Christmas trees that is full of ideas for stitches to use on them. There's a stitch for every style of Christmas tree! 
http://www.stitchbystitchneedlepoint.com/#!All-things-trees/o6dgx/566633a90cf256f068fe29ff

Bookmark this for the next time you can't find the perfect stitch for your next tree....

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright December 10, 2015 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

A Beard for Christmas

This time of the year all the great holiday ornaments folks have displayed will tempt us to purchase a Santa canvas to stitch for the 2016 holidays.  Then we are faced with the task of coming up with a great beard stitch. One of the beard masters is Janet Zigler Casey, who teaches a very popular line of holiday ornaments.  I thought you'd like to see all her beards.  Click on each thumbnail portrait to get a better look.
http://www.jzcdesigns.com/christmas.htm

If you stitch a lot of Santa Clauses and don't already own Diana Bosworth's little booklet Beards I Have Known, put it on your Christmas wish list.  It is full of great ideas for stitches and threads to make fabulous beards.
http://www.nimbleneedlenj.com/product/needlepoint-stitch-reference-book-beards-that-i-have-known-by-diana-bosworth/

Diana herself is another beard expert.  Check out the Petei Santas at the French Knot in Texas, most of which Diana stitched!
http://www.thefrenchknot.com/x-petei.htm

Merry Christmas, Santa!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright December 7, 2015 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Perils of a Pillow UPDATED

Liz Morrow of LizArt decided to make an original Bargello design as a Christmas present for good friends. And of course there were issues such as finding the right background, running out of thread that is discontinued, etc.  But you wouldn't know it from how this turned out.
http://lizartblog.blogspot.com/2015/12/j-m-bargello.html

The moral is that everyone, even great designers like Liz, run into problems as they stitch.  Personally, I do my best work when overcoming these problems, so keep at it.  Nothing runs smoothly all the time, after all.

UPDATE:  Here is the finished pillow.  It is magnificent!
http://lizartblog.blogspot.com/2015/12/j-bargello-pillow.html

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright December 4, 2015 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Christmas Shopping at DMC

I haven't paid a lot of attention to DMC's new Common Threads site but it does have some fabulous gifts for stitchers. They have two styles of wooden sewing boxes, although I have no idea why they are only offered in washed-out blue-gray.
http://commonthread.us/large-wood-sewing-box-antique-gray-plus-floss.html

http://commonthread.us/gondola-wood-sewing-box-antique-gray-plus-floss.html

If you want stocking stuffers, they have a finger tip magnifier...
http://commonthread.us/finger-magnifying-glass-red-2.html

...and cute DMC-themed pins, either the skeins shown or two card spools shown at the bottom of the page.
http://commonthread.us/mercerie-brooch-rwb.html?utm_source=Commonthread+Website+Signup&utm_campaign=ea5b2b8e4a-Stocking_Stuffers_12_10_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_946d6b91ed-ea5b2b8e4a-82345393

If you want something to stitch fast, there are mini stockings, although they really are geared towards cross stitchers.  Regardless, it's fun to browse all the styles.
http://commonthread.us/dmc-products/stitchables/stockings.html

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright December 10, 2015 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.