Finishing 101 by Pat Mazu has a wonderful subtitle, “A Workbook of Techniques and Encouragement.” If you have ever wanted to learn how to finish your own needlework to the quality of the professionals, get this book. It is, quite simply, the best and most complete book on finishing ever. It’s not a book to read through, but to use when finishing a particular item. For each type of finishing explained, the instructions are complete and detailed. If you want to finish a Hot Air Balloon Ornament, turn to page 58, it’s all there. Lots of pictures accompany each finish and important details such as cording, hangers, and trims are explained. Before the instructions for finishing the items, there is a section on making decorative cords with three types of cord explained. An easy method to make a tassel is also included. Opening the book are several chapters on general
Monthly Archive:: July 2009
If you like the picture above, then you like Charley Harper. He’s the iconic artist who drew the picture and his work is wonderfully adaptable to needlepoint. This is a section of the cover he draw for The Golden Book of Biology, a book I got when it first came out and still own. It is full of the most marvelous illustrations and made me a fan for life. This week there had been lots of talk about his designs in needlepoint because Purl Bee in New York has a small selection of his designs available as kits. Their post has some wonderful background on Harper and also talks about how wonderful needlepoint is. I’m delighted that one of my favorite artists) and needlepoint are getting this exposure. The Charley Harper canvases that are available from Purl Bee and from other shops, are licensed by Susan Treglown Designs. This company
The needlepoint adaptation of the Pacific Northwest Indian art is coming along and will be available as my initial eProject August 1. While the color scheme is very restrained, there’s lots of texture here. The red uses a narrow version of Byzantine. Combined with the Threadworx floss, you get a feeling of hand carving. White is done in T Stitch to let it recede a bit. The black is plain old needlepoint in both directions to make a smooth outline. My happiest choice is the background. By using Rainbow Tweed and a stitch which forms textured stripes, there is a bit of feeling of wood. I’m having such fun exploring these designs. I love their abstract, but rounded shapes and the color combination is so classic. I’m expecting this piece, my first venture in this area, will not be my last. I’m excited about it and hope you are too
Yesterday on Marianne’s blog wrote about fancy stitches and the tendency for people to go for ever more difficult stitches in needlepoint. She writes “I fear *we* , as a needlepoint community are losing touch with the simple beauty of the threads, colors, designs etc, that needlepoint used to be all about, before it was swamped by the “fancy stitch monster”.” Now if you read the post, you kind of suspect that Marianne and I have been discussing it. I definitely agree with her that there has been a fascination with difficult stitches and with piling on the effects on the canvas. I compare it to those musical groups who are so enamoured of the great vocal effects they can get, that they use them to the deteriment of the music, indulging in “vocal histrionics.” Or the web designer who is so delighted he can create animations that he puts
Right now, The Container Store is having their Organized Home Sale. I got the catalog yesterday and I’m so excited because some of my very favorite containers and tools for organizing are now on sale. Probably my favorite thing on sale are these zippered vinyl mesh pouches. They come in two size (letter and legal) and they are fantastic as project bags. I have many of them and with this sale I’m going off to buy a few more. If you’re looking for portable ORT containers, many people like the small size of foldable mesh containers. They come in four colors (link is to black). They also have a nice discount. Now we come to the more difficult question of canvas and thread storage. There is nothing better than keeping canvases flat while they are waiting to be stitched. But finding shallow small drawers used to be difficult as well.
Earlier this week I got a query about finding hand painted canvas needlepoint for a mid-century modern house. That got me thinking. Often we want to do needlepoint that will work with the decor in our home. That’s easy enough if your furniture is traditional of some kind, but if your house is mid-century modern, needlepoint to fit is harder to find. Here are some places to look. Heartland House has authorized reproductions of Frank Lloyd Wright designs. I’ve done one of the windows in Cross Stitch and have seen the canvases, I think they’d work well. The albums (links at the bottom of the page) give a more complete view of everything they have available. You may not associate him with mid-century modern, but many of his architectural ideas and his houses (especially from the 40′s and 50′s) are this style. He is a huge influence for this period
Orna Willis has added two new how-tos to her site. One is her new color experiment, using as it inspiration Bermuda Reef, pictured above. These kind of cool, analogous color schemes are just perfect for summer. My kids called them”swimming pool colors” when they were little and I think of them as a stitchy equivalent of a quick dip in the pool. The second is about Rhodes Stitches and how to use them to create symmetry. Rhodes is an interesting stitch. It’s named for Mary Rhodes, a marvelous British stitcher from the last half of the 20th Century. She was a very adventurous stitcher and her books can often be found at book sales. Anyhow, Rhodes is cool because you can make it any size or almost any shape. While square Rhodes are the easiest, there are rectangular ones, round ones, heart shapes and even irregular ones. The key to
Dover Book are, hands down, my favorite sources for line drawings and ideas for my needlepoint. In fact they take up about 2 shelves of space (out of five) in my inspiration book shelf. Virtually all their clipart is royalty free so you can use it for your needlepoint without worries. The collection covers the whole gamut of styles, so no matter where you tastes lie, you can find something of interest. So I was delighted to find out that they have a free weekly clipart sampler sent to your email. Sign up here. The picture above is from the free sample selection linked from their thank you page. Can’t you see him done in needlepoint with a grand robe made from variations of Scotch Stitch? And there were lots of other neat ideas in this sample as well
The winner of June’s giveaway is Renee Grandinetti whose first project was a pincushion with yellow and white flowers. This month’s giveaway will have a grand prize and five runners-up. The winner will get a selection of threads, and a scrap bag project with some scrap threads to try. The five runners up will get the scrap bag project. Here’s the question — what’s you favorite piece of needlepoint you’ve ever done? If you have a picture of it out on the web, add the link to your comment, so we can all enjoy it. Because shipping prices have gone up, only US addresses qualify. If you are outside the US,you will need a US address for shipping. Winners will be announced August