Originally posted 2008-10-20 08:38:13. Republished by Blog Post PromoterJudy Harper posted another delightful Bargello ornament on her FREEBIES, Etc blog yesterday. This one is so fun because, like the Four Way ornament she posted last week, there is plenty of room for personalization here, because the Bargello is the frame. But if you hesitated about stitching the other ornament because it was a Four-way design, start with this one. Each of the four frames is a simple Bargello closed shape (the name for this type of shape is ogee). Judy has chosen to highlight a wonderful accent stitch, Whipped Spider, but you could do all kinds of things. You could put a letter in each to spell out “NOEL” or “LOVE”. You could put letters in three of three frames for initials and add the year in the fourth. You could fill in the frames with more Bargello. You could
Monthly Archive:: June 2012
Rainbow Gallery has lots of new colors in all three sizes of Silk Lame. My favorites are the almost white pastels in Silk Lame Petite. They would look so neat adding just a blush of color to a canvas. There is also a new color of Gold Rush 18, a hot pink. And they have also added a nifty new tool, the Stitcher’s Best Friend, that is a two ended tool made to help you fix stitching mistakes. Access Commodities has added a new line of called Glints to Bijoux Metallics. These four colors include two golds, a silver, and a creamy white. Ruth Schmuff has four new fairies in both large and small sizes: baking, seashell, garden, and needlepoint. Leigh has seven other Fash Inserts in addition to “nevermore” I told you about on Monday. These are designed for Lee Bags and are put on their removable inserts. The
Originally posted 2010-03-04 07:28:58. Republished by Blog Post PromoterLast week Cp asked me about finding sources to make a belt for a fencer. While I haven’t seen any belts for this specifically, it occurred to me that any stitcher has the resources to make a unique and personal belt for any activity. Although I’m using fencing as an example, you can do this for any activity or event. What about making a school days belt for a child? Or a swimming belt for a member of the swim team? Or just a memory belt? This is easier than it might seem because belts are mostly the same size. They are usually stitched on 14 mesh canvas and are 21 stitches wide which, if you think about it isn’t much. Since belts aren’t seen all at once, their patterns repeat, so that also works in your favor because you don’t have
Let’s be really honest with ourselves here: Do you stitch and finish your needlepoint or do you just stitch it? I mostly just stitch. I have boxes of needlepoint all ready to be turned into something, but what? A Hamlet would say “There’s the rub.” I don’t want pillows, I have lots of ornaments. But I still keep on stitching. I must not be alone in this because more and more I see needlepoint that’s made to be three-dimensional. 3-D needlepoint isn’t new but what is new is how widespread it has become and how many companies are making canvases meant to be finished as objects. And what’s intriguing is that so much of it is small and often only meant to be ornamental. It wasn’t all that long ago that Fancy Carole cone ornaments and Melissa Shirley chocolates were among the few 3-D pieces out there. The first designs
Originally posted 2009-07-18 07:10:23. Republished by Blog Post PromoterRecently the CRAFT blog had a post on making a project bag for your knitting. It recycles those clear plastic zipper bags which hold sheets, tablecloths, or quilts. This is a fantastic idea and one which, as needlepointers, we can also adopt. They will be best for smaller projects and we won[‘t need to poke holes in the top for yarn, but what a great way to get additional project bags!
A hot pink modern chevron design. Can you see it? If you can you’ve seen the face of the newest trends coming down the pike at Quilt Market. This pink is not a ladylike pink, it’s in your face shocking pink, inspired by pop singers. This kind of strong color was often paired with white in many of the new fabrics that debuted at this Market. That’s a trend your could easily bring to your needlepoint. Why not try a simple geometric design, such as the classic Caron Collection BYzantine ornament in white with the Tent stitch rows in a bright color? Other colors that were popular were mid-range brights such as turquoise paired with red, coral, pink, or green. Pink was also paired with yellow. The notion of chevrons is not a strange one to us as needlepointers, only we call it Bargello. The popularity of this classic pattern,
Originally posted 2009-03-23 10:02:25. Republished by Blog Post PromoterKimono (it’s both a singular & a plural word) seem to be in the air lately. Many people are stitching ANG’s Stitch of the Month project from Tony Minieri, which is a kimono mystery project. Lots of people love Lee Needle Arts kimonos. They come in many sizes, from ornament sized to really large, and dozens of designs. I particularly love the tiny ones and have made many of them. Kreinik has a stitch guide for one of the small ones on their site. Sophia Designs and JP Needlepoint, among others, also have some delightful kimono hand painted canvas needlepoint. Another superb project is Kimono from Hummingbird House. While I haven’t stitched it, many of my friends have and it is a glorious needlepoint sampler. It is based on a Maggie Lane outline and filled with stitches. If charted canvas is your
This delightful ornament is based on a vintage wooden ornament. It is one of three in my Vintage Kids Ornament class that is free with the purchase of the kit from Art Needlepoint. The three-lesson class is sent via email and focuses on stitches and techniques for clothing and hair. It begins July 15. On August 1, delight in this luggage tag class featuring different stitches in easy-to-useperle cotton. If you’ve been wanting to expand your knowledge of stitches, this is the class for you. As always the email class is free with the purchase of the kit from Art Needlepoint. Are you a beginning needlepointer? This whimsical cat canvas in a special size marks the Beginning Needlepoint class starting Aug 15. You’ll learn easy stitches and techniques for focal points, accents, and backgrounds, along with special touches to make your stitching sing. As always the email class is free
Scotch Stitches & their variations are very popular, but do yours look their best? Often they do not. Joni Stevenson has another wonderful post on her blog both explaining the problem and showing us what we can do so that our Scotch stitches can be as beautifully plumped as the ones pictured her (picture from her post). I’m learning so much to improve my stitching in her posts
Originally posted 2010-02-24 07:29:10. Republished by Blog Post Promoter As we learned yesterday, needlepoint stitches have direction. This can be a bane or a blessing unless you know how to use it. Most needlepoint stitches fall into one of two classes, Upright or diagonal. Diagonal stitches, by far the most common, have stitches which run along ther true diagonal of the canvas. This means that for every thread they move horizontally, they more one thread vertically. The direction of the slant doesn’t matter; it’s the slope that makes them diagonal. Box stitches and many cross stitches are forms of diagonal stitches. If the stitch slants up and to the right, that is the standard version of the stitch. Flip is so that it slants up and to the left and you have a reverse version. Diagonal stitches go over intersections of canvas. Upright, or Straight, stitches, go in a straight
Originally posted 2010-02-26 07:08:53. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Over the past week or so, I’ve come across a bunch of useful and interesting posts, products and bits of news. I thought I’d share them all with you in a potpourri post. The picture is from a how-to video about making twisted cord, from the blog Feeling Stitchy. Twisted Cord is one of those things, like making Jello, that is really simple but which utterly defeats me, maybe now I can learn. DMC’s blog has a post on the history of needlework. Since the company has been around for over 200 years and published one of the standard books embroidery (still in print), they know whereof they speak. Along with a history of needlework in general, there is an engaging history of the company. If you are a cross stitcher and were jealous of the needlepoint slant of Threadworx Journal,
Remember those delightful decorated frames for Ewe & Eye canvases I told you about in January? There are more that go with Ewe & Eye’s newest canvases. I also have some more details about Associated Talents 3-D spiders. They are round, so they are finished like little puffs. Each of the three comes with a stitch guide. At the moment a frame with legs is available to set the needlepoint in to finish the spider, but those are only in limited supply. They also have delightful new ornaments, triangle tree ornaments and mini-socks with a beach theme in light tropical pastels. Kathy Schenkel has some delightful ovals showing different activities such as “gone fishing” or “gone camping.” I can see them as ornaments, but I could also see them finished and put on the front of a photo album, or box. She also has a sommelier and a winemaker Santa.
Originally posted 2008-04-22 07:11:42. Republished by Blog Post Promoter I just finished this charming design from Sandy Grossman-Morris. When I saw her lighthouses at TNNA I had to stitch at least one. They combine two of my favorite things, quilts and lighthouses. I love the monochrome quilt design as the sky. For the stitch guide, I wanted to pack lots of texture and use many different threads to do it. It ended up that, contrary to popular belief, the focal point, the lighthouse, is stitched in Reverse Basketweave, while the “background” elements use textured stitches. To enhance the look of the water and make it look choppy, I use Ty-Di Cotton Plus in a new stitch to me, Open Water Stitch. The clouds and sky use soft threads, Silk & Ivory for the clouds and Vineyard Silk for the sky. The stitches used on the sky are all similar, diagonal
Associated Talents has great new needlepoint spiders. They are whimsical, 3-D with wire legs, and embellished. Tapestry Tent has a new Santa in a cowboy hat stocking.There are some new Charley Harper canvases out, some of his more elaborate works. Patti Mann has three adorable owls that are colorful, whimsical and elaborate. Sew Much Fun has a very colorful 3-D Christmas turkey. Even the tail is green and red. Ruth Schmuff has added a new flirty girl that comes with a stitch guide by Sheena James. Rebecca Wood has new babycakes and cakes. I just love many of the new Needledeeva canvases. Besides her new Fabulous fir tree series, there are new sugar skulls, 3-D cupcakes, and more. A complex and lovely mermaid is out from dede. Kelly Clark, who’s not at the show, has two new shapely witches, a candy covered witch’s hat (with icing on top), and a
Originally posted 2008-10-26 06:05:39. Republished by Blog Post Promoter I found a post earlier this week (at the great craft blog, Whip Up) about this fabulous Nine Patch quilt block generator. You’ll be simply astonished at the packed diagram showing 4,000 different blocks generated from the 16 elements allowed. The generator is a bit more intelligent than just random design. Only four of the blocks: the colored large and small squares, the white large square, and the colored diamond, are allowed in the center. Judging from the larger blocks pictured, it also generates symmetrical blocks. But it’s a quilting tool you say, what does it have to do with needlepoint? You could easily turn each of the blocks into stitches. Block 10 for example could be two Half Scotches, block 8 a set of Trianglepoint units. Then, once you’ve created your block, you can translate it to stitches. If you