Originally posted 2009-01-19 06:18:36. Republished by Blog Post PromoterYesterday I was reading a business blog post about products you love vs. products you like. For example, people who use Macs tend to love their computers. I’m one of them, so I know. I’ve pretty much only used Macs since 1988. I love them, they make me happy and productive. When I’m forced to us PCs I am not happy. Some products create this passion for them, but most don’t. It’s an interesting idea. And when it comes to needlepoint, probably one where we can relate. So what things make a needlepoint product you love? It might be a thread, it might be a kind of canvas, it might be a technique. I love hand-dyed threads, mini-socks, and Bargello. I will tend to buy these things even if I have no need for them. This, of course, explains some of the
Monthly Archive:: August 2012
In Joni Stevenson’s wonderful blog, she recently had a post about eyelets. They are one of my favorite stitches. Partly it’s because they are so fun to make, partly because they are so adaptable. But my eyelets don’t always look as good as they should. Sometimes, they are crowded into the center hole. Sometimes they look messy because I don’t start in the same place with every eyelet. Joni shows you how to deal with both these problems. I often avoid doing eyelets, even though I like them because mine look messy. I’m going to follow Joni’s advice on an upcoming project. Do you have a piece calling for eyelets that you can do
Originally posted 2009-05-16 06:02:06. Republished by Blog Post Promoter I just love Elizabeth Bradley‘s needlepoint designs. I have all her books, have done several of the smaller charts, but I had never done one of the big kits. Doing one can be daunting, but the time you spend in preparing your kit for stitching and the method you use for stitching will be greatly rewarded by the lovely finished result. When you order your kit, determine your background color. There are nine standard background colors, one of which is included in the kit. There are nine standard background colors, one of which is included in the kit that can be selected on Bradley’s site. Your stitching will go more easily if you spend a little bit of time preparing your kit for stitching. Air out the threads by putting them in a basket or old cotton pillowcase. Now separate your
The most challenging (and also the most fun) part of creating a Scrap Bag Needlepoint project is deciding what colors to use. Throughout this post you’ll see examples of some of my projects that used specific color themes. If everything in your project is random, you’ll get chaos. In every project there has to be one or more things that create unity. It might be a color or two. It might be a background color, or it might be an outlining color, but it has to be there. Pick a color The easiest method for creating a project is to use threads of all one color. In the case of Winter Stars, pictured here, I picked blue. I got out blue threads, blue scraps, and light-bluish gray threads. I added a little bit of white. But not every thread was absolutely blue, I had a few that were blue-green. Having
Originally posted 2009-05-31 05:24:37. Republished by Blog Post PromoterOne of my favorite parts of the TNNA show is the “Great Wall of Thread” which previews knitting yarns for the upcoming season. Why? Stitching with knitting yarns is one of my favorite things. The variety of knitting yarns is incredible and many of our popular needlepoint yarns use knitting yarns as their base. While knitting yarns have an incredible variety of fibers and textures, it’s vital to remember that they are for fashion, not for heirlooms, so there aren’t as many colors, nor does the color range for a yarn remain stable. If gray is a big color this year in fashion, expect lots of gray. When it isn’t fashionable, the selection in this color will be far less. So buy as much as you need initially. Second, knitting yarn varies greatly in width, often inside the same skein. You can’t
My biggest problem when it comes to doing a Scrap Bag Needlepoint project is my Scrap Bag itself. It’s a mess. In fact it’s three of them. First there is my “wad” of silk (thanks to Sharon G for this wonderful description). It’s all my unlabeled silks. It’s in a box on a high shelf. Supposedly it’s there if I need just a bit of a color, but in reality I haven’t used it in over 3 years. Second there is my “current” scrap bag. It’s a small box that lives on my desk. Leftovers go in it. I sometimes use it for projects. But it’s completely unsorted. Third there is my “old” scrap bag. It’s a much bigger box, packed with threads. It’s so full I can’t find anything in it. So it mostly lives in the garage. Mostly, when doing a scrap project I pull threads from my
Originally posted 2009-09-20 07:29:02. Republished by Blog Post PromoterA few years ago, if you had asked me, I would have told you that outlining in needlepoint is not a good idea. And often it isn’t. You might think that if you outlined and area first making a line of Continental (one thread lines in needlepoint are always Continental, no matter what you think you are stitching), that it will be easy to fill in. Yes, it’s easy to fill in the space, but you will always be able to see that outline. This is because the stitch is constructed differently and the tension will be different. The problem is not apparent if the thread is a different color. And this is a powerful technique. A recent post from Anne Stradel, really demonstrates how wonderful it is and why sometimes outlining is the perfect solution. In this design, notice the angelfish
Do you have tons of thread in your stash? Do you keep every bit of leftover thread in case you need it someday? Does your thread stash rival that of many shops? Has it ceased being a stash and started to be a “collection?” Would you like to do something about it and make beautiful needlepoint at the same time? The problem of too many scraps is one every quilter knows. While scrap bag quilts are fulfilling, I often wished I could figure out a system that would make creating needlepoint that would make the whole thing easy. Happily for quilters, Joan Ford developed a 7-step program called Scrap Therapy to help quilters deal with their scrap problem. And while her approach was inspiring, it’s taken me awhile to figure out how to apply it to needlepoint. The basic idea is to organize (and cut) your scraps into pieces that
Originally posted 2009-02-01 06:29:49. Republished by Blog Post Promoter If you go into the stores these days, you are bombarded by Valentines. Every time I got shopping I’m glad I don’t have to find Valentines and candy for each of my kids for every person in each class. Talk about candy overload! But I also bought an adorable set of stickers recently which had 42 hearts, each different, in bright, cheery colors. The patterns were simple geometrics, with stripes, squiggles, polka dots, and squares. But they just looked happy and I couldn’t resist them. They have also inspired this month’s Twinchy challenge. Just trace a heart outline (I’ll be giving you four) into the 2″ square, find colors and patterns which make you happy and stitch away. The heart pictured above uses one of the very first Watercolours, Sunset. Sunset then had undyed parts, sunset now does not. I love
Ever since I began stitching, I’ve wished there was a series of lessons that would teach me in-depth the things I always find myself asking about needlepoint. Things like: threads in-depth: how to read a label, cut a skein, or understand their construction color: what it is, how to create color schemes, and how to use it — and not in paint, in thread stitches & how to use them to create dimension and depth In other words, I wanted knowledge and understanding that I could put to use on not just the canvas for a class or a stitch guide, but on whatever canvas I tackle next. When I started stitching in 1970 this information didn’t exist. The most forward-thinking stitchers and teachers weren’t thinking about it then. Even today this knowledge is given in measured doses at great cost. And often you’re left feeling as if you don’t
Originally posted 2008-08-07 09:05:13. Republished by Blog Post PromoterBOOK REVIEW: CHRISTMAS BARGELLO MEDALLIONS & T WINKLING BACKGROUNDS, June McKnight, self-published, 2008. This little book is designed to give you ideas to use Bargello as the focal point for quick and easy ornaments. 24 different Bargello medallions, so Four-way Bargello are presented on two-page spreads. The left page shows a stitched sample of the medallion, often with charms or buttons. The right page has the graph, just enough to show you how the pattern is stitched. Sometimes this is only the outline, and sometimes this includes some of the fill pattern. You select your own colors and threads. A medallion is stitched to be the focal point of an ornament. They are so fast to stitch several of them can be stitched in an evening. But then what do you do? That’s where the second part of the book comes in.
These threads are among my favorites. They are hand-dyed and semi-solid. THere is some variation in color and value but it’s subtle. Their threads have always been this way because they want to mimic the look of aging embroidery. I just love the solid but not really solid look they give to a piece )as long as you don’t stitch in diagonal rows). For the Baltimore market they are introducing new colors in wool and cotton. Their Simply Wool crewel wool had added Key Lime, Wisteria, and Old Red Paint. Wisteria is a very pale lavender, Key Lime a wonderful bright green, and Old Red Paint a dusty pink. In their Simply Shaker line of floss they have added Pecan Pie. It’s a glorious really dar gold, so dark it’s darkish brown. This could be a lovely thread for shadows when combined with gold thread. In their Sampler Thread line
Originally posted 2009-08-08 07:43:16. Republished by Blog Post PromoterElle Decoration magazine has a delightful stencil of a poodle designed by Conrad Botes (from South Africa) available as a free download on their site. The link is at the top of the right column. So of it’s a stencil, why am I telling you about it on a needlepoint blog? It’s a great shape, and a wonderful size. When I saw the silhouettes in circles on his daughter’s wall (in the accompanying post), I immediately thought they would make wonderful needlepoint pieces. So print the poodle, outline it on canvas and draw a big circle around it. Pick two threads, colors, and stitches you like and make a great modern piece
Kreinik had a great post on their blog recently. It talked about intentionally fraying the ends of their threads to make tassels. The directions had instructions on how to create a fusible tassel using their iron-on threads. Although the instructions are designed to fuse onto paper, you could also do this onto fabric or canvas. However, as the picture shows, you can also fray any kreinik thread and use it to make delightful tassels. If you will be sewing on the tassels, make the tassels first, then fray the ends. Then sew the top on so the ends are free (as in the picture). By making the tassel before you fray the ends the top will be tight and easy to attach. Isn’t this a cool idea
Originally posted 2010-08-10 07:36:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Picture this. A needlepoint pin cushion bristling with ball head pins is sitting on a desk. A black cat, still almost a kitten, jumps up next to the pincushion. He takes one pin delicately by the head and pulls it out. Immediately he drops it onto the cushion and takes another one. The cat is mine, Darcy, the pincushion is today’s free project and this really happened. He didn’t swallow any pins, we chased him off, and the pincushion is sitting in a drawer. The project is really simple and uses one stitch, Scotch. By varying the direction of the stitch and the colors, you can make this overall pattern. To make the design bigger most easly, just expand the size of the Scotch Stitches. Stitch it using two colors of Watercolours on 18 mesh canvas. I used two shades of