community Archive

Many stitchers love the creative charted needlepoint designs of Amy Wolfson. At the end of 2013 she will be closing her needlepoint design business to focus on other things. Many of her designs, such as Romance and Rhapsody have been popular among needlepointers. She also has great projects to make 3-D needlepoint animals and to design your own original pieces. You can order her projects through her website. In the past I’ve written several posts on Amy & her products. These include: Designer Profile Observations on Romance & Rhapsody Tips from Rhapsody Stitchers Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2013Some Rights ReservedOriginal content here is published under these license terms: X License Type:Non-commercial, Attribution, no Derivative workLicense Summary:You may copy this content, and re-publish it in unmodified form for non-commercial purposes, provided you include an overt attribution to the author(s). You are not permitted to create derivative works.License URL:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd

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Barbara is on a search for photos of her canvases finished. She wants to spiff up her gallery of stitched pieces by featuring your work. If you’ve finished one of her pieces, send her a picture at: designer@barbarabergstendesigns.com I’m sending her one as soon as I can get my sampler done. Knowing me that may be awhile. Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2013Some Rights ReservedOriginal content here is published under these license terms: X License Type:Non-commercial, Attribution, no Derivative workLicense Summary:You may copy this content, and re-publish it in unmodified form for non-commercial purposes, provided you include an overt attribution to the author(s). You are not permitted to create derivative works.License URL:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd

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“Garden of Delights” is the theme of the new crafts contest at Dover Books. Use Dover clip art, a Dover pattern,or be inspired by a Dover book & win $100 worth of Dover books. Winners appear in an upcoming catalog. The contest ends June 30,2013. The winning entry will be selected based on originality and technique by the Dover editors. Learn all about it here

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Originally posted 2009-06-21 06:36:59. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Remember our stash-busting needlepoint challenge this month? I wanted to bring you up-to-date on my progress and plans. I decided I wanted it to look like stained glass, so I’m using one of my favorite colors of Kreinik, Gunmetal (025HL) for the outline. I love the way it looks like the lead in stained glass. I’m about 2/3′s done with the outline and have finished off one spool of the metallic. It will probably use all of the second spool. My original plan was to use just scrap threads in many colors, but my DH told me he liked the smaller pool of colors in the original chart. So I’ve changed my thinking. I had already pulled out violets, blue-violets, and grays for another project, so I’m going to use that restricted palette. I also looked at the chart, it uses

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Homestead, located in Grand Blanc, Michigan recently announced the rules for their needlepoint challenge. This year, you have a shape to stitch as you wish. You must, however, use at least one color each of two threads: Shaded Very Velvet and Petite Silk Lame. Here are the rules: The shape of this challenge is a sweater, drawn on white 18 ct. mono canvas at Homestead Needle Arts. It is approximately 4-1/2″ x 5″ in size. The sweater MUST be stitched with at least ONE color of Rainbow Gallery’s Shaded Petite Very Velvet AND at least ONE color of Rainbow Gallery’s Petite Silk Lame’. You may use any other threads, beads, buttons, attachments, etc. that you desire. The drawn canvas, Velvet and Silk Lame’ MUST be purchased here at Homestead Needle Arts between the dates of April 3, 2013 and May 18, 2013 (this date may be extended if there are

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I love small needlepoint pieces but I am constantly frustrated by finding ways to finish them. That’s why I love this clever idea from Gingerbread Snowflakes. You can create charming pressed tin frames using tooling foil, tacky glue and tools you have around the house. Designed for ATCs (Artist Trading Cards), this will work for any small piece of needlepoint. You can make each one unique and hang your work in small groups or make them into nicely finished ornaments. If you are doing this with a piece on interlock canvas, just cut the canvas close to the edge of the stitching. If you are using mono canvas, you could cut about three canvas threads from the edge if the piece will get light use. If it will have heavier use, finish the edges. These frames are so clever & so distinctive, you’ll want to make dozens. Get the illustrated

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With a star-packed cast, and buzz about it being great, you may be wanting to see The Big Wedding once it opens April 26. Knowing that needlepoint plays a big decorative role in the movie makes me want to see it even more. Susan Sarandon’s character in the moevie is an avid needlepointer and her bedroom is filled with beautifully stitched pieces. There are finished pieces on the walls, pillows on the beds, chairs, and shelves, and even unstitched canvases rolled up in containers. You’ll see canvases from JP Needlepoint and Jean Smith Designs. Many of the pieces on the set were stitched by customers of two shops, Eye of the Needle in Sarasota, FL and Marji Nydick Needlepoint in Livingston, NJ. These were lent for decorating the set. The set decorator received assistance from House of Needlepoint in Darien, Connecticut. The movie was filmed in Connecticut. When you go

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Carol Toll was the winner of the six-pack of Cotton Petites thread from Sulky. Thanks to everyone for entering

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Cotton Petites is a new line of threads from Sulky. Although Sulky is best known as a maker of threads for machine sewing and embroidery, the size of this thread makes it an ideal candidate for hand embroidery, including needlepoint. The thread comes on 50-yard snap-end spools. It is 12 weight, which is about the thickness of two strands of floss. It’s easy to pull out the length you need and cut multiple lengths in order to strand up. Although I felt as if the thread was thinner than the equivalent number of floss strands, I could see no difference in how the thread performed. I can only attribute my feeling to air caught between the strands of floss, something which is compressed when stitching. I found this thread worked beautifully for decorative stitches. I used it for the gumballs in this Cat’s Cradle canvas. The many colors covered well

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My friend Sandy has been profiled in the Contra Costa Times this week. Sandy does delightful glicee-printed canvases in bright colors and a whimsical star. In her recent ventures, she’s been using different materials for needlepoint (washers for example are used in the pictured piece). You’ve also seen her guest posts on creating customized needlepoint from photos (Part 1 and Part 2). I was at Sandy’s last weekend and a trunk show had just come in. I was astounded by her creativity. The article is short and you can read it online. Sandy’s designs can be seen on her site and ordered through your local shop

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Originally posted 2008-09-24 07:07:29. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Now I’m caught up. Since my DS gave me Pushing Daisies on DVD as a birthday present, we’ve been watching to get ready for the new season. And House was on last night, So for a change, I’ve had some time to stitch these past couple of days. I finished the second E block on the Celebrate Sampler and I am really loving the way it is coming together. I want to take a minute to talk about the thread selection as a whole. It was inspired by some beads in my stash which combine pink and just a bit of gold. Since pink is one of my favorite colors, I have tons of it in my stash, especially orangish pinks and corals, so I pulled them first. I made sure if I picked overdyes that they were primarily these colors.

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Originally posted 2009-03-12 07:24:40. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Three more cats stitched on our stash project. One thing which is so fun about this project is that Patt slightly changes the colors from square to square. so this can really reflect what’s in your stash. For the dark violet, you could use the same thread throughout, or you could change it with every patch, either will look great. Since I really want to mix things up, I’m using different threads right now, but I’m sure most of them will reappear for other cats. The first cat is an unusual uneven check pattern of Mosaics (sxometime Cashmeres) and Tent Stitch. It;s not Mosaic Checker because the Tent Stitch areas are only one thread wide. The Mosaics line up in columns, as do the Tent Stitches, switching between the two colors. Every third row uses Cashmere instead of Mosaic. This patch

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Over at Stitcherie is a clever idea for a year-long project/challenge. It’s called Stitching Games 2013. Joining is simple: Pick a canvas with at least 10 areas for techniques. It must be unstitched but it can be painted or line-drawn. It can also be your own work. You must be able to post pictures of your canvas to the group. Each month a clue will be randomly drawn. The last is drawn in October 2013. People posting pictures each month are eligible for a door prize. Completed canvases posted in November are eligible for voting for the People’s Choice Prize. Each month interpret that clue and apply that interpretation to your stitching. By the end of the month, you will post a picture of what you stitched and an explanation of how you arrived at that decision (both are necessary to be eligible for that month’s prize). Please clearly label

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Originally posted 2011-01-26 07:52:10. Republished by Blog Post PromoterMy initial plan for the Learn-a-Stitch mini socks was to use a different color combination for each one, trying different shades of Watercolours and challenging myself to find threads that matched. Then two things happened. First, I stitched February’s mini-sock (you’ll see it next week) and found the Watercolours I’d picked, plum, didn’t go with much in my stash and I ended up not liking the result as much as I thought I would. This could be a product of our recent gray days, or aging eyes, or just changing tastes, but I’m longing for bright cheery colors. The second thing was that someone asked me if the series could be done in one set of threads. I hadn’t thought about it this way, but yes, it could. But I would get bored with only one set of threads for all twelve

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There’s less than a week left in DMC’s contest with a first prize of a trip to Paris. Share your needlework memories with DMC by January 31, 2013. They need to be 250 words or less. DMC has a post with links top the contest rules and a way to email in your submission. Get typingand good luck!

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