magazines Archive

Carole Lake & Michael Bowren make a wonderful designing duo. This month they are popping up in several places. The duo are the designers spotlighted on the Caron Collection’s site right now. This wonderful interview is lavishly illustrated with many of their projects. As is often the case, StitchPlay has donated one of their designs, Bali’Hai, as a free project on Caron’s site. IN addition to the original colorway, shown here, there are material lists for five other colorways. StitchPlay’s exciting designs are also showing up in print. Their delightful St Margaret’s Star is in the July/August issue of Needlepoint Now. Here also you will find five colorways, each kit made for this design (when taught) goes to a different charity. Many of StitchPlay’s projects are taught as Cyberclasses through The Shining Needle Society. You can join their free Yahoo group through their home page and be notified of upcoming

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These four almost Twinchie (34 stitches square) quilt blocks are really quick to stitch and can be finished quickly to make simple ornaments or gift tags. They are stitched in colors to compliment the overdyed canvas colors, but any scrap of mono canvas will do. I just love the bright bold look. The patterns for the quartet are free and can be found in My 365‘s holiday issue, out today. The beautiful magazine is on-line and free. As a part of the issue, I’m participating in a giveaway of my books. Visit the site to learn how to enter. BTW to turn any of these into a true Twinchie, just add a one row “binding” in Continental as a border. UPDATE: I was told the issue was posting today (it isn’t up as of about 9:30 Pacific), but I would check back daily until it’s up. As of late Friday

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These four almost Twinchie (34 stitches square) quilt blocks are really quick to stitch and can be finished quickly to make simple ornaments or gift tags. They are stitched in colors to compliment the overdyed canvas colors, but any scrap of mono canvas will do. I just love the bright bold look. The patterns for the quartet are free and can be found in My 365‘s holiday issue, out today. The beautiful magazine is on-line and free. As a part of the issue, I’m participating in a giveaway of my books. Visit the site to learn how to enter. BTW to turn any of these into a true Twinchie, just add a one row “binding” in Continental as a border

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Considering we went to friends on Thursday, so I didn’t have to cook, and that we didn’t go shopping, I’ve been pooped since Friday afternoon. I’m figuring it’s been all the household chores and organizing my DH and I did all week. So today I have a clippings post with an assortment of intriguing and useful blog posts I came across over the weekend. Threadworx Journal was immensely popular in its on-line version. Happily, Threadworx has decided to make each issue of the magazine available in a printed version. You can buy them each here. Each issue is $11.99. They use PayPal for the sales. Finding ornament patterns that work for boys can be tough. But the Cross Stitch design Kell Smuthwaite of Kincavel Krosses has an adorable whole stitch Little Samurai chart available free on her site. These would make such cute ornaments. I saw these bottle top ornaments

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When I saw these charming Jonathon-Adler needlepointed flask in the December Allure, I know I had to use it as the basis of Bargello. Not only do I love the colors and it’s masculine feel, but I can’t afford the $98 price tag. So bargello it is, and I’ve put the pattern below (click picture for full-size chart). On to the colors. Depending on how you’ll be finishing it, go for a single type of thread in these colors: grey, brown, navy, light blue, white, aqua, olive, and yellow. If you like the rose one better, get rid of grey, aqua, and olive, and add taupe, light pink, pink, hot pink, and red. Follow the sequence of colors in the original. I’m planning mine from wool and putting it into my new Lee’s tote. And, of course, I’m using the pink version using threads from my stash including High Cotton,

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Originally posted 2008-11-23 03:56:27. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI love December issues of magazines, they always have such cool things, cleverly disguised as gift ideas. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about AMH’s kits to make needlepoint iPod cases. One is pictured in the December issue of Lucky magazine. It’s the section of the Gift Guide called Anglomania and has a Union Jack on it. The price is $25. The December issue of Elle has a great needlepoint coin purse from Jonathan Adler. It’s round and zippered and has a dollar sign on the front. It’s shown in two color combinations, black and white and pale pink and orange. The price is $28. Speaking of gifts — are you looking for a neat, inexpensive tool tote for your needlepoint? I was in Wal-mart this week and saw, in their school supplies section, a pencil pouch which came in a

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Originally posted 2008-05-20 03:20:14. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI don’t know if you read Craft magazine, but you should. It’s a quarterly magazine about making stuff which is fresh, fun, and endlessly creative. I always find exciting, interesting, and inspiring projects, artists, and ideas in it. I want recommend the current issue to you especially. You’ll know it, it’s one the newsstands now and has a pair of Converse high tops with knitted tops on them on the cover. I often get questions about how to convert a picture into needlepoint and often wonder how to do this so it looks good and look like needlepoint, not a needlepoint of a picture. The current issue of Craft has a step-by-step tutorial on how to do this using Photoshop. The example takes a photo of a pigeon in flight, shows you pictures throughout the process and has a photo of the

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Thread Candy Studio is not a magazine, back in library school it’s what we would call a serial publication. It has significantly more content than a magazine, and comes out from time to time, often at regular intervals, but sometimes not. Think of it as a book in parts. TCS is something unique in the world of needlepoint. Through the issues you’ll get stitch guides, technique information and project ideas. These are mostly for needlepoint, but there are other crafts covered as well. The first section of the magazine, Art Candy, emphasizes designs (through many line drawings) and inventive stitching techniques. This time the theme was sheep and two lovely ides for stitching them are shown with many photos to illustrate. I can’t wait to try them. The next section, Sprinkles, is sub-titled adorn & embellish. The technique here is candied fruit and uses fruit slice buttons and glitter glue

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A Needle Pulling Thread is a quarterly magazine covering all needlearts published in Canada. It’s one of the best needlework magazines I’ve ever see — beautifully produced, well-written, tons of articles of all kinds, and with simply fantastic projects. I have the Spring 2011 issue and I’m getting a subscription so I don’t miss out on more of them. The issue had projects in knitting, free embroidery, and mixed media, along with a needlepoint project and several projects that can be applied to needlepoint. The needlepoint was a stunning and ambitious trianglepoint project based on an oriental rug. The rug hooking project, Three Sheep, could easily be done as needlepoint. Probably my favorite piece in the whole magazine was the pottery pincushions; I”m thinking of ways to adapt this delightful idea to needlepoint. On top of the projects there are more articles on all aspects of needlework including some on

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Originally posted 2009-06-08 04:41:06. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI’ve been thinking about this often in the past week. Publishing a magazine is hard, and often thankless work. Not only do you have to deal with printers (who often miss deadlines with new accounts) and the Post Office (many of whom have no idea how to deal with mailing magazines), you have many other worries as well. You have to balance advertising and editorial space. It isn’t as simple as running this article or that ad in addition to what you have, magazines come in whole pages ands the pages must be filled on both sides. So you don’t add a single ad, you add two or three, and you add most of two pages of articles. What if you don’t have enough stuff for two pages? Something gets cut. You have to balance the needs of your readers with the

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Spool is a new and delightful quarterly magazine devoted to creating “good stuff.” I was intrigued by the idea when I read about it and the first issue doesn’t disappoint. Their goal is not to create heirloom projects or to provide complex rules, but to inspire “right now” stitching and to give you a jumping off place for your own creativity. Throughout the magazine there are charts (all whole stitch and usable for needlepoint) and line drawings, that you can use to make unique projects. The projects themselves cover a broad variety of needlearts including needlepoint, crewel, punch needle, knitting, and cross stitch, but most of the projects can easily be adapted to your favorite stitchery. There are lots of articles, and book reviews too. And a lovely charted adaptation of Manet’s The Fifer, which I saw three times over the summer at an Impressionist exhibit of paintings from the

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This year’s issue of Christmas Ornaments from Just Cross Stitch is one that, as needlepointers, you will love. I have bought every issue and always find a few of the ornaments whole stitch and easy to convert to needlepoint. But I was blown away by how many designs this year are perfect for needlepoint. Whole stitch designs with little or no backstitching are the rule, not the exception. There are several designs made to use different Tokens and Trifles shapes (to turn these to needlepoint, just do Tent Stitch instead of Cross Stitch with a thicker thread). There is a Hardanger project on Congress Cloth, and, best of all, Debbie Rowley has contributed a wonderful needlepoint design. This magazine is so full of great designs I am at a loss to decide which to stitch first. If you aren’t familiar with this publication, each year Just Cross Stitch magazine invites

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According to this recent article in The Chicago Tribune, needlepoint, particularly pillows, is a new decorating trend. And I couldn’t be happier. Anyone who has been to my house knows that there are three things you can count on, besides good food — colorful walls, eclectic decorating, and needlepoint. While I’m not sure colorful walls are staging a big comeback, two hallmarks of the new decorating trends are eclectic style and needlepoint. Take that modern chair and mix it up with a very traditional needlepoint pillow. Or, do as I have done in my living room, pictured above. This very traditional wing chairs has a needlepoint pillow on it. But it’s needlepoint with a difference. Instead of the traditional florals you might expect, the pillow is bright, modern, and geometric. Some have been designed by me, some by others. But what’s key is the mixture of styles. Look around, how

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You know how the New York Times says they “print all the news that fits?” In college we played with the phrase. My favorite was “All the gnus that print their fits.” But, thanks to Renee from Pepita Neelepoint we have our own needlepoint NYT. She has created an aggregate site, Needlepoint News, as a one-stop shop. There are three columns on the site. The left column has needlepoint stories in the news. These might be notices about clubs, prize winners, or exhibitions. But you will also find other mentions about needlepoint in different traditional media. The middle column covers blogs. While this is useful for finding blogs that mention needlepoint, I would be lots happier if instead of blogs that only mention needlepoint in passing, it aggregated the many needlepoint blogs, from individuals, designers, and shops, that really and primarily are about needlepoint. On Google Reader, I follow about

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Threadworx, is fast becoming one of the most innovative thread companies around. Not only are they creating amazing threads, they have also come out with Threadworx Journal, a bi-monthly ezine, that sets a new standard in what can be done with needlepoint and new technology. UPDATE: The journal ceased publication after four issues, but print versions are available to order here. The Journal is as treasure trove of ideas and information. There is a What’s New? section which has close-up pictures of all the new colors. These are done by thread and then by color. The pictures are very clear and have the names of the colors on the right. I love having this as a reference. There’s one thing I’d add though, the color numbers after the names, since many shops list them only by the numbers. This issue also had reviews of two classic books, now available as

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