This Lee Needle Arts kimono is a showcase for many threads, including Planet Earth's Pepper Pot Silk.

Planet Earth has come out with a new single strand silk for 18 mesh, Pepper Pot Silk. I’ve used it recently in both this Lee kimono (left flower) and in my painted-stitches Christmas Tree.

It’s just a lovely silk. About the same thickness as Impressions, it is 100% silk, coming in 27 yard skeins.

A lovely, soft thread, I think it covers better than Impressions, giving full, instead of light, coverage. But because it is a thin thread stitched areas are slightly flatter than those stitched with Watercolours (right flower).

This vintage painted stitches canvas uses Pepper Pot Silk for the Scotch & Diagonal Gobelin Stitches

While I would not use it for straight stitches on 18 mesh, straight stitches would work well on Congress Cloth. I found longer diagonal stitches on 18 covered well, something I often find lacking in Impressions. The red areas in the striped patch use Pepper Pot.

The finish is similar to Impressions as well, a slightly fuzzy, matte texture.

I really enjoyed this thread because it was so easy to use. But stitchers who are allergic to wool will also like it because now there is a great all-silk alternative to Impressions and Gumnuts’ Poppies.

I can’t wait to use it for more projects.

Related posts:

1. Planet Earth Silk Opal – Thread Review
2. Overdyed Vineyard Silk from Threadworx – Thread Review
3. City Needlework Silk – Thread Review
4. Silk Lamé from Rainbow Gallery — Thread Review
5. Empress Elite – Thread Review

This month’s challenge is a wide open one. What does December mean to you?

Is it gingerbread men baking, Christmas, winter, peace?

Related posts:

1. Twinchy — Monthly Needlepoint Challenge
2. November Twinchy Challenge — Adaptation
3. August Twinchy Challenge – Quilt Blocks
4. Letter Twinchy Challenge Results
5. October Twinchy Challenge – the Watercolours Challenge

This Petei mini-sock uses Kreinik's naturals metallics throughout.

I used the extensively in this Petei mini-sock from my stash. They are used for all the metallics.

Only one color, 4006 Rose Hip was retained from the original series. As you can see it’s a soft pink, that’s still very metallic. If the other pinks in the Kreinik line are too bright or to modern for your stitching, look to this shade — it’s great.

The other colors are muted neutrals.

On the mini-sock, the darker brown/gold is 4202 Susky Meadow, kind of a dark Hot Chocolate color that will mix well with either gold or silver. The lighter color is 4203 Cattail, a slightly greenish gold. It’s a real chameleon color, looking green, gold, or brown depending on the context. It should be4 considered for many applications.

I didn’t use 4204 Storm Cloud (gunmetal), 4205 Ironwood (sliver), 4201 Sugar Cane (light green) in this piece.

You can read about them all on Kreinik’s site.

Tomorrow I’ll look at Empress Elite from The Pure Palette, and Thursday at Duchess Silk from Gloriana both of which were also used here.

Related posts:

1. Dot’s Stocking – Sunday Stitching
2. Using up the Metallic Stash
3. Candy Metallics from Kreinik – Thread Review
4. Kreinik’s Holographic Threads – Product Review
5. Learn a Stitch in 2011

The thing I like about them is that each is based on an overdyed thread. That makes them a great way to explore creating a color scheme from these popular threads.

I’m bogged down on the first one (don’t ask) but my [plan is to pick broken skeins of Watercolours from my stash that I wouldn’t normally use and then challenge myself to create a pretty scheme from them using only threads in my stash.

But you should try some yourself. They are great ways to try out Laura’s design and they will give you tastes of some techniques she uses extensively, such as Blackwork on canvas, complex borders, and multi-colored Rhodes Stitches.

Here’s a breakdown, with links, to each of the five (up through last week):

• Mini Mystery #1
• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Mini Mystery #2
• Part One
• Part Two
• Mini Mystery #3
• Part One
• Part Two
• Mini Mystery #4
• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Mini Mystery #5
• Part One

Related posts:

1. Join Laura Perin’s Mini Mystery on Mondays
2. Laura Perin’s Mini Mystery #3 – Free Ornament Design
3. Scrap Bag Needlepoint – Pyramids Mini-sock
4. Two Christmas Needlepoint Quilts – Laura Perin Free Patterns
5. Round Robin Mini-socks Community Project

I love Kathy’s bone-shaped ornaments for dogs and this year she has a delightful new set. These are “Things Dogs Do,” all done in a clever, easy-to-stitch style.

She also has mini-socks and ornament rounds for a number of different colleges and universities that aren’t just the usual logo style, often they have iconic buildings or other symbols of the campus.

She also has new dog and people tote bags and new North Woods designs. There are two new Christmas series, a nativity and a stars of Christmas, people associated with Christmas in stars.

A very clever idea is her animal alphabet, available both as a panel and as individual letters. The animals are creatively posed in and around the letters. An unusual ornament series would be to do a name or initials this way.

As always Melissa Shirley has tons of new stuff, so I’ll only hit the highlights.

If you like her pears, but have been wishing for designs that were less geometric, you’ll love her new series that has a different fruit in each pear. With gold backgrounds and fruits and blossoms vining up each shape, they are both elegant and timeless. There are 10 in the series.

She has expanded the selection of her popular crackers with a Thanksgiving series, a new Halloween series that features some of her vintage Halloween characters, pink or gold Christmas crackers, and a set of Christmas toy crackers. There is also a new series of candy canes, mostly stripes, in a modern palette of red, white, green, and light green.

Her newest series is 3-D needlepoint cupcakes. Each design is in two parts, a top and the sides. There are designs for Christmas and Valentine’s.

If you have been collecting Christmas canvases in particular colors, there are conical CHristmas trees in fabric-like patterns in both green and gold. Her acorns have been very popular and a set of Christmas acorns has been added. Her banners have been expanded with a series of pumpkins for Halloween.

There is lots of new stuff from her licensed designers. My favorite of these was Debbie Mumm’s “Trick or Treaters,” a haunted house background with twelve Halloween figures. Three of these are animals,a cat, a raccoon, and some mice, dressed up for Halloween.

There are lots more new canvases including some great seashore and insect pillow designs, and lots of new Christmas stockings. THere’s plenty to love and stitch here.

Related posts:

1. New Canvases from Melissa Shirley & Jelly Bean Stock
2. Kathy Schenkel – Designer Profile
3. Melissa Shirley Birds
4. Big Melissa Shirley Sale at The Needlepointer
5. Sneak Peek — Melissa Shirley Designs for Summer

Designing Women has a charming small icon-like Madonna. They don’t have a website, but my friend Jane stitched it awhile ago and the link is to her finished one

Jane and I have also both stitched Designs by Petei’s Our Lady of Guadelupe. Mine is the picture at the top of this post. The link is to Petei’s page that has it

Birds of a Feather makes a charming Madonna. I also found this traditional Madonna ornament at Needlepointus.com. I have also often found Madonnas, vintage and new on eBay.

Finally, if you like counted canvas, look into this lovely Mother and Child from Cross-eyed Cricket. I just adore its combination of folk art and Byzantine embellishment.

Related posts:

1. Superbowl Stitching
2. Stitching the Inexpensive Kit
3. Give the Gift of Stitching – 12 Days of Needlepoint Gifts
4. Chirstmas Stitching
5. New Needlepoint in June 2011

Gail of GailVail is retiring. While the fate of many of her designs is unclear, Needledeeva is picking up her Navajo rug designs. These pieces are stitch painted adaptations of traditional rugs and each has the name of the rug design on it. They come in many sizes, as do the rugs themselves. Stitched in wool, the traditional fiber for rugs, they make great accents. Even better they are MUCH cheaper than even an ornament-sized rug (about $100 at a local museum shop).

Painted Pony has added Needle Graphics to their line. Along with adding Squigee to the line, CBK has a great new series of whale and heart shapes filled with different painted fabric-like patterns.

Treglown has added Kooler Design Studios to their line. In addition they have a great series of slightly shorter belts that can be finished as purse straps for their two stylish leather bags. I’m crazy about the two Charley Harper ones of course.

My favorite distribution news comes from Pishke Pockets. They now distribute Elizabeth Bradley as well as Kirk & Hamilton. Elizabeth Bradley has a new take on her traditional designs with both single flowers and shells on lighter backgrounds, updating this traditional style for more modern interiors.

Kirk & Hamilton has some really clever designs. I loved their three full-size stockings, cupcakes, roosters, and penguins, all with some ornament rounds to match. They also had a clever series of mini-socks with animals seen from the back gazing at the Christmas star.

Danji has added a new artist as well, Ann Winn. She has some lovely figures including a triangular snow queen, a mermaid, and a striking seahorse. Barbara Russell has added licensed designs based on pieces from the Woodmere Museum of Art in Philadelphia.

Canvas Connection is now distributing all of Designing Women’s canvases. Best of all the wonderful crosses are now available on 18 as well as 13 mesh. I can’t wait to make a bunch more for my tree.

Probably my favorite thing at the entire show was Boots Bailey’s magnificent five-piece nativity. My husband, who saw it Friday night, just raved about it. And he’s right. Gorgeously painted and based on biblical era clothing, they are exquisite. To stitch and own them would be a real treasure.

One final note: You may wonder why I don’t have pictures or links in my show reports. There are no links because often the designers don’t update their sites until well after the show. If I can’t show you what is new, I don’t link. Although many people take pictures with their phones, I’m a disaster at that. Since cameras aren’t allowed on the show floor, my posts are illustration free during TNNA.

Related posts:

1. New Canvases at TNNA (Winter 2011)
2. Painted Canvases at TNNA – Part 1
3. More New Canvases from TNNA
4. Great Canvases a TNNA
5. Thread News from TNNA

Tapestry Fair has some lovely geishas that have a great concept. They are seen from the back. The clothing is line drawn, so you can pick your own stitches, colors and threads, but the heads are painted. A cool basis for creativity. There are three single geishas and a piece with six.

A Collection of Designs has new mini-socks, snowmen, ornaments and, my favorite, elaborate crosses. Jean Smith had an absolutely amazing large (4 feet square) of a single flower, plus many delightful coasters that are smaller versions of her popular flowers and vegetables. These are great for giving you an assortment of her work.

At Elizabeth Turner there was a delightful Noah’s Ark mini-sock, stocking, and mitten, all with plenty of opportunity for embellishments and fancy stitching. They also had a great set of coasters with fancy purses on them as well as glasses cases with many purses as well. Sew Much Fun had another charming variation for those who don’t go in for stockings, oven mitts in large and mini sizes. There were three designs in each size with my favorite being Piece, Hope, Love with cake on the mini and pie on the large.

Birds of a Feather had delightful owls, nativity figures in their whimsical style as individual ornaments, and three sampler designed by artist Nancy Davis. They also had a delightfully different “Hunting Wild Boar” canvas. Cooper Oaks had small pieces of Susan Wallace Barnes artwork in ornament rounds and small (6″ square) pictures.

Looking at the beachy theme of those canvases, my favorite beach pieces were from j.child. They had extremely clever beach stockings, ornaments, and mini socks in lots of designs. Probably my favorites were the beachy ornaments stocking and the mini sock with bright Christmas lights along a driftwood fence.

I simply adored the resin boxes at Amanda Lawford. There were a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. To go along with them were clever canvases. Stitch the canvas and pop it into the box for a fast, unique gift. There I also saw a set of wonderful bird silhouettes that came with thread lists and embellishments. There is a cardinal, chickadee, dove, and blue jay.

The Point of It All had a lovely wedding ensemble that was dainty and elegant. It included votive covers that can be done with your choice of initials, a small ring bearer’s pillow, a tiny brides bag and fairy tale shoes. Making any of these would be such a treat for a wedding. JulieMar & Friends has a new snowman collection and lots of new creative Halloween pieces.

DReam HOuse had several new designers including by Georg with lovely florals. They also had new Mindy pieces and some wonderful mid-century modern pieces, including one called Falling Leaves that has a great 50′s vibe. Needledeeva has a great series of nine Christmas trees of various kinds, each decorated and with a different shape. Vicky DeAngelis did the stitch guides.

Robbyn’s Nest has a lovely series of botanically correct roses as coasters or pillows, along with four new designers eggs (think Faberge), and a set of five colorful tropical frogs. Canvas Connection is back with new Talavera and Imari designs.

I loved the initially yours series of squares from new designer Canvas Art by Barbi. Each square is divided into rough quarters with a different font of the initial with a different color background on each. They each also have a letter embellishment on them. Barbi also makes a great series of needlepoint “postcards” with many colorful heart designs.

Associated Talents has a lovely set of semi-custom script monograms in squares. You can have up to three letters in the monograms and they are available with patterned or plain backgrounds, in several colors and with plain or elaborate borders. I loved them because the script monograms make such a strong and elegant design statement just on their own.

Labors of Love has added to their clip-on line with a new 12 days of Christmas series. The thing I like best about this is that the birds in this series are compatible in size with their other birds.

Tomorrow, news about distribution of some of your favorite designers, along with more canvases. Next Friday another TNNA article with a look at new stuff from two of my favorites, Kathy Schenkel and Melissa Shirley.

Related posts:

1. Painted Canvases at TNNA – Part 1
2. New Needlepoint Products – Hand-painted Canvas & Kits
3. Finishing Up at TNNA
4. More New Products from TNNA
5. Lee Needle Arts – Hand Painted Canvas Needlepoint & Accessories

I was particularly excited by all the creative bookmarks I saw. Whimsy and grace had over 30 in all styles. Each of these came with a coordinating tassel. A new designer, Shivering Sheep had several delightful ones with Southwestern themes. Another designer, MAP Designs, had a whole bunch of canvases of Koeshi dolls, a type of Japanese doll. These dolls have round heads and straight bodies (no arms or legs). MAP’s Koeshis included dogs, cats. people and a bride and groom. They could be finished flat to be bookmarks or be done as stand-ups or easel-backed pieces.

Another type of needlepoint that’s becoming more popular is 3-D needlepoint, something that takes us beyond the pillow or ornament. Little Shoppe, a pioneer in 3-D needlepoint has made a new series of 3-D candles. There are two pieces, a top, shaped like a donut, and a rectangular side. Finished the rectangle becomes a pillar candle, while the round covers the top. In the hole place an LED tea light. There are seasonal and non-seasonal designs and many come with coordinating pillows.

Over at Sundance, Barbara Elmore has taken 3-D to a whimsical level with her sculptural pumpkin and Christmas Tree. They are constructed of stitched bands and are ekegant and unusual.

The showpiece of dede’s new canvases is her topiary tree, a tall skinny cone stitched entirely in shades of green. On it your place stitched butterflies, also 3-D withe their wings partially folded.

There were so many other delightful pieces, it will be hard to describe them all in these two posts. Rebecca Wood has stockings and ornaments featuring reindeer. Reindeer games shows the reindeer at play. Ruldoplh is featured in both a stocking and whole series of round ornaments that have him hiding out in various places. She also has a stunning smaller nativity and twoseries of monthly cakes. The three-layer cakes are banners and a series of smaller babycakes is two lay versions of the same designs.

Painted Pony has added some new destination angels and rounds including Vatican City and the Galapagos Islands. There are also some delightful charm angels, including a geisha and queen of hearts. She has also brought out a series of seven monthly themed dress forms. These have exquisite detail and are more complex in their painting than the angels and rounds.

A delightful series at Shivering Sheep is their custom critters collection. A clever scene illustrating phrases such as, wildebeest wanders willy-nilly, is able to be personalized with the name and phrase painted in pink or blue or to match Sherwin-Williams paints.

Sharon G has done some of her triptyches as single canvases. They are stunning large canvases. A new geometric of hers called Graphic Wave was stitched so beautifully and I’m excited that Sharon will make her stitch guide for this available. My favorite of hers was her Owl & Pussycat, one of my favorite children’s poems. It’s the best I’ve ever seen.

Waterweave had lots of lovely hearts, with many in blue, white, and yellow. They also had a great sheep that looks deceptively simple until you stitch it all in big wooly French Knots. Then it sings.

City Needlepoint (makers of the great City Silk thread) had a wonderful series of Chinese Zodiac designs. Each had the animal in black in Chinese cut-out style, and had the character for the animal behind it in a rich dark red. They also had many simple designs in 4″ square size that would be great beginners canvases.

More tomorrow and Sunday (new distributors on Sunday as well).

Related posts:

1. Painted Canvas Goodies from TNNA
2. Great Canvases a TNNA
3. Distribution News from TNNA and More New Canvases
4. TNNA Round-Up, Part 1
5. TNNA Round-up Part 3

It’s easy to make and finish a round initial ornament such as this one.

Begin by finding a Lee Needle Arts round luggage tag. You can also use their round ornament, but I like the many colors of the tag.

You will also need:

• 18 mesh mono canvas
• pigma marker
• overdyed thread
• background thread
• one thin & one thick metallic to coordinate or contrast with overdye
• ribbon
• letter enlarged to fit 2 3/4″ circle

Begin by finding your letter, there are lots of alphabet sites out there and many books of fonts. This A is from a book called illuminated initials. I enlarged it to fit the space.

Use the template and your pen to trace both the circle and the letter centered inside it.

Use your overdye to stitch the letter in a textured stitch. I used Staggered Mosaic.

Once this is stitched, pick another stitch for the background and stitch it in your background thread. I used T Stitch and cream matte #8 metallic.

Once the background is complete, you want to accent the letter
with Whipped Backstitch and the other two metallics. These colors do not have to match, mine didn’t.

Begin by making Backstitch all around the ornament with the thicker metallic. These stitches should go over two threads and be right along the edge of the letter. The metallic I used, Kreinik #12, is very close to the green of the overdye.

Once the backstitch is complete wrap it with the thin metallic, Sparkle Braid here. Bring your needle out under a backstitch and emerge on one side, bring the needle over the first stitch and under the second, re-emerging on the first side.

Continue to wrap like this, without your needle entering the canvas until the outline is wrapped.

To end a thread, bring your needle to the back as it goes under a stitch and start the new thread in the same hole.

Trim and insert into the tag. To make it an ornament, hang it with a ribbon. Tie a knot and then a bow over it in a thin but pretty ribbon making a loop. Thread the opposite end of the loop into the hole at the top of the tag. and pull it through a bit. Bring the bow end of the loop through the loop end and pull it tight. This is called a Lark’s Head Knot and is a perfect hanger for your charming ornament.

Related posts:

1. Make a Bold Initial Bargello Boxtop!
2. Another Lovely Bargello Ornament
3. Mitered Florentine Ornament Freebie
4. Hearts & Bargello – a Lovely Ornament
5. Make a Whimsy & grace Style Star – Free Project