Nuts about Needlepoint » easter

Needledeeva Stitch Guides Available

Janet Perry — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:03:26 +0000

Just one of the many delightful & inventive figures in my stitch guides for Needledeeva canvases

Needledeeva makes tremendously charming canvases and I have created many stitch guides for sets (and backgrounds) for several of their series for Halloween, Easter, and Christmas. You can see the canvases pictured on their site.

Here are the ones available (the canvas numbers are listed after the title):
Halloween

Halloween Parade (402-414)
Halloween Blocks (461A-L)
Witches’ Brew (417, 421, 423, 424, 426-428)
Trick or Treat (460 and 460A-H)
BItchy Witchy Sisters Basket (441C)

Christmas

Nativity (1350, 1350A-P)
Gingerbread House & Gingerbread People (1352, 1352A-D)
Snowmen in Snowflakes (1345A-F)

Easter

The Bunny Box with Easter Eggs (630, 630A-F)
E. Rabbit’s Residence & Family (603, 603A-G)

The stitch guides are available both in print (with cardstock covers and separate material lists in a zipper bag) and as PDFs.

They are also available at wholesale for shops.

Please contact me for details on the ones of interest to you.

Finish your Carrots – Don’t Eat Them!

Janet Perry — Sat, 07 May 2011 13:56:37 +0000

On Sudukc’s delightful blog, she has been stitching on orange canvas, a series of carrots. They are being stitched from some of the delightful Cross-Eyed Cricket charts. As an aside, because these charts are whole stitch, they are fantastic to do as needlepoint. Anyhow, Sue has finished stitching the series and now has posted detailed instructions (with lots of photos) on how she finished them. Now you probably aren’t stitching 30 carrots and are wondering why this is such a great post. The method of finishing an ornament as a flat shape is a great, no-sew method for making ornaments. In addition because “carrot’ isn’t a shape you normally find, the post shows you how to cut and shape the board to get a great result. This is so good and so helpful! Related posts: Innovative Quick DIY Finish How to Finish an Open Item (Such as a Mini-sock) Step-by-step — Finish a Self-finishing Bag Do I Have Time to Finish It Before Christmas? Finish Needlepoint as a Pillow Ornament Related posts:

Needlepoint Easter Egg — Free Pattern

Janet Perry — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 14:38:35 +0000

Next year, in addition to the chocolate eggs and Easter bunnies, why not add this charming needlepoint egg to your Easter basket?

It’s a free pattern from Rainbow Gallery, designed by Barbara Baker. I love the crazy quilt theme. It’s perfect for using up your stash. You could make several in different colors to make a whole basket of eggs.

The patter is downloadable as a PDF.

Thanks and a tip of the Easter bonnet to Denise from Craft Gossip.

Have a blessed Easter!

New Needlepoint at Dallas Market – Guest Post

Janet Perry — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:03:47 +0000

Our guest poster today is Leigh Richardson, the always delightful artist behind Leigh Designs. I enjoyed her recent newsletter so much I asked her if I could share it with you.

Leigh Designs was also exhibiting at the market. Her new designs for the show were five Fash-inserts for Lee bags. I’m completely in love with the wonderful dragon that looks like a Chinese New Year’s parade. You can see all five on her website. There will be more out this summer.

Now on to Leigh’s comments:

If Sundance is at a show, I’ll bet you’re there to see what is new. Now, they have sequins! Not your ordinary sequins, mind you … we’re talking Sundance, here! There are sequins with swirls, squares, glittery black ones and round circles within circles. There are flowers, stars and – would you believe – animal printed sequins? Can’t you just see them on mermaids? Then, they had the most incredible, large shoulder bags … (we just can’t have too many bags, can we?). These are from Guatemala: bright, patterned native dresses, re-made into bags!

ThreadworX is another favorite stop of ours! Our attention was grabbed by delectable packages of assorted colors of fibers called Thread Candy Studio. I drooled over true confections of floss, Legacy, Expressions, Charleston and those fabulous overdyed metallics all matched up for color impact in each package!

The Point Of It All Designs had lovely new Easter design offerings tempting us all in pastels of the season. Hyla also brought her Point Of It All Art Needlework Handcream which I used all weekend. Once absorbed by the skin one can even rub their hands on black pants and it will never leave a mark. I was stitching a canvas while using this cream frequently, proving its safety to me beyond any doubt.

Here’s what she has to say about the Fash-inserts. You should be able to find these in your LNS now.

We completely sold out of our FASH-INSERTs cash & carry for the wonderful canvas bags and the elegant Italian leather bag by Lee’s Needle Art (Colonial Needle). But not to worry, we will have more, NEW Fash-Insert designs to show you in Columbus [June market] ~ I’m on a roll!

Square Mini-egg Sneak Peek

Janet Perry — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 01:42:07 +0000

Originally posted 2008-11-29 06:36:22. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Needlepoint egg canvas copyright Ashley Bradley

When I saw this mini-egg on Ashley Bradley’s site, I just had to stitch it and share it as a stitch guide. I started and finished it yesterday.

I am endlessly intrigued by the idea of stitch sampler, especially those which are not exactly traditional in shape. That’s what attracted me to this design, it’s a lovely opportunity to try different stitches (eight I think) within the context of something unique.

It also brings out a couple of points about samplers I sometimes forget. Obviously in a sampler you are going to have many stitches, so they should be the dominant feature of the three aspects of needlepoint (stitches, color, thread). Of the other two, one should be in the middle and one should be tightly controlled. Otherwise chaos ensues (and you won’t like the result).

In this case the secondary aspect was already decided for me — the color. There could be as many colors as threads, and there are in fact, but it looks like fewer because there are two shades of yellow and two of blue, reducing the colors a bit.

The most controlled aspect is the thread. The white lines are in Helene, a background thread from Rainbow Gallery. The other threads are all Panache, a rayon from Rainbow Gallery except the aqua, which is Flair.

I’d been thinking about it for awhile and took it with me yesterday when we looked at more houses (keep those prayers and good thoughts coming, I’m hoping we’re close to getting an offer) and started to work on the white while my DH and realtor were looking at a house I didn’t much want to see.

After I stitched about five stitches, the idea for the rest of it came to me. I wrote it all down and stitched from my notes last night. I love it and wanted to share it with you.

The guide will be available from Ashley Bradley.

Easter Egg Design Contest

Janet Perry — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 14:21:18 +0000

Easter Eggs from modmyi.com blog entry

Join DMC’s new design contest. Create your original design for an Easre Egg using any combination of our embroidery floss, pearl cotton, Color Variations threads, Tapestry Wool, Light Effects, Satin Floss, Color Infusions Memory Thread, crochet threads, or our line of Machine Embroidery Threads.

Your design can be in cross stitch, embroidery, blackwork, quilting and appliqué, knitting or crochet, tatting or needlepoint. Embellishments such as beads, buttons and charms can be used as well.

Three winners will be picked. The Grand Prize will get a full set of DMC floss and the runners-up will get DMC specialty thread packs.

The deadline is March 31, 2011 via email.

Get the details of the contest in the linked post.

Needlepoint Stitch Guides Site Now Open!

Janet Perry — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:28:53 +0000

Order stitch guides like this from my new site.

There’s no doubt about it, stitchers love stitch guides. Our appetite for them is almost insatiable. Talk to any designer and they will tell you shopowners ask about stitch guides all the time.

If a designer has none, they wonder why not. If a designer has some, they want more. And we, as stitchers want them and want them at an affordable price.

Today marks the opening of my new on-line shop, Needlepoint Stitch Guides. Here you will find stitch guides for many popular designers, available both as PDFs (for you to print) or as printed guides). You can order directly from the shop and have your guides as soon as the same day. Talk about immediate stitchy gratification.

It’s the largest on-line shop dedicated to needlepoint stitch guides and related products.

There’s lots more to the site. You’ll find reference information about stitch guides and using them, order forms for my popular custom stitch guides and quick stitch help, and lots more. The site is easy to navigate with guides classified by designer and by subject.

Guides are available for canvases by some of today’s most popular designers including, Melissa Shirley, Kelly Clark, and Raymond Crawford. And for one stop shopping, some designers will allow you to order the canvas at the same time.

There are special products designed to help you make the most of your needlepoint. Background Stitch Guides are stitch and thread suggestions to make your needlepoint shine. Custom versions of them are available at the same low price. Thread Maps help you with a complete listing of threads and areas. Some shops charge up to $50 to pull threads, but with this service you get my expert eye at a low cost. Technique Sheets are specialized sheets (not canvas specific) showing you how to create an effect or do a technique on painted canvas.

I’m committed to sharing my knowledge with you so that your needlepoint can be exciting and beautiful. More products will be added just as fast as I can get them written, so stop back often to see what’s new.

Visit Needlepoint Stitch Guides today and keep stitching!

Adorn your Church – Make Needlepoint Kneelers

Janet Perry — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:36:51 +0000

kneeler from Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas

One of the things I loved best about my trip to England in 1998 was visiting churches and seeing all the lovely needlepoint kneelers. Kneelers is the term for the padded cushions or individual hassocks you use to protect your knees in church. If you don’t have kneelers and kneel on the floor, you get “chapel knees.”

Portion of altar rail kneeler from St, Paul's in Summit, MO

In England, and increasingly in the US churches do kneeler projects as a way to adorn the sanctuary. These projects involve the parish community and often interested stitchers outside the parish. Sometimes they are done for a special occasion sometimes not. The needlepoint might be only for the kneelers at the altar rail, just in the sanctuary, or for every kneeler in the church. They might have a theme, or they might only have something similar along the edges, I’ve seen all kinds.

stitcher with picture from her needlepoint kneeler from News Herald article

Recently St. Luke’s Epsicopal Church in Georgia completed their kneeler project and it was covered in the local paper. The current issue of Needlepoint Now has another wonderful story about a kneeler project.

Kneeler inspired by stained glass in St. Luke's Lutheran

St. Luke’s Lutheran, also in Georgia, has a delightful set of kneelers inspired by their stained glass windows. Noah’s ark is pictured above, but you should look at these lovely designs, created by Nancy Keating.

crowned vine needlepoint kneeler

If you are not feeling energetic enough to design your own kneelers, an English company, Jackson’s of Hebden Bridge, has kits for individual kneelers that include the printed canvas, wool, and the high density foam needed to finish them. The picture above is one of their finished kits.

Needlepoint Chi Ro kneeler from St. Mark's Methodist in Kansas City

If you are interested in making kneelers there are some wonderful books out there, mostly out of print. The New Church Kneeler Book, available used from Amazon is lovely. It’s got the information you need, and lots of pictures for inspiration. Designing Women has a lovely book out, Keeping the Faith, which has charts and lots of ideas of their own projects to beautify their church.

Needlepoint Kneeler Rose Window

The pictures throughout this post are from church kneeler projects throughout the country. Click on the pictures to go to the sites with more pictures of these lovely projects.

If you want to find out more, a great starting place is Bidwell Drake’s article on kneelers for the Episcopal Church’s National Altar Guild site. Drake is an expert in church embroidery and has written a wonderful little book on finishing and caring for these items.

Wonderful Resource for Free Patterns – About.com

Janet Perry — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:37:11 +0000

Earlier this week I spent a happy morning poking around Cheryl Fall’s Needlepoint site at About.com. One of the things I love about the site is that, as a professional designer, Cheryl has a wealth of patterns she is sharing with us, for free.

Before we explore some of the great patterns there, she has a page describing how to use the patterns. This is particularly helpful because it includes instructions on how to print and enlarge the patterns.

Her patterns are designed for beginning and internediate stitchers. The index page for them is organized by category.

Scrap Bag projects are among my favorites and French Braid is a delightful quilt-inspired piece that could be done as a row or two for napkin rings or expanded to make a pillow top. There are also larger projects, such as Asian Maple (a favorite).

While many of the patterns work great for first projects with limited color palettes and all Tent Stitches, some, like Pear Trio, use a variety of stitches.

I’d particularly like to highlight some of the holiday patterns here. Winterscapes is six separate small design that can be used separately or together. I love Holiday Stars which has shaded stars in three colors. You could change the colors or background to make this a great piece for other holidays.

There are also three holiday petit fours. There are ones for Halloween, Hannukah, Easter, birthdays, and the newest one is a pine tree for Christmas.

With so many great patterns and projects, this site should be on your must read list.

TNNA Preview – Needledeeva

Janet Perry — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:18:50 +0000

Judee of Needledeeva is one of my favorite designers and I was blown away by her new pieces which will be premiering at TNNA next week.

I want so many of them I can hardly stand it.

First off, there are the new Christmas stockings. If you like her small Christmas figures there are stocking to match many of them. If you’re looking for something elegant, look at the birds on black (my daughter’s favorite). And there are lots of others.

Thoughfully for those with less time, they are done on 13 mesh.

Then there is the new larger set of nativity figures.
And more new Easter figures and houses. What a great collection to make and add to your existing ones. I’d love to make a village of the houses (now up to six) as the focus of my decorations.

Also for Easter there are the new needlepoint baskets. I like the Eater Eggs basket the best. I can just see it in a riot of threads from my stash and lots of fun stitches.

And if that wasn’t enough, why not make a small heart just because? There is a new series of these too.

Needledeeva will be in booths 2054 & 2056 at TNNA.