Orna Willis has just opened a Clearance section in her on-line shop. There you wikll find project packs, some rare or discontinued,kits, a few painted canvases, and lots of stunning thread packs such as the one pictured here.

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2. Use your Stash & Shop at your LNS
3. Plenty of Sales Right this Instant
4. New Needlepoint Projects – October 2009
5. Dollhouse Scale Christmas Stocking Kits

Here are three sales to take advantage of right now.

Fireside Stitchery (one of my favorite shops) is having a 20% off sale through tomorrow. They have an amazing selection of threads, books, charted canvas, painted canvas, and tons more. Many things don’t often go on sale, so this is a great chance to stock up. They also have free shipping on orders over $35.

Ehrman Tapestry is also having a sale on over 80 of their kits. The link takes you to the full list. There is tons there, too many to list, but there are many Candace Bahouth kits (including several colors of her Klimt series), some Kaffe Fasset kits, most of the wonderful Seven Days of Creation series, and lots more. I have promised myself to finish at least one of the Ehrman kits before I buy more or I’d have my credit card out this instant.

Nordic Needle also has a sale (through the end of the month) on selected items from their catalog. There are some great gadgets and tools, some wonderful charted canvas, and selected colors of blank canvas.

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If, like me, you’re a fan of Judy Harper’s delightful needlepoint designs you will already know that she is a wizard at adapting other kinds of fiber arts and materials to needlepoint.

Her current post on her FREEBIES, Etc. blog looks at turning lace into needlepoint.

She shows us several different interpretations of lace and explains how to make them. The top one is dramatic on black canvas and stitched in three colors. Happily for us when she shows us how to do it, the design is easy to see on white canvas.

It’s designed to be a border design, perhaps for a bracelet, following the instructions in this post of hers.

I really love the second piece an unstitched mini-sock with an elaborate lace top in gold. The final example shows you how to use lace as a border by turning a corner. Her suggestion to use white pearl cotton in this design would make a border which looks like crocheted lace.

Props to Judy for giving us this exciting idea in needlepoint!

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1. Four Way Bargello in New Shapes
2. Four Way Bargello Flowers from Judy Harper
3. Filet Crochet to Needlepoint – Two Methods
4. Vintage Needlepoint – Anne Orr’s Pomegranate Border
5. Making Samplers from Needlepoint Picture Frames

I suppose you could say I’m clearly a child of the 70′s. I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA when the Steelers were great. As a result, I love football. I got married in 1980 in the SF Bay Area and so I got to watch a second great football dynasty (the 49er’s) in the 80′s.

These days I don’t follow football all that much, but I do look forward to the SuperBowl and to the opportunity to stitch.

It being Sunday, I’m going to start working on these amazing needlepoint pendants from FAS-stitch. They are new and have an elegant, modern brushed aluminum frame. You buy the kit, or the finishing service at your LNS, stitch and send it back.

The one I’m doing is based on a Mondrian painting and is 1.5″ square. I’ll post a picture of it tomorrow and there will be a review of the entire process in the next issue of the newsletter.

In the mean time, ask at your LNS about it.

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Dolci is the name of Orna’s new cyberclass. Dolci also means “sweet” in Italian. As you can see from the picture, the needlepoint beads you make in this 10 week class are as sweet as their name.

Here’s what Orna has to say about it:

Join us for Dolci: a foray into the tiny, the delicate, the delectable! This 10 week class will guide you through the all of the steps needed to create these beautiful bead designs by Orna Willis. Learn how to stitch and assemble the first 8 beads in the new series from Adorn. Beginning with the needle, Orna will walk you through complicated combination stitches on congress cloth and show you tricks and tips for getting your technique perfect. Following the stitching segment she will continue with myriad ways to finish your beads, including wire wrapping techniques, how to use jewelry findings, and ideas on how to use your beads. At the end of class a PDF will be available for purchase with complete step-by-step instructions to create earrings or a necklace out of these tiny charmers.

There are four options for participation:

• class only
• class + metal kit (jewelry supplies, no thread)
• class + thread kit (threads, no jewelry supplies
• class + thread + metals (everything)

Registration for the class closes November 15, 2011.

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2. Orna Willis Free Design – Taltul
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5. Making Sense of Beads

Make a quick gift with these pendants, designed by Crafty Pod

You use scraps of embroidery floss and 10 mesh plastic canvas. The shape can be rectangular, square, or diamond-shaped. The pattern can be any geometric you like.

Once complete embellish it with buttons or other items, add a jump ring and string it onto a necklace. And your done!

Sister Diane of CraftyPod developed this design and shares it with us in this tutorial, including detailed finishing instructions

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4. Plastic Canvas Gift to Make for Knitters
5. Thrifty Stitcher – Free Plastic Canvas Pattern

The intriguing thing is that the whole thing is dyed after it’s put together.

The necklace is pictured here and there is a link to the downloadable pattern at the bottom of the page.

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1. Mosaic Stitch Necklace – Free Pattern from Ziva Needlepoint
2. Make a Quick Bracelet from Stash Threads & Plastic Canvas
3. Fast, FAST Needlepoint – Plastic Canvas Pendants
4. Another Plastic Canvas Alert
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Look no further than these wrist wraps, a free pattern from Coats & Clark. Using plastic canvas with stitching modeled on friendship bracelets, these projects are a great introduction to needlepoint.

Although the instructions call for floss, you can use any thread that works on 18 mesh canvas on 14 mesh plastic canvas. So you can put your stash to work here.

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needlepoint barrette beginners kit from Pepita Needlepoint

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Unlike many kits, this project is well designed and packaged. This is a great feature in these popularly priced kits (under $10 in the US). It came with enough materials. There was plenty of thread to stitch the project. The design was printed straight and clearly on the canvas. The instructions were clear and complete.

As is the case with most kits, the bracelet needs to be stitched in Continental and the instructions do not recommend using a frame. That was my first problem with the kit. The canvas was cut about 1/2″ too small to fit on the 4″ bars. 3″ mini stretcher bars are available, but they are hard to find. Even with adding tape to the sides, it barely fit. For many stitchers, this will create problems with tension, especially with Continental.

The colors printed on the canvas were easily distinguishable, which makes stitching a breeze. But finishing was more difficult. After the canvas is cut out, you need to line it with a piece of ribbon. The ribbon is folded under on both ends, and there is plenty here for that. But it is hand-sewn. The ribbon is only 1″ wide, which means that it just fits. It’s slick so that it is hard to handle and in order to keep it on, I needed to stitch alternate sides, since I couldn’t get a pin through the lining and the needlepoint. I fount myself constantly worrying that I would run out of ribbon.

Once the ribbon is attached, the beaded edge needs to be put on. This is the biggest problem with the kit. The instructions say to string enough beads to do two edges. Then string more beads for the other two edges. The beads are hanging loose at this point. To attach them, you will whip them between every other bead.

Sounds straightforward, doesn’t it?

But it’s not. First off the bracelet is narrow (1″ wide) so there isn’t much to hold onto. Second, you may or may not have string enough beads so one end needs to be kept loose and threaded with a needle. So the beads are floppy. You only have one needle, so you will need to whip with either the tapestry needle in the kit or with a needle of your own. And once you solve those problems, you have to deal with keeping proper tension in order to keep the beads straight. Finally, you are whipping onto a narrow edge, which is difficult for beginners.

I love that Dimensions is putting high style and innovative ideas into popularly priced kits. I’d love to see lots more of them. But I can only recommend these kits to people who feel comfortable beading or who have someone who can finish it for them.

Just to let you know, this kit was bought and not given in return for a review. All books and products reviewed on this site are given objective reviews, no matter the source of the product.

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1. Sundance Boho Beads – Product Review
2. Ehrman Tapestry Catalog – Product Review
3. Sweet from Orna Willis – Product Review
4. Product and Book Review Month
5. Needlepoint Necklaces – Product Review