oriental Archive

Originally posted 2010-07-06 06:28:53. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThere’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

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It’s an on-going question: How do I convey in needlepoint elements in art so they don’t look flat and dull? The problem happens because needlepoint stitches and threads have texture, giving it a third dimension, while works of art are two-dimensional. All too often something gets lost in the translation. This new series on Art & Needlepoint, a joint venture between The Art Needlepoint Company and Napa Needlepoint, will explore this question in volumes focusing on a subject, a genre, or even an indvidual artist. The first volume is about how to needlepoint Japanese landscapes. Using the works of three great woodblock artists: Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Hasui, you’ll learn in this book how to stitch vegetation, skies, rocks, water, and buildings realistically. In each section several different works are used to show stitches and techniques you can use to stitch such different items as snow piled on fences or a

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Originally posted 2010-02-02 07:57:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter The multi-colored leaves in this mini kimono from Lee Needle Arts are just perfect to show needle-blending and the wonderful effect it has on needlepoint. On the unstitched canvas pictured here, there are four different colorings of leaves. The orange leaves are solid. The green leaves have an obvious line between the two shades. The orange leaf has a less obvious distinction between the shades, and the remaining leaves blend the two colors. In this one little piece you will see two types of shading in contrast with non-shaded leaves. The solid orange and two-tone green leaves are stitched with no blending. I picked a textured stitch for the orange leaf and it looks great. But notice the green leaves. by stitching in only two colors, a hard line if created. There is no transition. This can look OK if the

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Daniel Sheets Dye, Dover, 1974 Of all the books I own which I use for designing, this is my all-time favorite. I’ve had it for 30 years and have paged through it many times looking for ideas for patterns and stitches. The book is a collection of well over a thousand different lattice designs created in China between 1000 and 1900. Most of these designs have been used for windows, screens and other decorative devices throughout China. Dye traveled around China, sketching these designs which he later classified and collected in this book. (There is also a second, much shorter, book of designs, but this one is best.) Chinese Lattice Designs has a relatively short introductory section which covers the way the designs were collected, the construction techniques, the classification system and the history of lattice. While these are not essential to the dneedlepointer’s purpose, they make for fascinating reading.

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Last week you read my review of the Dover book on Chinese Lattice. To show you just how easy it is to adapt a Lattice to needlepoint I have two delightful square ornaments stitched based on these patterns. Lattice designs are common in Chinese arts and crafts and are used for ornaments on buildings, as well as for screens, windows, fabric, and fences.Their strong geometrical patterns make them ideal candidates for translation into needlework. Both ornaments are worked in one shade of Watercolors and one shade of a solid thread, such as Pearl Cotton or Pebbly Perle. You can stitch them in any combination of colors you like. Material List For each ornament: 7”x7” 18 mesh white Zweigart Orange Line mono needlepoint canvas 1 skein Watercolours from The Caron Collection, use 1 ply 1 skein #5 solid thread of your choice in an accent color Bright Lattice This pattern (chart

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Originally posted 2010-06-18 07:48:05. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Clara Wells Needlepoint has an interesting approach to designing her canvases, She has seven different “collections”, each using a similar print, available in several different forms to make needlepoint fashion accessories. The Koi Collection bag is pictured above, other piece ins this collection include a belt, mule, clutch band, and cuff. The other collections include similar items. This a such a cool way to get a coordinated look. Robbyn’s Nest Designs has a neat series of ornament-size Mandalas in lot of colors. These geometric pieces would make great needlepoint. The Artist’s Collection has new witches from Mile High Princess and HeartStrings as well as new trees from SHEAR Creations. Patti Mann has an adorable baby sampler. It takes the iconic “Hello My Name Is . . .” name tag, put it in pink or blue and adds the baby’s information. Too

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If you find books about mixing paint frustrating, it’s good to know that we do have, as stitchers, a limited ability to mix colors. This process is called optical blending. With this two distinct colors, when placed next to each other create a different color. This is why needleblending works. You can see this yourself in this little experiment. Take a scrap bit of 13 or 14 mesh fabric. Now pick two shades of floss from the same color family but not shades next to each other; you want them to be easy to distinguish. Put three strands of each into the same needle and stitch a square of Basketweave. Step away. Isn’t the color you see different from either of the colors you used, a shade in between them? That’s because your eye blended the two colors together to create the new color. Now look at the patch where

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Originally posted 2009-03-23 10:02:25. Republished by Blog Post PromoterKimono (it’s both a singular & a plural word) seem to be in the air lately. Many people are stitching ANG’s Stitch of the Month project from Tony Minieri, which is a kimono mystery project. Lots of people love Lee Needle Arts kimonos. They come in many sizes, from ornament sized to really large, and dozens of designs. I particularly love the tiny ones and have made many of them. Kreinik has a stitch guide for one of the small ones on their site. Sophia Designs and JP Needlepoint, among others, also have some delightful kimono hand painted canvas needlepoint. Another superb project is Kimono from Hummingbird House. While I haven’t stitched it, many of my friends have and it is a glorious needlepoint sampler. It is based on a Maggie Lane outline and filled with stitches. If charted canvas is your

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Originally posted 2006-07-25 06:17:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Sakura is the Japanese word for cherry blossoms. I just finished this charming small Lee’s Needle Arts kimono. It shows Mount Fuji through some blossoms on a weeping cherry tree. I just love it. I love these small kimonos and think they make fantastic gifts. I like to finish them as Christmas ornaments and use them for tags on presents

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Originally posted 2009-12-06 07:37:11. Republished by Blog Post PromoterEarlier 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).

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Red Barn Yarn is a new thread and yarn company, specializing in hand-dyed colors in what they call “tonal solids.” Because the owner does needlepoint they have a lovely needlepoint yarn among their offerings. The three-ply wool is available in either 8 yard skeins or 162-yard hanks (4 oz). You can see samples of all their colors on their site. Like most knitting yarn companies the color range is small, about 40 colors, but they are lovely. Theresa from Homestead clued me into them and I’m so glad she did. I used the thread on two recent pieces, the quilt block and the kimono, reproduced below. THe kimono was stitched in Continental and the color variation is slight. The quilt block is stitched in Milanese and there is more variation, but not as much as most overdyes. It almost seems like a faded old-fashioned look. I enjoyed using this thread.

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While I could be accused of never seeing a thread I didn’t like (although this is untrue), there are few threads I’ve used that I like as much as Gloriana’s Duchess Silk. You can see the testament to this throughout this review.I have used this thread in every canvas but one that did not come kitted with threads since I came home from Phoenix. Sized about the same as Silk & Ivory or Vineyard Silk, I’d call it a fat Perle #5. It’s very lofty, so it can compress enough for Tent Stitch on 18 mesh for many stitchers. In the quilt block project pictured above, you can see how the pink Tent Stitches compress and are lower than the longer Diagonal Gobelins in the same patches. But it’s wonderful for longer stitches and for knots (center of flowers in the kimono). You can see how the size of the

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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). 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

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Leigh Designs’ new series to be introduced at this weekend’s TNNA show is called Shogun. They are 12″ x 16″ on Sandstone 18 mesh mono. There is a picture of one in the newest Needlepoint Now. A stitched model of Yoritomo will be on display at the show. You’ll be able to see them all soon on the Leigh site

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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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