Nuts about Needlepoint » dogs

New Canvases from Kathy Schenkel and Melissa Shirley

Janet Perry — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:38:06 +0000

I am always so happy at TNNA to go to Kathy Schenkel’s and Melissa Shirley’s booths. They are always full to bursting with great new ideas and canvases I just drool over.

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.

How to Approach a Hand Painted Canvas Needlepoint

Janet Perry — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:21:14 +0000

Originally posted 2010-02-22 07:39:19. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

by Kelly Clark, stitch guide available

Stitching a painted canvas looks so easy. The colors are picked out for you and all you need to do is add threads and stitches — so why is it that so often we are not happy with the results?

Since I discovered painted canvas (in the early 80′s) I’ve stitched hundreds of them, I even dream about canvases, threads, and stitches. As a result I’ve figured out some guidelines for stitching them which make it easier to do.

First, I think about threads. Your canvas gives you color, but not texture. And for any given color a number of threads exist in different textures. For me, I try to pick a thread with a texture similar to what the object is in real life. For example snow, should be a white or clear sparkly thread. My favorite for this (and for stars as well) is Nordic Gold from Rainbow Gallery. I like this lightness of the thread, it’s softness and it’s sparkle. For hair, I like Rainbow Tweed because it has some variation in it and has just enough furiness to look realistic.

Design by Cat's Cradle, stitch guide available

The texture of the thread determines how easily it will be noticed on the finished canvas. Furry or fuzzy threads are always seen first. Metallics are just slightly less noticeable than furry threads. The more matte a thread is, the less obvious it is. So the same color thread in pearl cotton, floss and Silk & Ivory will be most noticeable in pearl cotton and least in Silk & Ivory.

Once you have picked out your threads, double check that you haven’t picked out an attention-grabbing thread for an area which should be in the background.

But I’ve learned by trial and error, I don’t know of any books which really spell this out.

Then I look at the canvas. Every canvas should have some areas of Tent Stitch in it. Sometimes the choice is made for you, for example faces almost always look best in Tent Stitch. Tent Stitch gives the eye a place to rest and is the neutral texture in needlepoint. It’s kind of like zero on a number line.

by Dream House, stitch guide available

Once I know where Tent Stitch will be placed, I can then rank other spaces as being higher or lower than those areas. Lower spaces should have flatter or more open stitches. For these I use stitches like T Stitch, or techniques like Blackwork or Pattern Darning. For example, I almost always use Pattern Darning for skies, because the flatter stitch makes the sky look more open and bigger.

The places which will be higher will use stitches with more texture. This is the hardest part of picking stitches for needlepoint. The stitches you pick should be small enough to have three repeats of the stitch in every direction. This is enough for the eye to distinguish the pattern. Fewer repeats and the stitch can be mistaken for other stitches or the design can look confused. Even experienced stitchers get this wrong.

by Sandy Grossman-Morris, stitch guide available

There are two major exceptions to this rule. One is stripes. By their very nature stripes won’t have three repeats in all directions in an individual stripe, but the whole stripe pattern should be repeated, if it isn’t, pick a different stripe pattern. The second is accent stitches. There are lots of these, such as Eyelets, Rhodes or Jessicas. Accent stitches, most of which can be expended easily, should be sized so a single stitch fits in an area. Most of these stitches draw attention to themselves and having partial stitches in these looks jarring. Change the size or the stitch rather than use partial stitches for accents.

I think another big challenge in needlepoint is adding texture to very small spaces. One easy way to do this is by picking threads with different textures, but often this does not go far enough. Then you should have a repertoire of stitches which only take up one or two threads. Some of the stitches I use again and again are Tiny Knitting (columns or rows of Continental and Reverse Continental), Needlepoint Cross Stitch (cross stitch over one intersection), and open versions of Tent Stitch. In early 2010 I’ve been developing and finding even more of these kind of stitches. Building from that you can add high textures with French Knots or beads. Suddenly you have taken something which could look flat and given it dimension, life and subtle texture.

For finding stitches for particular effects, I mostly rely on my own experience. I look for stitches which have a particular shape. I use stitch dictionaries for ideas. And I’m always willing to pull out an area off if it does not work. On a piece I’m working on now (2007), I’m stitching a blackboard. I’ve ripped it out twice. The first time it was because I thought the thread (#12 pearl cotton) was too small. The second time, using #8 pearl cotton, I felt the stitch, Skip Tent, was too directional. I’m now stitching it in T Stitch and like the result.

But these are guidelines. There can be great needlepoint which breaks the rules. But you should know what rules you are breaking and have a good reason to do so. If you start with this process, then when you divert from it, you will know why and where you are going.

by Bongo, stitch guide available

If you like my approach to hand painted canvas needlepoint, I can write a custom stitch guide for you. My guides are complete and are customized to your stitching level and your tastes. I take into account your likes and dislikes and your ideas for the canvas. This kind of customization has not be available before at such a reasonable price. If you are interested in getting a free quote for a guide, fill out the stitch guide request form.

This article originally appeared in my friend Pierrette’s blog as part of a virtual book tour I did in 2007. It is not longer available and Pierrette gave me permission to reprint it here. Pierrette is a marvelous stitcher and is currently showing off her lovely work at My Stitching Gallery. A big thanks to her.

Plaid Scottie – Sneak Peek

Janet Perry — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:09:59 +0000

Originally posted 2007-04-20 17:57:50. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I just love rendering plaids into needlepoint. Needlepoint can make exact replicas of any plaid. Tartans are just about the best.

My latest stitch guide is this little Scottie from Cat’s Cradle. This makes an absolutley perfect introduction to needlepoint plaids for stitchers at any level.

First off, it’s on large canvas. Second, the plaid is a very simple one. Third, the thread is easy to use. Finally, the directions are clear and the charts are in color.

The process for stitching a plaid is not unlike the process for weaving a plaid. The vertical lines are stitched (every other stitch) in the pattern of the plaid (which is properly called a sett for tartans), then, following the sett again, the horizontal lines are stitched. The plaid emerges from the process.

I know it well, have stitched many plaids, but I love the surprise of how the plaid begins to take shape as you stitch the horizontal lines.

The Scottie is stitched using Trio from brown paper packages and the background uses Lorikeet from Gloriana Threads, a lovely soft wool.

It doesn’t take very long to stitch and I think you will just love it.

Berlinwork-inspired Cushion – Free Design

Janet Perry — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 14:42:01 +0000

If you are nuts about the look of Victorian Berlinwork and Elizabeth Bradley kits, you also probably can’t get enough of them. But often there are obstacles in the way of doing them often. The first obstacle is size, those pieces are BIG and sometimes you want something small and fast. The second obstacle is price. The kits are expensive and often you want something you can stitch from stash.

Star, a great needlepointer and art historian living in Italy loves them too and has come up with her own original designs, inspired by Berlinwork charts. There are nine of them, designed to be stitched together into a pillow top. You could also make them individually as ornaments.

To day and for the next two weeks, we’ll write about the charts. I love them because they are so small and have such character. The colors on the charts are bright, to make them easy to read, but stitch them in muted wools or silk on a dark background and you have lovely new Berlinwork designs.

The first three charts are:

You can get all four parts:

Part2
Part 3
Frame & Finishing

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!

Freebie Alert — Poodle Outline

Janet Perry — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 14:43:16 +0000

Elle Decoration magazine has a delightful stencil of a poodle designed by Conrad Botes (from South Africa) available as a free download on their site. The link is at the top of the right column. So of it’s a stencil, why am I telling you about it on a needlepoint blog? It’s a great shape, and a wonderful size. When I saw the silhouettes in circles on his daughter’s wall (in the accompanying post), I immediately thought they would make wonderful needlepoint pieces. So print the poodle, outline it on canvas and draw a big circle around it. Pick two threads, colors, and stitches you like and make a great modern piece. Related posts: Freebie Alert – New Needlepoint Designs Needlepoint Leaf Ornament Pattern – freebie alert Why Outline? Great Four-way Bargello Freebie! Little Amish Quilt Freebie – Sneak Peek Related posts:

Charley Harper Needlepoint

Janet Perry — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 14:03:22 +0000

If you like the picture above, then you like Charley Harper. He’s the iconic artist who drew the picture and his work is wonderfully adaptable to needlepoint. This is a section of the cover he draw for The Golden Book of Biology, a book I got when it first came out and still own. It is full of the most marvelous illustrations and made me a fan for life.

This week there had been lots of talk about his designs in needlepoint because Purl Bee in New York has a small selection of his designs available as kits. Their post has some wonderful background on Harper and also talks about how wonderful needlepoint is. I’m delighted that one of my favorite artists) and needlepoint are getting this exposure.

The Charley Harper canvases that are available from Purl Bee and from other shops, are licensed by Susan Treglown Designs. This company makes available as needlepoint a broad selection of his work, all on 13 mesh canvas. This classic illustration, called Lucky Ladybug, is one of the adaptations and is currently in my stash to stitch for my equally obsessed daughter (we buy each other Charley Harper presents).

Now that I’ve whetted your appetite, where can you find his canvases? Many shops carry them and you will recognize them by his clean graphic style. But here are some I’ve found in on-line shops. A Stitch Above in Cincinnati (Harper’s hometown) has a page with a dozen canvases on it. Top Drawer, also in Cincinnati also carries the canvases (this page has work by others as well interspersed throughout it). Outside Ohio, The Bristly Thistle showcases four wonderful bird canvases, that would be superb together.

And if this wasn’t enough, there is a Flickr group of Charley Harper needlepoint and his canvases appear regularly on eBay.

If you want to explore his work beyond the confines of needlepoint, check out charleyharper.com, where you can order notecards,prints, lithographs, and lots more. This site also has some work by his son, Brett, and wife, Edie. You can also buy his charming book, Beguiled by the Wild, from Amazon.

Dog Days

Janet Perry — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 18:20:07 +0000

One of my vacation projects is working on the model for this, one of my new stitch guides. It’s from Cat’s Cradle and is adapted from some artwork. I love Jack Russell terriers, but they are way too energetic for me. So now I get to have one virtually. One of my favorite things about the real life dogs is their incredibly smooth coat. I’m using Burmilana and Basketweave to get that effect. It will be enhanced by the textured background. I think he will be totally cool. Related posts: When the Canvas Isn’t Finished – 12 Days of Needlepoint Gifts Princely Collection Bookmark – 12 Days of Needlepoint Gifts Vineyard Merino – Thread Review “That White Tape” 12 Days of Needlepoint Gifts My Favorite Project Bags – 12 Days of Needlepoint Gifts Related posts: