tnna preview Archive

First off, Squigee Designs, maker of simply wonderful painted canvases, as well as the popular cross stitch designer Shepherd’s Bush are now being distributed by Dream House Ventures. They have a whole new range of small whimsical canvases which will be seen for the first time at the June Market. Squigee joins their other well-known designers including Mindy, Bongo, and The Cricket Collection. River Silks has a charming new picture of pansies available as a kit using their lovely silk ribbons. Leigh Designs is introducing two stunning new collections One is her small ornaments, with eight in the collection, all based on Swedish themes. They are painted on 18 mesh Victorian Green canvas and are named for a past Swedish monarch. The second also has eight canvases and explores the colors and images of Mexican street festivals. Alice Vantrease has three lovely shorebirds done as centers with wide black on

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Just to give you a listing of where you can find my books and stitch guides at TNNA. Bargello Revisited will be a featured book at Rainbow Gallery’s booth (728). They will be taking orders for autographed copies. The book will also be available at Unicorn Books (323) and Nordic Needle (1852). Needlepoint Trade Secrets is also available from these companies. Needledeeva (1436) will have the models (so far) of her small nativity as well as copies of all my stitch guides. If you’re thinking about a club or a Christmas in July offering, you can’t got far wrong with this little nativity. The pieces are small, easy to stitch and the stitch guide covers the complete set and is coordinated to go together. Kelly Clark (1900) will have all my stitch guides for her, including the two new Nordic Santas. Raymond Crawford (1525) will have the delightful and popular

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These are my latest stitch guides, Nordic Joy and Nordic Love Santas from Kelly Clark Needlepoint. I just love them. They have such pretty, quiet colors, but they aren’t boring at all. I like the charming cat and dog. It’s so hard to make animals, especially cats, look realistic and still whimsical, so I think they’re great. The metallic on the robes was a real challenge. I wanted to imitate those elaborate metallic thread frog and embroidery closures you often see on folk embroidery. It was done in the easiest way. Begin by stitching Continental between the wider areas. Then add a Continental Stitch at the outside of each frog. Make the frog by weaving your needle in and out in a figure 8 between the Continentals. I also love the Christmas trees in each canvas. The charming method was developed by Kelly. It uses French Knots on a stick

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Nuts about Needlepoint Volume 11, Issue 1 January 2008 – ISSN: 1520-9369 I’m back and pretty much caught up, so I’m sending along the roundup of the show. There are plenty of new designs, some exciting new threads, and some welcome trends in needlepoint. I’m sure you’ll find plenty to delight you in the next few months at your local shop. TNNA WINTER MARKET ROUNDUP TRENDS The biggest trend I see in needlepoint these days is that it is experiencing a resurgence in interest, fueled by younger shopowners. As a result, the designs are getting more interesting and I’m seeing lots of designers with their own individual style. There is very little needlepoint out there which is staid and uninteresting. This trend has been developing for awhile, but it has really come to the fore in this market. Almost every booth I visited had exciting new pieces and interesting ways

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CBK Needlepoint Collections has designs frm several designers, including Edie & Ginger, and Bettie Ray. For the TNNA show, and licenses and adapts for needlepoint several others, like Amy Coe and Janis J Maddox. They have added two new designers this year: They write: “We are adding three new artists this year. One has been painting in the past but two are new to the industry. Cecilia is a graphic artist from British Columbia and her cats with sunglasses are great. . . We are also in the process of painting the designs of Ciao Bella greeting cards.” Expect to see Cecilia’s designs on their website soon and the Caio Bella designs after that

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Here’s a preview of what Unique NZ Designs has new for TNNA: 1. New range of kits we are importing from Wales. These are from Millennia Designs and there is both needlepoint and cross stitch. They are all inspired by historical tiles and textiles. Needlepointand cross stitch are both available. 2. We also have new belt buckle designs. These belt buckles have been generating a lot of excitement. They featured in Craftrends for this month and will be featured in the American Needlepoint Guild magazine in February. The belt buckles can be self-finished or professionally finished. 3. We also have brooch designs which will also be featured in the guild magazine in Feb. These are a lovely quick project and the antique style bezel is nice and heavy and off a high quality

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A combination of a great thread (Neon Rays +) and a delightful stitch (T Stitch) are coming together beautifully on my current project and stitch guide. This is a Winter Wreath from Happy Heart Designs and it has these lush, realistic poinsettias, pine branches and three Christmas ornaments. The open stitch allows the lovely shaded painting on the canvas to show through while still beign really easy to stitch. You can also see some of the background here. we’re using a stitch from June McKnight called Shannon’s Blizzard which could be worked as a darning pattern. Here, I’ve stitched it in diagonal lines, so it’s also easy to stitch. Attendees at TNNA will be able to see it so far (including some areas not shown here) at Happy Heart’s booth — 1854 & 4856. Watch for some more postings after the show to see my progress. In addition, it’s one

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I think you’ll just love the new designs from Tish Watkins of Happy Heart Designs. My favorite is called “In My Garden” and they are inspired by Tish’s own garden. Not only are there delightful flowers, she has also honored the critters which live in her garden as well, with a butterfly, lady bug, snail, bird, and a frog. Don’t you just love them! Tish also has some new gingerbread people and a large geometric piece inspired by her trip to Taos, NM. Tish’s booths at TNNA are 1854 &

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Of all the classes I’m taking at TNNA, I’m most excited about the Fiber Artist Trading Cards class on Saturday morning. These cards (tha same size as a baseball card) have been groweing in popularlty among artists of all kinds in the past several years. You can leanr more about their history on Wikipedia. Making trading cards for fiber artists is a relatively new idea and four artists came together to hold a class at Combus and it is being held again at Long Beach. The description from the show guide ” Creating and collecting are passions of needleworkers. Fiber Artist Trading Cards fulfill both urges. The small size and “anything goes” nature of the project appeal to young and old, experts and beginners in needlepoint, cross-stitch and any fiber craft. This class will be taught by Jen Funk Weber, Heather Holland-Daly, Kat Rocha, Sharon Crescent and Jenny Hart ”

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Keri Duke is a fantastic designer of Hawaiian quilts. I’m not a quilter but I love quilts. I especially love the bold and complex style of these quilts. I remember the first time I saw her lovely designs based on her own Hawaiian quilts I was so excited. The “sampler” quilt needlepoint pictured above is her newest design, distributed by Treglown Designs. Keri, who is also a talented needlepointer, stitched the model which is pictured. I’m particularly fond of the background which is stitched using overdyed threads and has a wonderful vintage feel. If you want to try something smaller she has individual quilt blocks which are the perfect size for ornaments She has developed designs for Quilting, Cross Stitch and Needlepoint based on Hawaiian Flora that fit within the style recently labeled Contemporary Hawaiian. In addition she has translated her Hawaiian Quilt designs into needlepoint. The sample above is

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I just wanted to give you a summary of stitch guides you’ve already seen on the blog which will be at TNNA: Wicked and Sip! Gulp! coasters will be available from Raymond M. Crawford – booths 1811, 1813, & 1815 Picture IT! I’m the Teacher will be at Sandy Grossman-Morris – booths 1759 & 1761 Mermaid & Happy Spring will be at Happy Heart Designs – booths 1854 & 1856 Whimsy & grace (booths 2109, 2111, 2113, & 2115) will have theSilk & Metal Evening Purse as well as many Glasses, Scissors & Needle Cases. You can also find guides of mine at Melissa Shirley Designs (booths 1825, 1827, 1829, & 1831), Kelly Clark Needlepoint ( booths 2038 & 2040), Dream House Ventures (booths 2007, 2009, 2011, 2106, 2108, & 2110), and CBK Needlepoint Collections (booths 939, 941, 1038, 1040, & 1042). My book will be available at Rainbow Gallery

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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.

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One of my newest projects is Ghostly Treater, pictured above, a new Halloween Designs from Kelly Clark Needlepoint (booths 2038 & 2040). You’ll be able to see the model and purchaase the Stitch Guide there. I wrote about this piece in an earlier post but the pciture shows him all finished. I tried some new things with him. I really wanted to get the feeling of objects lit by the light of the flashlight. While I love Water n’Ice, I do think it can slightly obscure what’s behind it. To combat this, stitch the items OVER the translucent thread. If that seems difficult, stop and start Water n’Ice around the object you want highlighted. Just as in my other Halloween guides for Kelly, there is a spiderweb in the corner. This is done by cutting some organza and then securing it with stitching. There are times when only fabric will

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MAP Designs has a delightful and wide-ranging style of needlepoint canvases ranging from great designs on large-size meshes, perfect for beginners, to one of my favorites, needlepoint “smalls” — tiny canvases perfect for scissors fobs, ornaments or gifts. They have just added pictures of their new designs to premiere at TNNA in Long Beach to their site. There are lots of great designs here. If you like realistic pictures of cats, look at the four cat portraits at the top of the page. They are all pictures of real cats, available for adoption at Heaven on Earth Society for Pets. Just below it is series of great abstract/geometric designs based on English tiles. They will make wonderful places to try different stitches. My favorite new canvases are the day and night farms in the next section. On 13 mesh, they are suitable for beginning stichers. With the simple shapes and

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Judy of JR Designs is the creative designer of the popular Stiick and Chick stick figures for needlepoint. I first got to know Stick a few years ago when he premiered at the TNNA Market. His outdoors lifestyle (skiing, fishing, etc) fits well with Judy’s delightful style. Last year, Chick, his girlfriend, premiered. This year Stick and Chick are getting married and there is also a new Christmas stocking (picutred above). These, along with lots of new sayings and 3″ round Halloween ornaments, all by Judy, will be at GalVail’s TNNA booth (booths 1713 & 1715). But that’s not all. Judy also has great bookmark canvases, from Whimsy & grace, for readers of Westerns, history, SciFi, Romance & others. In addition there are also inserts for Lee Needle Arts bags which double as box tops. Whimsy & grace is distributed by Point of It All Designs (booths 2109, 2011, 2013,

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