web site review Archive

Originally posted 2008-07-17 08:04:16. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI just learned about and looked at Daphne Goodyear’s wonderful needlepoint in her Guest Gallery at Stitch Amaze, one of my absolute favorite needlepoint sites. I’m blown away by her stitching. Go through the gallery and be delighted by the wit of her Wild Women in History (link is to detail of Mata Hari, the piece as a whole is in the gallery). I love her needlepoint chair back, which has a Melissa Shirley design inserted into the back of a comfy chair. Typically I make mini-socks to try out new stitches and new Bargello patterns, but I love her patchwork throw and wall hanging (link is to a detail, the pieces as a whole are in the gallery) so much, I’m going to start to make squares. Just below that is another great idea for using needlepoint stash, a ZigZag Footstool.

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Originally posted 2009-08-16 07:11:18. Republished by Blog Post PromoterAt TNNA, I can never wait to see what delights await at the Lani Enterprises booth. One year it was this amazing series of realistic, but so stitchable, train cars. Another year it was lovely pieces inspired by the paintings of Miro. Their inventiveness and owner Lani Silver’s stitching blows me away. I’ve always wished I had a way to share it all with you. Lani Enterprises has a wonderful new web site which will introduce you to her wonderful designs and inventive stitching. Click on “designs” along the top and you can see her canvases arranged by category. Not only are there categories by theme, there are also ones by style, such as contemporary, or function, such as bracelets. In addition, some categories are further divided into subcategories, so I can quickly find what I want. Clicking on one of the

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Originally posted 2010-02-05 07:38:17. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI have long been an admirer of Anna Marie Winter’s work. She’s a phenomenal stitcher, teacher, and designer, and is based in Canada. She has a lovely gallery of her needlepoint at Stitch Amaze as well as a gallery on her own site. She teaches at national seminars, and through workshops, both on-line and in person. Her designs are available through Bedecked and Beadazzled. But what I love best about her site is her innovative set of needlepoint tips and techniques. All of them are listed on this master page and are done as PDFs, so they are easy to print out. Included among them are articles on organizing, finishing, and most recently, one on transfer printing for canvas. Check them out, they’re great!

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Originally posted 2010-06-19 07:06:49. Republished by Blog Post PromoterGay Ann Rogers is a master of needlepoint. Her innovative designs have won her legions of fans. If you want to get an idea of how her work sparks creativity, do a Google search for images on her name. You’ll find a great selection of her designs, stitched by many different hands. I just recently found a page which has technique articles by Gay Ann covering everything from a detailed explanation of how to make bullion knots (four parts), to her answer to the question of whether she would stitch a project in the same way again. Check it out!

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Originally posted 2008-10-07 07:02:43. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI just wanted everyone to know about the new Website I’m developing — All about Needlepoint. I’ve long been unhappy that as needlepointers, we don’t have available on the Internet the kinds of tools and information which is available for many other people who do needlearts. Quilters have a bazillion patterns, there is a huge community of knitters, and newly popular needlearts like free embroidery have many sites dedicated to them — but where is the reference information for people who want to needlepoint. I have wanted to put the store of information in my head and on my computer out in the world and available to the public for a long time, but I couldn’t find a structure I liked. I put my mind to it and started working. All about Needlepoint is designed from the outset to be for anyone

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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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Originally posted 2008-11-06 18:22:57. Republished by Blog Post PromoterMy friend Orna Willis has just unveiled her new website, Orna Designs. I think you’ll like it. There are some wonderful treasures there. In the shop section, you can purchase all of Orna’s patterns both as chartpacks and as kits. Each one has a great picture. One of the things that I love is that often the picture for the chart and the chartpack use different color schemes, so you can get a great idea of how they look. You can also download PDF files for many of the classes Orna currently teaches, which is just wonderful. She also has a gallery of her finished work, both needlework and jewelry. The thing I think you’ll really love, is her section of how-tos. Orna has provides, with great illustrations PDFs of several techniques, including beading on canvas, Boullion Knots, French Knots, and finishing.

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Based in Philadephia, Rittenhouse Needlepoint has quickly become a destination shop for stitchers in the area. Their original website has become a destination for stitchers elsewhere. As the company and their activities has grown, the original site didn’t do justice to the many facets of this business. With their new site Myneedlepoint.com, everything is together under one virtual roof. The home page has with thumbnails and captions, links to all of the company’s activities.Click on Rittenhouse Needlepoint to visit the shop’s site (and order from them). Click on Finishing Needlepoint to be treated to a slideshow of finished items, an extensive gallery of finished needlepoint (with over 100 pictures), a price list of services, and contact information. Painting Needlepoint has information about their popular custom painting service. This daughter site includes rates, goals, examples of finished canvas, and information about the painters. My favorite page here was Design & Develop

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Originally posted 2003-04-21 07:41:56. Republished by Blog Post PromoterWhen I started to look for needlepoint site’s this was one of the first ones I found and it’s still one of the best. Put together by the folks who write The Humble Bag’s Book of Wonderful Stitches, this site is an inspiration for needlepointers. This site has a great collection of stitches and patterns available on-line. To see the samplers worked using these stitches, click on “Needlepoint Decorative Stitches” on the left menu bar. There are three choices, Needlepoint Pattern Series, Cross Stitch Series and Quilts in Action. The on-line charts include two cyber samplers (one needlepoint one cross stitch), a quilt sampler and two needlepoint series. The needlepoint samplers have 24 stitches in each. These samplers are each different and worked in similar colors would give you a superb education in needlepoint. Click on a stitch and you will get

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Originally posted 2002-02-20 17:51:24. Republished by Blog Post PromoterTheresa Venette has one of my favorite sites, Shakespeare’s Peddler . Not only does she have an on-line needlework shop, but here site is a treasure trove of information for stitchers of all kinds. In her shop she has, fabrics on special, features a lovely kit each month and includes a free chart with every purchase. She has a frequent buyer program and monthly specials. Right now, in March, she has a spring cleaning sale on several counts and colors of fabrics. If you are a cross stitcher looking for the latest charts, check out Theresa’s Basket — new charts stay there for two months. Older charts are listed under “Charts and Designers.” She carries just about the best selection of hand-dyed evenweave fabrics I’ve seen and a wide variety of threads, especially hand-dyes. She also has wonderful scissors and accessories. But

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Originally posted 2009-05-26 06:40:05. Republished by Blog Post PromoterHave you been to the Caron Collection site, Dyed and Gone to Heaven lately? No? Then go visit this superb, redesigned site. I am so completely impressed with its style I can’t recommend it enough. The Caron Collection really embraced the possibilities of the Internet when they first did their site more than 10 years ago. It has tons of information, galleries, profiles, and free patterns of the finest quality. But it wasn’t easy to navigate and often I found myself wondering where certain information could be found. The new site showcases the information and products in a newspaper-like format. There are stories, with links, pointing you to new, larger, and greatly improved on-line color cards. The latest designer profile is summarized with a column and free projects as well as new products are showcased. Across the top are buttons to the

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Originally posted 2010-10-21 06:57:54. Republished by Blog Post PromoterA new web site, Cut Rate Crafts, has discounted supplies for needlework and other crafts. Their home page promises discounts of 15-30% on their products. They also have free shipping on orders over $100. While it’s not fantastic for needlepoint, it does have some good products. Their best selection is in stretcher bars where they have both mini and regular bars in sizes from 5 to 18 inches. I can’t tell the brand from the picture, but at least some of them are from brands I’ve seen in shops. Another great resource is the many types of scroll frames and scroll bars available. It can be hard to find these parts in shops, so this is a great resource. They also have a small but nice selection of lap frames. There selection of organizing products is also good, with the biggest assortment

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Originally posted 2010-06-28 07:23:15. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Bargello Needlepoint has just undergone a major redesign to make it easier to find patterns and to learn about both Bargello & needlepoint. It’s a great site and you should spend plenty of time there. This year Althea, the site’s owner, has been trying to stitch a new Bargello pattern everyday in the 2010 Bargello Challenge. With half the year gone, she has an impressive array of patterns stitched. These she has classified in useful pages, like the Bargello Diamond Designs that give a brief descrption of this type of design and then show all of the designs in this category in clickable thumbnails. Click on one and you’ll find a page with a bigger picture, information about the source and some other information about the design. Besides this amazing resource and record of her project, there is also a store

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Originally posted 2003-02-20 07:56:36. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI love Kreinik threads — both the silks and the metallic threads. As time has gone on, it has made me more and more happy that the color range available in them has become greater so it is so much easier to use them for many purposes. To mach their outstanding threads and their wealth of knowledge about them, Kreinik has put together and outstanding website — http://www.kreinik.com. It is an outstanding and inspirational place to visit. If metallic threads are new to you, then the site can help introduce them to you easily. The metallic section of the site describes the main types of metallic threads clearly (so you can understand the difference between high lustre, vintage, cord and basic), what you can do with metallic thread, and the history of metallic threads. There are also links where you can find

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DMC recently redesigned their website and I recently had a chance to explore it. For a company that has been in the needlework business for so long and who has many threads that are popular with needlepointers, this site is a huge disappointment. There are several areas where you might look for needlepoint, and most of them are very disappointing. Let’s begin with “threads.” Go there and click on “needlepoint threads.” What’s is listed there” Tapestry Wool and no other threads. People stopped using only wool in needlepoint in the mid-70′s. Where are the many other threads that have been standards for needlepoint for decades, let alone DMC’s innovative new products? Not under needlepoint, you’ll find them under embroidery threads. Couldn’t DMC have listed them under needlepoint as well, it isn’t hard to do. A second section is education and this is the only good part of the site for

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