Yes I froze. Foolish me, I didn’t bring my winter coat and it was about the same temperature in SD as here in Napa.

Yes, I saw great stuff. I’m hoping to write the newsletter later today, so you can learn all about what I saw, but first I have to unpack.

Yes, I’m tired, but I did eat two real meals yesterday and got enough sleep last night, so I may be able to get beyond the emergency urgent to the merely urgent today.

Related posts:

1. Upcoming on Nuts!
2. Expanded Nativity Stitch Guide -TNNA Preview
3. TNNA Preview – MAP Designs
4. Back in Action
5. Which Needlepoint Project?

It’s summer and I have two special offers for you, good through Labor Day (how’s that for a vacation special?) First you can download and read, completely free, the Traveling with Needlepoint chapter. It’s a PDF file, and you get it by clicking the link.

Second, I am offering the book at a special price to my readers. The book, including shipping via first class mail in the US is only $16. That’s below retail, even with the shipping! Use the PayPal button below to order.

Take advantage of this great offer today and keep stitching!

Related posts:

1. Needlepoint Trade Secrets
2. Needlepoint Trade Secrets
3. Red Hot Book Review – Needlepoint Trade Secrets
4. Special Hurt Books Sale
5. Last Day for Needlework Show!

She doesn’t know it, but Jane Zimmerman was one of the first needlepoint people I heard about when I moved to California in 1980. My house was, providentially for me, just up the street from a needlepoint store called The Crewel World. Jane taught there for many years.

I remember seeing her stunningly gorgeous teaching pieces on display and wishing I had time and money to take them.

Besides being a whiz at stitching, Jane has an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of needlework. I know how much research and detective work this had to encompass because everytime I try it, my eyes cross.

Now she has opened a wonderful website so we can share he knowledge, and enjoy her books and designs.

Jane no longer travels to teach but she is doing Cyberclasses, with one currently available through the Shining Needle Society. You can also buy kits and projects through the site (specials are on the What’s new page).

Are you looking for comprehensive stitch dictionaries? She has the first two volumes of her encyclopedia available to order on the site, with two more volumes still to come.

But where she really shines is in the information she is so generously sharing with the needlework community. She’s beginning her Needlework History with sections on Medieval Or Nué and Medieval Embroidery.

And she will be adding sections on needlework techniques and stitches in the next year. Currently the technique section has some great articles about doing Or Nué today.

And, for a change of pace, it you want to laugh go to Tickle My Fancy and look at the section on over the top grooming. I laughed till I cried.

Thanks, Jane for a great site!

Related posts:

1. Shakespeare’s Peddler – Web Site Review
2. Here Be Drolleries – book review
3. Background Stitches vol.1 – book review
4. Medieval Silkwork – Great Site, Lovely Pattern
5. Pischke Pockets Has a Great Site

I’m working on two of EGA’s Master Craftsman programs, design and color. I’m on step 2
of color and have a provisional pass on step 2 in design.

The Step 2 project with changes goes back to be rejudged next week.

But yesterday I spent a fair amount of time laying the groundwork for my next color piece.

I really want to recommend both these programs to people wanting to explore the process
of designing needlework in more depth. Master Craftsman certifications are not supposed
to be easy, they require a strong commitment to time, study and stitching. But I like these
two programs as they are not tied to any particular technique but to more basic design
issues.

For each step there is a theme, something which you need to explore in both research and
stitching. A paper is due for every step as is a stitched design and written material
supporting it.

Submissions are judged twice a year and you have, if I remember correctly, five years to do
each step. Generally when I get material for a new step I read over it and then let it sit on
the back burner until I get an idea.

Yesterday I worked on the Color Step 3. The pieces for the stitched item have been falling
into place more quickly, so I know it’s time to get stitching. I decided on an idea for a
needlepoint I’d like to do, but hadn’t figured it for the program. I then decided on a
canvas mesh (14) which, I’m afraid, is driven mostly by my stash of threads which are too
thick for 18 mesh and need to be used. That decision also made me think about the
colors of those threads, which, in turn, got me thinking of the requirements of the step.

Those requirements restrict your design. To do any designing. you need to have
restrictions. If you had an unlimited choice, without any restrictions, the result would be
chaos. The difference here is that the requirements of the step impose external
restrictions.

But what I discovered yesterday is that one design decision leads to another, in spite of the
restrictions imposed by the step. Here’s how it worked in Q&A format.

I had an idea, inspired by 70′s needlepoint and wanted to reinterpret it in a more modern
way.
1. What threads?
I have way too many threads for 14 mesh canvas mostly in a narrow range of colors, so
that’s the mesh I’ll use.

2, What size?
The minimum size for the program is 6×8, so at least that large.

3. What will it be when it’s done?
This one isn’t going into my stash but will become a tray inset, so it will be living under
glass. This may or may not end up as being important.

4. What color?
At this point I needed to do two things. look at the requirements of the step and look at
the colors of the threads I wanted to use. I also needed to think about what makes good,
not dull, design. So I’m going to use mostly blues and blue-greens with occasional
flashes of orange-red. The occasional color changes as well as more sttention-grabbing
threads should make something exciting.

I’m all ready to go now, I will start charting over the weekend. The design may change
significantly before I’m done, but I’m not stitching without a plan and I can see the
finished result in my mind.

Related posts:

1. June Random Thoughts on Needlepoint
2. Random Thoughts on Needlepoint
3. March Random Thoughts on Needlepoint
4. January Random Thoughts on Needlepoint
5. EGA Master Craftsman

Needlework for most of us, is a constant companion, accompanying our busy days, enlivening our watching of TV, and being a comfort when we grieve.

A number of stitchers have shared stories about their needlework and how it has influenced them. I’ve collected these into a blog, Stitched with Stories.

Beginning this week and throughout March new stories will be added to the blog.

I’d love it if the sharing would continue. And I’d love you to share your story. Please email it to stitchedwithstories [at] gmail [dot] com. It can be any length and can be in any style.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Related posts:

1. Stitched with Stories Update
2. Crafty March Madness
3. Share your Love of Stitching!
4. Of Learning Styles & Needlepoint
5. Finding your Way around the New Layout

I love Raymond Crawford’s designs. This is the fourth(!) set of stitch guides I’m wokring on for him and the second set of coasters.

This set is so fun. Each coaster has a drink word (Drink! Sip! Slurp! Gulp!) and each uses a different kind of shape, either in cool or hot colors.

Sip & Gulp are in warm color. Sip has stripes, Gulp rectangles.

Drink and Gulp are in cool colors. Drink is as you see above, Gulp has circles.

Each colored box on each coaster is using a different stitch and there are four different backgrounds stitches as well.

Several of the stitches are brand new (I designed them) and there is also a wealth of threads used. This means that besides being a delightful stitch guide, the book will make a great reference guide. I’m especially excited about all the different ways to deal with circles, a problem I always have.

I have had so much fun stitching them, I can’t wait to do more. I’ll post Gulp sometime after I start it.

The book ought to be available for your shop to order (from Raymond) sometime over the summer — I’m hoping for TNNA next month.

Related posts:

1. Raymond Crawford Coasters
2. Stitch Guide Classic – Raymond Crawford’s Chinese Letters
3. Slurp! – Sneak Peek
4. Amazing Needlepointer – Raymond Dockstader
5. Napa Needlepoint at Columbus TNNA

There is always a copy under the contact link, but I have also included it below:

It will also be included in posts as needed.

Related posts:

1. Blog Update
2. New Search Capabilities
3. Textured Stitch Cyberclass
4. ALERT! This Blog Has Been Hacked!
5. Announcing All about Needlepoint

Every year I make some New Year’s Resolutions about needlepoint.

Sometimes they are vague, like this year’s one to reduce the thread stash. Sometimes they are very concrete, like the year I wanted to do 100 needlepoint projects.

Most of the time I fail. Sometimes miserably, like the year I was supposed to finish 3 UFOs and finish none. Sometimes only by a hair, like the year I did 96 needlepoints instead of 100.

But making resolutions is fun, it gives us goals, it can direct our stitching, and sometimes it can be materially rewarding as many guilds have annual challenges.

In any case, what’s your needlepoint resolution?

Is there a project you intend to finish? A technique you want to learn? An organization goal?

I’ve come clean with mine – to reduce the thread stash by 10-25%, but leave a comment and let me know yours.

So far I’m not doing too badly. I’ve managed to use up at least one thread on every project I have done and I’m planning to do some other things (namely these vintage star ornaments) to use up a bunch more thread.

One lucky reader who provides a resolution will get a prize to be awarded Jan 30.

Related posts:

1. Needlepoint Resolutions as a Way to Conquer your Stash
2. My Needlepoint Resolutions
3. Needlepoint Goals for 2009
4. Resolutions to Learn Needlepoint
5. Update on my Resolutions