Nuts about Needlepoint

Holiday Ribbons – Free Design – Part 2

Janet Perry — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:26:40 +0000

Yesterday we began this delightful free mantle stocking design, Holiday Ribbons. Today we’ll do the green ribbons. Tomorrow we’ll finish up the project.

Left Ribbon

This ribbon is stitched in Irregular Alternating Slanted Gobelin Stripe, below, using Watercolours for all but the single thread stripes. Those are stitched with metallic.

Center Ribbon

I used Petite Very Velvet for this ribbon. It’s stitched in Cashmere Double Brickwork, below.

Right Ribbon

This ribbon is stitched in Burden Stitch, below. The laid threads are metallic while the tying stitches are Neon Rays Plus.

Charming Free Geometric Needlepoint Pattern

Janet Perry — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:03:51 +0000

Originally posted 2010-05-05 07:40:42. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

from Northern Pine Designs

Northern Pine Designs has lovely charted needlepoint with an emphasis on geometrics and textured stitches, often mixed with Bargello.

To give you a taste of their style, you can get this free pattern on their site as a PDF.

Thanks and a tip of the hat to Althea at Bargello Needlepoint.

Holiday Ribbons – Free Needlepoint Stocking – Part 1

Janet Perry — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:03:50 +0000

This week’s free project is a delightful mantle size stocking that has five ribbons along the top.

Today we’ll go over how to create the outline and find you materials. Tomorrow we’ll discuss the three green ribbons. Thursday we’ll do the two gold ribbons and the background Thursday we’ll also cover how to outline the ribbons.

In order to trace the design, you will need a piece of canvas 10″ x 14″ The model is stitched on 18 mesh, but it could also easily be done on larger mesh sizes.

Using the mini-sock outline, enlarge the design to about 10″ high. Using the enlarged outline and a permanent marker made for marking on canvas,trace the outline onto the canvas.

Marking the Ribbons

Count across the top of the stocking to see how many threads wide it is. Divide this number by five. If it comes out evenly, that is the number of threads each ribbon should be.

If there is a remainder, here’s how to distribute it.

If the remainder is 1, put the extra thread in the center ribbon.
If the remainder is 2, put the extra threads in the second and fourth ribbons (gold ribbon on the model).
If the remainder is 3, put the extra threads in the first, third, and fifth ribbons (green ribbons in the model).
If the remainder is 4, put the extra threads in all except the center ribbon.

Write down the ribbon widths. Count on your canvas and mark the edges of the ribbons.

As you can see each ribbon is a different length. For each ribbon you can make the end a diagonal cut, or a swallowtail cut (upside-down V). Using your pen mark the ends of each ribbon.

Your ribbons do not have to look like mine.

Mount your canvas for stitching.

Materials

For this canvas you will need:

Silk or silk/wool blend for background, such as Silk & Ivory, Vineyard Silk or Planet Earth Silk
thick metallic in gold or silver
thin metallic to match thick metallic
overdye in ribbon color #1 (green here)
metallic in color #1
two solid threads in color #1
two solid threads in color#2 (gold here)
metallic or other shiny thread in color #2

In the model I usedSilk & Ivory, Cresta d’Oro, Kreinik #12, Kreinik #4, Sheep’s Silk, Watercolours, Neon Rays, Petite Very Velvet, and Frosty Rays.

Bargello Theme & Variations

Janet Perry — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:32:15 +0000

Originally posted 2009-04-02 06:39:08. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

You may not have thought about Bargello as the easiest way into doing your own designs, but it is. A simple Bargello line pattern, such as the one I used on my Bargello pattern challenge with Cindy from Windy Meadow, can be the springboard to many different Bargello projects.

The basic line, a scallop, is used for this little coin purse. The overdyed thread is the end of some knitting yarn given to me by a friend. I used Crescent Colours floss and Flair as the other threads.

Start to finish, it only took me less than 3 hours to stitch.

Once you have a line, you can start to vary it. This ribbons pattern is made by keeping the pattern going in one direction instead of turning at the top of the scallop. It’s a simple change and can be done with any Bargello line pattern, but what a difference it makes!

You can enhance the ribbony look by making more than one line using the same thread. I used three and accented it with neon green Sparkle Rays. It’s in a lime green alligator Lee’s Needle Arts luggage tag.

This was the original piece I did using this line, it was on Cindy’s site last summer. I offset the rows of the pattern, so that the lowest point in one row meets the highest point in the row below it. When you do this the pattern no longer has lines, but shapes. This type of shape is called a clamshell and is fun to fill.

Mine is pretty conservative, but you could also fill the outlines with different colors, making a scrap bag design, or you could alternate between two or three colors.

I started (late Tuesday night) yet another variation which crosses two of the ribbon patterns into a big “X” and there are more I want to do after that.

This is easy to do yourself, find a Bargello line pattern you like, graph out on or another of these variations, pick your threads, and stitch away! You have created an original design!

What Do Stitch Names Mean?

Janet Perry — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:32:14 +0000

Often in the naming of stitches, there is little in the way of standardization.

Sometimes a stitch is called one thing in one book and a different thing in another. Sometimes the same name refers to completely different stitches. And even the same stitch can appear with two different names in the same book.

To make matters worse, sometimes a stitch that looks the same can be made differently and gets different names because of that.

As a teacher and writer, I try to find names for the stitches I use, but sometimes there aren’t any. They may be new, as far as I know, or they may not have been named by the original designer.

I have developed standards of my own that I use when thinking of names of stitches. Here are some of them:

Reverse – A stitch that slants in the opposite direction of normal (i.e. lower right to upper left).
Alternating - The slant of the stitches of each unit switches between two directions, either vertical and horizontal, or normal and reverse.

Horizontal – Running in a horizontal direction; with the long side parallel to the ground.
Vertical - Running in a vertical direction; with the long side perpendicular to the ground.

These two are generally used for versions of Straight Stitches.

Giant - A version of the stitch that is larger than the normal size of the stitch. This term is not always applied consistently. Many stitches, such as Scotch come in many different sizes, so it’s a bit difficult to tell between normal and “giant.”

Tied – One or more parts of this stitch are tied to the canvas with additional stitches. Laidwork and tramme are both types of tied stitches, although often they don’t have this word in the name.

Woven – One or more parts of the stitch go over and under other parts of the stitch. Some woven stitches are actually woven in whole or in part, while other “woven” stitches get that way because of how they are constructed. Woven Cross would be an example of the first, while Six-trip Herringbone would be an example of the second.

Offset – Rows of this stitch are moved by one or more threads so they don’t line up on next to another. Making stitches of this kind seems to be a relatively new trend. It’s really great to use with stitches that are squares.

Variation – A modification of standard stitch in some way, often by the addition of other stitches. There are bazillions of stitch variations, so quite often these stitches don’t use this at all, but have a completely different name.

Framed – Having stitches surrounding units or groups of the stitch. Most of the time these are Tent Stitches, but BackStitches of Gobelin Stitches also occur fairly often. If a stitch is only partially framed, it is often called Half-Framed.

Exploded - Units or partial units of the stitch are separated by open threads

But you could see that using these terms could give you rather long names. If my name choice is Exploded Giant Alternating Offset Horizontal Cashmere, you could see why I might want to call it “Foobar Stitch.”

Christmas Finishing Deadline Approaching

Janet Perry — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:50:13 +0000

Originally posted 2008-08-22 05:49:58. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI know it’s August but many shops have Christmas finishing deadlines, especially for large items like stockings, beginning next month. Often there is a second deadline a bit later for small items like ornaments. Check with your local shop now, so that you aren’t caught short. Related posts: Finishing the Small Ornament Christmas Ornaments Class More Great Needlepoint Finishing Ideas Finishing Resources – on-line and off Nautilus Shell & Christmas Ornaments Related posts:

Dealing with Needlepoint “Dandruff” & Proper Coverage

Janet Perry — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:50:12 +0000

“Dandruff” is my name for those annoying white flecks of canvas that can show through your stitching. Not only do they make it look as if an area is improperly stitched, they also attract attention to themselves because they are so much lighter than the surrounding stitching.

THere are two kinds of dandruff. The first happens because the thread is too think for the mesh of the canvas. This can happen because the thread is too thin but it can also happen because the thread has no give, so it doesn’t puff up to fill the space.

The other kind of dandruff happens between rows of straight stitches. While the first is caused by the fiber and it can happen with any kind of stitch, the second can happen with any kind of thread and is most common when doing Straight Stitches.

In a recent post on canvas coverage, Joni Stevenson, talked about this problem and came up with some great solutions for it. In addition to the wonderful ideas, Joni has extreme close-up pictures, so you can really see both the problem and the solution.

Hearts & Bargello – a Lovely Ornament

Janet Perry — Sat, 12 May 2012 15:13:57 +0000

Originally posted 2009-02-06 06:38:59. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Judy Harper has posted another charming ornament on FREEBIES, Etc! It has four hearts as the center, a Bargello border, and a circle of Forget-Me-Nots.

It would make a lovely gift. I’m thinking about making one tomorrow (for Stitch in Public Day) and putting it on top of a box. I’ll try to post a picture tomorrow once I’m finished.

Survive the January Blahs at Calloway

Janet Perry — Sat, 12 May 2012 15:13:56 +0000

Calloway Gardens School of Needle Arts takes place each January in this splendid setting. They have recently released the schedule for the 2013 session with a selection of two- and four-day classes. Many fantastic teachers come to Calloway to teach and this year is no exception. Jody Adams, Terry Dryden, Toni Gerdes, Kay Stanis, and many others have classes scheduled. Not only is needlepoint taught there, but classes in Japanese Embroidery, design, and free embroidery are offered. From the main page (link here) you can see the class list and schedule, and make reservations housing. Related posts: Calloway Gardens 2012 Classes Royal School of Needlework Class Schedule Preview Promenade – TNNA January 2008 NAN Assembly Classes for 2012 TNNA January 2007 Round-up Related posts:

Letter Twinchy Challenge Results

Janet Perry — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:22:32 +0000

Originally posted 2008-07-31 07:33:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Here are the three twinchys I made for this month’s challenge. The main colors are my kids’ favorite colors and the threads came from my scrap bag and from my stash.

The backgrounds are done in T Stitch. I used white Nordic Gold for the A, very pale yellow Kreinik for the green, and silver Kreinik for the T. All of these are thin threads, so that the canvas shows through.

Here are the charts for you (click to get a larger size):

To make them, I made the middle letter very large and then found additional letters, many from Tink Boord-Dill’s book, Alphabets Tantalizing and Terrific, or from the Internet. I arranged them around the central letter, some behind others, and stitched each in a different thread so they would stand out from each other. Some do this better than others.

* * *

Here’s another delightful one from Nancy White, one of my friends on Stitchin’ Fingers.

I love the use of the pale violet canvas, I think it really sets off the design.

* * *
Another great Twinchy is from Jocelyn, another stitching friend from Stitchin’ Fingers. Jocelyn is from New Zealand and is an amazingly talented stitcher. If you’ve heard about Doodle Needlepoint — that’s her idea. I am crazy about her J, which uses one of my favorite color schemes.

Twinchies are so fun, so fast and so easy. Check tomorrow to see the theme for August. I’m madly stitching to get one done to show you.

And if you have ideas for finishing them (even if you aren’t participating, post a comment, I could use the help.