At our last meeting, I exposed my ANG Main Line chapter (outside Philadelphia in Devon, PA) to the world of Fiber Arts by sharing the work of this artist, http://ingejacobsen-inge.blogspot.com/search/label/Sewing (thanks to Linda from ANG Yahoo group who shared this link a year ago for http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/hand-stitched-vogue-covers).
I thought it would be fun to have our members give this art form a try. So, I bought New American Paintings, a catalog of the fourteenth open studios competition, a juried exhibition from Feb 1998 at a flea market. The pictures were interesting, different, and colorful.
In advance of the meeting, I started stitching one to show them what it would look like in person. And, the one I selected is this fruit basket piece. I contacted the artist of the Fruit Basket, Stacy Thomas-Vickory (you can find anyone and anything with google if you try), and explained what I was doing & included a photo of the half stitched piece. I told her I’d like to blog about it with a photo of the finished piece but I wanted to be sure she’d be ok with that. I don’t want to violate any copyright issue. And Stacy, a professor at a College of Art, agreed saying, “I would be thrilled to have you make a needlework piece from my painting. If possible could you send me a large size jpg of the finished work, so I can have it for my records. The project with your guild sounds like a great contemporary twist on such an old form. I liked Inge Jacobson’s work as well. Thank you for opening my eyes to this direction in needlework.”
So, I’ll send Stacey the jpg & a link to my blog. Thanks again Stacey – I love your painting! And, next month when Mary Smull visits to talk about the Society for the Prevention of Unfinished Needlepoint (SPUN), we should have several examples of this fun fiber art form to share with Mary!!
As I told my chapter members, you could do this to any photo & it might really impress your kids & grandkids especially if you stitched some photo of them. I think the heavier weight paper makes it easier to handle. I didn’t block it. and I used a fine thread – you can do any stitch you want – no rules!! All I did was couching of a copper color metallic filament thread, Accentuate (228). I think it turned out great.
And, a close-up:
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Melitastitches4fun's Blog 
Love it! Your talent shows.
Comment by Buff biddle April 12, 2013 @ 7:27 pmHow unusual and beautiful. Question: You said something about using a heavy paper. Could you explain a little more about the paper? You also said a photo—meaning make it larger on a special type paper then stitch on it. Kind of like Mill Hill paper projects. ! ! !
Thanks and hope everything is fine at your end of town.
Comment by Carol April 13, 2013 @ 7:00 amCarol In Tenn
Hi Carol, The paper in the catalog was just a higher grade quality paper – not like notebook paper. And, photo grade sheets of paper that are glossy are even thicker. And, I just mean thicker is going to be less easily torn. So, I did mean just a regular photo that you get printed – stitch on one of those! Make more sense – or not yet? Melita
Comment by melitastitches4fun April 13, 2013 @ 7:48 amVery interesting! Thank you.
Comment by Liz April 15, 2013 @ 12:04 pmGlad you all had time to take a look! Many of the people who showed up took a page from the catalog that I had & I am looking forward to seeing everyone’s results next month!
Comment by melitastitches4fun April 15, 2013 @ 7:07 pmMelita, this is fabulous. Looks like pieces of amber. And your idea of fish net looks like its holding the form. Did you use mini stretcher bars? Great idea for handmade greeting cards. As in recycle christmas cards received and stitch over them. Good to see you Sat.
Comment by Karen Milano April 29, 2013 @ 12:48 pmGlad you like it Karen! The fish net is covering half the wire form that is actually holding the fruit in place. I didn’t not use stretcher bars. I just held it carefully. Putting it on bars would work fine as long as you have enough of a border. Yeah, it would be great for handmade greeting cards. I thought it would look great to stitch over a photo of a girl’s prom dress. Always good to see you as well. It was a fun day & will be the subject of my blog when I get home from work today.
Comment by melitastitches4fun April 29, 2013 @ 1:40 pm