All caught up through May on Susan Hoekstra’s Feuilles d’ananas (Pineapple Leaves). What fun it was to stitch on 18-count canvas after a month working on 24-count Congress cloth (for a pilot class that I can’t share yet). The holes look huge!
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, ANG Stitch of the Month, 2016, New Jersey Needle Festival
Great weekend! Buff & I headed for Beyond Knits & Needles in Caldwell, NJ on Friday morning. I got some threads & Buff found a canvas. Wonderful store. Anne Marie is very nice and has friendly, helpful customers (Jane). Love the selection of canvases & threads. Incredible light in each of the 3 rooms.
And, then we headed to Edwardian Needle for more threads & EdMar needles (me) and another canvas & threads (Buff).
A fantastic dinner and conversation with Buff, Brenda, Ginny, Rona, and Rosie at the Red Oak Grille. It would have been nice if Linda had made the trip too.
After a good night’s sleep, we headed to the New Jersey Needle Festival (my 4th time I think). It’s so much fun to see everyone & what they are stitching. I think a dozen of us are working on Susan Hoekstra’s Stitch of the Month, Feuilles d’ananas.
We had a great group at our table! Sitting/standing left to right: Sylvia, Rona, Melita, Brenda, Lori & Ginny, Buff, Margaret.
And, the vendors saw robust sales! I found an eyeglass / cell phone case made by Trish Vine & Karen from Nimble Needle had the lamp I wanted. The cute bag from Susan was too cute to pass up.
Although I didn’t finish April’s portion of the design at NJNF, it was done before I went to bed Saturday night!
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, Our Heart III by Marnie Ritter
At our ANG Main Line Stitchers meeting we did our Christmas exchange (steal) (back in December 2015). I do like hearts & haven’t done a Marnie Ritter design yet but did feel bad stealing it from Buff, our gracious hostess!! And, thanks to Linda who destashed this from her stockpile of needlepoint.
I am still playing catch up with my blog as I clean up some piles at home! These projects, even the little ones, pile up faster than I can stitch them up!!! UP, UP, UP goes the stash.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, ANG Stitch of the Month, 2016
This year’s ANG Stitch of the Month (SOTM) from ANG is Feuilles d’ananas, by Susan Hoekstra (Pineapple Leaves) – A Study in Values. I thought the darkest scarlet red was darker but it looks good with the dark pepper pot & Kreinik (#12 not #8 as recommended). I enjoy seeing it slowly grow.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, ANG Seminar 2015, General comments, Gilded Acorns by Deborah Wilson, Three Leaves by Margaret Kinsey
I took 8 pieces (most but not all stitched in 2015) to the framer before Christmas. Linda helped me pick out frames along with Jim the owner of Repenning Fine Arts in Audubon, NJ. I’m very happy that Karen at Nimble Needle recommended him. Nice selection of frames, he has a good eye, and is reasonably priced. We had a lot of fun – it took some time too with 8 pieces! But, it was a successful group experience. Three pieces I can’t show yet – they were framed as a single. It was tough to get good pictures of the dark frames. But, they look really great.
Patchwork Quilt by Pat Donaldson
And, Tootsiebubbles: Pinwheels and Whirligigs by Brenda Kocher
Color Inspirations by Orna Willis
Three Leaves by Margaret Kinsey
Gilded Acorns by Deborah Wilson
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, ANG Stitch of the Month, 2016
This year’s ANG Stitch of the Month (SOTM) from ANG is Feuilles d’ananas, by Susan Hoekstra (Pineapple Leaves) – A Study in Values. I was so tempted to do it in Susan’s colorway too (see it at http://needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2016/SOTM201601_Introduction.pdf). But, as soon as I saw the materials list, I knew that there were plenty of skeins of Needlepoint Silk from Mae Van Damm’s stash in a wide range of scarlet reds. Sure enough, I had 5 values & enough to offer them to our members at ANG Main Line Stitcher’s chapter.
So, I took them to Fireside Stitchery before our January meeting and found 6 Pepper Pot Silk colors and 2 Kreiniks to go with them (thanks to Linda for her assistance). I have them listed below. A couple of folks are going to do the piece in the reds. We all agreed it is a pretty design.
I had an easier way to stitch the 4-way Amadeus but glad I stitched it both ways. I could really see a difference! On the left, you see the easy way (stitch first the entire left side and then the entire right side) leaves a gap in the center which could be used if I went back and placed a thread or a bugle bead down the middle. But, I stitched it the way Susan charted it (one stitch on the left and matching stitch on the right with continued alternating sides one stitch at a time as it is built).
And, the 4-Way Arrow Amadeus was done for the meeting too!
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Filed under: A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That by Linda Damiani, ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter
Instructions for “A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That” by Linda Damiani was in the stash we got from Mae V-D, a member of the ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter who passed away in 2015.
A couple of members of our chapter remembered Linda was from our area but had moved away. I was able to locate her & I called her. She moved away from needlepoint to other crafts but was happy to grant us permission to copy & distribute the instructions once again to our members.
Again using Mae’s canvas and threads, we stitched 2 projects from the booklet.
A true stash buster using miscellaneous threads grabbed randomly. See how each looks slightly different using the same threads?
And, there was a lovely Florentine Star that I choose to do off center rather than locating the star directly center and making it a full 4-way bargello pattern. I had such fun doing these that I did them in multiple colors.
Filed under: A Hilton Holiday by DebBee's Design, ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter
Our December project for our ANG Main Line Stitchers was A Hilton Holiday. I finished mine before the meeting in order to show everyone. I love how it turned out. It was a free design for signing up for DebBee’s Designs emails. I used the suggested threads.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, Gilded Acorns by Deborah Wilson
Gilded Acorns was a great follow-up piece allowing me to work with different types of gold.
It might be fun to add some gold to a future piece. I’ve got some leftover after finishing the second leaf, adding the thinner veins in both leaves, and building the second acorn.
I’m heading to the framer on Saturday with both recent goldwork pieces.
Melitastitches4fun's Blog 
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, Canvas Swatches from Fireside, Forest Glen, General comments
While vacationing in Maine this past week, I wanted a small project to travel with and something not too difficult. And, Forest Glen, a design from Kick Back & Stitch by Terry Gifford was perfect.
I used Santa Fe Sage canvas (6) instead of the Victorian Green canvas (11) – samples are from a package with 25 colors that I bought from Fireside Stitchery (3 x 3 swatches). I do prefer to work on a lighter canvas.
And, I used the same white Kreinik (032), DMC #5 (502), and DMC Floss (369, 368, 320) as suggested. But, I couldn’t find Leah’s Overdyed Perle 12 (243). So, I picked up Wildflowers Jade (066) which I figured out looks darker than the lighter green/white Leah’s overdyed thread from the picture. And, I didn’t find the DMC Perle #8 (320).
So, I was in Maine needing threads for a project. Luckily, Mary Jo Cole, owner of Needlepoint America in Kennebunk was open & suggested a yellow Kreinik which she generously gave me from her stash. She has tons of hand-painted canvases including lobster belts and other Maine memorabilia. She also carries a unique line of canvases, mid 1800s floral designs of William Morris that look timeless. I have reached a level of stash that must decrease before I buy more & resisted all urges!
And, these lovely musical crib hanging ornaments. These were tough to pass on but I can always order one online!
I decided to use the yellow Kreinik just in the 4 corners of each eyelet to add some sparkle. And, I used the light yellow portion of Needle Necessities Pearl 8 overdyed (866) that I found at Grace Robinson & Company in Freeport. Good thing I am not a knitter! They have tons of beautiful yarns. Some painted canvases and threads (in drawers behind a counter). I told Meghan what I was looking for and the one she found came the closest but I decided to avoid the rust and green in the overdyed thread and just use the light yellow for 8 prongs of the eyelet. And, I filled in the remaining 12 prongs with the lightest and medium colors of the green DMC Floss. Now, the yellow Kreinik actually looks like it is yellow-green. That left me to use the more interesting overdyed Wildflowers on the outer border in place of the solid medium green DMC Perle #8.