Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, ANG Stitch of the Month, 2008
My ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter has started Circles by Lois Kershner, the ANG 2008 Stitch of the Month. It is one of 2 counted projects for the year. We have more members than ever (35 and 18-20 show up in person and on Zoom). So, we (the chapter Board) thought that a couple of projects would be needed to appeal to more members. We have 9 people working on Circles and 10 on the other piece which will be the subject of another post. And 5 people are working on both (yes, I am one of the 5). So, we have 14 people participating in ongoing projects which is quite good. We have a third ready to start in a few months.
It’s great that alternate colorways are shown for Circles. I am using blues although not the ones listed in the Material List for the original colorway. I have a whole pack of threads of Chameleon, Shades of Africa, Two Oceans which consists of 5 skeins from light to dark and each overdyed that I picked it up at Half Moon Handwerks in Camp Hill, PA. They have lovely fabrics and some needlepoint supplies. I thought about using these for another project but I don’t like laying these threads because they are too slippery. They are such pretty colors but I don’t like fighting with the threads. However, ironing them helps some and I will use them for this project and be done with them!
Lois recommends painting some areas of the canvas. I already had 2 blue Copic markers and picked up 2 more darker blues. I tried “stitch painting” the 4-way Bargello pattern but I didn’t get it exactly correct – close enough anyway!
The circular Rhodes would not fit within the 7″ circle based on the template provided. So, I studied the other stitched samples. The Mango Sorbet kept the same size and placed it directly under 4-way Bargello, the Creamy Peach seems to have shifted a few elements, and several did not stitch it at all. I can’t understand how Lois got the larger one to fit with the template she provided. But, no worries! I adjusted it to a smaller circular Rhodes which is 5 wide and not 7 wide on each edge. With this smaller version, you would drop down 12 not 16 from the bottom center edge of the 4-way Bargello to start at the number 1 stitch. That still allows it to be offset which I prefer.
The project and threads fit perfectly in a bag made by Linda from a blue fabric with circles in it! How perfect!?! I’ve got the ANG needle minder with blue in it too.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, Busy Lizzy, General comments, Ginkgo Leaves, Needlepoint Shops, Other People's Designs, Threads
Ginkgo Leaves is a Lee canvas (design size 8.5″ x 3.75), BR67. In June, at Cleo’s First Tuesday Stitch-in at Busy Lizzie, I found a new thread Line that I haven’t seen anywhere else. It is from Gloriana Threads and is Duchess Silk, a hand-dyed thread. Some colors have more subtle changes in the skein than others. The Antique Black is darker than the canvas but that’s ok. And, I will not use Brick after all because I am using some sparkly threads including Kreinik, Silk Lame Braid, or Snow for the edges of the leaves.
I was thinking basketweave for something easy to stitch but discovered that Duchess Silk is too thick. So, I selected various stitches incorporating a little additional sparkle into four of the eight (different from the edges).
My main goal was to find stitch patterns with stitches over 2 or 3 canvas threads that would create a diagonal effect according to the direction of the leaf. They came from Desert Island Vol 1 and 2 by Carole Lake and Michael Boren, Lone Star’s Grab-n-Go Stitches, Needlepoint Dictionary of Stitches by Susan Sturgeon Roberts, and The Needlepoint Book by Jo Ippolito Christensen
Part of this was stitched at yesterday’s Stitch-in with the ANG Main Line Stitchers. We had 5 in person at Buff’s house because the church is working on the floors. Speaking of Buff, she was quite observant by noticing that I was uncharacteristically stitching “in the well”. It is something that I have done when the canvas has too little around the sides of the design because it makes ending threads easier. When do you work “in the well”?
What happens when Christmas meets From Dawn to Dusk by Karen E. Dudzinski from Textured Treasures? This cute ornament! It is Motif 1-1 which I agreed to stitch to show how the various motifs would look if stitched individually for ornaments. This is one of three projects that ANG Main Line Stitchers will be stitching over the 2022-2023 year.
I had Needle Necessities 153 Razzle Dazzle Red for the Satin Stitch Leaf and a roll of 1/16 silver metallic ribbon for the Plaited Upright Cross and center leaf vein in my stash. The red flosses from dark to light are 814, 816, and 321.
Instead of the 11/0 beads, I used 15/0 Miyuki beads and Sundance silver sequins BDS-SQ214 which I have plenty to share if anyone is interested. I think they will sparkle better.
Other threads were DMC Floss Blanc, DMC #8 Perle white, DMC #5 Perle 321 red, and Kreinik #8 Braid 001 silver.
It took me about 6 hours to stitch this (spread over several days). I kept track to get a sense for how long it would take members to stitch a motif if we do one a month.
I stitched Access Commodities Metallic Soft Twist Trim Cord (Size 16) on with Sulky Invisible thread (fine 0.004) which was quite a challenge to see! But, it worked better than a matching silver thread because I had to go into the Ultrasuede backing & kind of deeper into the front to cinch the two sides tight. The cording Size 32 might be better although this is fine. It was way easier and quicker than using the Palestrina stitch for the edging. For this ornament, I used one layer of Skirtex, a stiff interfacing, that I had left over from a name tag kit obtained from Marilyn when we volunteered for ANG Distance Learning together. We made coordinating name tags for the 2014 ANG Seminar in Chicago. I had forgotten where I’d gotten Skirtex from, searched on my blog, and found out where I’d gotten from. I keep following Marilyn around ANG! She is excellent to work with and very knowledgeable.
My finishing is not perfect but looks very good. The first photo revealed a piece of invisible thread that had gotten caught on an edge but I was able to bury it. So, it was all done & ready for our August ANG Main Line Stitchers meeting this past Monday.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, Cards and Needles by Orna Willis, Media Arts Council Exhibit
We had the Media Arts Council exhibit opening last night. There was a good turnout. There were also 2 other artists displaying paintings. So it was a nice mix of people. I had some very interesting conversations with other artists and people interested in our needlepoint. Six other members of the Main Line Stitchers attended as did my husband, another member’s husband, a member’s sister, and friends of mine from Delaware. My husband had to remind me to tell people I was wearing Orna’s earrings – they were a hit!! Orna Willis spoke first, I spoke next, and then the other 2 artists. I relayed Patrick’s comments which summarized were: “Orna’s color choices and the way she combines threads and layers them is simply genius. Her designs speak for themselves. Orna is an excellent instructor, generous with her ideas and just fun to be around. You can’t ask for much more than that in Life.” Then, I discussed 3 classes from Orna in which she explained how she selects colors during the Color Inspirations class, how she designs in the Come Dance with Me class, and finally walks us through how to find a design within ourselves through drawing and painting in her Dare to Design class. There are only a handful of teachers who make the effort to share how they design which really contributes to the growth of our art form.
This is the other Cards and Needles piece I stitched which was designed by Orna and is one of 13 pieces on display from our chapter members. Each design is 2″ x 1.25″ that is stitched three times in 2 colorways (orange/fuchia-shown previously and purple/green-shown here) although colors repeat within a colorway and across each colorway. These could easily be created in a variety of colorways. The frame measures 9″ x 15″. The other colorway will be raffled to raise money for Media Arts Council as my way of thanking them for letting us join the exhibit. Raffle tickets for the orange/fuchia piece will be on sale all month long at the gallery. Be sure to visit the MAC gallery (11 E State Street in Media, PA; open Wed – Sat from 10 am – 2 pm and Sunday 12 – 4 pm) in July.
FYI: The talks were recorded and available on You Tube at CLICK HERE.
Gifted to cousin Steve and wife Fran Ivester on March 3, 2025.
I heard about Greystone Needlepoint not too long ago and more recently saw there were 10 stores on the Canvas Crawl going on around the area (NY, NJ, PA, and more) in June including Greystone Needlepoint. So, I made an appointment for 6-8 of us for Saturday before our Stitch-in.
Shannon welcomed us and we explored the canvases. It worked out very nicely for our small group. Any purchase came with a small project bag and Shannon provides a Beginner’s Guide with Do’s and Don’t along with diagrams for Basketweave and Continental.
I managed to find a cute canvas with stitch guide. It’s more interesting to me now to read stitch guides to find out how succinctly they can be written particularly now because I am helping with articles in Needle Pointers magazine.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, Cards and Needles by Orna Willis, Media Arts Council Exhibit
Save the date! July 1, 2022 (5 pm) for the in-person opening of a month-long needlepoint exhibit featuring Orna Willis and her designs at the Media Arts Council Gallery in Media, PA. Members of ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter will share 10 stitched pieces of her designs too. Read all about the exhibit and Orna at https://mediaartscouncil.org/calendar/mac-art-show-orna-willis-and-mainline-stitchers/ If you are in the Philadelphia area in July, be sure to visit the gallery (open Wed – Sat from 10 am – 2 pm and Sunday 12 – 4 pm).
I will contribute Come Dance With Me, Flower Cuff (finished flat), and Color Inspirations. In addition, I have completed Cards and Needles from my stash. It was a kit from around 2009 which was one of the first Main Line Stitchers classes that I signed up for.
For Cards and Needle, Orna created one design 2″ x 1.25″ that is stitched three times in 2 colorways (orange/fuchia and purple/green) although colors repeat within a colorway and across each colorway. Orna has a very clever instruction sheet as well. It is fascinating to see the results. Although Orna suggested using them for cards or individual mounted pieces with inspirational sayings, I decided to frame each colorway in a collage because keeping the colorways together looks more appealing to me. The frames measure 9″ x 15″. This one will be raffled to raise money for Media Arts Council as my way of thanking them for letting us join the exhibit. I’ll wait to share the other colorway.
Please join Orna and members of the Main Line Stitchers on July 1 at 5 pm for the opening!
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, Laurel Burch Rainbow Butterfly by Danji
This lovely Laurel Burch design by Danji, Rainbow Butterfly, caught my eye at NJ Needle Fest but Linda told me not to get because it was in stock at Linda’s Boutique (as I fondly call it). And today at our Stitch-in, Linda gave it to me as a birthday gift! I had forgotten about it but sure am glad Linda didn’t. Aren’t the colors lovely!
I think it’ll be fun to see what everyone suggests at chapter meetings especially since Linda and Kristen are our resident butterfly experts having worked on the larger Rainbow Butterflies Laurel Burch design by Danji (with Imagine written in the upper left corner). They used some threads and stitches from a Tony Minieri stitch guide and some of their own options.
But, I have to finish the Orchid and Bamboo JP canvas first. Hopefully, I will finish that by the the end of July.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, ANG Seminar 2017, Orange Orchid & Bamboo
The Main Line Stitchers chapter held our Stitch-in on Saturday in person (3 members) and on Zoom (3 members and baby Hallie!). The church is working great and with small numbers on both “sides”, the conversation flowed well as we stitched. Hallie slept through most of the 4 hours but did wake up long enough to eat and let us see how cute she is. I’m so glad Meghan Mom can join us.
I got started on the Band 4 background beforehand and finished it Sunday during the first NCAA basketball game.
This background (red one for Band 4) is easier to compensate than the outside bands. I also stitched the stem as Cynthia Thomas recommended in her stitch guide which is a wrapped double chain with 4 strands of floss. I used all dark on the left side and 2 dark/2 medium for the outer part and the wrap.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, ANG Seminar 2017, JP Bird of Paradise & Bamboo
The Main Line Stitchers chapter held our Stitch-in on Saturday. It was a small group of 5 and a few on Zoom. It was the first time to meet at United Methodist Church in Paoli. It’s locked at all times so people must call me upon arrival to get in. It worked well. Two long tables were wide and long enough for five. Great lighting. The Zoom people could hear well even without the eSpeaker. They can’t see everyone but that was fine.
I progressed on the left panel of Orchid and Bamboo. There wasn’t any more football on Sunday but the Philadelphia 76ers (basketball) actually have a team that can win. It’s not as easy a sport to watch and stitch as either football or baseball but I finished the left panel anyway later that day. Again, I took a photo and superimposed the stitches on top to figure out the compensation inside the medallion.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, ANG New Jersey Needle Artists Chapter, ANG Stitch of the Month, 2020, General comments, Star of Stitches, Woodlawn Needlework Exhibition
The Star of Stitches by Kathy Rees was an ANG Stitch of the Month for 2020 and the ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter followed ANG’s New Jersey Needle Artists (NJNA) chapter stitching it a year later. We gained some good insights by seeing how they made out. Main Line enjoys selecting their own colorways as much as NJNA.
I have been hitching a ride to Woodlawn with NJNA for a couple of years now. And, since Zoom offered the opportunity to join them, I am now a member of that chapter too. I finished and framed Star of Stitches in time to accompany theirs into the 2022 Woodlawn exhibit. They have been scattered throughout the exhibit as a scavenger hunt opportunity for kids attending the exhibit.
The frame came from Jim at Reppening Fine Arts in Audubon, NJ. He had just brought it out of the back room for the first time in a year. It was sitting on the work table and was the fastest selection of a frame ever!
I’m also sending Crescent Journey in the beach colorway. In 2019, I had sent the original colorway which didn’t get a ribbon although it did get a favorable critique with constructive comments that I hope this colorway addresses. Jim framed this too.
Thanks again to Linda M (from NJNA) and her husband for taking all the pieces from NJNA for the Woodlawn Needlework Exhibit. They drove down in rain but the sun greeted them today for check-in. It’s wonderful that Woodlawn has made submission and check-in electronic. You upload a photo and print 2 forms per piece. Nothing needs to be attached to the piece now. It’s faster for all as well. I got an email as soon as Linda checked mine in.
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