Filed under: ANG Seminar 2018, Designing Geometric Sampler with Kathy Rees
A Stained Glass Violet is a 4″ square design that began in Washington, DC with Kathy Rees at her class, Designing Geometric Samplers in 2018. The piece uses Watercolours 296 Stained Glass and 232 African Violet (thus, the name).
I am finally done with my finishing frenzy for 2022! Actually, I still have unfinished stitched pieces but I don’t know where I’d put them anyway.
Months ago, I found a square frame off the shelf at Michael’s that fit this piece. I like the silver with the purple/blues and the piece will look good in my purple spare bedroom. The only thing I needed to do was add a border to fill in up to the mat. So, I found the card of Splendor S864 used elsewhere in the design and stitched an outer border of diagonal gobelin stitches over 4 changing directions in of the four quadrants. It fit snug in the frame without any blocking. Done in no time!
Filed under: ANG Seminar 2018, Designing Geometric Sampler with Kathy Rees, Tahitian Treat
The online version of the March/April, 2021 issue of Needle Pointers magazine is available now for ANG members at https://online.fliphtml5.com/bjsk/apin/#p=1
What a wonderful surprise to see my design, Tahitian Treat, on the cover page! I knew it would be in the issue. Marilyn O created great diagrams in Adobe Illustrator from what I had sent her in Excel.
The actual piece was away from me for almost a year! After returning from ANG Seminar in late September where it got an Honorable Mention award, it went in February 2020 to the Woodlawn exhibit and got a 3rd place ribbon. However, the month-long March exhibit turned into a delayed exhibit due to coronavirus. After the show concluded in July, it went to northern NJ with the New Jersey Needle Artists member who picked it and others up. There it stayed all fall and by early December, we finally arranged a hand off half-way between our homes. That day, I repacked it and sent it south to Marilyn to photograph for the article. When she finished, it was before Christmas and it got stuck for over a month on the return trip in the USPS distribution center in Philadelphia. After multiple requests, I finally got it back on January 29, 2021! One year ago this weekend we visited Woodlawn-just before everything shut down.
Filed under: ANG Seminar 2018, Designing Geometric Sampler with Kathy Rees, Hearts of Hospice
One member of my ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter suggested that we stitch hearts for a Hearts For Hospice begun by the ANG Greater Kansas City Needlepoint chapter. They provide hearts to area hospice organizations.
“When a resident passes away, a heart is placed on the door which notifies those passing by to be respectful of others who are mourning the death of a loved one. The heart is then taken home by a family member as a remembrance of the care their loved one received while at the center.”
So, our chapter will stitch some hearts for them. We are using some threads that members from the 90s reviewed in our newsletters. I have 10 thread bags ready. Between Linda’s and my stash, we came up with 2 blue, 2 purple, 3 wine, and 3 magenta colorways. Each bag has 10 threads including a Perle #5, 2 silk floss, a wool and wool blend, cotton/rayon blend, rayon, and a rayon ribbon. One of our new members picked up a bunch of Wonder Twist in a grab bag-so we’ll each get a skein. Wonder Twist is a 100% nylon thread like perle by Beau Geste Inc which has been discontinued but still can be found online.
Stop by Starbucks at 218 Lancaster Ave at 7 PM tomorrow for our October 8th meeting. We’re also meeting there on the 4th Saturdays from 10 AM – 2 PM (October-March) for Stitch-in Time.
For this heart, I used Spring II which is now known as Threadworx Expressions (50/50 cotton/rayon blend) and Wonder Twist. I augmented those threads with Silk Lame Braid For 18 count SL151, Kreinik #8 Braid 051HL, and Kreinik Cord 051C.
The heart is about 4&1/2″ x 4&1/2″.
Filed under: ANG Seminar 2018, Designing Geometric Sampler with Kathy Rees
A Stained Glass Violet is a 4″ square design that began in Washington, DC with Kathy Rees at her class, Designing Geometric Samplers. You can only cover so much in a class but she covered the various elements behind designing very clearly.
I had a tough time deciding what to do in the corners and was overcomplicating the small design. So, I contacted Kathy after class who gave some good advice.
The piece uses Watercolours 296 Stained Glass and 232 African Violet (thus, the name), Splendor S864, Fyre Werks FT7, Neon Rays N144, and Petite Sparkle Rays PS37 (which I haven’t used much before and loved it because it laid so easily and doesn’t snag or fray).
Part 2 of class is designing a larger piece, a 12″ square. That means 9 squares of this size in one piece. It’s a challenge and that’s why I took the class!
One step back and 2 steps forward is part of designing. Kathy Rees isn’t the first person to say it is necessary to try something different requiring restitching.
I didn’t like the center overdyed thread getting lost next to one color or another and outlining it wasn’t going to make it better. So, I took it out. Luckily, I put it in in such a way that it was locked into itself and allowed me to keep the solid purple overdyed, Watercolours 232 African Violet, Scotch stitches in the center.
Now, I’ve added Byzantine using the multicolored Watercolours 296 Stained Glass excluding the yellow and green portions. I did do some manipulating of the overdyed thread as I stitched but didn’t go crazy. This is better.
I am very excited about my plans for each corner. That’s next. Since the overall design size is 4″ square, this was an easier size to start with and is stitching up quickly. We got another canvas for an 8″ square design and lots more thread including Tahiti. This is our practice canvas!
Filed under: ANG Seminar 2018, Designing Geometric Sampler with Kathy Rees
I played with several options before deciding on 3 basic diagrams repeated multiple times.
Before lunch, I stitched the center motif.
And, after lunch, I got a little more done. I have to find a thread to outline the center motif because some portions are getting lost.
Lots of small areas to stitch. In contrast, Jan from PA, who sat next to me, made larger areas, got started last night and looks like she’ll be done by the weekend! And, it’s looking fantastic. I know, it’s not a race. Just interesting to see the difference in approaches.
Filed under: ANG Seminar 2018, Designing Geometric Sampler with Kathy Rees, General comments, Threads
Last night at Expo, I picked up Jean Hilton’s Light ‘n Lacy booklet and a Bohicket Road Bag that fits all my threads from Kathy Rees’ class. She had some nice fabrics to choose from and I went with the lobster/seashell/beach theme.
Day 2 was examining design elements, stitches, and threads. I played with paper designs.
Of course, I have my own diagrams I’m playing with. Tomorrow we stitch!
My ANG 2018 Seminar class is Designing Geometric Samplers with Kathy Rees! There were 3 fantastic colorways to select. I went with ‘Bright’ which has Tahiti Watercolour as a key thread. Here are all the threads!
We made a color wheel today. I put it on the white and black paper to see the difference.
And, we started making diagrams. Just whatever shapes came to mind (on 8&1/2 x 11 paper).
I could do these for hours. What a fun and exciting opportunity to learn from Kathy.
I got my letter from Kathy Rees about my ANG 2018 Seminar class, Designing Geometric Samplers! And, there were 3 fantastic colorways to select. I went with ‘Bright’ which has Tahiti Watercolour as a key thread. It’ll be a fun and exciting opportunity.
After seminar last year, I was so excited about registering for her class, I tried designing a geometric piece but put it aside after selecting way too many threads for my design. Now, because I am excited again about learning how to design from another teacher, I pulled out my magnetic quilt triangles and decided to play with them. I came up with a couple of patterns.
The first 2 are symmetrical and the other 2 are not. The first one has triangles, squares, hexagons, parallelograms, and corners which would allow me to use Sandra Arthur’s Shapes of Needlepoint books, Series I and III. The colors repeat in an interesting pattern. The second has a simpler pattern but has different colorways as the pattern moves outward. The stitch patterns wouldn’t be as varied as the first unless you used scotch patterns which can be endless. My least favorite is the third one. You can’t get a good one every time. And, the fourth moves color patterns into various quadrants of different sizes with a good variety of shapes. But, it doesn’t thrill me as a design.
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