Needle Pointers magazine has published Scotch Stew in the May/June 2018 issue! The magazine is late reaching our homes but it got posted online a week ago. So, I knew that it wasn’t on the cover. But, it’s so rewarding and fun to see my design published. I can’t show much of what was published due to copyright issues but this should be ok.
Again, Pam Gardner did a magnificent job of diagramming the stitches and clarifying text I suggested. I was able to send her better diagrams than previous published pieces and she said that made it much easier for her. I sent everything to her shortly after Seminar last year and was able to practice using computer skills that I learned from Cynthia Thomas.
This was my second attempt at an all Scotch stitch design. Here is the piece framed (by Repenning Fine Arts in Audubon, NJ). It received a third place ribbon at Seminar last year. Both of my Scotch pieces will look great on our newly painted bedroom walls.
Postscript 1. I was thrilled to hear that a favorite designer of mine stitched this in another colorway and shared it with me – very pretty. Also, nice to hear that it was easy to follow the instructions and diagrams. She’s going to use it as a lead-in to a meeting program about changing colors or threads in a published project.
Postscript 2. I got a lovely thank you note from Diane from Needle Pointers magazine for sharing the design and I got an extra copy of the magazine.
Postscript 3. An ANG chapter stitched my design in another colorway and posted it on Needlepoint Nation (https://www.facebook.com/groups/NeedlepointNation/permalink/3636499066427225/)! It turned out great and made my day!
This is another “challenge” piece intended to explore a single stitch. I selected the Scotch Stitch. And, I’m happy to say that it received a third place ribbon in origin design, non-professional category! My artist’s statement follows:
In researching Scotch Stitches, I learned that Box Stitches are described as a “series of diagonal stitches that form squares or boxes” from Jo Ippolito Christensen in The Needlepoint Book. The Mosaic Stitch is the smallest of the Box Stitches, Cashmere is a rectangular Mosaic Stitch, and Scotch Stitch is an expanded Mosaic Stitch. I found Scotch Stitch variations in The Needlepoint Book, Amy Bunger’s Keeping Me In Stitches, and SuZy’s Portable Stitches app. However, I found the Scotch Stitch variations in Scotch Stitch by Stitch by Kathleen Rake the most inspirational and educational by learning how to vary stitches with size, direction, color, and threads to create endless variations.
After having just stitched Designing with Stitches by Julie Goetsch (http://needlepoint.org/Archives/00-01/Design.php – originally published in NeedlePointers, Volume X, Number 1, Spring 1982) with my ANG chapter, I stitched the frame using the Cashmere and Mosaic Stitches instead of the Oblong Cross Stitches as Julie had done. The frame is comprised of numerous 4 by 2 units and 4 corners that are 2 by 2. This created the appropriate negative spaces: 25 areas that are 8 by 8 and 16 areas that are 4 by 4.
There are 10 variations of the Scotch Stitch in the 25 larger negative spaces (8 by 8 areas; A-G), 3 variations in the smaller negative spaces (4 by 4 areas; a-c), and 6 variations (6 by 6 areas) repeating to form the outermost border. There’s lots more variations that could be cooked up using more Scotch variations, more threads, or both!
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