Filed under: 2022 Christmas in Williamsburg, Greystone Needlepoint, Needlepoint Shops, Needleworkers Delight
In the last post, you probably couldn’t see the partial sky I stitched using Silk Lame Petite SP02 White in the Colorful Forest (SS050) by Stitch Style Needlepoint. So, I ripped it out and restitched using a heavier overdyed sparkly light blue/white by ThreadworX (91015). Then, the snow fell into place.
I found this lovely piece of fabric for finishing this ornament (& hopefully others) at the Needleworkers Delight tables. They have an amazing collection of grounds of all kinds. I’m not sure anyone would stitch on this because it has so much pattern on it but it is perfect for my needs.
The fabric was fused to Skirtex (for stability) and the edge glued with Aileen’s glue. I folded back the edges of the canvas – no glue.
I placed 2 layers of felt behind the trees to fill in the space created. Another piece of fusible web went between the Skirtex and felt which only helped keep the 2 sides together as I sewed the cord into place using invisible thread.
A few final thoughts. A round shape is easier to finish than a heart. Additional stiffness from a piece or 2 of magazine board and additional layer(s) of felt would be good. If you puff up the front, then I suspect that you have to make the back slightly smaller so it isn’t bigger than the front because of the lift drawing it in and up. A piece stitched and finished in 10 days is a record! The overall ease of doing this one has encouraged me to tackle the rest of the ornaments. The rest? Yes, I have 4 Christmas ones and a seashell. ‘Tis the season and still early enough in December to accomplish this and enjoy them this year.
Needleworkers Delight put on a very nice event in Williamsburg. Because the ANG NJ Needle Artists’ table was too full for Buff and I to join, we sat at the next table. There we met some lovely ladies, including Cindy who had been in my EGA MAR Overdyed Spools class last year and her friend Janet. Over the 3 days, a variety of other people joined us which was fun too. Even more people stopped to look at Crescent Journey (I brought the lavender colorway) which I displayed on our table with photos of the other colorways. After explaining it is the ANG Stitch of the Month for 2023, three people were interested enough in joining ANG to stitch it. And, I found the closest local chapters for them.
Despite the time spent in 2 classes, looking at other people’s pieces, chatting, and shopping, I did finish the trees, trunks, and part of the sky of Colorful Forest during the Stitch-in. Although the stitches came in the stitch guide, I didn’t quite follow it completely correctly. Nobody would know except me, Buff, Cindy, and Janet because they were there when I realized what happened. Starting at 10 am without my full cup of coffee caused me to miss that the stitch guide writer, Jenny Barney McAuliffe, started stitching the back trees first instead of from left to right which is how I started. No harm done (2 trees swapped stitches). And, the last stitch on the dark blue tree was supposed to be a double reverse Nobuko but doesn’t reverse here. And, I am fine with that too because that gives both blue trees a vertical effect.
Buff is an excellent travel companion and roommate but has the same delusion as Bill – that I snore!
Filed under: 2022 Christmas in Williamsburg, Needlepoint Shops, Needleworkers Delight, Silver Needleminders and Earrings
I took 2 classes with Michele Arsenault to make silver pieces and forgot to take pictures of my Day 1 class where I made 3 needle minders. So, here will be the photos of my Day 2 pieces before firing and polishing. She takes them home and finishes the process and mails them to us.
Believe it ot not, the “silver clay” is 99.99 silver content. The clay burns off in a kiln leaving the silver particles which bond together.
The clay gets pressed into the molds. Then, you pop it out of the mold. I used a cookie cutter-like piece to cut out the round pair and a different tool to carve around the other. Besides Michele describing the process, the longest part of class is going through her molds to find what you want. She has hundreds of them.
For the first class we worked with 10 grams and second class was 20 grams. So, I made 2 pairs of earrings and poked a hole near the top so that Michele can make them into earrings. The Day 2 class was more in depth than Day 1. And, if I were to take the Day 3 class, I could try making a ring which offers the opportunity to join 2 pieces together. But, I’ll pass. I’m good with what I have now. More pictures once these are returned.
Filed under: 2022 Christmas in Williamsburg, Greystone Needlepoint, Needlepoint Shops, Needleworkers Delight
Buff and I won a free registration for Christmas in Williamsburg event sponsored by Needleworkers Delight at 2021 and 2022 New Jersey Needle Fest events, respectively! Buff had deferred hers and now we’re here together.
We drove in rain throughout the morning but it broke around Washington DC. A break for lunch and we are checked in at Kingsmill Resort. Quite a lovely place. Our registration package included a piece of Anne Cloth Fabric with instructions to make 8 cute holiday designs. However, I can use the cloth on my dining room table underneath the centerpiece poinsettia!
During the Stitch-in, I will be working on Colorful Forest (SS050) by Stitch Style Needlepoint. The stitch guide is by Jinny Barney McAuliffe. I picked it up at Greystone Needlepoint earlier this year. It’s a perfect project for a holiday Stitch-in! I kitted it from my stash.
Talk about serendipity. And the instructions and threads fit perfectly in my lovely project bag that Linda made!
I may switch out Trio in favor of Pepper Pot Silk Cream 003 because it is whiter and providing better coverage. I threw that in at the last minute. But, between the lecture on appraising needlepoint, silver classes, and shopping at the boutique, will I get to the white background before I leave on Sunday? What are silver classes? Stay tuned!
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, General comments, Ginkgo Leaves, Needlepoint Shops, Other People's Designs, Threads
The Lee canvas (design size 8.5″ x 3.75), BR67, Ginkgo Leaves, was easy and fun to stitch. The Gloriana Duchess Silk threads I got from Busy Lizzy were great to work with – so soft. I mixed in some sparkly threads on the edges of the leaves and in the patterns of four leaves.
Patterns are from a variety of sources including 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.
Patterns in the top row from left to right are from: Desert Island, Vol 1, pg 29; The Needlepoint Book, Byzantine #1; Needlepoint Dictionary of Stitches, Carl; and Lone Star, pg 50.
Patterns in the bottom row from left to right are from: Lone Star, pg 37; Lone Star, pg 53; Desert Sand, Vol 2, pg 30; and The Needlepoint Book, Byzantine #2.
Basketweave with Pepper Pot Silk, Cream filled in the background.
I found a Vera Bradley bag online that has a lovely interior fabric and good pockets.
The front of the bag had a large enough area to apply the canvas. I cut out the design leaving 9 canvas threads on each edge (1/2″). I cut a piece of ultrasuede allowing a 1″ border on each side. Then I cut the window out to fit the design exactly. The piece of vinyl is about 4 canvas threads larger than the design area and rests on top of the design without being attached in any way. A little Aileens fabric glue attached the ultrasuede to the outer edge of the canvas not covered by the vinyl (waited 2 hours), more glue to attach the ultrasuede to the bag (waited 2 hours), and glue again to place the black trim on the outer edge. Thanks to Jacqui C for the trim suggestion – it really makes a difference although from a distance you probably can’t see black on black. But up close you can. Also thanks to Jacqui for telling me there is such a thing as fabric glue! I was going to use E6000. This was so much easier and faster than ornament finishing!
For those of you super observant people who noticed a piece of wood sticking out from underneath the bag (bottom right corner of photo), the bag came with straps on the bottom. They said it was for a yoga mat but it holds my Elan lap stand! I wouldn’t “travel” with it there but for going back and forth to class this bag will hold the stand, my charger, light, travel supply bag, bottle of water, and perhaps a small project bag.
Postscript: I realized months later that I put it into the purse upside down from how I stitched it! Oh well.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, Expressions in NeedleArt, Fiber on a Whim, From Dawn to Dusk by Textured Treasures, General comments, Needlepoint Shops, Threads
Last Saturday I went to Expressions in Needle Art in Canandaigua, NY. Lori has a wonderful collection of threads and yarns for stitchers and knitters. Lots of counted instructions and painted canvases.
First, I got talking with the 5 ladies from Endicott/Endwell, NY who had arrived almost the same time as I did. They were with the EGA B.C. Stitchers chapter. And, they will be stitching my Overdyed Spools in January! That was fun to find out. We exchanged information and I look forward to hearing from them next year.
Then, we got to exploring the store. I found an overdyed cotton thread by Fiber on a Whim. Pretty but I did resist them.
I don’t consider the 2 booklets that I picked up as “Books in My Library” because they are more project oriented. That is especially true for Vienna Hearts by Sue Lentz Needlework (1998/1999). I have a piece of interconnected hearts that I need to redo and write up. These are much larger than mine and I liked the patterns Sue choose.
The other booklet, That’s Not Needlepoint (It’s Inspired Art Created with Your Needle) is by dede Ogden (2011) which are now represented by Fleur de Paris, Inc. It’s not intended to be complete charts or diagrams to finish various painted canvases but to offer suggestions for types of elements found in seascapes. The first canvas discussed is Seahorse Spyglass 18073 and is still available (and so is a stitch guide by Tony Minieri). Other canvases discussed are still available from a variety of sources including Undersea Fish 1373, Glass Aquarium Tropicals Green Fish 18015, Glass Aquarium Tropicals Blue Fish 18034, Undersea Garden 1378, Seahorse Pillow 18056, and Enchanted Mermaid Dream 18050. The Casalgudi stitch is a new one and quite interesting. I’ve read the section several times in the past week to understand it. The center of the Orchid (which I have been putting off because I haven’t found the right stitch) may be why this stitch is calling to me. I’ll give it a try. The Railway Stitch makes a good background stitch. Sue has an interesting Bead Cup Stitch and shows how to expand an overlapping cross stitch to fit fluctuations in the width of seaweed.
The store walls had a bunch of stitched samples. I spotted the Textured Treasures design, From Dusk to Dawn, that we are stitching at ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter. I’m doing a group of three too but it will be a different three designs and in a different colorway than displayed.
In fact, that was the piece I had taken on the road to stitch. The outer boders of straight Gobelin stitches were easy.
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”?
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: Busy Lizzy, Floral Fantasy, Needlepoint Shops, Other People's Designs, Threads, Threads and Beads
I finally joined Cleo of Busy Lizzy for one of her First Tuesday sessions at her shop behind her house. It’s not large but Cleo has a good selection of painted canvases, threads, and miscellany including books. The table and chairs still allow enough room to walk around looking at everything. Eight of us fit comfortably around the table. Lively conversation made the time fly and before I knew it, it was 2:30 pm which was 30 minutes past the time I was planning to leave (just over an hour to and from Chadds Ford for me). Two others from ANG Main Line Stitchers, Gloriann and Stacie, were there. My travel SMASTA (tool case) was a smash hit! A very enjoyable day.
I found one book there that I couldn’t find anywhere online!! But, that will be the topic of another post.
The piece I’m working on is a small (4″ square) 14 count canvas with designer initials of BTB or BT8. I have no idea where I got it from but it looked like an easy piece to stitch at a Stitch-in. If anyone recognizes the designer, please leave a comment. I named it Floral Fantasy for lack of the proper title.
I selected basketweave for the white flower outlines, a 4×4 Norwich Stitch for the white center of the red flower, and 2 upright waffle stitches for the white center of the pink flowers using ThreadworX Expressions (200, white). These areas were finished the day before.
The green is Boucle (170) done with Checkerboard Cross which are alternating cross stitches and upright crosses each over 2 canvas threads. I wanted a random looking grassy texture. I began this area to make sure the thread worked. Since it is 14 count, the Boucle works ok. I finished this today and found out Pepper Pot Silk would not cover on 14 count at least for the stitch I wanted to use.
It was a perfect time to try the new thread Line at Cleo’s 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. I had brought along another canvas and selected other skeins of Duchess Silk but that too will be the subject of another post.
This Rose Violet (232) has more variations than many of the other colors in the line. You can see I got the upper right corner started using the stitch, Pointing Fingers. There is nice variation of color. It’s taking some time to “see” the pattern and compensation isn’t easy yet. Hopefully, I’ll get it once I start stitching in the larger area.
Also in the upper right corner are 2 small clusters of 5 beads each. I have accumulated (mostly from Trish who was unloading her stash before moving south) a slew of beads including a large tube of pink beads that are calling to me, “Use us!” I don’t know what kind they are so I hope I have enough for both pink flowers. If not, then I will improvise. The differences in texture are pleasing me most about this piece. I have no idea what to do with it when I finish it. Any suggestions?
I’ve ordered online from a few needlepoint stores over the years and only a few packages arrive so prettily packaged that I choose to remember them. This order from Amy’s Golden Strand was not a large order but still they took care to place the threads in a sealed plastic bag (essential), wrap in a pretty tissue paper, and a fun plastic envelope. But, they went one step further by adding a thank you note with a stitch diagram saying they appreciate my business and a hand-written note wishing me a Happy New Year! It looks like they change the stitch diagram monthly. Thank you Amy’s Golden Strand for making my day. I look forward to placing future orders with you.
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