Filed under: ANG Seminar 2017, JP Bird of Paradise & Bamboo, Orange Orchid & Bamboo
The JP canvases, Bird of Paradise with Bamboo and Orchid with Bamboo are sitting proudly on our living room couch!
Linda and I found a lovely green satin fabric at Calico in Strafford, PA (area next to Wayne on Rte 30 near Berwyn – shout out to Svengoolie fans!) in January. I think the sheen is fantastic and the green is perfect.
I decided to let them do the finishing and Linda and I picked them up yesterday. They turned out great. I am thrilled and excited to see them on my couch. They are my “summer” pillows making an early debut because we’ve been in the 60s – in February!
Filed under: Books in My Library, Needlepoint 101 by Ruth Dilts, Needlepoint Books
Previously, I reported on Needlepoint 202 by Ruth Dilts which is A Guide to 12 Different Techniques with Illustrations for Embellishment of the Painted Canvas.
Of course that book led me on a quest for Needlepoint 101. Well, I found it!
Needlepoint 101 Guide to Painted Canvases is also by Ruth Dilts. This book (from 2005) provides a list of 21 stitchs and a stitch effect guide (beards, bushes, clouds, etc) and provides stitch guides for another 12 painted canvases of which I easily found 4 are still available (online google search) including: Puma Coaster by Kathy Schenkel, Lady Bug by JP Needlepoint, and Cowboy Santa by Needle Graphics.
Even without having the canvas, this book suggests stitches for components of lots of canvases such as clothing, flowers, pots, sky, tree, hair, stonework, paving, and more.
Each stitch has a brief description and list of suggested uses and where the stitch was used in the 12 canvases. Excellent cross referencing.
I just read the article Bookshelf by Elizabeth Bozievich in the Jan/Feb issue of Needlepoint Now and most of her favorite needlepoint books are the smaller 5″ x 8″ ones. This one is a small one too. Hopefully, she enjoys her retirement from owning and editing the magazine. I look forward to future articles from her. And, best of luck to Andrea Santiamo, the new owner and editor of Needlepoint Now.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I’ve got multiple small Pocket Color Wheels and a large one by The Color Wheel Company that I have used for years. In the past year, I picked up a small Pick, Point and Match Rainbow Color Selector from K1C2. I finally sat down and read the accompanying booklet. The little window is surrounded by 7 values.
Their discussion on values leaves me realizing there is more to value than just the lightness or darkness of a color! In one place they say that a balanced harmonious combination will be most successful if all the colors in the combination are also grayed to the same value. Yet they also say that mixing values can be quite effective when 2 colors are used disproportionately. However, mixing values of three or more colors results in a spotty and distracting look. So, what to do? For me, it means take more classes and reread my books on color (when I can find the time). Keep learning!
The ANG Central Jersey Chapter (CJC) had to change the Autumn 3-Ways Workshop with Toni Gerdes to an online class and I picked up the kit on November 19. It teaches fabric applique and needle felting. I love the matching needle minder.
Well, I didn’t want to ruin my iron again. So, I took everything with me to my November Main Line Stitchers chapter Stitch-in. I had the leaf outline cut out, the leaf window, and felt cut ready to go. The fusible web went on the felt (pressed not ironed onto place on the canvas) and then on the fabric (pressed onto the felt). Linda assisted me in the process and the applique turned out great and the iron is fine. Thanks Linda for your help and to Toni for easy to follow instructions.
The buttonhole stitches were easy enough! The stems and veins go in after the 3 leaves are done.
The needle felting leaf could have been done next or later. So, I worked on the stitched leaf instead. Got part of that leaf done and then needed something easy to stitch and worked on the borders for several stitching occasions away from home.
The class notes and 2 videos that were sent out in advance of our first Zoom class which is Thursday Feb 9 at 7 pm have been watched and read. While I would have enjoyed seeing Toni in person, her instructions are excellent and I am enjoying the piece.
Top billing should be Magifest but this is a needlepoint blog! We drove out Tuesday to avoid snow/rain on Wednesday and break up the 7.5 hour drive to Columbus, OH into 2 legs to be sure we wouldn’t miss any of Bill’s 3-day magic convention (which I attend too-I am his assistant and a mentalist-no not a mental case). What with stops to stretch legs and lunch, we took 9 hours. Wednesday morning looked like it was going to get bad but I think we drove out of it.
We stayed near enough to the hotel where we’d stayed in 2010 for my first ANG Seminar (Bill was with me then too) that we knew to go to the North Market. Great spot.
These Magicians are night owls! Thursday’s events started at 5:00 pm and ended at 11 pm. That gave us time during the day so we could shop a little. And, I dropped Bill at Half Price Books and I went to What’s the Point and joined 6 ladies for a Stitch-in for about 2 hours! Karen was advising them on painted canvases. Some had less experience than others and Karen watched over them all. Very nice store. I picked up a notions bag and a small clear bag maybe to hold some magic that we’ll be getting at the dealer tables. I enjoyed dropping in and chatting with them.
Except for the hours, this is quite a bit like a needlepoint seminar. There are tables set up to sit and share their passion between lectures. People congregate in the bar and lobby. This event has been going on for years! Lots of first timers and they support the youth with special events. There must be over 750 people here. Two performers said 1,000 but I think that’s an exaggeration.
Filed under: ANG Main Line Stitchers Chapter, ANG Stitch of the Month, 2008
My ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter is stitching Circles by Lois Kershner, the ANG 2008 Stitch of the Month.
We tackled Spider stitches in November (I forgot to post). The Ribbed Spider was first up. I’ve done Spider stitches before so I was surprised to see that Lois recommended making the spokes go from one side of the circle’s perimeter to the opposite side. Instead of crossing side to side I went into the center hole. I believe the spokes will stay straighter. And, other sources show the spokes going into the center hole.
The overview shows the N, E, S, and W spokes each going over 10 canvas threads and the 4 diagonal spokes over 7 canvas threads. Perfect location to get the same number of wraps on all spokes. When I got to the end of the spokes and didn’t think another wrap would fit, I added one last wrap.
Lois showed a multicolored Spider and Lisa stitched both hers that way. I had never tried switching threads mid-spider. So, I had to try it. It would be quite dramatic to see the colors radiate outward. A bit tedious to switch threads too often the way I imagine radiating and my blues won’t work because they are too close or too far apart in color difference. But I did use light blue in the center, a medium, medium-dark, and back to light to try switching. I love how wrapping these differently makes them so different. Very happy with both.
Daryl Lancaster, her daughter, and the Jockey Hollow Weavers Guild sponsored a Learn to Weave class Saturday in Mendham, NJ. Thanks to Dee L who kept me posted about this beginner class and to her and other guild members who floated around helping the students throughout the day.
There were 15 students and we were each working on a 4 huddle shaft loom. Daryl has collected 30 of them! Learning terms started at 9:30 am and several set up steps took us into the afternoon with a lunch break.
We passed the yarn through the Reed one at a time. That’s 90 strands!
You turn the machine around. . .
Then, you feed each strand though the eye on a Heddle, a metal wire that reaches top to bottom on each of the 4 shafts/ harness/ frames. This holds the warp threads. Each shaft (1-4) moves up and down using levers which shift the threads allowing the weft/horizontal threads to interlace with the warp threads in different patterns.
The ends got tied to the front and back beams to create tension – this is when I forget to get photos until I was done! It was around 2:30 pm with 2 hours left, when we got to the fun part and started weaving!
We wove (from top to bottom): Plain weave (1+3 2+4), 2/2 Twill (1+2 2+3 3+4 4+1), 2/2 Reversed Twill (4+1 3+4 2+3 1+2), Lightening Twill (1+2 2+3 3+4 4+1 3+4 2+3 1+2 4+1), 1/3 Twill (1 2 3 4), 3/1 Twill (2+3+4 3+4+1 4+1+2 1+2+3), Rib Weave (Color A: 1 Color B: 2+3+4), Basketweave (1+2 two times 3+4 two times), Color and Weave (same color as your warp Color A: 1+3 2+4 Color B: 1+3 2+4).
As you can see, it is a very mathematically inclined craft which is appealing to me and I would try another class but I don’t see buying a loom in my future. The teacher’s work is incredibly beautiful. Check Daryl’s work out at weaversew (.com, /wordblog, and on YouTube).
The set up involved 3 warp patterns shown in vertical columns and we created 8 weft patterns resulting in the final sample:
My neighbor, Alisa, made much more even width of the various patterns and had better tension throughout and gave me permission to post hers (her last two patterns are in reversed order from mine).
Fray check can be applied to the top and bottom ends or tassels tied off as desired.
I can’t thank Sue C enough for dinners and letting me arrive Friday night and stay over Saturday night. That was a long class day sitting in an unnatural position to work (chairs should adjust to height of the loom). My back felt it and I was too tired to drive 1 hour 45 minutes home. We enjoyed chatting, mysteries and stitching both evenings!
Filed under: ANG New Jersey Needle Artists Chapter
The day spent at The Edwardian Needle was busy – helping people pick threads or substitute threads for Crescent Journey. A couple more people joined the group planning to stitch it in 2023 (ANG Stitch of the Month). The store was full of folks who came to sit and stitch. Very nice time.
From there I joined Sue C who was so gracious to offer her guest room to me and made a great dinner. Always enjoy Sue and Rosie’s company!
The following day, we (almost 30 members) attended and had a lovely luncheon at The Grain House in Bernards, NJ. The Board gave all members a thank you gift. Yes, that is a Trish Vine bag with a specially made tag for NJNA, cute embellishments from Sundance, and coordinating DMC floss. Very nice. I talked about Crescent Journey and showed all 5 colorways. I think a few more are interested now too!
Filed under: Uncategorized
Michelle Arsenault shipped my silver pieces and they arrived today except for Bill’s ring. This is my ring with the cubic zirconia and was made by Michelle. I selected the molds and made 3 needle minders (hold needles on canvas near stitching) in the first class and the 2 pairs of earrings in the second class at Christmas in Williamsburg. I could have made rings in her third class but I was happy to leave rings to the professional. Mine turned out great. Very strong magnets.
Melitastitches4fun's Blog 
Filed under: Baskets, General comments
A few members of my ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter had a class to make a basket last Saturday. Only one of us had made baskets with Karen before, so we made this beginner style basket called Cathead’s Basket and was woven with reed. I didn’t add a handle because I am just going to place a lid on top with the Circles design (2008 ANG Stitch of the Month) we’re stitching as a chapter project.
I could use a wood stain on the basket but probably won’t because the white will look better with my blue Circles top. Karen has some lovely designs at https://www.karenwychock.com/