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Considering we went to friends on Thursday, so I didn’t have to cook, and that we didn’t go shopping, I’ve been pooped since Friday afternoon. I’m figuring it’s been all the household chores and organizing my DH and I did all week.

So today I have a clippings post with an assortment of intriguing and useful blog posts I came across over the weekend.

Threadworx Journal was immensely popular in its on-line version. Happily, Threadworx has decided to make each issue of the magazine available in a printed version. You can buy them each here. Each issue is $11.99. They use PayPal for the sales.

Finding ornament patterns that work for boys can be tough. But the Cross Stitch design Kell Smuthwaite of Kincavel Krosses has an adorable whole stitch Little Samurai chart available free on her site. These would make such cute ornaments.

I saw these bottle top ornaments on Craft Gossip (thanks Denise!) and was thinking they were made on soda bottle tops, so they wouldn’t work well for needlepoint. But when I looked at the tutorial, I found they were made from milk or juice bottle tops.

The instructions talk about fabric. But you can easily adapt them to needlepoint by stitching on Congress Cloth or by doing needlepoint on evenweave fabric. I love the look of these little guys. They would make such great little gifts.

Finding great mats for your needlepoint can be a real challenge. Often it’s easier (and more interesting) to find a fabric that sets off the stitching perfectly. But fabric does not a mat make. Thanks to Denise at Craft Gossip I discovered this great tutorial on how to make fabric-covered mats. While she suggests cotton, any light-weight fabric will work.

If you follow my thrifty needlepoint idea of stitching in standard frame sizes, you should be able to find mats with openings that size that fit standard frame sizes. Buy a fat quarter of a great fabric, the mat, and a frame you like and you have the makings of a completely unique gift.

On the BeStitched blog there is the start of a series on beginning and ending threads. This post covers Basketweave.

Many of my friends have stitched Maggie Lane’s Kimono using the little book published that collected more than 90 stitches in one place. And it is stunning indeed. I have the book, but haven’t gotten to it. John Waddell has updated the piece from its restrained ecru colors to a bright and bold collection. He will be offering the class through the Shining Needle Society next year. You can read about it in this post and sign up on the SNS Home Room. This may be enough to get me working on it at last.

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Clippings – Holiday Weekend Edition

Needlepoint as Meditation

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Seth, a cartoonist, once wrote about drawing and thinking. When he draws half his mind runs free and he thinks about things, most of which don’t seem to be related to his drawing.

I think many of us do the same thing when we stitch, I know I do. Sometimes stitching helps me work out a problem, sometimes it gives me an idea, but when I stitch my mind travels freely.

Although Seth says his thoughts often find their way into his work at the time, with needlepoint I don’t know that this is the case. But our state of mind often does, making the tension tight or loose, the stitches even or not.

I think that for many people the traditional approach to meditating might not work, we can’t shut out things. I’m certainly one of them.

But put a needle in my hand to distract me and I can think and meditate and pray. It being Ash Wednesday today, I’m going to put in a new practice for Lent, every day I’m going to stitch for 20 minutes without the TV on and use that time to meditate. That should do both my neglected projects and my soul good.

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Needlepoint as Meditation

Quilt Block Coasters with Stitch Guides

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

quilt block coaster

Making the transition from stitching your first needlepoint sampler to doing canvases can be a hard one. The projects should be good-looking, appealing enough that even an experienced stitcher will want to stitch them. They should be small, so that the stitcher ha a sense of accomplishment when it’s done. And they should always increase the stitcher’s needlepoint knowledge.

Why is this important? Think about two different crafts, beading has been very successful at moving beginners to more complex projects, knitting has been less successful at this. With beading, people make that first necklace, bracelet, or pair of earrings and makes a bunch more. When ready for the next step there are many websites, more complex beads and lots of tutorials to let you make something lovely that is just a little bit harder but uses material you have used and capitalizes on techniques you already know.

Knitting on the other hand, has a problem and I’m a perfect example of this. Many people learned to knit and made scarves, lots of scarves. Great, I started, I made a project, had a sense of accomplishment, and bought yarn. What now? While there are a limited number of next step projects, they don’t fit my life. The other next steps, don’t appeal. Afghans are too large and vests are too hard. I’m not alone in this and many people never progressed from beginning knitter to knitter.

The coaster pictured above is one of four (in two sets of two) I’ve designed for Art Needlepoint. Each is stitched in perle cotton, so they are easy to do (no plying required. Each showcases different stitches that you will be able to use on other canvases. And the stitch guide is written for beginners, with lots of advice and helpful tips. They come as complete kits with everything you need but the stretcher bars.

The clean style of the quilt blocks and the fun texture of the needlepoint combine to make this a winning combination. Go to Art Needlepoint to buy.

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Quilt Block Coasters with Stitch Guides

Needlepointing Houses – Come Stitch with Me

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Colonial houses, especially the ones of Colonial Williamsburg, are one of my favorite things. I grew up in a neo-colonial house (it looked like Mt. Vernon). I loved Williamsburg when I went there when I was 10. One of the things I love about Annapolis is all the charming colonial houses.

I’ve been asked recently about needlepointing houses, which poses some interesting problems. As a result I’m putting together a free project on stitching houses, our new Come Stitch with Me project.

Our project will have four houses on it, all colonials. One will be brick, one stone, and two wood. hey can be stitched as a set or individually as ornaments. We’ll got through the process together, talking about threads, stitches, and techniques for stitching windows, paths, grass, and roofs.

We’ll even spend a little bit of time “decorating” the houses for the holidays.

The class will start next Tuesday. I’m hoping to post a lesson every couple of weeks. At the end the project will be available as a free eProject to download after signing up for the mailing list.

To begin with assemble some materials for the project. You’ll need 18 mesh canvas, about 12″ square. You will also need to gather some threads. For roofs, you’ll need a matte, dark gray thread, Mandarin Floss would be good for this (M858 or M898). For glass panes, you’ll need dark gray and light blue this metallic (Kreinik #4, Treasure Braid Petite, or Sparkle Braid – Kreinik 025 & 014, Treasure Braid no gray & PB09, Sparkle Braid no gray & SK13 ). You can also use floss for this. For the frames of the windows, you’ll need white pearl cotton. For brick, pick an overdye in a brick color (Watercolours 164 or 217, Cinnabar or Chili For stone, and overdye in a stone color (Watercolours 246 or 247 – suede or dark suede, Threadworx 1118). The wood color is a bit harder, for this use floss and pick two colors you like from this Williamsburg palette. You can use threads from your stash for many of the details.

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