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Althea had a great post recently about filler stitches to go around Needlepoint Bargello. If you have a Bargello medallion or with open spaces, you will want to add some stitching around them. While any stitch will do, straight stitches are easiest to use and compensate around the pattern.

Because it’s supposed to be a background, you will want a less busy pattern in a single color. In an older post, I have some ideas on stitching backgrounds that can be applied here.

Here are some other small straight stitches that would work for Needlepoint Bargello backgrounds.

The straight stitches and flat, light look of pattern darning are perfect to set off Bargello. While there are many variations, this simple 3-1 darn I use over and over.

double linen straight stitch for needlepoint

Double Linen is one of my favorite background stitches. It’s small, and has a great texture. It also looks much more complex than it is to stitch.

Triple Hungarian is a variation that replaces the single stitches of Hungarian with three stitches. Many stitches can be varied this way to make lovely patterns.

Ming is another favorite stitch, Because the shape is rounded, it will be particularly nice as a background for Bargello with lots of curves or rounded shapes.

venetian straight stitch for needlepoint

Venetian is a new stitch to me, it’s a smaller version of Victorian Step and will make an excellent background.

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Bargello Filler Stitches

Hurry! Alaska Cruise Selling Fast

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Classes,Nuts About Needlepoint

Glacier Bay (pictured above), Kethican, Juneau, Skagway. Some of the most glorious scenery in North American and you can only see it by boat. Combine that with an opportunity to indulge in five days of needlepoint bliss and you get my idea of a perfect vacation.

Craft Cruises and The Art Needlepoint Co. have teamed up to launch a series of Needlepoint Cruises, combining the fun of cruising with the opportunity to improve your needlepoint skills in a relaxed, stress-free environment without the interruptions of everyday life. I’m going to be teaching throughout the cruise and attendees of the needlepoint cruise will have an opportunity to get a custom stitch guide for one of Art Needlepoint’s Alaska canvases. Classes will be given so you can begin your canvas on board.

I just learned that the cruise is filling up fast and I didn’t want you to miss out on this unforgettable trip.

butterfly bright wings by Barry Herem needlepoint kit from Art Needlepoint

This is just one of the canvases available for a stitch guide during the cruise. The canvases. There are designs for every level of stitcher and for all tastes.

While Stitching Alaska (the stitch guide class) is the heart of the needlepoint cruise, there is also a stitch sampler class and a thread notebook class.

There will be plenty of time for individual instruction, for sharing our love of stitching and for exploring new techniques and ideas. Stitchers will receive goodie bags and designs exclusive to this trip. I also have some special surprises in mind to make this experience even more fabulous.

The Needlepoint Cruise will not only give you time to unwind, meet new people and experience new cultures but also provide a safe and comfortable atmosphere where you can be yourself, express your creativity and learn new skills without having to worry about anything except having a good time. So grab your needles and lets have a blast!

Join us and explore Alaska’s glorious Inside Passage on a Glacier Bay Needlepoint Cruies. For all the details, call 877·97·CRAFT (877·972·7238) or click on Craftcruises.com and find out more. There you can find more detailed information about the classes and itinerary.

I don’t want you to miss out on this opportunity to see some of Alaska’s magnificent scenery and to have fun with your fellow stitchers. Now’s the time to join the cruise before it’s all sold out.

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Hurry! Alaska Cruise Selling Fast

Joce’s Geometric Needlepoint Adventure

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Design,Nuts About Needlepoint

My friend Jocelyn, a marvelous New Zealand stitcher, is embarking of a fantastic needlepoint adventure to design her own needlepoint geometric as she goes along.

I think this is a simply fantastic idea and one I’m far too controlling to do. But I wish I wasn’t like that.

She has several posts so far on the project. In this first one, she describes her idea, picks her colors and prepares the ground.

Then she begins with the center and starts grappling with the design. Like many us, she would like a format for the square and chose a quilt block as the basis. If you’ve struggled with doing your own design, you will also find her thought process about size enlightening. In the third post, you see how she stitched the center block and the result.

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Joce’s Geometric Needlepoint Adventure

Update on my Resolutions

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Amazingly I decided to take my own advice about finishing projects, namely those UFO’s all over the house.

I’m going to work on one at a time, stitching two needles of thread each day until it’s done. I’ve got the first two planned out. On Winter Stars, the current UFO, I only have three corners, two sides of the outer border and the binding to do. I’m working on that first and started the third side today. I’m hoping I’ll have it done within two weeks.

The it will be on to finish my version of the abstract cross stitch. I really love the way it looks but there are so many things cal,ling my attention.

For the project after that, you guys can help me choose. Do I do:

the shepherd with a lamb from this needlepoint nativity
the halloween license plate
the foreground of the game needlepoint mini-sock
the mod sampler
the Painted Pony Botswana angel (994AR, on left about halfway down page)

I have ranked them from least to most to do. Leave a comment to tell me which you’d do next.

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Update on my Resolutions

Blog Problems Update

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

I have now completed searching the blog for problems, and none have been found. According to the support people I’ve talked to, it is most likely a problem with IE or Windows. The last tech I talked to said he sees only about 40% compliance with IE being able to view sites properly.

I am going to be restoring the site from last week’s back-up and reposting the article since then.

I’m hoping that will fix the problem.

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Jane’s Border Advice

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Earlier this week my friend Jane Wood (of Chilly Hollow) had some outstanding advice when encountering a signature or other painting when your want to add a border to a needlepoint canvas.

This happens, I’m afraid, fairly often and puts many stitchers off adding borders. The problem occurs because designers cut the canvas to have about 2″ around the design. In that 2″ you have the designer’s signature, maybe the company name, sometimes the design name and an identifying number. All good and useful, but taking up space.

Since so many designs don’t have the backgrounds painted, this adds problems when you want to add a border, or even a large background.

Take Jane’s advice, I’m going to look for an already stitched canvas I loved but didn’t add a background, because of this problem.

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Blog Problems

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Some of you have been having difficulties seeing the blog. I haven’t been able to replicate them, but I’m working to fix the problem.

The difficulties seem to be confined to Explorer 7. They are not appearing in Safari, FireFox or other versions of Explorer.

So my initial advice is to try one of those browsers if you are having problems.

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Needlepoint Resolutions for Napa Needlepoint

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

There are many projects I have been thinking about and need to get going. I’d like to get each of these in progress by the end of 2010. Some are further along than others, some might not happen. I would love your opinion on some of them.

1. Publish my beginning needlepoint book as a printed and electronic book. Printed is a no brainer, I just need to do it. I have been thinking about Kindle and such alot. Do you use it? Would charts and stitch diagrams work on it?

2. Offer the first techniques on-line class. These classes are designed to teach you a specific family of techniques. Sometimes with a project, sometimes not. The first one is on shading and should be out in the spring. What other classes would you want?

3. Publish the new Bargello book. ‘Nuff said for now.

4. Getting the two new stitch samplers stitched and published and getting in eBook form the projects started. I have two really cool ones planned, but not stitched. One is more formal and is on small stitches. The other will give you a chance to try designing your own within a context and covers more kinds of stitches. Soon I hope to be looking for some pilot stitchers for both. I’ll post about it.

I also have some ideas for making needlepoint products more available, getting new products out and creating some new ways of feeding our passion for needlepoint using this wonderful world of the Internet.

Now back to stitching.

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Needlepoint Resolutions for Napa Needlepoint

My Needlepoint Resolutions

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

With my daughters home for Christmas and some pending deadlines, I’m thinking posting will be spotty at best this week.

But I woke up thinking about my resolutions for needlepoint this year. I’m hoping ( as I always do) that by the end of the year I will be more organized, more projects will be finished and my stash will be smaller.

Many of these ideas you can easily adopt for yourself.

1. Finish 1 UFO per month. I realized I have MANY works in progress and that finishing up some of them would make me happier. I try to do this every year but most years it doesn’t work.

2. Stitch five projects from canvases in my stash. I’d like it to be more, but life intervenes.

3. Use up 100 threads from my stash. I’m looking at my thread count and think if I achieved this while I continue to stitch from my stash I’d be very happy.

4. Finish 15 stitched but unfinished needlepoint projects into items of one sort or another and give them away or use them. I have lot of needlepoint and getting it out of the boxes would be very good.

Tomorrow, the business resolutions.

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Storing Needlepoint

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Yesterday was the day after Christmas and, like mushrooms, organizing supplies appeared in all the stores.

In my email I got a question from Mert, who asked:

Over 30 years ago my mother needlepointed a Christmas tree skirt, Christmas stockings, and many ornaments. We have been storing them in plastic boxes for at least the past 30 years. This year, getting them out it suddenly occurred to me that this might not be the best way to store them. I have searched for the proper way to store needlepoint and I have not been able to find an answer. Would you please advise me on the best way to preserve these for future generations?

Since I have lots of needlepoint for Christmas, I tried different things. I felt uncomfortable storing my needlepoint ornaments and stockings in plastic or in cardboard boxes, so for many years I have stored them in cotton pillowcases. I kept these on the shelves in my garage but not in anything.

But about a year ago we were moving and I needed to find permanent storage for a collection of vintage clolthing we have. I was worried about storing them in plastic, so I did some research. This is what museums do to store textiles.

Wrap the items in acid-free tissue paper. Kreinik sells it, as do several on-line merchants, It keeps the textiles from coming in contact with the acids in wood and regular paper. Them put the wrapped items into plastic boxes. These don’t need to be any particular kind, but they need to have tops and no holes. This keeps bugs out.

That’s it. So the paper protects the items while the plastic bin keeps the bugs out. And keep them mostly away from light. Light, acid (paper), and bugs are the main enemies of textiles. So this method protects them from all three.

I was surprised, but it does make sense to me.

If you want to do some more research, I’d look for items about storing vintage textiles, especially wools. Needlepoint is essentially a textile, so the advice for them will work for needlepoint.

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