threads

Being laid up with a cold last week and having lots of new threads to play with, I did a whole bunch of stitching. That means this week,tomorrow through Friday and next week, Tuesday through Friday, I’ll be reviewing these threads.

My thread reviews are more than just descriptions of the threads. I use the threads in my own stitching and let you know, and see, just how the behave.

Some of the threads we’ll review include a mohair from The Thread Gatherers, new silks from Gloriana and Planet Earth, a new fiber from Dream House, and a great post from Barbara Elmore on a new thread from Sundance.

I’m so excited to share these with you.

More:
Threads Days at Nuts about Needlepoint

How Do I Find a Neutral Gray Thread?

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Grays can be a real problem in threads. You think you have found the perfect one, you get it home and UGH, it looks horrible with your other threads.

This is because there are three types of grays, warm, cool, and neutral. Warm grays have gray plus a bit of a warm color. Cool grays have gray with a bit of a cool color. Neutral grays are just mixtures of black and white.

If you pick a grey for an all-cool color piece and it’s a warm grey, you get that UGH feeling. A neutral, or even better, a cool gray will look great.

But often it’s hard to tell.

Here’s what to do at a shop or when shopping your stash.

Take a skein of red thread and with a skein of blue thread. Put one next to a possible gray thread. Then do the same wit the other thread. If it is a neutral gray, it will look warm next to the blue thread and cool next to the red thread.

If it doesn’t do both, it isn’t a neutral gray.

I get home from Phoenix late tonight or early tomorrow, so my TNNA reports will start on Wednesday.

Read the rest here:
How Do I Find a Neutral Gray Thread?

Color through the Ages Sneak Peek

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

needlepoint twinchie (2 inch square) using colors of ancient egypt, designed and stitched by needlepoint expert janet m.perry

Many of you have asked to see what the Twinchie projects for Color through the Ages will look like. This year’s needlepoint club is going to go beyond the traditional color schemes to look at color combinations that refer to a specific time, place, or object.

Through charted Twinchies (2″square needlepoint) based on quilt designs, club members will explore color schemes typical not just of ancient times, but of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Twentieth Century, along with others.

colors of ancient greece needlepoint twinchie designed and stitched by needlepoint expert janet m. perry

Pictured here are two of the completed Twinchies, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. I’ll post a couple more sneaks late this month. Both societies used similar color palettes based on minerals. In these packets you’ll learn about mineral colors, why “dirt” isn’t just one color, why blue is so prized, and more.

In each month’s packet you will get:

Extensive information about color and this color scheme
Information about the quilt block or setting
Charted Twinchie with thread list
Information, including stitching tips for three different threads

The club begins March 1, 2012 and registrations are open now. There are a number of different pricing options, depending on what you want.

Basic Package includes the PDFs of each month’s program. It is $7.50 per month. Use the PayPal button below to register.

Basic Subscription

Deluxe Package includes the PDFs of each month’s program as well as canvas and three thread samples of about 2 yards per month. It is $12.50 per month. Use the PayPal button below to register.

Deluxe Subscription

In addition if you make a single payment for either option (using the buttons below or pay via check (contact me for the address) you will receive a10% discount..

Annual Basic

Annual Deluxe

Please note that the Deluxe Package prices are for shipment to US addresses only. If you want this option and live outside the US, please contact me. All sales to California are subject to sales tax. If you are in California and choose the subscription, you will be invoiced for the sales tax separately.

Come join me on this journey of exploration.

Follow this link:
Color through the Ages Sneak Peek

Upcoming Products from Kreinik

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

With the Winter Needlework Market happening in a couple of weeks, designers and thread manufacturers are giving sneak peeks at the new products that will be appearing at the show.

Today we’ll look at what Kreinik is introducing for stitchers

Their lovely bead-like Facets and Petite Facets are getting two new colors: copper and pearl. Think about using the pearl for a necklace.

New Stitch-a-pen Kits will be introduced.

There will be new metallic colors, although how many is uncertain.

I am so excited about the dyed silk gauze. I’ve done this myself and it makes for glorious backgrounds. I’m not sure which sizes of gauze will be available this way, but I can’t wait.

Finally, Signature Series Assortments will be available in most silks & metallics. They are 4-packs with the top-selling colors in each color family.

Originally posted here:
Upcoming Products from Kreinik

Update for May 8

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2006-05-08 14:50:42. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Although I didn’t add to my blog for the last several days, I have been stitching up a storm.

I finished the Leaf Mask on Saturday.

I worked on a cool quilt pillow from Susan Roberts on Sunday.
On Friday I bought the thread for the background. I decided with lots of background, I’d try a knitting yarn. I bought Cotton Classic from Tahki/Stacy Charles. It’s a mercerized cotton, less shiny than pearl cotton, in a five-ply strand. I cut the skein once at the knot to have great stitching lengths. I’m using three-ply for basketweave on 14 mesh. The thread is great, MUCH cheaper than any alternative and looks perfect, an inky black which really sets of the bright colors of the star pattern.
It’s big, on 14 mesh and I only work on it on Sundays. It will probably take me all year to do. Adding in the background color added so much to the design it was hard to put it away Sunday night.

Original post:
Update for May 8

Shop for Threads, Kits, and Projects at Orna’s Clearance

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Jewelry,Nuts About Needlepoint

Orna Willis has just opened a Clearance section in her on-line shop. There you wikll find project packs, some rare or discontinued,kits, a few painted canvases, and lots of stunning thread packs such as the one pictured here.

Plenty of Sales Right this Instant

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Jewelry,Nuts About Needlepoint,tools

Still looking for stitchy goodness on sale?

Here are three sales to take advantage of right now.

Fireside Stitchery (one of my favorite shops) is having a 20% off sale through tomorrow. They have an amazing selection of threads, books, charted canvas, painted canvas, and tons more. Many things don’t often go on sale, so this is a great chance to stock up. They also have free shipping on orders over $35.

Ehrman Tapestry is also having a sale on over 80 of their kits. The link takes you to the full list. There is tons there, too many to list, but there are many Candace Bahouth kits (including several colors of her Klimt series), some Kaffe Fasset kits, most of the wonderful Seven Days of Creation series, and lots more. I have promised myself to finish at least one of the Ehrman kits before I buy more or I’d have my credit card out this instant.

Nordic Needle also has a sale (through the end of the month) on selected items from their catalog. There are some great gadgets and tools, some wonderful charted canvas, and selected colors of blank canvas.

See the rest here:
Plenty of Sales Right this Instant

Picking the Right Background Color

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

petei needlepoint alice in wonderland cheshire cat, stitched by needlepoint expert janet m perry

Can you think of a better background color for this cat? But green was not my first choice.

Recently I completed stitching this Cheshire Cat from Petei. I just adore the design, but finding the right color for the background was a real challenge. In finding it, I worked through some questions that can help you find the perfect background color for your designs.

With more and more needlepoint being painted with no background at all, deciding on a background color becomes more difficult.

Remember that the background is supposed to set off and highlight the focal point, directing your attention to it. You want something that sits apart from the focal point, otherwise you lose bits of the design into the background. If the background does not do this, it isn’t the right one.

First, ask what are the value ranges in the focal point. If they are a narrow range of values, you can pick something lighter or darker than the focal point. With this black and white design, I had too broad a spread to use that solution.

Second, ask if an overdyed thread will work. Sometimes, the design can be set off beautifully by a lovely thread of this kind. Here, unhappily, that won’t work. Once again it’s the wide value range that killed this solution as well, but I did think about it.

Third, look at where the item would in nature, often background colors based on this work well. An animal can often look great on a background of some kind of green. This was my initial motivation in picking green, but it ended up fitting another consideration as well.

Fourth, look at accent colors in the design. Background colors will also work that pick up one of these colors. Here, in choosing primary green for the background, I also picked up the sparkly green of the eyes.

By asking yourself these questions you will be able to find several possibilities for background colors. Hold each up to the needlepoint to see which “sings.”

Then stitch away. If it doesn’t work, you know how to find other possibilities.

Here is the original post:
Picking the Right Background Color

Organizing Threads

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

For many of us, including me, organizing threads is the biggest part of organizing our stash. A critical part of this is figuring out how to make this organization work for you.

Of course that means thinking. You can think about threads in three ways: by thread type,by texture, or by color. If you say to yourself “Pebbly Perle would be perfect here!” you should classify by thread type. If you say “I need a furry thread for that little cat!” you should classify by texture. If you say “That dress should be ruby red!” you should classify by color.

Whichever you choose, now think about the places you have to store things. In many cases this will determine how much you can break out the categories.

Someone with a small stash and not much space might classify the stash by big color groupings: re, orange, yellow, etc. But with lots of storage, a stash classified by thread type might have five different drawers for Kreinik metallics (I do).

Once you know these things take out all or part of your thread stash, emptying drawers and anyplace else thread hides.

Divide what you have pulled out into the categories you decided to use.

Next either do some more classifying or put what you have away where it will live.

But how do you know when it’s time to split on of your categories? I use two criteria. If I get a new bit of storage, I think about bins that are pretty full and split something (I recently did this with several IKEA bins). If a bin gets too full, I see where there is space I can free up and split that bin (I need to do that now with my Rainbow Gallery metallics).

I don’t like to put away threads often, even though they are organized well, so I keep a small tote by my desk. Threads I’ve used go there and then get put away when the bag is full. I use the same dump and sort procedure.

See more here:
Organizing Threads

DMC’s New Website – Website Review

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

DMC recently redesigned their website and I recently had a chance to explore it. For a company that has been in the needlework business for so long and who has many threads that are popular with needlepointers, this site is a huge disappointment.

There are several areas where you might look for needlepoint, and most of them are very disappointing. Let’s begin with “threads.” Go there and click on “needlepoint threads.”

What’s is listed there” Tapestry Wool and no other threads.

People stopped using only wool in needlepoint in the mid-70′s. Where are the many other threads that have been standards for needlepoint for decades, let alone DMC’s innovative new products?

Not under needlepoint, you’ll find them under embroidery threads. Couldn’t DMC have listed them under needlepoint as well, it isn’t hard to do.

A second section is education and this is the only good part of the site for needlepoint. It has a small stitch dictionary (that could use some kind of index) and a nice introduction to needlepoint. It could have been better if they had incorporated more of their recent blog series on needlepoint.

I was unhappy enough with the product area, but when I got to inspiration, I got very unhappy indeed. First there are two “projects” listed under needlepoint. One of those is the memory thread brochure, a product they couldn’t even be bothered to list as a needlepoint thread.

But look at “half cross stitch” which is essentially needlepoint done on fabric — there are 15 projects. Why aren’t they cross listed? If it has to do with materials, add the line or two to tell about canvas size and number of strands.

And there are more needlepoint gems, no doubt under other headings such as whole stitch cross stitch charts. And even free projects they have designed and promoted on their blog for needlepoint, such as their lovely bag, are not here.

I’m not happy, we deserve more, we deserve a site that is, as their blog said “a comprehensive resource for all artists, crafters and stitchers.” Instead of comprehensive except for needlepoint.

We shouldn’t be the poor stepsister of the embroidery world.

See more here:
DMC’s New Website – Website Review

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