weekend

Originally posted 2009-03-31 20:36:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I have to start out apologizing. Between the flu, a cold from hell, and allergies worse than ever, I didn’t get to this month’s Twinchies.

Now with tons of Bargello to stitch for the Maker Faire, I’m spending all my time, even Sundays, working on that.

So the Twinchies are going to take a vacation and resume in June.

Visit link:
Twinchies on Holiday

Quilt Block Coasters with Stitch Guides

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.

Link:
Quilt Block Coasters with Stitch Guides

Needlepoint & Moving

Originally posted 2008-12-26 19:51:40. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Probably at some time in your life you will have to move. Both my DH and I have moved rarely in our lives (once for him before we married, twice for me until I moved out here), so doing this is a BIG DEAL.

It’s also a big deal because I have lots of needlepoint stuff. Not only is it my work, it is also my passion and, like most of us, I have lots of stash.

If it were a perfect world, the movers would come and magically pack everything one day and set it up in the new house the next day. But this magic costs big bucks and so we are doing most of the packing ourselves.

Over the summer most of my needlework books got packed, so I only have about two boxes of them left out. I’m going to pack them except for Stitches to Go, since it is pretty small.

The canvases and projects in stash went into a box over the weekend, as did all the finishing supplies, except the one for the project on deadline. That was easy as well.

Now we come to the hard stuff, the thread and the WIPs. I decided the only way I could manage was by making a list of projects to work on until about Jan 9 (I hope I’m at least somewhat set up by then) and they all needed to fit into one box.

Everything else in my pile goes into boxes to be unpacked later.

My list includes the projects on immediate and upcoming deadlines (3 things), some small projects (3 things), some things I’m starting (2 things), and some things I’m working on (2 things). For the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to finish things up and that’s been successful, so those are out of the way.

Each of these projects is in a project bag (I packed those away over the weekend as well, on stretcher bars and has the thread pulled.

This way I will be able to pack up the threads as soon as I get the deadline projects done this week, my stretcher bars, my tools I’m not using, and most of my thread.

I won’t worry about this, just about the utter chaos my house is in, and can still stitch without problems.

Just in case though, I’m using clear plastic bins for storing the stash and it’s going on the moving truck.

For everything in my pile of projects to work on

Continued here:
Needlepoint & Moving

Twinchies for 2010

attic window needlepoint twinchy, designed by janet perry

I have just spent some much overdue time looking at the Twinchies I have done and uploading them into a Facebook album.

This year, as much as I can, I will be using the Twinchy format to try out new needlepoint techniques as part of the 2010 President’s Challenge. We will be trying a new technique each month including Hilton Stitches (this month, hardanger on canvas, bargello, and surface embroidery on canvas. It’s free and open to all members of CyberPointers.

But looking at them all got me excited again about these little bits of needlepoint. so I’m going to start doing more of them. In the spirit of trying something new, I’d like the Twichy theme for January to be monochromatic color schemes. To make it even easier, I also want you to use the Attic Windows Twinchy pattern shown above.

That’s it, use any stitches you like, any threads, but in a monochromaticscheme in this pattern.

I’ll make a gallery of pictures people send me and show you my results in early February.

Tomorrow look for a post about this color scheme.

Two New Series for 2010 at About.com The days after Christmas are often doldrums for needlepointers. You’ve…
Beginner Needlepoint Project Book Out this Weekend! One of the harder things I’ve done in needlepoint…
Needlepoint and Mosaics – ANG’s 2010 Quest Challenge Each year at the ANG Seminar there is a theme…

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Read the original:
Twinchies for 2010

Needlepointing Houses – Come Stitch with Me

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.