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Originally posted 2009-07-01 05:58:13. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Leigh Shafer is talented finisher based in Arizona. In Jane Zimmerman‘s most recent email newsletter she shared the most wonderful tips about what we as stitchers need to know in order to get the best results from the finishing.

Leigh was gracious enough to give me permission to post it here for you.

Once you have finished stitching your project, you need to consider how you want it finished. Will it be a pillow? A standing figure? Do you want ornaments that you can hang on your Christmas tree? Do you have favorite colors, or do you have one color that you absolutely hate? How will the finished piece be used or displayed?

All of these thoughts must be conveyed to your finisher so that you and she can be in agreement on the finished product.

Do you want a pillow? Ok – what kind? Knife edge with cording, ruffle,
lace, a fabric border framing your stitching? Perhaps you like the look of a more formal boxed pillow with just self cording. Will the pillow get a lot of wear? Will you want to take out the pillow form and dry clean the work occasionally? A zipper closing will make this much easier to do. Let your finisher know. Most finishers I know prefer to do pillows with zipper closings – it gives a neater, more finished look to the piece.

Have you stitched an additional two or three threads outside the design area so that no bare canvas will show when all the finish work is done? This is not an absolute rule, but it is a good idea. Have you selected fabric and trims or will you let your finisher pick for you? Here is where your finisher needs to know what you like. Please be as specific as possible as to colors and styles. If you have a contemporary or formal home, you don’t want a pillow with a lot of cutesy “stuff”. If you have children and/or pets, a delicate fabric won’t survive the normal wear and tear if the pillow is to be in a family room. If a certain color, even in a small accent capacity, really grates on your senses, let your finisher know.

Remember, a finisher is not a mind reader. You may have spent several months or even years stitching your masterpiece. You’ve spent a considerable amount of money on the canvas, the charts, the threads – you want it to be finished to show off your work to the best advantage. The more information you can give this person to whom you are entrusting your work, the better the job she will do for you, and the happier you will be with the final result.

*****

Here’s a little bit about Leigh’s background, she writes “I was a store owner in So Calif in the 80′s, I’ve been a member of EGA and ANG since the early 90′s, have stitched all my life, and taught for the past 30 years. I started finishing my own pieces for my store, customers saw my work and wanted me to do their finishing. So, I’ve been finishing for over 20 years. For the last four years, I have done some of the finishing for the ANG auctions at seminar.”

Leigh can be reached via email at leighstitcher @ hotmail . com (remember to remove the spaces).

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Ok, my Needlepoint Is Stitched – What Do I Tell My Finisher?

Stitching on Vacation

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2006-05-18 08:48:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Although with the price of gas, your vacation may be no further away than the closest
theme park or beach, or even swimming hole, I thought I’d take a little bit to talk about
stitching when traveling and when on vacation. I’ve divided it up into sections, so you can
read the relevant parts.

Remember that vacations are for relaxing so find needlepoint which is relaxing too.
Something with no deadlines, no hard techniques or threads. One of my favorite things to
do in the car is basketweave as the trip gives me plenty of chances to look around and
take breaks. Even so you can get lots of needlepoint done on a car trip.

Stitching on Airplanes
Although the restrictions have eased on sewing scissors, you might want to look into
thread cutters or blunt-ended scissors to take in your carryon.

Plane trips are long, connections often get delayed and airports are not always great
shopping destinations. I always bring along with me at least two projects. One of them is
a small low-priority project which I keep in my tote for emergencies. They are always on
mini-stretcher bars and have all instructions and materials in a bag. If the bag is big
enough to hold the project, even better.

Stitching in the Car
Car needlepoint needs to be something which can be stopped and started and which can
be done either on small stretcher bars or in hand. If your seatmates object to needles
flashing near them, precut short stitching lengths.

Stitching in Hotel Rooms
Most hotel rooms do not have good light. Bring extra high-watt light bulbs, or a small
travel lamp.

Needlepoint in Your Luggage
If you are bringing projects in your luggage, don’t have them on stretcher bars, take it off
the bars and roll the canvas around them, it packs better. Keep all parts of the project
together.

Needlepoint near water
Swimming pool or beach, needlepoint near water can be a challenge. First off make sure
all the threads you are using are colorfast. You don’t want an errant drop of water to ruin
your work.

If you like plastic canvas, use it. Since there is no sizing, it won’t fall apart if it gets wet.
And 14 mesh plastic uses the same size thread as 18 mesh canvas.

If you needlepoint at the beach, expect sand and only bring things where you won’t care
about that.

Keep your needlepoint, all of it, in plastic bags which zip and keep them aipped.

Boats move on the water, even when docked. Try to needlepoint and if you don’t like it,
keep your stitching on shore.

And happy vacation!

See the original post here:
Stitching on Vacation

Simple and Affordable Scrapbook Ideas for Children

in Scrapbooking

Apart from allowing your own imagination run through your work and to be able to show your spirit and thoughts in every single page, among the delights of scrapbooking is having the ability to show your work to others. Also, not only can you show your artworks, but you may also allow other people take part in the fun of making scrapbooking projects!

Original post:
Simple and Affordable Scrapbook Ideas for Children

Essential Facts To Know To Protect Your Scrapbook Design

in Scrapbooking

Once you invest a lot of time and effort into creating a beautiful scrapbook design, it is natural that you would also invest your time and resources into protecting your work. As a matter of fact, some scrapbookers have likened it somewhat to taking care of your skin. But no matter how you see it, you know that as long as you take good care of your keepsakes, they will always be available for you and your family to enjoy for years to come. If you ignore them and neglect to take care of the, however, then your work will just be relegated to the garbage heap sooner than you expected.

Continued here:
Essential Facts To Know To Protect Your Scrapbook Design

A Small Rant about Needlepoint Kits

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2009-07-17 07:20:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I don’t often buy needlepoint kits, but when I do I buy them because I like the picture of the project on the cover and I want to stitch it. That one. Right now. Not needing to add one thing.

That’s the point of a kit isn’t it? Grab and go?

So imagine my surprise when I bought a kit recently, from Chameleon Designs, really loving the piece and found that the kit was not complete. It had the main thread, canvas, instructions and a needle. But the second thread, which is used for overstitching as an accent was glaring in its absence.

And in the instructions, this step was fobbed off with a comment that overstitching or beads could be added.

Nothing about the thread to use, nothing about where or how to do the overstitching (I guess we could look at the picture, but they didn’t even bother to say that), nothing about where to put the beads which can barely be seen in the corner of a second one of the piece seen at the top of the picture of the project that caused me to buy the kit in the first place.

There was space to add this information and the thread should have been included in the kit,. Or if it wouldn’t be included the main picture should have been of the project without the overstitching and the other ones should have been less prominent and labeled as variations.

To their, very slight credit, they do say inside the gold thread isn’t included, (so they noticed?). But you only find this out after you have bought the kit and opened it, so you can’t return it since it isn’t even in a resealable bag, if you had a shop that would take it back.

Then I sat down to read the instructions for the project that I had. The picture on the cover shows a squAre made up of 25 Scotch Stitches, arranged in an alternating pattern, that;s just fine. BUT the chart shows 30 Scotch Stitches, still alternating. But the instructions tell you to alter the direction of the stitch every second stitch which does not give you the results which were charted or pictured.

Now I am left with an expensive kit (it was imported and cost over $16 for a project which, when stitched will have almost no relation to the project I thought I was buying. If I didn’t have thread in my stash, I’d have to go buy some and if I followed the written directions I’d have something I never could get to look like the picture.

This is irresponsible and not fair to the stitcher. It does our industry no good if this is how professionals choose to package their work.

Now they have me deciding never to buy a product of theirs, returning the other products of theirs I have bought, blogging about it, and being in a bad mood about something which I bought to make me happy. Good job there! Great way to get people excited about needlepoint!

Could we have some honesty here?

See the original post here:
A Small Rant about Needlepoint Kits

Creative Work Spaces Depend Upon Well Crafted Drafting Tables

in Craft Shopping

Drafting tables come in many different shapes and sizes to meet your individual needs and tastes. If you have a dedicated space in your office or home for a drafting table, you may be inclined to purchase a stationary table for a more permanent work space. If your work space is sometimes used for other activities that do not require the drafting table, you may want to get a rolling type to get it out of the way when it is not in use.

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Creative Work Spaces Depend Upon Well Crafted Drafting Tables

Scrapbooking Journaling Jar – A One of a Kind Piece

in Scrapbooking

Fruits are not the only ones whose essence and flavors are preserved inside a bottle when in fact you can make your own scrapbooking journaling jar that you would pass down to the future generations of your family. Just like the fruit preserves, it would also take you some time to do this and much effort is required from your end to create the best one you can come up with. The basics of the work is the same as canning but of course while using scrapbooking materials instead for this jar of memories and images you want to keep.

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Scrapbooking Journaling Jar – A One of a Kind Piece

Three Easy-To-Do Ideas for a Scrapbook Project for Kids

in Scrapbooking

One of the joys of working on a scrapbook project is being able to share your work with others, aside from the personal enjoyment of letting your creativity flow through your work and being able to express your soul and emotions in every page. Furthermore, you can also let others join in the fun of creating scrapbooks while sharing your works of art!

Read this article:
Three Easy-To-Do Ideas for a Scrapbook Project for Kids

How to Get Free Scrapbooking Templates

in Scrapbooking

Using scrapbooking templates can be a real time saver for those of us who spend a lot of time trying to create the right embellishments to go with our themed layouts. With templates, a lot of the work is already done for you. All you have to do is prepare them and arrange them in their right places on your layout, then attach them and you’re done! You can use templates for cropping and designing your photos, layouts, and also help a lot in visualizing where your embellishments should go.

Read the rest here:
How to Get Free Scrapbooking Templates

Makoto’s Cross-stitch Super Collection – Book Review

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Makoto Oozu, North Light Books, 2009, $19.99 ISBN: 978-1-4403-0945-0

I have to admit, I’m a sucker for Japanese art of all kinds. And I’m particularly fond of those pixelated little graphics, sort of like what you find on old video games. Many times I’ve looked at books of these images (at $70 each) and wanted to buy them and turn them into needlework charts.

So imagine my delight when I found this book in a Barnes & Noble, that has done the work for me. These little designs were originally published in two Japanese books and they have been translated into English and combined here.

The book has three parts. The first part is a gallery of a selection of the charts. Grouped into subjects (robots, sea creatures, globe trotting, etc.) they motifs are shown stitched on black or white. The pictures are clear enough to use for stitching.

Part 2 has ideas for stitched gear that are endlessly inventive. Although they are all done as Cross Stitch, there is no reason why you couldn’t do most of these things as needlepoint. Where there is a grid already (gingham shirts, plastic grid cosmetic cases) use it for your stitching. Where there isn’t a grid, use waste canvas, or stitch on a grid and apply it to the item, or both.

I love that the projects are clever adaptations of items you don’t think of as grounds for stitching. Probably the most inventive of these is the 3-D panel. It uses painted Masonite (it’s already drilled_ as the ground for a 3-D T. Rex.

The final section has charts and instructions for making every one of the projects as well as all the motifs in the first part. Each chart is separate and has the dimensions in stitch count. The charts use symbols that are keyed to DMC floss. At the beginning of this section is a helpful how-to that gives hints on how to stitch on other materials.

If you know of kids who want to learn needlepoint, these designs are small enough to give them a feeling of accomplishment and the projects are interesting enough to make them want to stitch.

It’s a great book, and a wonderful value.

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Makoto’s Cross-stitch Super Collection – Book Review

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