Cut Short
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As I get further into looking for Hand Painted Needlepoint canvases for beginners I am finding all sorts of things. I am finding very amateurish *hand painted* canvases and some famous designers simpler, small designs that eventually find their way down the “needlepoint food chain” to become relatively inexpensive.
I do not need large enough numbers of these beginner oriented canvases to justify opening an account with a major needlepoint canvas wholesaler…..yet. I am crusing the net to see what I can buy.
So far, I am reluctant to admit, I am finding these on eBay.
Now, I am not a fan of eBay. I began as a seller there. My very first needlepoint designs were Kanji’s in simple graphic line borders like this:
If anyone is interested, I still have this canvas made up as a kit with black Paternayan yarn for the Kanji, Deep purple for the border and creamy white for the background. Despite this being an early design for us, it is well drawn.
I did OK with these on eBay but I did dislike it, both as a seller and a buyer. I was spectacularly cheated as a buyer there twice. The first time was when I bid high for a lovely BLACK vintage Chanel “camera bag” purse. I won it and paid, what arrived was NAVY BLUE. Chanel, at that time, did not make any navy blue bags. I went through the *mediation process* on eBay but it had no teeth. The case was decided in my favor but the seller did not refund my payment. In fact (this is hilarious) she threatened me with a libel suit for leaving her negative feedback.
The second time I bought a excellent set of Le Creuset enamel over cast iron French cookware for my son, the chef.
(did I mention my son is a chef? He studied Baking and Pastry Arts at Culinary institute and graduated. Then we went back and was certified as a full Culinarian. He now works as a line chef at a very good restaurant on Boston where they pay him overtime to develop some desserts. Yes, I am bragging)
Anyway, 2 days after I paid this guy $300+ for this set, he quit (or was thrown off) eBay. But by then eBay also owned PayPal and I eventually got my money back, still….bad experiences.
Anyway, I am finding some really good simpler, small needlepoint canvases on eBay. If they are inexpensive enough I just buy them. Otherwise I pick a group from one seller and make them an offer for the lot, at below eBay asking bids. Some accept (if they have a lot of stock), some don’t.
I am not too happy doing this but I don’t know where else to find what I need for my beginners and newbies. Any ideas anyone has are more then welcome.
One problem I am seeing is one I had myself in the beginning of NewNeedlepoint.com (whew! got the link in finally).
When I first began to design canvases I read that the standard area of white canvas required outside the design area was 1.5 inches. So, that is what I left after hemming.
As I got more experienced, I learned that while 1.5 inches was ok for anyone who rolled their canvases to stitch (as I do) it was inadequate for anyone who used a stitching frame (as many do).
I learned the minimum was 2 inches on each side or more. I did not toss any canvases for this but I did begin cutting larger.
In fact, this seems to be a creeping trend, I am cutting larger and larger all the time.
The truth is white canvas is not that expensive (it is but not killer costly like colored canvas) and I want to be generous with it. My instinct is always to be generous, most likely bad for a retailer but there it is.
Where I notice some really small white canvas areas outside the design is on some of the Hand Painted canvases I buy to re-sell here (or ones from my own collection).
The Tulips Hand Painted needlepoint canvas has less than 1 inch of white canvas in some areas. I do disclose this in my listing of it and it is a lovely, colorful design but that is not right
The wonderful Lee Diamonds canvas has 1 inch to 1.25 inches white canvas around the design
The Rosalie Graphic in Blue and Mauve canvas has 2 inches (barely) at each side but the bottom is 1.25 inches and the top is 1.5 inches.
And these are major designers.
Now, I know you can say in their defense that I have hemmed the canvases. Yes, I have but my hemming uses maybe 1/2 an inch and makes a canvas much nicer to stitch (that awful tape never lasts for even half the time it takes to stitch something and raw edges scrape my arms).
Even my good friend and wonderful designer Patt of Patt & Lee Designs has sometimes cut the canvases a bit small. It is always odd too, one side will be 2 inches, 2 sides will be 1.5 and 1 will be 1.25.
Of course, she *yelled* at me (hard to really yell in email) that I should have said something and she is exactly right, so I bear some blame in this. She no longer cuts them smallish.
I know the canvases are cut as efficiently as possible, to use as much of each inch of every roll. I do this as well, to a point but………..(many dots here leading to infinity)
So, I am moving ahead with listing the new stuff. I finished editing the pictures of the kits and canvases I was supposed to list last week today.
I listed the amazing Maggie Optical Graphic.
But then I realized I hadn’t drawn the numbers on, next to the colors on the color guide. I did this and realized I had miscounted. There are 36 colors, not 33.
So, I had to drag out the color key and all the colors and match each one to the color key. I found a few omissions and a mistake or 2 (of course) which I corrected. I will take new pictures tomorrow but I let the listing stand.
It has been suggested to me that many people would stitch this canvas from their stash of threads instead of buying my kit, so I will offer it both ways. Canvas alone or as a kit. I will not offer it as a custom color kit, what would be the point?
But I do want to point out to all the stitchers out there with enormous stashes. I designed this kit with DMC #5 Perle Cotton floss for the 14 mesh canvas. I have
250=/- colors in this size floss and even from my stock, this kit was a challenge to assemble.
DMC #5 does not even come in enough shades of turquoise (2, not the 3 needed) so I *fudged* the kit a tiny bit, to good effect I think. I don’t know how many of you have enough and the right (or close to the right) colors in their stash to do this but you never know, now do you?
Keith’s sister left tonight, she was a wonderful guest but still someone else in the house all the time.
She pitched in to help with cooking, dishes and always picked up after herself. While I was asleep this morning she washed the sheets on the guest room bed and re-made it and washed her towels. She is welcome back anytime next year (yes, I know just what I wrote).
I like to read the New York Times. I pay them an obscene amount of money to deliver it to me here in Apollo Beach, FL each morning. I read it cover to cover. I like to keep the Sunday Book Review and Magazine and read them all week. I was reading The Book Review section tonight, there was an article in it about how many/most writers aren’t that good at *speaking* or even talking. The example was an interview with Vladmir Nabokov (a writer I enjoy reading) and Lionel Trilling where Mr Nabokov looks at his pre-prepared index cards when asked a question. This magnificent writer could not come up with answers “off the cuff” when asked about his books, which he must know as well as he knows anything. (and Mr Trilling smokes non-stop)
I know I write better than I speak. Much
The theory put up for this was that writers live so much in the quiet and in their mind that their *talk* is written on the page. I think this is what the article meant anyway, it was pretty intellectual and I have limits to how much I *get* (Oh Boy, do I!)
Anyway, Night.
The Tiara Awards Explained Better
In answer to a good question:
The stories and can be about everything, anything or almost nothing.
Not limited to needlepoint.
Although I bet we all have many stupid and beyond stupid funny needlepoint boo-boo stories.
No limitations (except the really racy stuff I will keep for my own amusement and education)
The TIARA Awards
Good Morning everyone. It is morning, in fact it is before 9am (when I began writing) and I am awake.
I am also bright, cheerful and happy. Even I find this somewhat frightening but here it is.
I am going to sparkle at you some this morning. This is a rare, maybe even a once in a lifetime experience for all of us.
I have been laggard about listing the new kits I have (as usual) but given my cheerful, peppy self this morning, I will try to get them up on NewNeedlepoint.com before I pass out from exhaustion (somewhere around noon, I should think).
Keith did some terrific new canvases this weekend. Only 3, since we have his sister visiting and had to be hosts this weekend instead of our usual unsociable selves (who get more canvases done on weekends).
He did a re-sized, new version of The superheroine in a tiara “save the world” canvas.
We did it with colored outlines this time and I upsized it.
It originally had to be re-done because of the difference between what I (and most everyone else) thought was the size of a 5 X 7 inch standard picture frame and the real size of a standard 5 X 7 inch picture frame
(Remember that hysterical blog, when I discovered this?)
Anyway, I decided it was too much text to squish into a 5 X 7 format so I re-did her as a 7.5 X 7.5 inch canvas. This could be framed , made into a small pillow or as an inset for a larger pillow (or whatever you want, just throwing out ideas here).
Which brings me to an *announcement* of sorts.
As some of you might suspect by now, I have this tiny obsession going with Tiaras. A while back I starting handing out the virtual *Tiara* award. It was fun for a bit but I did not get very far with it.
Then, of course, there is my stitching alter ego of Mrs. Margaret Dumont (Groucho’s hapless victim and love interest from countless Marx Bros. movies). She often wore a tiara (with a lovely gown).
Then you have to add in my blog series about “marianne’s mistakes, marianne’s many mistakes, marianne’s many massive mistakes” and so on.
To cap all this off, some evil genius sent me the web site for a Rhinestone Tiara wholesaler. I was hooked. They even had some reviews written by customers and a few had pictures of people wearing these excellent cheesy tiaras.
Yes, I ordered some. They should arrive this week.
I think I want to begin the actual *TIARA AWARDS* on Needlepoint in the 21st Century.
No, I am not kidding. Crazy, yes, kidding, no.
Is anyone besides me old enough to remember the *Queen For A Day* TV show? It began on the radio even before I was born (Yes, they did have electricity then but you have to pedal real hard).
Queen For A Day ran from 1956 to 1960 on ABC TV. 4 women would come on TV and tell their tear-jerker stories. The one who scored the highest on the “Applause-O-Meter got to wear the long velvet robe, the beautiful crown and got a dozen long stem red roses. They would win trips, a “night on the town” and other prizes. I remember appliances being the best of the “other prizes”. Lots of appliances, then they were oh so modern and cool.
I thought I might do a version of that, the best story each month from my blog readers, the most pitiful would win. But really, that seemed very despressing.
Then I had a brainstorm (TA DA) and thought we would go the route of “marianne’s many mistakes”.
So, the best and funniest *mistake, error or boo-boo* story each month wins a Tiara.
And this is an actual Tiara, which I will send to you (and no, you do not have to pay shipping and handling fees of $39.99 or anything, don’t you love those scams where you get something for “FREE” but have to pay “shipping & handling”?)
This might not work so good. I have no idea how many readers I have. If, as I suspect, there are 4 of you out there reading this, this award thingie won’t last too long but meanwhile…….
It is almost october 1st now. Post your stories in the comments section of this blog. I will approve them (unless they are truly smutty in which case I will just enjoy reading them).
On November 1st I will award the first TIARA AWARD.
I know, this is stupid. I think it could be funny. I hope someone else thinks it is funny too.
Ok, back to Needlepoint. I have 2 more canvases Keith did this weekend. They are both slightly larger Kanji designs and K says they are Stitch Drawn by the master (him). In truth, I can’t find any flaw in them at all.
The first is JOYOUS HEARTS
This can be a beginners Kit, and stitched with simple tent and basketweave stitch, even with the addition of an ultra simple background filler stitch or it could be stitch as a complex pattern of wonderful decorative stitches and embellishements. It can go either way. I think a design that is that adaptable is a terrific idea.
The size is also up to you. The finished canvas can be as small os 9 X 9 inches or as large as 12 X 12 inches. It is 18 mesh mono canvas.
The Kanji is JOYOUS HEART. If the heart outlines look uneven to you, it is becasue they are Stitch-Drawn. That is what a absolutely Stitch Drawn Heart looks like.
The last one is The Kanji for HARMONY.
It is drawn on Creamy Pale Yellow Zweigart 14 mesh mono canvas.
As you know by now, these colored canvases are the devil to photograph. The color came out darker than it really is. If I lightened it too much, I lost the design detail.
The design is an Asian Influenced flowering branch with the Kanji running top to bottom on the right side of the boxed design.
This canvas is also painstakingly Stitch-Drawn.
I would say I will get them listed on NewNeedlepoint.com this week but since I have yet to list the kits I promised for last week, I think I will make no promises yet.
So, please post in the *comments* section of Needlepoint in the 21st Century your
funny, ridiculous or even slightly amusing mistake stories and you might win the first ever TIARA AWARD.
Newbie Needlepoint
There has been a lot of chatter on-line about attracting newbies to the art of needlepoint. Much talk but little action.
Not that long ago I was talking to my friend Patt, the designer for Patt & Lee Designs Needlepoint and the designer of the Famous Geisha Cats needlepoint canvas.
The two of us, along with another *net needlepoint personality* were talking about a joint venture of virtual classes for beginners, combined with canvases & kits designed and supplied by Patt & I, specific to the classes.
As with most joint ventures, it never got off the ground. Too many details and what if’s but I thought the idea was terrific.
Now Patt & i are discussing a line of needlepoint canvases designed by her for beginners exclusive to NewNeedlepoint.com. I think that would be great but Patt is currently involved with the TNNA show, so this idea will have to wait until she has the time.
I really believe, as part of my push to bring needlepoint into the 21st century (kicking and screaming maybe) I think we need a new generation of stitchers.
I also think they new generation of potential stitchers will bring a new design sensibility to needlepoint and I am excited about the possibility.
On NewNeedlepoint.com I have tried to bring more modern design thinking to my canvases but without much success. The *design forward* canvases and kits I have listed have received very little attention, but I will not give up. I just don’t so as many of them. Also, I have become obsessed by my Quote and Kanji designs. Still…..
I am leaning toward including more beginner oriented needlepoint kits to the stock of NewNeedlepoint.com. I have always had a “Beginners Category” as well as an “Advanced Stitchers” category, where I grouped canvases & kits from all the different areas into 2 skill levels, at the beginner level and the more experienced stitcher level. The ones who require middle experience and skill have no special category of their own.
So, some of our new designs are focused on beginners. I have also been poking around looking for some Handpainted Needlepoint canvases appropriate to beginners and
novices.
These need to share the same characteristics as the ones we design. They need to be small or smallish, the design arts needs to be pleasing but not too complex or elaborate and they need to be Stitch Painted.
These are harder to find then you think. Most of the Stitch Painted needlepoint canvases out there are large, complicated or expensive.
I lucked into some however, and I have ordered them. I probably won’t receive them for a week or so, then I have to kit them and go through all the steps to photograph and list them. I am most likely 3 weeks from having them for sale on nn.com.
I think it is important to offer these canvases as kits. It is confusing enough as a beginner as it is, without having to pick threads.
Remember my story about the knitting & needlepoint store in North Carolina who wanted to get out of the needlepoint end of the business, telling me (knowing I was a tourist and would not be back to complain) that I needed 7 (or was it more) boxes of 12 skeins each box of Anchor #5 light taupe color # 388 to do the background of a 12 X 12 inch needlepoint canvas. They dumped their whole stock of that color, which they had tons of for some unknown reason, on me for hundreds & hundreds of dollars ( I paid retail for it).
Anyway, I am stubborn and that did not make me mad at needlepoint, when I later realized what they had done, I was mad at the store but we do not want to drive off beginners so, I kit my canvases.
Sorry for the digression (you know me by now).
These are the Hand Painted Designs I have ordered, There was only 1 of each available. My photos of them are tiny pictures, I hope you can see them.
This one is from Lee Designs, part of their going out of business sale. I wish I had had access to more of them.
This is from the designer S. Roberts, who I am not that familar with but I think this is a fine design. it is the word *love* in Hebrew.
This is a small Susan Treglown Design, it is fruit
Another small Susan Treglown
Susan Treglown’s Black Chicken
And a small Susan Treglown Flower
Finally there is this pretty canvas, called “Sasi Hearts”. The designer is someone I have heard of but I forget who.
All my beginner kits include the Color Placement Stitch Guide as well as complete directions, including directions how to use the stitch guide. I also list the web addresses for many of the better free needlepoint instruction web sites. There are some very useful sites run by wiki-how, the arts and design stitch dictionary web site and of course the many Janet Perry web sites all over the net.
I will also make my self available, by email, to answer questions. I am sure I will come to regret that offer very soon.
I wanted to show you the progress I am making on my Marilyn Monroe quote Dahlia Design needlepoint canvas.
This flower is an outline design but with a lot of color detail. It is drawn on pale mauve pink canvas. This picture is taken with a flash late tonight (typical of me) so it may be a lousy picture (it is).
I don’t know if you can see it, but the outer edges of some of the petals are being shaded with white. Remember the original picture of the flower?
As you can see, I have altered the flower some. I wanted to increase the darker ruby red center petal area in size, for impact. After I stitched it I saw I need to add to the darker center peals on the lower right of the flower, for balance.
Sometimes you can’t see how things balance out until after they are stitched and you look at it from a distance (or I see much more in a photograph of a canvas or a design then I see in the item itself, no idea why).
I hope this is going to be a handsome flower. The stitching is going fast on this 14 mesh canvas. I have been stitching samples and bargello on 16 & 18 mesh for a while now. I had almost forgotten how fast 14 mesh stitches up. I bet 12 mesh would seem blazing fast, now.
So, that is what’s up. Keith’s sister is here until Tuesday evening, she is a very pleasant, easy person but having anyone here is odd. We took her out on the boat for a cruise of Tampa Bay today, it was a gorgeous day once we got the boat up to speed (on plane) so the heat was not so bad. The cool wind, the water and the clouds were spectacular.
I am excited about NewNeedlepoint Newbie Needlepoint, it is indeed Needlepoint in the 21st century, as advertised!
Talking to Claire
I placed a new order with Claire Sanchez today for a few of her fall 09 line of wonderful large tote bags and medium large shoulder bags.
I first found Claire’s bags when we lived in Savannah, I didn’t have or want a car, we lived downtown in the “historic District” and I walked everywhere, everyday.
On my route to and from downtown, I passed the Savannah College of Art & Design Store (SCAD Store). I went in to look around a lot. Almost from my first time there, I noticed these wonderful tote bags.
You probably know by now that I am a fool for color and these bags were original and colorful and big enough to hold a needlepoint project in progress and all it’s threads or yarn, the book I was using for the pattern (if there was one). The largest of the tote bags ( at 20″) was big enough to hold a fairly large canvas on a frame.
I bought one, then 2 then more and more. I became well known at the Scad store, I was there so frequently.
When I opened NewNeedlepoint.com one of the first decisions I made was to sell Clarie Sanchez’s totes and bags.
Now this is funny, I had a stock of them for 4 months before I even opened the store.
I had bought Clarie’s bags in December 08, and had just listed them for sale on nn.com March 15, 09 when I opened my web site for business. In April Claire released her Spring 09 line.
Needless to say, I bought some of them too. Then something unexpected happened. Claire’s web site and all the other stores who carried her bags sold out of the limited Edition 08 and Spring 09 bags.
I was (and am) the only one left with any of these bags. Claire thinks this is funny, she says I should promote them as *exclusive to NewNeedlepoint.com* and so they are, since everybody else sold out while my little web site was beginning to become known and beginning (just) to sell things.
(p.s. it takes a year or more to establish and begin to sell much from a web store)
So, I will show you the bags I have, that no one else does later but now….
TA DA CLAIRE SACHEZ TOTES AND BAGS FALL 09
The first one is called Rita, I love this bag. I am buying a tote size in this (OK, two. one is to keep for myself) This is the largest tote, 20 inches long, with adjustable capacity and strap more then long enough to wear this on your shoulder (even over a coat or jacket). All the Studio Tote bags have this great strap (or straps)
I love the colors, I adore the pattern. I am also buying the Rita in the shoulder bag size (smaller then the big tote but still able to hold a lot and carry on your shoulder)
The next one is the large site tote, it is called the Reagan bag. These sturdy totes look like anything but the useful, carry anything bags they are. They really are amazing. Claire & I had a long discussion about how this color green is really a neutral color.
We agreed this green is a neutral, as can be some shades of red or pink or gold, even sometimes yellow but not blues or corals or orange. Blues are never neutrals, we are not sure why but there it is. I know orange is being touted as a neutral color this year but I disagree. Coral (and the rust/bittersweet) shades can be lovely colors but not neutrals.
(Sorry for the digression into neutrals, I think you all know by now I can’t help it)
The last bag is the biggest tote in the Alice Pattern. I did not realize this at first, but there is the very top of a deer’s head and his antlers among the Baroque curlicues in this pattern. I think the combination of this muted red, cream, taupe and the surprise of the Agean blue are wonderful.
Ok, now to the Claire bags I have *EXCLUSIVELY* Unavaialble anywhere else in the Universe.
The Faye Carpetbag This may be a summer bag, I will wait until next summer to sell it, if needs be.
The Edie Studio Tote bag
The Cayden Studio Tote Bag
Turquoise Silk Handbag with Copper Leaf I do concede this is more of a summer color.
The Beverly Handbag
Even Claire can’t believe I still have a Beverly. I have my eye on this one, I love the colors and pattern but I do prefer a shoulder bag and this is a handbag (bummer)
Pink Silk Handbag with Copper Leaf I had 2 of these, the last 2, sold 1. This too may be more a summer color. I think it is beautiful.
The Green Silk Handbag with Copper Leaf Is one that is not available right now but it is Clair Sanchez’s most famous bag and I think she brings it back every summer. I hope so, anyway.
The Ryan Handbag This bag is made of a limited edition vintage fabric Claire found. The colors are wonderful fall colors.
I know, this is a lot of exclusives. 1 more.
The Georgia Studio Tote. A wonderful sturdy tote bag in beautiful autumn golds. The dots are flocked, an unexpected note of softness.
So, there they are.
On to another subject having nothing to do with needlepoint or bags or anything appropriate. Keith’s sister is coming to visit us, from Oklahoma, tomorrow. She stays 5 days. The visit is unexpected but not unwelcome. She is an easy guest and a nice lady (by far the nicest of all his many, many sisters).
Usually I scramble around the house all day, making kits, doing computer & nn.com stuff, regular housework (shudder) laundry etc. I seem to be always busy but with a guest, I will spend much more time just sitting and *visiting* .
The upshot and advantage to this is you can expect to see quite a bit of my samples and the things I am stitching completed by the time she leaves.
This Week’s Stuff
First up, updates to yesterdays’s whine-fest.
My current hero, Zac the Tech has solved the wrong payment problem for yesterday’s sizeable sale, and I can proceed with it. I was wound up pretty tight over that one.
I am going to *soldier on* with stitching Dotted Swiss for the Monster’s body. After I rip-out all the monster stitching I have done already, that is. If I do not like the monster now, I will hate him when the canvas is done. Then, of course, I will hate the canvas. Jane, the Stitch Mistress and Groucho Marx is being kind to me about this.
My “challenged” stitching abilities must drive a talented stitcher like Jane to distraction, but she remains supportive as befits the doyenne of (The) Chilly Hollow (Needlepoint Adventure Blog).
Tonight we watched the oddest movie. It was called “Screen Door Jesus” . It was on Verizon on demand. It started out quirky and funny but ended up quite thoughtful and interesting. Amazing little movie. While we watched I plowed on with stitching my Marilyn Monroe quote canvas Dahlia.
I believe that many people have trouble visualizing how my Line Drawn designs will actually look when stitched.
Some of them use outlines as part of or the base to the design and many stitchers, even experienced ones, are not comfortable with outlining.
I am stitching this as a sample of how outlining can define and *punch-up* a design.
Without outlines this flower would look completely different. I hope this will clearly show how effective and beautiful an outlined stitched design can be.
I can’t wait to get more color on it.
BTW, I often take these blog pictires at night, when I write the blog. I am too lasy to set up all the lights and tripod for just 5 or 6 blog pictures. I take them free-hand using the built-in flash which leaches out most of the color.
I edit some of the color back in but these are not *Pro* pictures, and should not be depended on in terms of the final look of a canvas or kit.
I assembled 5 new kits today, to list this week. The first is the Art-Deco Poppies canvas. I was going to sell it as canvas alone or color choice kit but I could not resist kitting it.
I am not ready to show you the colors yet…..tomorrow.
The next is a canvas I have had in my collection for a long time. I pulled threads for it, to stitch it myself 3 or 4 times, each time I put them back again. This still-life has the look of a Matisse painting, in the loosest possible way, to me. I call it Matisse Chair (silly, isn’t it?)
The people who marketed this canvas cut too much white canvas off around it. I hemmed it as small as possible, the original designers name is (and always was, even before I hemmed it) unreadable.
I have 2 more of my Original Love Kanji canvases both for 4 X 6 inch Stitch & Frame Needlepoint.
The first is the heavier line design, I used dark rich colors for this. Partly to cover the dark lines but mostly because I have been wanting to do a red & raspberry one.
I did the second in wonderful blue and coral. I think it will be lovely. The background color is very pale coral, not pink.
And this incredible Maggie & Co Optical Graphic Canvas. This has been rollled up in my closet for a long time. I did one of these a few years ago, and gave it to a good friend.
This is a picture of it right after I finished it, before it was blocked or anything.
I remember it took a zillion skeins of thread to stitch. So many colors. Below is the Maggie & Co canvas I am listing on NewNeedlepoint.com (whew, got the link in)
This design area is 14 X 14 inch on 14 mesh canvas. It requires 33 colors for a total of 47 skeins.
And this is why buying this canvas from me is to your advantage. It took me 3+ hours to pick these colors, to get them right and the write a rudimentary Color Placement Guide using the Color Chart printed on the left side of the canvas (out of the picture).
I kid you not.
All Over The Place
This blog is, indeed, all over the place as I continue my blog career of grousing and carping, peppered with some mentions of my work and web site.
Me and my poor little web site are too mistake ridden for this long holiday from mistakes, errors and boo boos to have gone on much longer and (surprise surprise) it didn’t.
I was all ready to land on top of the new issue of Needlepoint Now in this blog but now I have the usual whines and carping to amuse you with instead (OK, I will do the magazine thing in a minute).
As you might have guessed from my cheerful chatter lately, NewNeedlepoint.com is doing better.
I am starting to make some sales and I love it. I have this very classy NewNeedlepoint.com full color stationary that I write my instructions on and I pack these lovely packages or the excellent 4 inch across mailing tubs using loads of crinkly white tissue paper.
I would love to order some ribbon for making bows when tying the rolled canvases printed with NewNeedlepoint.com but as it is, I tie the floss or yarn in these cute little bundles, I put a tapestry needle and some business cards (I have an excellent business card, want to see one?)
The design is actually a standard Vista Print design but the colors are my choice. I think it is terrific. Anyway, I put some of those and the instructions and Color Use Stitch Guide and the threads/yarns into this neat-O silver plastic handle bag, and roll the canvas (or ship flat if it is small) in lots and lots of this nice tissue paper.
I bought 50 pounds of *gift grade* tissue paper from Uline on it’s own roll and cutter stand, very cool indeed.
Anyway, I would have made a wonderful deptartment store gift wrapper because I like this packing up the kit almost as much as anything I do (weird isn’t it?).
But I am digressing (again). Today I got this terrific order, the biggest I ever got. Some fabulous person out there with fabulous taste bought one of my big kits and a Claire Sanchez tote bag. All Good.
So, I am packing this all up to ship tomorrow when I realize the payment had not posted to either PayPal or Google checkout. They are the two ways I can accept payment. My web site is not set up to directly accept credit or debit card payments.
It is not supposed to let it happen, customers are supposed to be directed to either PayPal or Google checkout.
This did not happen, the web site took the payment info. It is not supposed to.
I am freaked. I sent poor Zac The Tech a hysterical email (again) and will call the poor guy at 8am (PST) tomorrow.
Ok, so what else is wrong. You all, I am sure, have heard me blather on about the joint stitching project I am doing with Jane, the originator and authoress of the very good Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure Blog.
She is the Stitch Mistress or in terms of a Marx Brothers Movie, Groucho. I am the poor hapless stitcher in Marx-land, Margaret Dumont (classy but confused in a tiara).
After much discussion and then more, we agreed on 2 stitches to begin with and postponed talking about more for now.
I was supposed to stitch the Dragon first using a nice stitch called Dotted Swiss. It is a mathematical stitch, with counted rows and spaces, filled by another color. I was going to do the dragon green with gold *scales*.
I started with the head but I could not get the *counted* pattern to fit the small head and curving neck so I improvised.
I stitched random gold dots towards to top of the head and neck, then filled in with the green.
I think it looks awful. I used a bad word beginning with S and having 6 letters to describe how it looked to Jane.
So, I need to rip it out and re-think or re-count or something.
A not so good day, plus talked to several insurance agents today, one is bad enough, several is torture.
Ok, the good stuff. This won’t take long.
I listed the Beginners 16 Hearts needlepoint Kit today.
Using traditional heart colors, there are 4 pairs of colors, to use to do 4 hearts each = 16 hearts.
I listed another of Patt & Lee’s wonderful needlepoint canvases made into a kit. I called this one Patt’s Poppies. It is a color rich design using 12 different colors.
I stayed more or less close to the colors Patt used, with my usual variations. The biggest changes are the darkest maroon center dots are black for more drama and contrast and the background green is more olive and lighter in color.
OK, Needlepoint Now. Yes, the new owner/editor has greatly improved the look and content of the magazine but I hated (not disliked, hated) most of the designs featured in this issue.
I mean, the cover? Boo Kitty is hideous, not just ugly. Are we 12 years old, this is an kids design. The back cover? I did not admire Ann Winn’s *needlebooks* . “Ode to a Poppy* indeed.
And I am going to go with my history of saying what no one else will. Is Needlepoint Now a club? The same writers issue after issue after issue. And this is going to get me in trouble, I do not consider all of them to be *experts*.
I know there is a lot of fawning out there in the *needlepoint universe* over certain people and designers etc but not everybody (like me) thinks they are so terrific.
It would be lovely to see some different contributors and points of view in our only national Needlepoint publication besides the staid and stogy ANG Needlepointers.
Did anyone like “The Essence of Candy Corn”?
And while I am grateful to Jody Williamson-Valentine for her “beginning techniques” artcle which will come in handy as I begin to market more to beginners and needlepoint novices, does it belong here?
Janet Perry’s article (disclaimer, Janet is a friend) was useful, to a point, but most of us use the Ultra Fine Point Sharpies and they are not even mentioned.
It is like ignoring the 500 pound elephant in the room.
BTW, putting Jody’s ad on the same page as her article is obvious tit-for-tat even to asleep at the wheel me.
To end this pitiful blog, I have one more comment
ENOUGH WITH THE ORNAMENTS ALREADY! PLEASE!
Overthinking
I think I have been overthinking my blog. I have let the *habit* of writing it once a day lapse and started thinking too much about what I am going to write here and how.
I think this is a mistake, I am overthinking it.
It feels like (notice I avoided the word “think” again) I should just do it, launch into it, with a subject to discuss or not. So,
I have made some great progress in finishing my Pointed Curves Bargello sample to make it into a pillow as a sample of a finished Bargello for NewNeedlepoint.com
The Pointed Curves Pattern really shows nicely in the single color purple fill-in work.
What you can’t see from my picture is the incredible sheen I am getting from the laid out stitching of the single color Bargello using DMC #5 Perle Cotton floss
Keith has just done a Stitch Drawn re-do of the 25 Hearts Needlepoint canvas. The lines are indeed stitch to stitch, for all 25 of the hearts.
Stitches on an angle or the diagonal are much harder to Stitch Draw than straight line stitches. The 25 Hearts design is almost all curved lines. The only one that would have more of these lines than this would be the 64 Hearts canvas which is not currently for sale on NewNeedlepoint.com, although I still have it.
The one above is the new one.
This next one, below is the old one. The difference is clear to see but I don’t know if the blog picture will be big enough to show you the difference.
I am not sure yet how I am going to color the kit. This is a beginner’s kit so I probably will stay “traditional” for colors for hearts.
My recent experiences have shown me clearly that there is quite a market out there for beginner oriented needlepoint designs & kits.
It really is not that hard to begin someone stitching needlepoint. There are certain things to remember. Keep the design simple, no need to make it all complex with zillions of colors. Too confusing. Keep the mesh a reasonable size. 16 or 14 mesh is best, 18 mesh for a very small piece only. That is the other thing, not too big. A beginner will never finish a too big first needlepoint canvas. It will live in their closet for years as a failure and a barrier to learning more about needlepoint.
This next new canvas(es) are 2 slightly different versions of my Basic Classic Love Kanji Needlepoint Design.
The first, Keith tells me, is a tour de force of Stitch Drawing. It is a 4 X 6 inch Stitch & Frame Needlepoint Canvas.
Keith says this is true. pure Stitch Drawing. i can see it is beautifully done but those thick black lines and the solid black Kanji symbol are limiting, to say the least. They will both have to be done with very dark colors.
I told Keith it was too perfect, too pure and I needed it to be a big more *loosey goosey* with thinner lines. This next canvas is his (our) compromise.
To me, this is perfect. Then again, everyone has their own version of perfect. There are as many variations of “perfect” as there are of “imperfect”
(sorry, I was drifting again. Back on point now)
This design in the 4 X 6 inch size has, so far, been my most popular design. It is the first choice of anyone who offers to stitch me a sample and I have even sold a few (very few).
As you all know, Margaret from Oklahoma stitched me a lovely sample of this design.
It is at the framer’s now being matted to fit a 5 X 7 inch frame. It was drawn before I knew what size a 4 X 6 inch standard size picture frame really was (Surprise, Surprise!)
I am excited about a line of beginner canvases and kits. The wonderful woman I taught to needlepoint that afternoon has emailed me (from Dubai, where she lives most of the time, see…I do get around some despite appearances) that she is still stitching and still engrossed in it.
She has promised to send me a picture of the finished canvas. I enjoyed teaching her. I enjoyed sharing something I know how to do and love to do.
I don’t think I could or would want to be one of the *fancy stitch* complex canvas teachers they get at the various classes and seminars around the country (or the world).
What I like is teaching absolutely newbies. Showing them how to set that first stitch, basic tent (or continental) stitch and the simple mystery of basketweave.
I taught her how to end and start a thread without leaving a knot or bump and how to outline, which is harder then you think.
Combine that with some simple printable instructions from wiki-how/needlepoint and the good old ANG and Bob’s Your Uncle!
I am looking at a few new pictures for possible designs and have a few interesting canvas in my *pipeline* (ie: waiting for K to trace).
There is a great new Winston Churchill quote and a re-do of an old one. The Bette Davis “old age is not for sissies” with a flowering cactus is still waiting. I have a Nirvana Kanji and a few more waiting patiently on their rack. I , sadly, wait less patiently for them to get done.
These next few canvases would all be adapted to be Beginner Kits, so I have kept the design elements simple. The First is a Circle Graphic
But I am not sure, circles can be tricky to stitch and not right for an absolute beginner.
I like this Poinsetta, it would be a colorful and satisfying first project for someone but I am troubled by this design. It looks like it is out of porportion. Like the top has been squished down. I don’t know.
I know this Yellow flower would be nice.
Here’s an idea I am playing with. This could be for beginners in my version of it. I love the “Mondarian” like feel and colors of this design but do not care for the whole thing.
What I want is one segment of this canvas, enlarged. I cropped the photo down to about 150 X 150 pts, then enlarged it to 400 pts. It worked, kind of. The edges are a bit fuzzy, despite much sharpness adjustment, still the idea is there clear to see.
We are planning a smaller version of Lisianthus, with either a much smaller border or no border at all. Below is the original Lisianthus Canvas, which sold.
This is just in the “thinking about” stages at this point. Lisianthus is a very detailed design and will take a lot of time to do. I want to try to clear my “backlog” of canvases before I set this up.
I am interested in what you think. No border for Lisianthus, smaller, simpler border? Any ideas?
I’m back (again)
p.s. next blog is my take on the new issue of Needlepoint now. That should be a corker.
Happy Blog
I am still stitching, stitching, stitching. I have very little, of any interest to anyone, to say right now. When I stitch I am relaxed and at peace.
I have no current complaints, no mistakes to showcase, nothing of any interest to anyone (besides myself) right now. (yes, it is me, but me happy and at peace…however temporary it may be)
I sent off the Cubes Bargello with the Zig-Zag border to Dr. Denise this morning. She is going to stitch it for me as a Bargello sample.
As you can see, I got a little carried away stitching the *establishing* line. I think I did it this way because Dr. D is doing me such a huge favor, she has never done Bargello before, so she is learning as she goes.
I absolutely begged her to stitch a Bargello for me. She wanted to do the Love Kanji Version 4
It is funny, everybody, so far, who has offered to stitch a sample has picked one of the Love Kanji designs as their first choice.
It is easy to see why, they are small, and when stitched have a big impact. The beautiful classic design Love Kanji Margaret from Oklahoma stitched for me is off at the framers being matted to fit into a 5 X 7 inch frame
This is a picture of it before I blocked it. As you can see, Margaret’s superb stitching and tension make very little blocking adjustment necessary. She really did a beautiful job.
I began the Marilyn Monroe quote and dahlia canvas last night. I can see K did a blazing fast job on it, to get it to me in time for our trip. The flower is a bit lopsided on one side and the text is not lined up correctly.
It would not have *made the cut* for NewNeedlepoint.com but for me to stitch, making corrections as I go, it will do very nicely. I will have him even up the flower and I will set the text in line as I stitch it still……
From just the outlining I did last night, I think it will turn out to be a lovely flower.
So, it is a rainy dreary day today. The perfect day to spend in the “petting chair” stitching away, as happy as a pig in you know what (once I finish the obligatory intensive petting of Jack The Cat, of course).
This is contentment, work can wait.
An Amazing Day
Sorry I have been such a blog laggard. As most of us out-there obsessed needlepoiters know, I go through times where all I want to do is stitch, stitch, stitch. I watch movie after movie (a nice BBC miniseries is ideal) and stitch away.
One of the pleasures of having my own needlepoint business and this wonderful blog is that I can completely ignore it and you, when I get this way.
I got hung up in finishing my Pointed Curves Bargello sample to make it into a pillow.
After I finally got past the 7 or 10 major mistakes and re-starts that are fairly typical when you pick up a canvas you have not stitched for some time (9 months in this case).
And after vacuuming up the huge pile of cut threads under my chair (commonly known by Jack The Cat as ‘the petting chair”) and getting my required cat petting time taken care of, for now, I began to make progress.
This is (close to) where I began
I thought it would be a matter of a few hours to finish. 3 days later, this is where I am
I know it looks like the sides angle out. They don’t, this is an optical illusion. As you can see, I still have quite a bit of the solid purple Bargello stitch fill in to do, then the 2 rows of stitches all around the outside for finishing, or maybe 3 so I don’t lose the top peaks.
I chose the purple for the fill-in color, to bring it out in the pattern. It could have been any of these nice colors, this was my own personal choice.
I am also working on a sample of a Bargello Stitch Frame for inside a frame. I know, this sounds confusing. It sort of is.
This is the classic Zig-Zag Bargello stitch done in 2 colorways. Each has a mitered corner to show how it would look. it is sized to fit inside a 4 X 6 Inch picture frame.
My idea is, to put a small picture inside a larger picture frame, you customize the size of the *Bargello Frame* to the pictures exact size (or the exact size you want it to be). Then you stitch the Bargello frame to fit both the outside of the picture and the inside of the frame.
I plan to offer these custom sized to fit whatever picture and frame you want to use. I will draw the outline of the stitched area and the establishing line of the (simple) bargello stitch chosen. The area for stitching the Bargello requires a uncomplicated stitch, anything with too large a repeat would not suit.
I am probably asking for trouble with this, I can only hope I will not be asked to do any very complex math for these. I have zero math abilities. I can add, subtract & multiply without a calculator, that’s about it.
This is a a canvas I had Keith draw for me. I like this Marilyn Monroe quote and I love this picture of a Dahlia
Keith did this fast for me, as we were leaving for Savannah. I thought (imagined) I would stitch it on our trip. I forgot to take it with me. The lettering is not his best or straightest, I would reject this canvas for sale on NewNeedlepoint.com (whew, got the link in so Zac the Tech won’t lecture me) but since it is for me, I will correct as I go.
This is drawn on 14 mesh pale yellow/cream color Zweigart Canvas. I have not used this color much yet but I think I will, it came out very nicely. Plus, 14 mesh is a pleasure for an impatient stitcher like me, it works up so quickly.
We have a new version of the Art Deco Poppies canvas.
This one is a funny story. I had removed it from sale on nn.com, I posted it here as an example of a canvas no one seemed to be interested in.
One of my blog readers saw it here and asked to buy it. I was amazed and pleased and have re-thought the canvas. It is a smaller size, beautifully stitch drawn on 14 mesh canvas. I think I will sell it as canvas alone of custom color choice. The lady who bought it wanted only the canvas.
I hope she sends me a picture of it when it is stitched.
In fact, I hope everyone does, so I can post them here and begin a album page on this blog.
Now, for the amazing earth shaking (ok, to me) news.
Lately I have been selling kits to people who do not know how to needlepoint. These are people I encounter here or there and being (as you can imagine) something of a blabbermouth when I let myself/find the time to leave the house for the important chores of dry cleaners or grocery store. People often ask what I do, I tell them, they express interest, they often ask is it easy to learn.
So, last week I taught someone the rudiments of needlepoint. I showed her tent stitch, basketweave stitch. How to begin your very first stitch and how to end & begin neatly and with no knots for each re-thread of your needle.
I printed up a bunch of stuff from wiki-how and sold her one of my kits. It was one I had never yet posted on NewNeedlepoint.com. In fact, I do not even have a picture of it. It is a close-up of the head of an Iris, done on 18 mesh canvas. It could have been done as a very complex piece with lots of shading and detail or a simple one with just outlining and simple stitch fill in for a beginner. It was not an overwhelming design, unless you chose to make it so.
I showed her how to outline, it took awhile for her to understand the stitches all have to go in the same direction, even if the outline lines don’t but she got it.
I let her pick her own colors. I would not have picked them myself but she loved them and was happy.
Then today I sold 4 kits to a lady I know who wanted them for her 8 year old grandaughter who was ready to graduate from plastic canvas stitching to real needlepoint.
She bought them ranging from the most simple of my designs, The Love Kanji
The next one was Patt & Lee’s Aztec Cat. That would be a little harder for the granddaughter’s 2nd project.
The kit had been assembled with Paternayan Wool but I thought a beginner would find the cotton, which needs no stranding, easier so I replaced the wool with DMC #5 Perle Cotton floss.
Finally she bought both Mr. Mouse and Mrs. Mouse. One for her granddaughter to stitch for herself, as she gets better and one to stitch for her grandmother.
So I never did get to list Both the Mr & Mrs Mouse kits, after all.
It is odd that, of the 5 kits I have sold to people recently, 3 of them were ones I had not listed yet.
It makes me wonder, should I take all the kits and canvases I have listed off nn.com and just list the ones I have not listed yet…and see what happens?
Then again, my poor website would be practically empty, I have few *unlisted* ones left.
Maybe I should have K draw a bunch and not list them.
I am so confused.
