WOW and then some
Friday February 19th 2010, 3:13 pm
Filed under:
Bargello NP Look what Margaret, my friend, fellow stitcher and fellow needlepoint blogger has done. Below is Margaret’s picture from her blog. She was waiting to send it until I was moved & settled.
She also says some very nice things about me in her latest blog at
http://cranecottage.com/stitchingblog/
I am amazed, I have to admit, when I assembled this I had no idea it would be so spectacular. Much of that goes to Margaret and her skill as a stitcher.
She had never stitched a Bargello before. I sent her a 14 mesh canvas with an *establishing line* stitched on it, which also gave her the width dimenions. I sent her a graph of the pattern which I did with my wonderful new MacStitch program.
I sent her the threads, told her what order to use them (that was easy) and sent her one of my silly little Bargello Beginner pamphlets that I wrote.
This is what she did with it.
This is an adaptation of Elsa Williams Adaptation of the classic Aurora Borealis Bargello design. I found this in my copy of the book “Bargello by Elsa Williams” on (another link coming up) NewNeedlepoint.com.
I have this book in both Gift Quality and a more used copy for much less money
I have to say here (and not for the first time) that I owe more than I can say to the
wonderful people who stitch for me. Margaret & Dr. Denise are gifts from the universe to me, as far as I am concerned.
I am reading away on the D. Bonavia Hunt 1913 Pride & Prejudice sequel, The Shades of Pemberly. I am enjoying it. It comes closer to Jane Austen’s tone and outlook than any of the others I ever read. Still, sort of close is not Jane Austen.
I am home finally. The landscapers/gardeners are working as we speak, clearing out the massive overgrown shrubs (that my tenants did not prune or take care of and the guy I hired to keep them pruned and cared for obviously did not do anything).
In Florida, where most everything grows so fast, the trick is to keep stuff pruned to the size that is best for the landscape. If you let it go you have a messy jungle, which is what I came home to.
They removed 2 trees, a massively overgrown bouganvilla vine, maybe 10 foxtail ferns that had grown out of control and un-numbered ornamental grasses that used to be used as screen for the utility box and 2 air conditioning units around the house.
In the back we lost the large white bird of paradise and all the Halconias to the cold. I replaced them with a palm that had grown to big for inside the pool patio and 2 red leaf banana trees.
This is the last of the undone, out of control messes associated with this move.
We have covered many of the holes in the walls with our pictures. The others will be filled when K has time.
The carpets are cleaned and the books and DVD arranged as they should be (in perfect marianne order, of course).
We saved the horribly overgrown yellow standard hibiscus in the front and added some more smaller ones around the utility box in the front. We also did a massive prune on the amazing deep pink Bouganvilla tree next to the bench in front.
Keith hacked it and got back it’s lovely shape, leaning over the bench. I will continue to train it that way. It still has frost damage, that will be pruned off slowly
The small plants around the rock are Begonia. The small shrubs around the triple Foxtail Palm tree are azaleas. There is an amazing red cactus next to the Mahogany tree and the spiky plants are Agave.
The entrance to the house had the huge overgrown hibiscus plus another huge overgrown tree, that used to be a small ornamental. They both had the walkway almost blocked.
I pruned down the Dracena, removed the 2nd tree and replaced it with an amazing pale pink Bouganvilla. It is trained around a piece of curved steel pipe. I will have to keep it well pruned to keep it’s shape. I did not really want another Bouganvilla but I fell in love with this at the nursery. I am a fool for flowers.
I added a Bromeliad and planted the triple Pony Tail palm next to it.
The Pony Tail has been in a huge pot but it overwhelmed everything else so we planted it.
The birds were here when we bought the house, They left us the receipt from when they had been bought, they were pretty expensive. I would not have bought them myself but they are here so I use them.
They are really fountains, if I wanted to do a “water feature” in the landscape, they could be hooked up to spout water.
We saved the roots and a few feet of branches of the yellow Bouganvilla vine that had overgrown to the right of the garage door. These nice guys planted it in a big pot on the patio for me. I am going to try to train it into a shape.
We planted a topiary ornamental upright shrub there instead and some Florida hardy shrub roses.
These are the nicest guys working here, I had to stop them from doing everything for me. I insisted I could do some of the pruning myself. I am not sure they believed me until they saw me do it.
So, I am finally home. Yes, I know I am crazy, Yes, I know I am obsessive and a fuss-budget and a pain in the ass.
But I still maintain it is us pains in the ass who make beautiful things. Ok, maybe not just us but still……
It feels like home again, all my *ducks* are in a nice row and I can relax.
Fuzzy Ugg Slippers
Tuesday January 12th 2010, 10:03 pm
Filed under:
Bargello NP I live in South Florida, for the last week or so I have been shufffling around in warm fuzzy Ugg slippers. It is cold here. Jack The Cat is mad at us, he figures this cold is our fault. He wakes me up late at night to let him in the bed, where it is warm. He likes to be between the sheet & the quilt so it takes some maneuvering to get him in. He is not particularly nice about this.
I realized I have not shown you an update of the current Bargello pattern I am working on in a long time.
This is the cubes pattern. As you can see I am inside my guidelines at the top and bottom and outside them on the sides. The first *draft* of any Bargello pattern is where you figure the final size and shape. Each pattern has it’s own “logic” and natural stopping points.
I begin a new Bargello at the exact center of the canvas. The I work to one side, find the point where I should stop in relation to my desired size and the guidelines I drew.
Then I do the exact same thing on the other side. After that I work down (or up) and again figure out the number of cubes for the size and balance of the pattern. Then again I copy this going the other way.
Each Bargello pattern will, in the end, set itself up differently with different counts.
As you can see from my canvas, there are always adjustments to be made.
See the finished size right side? When I do the left side I will expand the pattern a bit and expand the top stitching to make it all fit.
Once I have done this, established the counts for the pattern chart, this does not have to be done again for this exact pattern.
So, really a Bargello dictates what actual size it will be, in the end. The guidelines really are just a reminder and a suggestion for the size and shape of the finished piece.
The cubes pattern stitches up very quickly, surprisingly so. I have no idea why but it does seem to when I actually stitch it.
The time I am taking finishing this is not a reflection of how hard this pattern is or how long it takes to stitch it. It is me. I have been lazy and more interested in reading in my warm bed than sitting up and watching a move and stitching.
Now, if I had a fireplace, like we always did when we lived up north, I would sit next to it and stitch but here in Florida there are few fireplaces. In this cold snap, I want to be under a pile of quilts and blankets with a warm (but decidedly not happy) cat snuggled up to me between the sheet and the quilt and a snoring husband.
Isn’t that a cozy picture?
I seem to be in a reading rut, a very pleasant and happy reading rut but still a rut. I am alternating re-re-reading my Georgette Heyer books with my Barbara Pym books. I tired slipping a Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell’s more psychological minded alter ego) in there but it did not take.
I could maybe manage to insert a Faye Weldon Novel, then again maybe not.
The packing is going well, so far my breakage report is 3. In adition to the 2 vases I have also broken a nice Seiko crystal bedside clock.
I broke nothing (nada) packing last time. Clearly this time is different. It is an odd feeling, with just the very first *layer* of the house packed. The stuff we do not use or need every week is first.
Next will be the stuff we do not use everyday then finally the stuff we do use every day until we are done.
I have moved so often that I have some systems.
I leave out a duffel bag, the morning of the move I put the sheets, blankets & pillows from the bed in there. Then I can easily find the stuff to make up the bed for sleeping the first night in the new house. I also pack us a couple of overnight bags, so we do not have to scratch through boxes to find the things we will need right away.
Several years ago, I unpacked and arranged my entire house in 3 days, after the move. I can’t and won’t do anything like that again. It was what has to be called a Herculean labor.
I am almost done putting the new stuff on NewNeedlepoint.com. Then I will concentrate fully on the move.
I listed the Emperor & Empress today both as kits or canvas alone. I think they are terrific.
Yes!
After all my blather and fuss, I have re-opened the NewNeedlepoint.com Bargello Category.
There is no more Custom Color-Choice in your choice of sizes and materials, that was a dismal failure. Now the Bargello you see is what you order. The only variable is that the samples shown are slightly smaller then the kit canvases.
I will still include a graph chart of the stitch and detailed directions specific to that pattern. The Waves Bargello Pattern with the TrianglePoint Border is suitable for a novice needlepointer, not a true beginner but you do not need much experience to be able to successfully stitch this.
I have 3 Bargello designs listed now. There will be more as fast as I can stitch them.
I am working on A Ripple Pattern American Flag.
The American Flag Bargello with this background is not a beginner level kit but I am thinking of offering a kit with the same flag but a different background stitch for beginners, with complete beginner’s instructions.
I wonder if Beginners are interested in Bargello Needlepoint?
Also this variation on the classic Cubes pattern
Both these pictures were taken a few minutes ago, at night under lights, so the Perle cotton floss looks very shiny, much more so than it really is. Try to ignore that. There are 4 colors in each cube, ranging from gold to yellow to white with a purple grid.
Right now I am fooling around with a border treatment of reversed stripes inside the incomplete cubes at the border.
I am not sure I like it. I might extend the borders to be all complete cubes with filler in the smaller open spaces and no border.
Anyone out there with an opinion, I would love to hear it (soon, before I stitch much more).
My Rare & Hard-To-Find Book Category has already begun to expand out of control. I keep finding more & more interesting books and buying them.
I am learning from these books, even as I look over them while listing them. So far I have kept 3.
The Book of Needlepoint Stitches by Susan Higgenson published in England in 1989 and full of interesting and unusual stitches plus the perfect size to slip into my (Claire Sanchez) Needlepoint Tote Bag and take with me everywhere. (nice self-plug that).
I really do like these English Needlepoint books.
I am keeping Maggie Wall’s Creative Needlepoint Borders (doh, no brainer, that one)
Needlepoint by Design by Maggie Lane, which is oriental designs for needlepoint.
I am greedily eyeing Hope Hanely’s ABCs of Needlepoint and thinking about de-listing it. I want it for ideas to add to my own Beginner’s Manual. Maybe I will read it fast and keep it listed.
I have 9 more to list and 20 more ordered. I found an extremely rare and quite expensive copy of The Illustrated History of Needlework Tools by Gay Ann Rogers. It cost me a lot, it will cost you even more (my idea of a joke, and a pretty good one too).
Now it is the Name Dropping segment of my blog. Janet Perry has bought 4 of my books. 3 of them before I could even list them on NewNeedlepoint.com, just from my list here.
She says these are books even she does not have (and she has a huge library of Needlepoint Books). This concludes the Name Dropping segment of tonight’s blog.
I know I have not been talking about my Jane Austen re-reading project much in the last few days. I was all wrapped up in Thanksgiving and Bargello but it is still going on.
I have finished Emma. One of the things I am looking for in this re-reading, besides happily visiting Jane Austen’s wonderful writing, is how close or far the movie adaptations are to the books.
So far, the wonderful and critically acclaimed Sense & Sensibility, directed by Ang Lee and with a great script by Emma Thompson, has veered the farthest but in a good way.
The movie made from Mansfield Park was faithful to the book in some ways and very different in others. It introduced modern issues and feelings to the story, not all that successfully. Mansfield Park was the hardest of the books to read, so far.
Pride & Prejudice is pretty much exempt from this. There are version & versions of it out there in film but the A & E mini-series blows them all out of the water. Even if Jennifer Ehle does not look as I imagine Elizabeth Bennet to look, it is a complete and faithful version.
Emma is difficult for me for different reasons. The book is charming, a lovely story and a fine read. Much more is made of Jane Fairfax then the stick figure she seems to be in the movie but the movie is forever tainted for me because it stars Gwyneth Paltrow. She is an actress I do not enjoy watching (or hearing).
Her mother Bythe Danner is a fine actress and clearly a classy lady. Her work in The Great Santini with Robert Duvall and 1985′s Guilty Conscience with Anthony Hopkins was terrific. If you haven’t seen Guilty Conscience yet, I recommend it.
Anyway, naming her child *Apple* is as bad as back in the 1960′s when Grace Slick & Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane named their son *America* (later changed to a normal name). It is really quite self-centered and arrogant, and this is how she seems to be, to me, when ever I read anything she has said.
Something about her and her nasal whiny voice puts me off and it put me off the movie Emma, which is a shame since in other ways it very is a good movie and quite true to the novel.
Next up is Persuasion, which is the last novel and my favorite of the movies. Something about Anne Elliot touches me. I don’t remember the book, I am not sure I ever read it.
I have taken a short break and just finished reading The Confessions of Fitzwilliam Darcy. It is one of the many Pride & Prejudice “sequel” books. I found it for a buck in the bin at Books-a-Million.
It was really fun to read. The author, Mary Street, did a fine job looking at the story from Mr. Darcy’s point of view. I have only read a few of these knockoffs. This one might be the best followed by Juliette Shapiro’s Excessively Diverted. There is even a soft-porn sequel to Pride & Prejudice out there. I am grateful to have forgotten it’s name.
I have not read the Zombies books (and I won’t, either).
We watched Angels and Demons last weekend. The follow up (or prequel, I am not sure) to The Da Vinci Code. It was hard to follow but at least Tom Hanks hair was normal.
Tomorrow I list the new, newly drawn and Hand Painted Roses Collage canvas & kit. I think Keith outdid himself here.
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all over the place
I have a lot of ground to cover in this blog, let’s get into it.
I was not able to manage a TrianglePoint mitred corner for the Waves Bargello. Below is how I *fudged* the corners originally.
It looked bad, real cheesy. So this is what I came up with. It is a compromise but I think it looks ok, a lot better then the other way anyway.
Now I have the 3 designs, I am ready to re-open the Bargello Category. They are the Waves above. This next one, Twin Peaks.
And this wonderful Florentine Embroidery Bargello in wool stitched by Dr. Denise.
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I will be listing them in the next few days.
I am working on 2 more Bargellos. The large American Flag Ripple Bargello with a wonderful sky pattern and a Cubes Pattern Bargello in purple, gold and yellows. I will post that here when I have a bit more of it done.
Keith has finished hand painting the Roses Collage. This is a new, stitch drawn, stitch painted version of my roses collage. I think it is terrific.
There has been some interest in the books I will be listing. I have the first shipment listed but more have arrived. I have a lot more to do. Clearly I will not get to them for a few days now (at least) so I thought I would list them here.
This is almost all of them, I am, again, listing them in no order at all. Just the order I have them piled in.
- Carolyn Ambuter’s Complete Book of Needlepoint. 1972 in a ring binder format
- Needlepoint in America by Hope Hanley 1969 hardbound
- The New York Times Book of Needlepoint 1973 by Elaine Slater hardbound
- Patterns for Needlepoint by Hope Hanley 1978 hardbound
- The A B Cs of Needlepoint by Hope Hanley 1973 small hardbound
- The Bargello Book by Frances Salter 1993 small hardbound
- The Book of Needlepoint Stitches by Susan Higgenson 1989 small hardbound from England
- Needlepoint Stitchery by Margaret Boyles 1974 hardbound
- Treasures of Tutankhamun in Needlepoint by Robert Horace Ross 1978 large paperback
- In Splendid Detail by Catherine Reurs 1991 full color hardbound
- Sylvia Sidney’s Needlepoint Book 1968 hardbound
- Needlery by Glenora Smith 1978 hardbound
- The Dictionary of Canvas Work Stitches by Mary Rhodes 1980 hardbound
- Japanese Motifs for Needlepoint by Sally Nicoletti 1981 hardbound
- Glorious Needlepoint by Kaffe Fassett 1987 First Edition in good condition, hardbound
- Trianglepoint by Sherlee Lantz 1978 hardbound
- Bargello and Related Stitchery by Charles Barnes & David P. Blake 1971 hardbound
- Tribal Designs for Needlepoint by Gay Ann Rogers , Eskimo, Polynesian & Indian art 1977 large paperback
- Oriental Designs in Needlepoint by Eva Brent 1979 hardbound
- A Needlepoint Gallery of Patterns From The Past by Phyllis Kluger 1975 First Edition hardbound
- Florentine Canvaswork by Dorothy Phelan 1991 Published in England hardbound
- Needlepoint Bargello by Dorothy Kaestner 1974 hardbound
- Needlepoint Designs From Asia by Gay Ann Rogers Persia, India, Korea, China & Japan 1983 large paperback
- Wildlife in Needlepoint by Stella Edwards 1992 published in England
Plus the 2 I am on the fence about keeping
Needlepoint By Design, Variations on Chinese Themes 1970 hardbound. Maggie Lane’s name has popped up in so many acknowledgements, thanks and attributions from so many authors, I am curious about her book.
Creative Needlepoint Borders by Maggie Wall 1977. I always need borders.
This is interesting. We went to a major chain bookstore over the weekend, Books-a-Million. It has been years since I was in a real bookstore. I am a long-time amazon.com buyer.
The bookstore was not as I remembered them, they sell so many other things now besides books.
I went looking for Needlepoint Books (of course). There was a huge area for *crafts* books. They had everything, quilts, beading, crochet, knitting, scrapbooking, cross-stitch and more, more, more.
There was even an area on a bottom shelf marked “needlepoint” but there were no Needlepoint Books. None, Zero.
I guess maybe my little hard-to-find needlepoint book store on NewNeedlepoint.com was not such a bad idea after all.
I wonder when & why
I am going to talk about something very interesting I have discovered from going over and getting the rest of these books ready for listing on NewNeedlepoint.com.
But first I want to show you a Bargello I am working on. This is, oddly enough, something a relative beginner could stitch. The two basic Bargello patterns in it are not that difficult. The Ripple stitch is very easy although you have to keep the count correct. The sky stitch does not have a name. It is initially somewhat difficult but once you have it down, it gets right along.
The picture below is a close-up of the background stitch
There will be stars in the blue area of the flag when the rest of it is done.
I had stitched a sunburst in the upper left hand corner but that did not look right, so I took it out. It has been suggested to me that I stitch a star somewhere in the sky and I might. Then again it might look redundant with the stars on the flag. We shall see how this develops as I stitch.
Very often with these Bargellos, I design as I go, See what works and what doesn’t.
I have nothing to show you yet for the re-stitch of the corners of the Wave Bargello with the TrianglePoint borders. I have un-stitched all 4 corners and I am thinking about it (yes, that is another way of saying I am procrastinating).
I am not, generally, a procrastinator. I am having trouble *seeing* it in my mind’s eye. That is not good. I need to do this, stop fusting around and do it. (someone please kick me).
Now, the books. In preparing these books to sell I have discovered that most of them, even the very fancy design books, use just tent or basketweave stitch for the needlepoint designs they show.
I know the many wonderful decorative stitches have been around for some time now but it doesn’t seem as if they were in general use until recently.
Look at this. This is a book of very advanced needlepoint patterns based on the treasures from King Tut’s tomb. The stitching on the cover of the book is all plain stitch. This book was published in 1978.
In Hope Hanley’s 1976 book on Patterns for Needlepoint all these pillows on the cover are done in plain stitch as well.
In Catherine Reurs 1991 book, In Splendid Detail, which is more an inspiration/picture book than a needlepoint design book although there are charts for some of the designs in the back of the book, all the canvases shown are done this way. I haven’t found a decorative stitch yet, in 103 pages.
In Michele Weal’s 1975 Texture and Color in Needlepoint I do find some interesting stitches. They are clearly used to create texture but the picture on her cover is all plain stitch.
And finally, the Rare and much prized Beth Russell books use, as far as I can tell anyway, all plain stitch.
But then there is always an exception. I am not surprised to find that it is Margaret Boyles, who is my favorite and most referenced Needlepoint Teacher & Writer. This is her book from 1974 and the only of her books not about Bargello (that I have found, so far) Needlepoint Stitchery.
Look at the cover, it shows the same piece stitched both with both plain and decorative stitch.
It is interesting that one of the earliest of the books I have collected for sale, so far, is this one.
I wonder when and why popular Needlepoint turned this corner and became more about the stitches used than just the *painting with thread or yarn* it clearly used to be.
To take this one step further. In one of my favorite old movies, The Heiress starring Olivia DeHaviland, Montgomery Clift and Ralph Richardson, needlepoint (or embroidery as it is called but it is clearly Needlepoint worked on a huge frame and stitched solid in tent and basketweave stitches with wool or silk) is a large part of the story.
When the jilted Heiress finally gets her revenge, she keeps stitching as it plays out, saying “she is almost done now”. Then at the moment of her revenge, she snips off the last thread and says ” I will never do another”.
I love this movie but I would not give up needlepoint just because I got a long overdue revenge on a heartless man.
My parting shot today is this:
* Revenge is a Dish Best Eaten Cold*
Thanksgiving& Elsa Williams
I hope everyone is having a nice Thanksgiving day (all 3 of you, my loyal readers). I am at my parents and my son, the chef, is cooking up a storm.
The Chanterelle mushrooms he wanted to add to the stuffing were vetoed by my Okie husband, the original meat n’ taters guy. Son also baked a totally from scratch apple pie.
I dn’t think I ever, in my whole long life, have made a pie crust from scratch. Of course, this is all Betty Crocker’s fault.
When I was listing a copy of Elsa William’s classic Bargello Needlepoint book, subtitled Florentine Canvas Work, I got to thinking about Elsa Williams.
She has become maybe the best known name in not only needlepoint but needlework of many kinds.
The list of products and canvases & kits that bear her name is almost endless. I wondered who she was.
Elsa Williams was surprisingly hard to research. Every search brought up her products, products, products.
As you might have guess by now, I do not give up easily so….I kept researching her.
Unfortunately, I am at my folks house with my tiny little travel mac and all my research is on my other (real) computer. Go figure. So here I go again, re-doing it.
The Elsa Williams School of Needlework used to be housed in Homer House in West Townsend, MA.
Oddly enough, I know West Townsend well. We lived not too far from there for many years, when we lived in Massachusetts (you would know I am a MA native because I can spell it). We had friends in Townsend (not good friends but friends) and my niece lives there now.
Without knowing it, I have been to the old Elsa Williams warehouse. It now houses the Hobart Antiques Mall. I have an extraordinary deep purple carnival glass vase in a fluted ripple pattern I bought there, it is a lovely thing.
Elsa Williams bought the old Homer House, which had also previously been the old Ronchen Inn, in 1971 and restored it. She then opened the Elsa Williams School of Needlework there.
Elsa Williams was born in 1912, she was a talented needle artist and a keen businesswoman.
She established Needlecraft House, The Williams Manufacturing Co. and the Elsa Williams School of Needlework, all in West Townsend, MA.
Local women were employed to produce needlepoint & crewel kits for her nationwide wholesale, mail order and local retail business.
The school was closed in the early 1980′s when Mrs Williams retired and sold her company to Johnson Creative Arts, which is still going strong in Townsend as JCA Co, As well the Elsa Williams products, they sell the wonderful Paternayan Persian Needlepoint Wool I use on NewNeedlepoint.com (had to get at least one link in here)
I learned that on completion of courses at the school students were given a beautiful Sterling Silver & Emerald Thimble in a Velvet Presentation Bags. I understand these thimbles are fairly rare now.
In searching the web I found that many of today’s *needlepoint experts* are graduates of the Elsa Williams School.
It was Elsa Williams mission to bring the Art of Needlepoint to Townsend.
It seems that she did more than that, she made needlepoint available & accessible to everyone.
I was completely unable to find any further information on Elsa Williams.
I can tell you, that the Bargello Book she published in 1967 is still *current* . The colors and the designs seem fresh and modern.
Many of the other older Bargello and Needlepoint books I have, while useful and wonderful, sometimes the colors used in them can seem dated. These do not, not all all.
This only downside to this book is there are no graphs, but oddly enough, the stitching is so precise and the pictures are taken so close-up, that I have stitched a few of these patterns without a graph.
Anyway, it interests me there is not more Elsa Williams info out there, I thought there would be.
So, everybody enjoy this wonderful day. I am thankful for many things (MANY) including this blog. I still can’t believe *they* let me do this.
me, again
Monday November 23rd 2009, 2:27 pm
Filed under:
Bargello NP Sorry, I know this is a lot of me blogging. I have mostly good stuff and 1 not so good (Ok, bad) needlepoint piece of news.
The good stuff. My son just sent me the first pictures of his GingerBread House version of The Historic Old North Church in Boston.
My son is a line chef at Legal Sea Foods in Boston, at the LTK Test Kitchen (get it. LTK, legal test kitchen haha). He is also a CIA (Culinary Institute not spy agency) trained Pastry Chef. He mostly does the culinary at work but they also use him for stuff like this and *the desert of the week*.
I think this is incredible
and another view
Now, the bad news. I have decided to delay opening the Bargello Category and re-do the corners of the Waves Bargello with the TrianglePoint Border.
While I do have an almost infinite ability to delude myself and am a solid believer in denial, I can’t kid myself that my cheap trick doing the corners of this TrainglePoint border in plain stitch do not look lousy.
Not don’t look OK, they look crummy.
So, I will pull the corners out (no easy trick with plain stitch with double strand #5 cotton on 16 mesh) and re-stitch them as mitred triangle point corners on the border.
It must be possible to do.
Anyone who has the TrianglePoint book who knows where in this book she discusses how to mitre corners, PLEASE send me the page number.
m@newneedlepoint.com. I might be holding my breath while waiting, I am that desperate.
Ok, that’s all for now. Think I am done yet? I hope you know because I sure don’t.
Bargello, Books & Dr. D.
Dr Denise is a lady I met through my blog. She emailed me and offered to stitch some samples for me.
It took me a few minutes to understand, this was an amazing offer and if I had thought to wish for something, this is what I would have wished for.
I begged her to stitch a Bargello for me but she had never done one before. So, I wrote out my first ever instructions for Bargello, set up a canvas for her and sent it along.
She stitched this, it is not perfect but it is pretty darn good for a total Bargello newbie.
I thought it might be a good idea to show you what I do when I send someone a Bargello canvas to be stitched (be it customer or volunteer stitcher).
Of course, the edges of the canvas are finished. I send along a basic Bargello primer I wrote that includes the basics of Bargello, the basic stitch and the counts.
Then I stitch the *establishing line* on the canvas.
This is pretty much the *heart* of the design. Then the stitcher can follow it, going up and down from the center. The establishing line (and most any Bargello) is begun in the center of the canvas.
The lines drawn on the edges are just really guide lines, they are not exactly where the stitching stops. The stitching stops, as close to the line as it can, so the pattern *matches* on each end.
Then I include some Bargello instruction web sites addresses.
As you can see, by doing this I can teach anyone to stitch Bargello.
It is important, as well, to not make the pattern too complex, until the stitcher is more experienced and comfortable .
Anyway, I sent Dr. D another pattern, this one a Florentine Embroidery pattern, it has several different names. I have been calling it Florentine Scallop.
Florentine Embroidery is just Bargello with 2 counts in the design, not just 5/3.
I got several emails from Dr. D saying it was not going well. I even offered to send her another one to try. She said she would keep going.
She said she did not like stitching with the wool. Maybe not but look at what she produced.
It is not perfect but I think she has done an incredible job. Remember this is the 2nd Bargello she has ever stitched.
The design colors are dark periwinkle blue, lighter periwinkle blue, olive green, peach and white.
I am not sure the colors show well in this picture. I took it with the camera’s flash. I need to set up the professional big deal lights and take a better picture.
This is a close up of one corner of this canvas. I took this right after she sent it. I had not yet blocked it.
It is now.
With the addition of this one and my 2, I now have 3 reasonable samples. I am re-opening the Bargello Category on NewNeedlepoint.com right after I get back from Thanksgiving.
I am working on 2 more Bargellos. I am doing an American Flag in Ripple Stitch. The movement is great, with this stitch. The flag part is done, I will take a picture of it tomorrow.
It is stitched on a bigger , 14 mesh canvas using Paternayan wools.
I am going to do a sunburst design in the empty upper left hand corner, to represent the sun and then the rest of the background in an interesting Bargello stitch that I hope will represent the sky.
I also began a Cubes pattern Bargello tonight. I am stitching it on 18 mesh and using the #8 Perle Cotton floss, doubled.
It is going well. I am doing the “framework” in medium deep purple. The cubes will be in graduationg colors, gold to dark yellow to light yellow to white.
I wanted to stitch it so the cubes would radiate out from the center of the framework but the thread counts don’t work, so I will have to do it “regular”.
BTW, the establishing line I showed you is my own adaptation of the Aurora Borealis Bargellp Pattern. I have some software now that lets me design Bargello patterns and graph them out using the actual colors of DMC cotton floss.
This adaptation is my first design. I am sending this one to Margaret in Oklahoma. She is the nice lady who stitched the Stitch & Frame Love Kanji canvas for me.
All of a sudden it is coming together.
I have all these great hand painted canvases by other designers for sale, We have the first of our own design hand painted canvas & kit in color listed and another one in process.
I received the first shipment of books yesterday, so I will open the Rare & Hard-To-Find Books Category maybe as soon as tomorrow.
The books are ok, some of them are quite good, some are just OK. I continue to be amazed by what these used book sellers consider a *good* or a *very good* book.
One of the books I received, that they described as “excellent copy, very good”, was filled with mold.
I did not want to even keep it in the house, in case the book mold is infectious (it could be!)
Anyway, they refunded my money for it and told me throw it away, which I did.
Too bad too, it was the Carol Cheney Rome Letters & Numbers book. I will try to get another copy of that.
Other then the filth and mold, it looked like a interesting book.
I finished Mansfield Park a few nights ago. The ending came as a surprise to me. Yes, I knew Mr. Tilney would arrive at Catherine Morland’s home in Fullerton and propose. What I did not know (or remember) is why, according to the author, he came to fall in love with Miss Morland.
He came to be in love with her because he was aware that he had made her in love with him, by his father’s express orders.
Having done that, he did not think it was ethical of him to draw back, not kind.
But also, the force and the attraction of her love for him, caused his love for her to grow.
it was like (of course Miss Austen did not say it this way) her increasing love for Henry Tilney sparked his love for her.
The is a power and a strength to knowing someone is madly in love with you. It creates almost an obligation, almost . Also it is safer to fall in love with someone you know loves you.
Too bad, in real life, love is not nearly so rational.
Keith and I watched the original Wizard of Oz tonight. They have been advertising it all week on the cable channels but we could not handle it with a commercial break for 6 minutes every 10 minutes (plus the cable channels endless self promotion).
Then we saw it was also on pay-per-view, so we did.
It was fun, I had forgotte what a great movie it is. The young Judy Garland is luminous and her voice is extraordinary. The Wicked Witch is terrific, as is Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion.
I sat there stitching and signing along “we’re off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz” I know all the words and Keith didn’t even laugh at me (much, he just grinned).
It was a fun evening.
So, stay *tuned*. Stuff is happening now.
Bargello & Books with Food
I don’t know why it keep happening. Every time I go to show a picture of my completely finished Twin Peaks Bargello sample. I can’t find the picture on my computer.
This has happened 3 times so far. I know I have taken the pictures, edited them and then *poof* they disappear and I end up showing you that same, sad picture where the Gobelin Stitch border is almost finished.
Well, this time I did not let the picture off my desktop. I did not file it, move it or do anything with it.
This is the finished, blocked and ready Twin Peaks Bargello. This pattern in these colors will be listed in my NEW Bargello Category.
The only difference between the kit you will be ordering and this sample is the size. This is 10 X 7.5 inches. The kit will be 10 X 10 inches.
Still, you can see exactly how it will look when it is stitched. I am listing this kit in these colors however, on request, I will switch colors but that is by specific request, only.
The second one, the Waves Pattern with the TrianglePoint border is drying out on my blocking board.
This is my first attempt at my 3rd Bargello project. I assume you know that these Bargello designs and combinations do not just *spring* into being. They are mostly the result of trial & lots of error.
Sometimes it does just “come together” (with apologies to John Lennon) but that is rare.
My project is an American Flag done with Ripple Stitch Bargello on colored Zweigart canvas.
First up, I kept messing up the count on my establishing line. Keith & I were watching a movie and I would get engrossed and miss my count. After 3 times pulling out as much a 2 whole rows I paid attention long enough to get it established with the right count.
Then I began stitching.
I got this far when I realized it was not going to be tall enough.
The width is good, with 3 full ripple sequences but the height is not enough. This is as tall as the flag would be, as it is now even though it is not finished.
It does not look right. I am also not sure I like the beige canvas for this design either. The 14 mesh is OK, a smaller mesh would not have enough *presence* for this design.
So, I began again, this time I will double each color row, 2 red, 2 white etc. and 14 blue, not seven.
I am doing it this time on light blue Zweigart 14 mesh canvas. It should work up fast. I did all of the Beige canvas one in about 4 hours.
I will have a blank area is the top left hand part of the canvas, I am thinking about what to put there. Any ideas anyone?
If this works out, I will re-open the Bargello category early next week with 3 designs.
Next after that will be a cubes pattern done in a sunburst, not sure what border yet…still thinking about it. I have been looking at a book called Bargello Borders by Nancy Hall & Jean Riley.
It was published in 1974 and the colors reflect that. This book is interesting but limited. It is, in essence, a “one trick pony”. All the designs are some version of a braid or line border, however complex, on either a Bargello Stitch or Plain Stitch background.
Still, within it’s limitations, there are a few nice ideas. I was very disappointed when I received this book, I had hoped for more varied ideas but it has “grown” on me.
I looked for a more comprehensive Bargello & Needlepoint Border book for my new NewNeedlepoint.com Rare & Hard-To-Find Books Category (Grand Opening Soon, I am waiting for my orders to arrive)
I have been asked for a complete list of the books I will stock when the Category opens. Here, in absolutely no rational order or sequence or anything resembling anything like that:
- The Bargello Book by Frances Salter
- A Pavillion of Pattern for Needlepoint Canvas by Shirlee Lantz
- TrianglePoint by Shirlee Lantz
- The Needlepoint Book:303 stitches with Patterns & Projects by Jo Christensen
- Needlepoint Stitchery by Margaret Boyles
- New Methods in Needlepoint by Hope Hanley
- The A B C’s of Needlepoint by Hope Hanley
- The Ups & Downs of Needlepoint by Fannie Highsmith
- Free Form Bargello by Gigs Stevens
- The Complete Book of Needlepoint by Carolyn Ambuter & Patti B Russell
- Glorious Needlepoint by Kaffe Fassett
- Florentine Canvas Work by Dorothy Phelan
- Dictionary of Canvas Work Stitches by Mary Rhodes
- The Book of Needlepoint Stitches by Susan Higgenson
- Needlepoint Bargello by Dorothy Kaestner
- Museum of the Bargello Guide to the Collections by Bruna Tomasello
- Bargello: An Explosion in Color by Margaret Boyles
- The New York Times Book of Needlepoint by Elaine Slater
- New Look at Bargello by Carol Cheney Rome
- The New York Times Book of Needlepoint for Left-Handers by Elaine Slater
- Dictionary of Needlepoint Stitchery
- Needlepoint Letters & Numbers by Carol Cheney Rome
- Geometric Designs in Needlepoint by Mary Jane Edmonds
- Patterned Backgrounds for Needlepoint by Mimi Sellick
- American Primitives in Needlepoint by Brande Ormond
- Bargello Antics by Dorothy Kaestner
- Four Way Bargello by Dorothy Kaestner
- 101 Needlepoint Stitches and How to Use Them by Hope Hanley
- Erica Wilson’s Needlepoint: Adapted from Objects in the Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Erica Wilson
- Needlepoint by Susan Sedlacek Lampton
- A Needlepoint Gallery of Patterns From the Past by Phyllis Kluger
- Needlepoint by Design: Variations on Chinese Themes by Maggie Lane
- Oriental Designs in Needlepoint by Eva Brent
- Tribal Designs for Needlepoint: 30 Original Designs Adapted From Eskimo, Polynesian and Indian Art by Gay Ann Rogers
- Bargello and Related Stitchery by Charles Barnes & David P Blake
- Wildlife in Needlepoint by Sheila Edwards
- Needlepoint Designs From Asia: 30 Exotic Designs From Persia, India, Korea, China & Japan by Gay Ann Rogers
- Creative Needlepoint Borders by Maggie Wall
- Japanese Motifs for Needlepoint.
Plus my 2 copies of Sandy’s Finishing Techniques for a grand total of 41 books. I think this is a good start.
There are other books I have my eye on and there are books I passed on (like Rosey Grier’s Needlepoint for Men book, or the Loretta Swit Book or the Mary Martin book).
There are some boks I would like to buy. The Bloomsbury Design Book and a Romantic Design book and more but let’s see how these go for now.
Not all of these are “hard-to-find” and one or two of them are still in print but over all, many of these are rare or approaching rarity and most are hard-to-find.
I hope there is an advantage to having them all in one place.
I am still happily reading Northanger Abby. Catherine Morland is visiting the Tilney’s in the ancient Abby. She is trying her hardest to find something shocking, spooky or dangerous there. So far she has only uncovered a very old laundry list.
I got Lillie part 4 today from Netflix, I will watch it later and then I am a Masterpiece Theater expert on Lillie Langtry.
I am so excited about Thanksgiving, it is, by far, my favorite holiday of the year. No presents, lots of food (stuffing & fruit pies) and my son is flying down for 3 days. I know I have said this already (more then once) but I haven’t seen him since early May.
As you might remember, my son is both a Culinary Institute Trained and Certified Culinarian plus he has a CIA associates degree in Baking & Pastry Arts.
He works at Legal Sea Foods in Boston, in the test kitchen restaurant, LTK.
He works as a line chef plus he does the special desert of the week every week. Some of them make it to the permanent menu.
Right now he is doing a GingerBread House in the shape of The Old North Church in Boston for the restaurant. He has promised me pictures.
I am taking a long time here to tell you a Turkey Roasting Tip from the Head Chef at LTK.
He says to roast it slowly, very slowly in a not too hot oven. He says when it is 2 hours from done, take it out and carefully separate the skin from the meat and spread cut up little pieces of uncooked bacon everywhere you can. This will make the meat very moist and juicy.
As I write this I realize I need more details. I will call my son and have him bother his chef with my questions.
I want to know, what temperature and how many minutes per pound at that temperature?
Is the turkey bagged (I hope not) tented or what? How do we keep the breast from getting too brown and drying out?
Do we use raw or cooked bacon? I will have these answers tomorrow.
My son knows well how *focused* I can be when I want to know something (this translates into I am willing to nag, nag, nag).
I will post the answers here as soon as I have them.
I found a recipe in today’s N Y Times for a lovely version of an apple cobbler. The recipe calls for crushed pecans and Fiji Apples, it sounds delicious. I am going to try it for Thanksgiving with my healthy compromise ingredient ( I use Splenda’s 1/2 sugar & 1/2 Splenda mix for baking.) Using this is always successful although my baking is not always edible. The sugar mixture is never the problem
Now I am hungry.
2 Bargellos Done
Tuesday November 17th 2009, 12:49 am
Filed under:
Bargello NP I am making progress. I know I have been a blog laggard and I apologize. I have been stitching like mad plus listing all the new stuff.
There is so much of it. First I want to show you the completed Wave Bargello. it has not been blocked yet, I finished it last night.
I did the corners in plain Tent Stitch. The truth is I could not teach anyone how to mitre corners in TrianglePoint since I have no idea how to do it myself.
I thought this was a nice, painless way to do the corners. I do wish I had used just one strand of the DMC #5 Perle Cotton for the corners, since the doubled strands, that I used for Bargello, make the corners look a little *thick* for lack of a better word.
Then again, maybe the switch to single strand would be too noticeable.
This will join the Twin Peaks Bargello in my new Bargello Category on NewNeedlepoint.com
I am starting a Flag Bargello with Ripple Stitch tonight. I will know within a few rows if it is going to *work* or not.
If it does work, I will re-open the NewNeedlepoint.co Bargello Category with these 3.
Then I will stitch a version of the Cubes Bargello that Dr Denise did for me.
As a first time ever Bargello stitcher I think she did a terrific job. I will stitch another one as the sample for sale but I will show this one, as an example of what a Novice Bargelloer (I know that is not a word) can do.
Dr. Denise is a wonderful resource (as well as a terrific person). She is willing to stitch samples for me and I need the help. She is working on a sample of my Beginner’s 25 Hearts design right now.
It was a good day when she first contacted me and offered to stitch. A very good day.
I have tons of new stuff on nn.com. Maybe, actually too much to show you here. Check out my home page
when ever I list something brand new I put it there.
Maybe I should expand it to show all the new stuff in the last 2 weeks. Hmmmm, I think I will do that when I finish blabbing here.
My Accessories Category is doing well, I am selling quite a bit from there, which is something of a surprise to me. A very pleasant surprise.
I am looking for a source to buy some of the out-of-print Needlepoint and Bargello books I love wholesale (or something close to it).
I think the best of the Bargello books are the Margaret Boyles and the Dorothy Kaestner books. For needlepoint, the book that taught me the most is the almost forgotten New York Times Book of Needlepoint by Elaine Slater and Lucinda Ganderton’s Stitch Sampler (which seems to still be in print in a larger paperback).
Many of the stitches in Ms. Ganderton’s book have nothing to do with Needlepoint but the stitches she does show, are done so well. There seems to be other books by her on amazon.com as well. I bet they are as well done as her Stitch Sampler book.
Of course, there is always Hope Hanley’s 101 Stitches book, I sold my extra copy of that last week.
I have just ordered a few standing LED lights for Needlework, which include a magnifier arm. This will be in addition to the OTT Light Swivel Travel Light I already list.
My wholesaler tells me these new lights are moving quickly from the warehouse, that people seem to like them. We shall see.
OK, my movies & books report (feel free to go do something else now, if this bores you.
I ordered 1979′s 13 part Masterpiece Theatre production called Lillie about the life and fame of Lillie Langtry starring a young (but not quite young enough for her early years scenes) Francesca Annis. Yes, she is lovely but is she “the most beautiful woman in the world”?
I have a 2 disk at a time account with Netflix, so I saw disk 1, then waited for 2 & 3, saw them and now assume there is one more on it’s way.
It is a somewhat turgid drama/biography, then again, I watched almost all of the Cazalets (the defining turgid drama) and I have watched the entire Upstairs Downstairs DVD collection more then once and both versions of the Forsythe Saga (and I read the book, how’s that for obsessed?)
I am truly a fool for a nice costume drama, add some love and sex and I am a goner.
Keith & I watched a wonderful movie, with people I am unfamiliar with, about a young couple about to have a baby who are on a road trip looking for the right place for their new family to live.
I forget the name (DOH) but I will look at the FIOS Movies on Demand again and get it’s name.
I am reading Northanger Abby now, in my effort to re-read all the major Jane Austen novels after years of just the movie versions. I am really not interested in the novel fragments like Sandition or Susan.
It is odd reading Northanger Abby, I am reading it out of order. It should have been read with Sense & Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, her earlier novels.
But I got the order mixed up and read Mansfield Park first. Mansfield Park is, by all accounts including my own, her most serious and least liked novel.
Going from it to the frothy Northanger Abby is a bit disorienting but also something of a relief.
Northanger is a fun book, the character of Isabella Thorpe is a riot as is her brother John Thorpe, what a buffoon.
I wish there was more depth to Miss Tilney and her brother Mr Henry Tilney. I believe there will be later on.
I do like Catherine Morland, she is, for the times she lives in, a regular girl with regular interests and occupations.
I do agree with her, I too liked the wonderful Gothic Mystery/Romances of Mrs Radcliffe. I read them way back when I was reading everything I could lay my hands on.
There was a time, when the smaller chain bookstores ruled and before there was amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Borders, that I would worry about running out of good books to read.
All the local chains had were romances, thrillers and that kind of drivel. It set me off on my English Mysteries reading period and I even (very briefly) worked at the famous Kate’s Mystery Books in Cambridge, MA.
Robert Parker (Spencer books & more) built all the bookshelves in the store for Kate when she first opened. Sadly my working there did not work out.
Kate could not seem to get it that as a single mother, I HAD to pick up my son from school when it was time to pick him up.
She could not wander in 15 to 30 minutes late to take over from me. I had to go when it was time to go. She never did grasp this.
So, another job went the way of all my jobs.
I never had a job that wasn’t some version of torture until I began to create and then opened NewNeedlepoint.com. I had always heard that the happiest people are the ones who love the work they do.
I always thought that was bull, but it turns out to be exactly correct. If I was doing a job I did not love as much as I do this, I would be miserable (and pissed).
So, I am starting to sell a little more, I am jazzed and hopeful.
I think I will go add all the all new stuff I have listed to the Home Page of NewNeedlepoint.com now, why not?
Remember way back when I did a blog posting about Flaunt or Flout? This will be definite Flaunting.
