The Word New
I do seem to use the word *new* a lot. It is in *new*Needlepoint, in my talking about all the *new* kits and canvases I am listing every day. It is there for my *new* Bargello Needlepoint category, where the Bargello will be offered ad sold in a *new* way.
I am up to my knees in *new* but I have another. I have a *new* computer. Usually that is fun and exciting, and I suppose it is this time too but it was not exactly my idea.
As those of you who brave the “wilds of my writng” and read my blog often may remember, I am a long-time, perhaps lifetime, Mac user.
I had a perfect, perfectly working iMac, about 4 years old. Foolish me read about Snow Leopard, Apple’s name for thier new OS X 6.1 release.
Had I had my wits about me I would have made a connection between “should I do this” and how cheaply they were selling 10.6.1.
It was $29.95, any of us who has been around Apple Computers for awhile knows Apple sells nothing cheap.
Well, I loaded it on my iMac and the problems began. They were getting worse and worse. The problems were varied and odd, the strangest was I was having to re-load Word every 3-4 days, it would just disappear.
So, being of a slightly masochistic bent (very slightly) I ordered another iMac, model 10.1 with the Intel chip, 3.06 GHz and doubled the memory to 8GB (with macs it is all about memory, more is good).
I called Apple and made them put a tech on the line to assure me (hoping it was not just the guy in the next cubicle) that this was not some machine 10.6.1 had been shoved on, that would give me trouble.
This one was built for this, in fact I am running 10.6.2. Ok, it does have a super widescreen monitor, with an incredibly clear, sharp display. It is FAST, but …….you know.
I asked Apple for a Snow Leopard ruined my perfectly good iMac discount. They refused. Had I the time & energy to follow it up, I think I could have gotten some kind of discount but it would have been work.
So, I did not want to do a full transfer, and bring the problems with me so I have been moving files to the new mac a few at a time by flashdrive.
This is all. all of it , to explain and apologize why I missed last night’s self-imposed (but important to me) scheduled blog entry.
Pretend it is last night and I will proceed.
I am making real progress on my second Bargello for the *new* and different NewNeedlepoint.com Bargello Category.
Below is the “wave pattern” with a TrianglePoint Border.
I am surprised by the TrianglePoint border. I thought it might be good but I did not know how good. I really like it.
The blue is the last design color row I have to do but I need to *cap* it off. I think I will do that with the green.
I realized I never took a picture of the Twin Peaks Bargello with the Slanted Gobelin Stitch border all finished. This is it, just before I began the blocking process.
Both of these will be sold in my *new* Bargello category. They will be sold as the patterns for exactly these Bargellos as shown in the samples. The only difference will be in the finished size.
I am still on the fence about offering each in just one size or maybe giving a choice of 2 sizes. I am undecided.
I mean, color choice did not work out well for me, so I am not sure.
I have been listing a lot of new canvases and kits. The most recent are this Kelly Clark signed Nativity Cow
For beginners or anyone this adorable Gail Lang Hand painted SnowManOrnament
Jane Wheeler’s Hand Painted Raining Cats & Dogs
And this wonderful design from Patt of Patt & Lee Designs, I call this 30 houses Contemporary Sampler. There are indeed 30 houses and 23 colors in this interesting and unusual design
I finished Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park this evening. I made the mistake of reading some of the several introductions included in the Penguin Classics version.
About half way through the book, I realized I had messed up my order of reading them. I was focused on reading them in the order they were written, not order published.
I should have read Northanger Abbey after reading (or not re-reading) Pride & Prejudice.
I got mixed up. One of the introductions said Mansfield Park was the least *loved* and popular of her novels. I am in total agreement with that and a famous wit called Fanny Price, the heroine, ” a *prig* and so she was, a moralizing, cowering coward of a girl.
No, I did not like her. I gather from the several introductions, no one much does but they call Mansfield Park Jane Austen’s most serious book, almost political. Ok. I pretty much agree. It is, in the end, a fine story. Worth Reading (as in bad Jane Austen is better then almost anyone else’s good writing)
Still, the book was not without some delights, some of Fanny’s observations were spot on and she was capable of some wit. Edmund was “heavy in hand” but Mary Crawford and her bad boy, weak willed brother Henry were fun. Mrs Norris is one of the classic *small* villains of fiction. And I enjoyed much of the conversation, I became fond of indolent Lady Bertram & her Pug.
One thing struck me, I had read that the recent movie made from the book took “liberties” with the story.
I mean, they all do except maybe A & E mega long and detailed Pride & Prejudice, they squeezed it all in. All the others took liberties but Mansfield Park is hardly recognizable as the same story.
Yes, the names are the same, as are the costumes. The emotions are similar but the events, the chains they formed and the results of peoples acts & decisions is altered almost out of recognition.
The places where the movie splits from the book are too numerous to mention but the height of it is the focus on the slave trade in Antigua. A book showing Tom Bertram’s drawings of his father involved in acts of slave barbarism are not, I promise you, in this book.
I think next I will jump back to Jane’s girlhood and read Northanger Abby.
Here’s an interesting quote I just found on Austen.com
“Mansfield Park has the dubious distinction of being disliked by more of Jane Austen’s fans than any of her other novels, even to the point of spawning “Fanny Wars” in internet discussion forums.”
How complex we all are, really. Even living in the parsonage at Steventon.
Mostly Bargello
I am making progress with the Wave Bargello sample. I am on the 3rd row of the TrianglePoint border and I think it is working up well.
This border is turning out to be very interesting. I had never heard of TrianglePoint when one of my blog readers from Australia, emailed me and suggested I look into TrianglePoint.
Who knows what I was writing about that day, I was probably complaining about the lack of good graphic needlepoint designs or whining about borders. It was a while ago.
I bought the book, used of course, on amazon.com. When it arrived I was surprised. The idea was interesting, close to unique maybe. A variation on Bargello? A needlepoint stitch? I am still not sure but this is the first time I have used it, besides just *stitch doodling*. There are some things to learn about it, it is not all straight forward. Not at all.
I can’t say I am in love with the designs done in total TrianglePoint stitching, they are very graphic, graphics with no softening at all. They can easily be optical and you can do a magnificent fade with TrianglePoint but I would not use it for shading except in the most modern art designs. Very Picasso Cubist used that way.
So far, the best usage I have found is this, borders. This stitch is perfect for defining an area, bordering or enclosing it in a variety of ways. I think I need to delve deeper into the book, more then the graphs and beautiful pictures.
It was created by someone name Shirlee Lantz. The book’s sub-title is “From Persian Pavilions to Op Art with One Stitch”. I always like a good sub-title.
It was published in 1978, in a nice Hard Bound book on heavy paper stock. It has 32 pages of excellent color pictures, printed on matte finish paper. A handsome book.
The back dust jacket (yes, my nice used copy has a intact & clean dust jacket) says that Shirlee lantz also authored *The Pagent of Pattern for Needlepoint Canvas*.
I see Ms Lantz likes alliteration like I do. It has good reviews from the NY Times, The New Yorker and Mademoiselle magazine (does that even exist anymore?).
I love this, a review from Publishers Weekely says ” This stunning book may well be the new bible of needlepoint….soundly but vivaciously written and throughly fascinating”
Wow, that is praise indeed but I hardly think an obscure book on TrianglePoint is the new needlepoint bible.
I want to show you a close up of my border, in progress.
There are some interesting points here. One of the really important things you need to get right for TrianglePoint is laying the threads. I am pretty much used to that from doing needlepoint and very much so for Bargello but it essential for this. As you can see, I am not always perfect there but I think I do alright.
I need to learn to use a laying tool. I have always just laid threads with my fingers and the needle I am stitching with but I have ordered these wonderful Rosewood Laying tools to sell on NewNeedlepoint.com. plus I now sell Trolley Needles and a nice Gold Plated Laying Needle. I guess I should learn how to use one. (digression alert).
I stitched the white row border first, next to the Bargello pattern. I like to use white for the first row for these borders, I think it sets off the colors used in the Bargello well and creates no conflicts as it *crosses colors* in the pattern.
I did the white first, then starting there and intending to keep the colors in the same order as they are in the pattern, I did the green next.
Then I spaced out and did 2 & 1/2 sides with the pink. It should have been the red. OK, I figured, it will be OK but it wasn’t.
It was not so much that the colors were out of sequence, it was more that the green triangles needed a strong color on top of them to balance them.
I should have taken a picture of the doomed pink triangles, out of their right order but I am not that swift. They were, however, wrong. very wrong so I pulled them all out and re-did them with the red, correct color, correct order.
Then next is the pink, then the blue and then I need to pick a color to repeat, to *cap* the border.
Since there are five colors in my Bargello pattern there should be 5 rows of border but for this border, I need an even number of rows.
This is different. It is almost always best to use an odd number of colors in any Bargello pattern. It keeps the pattern from becoming static, it somehow almost *rotates* the colors.
This is crucial in Florentine Embroidery Bargello. You loose the whole point of the every other row patterning with an even number of colors.
I am not going to use the Purple Pointed Curves Bargello in my new NewNeedlepoint Bargello categories. It just doesn’t work. The colors, while they really are lovely just do not *show* well and the fill in stitching just does not do it.
I think my Twin Peaks Bargello with the Slanted Gobelin Stitch multiple border is a success, so when Waves is done, I will have 2 of the 3 I want to have ready to re-open the Bargello Category.
I just realized I never took a picture of this Bargello all finished. This is the closest I got. I need to do that.
Listing the new canvases & kits on nn.com is coming along. Today I did a Kelly Clark design called “Nativity Cow”. It does have a “Nativity”
look and feel to it and uses lots of shiny Metallic threads in the design. This is available as both kit or canvas alone.
Also a interesting new canvas from Patt of Patt & Lee Designs. I call it 30 Houses Contemporary Sampler. It does look like a sampler but not like a traditional sampler. I like the strong graphics and interesting color use. There are 23 colors in this design. It too is being listed as the canvas alone or as a kit
I had just listed the first of Patt & my Beginner’s Series needlepoint canvases & kits this past weekend. It is a adorable variation on Patt’s Shower Cat design, simplified for beginners and with a short text added.
It sold on Monday, I am somewhat amazed and quite pleased. I think Patt & I will be doing more of these.
I was waiting to see if one actually sold before I wrote my NewNeedlepoint.com Beginners Basic Directions Text so…I did it this morning.
It took me 3 + hours but I think it is good, or if not good it is very not bad and helpful.
I did the basics, how to start, how to end and begin new threads, tension etc. I added some diagrams of the most basic stitches and gave the excellent Stitch-0pedia web site addresses for the more basic and useful of the decorative stitches. I added the ANG web site.
Then I wrote something I wish someone had written for me when I first began to needlepoint.
There is a lot of basic information out there that everybody assumes everybody else knows (like what Stitch Painting means).
I learned to stitch from books on needlepoint. Again, there is basic information that is never covered. As far as I know, there is no “Needlepoint for Dummies” book yet.
I wrote about the things that slipped me up as a newbie, the things I did not know and did not know to ask. I wrote about canvas mesh sizes and what they mean to threads and stitching (no joke, that one took me a bit of time to reserach) and appropriate needle sizes for different
mesh sizes (now, that one took me forever to find out).
I wrote about making sure the stitches all *point* in the same direction. That is the single hardest thing to teach an absolute newbie about. That even when stitching an outline, the stitch direction does not follow the outline, it is a static direction.
And here’s the biggie. My first needlepoint humiliation.
I had done a little needlepoint 20 years before but none since
There was this great and funky looking needlepoint store 2 doors down from the post office I went to frequently. It was next to the health foods store and near the last of the old time 5 & 10 Cent Stores in West Concord, Massachusetts, near where I lived.
Concord can be a very snobby town, the cream of the Mayflower Daughters of the Old Yankee Aristoracy lived there and probably still do.
But West Concord was different, it was funky, arty, much more fun, loose and very much down scale. The store was in an old antique of a building, not renovated since the Civil War years.
It felt comfortable, and I jumped in.
One day I went into the store. The owner was there and we got to talking. I bought a needlepoint canvas, Silk & Ivory 50% silk and 50% wool threads, a basic needlepoint book, a package of needles and a needlepoint tote bag ( I still have that, it is a great bag).
I was pumped, I went home and stitched it. It took me maybe 3 weeks, maybe a month, the canvas was, I think, 6 X 8 inches.
It was a lovely rose on a stylized leopard print background (remember those? I bet you long time stitchers can even “date” me from that canvas).
I took it back to the store to be finished, I was shining with happiness and pride.
I walked into the store, it was a Saturday morning and I gave the woman working there my canvas proudly. I asked to have it finished as a pillow.
Now, I know it must have been crude, my stitching can’t have been much but I must have been absolutely glowing with pride in it.
This woman, who I had never seen before briefly looks at my canvas, she looks down at me (she was taller than me but even if she had been a foot shorter then me, she would have looked down at me) and told me I had to stitch 2 or 3 extra rows for the finisher.
She did not explain what she meant, she just handed it back and turned her back on me.
I was flattened. I felt extremely bug like and silenty scuttled out the door.
Some times I am amazed I ever went back there but I did. I wanted to stitch and there was no place else (that I knew of) to get this stuff.
I never did see that woman again, in all the times I went to that store, since that time but it stayed with me.
How was a newbie needlepointer to know this? This and Other things? How?
So, I wrote it all down, all of it I could think of. I talked stitch direction, tension, I know rolling the canvas to stitch but I gave them someplace to learn about stitching with a frame.
I talked dye lots and I talked about not taking on too much as a beginner stitcher. I wrote about all the people with good needlepoint intentions who started with too much, too big, too difficult a project and became overwhelmed, giving up on needlepoint.
Anyway, I am sure there are lots of things I forgot to mention. I probably will be adding to and editing this Beginners Basics mini-manual constantly but it is a start.
Anyone who has any ideas or suggestions for me to add to this *magnum opus* please sent them along. I am always glad to attribute.
To button this up for tonight, I am still deeply in Mansfield Park, I am at Fanny Price’s “coming out” ball tonight and the sooner I stop blathering here the sooner I can go read it.
blog, with pictures
The blog program seems to be fixed, fixed enough anyway. I can now show you some of the new canvases I have,
They are spectacular. I know this is getting ahead of my myself. I know I should let you judge, but when have I ever waited?
As I said the Bargello categories are closed for now. I expect to re-open one of them before Thanksgiving, for sure. Maybe as soon as next week if all the planets align and I don’t get sick of stitching.
This Bargello is almost finished. I lack 1 and 1/2 sides of the 5th row of Slanted Gobelin Stitch border. Then it needs blocking and it will be done.
This is the newest. The stitch has no name, I am calling it *waves*. The colors used here are more subtle then they appear in my picture. This picture was done in the dark, with full on flash. The colors are really softer and muted,
I think they are beautiful (but I would think that, wouldn’t I?)
This will have a 1.25 inch Trianglepoint border, in these colors
Ok, on to the new stuff. These are some of the canvases from Danji Designs, the ones I will be listing here starting tomorrow.
A artist signed Laurel Burch Cat. I have 2 Laurel Burch canvases of this style design, 2 more on order. This one will be listed this week. It will be listed as both kit and canvas alone.
I think this graphic is incredible. The colors, the design, all of it. It is called Trinity and it is designed by Eileen Best. This will be listed as just canvas alone, I think.
I have 2 of her graphic canvases.
Ok, never mind. this stupid blog program just went down again.
Again, it will not upload my pictures.
I sent the techs a *support ticket* I tried tech support “live chat” . No one was home.
I called and got nice Dewey, he knows they are still working on it. He thought they were done. They can’t do anything until 11 am (my time, they are Redmond, WA) when Patrick comes in.
Patrick is now at the head of my list of techie kids I want to administer an ole lady ass whupping to.
OK, so much for showing you my lovely canvases. How shall I amuse you (and myself).
I am 3/4 of the way through Sense & Sensibility. I had forgotten so much or the movie had replaced all my memories with new, edited ones.
Does anybody remember the Sir John Middleton’s wife (Barton Park) is not dead? Lady Middleton is very much alive and a pattern card of insipidity and correct manners.
(see, I have been reading Jane Austen, I am writing like her)
Does anyone remember that Lucy Steele has an older sister Nancy? Nancy is basically a moron, with a mouth that runs on and zero Sensibility, It is Nancy who spills the secret of Edward Ferrars engagement to Lucy Steele by telling Mrs Dashwood. Not as in the movie with Lucy herself confiding (although that is a great scene).
There is so much more here, I am having a marvelous time reading it.
Keith and I watched a very funny movie tonight, it is far from new but when I saw it available *request* last night I waited so K & I could watch it together.
It is Sibling Rivalry with Kristie Alley (and boy, was she gorgeous then, one forgets). Sam Elliot and a very young Bill Pullman in a very funny role. The rest of the cast is pretty great too. We sat and laughed while we watched it.
Kristie Alley is part of 3 of the funniest movies I know. there is this one. Then there was Madhouse with John Laroquette, the one where family comes to visit and won’t leave. Kirstie & John end up living in the back yard in a tent. That is one funny movie.
And of course, Drop Dead Gorgeous. Need I say more? I did learn something funny when I was looking this up on Google just now. Kirstie Alley’s real name is Gladys Leeman and wasn’t *Gladys Leeman* the name they used for her in Drop Dead Gorgeous?
I think it was.
I apologize for blogus interruptus ( I made that up)
I will try again tomorrow.
down, down, down
My blog utility is down, this is all I can do right now. No pictures, no links, no nothing.
Boy, the techs really have done a super job with this upgrade, haven’t they?
Plus I am now being bombarded with blog spam, 20+ a day and each one has to be *denied access* and deleted, one at a time.
I tried, I rushed to get pictures of some of the new canvases I have. Then I edited them so I could post them here tonight. (they all have to be adjusted, cropped and re-sized for blog posting)
In addition to the Danji Order, I got part of my new order from Patt & Lee Designs today.
Included are some of the designs Patt & I did together for beginners plus some great new stuff.
So, I sat down here all ready to *dazzle* you with gorgeous needlepoint canvases and blabb endlessly about them. Sadly, this is a no go.
I can’t reach anyone to fix this until Monday, and since they are west coast and I am EST, not until mid-day Monday.
So, the blog is beached for now. Unless, of course, you would just like to read my blather.
I received my new copies of the Jane Austen novels this week. The ones with larger type (No, not Large Type, I am not there…yet).
I am reading them in the order they were written, according to Carol Shields Literary Biography of Jane Austen so Sense & Sensibility is first.
I am maybe 1/3 of the way through. I had forgotten how much, very much, detail is omitted in the movies made from these books.
Ang Wang’s version of Sense & Sensibilty, written by Emma Thompson, is a wonderful movie but it is not what the book is, how could it be? I had lost sight of that. There is so much more here and such wonderful language.
If anyone reading this has not seen David Lean’s 1954 movie Hobson’s Choice, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
According to Wikipedia, “Hobson’s Choice” is a free choice with only one option offered. One is free to take the option or not. It is basically “take it or leave it”. This is said to have originated with a Livery Stable owner, Thomas Hobson (1544-1631) who, to rotate the use of his horses, told customers they could take the horse in the stall closest to the door or none at all.
But I digress (again). The movie stars Charles Laughton, a surprising John Mills and wonderful Brenda DeBanzie. I never saw her in anything before or since but she is amazing here.
This movie is at the top of my *you HAVE to see this* along with The Politician’s Wife. It is a made for British TV move from 1995. Starring a terrific Juliet Stevenson, Trevor Eve and Ian Banning, along with Minnie Driver.
I promise you, when it ends, you will want to stand up and cheer for her.
I am stitching away at Bargellos, I am doing a lovely one right now, which I can’t show you, and doing the 5th and final row of Slanted Gobelin Stitch for the border of the one I was stitching last week (which I also can’t show you).
I just sent Dr. Denise, my wonderful *mercy stitcher* who helps me with samples, a Florentine Embroidery Bargello pattern called “Florentine Scallops* to be stitched with Paternayan Wool in periwinkle, olive green, peach and cream.
Margaret, my excellent stitcher friend from Oklahoma who stitched the Stitch & Frame Love Kanji for me a few months ago (which I also can’t show you right now) has also agreed to do a Bargello for me when she finishes what she is stitching now.
No news yet on the new job for Keith, we are waiting on *tenterhooks* I think is the best word for it.
I am frustrated by this, I had so much to show you tonight.
Time to practice patience (who am I kidding with that?)
No, you’re not crazy
Thursday October 29th 2009, 11:18 pm
Filed under:
Bargello NP Yes, my Bargello categories have disappeared. This is temporary. Until I have some samples I am happy with I have closed it down. I need to step back and think through how I want to present the Bargello, what people want to stitch and want to buy.
I clearly have not got it right yet. I was going to replace it, re-do it one design at a time but I think maybe not.
I am feeling pressure to stitch, stitch, stitch Bargello samples. I stitched for almost 6 hours today, it’s getting worse. I am neglecting the rest of my life. That is not good.
Enough! NewNeedlepoint Bargello Needlepoint will re-open, I just do not know when.
So, if you went to my web site and the Bargello Categories weren’t there and you thought maybe you imagined them or something. No, you are not crazy but I may be…..who’s to say?
Starting From Scratch, Again.
The changes I have been planning for NewNeedlepoint.com are happening.
I am stitching away at the new Bargello samples, I am more or less doing them from scratch.
There are a few that I was planning to adapt, turn the small samples I stitched last winter into full size samples, but as I look at them and consider the size limitations of the samples, I am leaning towards replacing them all with new, better ones.
I am spending a huge amount of my time on these, I suspect I am a little obsessed.
I received the first shipment from Danji Designs today. They sent everything I ordered that they had in stock. The rest of it will be 4-6 weeks. They are, as they reminded me, hand painted, and that takes time.
As it is, I received 26 canvases today. They are dazzling, they are more beautiful then I imagined.
When I ordered them, all I saw was small pictures of the designs on line. They were not thumbnails but they not huge either. The reality of the canvases, in person, is so much more.
These represent the work of 10 different needlepoint designers including Danji Designs.
There are a number of beginner level pieces, I have hopes that those will do well. I really want to interest beginners in needlepoint by offering kits with directions that can be easily understood and followed. The beginner canvas are only offered as kits.
The rest of the new canvases are quite a mixture of styles but I do not yet have a detailed overview of what is here and what is not.
As I hem them tomorrow and begin to kit them, I will have a better idea what I have here. I will be offering them for sale as canvas alone or kits. I think I will anyway. Probably not both for all, we shall see.
Yes, this is overwhelming but very exciting. It all feels new but I am impatient. I want it to happen faster. I always want things to happen faster but as we all know, when there is stitching involved, faster does not exist.
Tonights blog does not have any pictures, once I get some pictures taken there will be lots of them, but not tonight.
Keith had a phone conference interview for the new job we both want him to get late this afternoon. He thinks it went well but who can say for sure.
Now we wait. It feels like everything is happening at once and at the same time, it is all standing still. I know that’s illogical but there it is.
I also know this is not a very satisfying blog, I will do better next time.
Mixed Bag
Fair Warning, tonight blog title is a pun (I hate puns). I could not resist.
The guys who host my web site also host this blog utility. It has been increasingly cranky and difficult to use so they decided to upgrade it.
Well, they fixed it real good. Now the screens are so garbled they are unreadable and the links don’t work.
Now, Zac The Tech drummed into me how important this blog was to my store and how very important links were. Very important.
I think you all know I don’t just do this blog to market my web store, I do it to blabb and blather and go on and on…you know. Still, marketing NewNeedlepoint.com http://www.newneedlepoint.com (see what I am reduced to?) is a part of it and it matters.
I am been going full speed ahead getting full size Bargello samples ready to re-design the whole Bargello section of nn.com. My plan is to offer the Bargellos exactly as shown, in the colors shown. Each pattern will have a unique color combination (which I hope, hope, hope people love) and show a finishing suggestion.
I was planning to have the completed Bargellos made into pillows or pictures but the time lag to do it and the serious added expense have changed my mind. Again, I hope a finished and blocked canvas will do the trick.
This is a big change. Clearly my Color-Choice Bargellos have not worked. I have not had an order for a single one and I know people are looking for Bargello so…..
Below is the Florentine Waves Pattern Bargello I finished this evening (while we watched Will Smith in I, Robot, not my first or even second choice for a movie). This is not a Florentine Embroidery Pattern but that is it’s name, anyway.
The pattern is bordered by 2 rows of Slanted Gobelin Stitch, which is a good choice to border a bargello. It stitches up under the long thread edges of the bargello on the sides, finishing it nicely.
You can do as many rows of this as you like. 2 rows is all I had room for on this small canvas. The colors used can be any colors in the design you like. I liked the white and then the pink.
Then I began *finishing * the Spires Pattern Florentine Embroidery Bargello.
As you can see, I am filling in at the top, to square the piece. Then I will do the bottom, then add the border. My Margaret Boyles book calls this pattern *advanced*. I did not find it to be difficult at all. It took a little while to get used to the pattern of the stitches but once I did, this zooms along.
Once again I am limited on how much border I add, the canvas is wide but not very long. I am working with previously stitched samples now, so there are size issues.
Once I began the new ones, I will use bigger canvases.
I have postponed my re-reading of all my Jane Austen books until tomorrow. it turns out that my nice Jane Austen Mass Market size paperbacks from Penguin Classics has teeny weeny, tiny little type.
It is hard to read even with my reading glasses on and I usually do not need “reading glasses* for reading, just for stitching.
Life is too short to struggle with this, so I ordered new paperback copies of the books from good old amazon.com. Now the reading will be a pleasure, not a struggle and I will give my tiny type copies to the Library in the next town
(Apollo Beach has no Library, it does have many bars, 3 supermarkets and 7 nail salons however)
The Library sells them in the little book store the Friends of the Library run. This is a win-win for me.
I really love amazon.com. I have been a customer almost from the beginning, I am a reader and I was so upset at the very limited and narrow choices at all the local bookstores where we used to live (and this was Massachusetts). amazon.com has it all, I really like the depth of the used books available. Almost my whole Needlepoint and Bargllo book collection comes from amazon.com book re-sellers.
Ok, enough digression. Today I marked down all of the Claire Sanchez bags I have from last year. This includes the biggest tote bags, the ones that will hold a needlepoint canvas on stretcher bars plus all your junk too. Another wonderful feature is the shoulder straps are long enough to really wear over your shoulder, even with a coat on.
I also marked down Claire’s amazing smaller Silk Dupioni HandBags with real copper leaf decoration on them.
I still do not have the links thing working but I can show you the bags. You can find them all on http://www.newneedlepoint.com in the Claire Sanchez Category
I have marked down the Faye Carpet Bag. This bag is a Hand Bag size:
The Black Silk Dupioni with Copper Leaf Hand Bag:
The Gold Metallic Fully Reversible Mini-Dot Large Tote Bag:
The Turquoise Silk Dupioni with Copper Leaf Hand Bag:
The Georgia Large Tote Bag, with all over flocked dots:
The Beverly Hand Bag, I love these colors:
The Green Silk Dupioni with Copper Leaf Hand Bag:
The Pink Silk Dupioni with Copper Leaf Hand Bag:
I have made substantial cuts in prices, from a minimum of $10 off to a maximum of $20.00 off.
Just in case I have to move again, there will be less to move.
Yes, I said we might move again. I know, this is insane. Keith is up for a new job and a big promotion within his company. If he gets the job we want, we can move home. I want to go live in our own house again on the East Coast of Florida instead of here on the west coast of Florida in a rented house.
I will have my pool back and my closets (I miss my closets) and Jack The Cat will have his screened pool enclosure to hunt in, nap in and sunbathe in.
Please, wish us luck with this. BTW, does everybody get the pun now? Mixed Bag?
Last Night’s Blog
I know, I should have done this blog last night. I didn’t. I even have a handy excuse.
I am working hard to get enough of the larger, finished looking Bargello canvases done for the NewNeedlepoint.com Bargello categories (YIKES, the link thingie does not work). So, yesterday I stitched all day. I watched the Oceans 11,12,13 trilogy backwards. It really was fun. I watched 13, 12 then 11. It made some kind of strange sense to me, I have no idea why.
I got an enormous amount of stitching done, look:
I want to make a few important points about Bargello using my quite nice but obviously slightly flawed Bargello as an example. We are all human beings. Stitching something like this on a 5/3 count, row after row, is not as easy as it looks.
Neither is it as hard as you think. The thing is, you will make small mistakes. I can see one in this photograph of the canvas, there is one spot where I missed 1 stitch of blue. I can see the white space where it should have been peeking out.
Also, as you can see, my counts are not perfect. At the top of the canvas, the counts are slightly different on the left than on the right. This is just the difference of 1 (maybe 2 but I think 1) thread but you can see it.
The point I am trying to make is that this is ok. It is to be expected when stitching anything but here it is not easy to fudge it, hide your small error.
Someone once told me that they way you can tell a really hand tied Oriental rug from a machine woven one, no matter how nice it may be, is by the mistakes. I was told that any hand tied rug with have one or more small (or not so small) mistakes in the weave and that is how you know.
This made and still makes perfect sense to me. Yes, I tore the whole left side of this canvas out before for a really massive error. A big pattern mistake. I would not ever tear out for this small boo boo. Besides, how on earth are you supposed to know where in the stitching the 1 thread mistake occured?
Moving on. My other excuse for missing last night blog writing (I really want to write these no less than every other night. I was writing them every night but I found that I, blabbermouth me, did not have enough to say for every night) was a literary reason. No, I am not kidding.
OK, like so many of you I am a huge fan of Jane Austen. I have, of course, read all her books and 2 biographies of her life. Park Honan’s Jane Austen, Her Life and Jane Austen by Marghanita Laski which is notable for it’s many pictures of everything and anything relating to Jane Austen’s life.
Then last week I read the *Literary Biography* of Jane Austen by the late Pulizter Prize winning author Carol Shields (the Stone Dairies & more). It was fascinating, it discussed what she wrote and how and tied it to her life and circumstances.
I realized that I had not actually read the major Jane Austen novels in many years. Since the excellent movie adaptations of them has been released and I owned them all on DVD, I had stopped reading the books.
I decided I would re-read them all, in the order they had been written (which is not the order they were published in). I have begun with Sense & Sensibility. I started last night and I kept on reading until I fell asleep. Then I woke up at 4 am and continued to read for another hour until I fell back asleep.
So, blame my late blog on Jane Austen.
Keith painted 2 more practice canvases this weekend. he is clearly getting better.
The first is a Kanji variation. I am not positive but I think this is the Kanji for Karma. He painting is good but he is not happy with the colors. he used them straight from the bottles and thinks they need to be mixed and altered some. He is very dissatisfied with the purple in the black outline. It just all looks dark.
The next one is a practice painting of a Kanji canvas I have in the to-do pile. This is not bad. The stitch painting is good but we are not happy with the uneven color coverage. We are going to try pre-treating the canvas or maybe it needs to have more “flow medium” added to the paint. Keith will figure this out eventually. This canvas, when done for sale will have the Kanji for *Nirvava* on it to the right of the picture of the trees & the hills in the distance. I think the final colors will be different. Keith is not happy with these browns.
Ok, now I feel all caught up. I do not like feeling like important things are not done or done well. I am one of those people who can’t relax until all my *ducks* are squeeky clean and all lined up nicely.
Yes, one of those.
The All Bargello Blog
Friday October 23rd 2009, 10:44 pm
Filed under:
Bargello NP Tonight’s blog is wall to wall Bargello. I would like to start with what Dr. Denise wrote about her experience stitching her very first Bargello (after I begged her to).
This is what she wrote:
Barging Though Bargello!
In between the time Marianne, asked me to do a bargello sample for her and the time that it came in the mail…I totally panicked! I had never done any bargello and even though I think of myself as a fairly strong stitcher, I did not know a thing about this stitch. After checking out a few website Marianne suggested and a review the technique in several stitching books, plus bargello charts and history sent to me…I was fairly confident that I could pull this off.
When I sat down with the mounted canvas, threads and instructions, my DH said, “What are you doing?’ I said, “I have absolutely no idea!” With that, I set to work.
A few items of interest about this stitching journey:
<Reading and studying about the history and genesis of a new stitching method is always interesting and motivating. Information about bargello was plentiful.
<Colors…the possibilities seemed to be endless. When stitching I thought about gathering other color ways to make this small sample. The colors provided were beautiful, but even thinking about different combos made the stitching more lively.
<Accuracy of the pattern and accuracy of the stitcher…both important. I found that after I found the rhythm of the pattern, the stitching went smoothly. However, I really did need to concentrate on this…mostly because I wanted it to look great for Marianne and also, I wanted the satisfaction of doing a new stitch to the best of my ability.
<Hard Part—the miters! It just took me a few minutes to get the feel of the mitering. I wanted everything to match up! I think that when doing this a few more times, it will become second nature.
<End Notes…this was a great introduction for a newbie bargello stitcher! Good instructions, fun colors, two distinct patterns and the challenge of the miters.
Many thanks to Marianne for her guidance and faith!
Dr. Denise
This is what the amazing Dr. D. stitched.
I did not intend for the coners of the Zig -Zag pattern border to have the colors match perfectly at the mitre, to be honest, not only was that beyond Dr Denise as a first time Bargelloer (is that a word?) but it was beyond me too. My own biggest problem with the 4-way bargellos so far has been matching the corner mitres. I have not mastered this yet.
As you see on the pattern above it was not an issue for the Cubes pattern center. I have an idea for a variation on cubes, call it 4-way Bargello for idiots (I bet they have copyrighted that title already).
When I finish what I am working on now, I will stitch up what is on my mind.
I listed a simple needlepoint kit this week with a lot of background area on it. Now I know from my own *stitch for pleasure* (I do remember that) and from what my wonderful little circle of “experts and stitchers smarter then I am” have advised me. The consensus is needlepointers get turned off by too much background.
I listed Kissing Fish as a kit only but I would be willing to sell it as a canvas alone (if asked) I came up with an idea for the design’s background
My solution is a 3 color Ripple pattern Bargello in watery colors
With the fish done in darker greens and outlined and highlighted in black with Kreinik Copper Metallic on the tail and the fins, this will be a spectacular background (if I don’t say so myself).
Now I have a puzzle for you. You remember the Bargello I showed you in my last blog?
I am expanding one of my small Bargello samples into a full size piece as part of the changes I plan to make in how I offer my Bargello patterns for sale (This will begin to happen when I have a few more full size *finished* samples finished.
There is a serious mistake in this canvas. I hope the picture is large enough for you to see it (I have picture size limitations in this blog program). It is a major error in the pattern going down the whole left side of the design. This is not a minor missed count, which happens to (most) everyone a few times in (almost) every Bargello (which I nicely fudge over) I tell myself this happens to everyone unless they are a perfect and careful stitcher and always get their counts right, which I do not. (Think I have enough qualifiers in that last paragraph?)
I ripped out the whole left side of the Bargello and re-did it. Ripping out Bargello is, thankfully, much easier then ripping out tent stitch or the worst, basketweave stitch or even fancy stitches but it is still awful to do.
Now it is correct and I hope looks no *worse for wear*
When the Bargello is completed, in another few rows down, I am adding 2 or maybe 3 rows of Gobelin stitch border, then the 2 extra rows for finishing.
(that does seem to be something of a slow-down for me. I said I would do that for Dr. Denise’s canvas too and I haven’t yet. I will, I promise)
The kicker here, and it is quite a kicker, is that in my last blog I repeatedly called this pattern *Twin Peaks*. I even made a (pitiful) joke about the old TV show of that name.
It turns out I messed that up too. This pattern is called *Florentine Wave*, as I well know and should have remembered. It is not Florentine Embroidery but that is it’s name.
That’s about it for me, enough mistakes for one day and one blog.
101 Blog Posts
True to form, I missed the fact that my last (carping & complaining, as usual) blog post was my 100th. That, of course, makes this my 101th post. I promise I will not make a habit of counting them (until my next milestone).
I have all kinds of stuff going on right now, huge changes happening to NewNeedlepoint.com. I have removed a number of my own design canvases & kits. They are in line to be Hand Painted when Keith thinks he is ready. He is making progress learning, this is a practice one he did over the last weekend. He used my Holiday Poinsetta Stitch & Frame canvas. Except for a small error painting the 2nd A in the text, I think it is perfect.
I told him the text does not have to be painted in the future, the Stitch Drawn Text he already does so well is fine.
I got a much better picture of my Pointed Curves Bargello in the daylight.
This is the new one I am working on, making the small sample into a full size sample with finished outer edges to better show how these can look. This pattern is called Twin Peaks (wasn’t there a TV show called that once?) I think these colors are fabulous (if I don’t say so myself)
I am about to make a big change to my Patt & Lee Designs category. It seems that I am the only INTERNET STORE that sells Patt’s & Lee’s Designs. I did not realize that, so I am going to list Patt’s canvases alone as well as made up into my (wonderful) kits.
To do this in some sort of order, I have to take all the P & L Kits off my web site and re-list them all in the order I want them to be (kit, canvas, kit canvas, of course) otherwise all the canvases will be first in the category, the kits below. I have no control over placement in a category. Last one in is on top.
I have quite a few new needlepoint kits and canvases on my web site, with many more to come in the next few months. These are all Hand Painted, for beginners, intermediate or advanced stitchers. I have listed a few very interesting new tools, as well.
For beginners I have added this Chicken sitting on her Eggs. I was told this is a Susan Treglown Design but I have no proof of that, however it is nicely stitch painted on 14 mesh canvas.
And this small American Flag Apple, this too is supposed to be a Susan Treglown Design. Again, I have no proof but this too is nicely stitch painted on 14 mesh canvas.
This pretty Wreath of Flowers from Wee Needle can be a simple beginner’s project or a nice design for someone more experienced to use some decorative stitches on. This is a nicely Hand Painted design on 18 mesh canvas. I am listing this as both a kit and the canvas alone.
This is a wonderful and unusual needlepoint design. It is the word *love* in Hebrew by S. Roberts. The letters are done in gold & silver and I have added a 1/2 inch border of rich plum stitching to the design. This is sold as a kit using Kreinik Gold & Silver Metallic threads to stitch with. This too is Hand painted on 14 mesh canvas. You can never have too much love.
I have 2 new bags from Claire Sanchez from her fall 2009 collection. The Rita Studio bag is available in both the larger tote size (big enough to hold all your stuff, your current needlepoint project on stretcher bars and your lunch) and the Shoulder Bag size, a smaller version of the tote or great casual everyday bags. A big plus to both bags in these sizes is that the leather strap on either is long enough to fit over your shoulder even with a coat on (I often wonder what some of these idiot handbag designers think with these ridiculously short shoulder straps)
I love this colorful print. Below is the Shoulder Bag.
Claire’s Alice Tote and Shoulder Bag have both already sold out everywhere else. These are terrific bags with a surprising design. The top of a deer’s head and his antlers with a very pretty stylized floral in rusty red, taupe and cream with a touch of Agean blue. Below is the tote bag.
Whew, there is more. I have a number of new canvases and kits for other than beginner stitchers.
This lovely daffodil ornament uses 17 colors, again I am told this a Susan Treglown Design, again I am not sure but it is beautifully stitch painted on 14 mesh canvas. This is available as a kit or the canvas alone.
A gorgeous Graphic Needlepoint Design by Rosalie done is shades of blue, mauve or cream. This canvas has been in my to-stitch collection for a few years. While I do love it it is not really my colors, I hope someone else will love it too. It is nicely hand painted on 14 mesh canvas.
I am trying something new with this Kissing Fish Needlepoint. It is a fairly large design on 14 mesh with quite a bit of background.
So I designed a water effect Ripple Bargello for the background and I stitched a small sample of it on the outer margin (the white area outside the design) for you to see. I think it will work wonderfully.
This finish up this ultra long blog I have 3 new items in the Needlepoint Tools Category (or it will be the needlepoint tools category when my web tech finally get around to re-naming a few of the category buttons for me. It has been a week since I asked, last time it took 2 weeks)
I have a Gold Plated Bent Tip Thread Laying Needle
A Trolley Needle Thread Controller and
(TA DA) a Kreinik Metallic Thread sample book. This has actual pieces of all the Kreinik Metallics, in all the wonderful colors.
Dr. Denise has written a wonderful overview of her experience stitching her first ever Bargello for me. I was going to post it tonight but I got carried away (as usual). I will post it next blog. It does not deserve to be buried in all of tonight’s blather.
