Inspirations for needlework

2004-03-05T19:47:00.000-08:00

More Unfinished Objects
So here I am getting ready to take a trip. Of course, I need to bring some needlework on the plane....and to the beach, and anywhere else I can carry it. Unfortunately, it seems the pile of unfinished needlework just keeps getting bigger. I can't seem to finish one project before another more interesting design comes along, and then I have to do that one.

I think I will limit myself to three this trip. Maybe I'll even finish one. Is there a 12 step group for compulsive stitch-starters? Perhaps a support group?

How many unfinished objects (UFO's) do you have in the closet? Be honest. Is it about the journey or the destination for you? I haven't decided. When I was into quilting, I bought a magnet that says "She who dies with the most fabric, wins". I wonder if there's a similar one for UFO's?

Meanwhile, it looks like Mirabilia is back into their groove. the latest designs are much more like the early angels ones. The "middle period" was not very popular. Visit www.Mirabilia.com and tell me what you think.
Catherine

2004-02-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

New needlework stuff and Unfinished Objects

It was bound to happen. Leigh and I went to the Hobby Industries of America show. These trade shows group all kinds of crafts, including scrapbooking, quilting, needlework, painting and a whole lot more. We were supposed to be looking at needlework. But of course we couldn't limit ourselves. So we stopped at a booth that makes terra cotta tile transfer kits (great wedding gift idea), and another booth that had iron-on borders for quilting appliques. Then, of course, I had to stop and select some trims for my daughter. She was bitten early by the craft bug and has been making things for her pre-teen friends. I thought she would enjoy making some chokers and bought some trim for that. Right now, she's making gifts out of duct tape. Maybe she'll be over that by the time the ribbon spools arrive.

These shows always make me start 15 projects I'll never finish. But I think that's part of the fun. Crafts can be a journey as much as a destination. "It's the process", I say. Of course, my husband feels a bit differently and is always asking when I'm going to finish this or that project. Eventually, I'll get to them all. But the first quilt I ever started is still in a closet. So maybe that's not exactly true.

Enjoy your journey, and try something new. But don't get hung up on finishing, if you don't want to.
Yours in crafts.
Catherine

2003-08-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

Two steps backward...

Did you ever have one of those weeks? The past few have reminded me of this scene in Young Frankenstein: Igor and Herr Docktor are struggling and complaining with their wagonload after an evening in the cemetary, when Igor pipes up cheerfully, "Could be worse...could be raining!" And of course, there is a Gothic clap of thunder and bolt of lightning and the rain pours down on them. So for me, the rain has been coming for days.

It all started with a series of power outages that ultimately killed the server for my other business. The server is the central computer that connects all the other computers and houses the critical data records. Without it, we couldn't sell anything. The whole system was essentially braid dead: alive but not thinking. Desperate calls to DH followed, trying to cobble something together before the crowds hit the next day. We got it done, but half way through the weekend, it was clear one of the two airconditioning units was not working. "You want it WHEN?" laughed the airconditioning repair people. By Tuesday, it had gotten to about 108 degrees outside (really!) and about 85 degrees in the store. It stayed that way for several days.

We went around with water bottles offering to cool off the customers, and borrowed floor fans from Leigh's mother, who was blissfully vacationing. Somewhere cool, I hope. We struggled through, hot and bothered. By the end of the week, the new computer had arrived and was installed, and by Friday, the air was repaired. Then the manager announced she was quitting to roll waffle cones in Austin. Or something like that. Then the assistant manager announced she was quitting to sell cell phones. By that time I think I was glad to see them both go.

So now we're back to normal, kinda. I'm trying to pull the shreds back together, interviewing candidates and running home to let the dog out every four hours while working in the store all day. I'm so tired, I can't even stitch! Horrors!

Let's hope you had a better August than we did.
Yours in fatigue...
Catherine

2003-07-23T20:48:00.000-07:00

Reflections on learning needlework

How did you learn needlework? From a family member? A friend? A book? I can't remember how young I was, but crafts --and especially needlework--are part of my earliest memories

One summer, I spent a lot of time waiting for my brothers and sisters to finish swim lessons. Or tennis lessons. Or something. I just remember hot afternoons and lots of waiting. I had one of those felt and sequins kits for a calendar. Probably by Bucilla. I worked on embroidering and sequining that calendar all summer. I don't think I every finished it. Mom showed me how. I was between 8 and 10.

Knitting then caught my eye when knit caps and scarves appeared on teen models one fall. I didn't know much about it, and Mom didn't knit. So I used two pencils and read the instructions in a magazine. I tried my best to knit a cool tam, but ended up with something that looked like a frisbee. Quel catastrophe! That ended my knitting career.

In high school, my mother introduced me to needlepoint with a kit of 3 or 4 bargello type designs worked in a rayon thread. It was kind of fun, and I stitched while I waited for my part in the musical rehearsals. Again, unfinished, but it passed the time.

I sat out college without doing any crafts to speak of. But when I took my first job away from home, I decided to learn how to crochet and quilt. My grandmother taught me to crochet and I made all the boys I dated an afghan. (My husband still has his, all in horrible earth tones. It's relegated to the cedar chest.).

Bored with afghans, I moved on to quilting. This was before the current quilting craze really got rolling. I couldn't find any good books - they were all historical tomes about chintz applique. So I taught myself patchwork using the instructions on the back of a roll of batting purchased in the small town I was currently living in. When I moved back to the city, I signed up for my first real class - four quilts in 4 weeks. What was I thinking? But I finished all 4 on schedule, and ultimately hand quilted them all, which is a record for me. I stayed with quilting for maybe 5-10 years before going back to smaller stitching projects.

When I think back on the years past, I can see that needlework is a "common thread" tying the periods of my life together. Whatever I am doing, there is usually some kind of project lurking in the background. It may take a few years, but I'll get one done and start another. And maybel I'll play with cross stitch for a while, then crochet, then quilting, then back to cross stitch, just to keep in interesting.

All you stitchers can create memories for your friends and families by teaching them the joys of needlework. I had a strong family background in needlework. My great-aunt was a fabulous knitter, but liked all kinds of crafts, several aunts were seamstresses, my maternal grandmother liked to crochet and cross stitch best. My mother did crewel embroidery and needlepoint. Only my paternal grandmother had little interest in needle arts. But you don't have to be the end of the chain - be the beginning! You will always be appreciated for it!
Nostalgically,
Catherine
www.discountneedlework.com

2003-07-22T19:05:00.000-07:00
Vacation Needlework
Last week, I spent lots of time stitching. We took a much needed vacation to the beach. Of course, I had to bring my stitching. Right now, I am working on two - or is it five? - cross stitch projects, a quilt, and..I forget. There's too much unfinished in the closet still. So I finally found a local lady to finish the quilting and binding for a baby quilt I started years ago. Then I brought just the two big cross stitch projects.

Vacations are a great time to make real progress. I would sit out by the pool (beach was too sandy for stitching) and while away the hours with great Salsa music and a Told in a Garden design. (They have a practical website - very utlitarian but not much to look at). This one I started for my mother. It shows 3 girls flying kites - one blonde, one redhead and one brunette. I thought it was special because my mother's three grandchildren are all girls and, you guessed it, one blonde, one redhead and one brunette. Thanks to the vacation intensive work, it's just about finished. I have to fill in the inevitable 4 stitch gaps where I ran out of thread a few stitches early. And then I'll add the girls' names and birthdates at the bottom somewhere. There's only one catch. 10 years after the last one, my youngest brother recently added his first girl to the team. I'm not sure how to deal with that. If I had finished this when I was supposed to, it wouldn't have been an issue! Maybe I'll just pretend I finished it on time. That's what I'm doing with the quilt. Which reminds me I need to pick it up this week. It's done!

Anyway, the other design is a huge Mirabilia angel. (Check out their great website at Mirabilia.com) I picked Adia, the Garden Fairy because I liked her wings and the string of charms. I've worked on her for two vacations and a seminar. I think I'll be working on it another year. I'll pick up and finish other projects in between because this one is just rather daunting. And like an idiot I chose 32 count linen. So the light has to be good, and my allergies under control, and not too tired and...well you get my drift.

I hope everyone gets the chance to do some heavy duty stitching on a relaxing vacation this summer. Let me know what you're working on!

Yours with eyestrain,
Catherine

2003-07-09T09:30:00.000-07:00
Fun with Threads

I've been working on the new Threadmaster program til my eyes cross. It will be an awesome program, if we can ever get it out for testing. Check it out at the Threadmaster page. In the process, I have learned about lots of new threads and some cool thread websites.

My number one favorite today is Kreinik. They have done a great job with their website, and have some cute freebie patterns and lots of online resources. They have added some new threads, and have reorganized their supplies. I especially like the MilkPaint colors of Silk Mori. Wonderful old style colors, perfect for samplers and such. You really must go look!
Other favorites are Rainbow Gallery which has useful online color charts and stitching tips, and the DMC site, which has a user forum.

Silk seems to be a very popular thread these days. We have gotten several requests for Silk and Ivory from Brown Paper Packages. It's a wool-silk blend rather like Impressions from the Caron Collection. We've had Impressions for a while, and I have to agree the wool/silk blends have an excellent hand. I like Splendor (all silk) for its beauty and great price.

A few years ago, my daughter picked out a stocking for her grandmother to work up. While I wouldn't have picked a pink angel (it would look kind of dated as she got older) I let her pick it and had to live with it. The only requirement I had was that it needed to use lots of different threads, so we could see how they all worked up. What a fabulous stocking! It wasn't cheap, because a few colors had to get ripped out and started over. But you don't have to know a lot of fancy stitches if you're using fun threads. In fact, I think it can get kind of overwhelming if there's too much going on. So Mom just used continental stitch, I think.

It took about 6 months to get the stocking finished. Wow! It has metallic floss, Impressions, Splendor silk, pearl cotton #3, floss and some basic persian wool (Mom's favorite). There's some pearl Pizazz (a wonderfully irridescent thread) for the angel's wings, and a bit of Sprinkles. Compared to my boring knitted stocking (done by my Great Aunt when I was a kid), this one's a real showpiece.

Now I'm an advocate for having lots of fun with threads. And like my quilting stash, you can never have too much!
Yours in thread heaven,
Catherine
www.discountneedlework.com

2003-07-08T12:16:00.000-07:00
Crewel embroidery brings back memories!

Here at discountneedlework.com we sell a lot of crewel embroidery kits. We're lucky - the big chain stores haven't discovered that people are really having fun with crewel so they aren't stocking much. We are happy to be able to offer a good selection of crewel kits. I have many fond memories watching my mother do crewel work.

This was back in the 60's. Remember "Colonial style?" Everyone had spindle-leg end tables, braided rugs and ship's lamps. Unless of course you were into Modern, which we weren't, thank heavens. So my mother and her aunt (what a crafty lady!) decided to get into crewel embroidery. They bought yards of "homespun" and some Elsa Williams crewel yarn. Then they bought something like Aunt Martha's designs with tissue paper iron-on transfer designs of little birds, flowers, vines and so on, all in the traditional Jacobean style. Mom would cut the tissue designs apart, arrange them face down on the fabric, then iron to get the finished design onto her fabric.

Mom kept all the little cut outs in envelopes - big flowers, little flowers, whatever. In those days with limited air conditioning, I remember the little tissue paper pieces kept blowing around. I'd find one on the coffee table, another on the couch. They just didn't want to stay stacked up. Once the the design was ironed down, Mom would start embroidering - usually around the kids' bedtime. She'd do a flower, and then say "I'll just finish the leaves and go to bed". Then after the leaves were done, she'd say "I'll just finish the stems, and then go to bed." Next thing you know, it was midnight (or worse)! She got a lot of stitching done in the wee hours.

So we had lots of things with crewel embroidery on it. My favorite was the telephone book cover. (In the days of Sunday hats, dress gloves, and such, you covered anything that was too utilitarian). Then trends changed, and Mom got away from crewel and took up needlepoint, which she liked better. But anytime I look at a piece of traditional crewel work, I remember those little tissue paper patterns drifting around, and I see my mother sitting in a corner at night stitching "just one more flower."

Nowadays, crewel is much less work - just get a kit and start sewing! It's a great way to create some memories of your own.
Remembering Fondly,
Catherine
www.discountneedlework.com

2003-06-26T10:27:00.000-07:00
The IPod is so cool!OK, so this isn't exactly about stitching. But if you like to use technical gadgets, keep reading. I like to listen to music while I sew, but my family likes to watch TV. Preferably in the dark. I bought an OTT lamp to get the good, focused light I needed, but haven't really enjoyed messing with a portable CD player.

Then we discovered the IPOD. Actually my daughter did. It's a portable MP3 player by Apple, the kings of cool! Very small (like the old transistor radios when I was a kid). Get them at high tech electronics superstores, like Fry's. You can download music selections from your favorite CDs, mix them up any way you like, charge it up and you're ready to go. 8 hour battery life and tons of songs. I just couldn't believe how cool this thing was. So now I can bring the IPOD and my stitching in a tote bag and sit and stitch while waiting on the flute lesson (or ball practice, or whatever). I've heard enough music lessons already, thanks!

My daughter actually downloads the music. She calls it the "my-pod", lest I get confused as to who's really in charge. We even used it to deliver party music to our stereo for her first ever dance party. Then my husband got the Bose noise cancelling headphones for Father's Day. He travels A LOT and the airplane noise really bothers him. The headphones actually create a signal that cancels out background noise, so all you hear is blessed silence, or whatever you plug into them, like airplane Muzak. (Available at Bose stores or Sharper Image - most of the local electronic stores were out). THEN, just for fun, we connected the IPOD to the Bose headphones. (of course!)

Wow! It's like a symphony hall. No annoying background stuff - just pure digital sound, straight from the IPOD. We're planning a family trip that will involve a long airplane ride (5+ hours). We're going to be fighting over that IPOD, I know! I always bring stitching on the plane. Maybe I can let my daughter use the cheap headphones, and I'll listen the airplane music on the Bose while I stitch.

Just thought you fellow techno-stitchers might want to check this out.
Catherine
www.discountneedlework.com

2003-06-25T19:12:00.000-07:00
Cross stitch vs. Needlepoint - you be the judge!
I was debating the merits of cross stitch and needlepoint with a friend last week. She was a cross stitch fan. No project was too big, or too challenging. She lived for blending filament, 32 count linen, and Teresa Wentzler (love those geometric borders!). My friend thinks needlepoint is for wimps. She compared it to a color book. Finally, she pointed out that, per hour spent, cross stitch is incredibly cheap.

Well, of course I had to put in my two cents worth. I love the flexibility of needlepoint - you can pick your own threads and use fun stitches for texture. No two handpainted canvases end up looking the same. Plus they're really easy to pick up and put down without losing count - just fill in the colored sections! I worked on a cross stitch cathedral for months, mostly on airplane trips, until one day I realized the two sides of the cathedral weren't going to line up - I had missed a stitch count somewhere. Now I do landscapes. You can hide all kinds of mistakes in the trees!

True, needlepoint costs more. And it does go a bit faster (which is a plus, for me). I like to have a finished project in something less than years. So I can buy more stash without that little voice complaining about the UFOs. But I confess there's nothing quite like a Mirabilia mermaid worked on hand dyed linen and embellished with metallic threads and beads. Such precision! Such detail!

So if you've always done cross stitch, give your eyes a rest and try some needlepoint. You needlepointers, save a few bucks and do that cute Lizzie Kate saying next time you need a quick teacher gift. Then let me know which you prefer (and why!) Just click on the Comments link to add your own feedback to this story, or read feedback from others!

Yours In stitches,

Catherine
email sew At discountneedlework.com (just put that @ symbol inbetween the sew and the discountneedlework and it'll go through. I'm trying to slow down the tide of spam!)