INDEPENDENT NEEDLEWORK NEWS

This year is the third annual Needle Arts Mystery Retreat. This year’s retreat, Canvas Country, will be held in Nashville, Tennessee during the weekend of July 19th - 22nd.

The five designers involved in this fun but mysterious stitching event are Patricia Hartman and Mary Knapp, both of Creative Reflections, Jackie Murawski of Sam-Cloth Designs, Linda Reinmiller, and Debbie Rowley of DebBee’s Designs. Be sure to visit the designers’ websites for an idea of their styles!

At the retreat, these designers will present a trunk show of their work, and you’ll have opportunities for stash enhancement. You’ll want to save up for this shopping excursion, as these designers are some of the top needlework instructors in the US — and most of their designs are NOT available in stores!

Each designer created a portion of the Mystery Retreat design and then stitched the entire project model in her choice of colors. After you see what the design looks like stitched in each of the five stunning colorways which resulted, you will select one of those colorways for your project. The pictures shown here depict the five color palettes available this year.

This gorgeous charted needlework project will be done on 18 count canvas using a combination of silk and other (non-wool) fibers.

You’ll find more information about this wonderful Mystery Retreat weekend here. Additionally, I will be posting even more information about it here in a day or two, so watch this space!

Technorati Tags: Jackie Murawski, Mary Knapp, Patricia Hartman, Linda Reinmiller, Debbie Rowley, Needle Arts Mystery Retreat, Canvas Country, Creative Reflections, Sam-Cloth Designs, DebBee’s Designs, needlepoint, charted needlework, canvaswork, canvas work

These scissors, which have a laser to guide you in cutting a straight line, are available here:

Perhaps the idea will catch on and scissors designed for cutting fabric will be enhanced with lasers, too … Until then, I can dream!

Technorati Tags: laser, lazer scissors, scissors, laser scissors, cutting fabric, cross stitch

Isn’t this chair the coolest? According to the designer, Lindsey Weisenthal, as posted on her website, it is made of steel, plastic canvas, and yarn. I think it looks quite comfortable! I wonder how long it takes to make each one?

Technorati Tags: needlepoint, Lindsey Weisenthal, plastic canvas, chair

There is a contest going on over at Tokens & Trifles. Five people will each win $75 worth of product from Tokens & Trifles … but you can’t win if you don’t enter, of course, so hop over there and enter.

Don’t forget to let us know if you win!

Technorati Tags: Tokens & Trifles, contest

I ran across this while still quite bleary eyed, and it lifted my spirits. Embroidery of any kind almost always does that.

Plus, this particular work of art is an example of synesthesia, which is also the title of one of my favorite songs (by Peter Himmelman, from his album Synesthesia). Synesthesia is an experience in which one of your five senses perceives something that is usually perceived only by another sense. In this case, you actually see sound. Anyway, it’s pretty neat to have two of my greatest passions cross paths this morning.

Technorati Tags: Louisa Burfardeci, telephone conversations, phone conversations, tapped, synesthesia, Peter Himmelman

That means it’s not just the start of the weekend and hopefully lots of undisturbed stitching time … It’s also time to check out Hoffman Distributing to see the latest releases in the world of cross stitch. Here’s one I like:

It’s called A Spot of Halloween and is from Midnight Stitching. I love the darling little ghost in the background, too!

Technorati Tags: Hoffman Distributing, cross stitch, Spot of Halloween, Midnight Stitching, new releases

Did you know every three months is the Cross Stitch Expo? That’s right, the first two weeks of March, June, September, and December are, in Expo terminology, “the beginning of a new stitching season.”

One of the neat things about the Expo is that you can purchase items you’re interested in directly, rather than having to find a shop that carries them or convince a shop to order for you. Another nice element is that certain patterns from each designer are available to you at discounted prices.

Featured designers in the March 2007 Expo include:

Wiehler Gobelin,

Tanya Meehan Designs,

Tams Creations,

SzuLet Creations,

Stitch A Painting,

Stab and Stash,

Solaria Gallery,

Rhazz CS Design,

Oakhaven CS Designs,

Napa Needlepoint,

MistyDreamz,

Kizzie’s Creations,

Keslyn’s,

India Grace Designs,

Debbie Draper Designs,

Country Cross Stitch Kits,

Art of Stitching,

A Little Stitching,

Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks, and

Adventures in Stitching.

Get to know a designer or two that might be new to you, and don’t forget to participate in the Freebie Hunt and play Tombola!

But hurry, as this Expo is only open through March 14th. After that, you’ll have to wait until June!

Technorati Tags: Wiehler Gobelin, Tanya Meehan Designs, Tams Creations, SzuLet Creations, Stitch A Painting, Stab and Stash, Solaria Gallery, Rhazz CS Design, Oakhaven CS Designs, Napa Needlepoint, MistyDreamz, Kizzie’s Creations, Keslyn’s, India Grace Designs, Debbie Draper Designs, Country Cross Stitch Kits, Art of Stitching, A Little Stitching, Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks, Adventures in Stitching, Cross Stitch Expo, Tombola

I ran across some very helpful instructions (with great pictures so you won’t get confused) for the detached buttonhole (also known as hedebo) stitch on Annies Crazy World, a blog written by Annie Whitsed. These instructions are for those occasions when you don’t want your detached buttonhole stitch to “flop around” at all. In other words, you’ll only want to use this method when you intend the buttonhole stitch to be only a decorative stitch, rather than to be used to actually wrap around a button.

Annie uses a herringbone stitch to “anchor” the buttonhole stitch down at its center. To see how she does it, check out this post and this one, too.

No more “floppy” buttonhole stitches!

Technorati Tags: hedebo, detached buttonhole, herringbone, Annies Crazy World, Annie Whitsed

A helpful stitcher with the username SusanMcRN has put four very short videos on YouTube which might prove useful for you. They show how to make a French knot!

Technorati Tags: French knot, cross stitch, SusanMcRN

After running across the COOLEST peacocks I’ve ever seen, it’s one of those times! This qualifies for some of the neatest redwork I’ve run across, too.

Technorati Tags: redwork, peacock, machine embroidery