March Meeting - Unleashing Over-Dye Thread

Threads over dyed in an intriquing palette of colors.  They're inspiring and fun to see the colors change as you stitch.  Barbara's presentation taught us about the different kinds of over-dyes (Tone-on-Tone, Shadow Dye,  Variegated, Heather, Tie-dye, Tweed, etc).  On the left is a photo of the threads she used to show us the differences. 

There are silks, cotton, linen, wool, soy, metallic and ribbon.  They each present different challenges for dyeing. 

You can see different effects when stitching with overdyes, depending you use the strands in a needle and which stitches you use.

Here are some suggested books for reference:
"Colorful Stitches for Over-dye Thread", by June McKnight, 2010, self published.
"Getting the Most Out of Overdyed Threads", part One, by Catherine Jordan, Needle Pointers September 2006
"The Thread Thesaurus", 2002, Thread Techique Team LLC, Ann Caswell, Suzanne Howren, Beth Robertson

Here are photos of the lastest finishes from our Show and Share:
  

  

   





pattern is "Galaxy" by Needle Delights
Colorway was inspired by the quilt







February Meeting - Bargello Night

Suzanne gave a wonderful presentation on Bargello.  She displayed just some of her collection of books on Bargello along with stitched examples.  We learned some history of this stitch, and also technique, reading material, samplers, original work and some handouts to get us started.  The touching moment of the presentation was when Suzanne showed us a piece that her mother had stitched while she had Alzheimers. 

Some Bargello books from Suzanne's library

This will be an upholstered chair

Some Bargello Samplers

A lesson on counting the Bargello stitches

A beautiful Bargello piece stitched by Suzanne's mom

February Meeting - Finishes & Borders!

First we'll show some finishes for this month.  A real variety of items too!  There's painted canvas, some more Hearts, a Kumihimo necklace, counted canvas and some original work too.  Every month we bring our borders project to the meetings.  They're all so different in color and stitch choices.  Here is our progress in pictures.



A Kumihimo necklace - a local bead shop class!





ANG Stitch of the Month - 2011   by Norma

ANG Stitch of the Month 2012

This years design for the ANG stitch of the month is a heart with 12 areas for different stitches. Our chapter will stitch the piece as a group.  Each month a member will take home the canvas and get to stitch part of the heart. The design is done on 18ct white and silver mono canvas with a variety of threads in reds and silver. It's a mystery "stitch of the month", so we have to wait until next month to see what the next stitch is.  Visit the Ang website for more detail information.

January Meeting

Outside the meeting hall there was a cold wind blowing, but inside it was warm and cozy as we learned about needlepoint borders.  We had a table full of magazines and books on stitches for inspiration.  Borders add interest to your needlework, but where to begin?  We wrote a 2-page handout as a guide to making a border.  If you are stumped for a design then browse through your own bookshelf of needlepoint magazines and books on stitches. The ANG magazine "Needlepointers" has lots of ideas and articles on borders, particularly issue year 2006. Next month we'll post photos of your borders progress.

December Meeting - Potluck Dinner

We celebrated the holidays with a Potluck Dinner.  Members brought in such a variety of food it was hard to know where to begin.  Two tables full of savory dishes to taste and whole separate table full of sweets to for dessert.  After tasting the dishes we asked each other for the recipes.  The highlight was our show and share table which filled quickly.

Bob surprised us all with all the progress he made on his Borders Project.  The technique is Hardanger on canvas.  It's an original design and the flower detail in the squares is just beautiful. 





Enjoy the show and share - here are some more stunning finishes.  The first picture is counted canvas technique, "Galaxy", in a primary color palette.  Old St. Nick is in cross stitch - it had been sitting in stash limbo - we're glad you decided to finish it, Sue - It's just beautiful.

Galaxy by Needle Delights

Next are three Christmas painted canvases, beautifully interpreted by Cathy.  The pears have kept her busy too - here's 7 and counting!

A close up of the needlepoint

Kelly Clark Pears



Needle Delights



Rounding out the table of show and share are two pieces designed by Needle Delights, "Amazing Color" and "Color delights - Purple".  Each beautifully showcased.

November Meeting - Finishes

A table full of beautiful finishes by our members.  There is needlepoint, pulled work, and Hardanger.



Hardanger on the left, Pulled work on the right



2011 November Meeting - Borders #1

Our chapter project is to learn about needlework borders.  In October we drew a 6" square onto 18ct canvas and devided it into 6 columns with a "floating" square in each column.  This month we stitched our squares.  The leader offered some suggestions (see the yellow square samples) and we all started stitching.  Each stitcher was creative in their choice of color, fiber and stitches.  Some of us just started our squares and some haved moved ahead of the class.  

The squares are made with 'Very Velvet' thread

6 different stitch ideas for your square