A Little Surprise

Prior to arriving in Austin, Colleen Church told us she had a surprise for us all.  I just assumed it was a really cool needle minder, which we did get.  But some of the ladies thought it might be a guest visitor.  Well they were right because it was no other than the fabulous Brenda Stofft.

Brenda Stofft

If you've been needlepointing for a while, then you've probably heard of Brenda and most likely have a few of her canvases in your stash.  Not only is Brenda one of the most successful needlepoint designers in the industry, but she is also a talented stitcher.  I had so much fun chatting with her.  It's always nice to know that an artist, who's work you admire and love to stitch, is such a nice person.

The following photos are a few of the her nativity pieces that are an exclusive to the Needle Works.  In case you are wondering, that's what Brenda was stitching while she was at the retreat.

Holy Family

The first canvas in the nativity series is the Holy Family.  This piece is gorgeous.  Colleen did such a great job creating the stitch guide.  In fact, Brenda mentioned several times about how pleased she was with how the series has turned out, and that Colleen did a fantastic job choosing threads and stitches that complemented each other but did not take away from the original design.  What a compliment!

Colleen had the Holy Family framed with a light behind the stained glass window. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the circular window was all beaded so that the light shines through.  Unfortunately due to my camera, the window looks white.  But in real life, it is dazzling with color.  Definitely a finishing technique that I've never seen before, but absolutely loved.

Magi with Elephant

Magi with Horse

I thought that these were beautiful too.  I'm curious to see how Colleen will have these and the rest of the nativity pieces finished.

For those of you who know me, you've probably already guessed that I couldn't resist this series.  I joined the club and started stitching the first canvas at the retreat!  I think my mother, who was also at the retreat, thought I was a little crazy to buy another nativity series, as I already have the Kelly Clark nativity and Amy Bunger stitch guides.  But sometimes you just have to be a little crazy and go for it.  Besides, I'm justifying it with this reasoning: I have two kids whom I would like to give each a nativity, so I have to stitch two.  Right!

Holy Family Canvas

So far, I've really enjoyed stitching this piece and have added it into my rotation of canvases.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.

If you would like to see more of Brenda Stofft's work, make sure you check out her website.  To see the rest of the nativity series, you can view them at the Needle Works' website.

Happy Stitching!

Remodeling and Needlepoint Don't Mix

On New Year's Eve, I made a resolution that I would stitch a minimum of one hour per day.  For the most part, I've stuck to it.  That is until mid August.  That's when we started to remodel our house.  Since then, my needlepoint has fallen to the wayside.

Our home has been graced with the architecture of the 1980's.  In my opinion, the 80"s were a scary decade: fashion, hairstyles and yes architecture.  For instance, the bathtub in the master bath is situated right in the middle of the room.  This was done to accommodate a planter!  Yep, you read that correctly, a planter so one could do some gardening as they relaxed in the tub. Hmmmm...makes me wonder who thought that one up....

Hopefully the bathroom will be completed soon and life will return back to normal.  In the mean time, I decided to work a canvas from the Kelly Clark nativity series.  This was part of a club that I signed up for through Amy's Golden Strand in Memphis, Tennessee.  Each canvas comes with a fabulous stitch guide written by Amy Bunger.  Amy's stitch guides are thoughtfully written and challenging.  I always learn something new when using them.

Here is my progress on Joseph after working on him off and on this past week.

The bottom border and background are the same on all the canvases.  Since I've already competed Jesus and Mary, this stitching has been easy.  I took the time to count out the trellis design to make sure that Joseph is centered in the design.  To help with the counting, I used a blue pen to continue the design on the canvas selvage.  This is a quilter's pen which will disappear when you brush with cold water.  I haven't had any problems with these pens, but I've heard from other stitchers that the blue lines can come back.  To be safe, I only use these pens on the canvas salvage.

You might also notice, that Joseph's facial features have been painted out.  Amy provides a detailed chart in each stitch guide that maps out the face.  Sometimes the chart doesn't match up what has been painted on the canvas.  At first, I thought I could stitch over the painted image, but the dark colors were showing through and creating weird shadows.  For me, it was just easier to paint out the face with good quality acrylic paint.

Here is a closeup of the border. I just love the way it turned out.

Happy Stitching!