Here is a charming essay on stitch guides and their writers by the incredibly talented Barbara Elmore. The modern guides I've seen written by Beverly Churchfield and Wendy Harwood continue this tradition of hand drawn charts and notes, and the books by Carolyn Hedge Baird all have mostly hand written text and drawings to illustrate her points.
http://web.me.com/bedezines/Stitchpography/stitchpography/Entries/2009/11/30_the_wonderful_world_of_stitch_guides%21.html
Mar 27, 2011
Mar 21, 2011
Why Buy a Stitch Guide?
This morning I stumbled across an interesting article on the Ridgewood shop blog that talks about a painted canvas embellishment class Jan took at the ANG Seminar. This class was team taught by Suzanne Howren, Tony Minieri, Beth Robertson and Meredith Willett. Jan came home with a stitch guide she developed under their tutelage but she wasn't happy with the sky so she posted a question on the ANG email list asking for ideas. You can follow the link Elaine put in her article if you want to see the piece and Jan's thoughts on it.
http://ridgewoodneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-horizon.html
The reason I mention this (besides it's being a quite interesting discussion) is that I wanted to point out there are many reasons for buying a stitch guide. Most people buy one because they don't know how to stitch a painted canvas they bought except for tent stitches. That isn't something everyone wants to do these days, so a stitch guide is very helpful.
Other folks use a stitch guide as a jumping off point. With a guide, you don't have to make every decision yourself. Many folks want all the decisions made for them so they can just sit and stitch in a relaxed manner, but others take the guide as a general map and substitute threads and stitches for spots where they have ideas of their own they think will work better. That is what Jan ended up doing and in my experience, many folks have very decided ideas about how they want to stitch a piece--they just have a problem area they are unsure of or they need help figuring out how to execute their plan.
The third reason for buying a stitch guide is to learn. Each stitch guide writer has an individual style that probably is different than your own. I love reading stitch guides to analyze them to learn how a master approaches a certain canvas. I keep them and re-read them periodically, using the stitches diagrammed inside in other similar places, and just for the joy of watching a really good stitcher at work.
Whatever your reason for adding a stitch guide to your collection, I hope you have great fun stitching your piece with a stitch guide leading the way.
http://ridgewoodneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-horizon.html
The reason I mention this (besides it's being a quite interesting discussion) is that I wanted to point out there are many reasons for buying a stitch guide. Most people buy one because they don't know how to stitch a painted canvas they bought except for tent stitches. That isn't something everyone wants to do these days, so a stitch guide is very helpful.
Other folks use a stitch guide as a jumping off point. With a guide, you don't have to make every decision yourself. Many folks want all the decisions made for them so they can just sit and stitch in a relaxed manner, but others take the guide as a general map and substitute threads and stitches for spots where they have ideas of their own they think will work better. That is what Jan ended up doing and in my experience, many folks have very decided ideas about how they want to stitch a piece--they just have a problem area they are unsure of or they need help figuring out how to execute their plan.
The third reason for buying a stitch guide is to learn. Each stitch guide writer has an individual style that probably is different than your own. I love reading stitch guides to analyze them to learn how a master approaches a certain canvas. I keep them and re-read them periodically, using the stitches diagrammed inside in other similar places, and just for the joy of watching a really good stitcher at work.
Whatever your reason for adding a stitch guide to your collection, I hope you have great fun stitching your piece with a stitch guide leading the way.
Mar 16, 2011
Art Needlepoint's "Stitch Guide"
Art Needlepoint's blog just mentioned what they call a stitch guide, emailed free to anyone who has bought from them in the last year. It appears to be a collection of twenty-two diagrammed stitches along with hints on where to use them. It is NOT what we generally refer to as a stitch guide, which is usually what a road map plan for a specific canvas is called by modern needlepointers.
http://artneedlepoint.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=1264&PostID=69700
Please note that Art Needlepoint sells glicee printed canvases (and some hand painted ones--see Doreen's Comment below) that reproduce various paintings. Their work is not stitch painted so if you are not comfortable with canvases where you have to figure out what color goes where, you should avoid their designs.
http://artneedlepoint.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=1264&PostID=69700
Please note that Art Needlepoint sells glicee printed canvases (and some hand painted ones--see Doreen's Comment below) that reproduce various paintings. Their work is not stitch painted so if you are not comfortable with canvases where you have to figure out what color goes where, you should avoid their designs.
Mar 8, 2011
Tapestry Fair Stitch Guides on Website UPDATED
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| Partridge and Pear Stitch Guide |
Hurrah! Tapestry Fair has reorganized their stitch guides section of their website to include guides for their canvases from many sources. Sometimes there are multiple guides available for the same piece so you can pick the style closest to your own. Here's the link.
http://www.tapestryfair.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=92&Itemid=73
Here is what Peggi says about the guides on her blog.
http://tapestryfair.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-stitch-guide-page.html
By the way, Ruth Schmuff just finished the stitch guide for Tapestry Fair's Pharaoh Dog. I am not sure this is up on the Tapestry Fair site yet so here is the link to Ruth's description of the guide. Follow the links to Ruth's shop to pick up the guide or to see her companion piece, Bastet the Cat.
http://www.notyourgrandmothersneedlepoint.com/2014/03/the-pharoah-dog.html
UPDATE: Here's the Halloween owl stitched using Tapestry Fair's guide.
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