A Trio of Trees (Needlepoint by Sharese)

ANG members can find the Lynn Mason stitch guide for "A Trio of Trees" in the November/December, 2025 issue of Needle Pointers.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/NeedlepointNation/permalink/25167442076239613/

The canvas is available from Needlepoint by Sharese on Etsy, which is Lynn's shop.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/4382653489/a-trio-of-trees-winter-tree-design?ref=shop_home_active_4&crt=1&sts=1&logging_key=43dd6fd50167325d8c7b1b00ff5b5c6fbba9394a%3A4382653489

Folk Heart #H-19 (Mindy and Meghan)

Melita Galvin shows off the Mindy heart that Meghan from her Main Line Stitchers Chapter of ANG stitched.  Meghan did a stitch guide (which I think is in the latest Needle Pointers) and Melita helped with stitch diagrams.

https://melitastitches4fun.com/2025/02/07/design-by-susan-dawson-contrast-talk-and-folk-heart-by-meghan-in-jan-feb-2025-issue-of-needle-pointers-magazine/

Melita Stitches Five Vases with Curly Bamboo

Years ago Melita took a class from the designer SharonG herself around Sharon Garmize's "Five Vases with Curly Bamboo" which you can see unstitched here.

https://www.amysgoldenstrand.com/store/p922/5_Vases_with_Curly_Bamboo.html

Melita used SharonG's guide for this beauty.  Sharon's a master of light coverage stitches as you can see with Vase One, the green one on the left with a feather design.

https://melitastitches4fun.com/2017/03/15/vase-1-of-5-vases-by-sharon-g/

Some of Melita's chapter buddies are also stitching this.  Some are using Sharon's guide, some guides by Amy Bunger or Tony Minieri.  In this blog article Melita worked the ruby glass vase which has lots of beads.

https://melitastitches4fun.com/2017/03/15/vase-1-of-5-vases-by-sharon-g/

For the teal blue vase with the dragonfly, Melita stuck to Sharon's light coverage although the guides by Amy and Tony have more solid stitching (and Tony has full coverage on all the vases apparently).

https://melitastitches4fun.com/2020/06/08/vase-3-of-5-vases-by-sharon-g/

The yellow floral vase was stitched next, including the bamboo stalks in the vase.

https://melitastitches4fun.com/2020/07/12/vase-4-of-5-vases-by-sharon-g/

Melita can't find the blog posting on the final vase, the cinnamon one, but this article talks about it briefly and also talks about the different ways the stitch guide writers approached this design.

https://melitastitches4fun.com/2024/04/22/sharon-g-canvas-vases/

Three versions of this design were  submitted to ANG's Needle Pointers magazine so if you subscribe you may see more of this lovely design in the January-February 2021 issue.

https://fliphtml5.com/bookcase/fmohu

Vicky Goes Egyptian UPDATED

Vicky De Angelis is starting to pack for the American Needlework Guild's Seminar in a couple of weeks.  She is taking the Egyptian cat goddess to Philadelphia to have help developing a stitch guide.  Interested?  Here's the canvas and a pile of goodies Vicky has assembled to work it with.  Now we have to wait and see what Vicky does to bring Bastet to life....
http://mostlyneedlepoint.com/08/03/counting-down-the-days-2/

http://www.egyptianmyths.net/bastet.htm

UPDATE:  Tony Minieri has a guide for this, too.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10226121016124424&set=gm.8315510401859378&idorvanity=108537025890131

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.