Deciding on Needlepoint Stitches to Use

Sunday, January 29, 2012

On The Art Needlepoint Facebook page, Lani asked :

"How do you decide what stitched to use in any given area?"

 

This is a great question... and we invite your comments.

TBC

Mary Delany Flowers

Monday, January 09, 2012

"Imagine starting your life's work at seventy-two".

This is the first sentence in the Paper Garden by Molly Peacock - a marvelously written book about the artist Mary Delaney. When you finish the book you may feel that a best friend has recently left.

Mary Delaney composed "an astonishing 985 botanically correct, breathtaking cut-paper flowers, now housed in the British Museum and referred to as the Flora Delanica". She began what was then a new art form - the art of paper collage - at the age of seventy-two.

A number of her paper-cut flower mosaics (remember these were all handmade tissue thin papers in the 1700's) mix painting and cutting of dried plant parts with papers to create completely satisfying works of art.

"Thin as a billowing white cotton nightgown, Mrs. Delany's Grand Magnolia lies back in the balmy darkness of the summer night of its background.  Perhaps her most blowsy bloom, plumped with the musk of maturity, it evokes the 18th century's gardener's word for a fully opened Magnolia grandiflora "blown" (magnolia's were imported to England in the 1700's and commanded a price per plant equivalent to many person's year salary).

Like Redoute's Roses, Mary Delany's flowers are a treat for needlepoint.  Careful study, concentration, availability of different hues and tones, shall I use a thread that I separate in some areas or all, how to shade (layer) the colors?  

New Year's Resolutions and Needlepoint

Monday, January 02, 2012

What you ask do New Year's resolutions have to do with Needlepoint...

 Resolution                         Solution

1. Stop smoking      Pick up a needle and thread.  Stitch until the urge to smoke goes away ... or for the rest of the day!

2. Lose weight        Stop snacking and start stitching! 

3. Reduce stress     Enjoy the zen of needlepoint at the end of every day.

4. Stop procrastinating   Every time you think  "I really should be __________"

remember the concentration you give to needlepoint

and empower yourself!

5. Be with my friends more often.   Start a needlepoint group - like a book club;

meet regularly  and laugh and stitch.

 

Through the tactile understanding of stitching

one long stitch, then a short stitch

or a french knot here and a cushion stitch there,

we learn about the depth of our commitment to ourselves and to our creativity!

 

Happy New Year Resolutions and Happy Stitching!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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