Reviews & Previews: Topics and Projects for the New Year

Crewel embroidery by Annake (in progress)

Now that the art shows and craft shows are over for a while and we have caught up with most family and charitable events, we have time to look toward our plans for next year. While we work the shows, we try to jot down notes about questions we are asked by customers and comments made by people who just stop by the booth to look and chat. We try to show several kinds of artwork and photography when we do art shows and many kinds of needle arts and other handicrafts when we work craft shows. We base a lot of our plans for future articles and activities on our notes and the reflections that they generate.

Original crewel embroidery by Annake

For example, a sweet young lady bought a framed piece of crewel embroidery. She asked me what kind of embroidery it was. She had never heard of crewel.  I explained that it was done on fabric, not canvas, with fine wool yarn rather than embroidery floss — although I do sometimes do surface crewel embellishments on top of finished canvas work.  (There are good acrylic yarns that can be substituted if a person has an allergy to wool or doesn't want to pay the prices for wool). Some of the stitches used for floss embroidery are used for crewel (and most can be), but there are other stitches that are more popular for crewel than for other techniques like counted cross-stitch. We gave her our business card and told her how to use  the search engine on this blog to locate past articles on crewel and on stitch "families".

Heirloom crewel pillowslip from Annake's collection

Tracing a drawing with transfer pencil

Later a lovely white-haired lady complained that it was so hard to find stamped patterns for crewel embroidery. I told her that I make my own patterns, so I had not been aware of how serious the shortage had become. I suggested that she might find some at thrift or charity shops, as people might donate them rather than discard them.

By this time I had concluded that it was high time for me to revisit the way to make iron-on patterns for all kinds of embroidery, and I plan to re-visit crewel embroidery and demonstrate more of the "families" of stitches that are most appropriate for it. So you can look for those articles to appear early in 2020.

Assisi embroidery rose by Annake

Another type of needlework that got quite a bit of attention was Assisi work. This is something that should be fun for counted-cross-stitch fanciers who are looking for something new (although the art is very old). It can also be done in canvas work if you have a nice white or tinted canvas to use for a background. Look for an article on the subject, its origins, how it was initially used,  along with illustrations, directions for a modern version of it,  and a pattern or two early next year.

Star pillow, original design by Annake

Another young lady bought a pillow with a central motif of a starburst. She asked if the design was done in flame stitch. I assured her it was and was privately delighted that she knew the term (a common name for a particular kind of bargello stitchery). She was surprised and pleased that it could be used for working out from a center in different directions. she left with business cards for herself and a friend. I promised her some new articles on bargello with emphasis on linear designs and designs radiating out from a center, like 4-way, 6-way, and 8-way designs. So look for those as well.

I will be continuing the series on Color in the New Year, starting with an article tentatively titled "The Non-Colors: Black, White, Grays and Metallics".   J.D. also has some topics he wants to pursue.

We also pay attention to comments and questions from our readers, as you can see in our seasonal Question and Answer segments. We are very gratified by the questions addressed directly to this blog and try to answer as many as we can, sometimes combining questions from more than one reader. Here are some recent examples

What special project are you currently working on?

I am currently working on a project suggested by the work of Erin Henson, California landscape artist, who has done an entire gallery show in paintings done primarily in the color orange. I couldn't pass up that kind of challenging project! She also does beautiful renditions of scenes in U.S. parks and monuments.  Those are subjects I really like, as you can see in these needlework pictures:

"Cascades" and "Monterey Cyprus", needlepoint landscapes by Annake

and in this latch-hook rug.

"Delicate Arch", latch hooked rug by Annake

However, my real love is doing pictures of animals. I am currently working on a mixed media piece involving both a color rendering and collage elements. I'm going to use many shades of orange (remember that brown is considered in the orange family) along with white, black, and grays. I will show a photo of the new project as soon as it is completed (or perhaps in stages of development).

Did the soccer players finally get their heads?

Yes, after having been lost temporarily in the flood of fall and winter projects. the fabric collage looks very like the original sketch, but I will show it at some future time.

Are we going to get more blackwork patterns soon?

In the previous post I promised more Spanish blackwork patterns and more optical illusions, so I'd better get busy designing and stitching!

Wishing you a safe and happy New Year,

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.