Debbee's Designs Blog

Exciting news – we’re offering Angles through Shining Needle Society!

Some of you have been waiting for this, now is the time! Registration runs through Jan. 31, with classes due to begin April 1. There will be 8 lessons, complete with several video stitch demonstrations that you can access during class and after.

There are several options for participation:

Full Kit – includes canvas, all threads, instructions – $180

Instructions only – just as it says, you’ll get the 175 page instruction book – $92

Instructions with canvas – some of you will want to change threads but still want the pewter canvas – $107

Audit – for those who already have the book and threads, and may have participated in a class elsewhere, but are stalled and need a little encouragement to finish – $40

Some of you will want to change the accent color from red to something you prefer. That’s fine, and I’ll send you a list of the red threads so you can make your own choices. If you opt for the full kit, you’ll still receive the red threads which you can put in your stash for another project. Some of my students have changed the accent to yellow, blue, purple, teal, pink, orange – just about any color will work with the main grayscale color scheme.

If you want to register, shoot me an email with your name, address (for mailing the kit), phone number (in case of incomplete info and I have to call), email address, which option you want, and how you’d like to pay (PayPal, credit card, check). My email address is debbie@DebBeesDesigns.com, and I’m always available to answer questions.

Thanks, and I hope you’ll join us!

Not much to report today, except that so far in 2019 I’ve managed to stitch every day! Yea!

Last night we had our ANG chapter meeting, and as always I took my stitching with me. And, as always, I was unable to stitch at the meeting. But when I came home, instead of just sitting on the couch, I managed to get about 30 minutes of stitching in. It was tempting to not, but I’m wanting to keep moving forward toward my goal.

Speaking of ANG, did you know that the Stitch of the Month is posted, usually on the first of every month. My chapter is following along and using this as our program for 2019.

I mention it because this year I’m a part of it! My partners in the Needle Arts Mystery Retreat and I were asked to create this year’s Stitch of the Month. We each took 3 months and designed a stitch. The process was interesting, and I’ll share more about that in a later post.

The first stitch for 2019 is one of mine! I hope you’ll enjoy it. Go to needlepoint.org, click on Distance Learning, and you’ll see the Stitch of the Month. It’s absolutely free for members. And if you aren’t a member, why not join this year? ANG members have access to all kinds of projects through the Stitch of the Month (members can access all of the archives), our magazine NeedlePointers, and local chapter meetings. Local chapters can access the Chapter Project Book for projects. And if you don’t have a local chapter, you can join CyberPointers. I’m a member of CyberPointers, along with 3 other chapters. There’s always something to do!

On to the day’s activities – mail, email, household chores, dog to the vet, and stitching!

Usually for my first post of the new year I outline my stitching goals for the year. This year I’m approaching it a little differently. I’d like to be able to stitch some every day. That may seem like an odd goal for a professional designer/teacher! But since I didn’t get to stitch every day last year for various reasons, I think it’s good goal for the coming year.

If I can stitch some every day I should be able to complete several projects, which would be great! I have something in mind that I’d like to start this year, and will share more about it when I get it going. Stitching every day will help me realize that project.

Stitching every day is good for my mental well being as well. For close to three decades now stitching has been my way to relax, to slow things down, to take a breather from the world. So if I can stitch every day, I should be in a better mental state!

The thing about goals is, to let them be goals. A goal is something you aim for, to give you purpose and direction. If I don’t meet my simple goal for this year, I won’t be beating myself up over it. I’ll just try again the next day. It’s been said that if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time. So I’m going to aim at something!

In the meantime, on my way to my goal for 2019, here’s what I’ve been working on, a new color way for an existing teaching project. Hopefully the new color way will garner some love, since the old one hasn’t!

This is Symphony:

This color way is rich coffee and chocolate colors, with a little pumpkin and eggplant thrown in (yes, I started dieting, hence the food fixation). If I can continue stitching some every day I should have this finished in 2 or 3 days, since the remaining areas are mostly large motif stitches that go very fast.

Here’s the original color way:

Hoping the more muted earth tones will make this project more attractive to faculty selection committees!

For those who are setting goals for the new year, best of luck in achieving them!

I can now post pictures, since ANG National Seminar 2019 has shown the pictures and I finally have great pictures to share.

Allegro is the 3 day class I’ll be teaching. Design size is 8″ x 8″ on 18 ct. sandstone canvas, and I love the colors in this one! I also love the stitches in this one, and loaded it up with some of my favorite ones – Kitty’s double fan doubled, sprat’s heads, Amadeus, several shapes and sizes of Jessicas, plus some other stitches to round out the design.

Rondo is my 2 day class, and is filled with swirly stitches and beads. Kelly green and royal blue are one of my favorite color combinations, and in fact were the colors for my wedding. I like the touches of yellow here (although you all know I don’t like yellow!). I think it’s an intriguing design and should be lots of fun to stitch, 8″ x 8″ on 18 ct. white canvas.

There are better descriptions at the ANG website, needlepoint.org. Hope to see some of you in Houston next year!

Have I mentioned how much color plays a part in what I’m stitching? Just kidding, I know I write about it a lot!

Today I want to show you how two different projects and the colors I was using affected my stitching. Both are from the “Mostly” series, and are in the two final color ways (first was grayscale with red accents, second was beiges and browns).

Since color brings out a visceral response in people, I thought to offset the neutrals and grayscale color choices I’d offer a bold palette and a pastel palette. All of the projects will be available in all four color ways, but I needed at least one model stitched in each palette.

So I tackled the bold palette in Mostly Jessicas.

Normally I love turquoise, and purple, orange not so much but at least it isn’t yellow! But I had the hardest time finding motivation to stitch with these colors all together. They all go together, they’re effective together, I just couldn’t bring myself to stitch with them. But I pressed on and got the model finished. I like the Jessicas, all the shapes and different sizes, just had trouble getting past the colors.

Then I tackled Mostly Walnetos in a pastel color way.

Wow, what a difference in the stitching experience! Start to finish, it took me about a week. I couldn’t wait to see what the colors were going to do. Soft blue, pink, lilac and even yellow – they all work together and just pop off of the antique blue canvas! I loved every minute of it.

So, my conclusion is if you find a project you like, but the colors aren’t singing to you, change them! If there’s one you don’t like, but you like the rest of them, change the one. One of my first encounters with Jean Hilton’s designs, I loved all of the colors but wanted to change out the peach to a pink (getting away from the yellow tones again). And Jean Hilton herself encouraged stitchers to change things they didn’t like. The whole story of the encounter I’ll share another time, because it’s funny and has stayed with me for close to 20 years!

The point is, stitch with colors you love, and you’ll be more pleased with the stitching experience and the end result.