August Newsletter

I always feel such happiness and relief when I push the send button and the magazine files whirl through cyber space and land on my printer’s desktop. I take a deep breath and congratulate myself on making my print deadline. At the end of the day Jay and I have a cocktail and toast to the issue. “To another great issue!”

The September/October issue features some wonderful projects by designers, some new and not so new designers. The cover has a fun Halloween piece called Spell Caster’s by Lynn Mason that has three little witches sitting at the bar having an adult beverage, as my friend Vicky DeAngelis calls it.

Melita Glavin took some stitches from Mary Leggallet’s Simply Stitches column and designed two fun geometrics called Prime Examples, that fit into a pair of Sudberry bookends or easy to obtain 4” x 4” frames. You can choose a few threads from your stash and a 9” x 9” canvas to make these in just a few stitching sessions.

I have always admired Danji Designs’ Earth Art canvases but to be truthful, they intimidate me. Jill Rigoli has stitch guided one of my favorites, the Bee. The next time I’m in a shop that has this canvas, I’m going to have to buy it and stitch it myself. The artist, Sue Coccia is from the Pacific Northwest and basis her designs off totems. The guide breaks down the design into sections and they are all very doable. Jill loves beads so she incorporated many into her stitch guide. I love beads too. This will be fun.

For those of you who love Patricia Mazu, you will be happy to learn that we have two of her kite designs in this issue. Every year Patricia makes an ornament for each member of her family. She chooses a shape, this time it was kites, picks colors that are a favorite of the person she is stitching for and creates each a unique ornament. I wish she would adopt me!

Victoria Whitson, the maker of those beautiful lanyards and fobs we see at fine needlework shops, was playing around with QR Codes, those square codes that show up on everything from cereal boxes to magazine and newspaper ads. She learned how to write her own messages in the code format and painted them on needlepoint canvas so we can stitch them. Laura Taylor came up with some interesting stitches that jazz up the QR code canvases and make them fun to stitch. This perfect blend of talents along with Island House Needlepoint’s finishing magic, turn a simple canvas into a useful stitching item. Read all about it in this issue!

The Wedding of Max and Mabel has the last installment in this issue. All the dogs are stitched and the presents too, everything is ready for the big day. Donna Brandeis LaGanga had a great time creating the fantasy wedding between her black lab, Max and my standard poodle, Mabel. And to think, in real life they haven’t even met. Donna, you are such a yenta!

The September/October issue is full of informative and fun articles. I think you will all be pleased.

Another announcement is that we have postponed our 2021 tours to 2022. With the recent surge in COVID-19 it didn’t make sense to travel to the U.K. The rules and regulations for international travel change like the wind and we didn’t want to take a chance of having to quarantine in either the U.S. or the U.K. or risk the health of our clients. The new dates are posted on our website, www.needlepointnow.com.

Until next time,

Magazine publisher, Out!

Elizabeth