Ooooops, it's Saturday

Well, I posted a slide show of the rug I painted on Wednesday and said I would give details Thursday....well my life has been on a never ending treadmill the since February, business changes all the way around and working models and generally spreading myself very thin...

this is all manageable , but I do have a time problem...no matter how well i plan my week, something always either takes longer or is unexpected...so I seem to be playing catch up these days...so in the scheme of things..this posting being only three days late is a minor blip....

the rug...where does someone begin....I have painted things from graphs before ...customers have often thought that stitching from a graph is easy, until they start..it is always easy to correct a painted canvas...but much harder to rip out stitches when you lose your place...Small graphs are easy to paint from...but a large rug

this one being 36 "Sq. on 10st...is harder than you think...even the most exact painter, as i like to think of myself...finds it hard to not drop stitches and lose count over such a large project...like knitting...

anyway...it started the rug by counting out the top and right side to start my painting...

the customer changed some colors and i deleted some greens, that frankly I thought weren't necessary and would make it easier for the customer to work...sometimes designers get carried away with shading, over the years I have found that keeping to a dark , medium and light of one family is plenty and that no matter how clearly you paint , a stitcher will get too confused if you go overboard with too many shades... to make it easier..i mixed my colors and coded them the same as the graph...this helped...and after the first quarter of the rug had been painted, I knew each and every color code....

things moved slowly...and some days it seemed I didn't make any progress...

the tricky part was making it all fit together at the end......after losing a stitch here and there,

i just did a little creative fixing at the end ...you would never notice.......

this rug was a free-bee in a magazine called Stitcher's World.....offered over many issues...a bit at a time...the rug was designed by Sharon S. pope and it was called Victorian garden...free is the tricky part here...you get what you pay for in life...and if you have a year or two to count and work this rug from a graph..then go for it...clearly you have time and the patience of a Saint...

my customer only wanted the center bit...it had a boarder of flowers in the original...way over the top...too busy by far and i think the center was plenty....

the customer tried to count the rug herself , but found it so hard to follow and frankly being able to sit and work a painted version is much kinder to your mind...

I did this rug because , the customer is a lovely lady and I have painted her dogs and restored an old stool her mother had worked that had become damaged by time, sun and the elements...she is a joy..... this type of painting is not my thing.....the only advantage I had , was that i stitch paint everything....

I knew it would be time consuming and frankly I thought I would never finish...It is much easier to draw and paint your own image ..but painting following a graph this size is for the birds and I will not repeat this type of project again....maybe I am just getting old.....

the comical side was that 10st requires a lot of paint and that each and every day my hands and lower arms looked like a Jackson Pollock painting...

but the customer was trilled and thinks i am wonderful...so making her happy helps and with everyday that passes, I recover from this long project...

so all is back to normal...while i was painting , I was in a bear of a mood...it made me irritated...some projects just do...and it is not always the big projects...it is just life....you never know...but after more than 37 years of painting everything under the sun in needlepoint...you can always tell, what will be a boooger to paint after the first day.......trust me ...this was a boooger .......lol...

The Rug Today ..details Thursday !

Will the Real Squiggee Bark ! Or Stand-Up

For the record....Squiggee..aka..the Squig, Squiggee-Buns..or any other combo...is a dog.....and Also the CEO of my Needlepoint line of very quirky canvases....my name is not Squiggee...and my husband ,that some affectionately call Mr. Squiggee..is Ken..although he gets great pleasure out of being referred as Mr. Squiggee( men can be strange at times)....it is a running joke that we all work for the Dog!....although if she could talk , I am sure we would....

She is a registered Boston Terrier , and her official name is

Miss Squiggee-Buns Hendrix....she is short for a Boston, the runt of a litter , and not show worthy according to her specs..too short and not the right amount of white markings...she is a little brindle(flecked with brown in her fur in a certain light...very desirable in Boston circles)...she is a wonderful dog...smart and stubborn, and a joy to have in the studio..all our dogs are raised in the painting studio, because that is where I am for the most part in the daytime...they have destroyed paint tubes ,brushes, and canvas as puppies...Squiggee even managed to eat a scotch tape dispenser..a small one , but it created great anxiety at the time...

Squiggee came from a breeder in West Virginia...way down in the country, you could almost hear the banjos in the trees playing...her parents were two huge Bostons, both show dogs..her father was a brindle and her mother was called Bittzy.....they were truly beautiful in that way Bostons are..not the conventional pretty ..in fact Squiggee was such an ugly pup..we had to rethink her name...driving back with this puppy , she made us think of a character on the old show called Lavern & Shirley...the Squiggee character had big bulging eyes and black slick backed hair and he was short!!!...we added the BUNS...so she would seem more girlie...as Squiggee matured and she grew into her head size and her ears uncurled she became better looking...the more you love them, the better looking they get.....we have always had mixed breeds before and cute comes to mind , our first being a double for Benji....so Squiggee was a shock at first sight...neither my husband or myself had ever seen a Boston or pup in person before we met Squiggee for the first time...just pictures in our dog books...it is an uncommon breed out here in Rural PA...everything here is a mixed breed or Shepard and something..lol..

...when I joined eBay..my user name was squiggee*buns....

so it only stands to reason...that when I started the Squiggee line on Ebay...the name was already in place...at the time I thought it was such a crazy name that no one would have it on a line of canvases and that once you hear it and get the strange spelling right you will never forget it....besides...one cannot say it without smiling..it is a happy name and the line of canvases was created to be small designs and happy like the Squig!

Now really...who would name a child Squiggee...my name is Gail Hendrix....but I am actually the artist that creates Squiggee canvases so in reality I am Squiggee...so my husband is Mr. Squiggee...

and if anyone reading this cannot tell which one in the picture is the real Squiggee...then truly it doesn't matter...lol...

here in Squiggeeland...we are all Squiggers and I do Squiggify the designs or put the Squiggee on it..see it is a fun name...our names are dull in comparison....

and it is not every Boston that has her own company...lol

all you have to do is to get the spelling right...lol

A Teaser..lol

OK...right now I am involved in painting a custom rug from a graph for a great customer...it is on 10st and the graph is coded you know x,/,? for the colors... the graph is all in black and white....and if you don't think that is a B..i..t...c...h.....then clearly you have never done this...anyway when I finish..... that is another blog entry...
Now onto the teaser....It was about this time last year when I finished my first worked Squiggee for a model....never having stitched in any fiber but wool...I was forced to come into the 21st century and explore all the new fibers that I had been hearing about, first hand...over load to put it mildly...now a year later...something has happened to me..and my last project is an example of a regular stitcher run amuck in the limitless land of fibers...
I love to use a new fiber..the harder to work with ,seems to be my thing, because Squiggee i find lends itself to sparkle and since I love the effects of the fibers next to each other...I find that I have gone over to the dark side....like a junkie....but I feel that ,since I am aware of my weakness...and having to spend a large part of my day painting...that I surely will be able to keep a lid on this....and won't have to hid my fiber stash, in pillowcases under the bed and secret shoe boxes tucked in back of the linen closet...at least they aren't gin bottles...
so here we go .. a perfect example a list of the fibers I used on my last project,(the finished canvas is at the finisher)... this list is minus beads and do das that sometimes are part of the Squiggee design...and to be fair this design was worked to attract interest...not the everyday needlepoint...
when the model back from the finisher all will be revealed...
now for the fiber list on this one project...lol...

DMC 4 WHITE
DMC 25 WHITE SNOW 05 FIESTA RED
WATER N' ICE WT1
DMC SATIN FKLOSS S2111..PURPLE
SNOW 17 CARBON
THREADWORX KREINIK FINE 12
DMC PEARLESCENT EFFECTS E5200
KREINIK METALLIC MEDIUM 16 BRAID 01HL
DMC SATIN FLOSS S5200
KREINIK METTALIC MEDIUM 16 094
NEON RAYS N54
NEON RAYS N68
MANDARIN FLOSS M908
KREINIK METALLIC MEDIUM 16 032
KREINIK METALLIC 1/16 RIBBON 105C 10M
SNOW 09 SILVER
RG FUZZY STUFF FZ15
FYRE WERKS FT15
GLITTEROTTI PURPLE
SOIE CISTAL BY CARON 057
KREINIK METTALLICS MEDIUM 16 100
FYRE WERKS SOFT SHEEN FT25

I keep a book, that I list all the fibers I have used on any of the Squiggee models worked..... when I looked at the list for this project, I laughed at myself...I have truly lost all grip on reality.... going back to just wool is not an option...but then I have a whole new realm of wools to explore ......with all the fibers ,textures and sparkles available..I don't know how I would survive a trip to a shop that carries the whole ball of wax...I would probably just faint with the overall spectrum...only coming too ,when a little metallic fiber was used like smelling salts..
now I do not suggest that a stitcher go to such extremes for every project...certainly the canvas and design will dictate what fibers are appropriate...Squiggee designs are fun and for a large part you can go wild and use fibers that clearly would no suite the formal pillow on your linen couch...lol...
anyway...I am having fun...although some of these fibers are hard to work with...i just love looking at my stash for a cheap thrill.....maybe Betty Ford has a wing for me down the way...
at least the fibers are not fattening or carry a disease( discounting my mental condition)..just talking about the fibers , makes me have a rush....I am not to blame, it is the needlepoint community...
!!!!

Stitchery Square Rocks

Once Again .....my finishers at Stitchery Square in Camden , Maine

(see their link on this page) preformed their special magic and turned the 10st Gingerbread house and the two little Raggedy Ann and Andy cookies worked on 18st, into a great pillow...

no ordinary pillow...the pieces are appliqued on a sleeve that fits over a stuffed pillow and tied on at the corners....so a person( not me mind you) can change the look of the piece by changing the inner pillow...so how cool is that...I found a picture of this kind of pillow and sent it along with the pieces and Michele and her girls just ran with it...they do such a beautiful job and have a real feel for color and how to enhance a piece of needlepoint...not smother it...afterall...the finishing just adds to the needlepoint, shouldn't be your main focus...and this finisher is always right in tune with my vision....they are easy to work with and have become family...they are Squiggers!!!!

This pillow will travel to El Paso soon and will make it's appearance at the St. Louis show...

FYI...you would have to have a pretty cute country house to have this pillow....just looking at it , makes me worry that I am becoming almost sweet !...something to ponder...lol

The Last Bell Rings