I have often banged on about the advantages of using a tapestry frame for your stitching, the main one being that your work will not distort nearly so much as it will if you stitch it ‘in the hand’.
Some people find frames awkward to use and at times I do as well!  Especially when starting a new tapestry where I tend to begin at the top. When the tapestry is attached to the frame, the top can be rather high up and you have to stretch across the canvas to stitch the first couple of inches.  Stitching is far more comfortable from about the middle of the frame downwards.
The good news is that you can stitch the top of the design upside down with no visible effect on the finished tapestry!  My mother discovered this as she used to fill in backgrounds of new designs for me. Just turn the whole frame round so that the top is at the bottom and then you can stitch comfortably from there until you have got past those distant areas at the top edge of the design.  Below, I’m stitching a prototype of the New Diamond Jubilee tapestry, so the canvas is not printed but that makes no difference.

I am also rather more mean with spare canvas for my own stitching – there is far more on all sides in the kits!
Of course, if you use a frame, you can’t go wrong but if you stitch in the hand, be very careful if you want to turn the design, that you only swap top to bottom and vice versa. If you turn the work to the side, your stitches will slope the wrong way!

With Christmas behind us and a New Year just starting, you probably feel you have earned some “Me Time”  and what better way to relax and become lost in your thoughts than with some tapestry.  You could rummage about a bit, before putting your feet up and find any tapestry treasures that you have been meaning to finish which have found their way to the back of the cupboard or the bottom of a bag.  Yes- we all do that – I have rather more than most!

 Often, there is not that much left to do and in finishing them off, you will remind yourself how much you enjoy stitching.
Alternatively, you will remind yourself what you didn’t like about it.  Was it too complicated, too fine or too dreary? At least you will know what NOT to look for next time! 

Once it is done, please do go the next step and make it up into the finished cushion. The transformation is astonishing and even the most twisted, screwed up piece of tapestry takes on a new life and becomes a thing of beauty and value.  I know this sounds a bit over the top, but it really is true.
We can make up your treasures for you if you wish – the Cushion Ladies will soon be back, raring to go. (They get a bit bogged down immediately before Christmas with last minute curtains and party frocks!)
So when you are ready, do give us a call.  If you want to make up your cushion yourself, we have a Stretching Only service (to straighten up your tapestry, no matter how crooked it is.)   Or we have a full  Making Up Service with all the details there.

My last order of 1000 tapestry needles, brought with it a few surprises! I didn’t notice it at first, but when packing larger kits, I put the bulk of the wool inside the canvas and hold it all together with the needle.  And these needles were bending!!  They were really easy to bend.

I sent a handful of the new needles back to the supplier who were as mystified as I was and have now counted and checked 1000 more needles to send to me as a replacement.
I have bent tapestry needles before, but it took a couple of years when I used the same one all the time to see how long it would last.  It took on a gentle curve, but I had to throw it away in the end because as it wore, it became too sharp!

New designs – Christmas Stocking Tapestry kits.
Somehow this year, I endeavoured to choose colours for my new designs that promptly went right out of stock with my wool suppliers. Now they tell me that most of my missing colours have arrived and are on their way to me.  So, a bit late, here is the new range for 2011!
First, Christmas Stockings for Children – not for them to stitch, but for you to stitch for them!  This is Starry Stocking.  One design, three colourways, with Santa bustling about, scattering presents and stars everywhere.
 Blue for a boy; a fantastic Hot Pink for a little girl when nothing but pink will do, and Midnight to conjure up the magic of Christmas night for just about anyone. Sadly, Midnight is still on the waiting list for wool, but I’m told the wool is due in next delivery.

Then there is Red Stocking.  A sparkling, magical stocking, packed as full as Santa’s sack with Christmas goodies. Angels and bells, Rudolf and robins, stars and snowflakes.

I had noticed that Red Christmas Stockings are difficult to find.  When I began to draw Father Christmas – I realised why!!! So he is a very bright Santa which just adds to the sparkle – I think I have got away with it…

I have more new designs on the way, but that is another post.

New from Old.
We are busy at the moment, revamping the website and one of the casualties has been my earlier blogs.  In the web developers opinion, there was no point in keeping them if they were more than a year old.  He was right in most cases, but this one I thought I would repeat as it shows what can be done when you think your tapestry cushions are beyond their useful life. This was originally posted in April 2010.

Recently, a friend entrusted me with some tapestry cushions stitched and made by her late mother.  The tapestries had never been stretched and were all quite badly out of shape. One even had a whole corner completely missing thanks to my friend’s new puppy!  My job was to straighten them out and make them into new cushions.

There were six altogether.  Here are four of them.

I needed to unpick all the tapestries from the backings ready for stretching.
But first there was the missing corner to put right.

I knew how to do it in theory but never actually braved it before – it just seemed so worth having a go this time.  In the end, it really wasn’t difficult.

First I unpicked some of the ragged stitching till I had some clear OLD canvas. Then I could pin a new piece of canvas to the back and line up the holes with the old. I matched the colours as near as I could and then began stitching through both old and new canvas to anchor the patch and then just carried on until the whole corner was complete.

Next, all the canvases had to be stretched.  To do this, I wind wire spirals into the edges and rig them up on this instrument of torture – the Stretching Frame.  Because they had been made up, nearly all the spare canvas round the stitching had been trimmed and mitred!!  Tricky.

Finally, they get thoroughly wetted and left to dry in the fresh air.

Now it’s off to the cushion lady with armfuls of fabrics and zips.  Well, I forgot the zips and had to do a return trip!

A short while later….

…Lovely square, plump cushions to remind my friend of her mother’s needlepoint skills for years to come.

For me, the fabulous thing about our Making Up Service is that we see so much ingenuity and creativity from stitchers who usually refer to themselves as  ”not a designer”
This Christmas Stocking was just such a case where its ‘non designer’ had created something very special using all sorts of motifs that mean a lot to the lucky recipient.

Clearly it is intended for a young man who plays the guitar, so she had also added a row of real plectrums – I didn’t realise plectrums had little holes to make them easy to stitch onto tapestry!

We had to be very careful because she warned us the plectrums can scratch, so just to be safe, I stitched a piece of thin fabric over them before I began the stretching process.
 It stayed there throughout the stretching and making up until the finished stocking came back from my Christmas Stocking Lady!

By the way, Fröhliche Weihnachten means Happy Christmas in German.