If you are not excited by what you have already heard about the recent Dallas Market, get ready to hear about tons of wonderful needlepoint. Remember this was a Cash & Carry market, so your local shop may have come back with many of these items.
Rainbow Gallery has introduced new colors for many of their threads. Find new colors in their furry threads, with 1 new Wisper, 2 new Angora colors, and two colors in Alpaca 18. There are 7 new colors of Rainbow Linen including two grass greens, other brights, and several neutrals. Neon Rays + got 8 new colors that include a lovely aubergine violet as well as a deep teal. In the other lines of threads enhanced with metallic there is plenty from which to choose. There are 9 new Silk Lames, all various shades of blue. These are joined by 8 new shades of Entice, mostly dark colors, and 12 new shades of Glisten, including light and dark Christmas colors as well as several pastels.
&more has several grand new canvases by one of their artists, Beck. These include a quartet of elegant patterned pumpkins and an acorn that says “Welcome Fall.” This artist also has several charming round ornaments for Christmas, winter, and Halloween. Another striking &more canvas has the head of the Statue of Liberty along with words from the famous poem on her base. Done on black in a chalkboard style, it would make a striking picture. They also have new sayings.
Annie Lane has added a Southwestern door to her door series. Mi Casa even has a pitcher of Margaritas at the ready! Griffin Needlepoint has several dog ornament rounds with each dog behaving badly: the Dalmatian is chasing Santa’s sleigh, and the spaniel is jumping to get a bone from a wreath. Julie Paukert has a lovely winter New England village with the seacoast at the top and a frozen lake with ice skaters at the bottom. It has a charming folks art style.
Melissa Shirley has a new color scheme for her floral hearts. These blue and white hearts are very elegant when stitched. She has also added new witches in a cartoon style, each holding or working on some seasonal stitching. There are also new series of witch hats and snowmen from the company. My favorite is the snowman building a snowman. The Studio has a new 3-D VW bus as well as a 3-D breakfast food truck. Denise DeRusha has a new Alamo canvas with a yellow rose and the Texas flag in the background.
Leigh Designs’ new series celebrates Sally London, the General Manager of Rainbow Gallery. From having cocktails to partying dressed in an ugly Christmas sweater, these canvases are great. All of them have stitch guides available. Shelly Tribbey has a lovely fall leaf that has many painted patterns on it. She also has adorable Halloween/Day of the Dead canvases, a cat and a dog. The skeleton animals have sugar skulls and are sitting by pumpkins decorated in sugar skull style. A Poore Girl Paints has added two stitching sayings to her rounds.
Associated Talents has several new patriotic and Halloween stars. Kirk & Bradley has new travel rounds for Lexington, San Diego, Vienna, and Naples Florida. They also have new “snowcones” with reindeer heads instead of snowmen. Whimsey & grace has a charming new owl canvas that looks like a vintage Arts & Crafts tile. If you are a fan of counted needlepoint you’ll love the new projects from Kathy Rees of Needle Delights. She has Valentine’s Day, a heart-filled canvas using several different stitches, Inchies, a former teaching piece featuring 1″ squares, and Mint Julep, now with several different color schemes.
The Meredith Collection has four new and adorable magnetic needleminders from Charley Harper designs (these are calling my name). Plus there are several new canvases of his works. These are interesting because they are his work from Ford Times which is a slightly different style. I’m glad to see some of this work now available. Funda Scully has new hinged boxes that are a real delight. There is a heart-shaped Tiffany Blue box, candy-topped boxes for Christmas and Halloween, and, my favorite a beautiful box that looks like a combination of a peacock and a sari.
Raymond Crawford has new trains out. These are for fairy tales with Snow White and Cinderella as three-canvas trains. I can’t wait to see what he does next. He has lots of new stars, including ones for The Wizard of Oz and a whole bunch of baubles and ornaments featuring candy of all kinds. Patricia Sone has a small line of glasses cases and sayings in addition to her 2″ mini kits. Victoria Whitson is offering an unusual stitching accessory. Her lovely necklaces are also chatelaines with needle threaders and/or circular thread cutters attached. Shops can customize the ones they get.
Cheryl Schaffer has added clocks to several of her coffin designs for a very different look. Alice Peterson has lots of great new canvases. Her fall scene has lots of charming house amid bright trees in lovely bright fall colors. It looks as if it would be tons of fun to stitch. They also have designer collages for Chanel, Dior, and Louis Vuitton. There is also a charming animal alphabet along with a new birth sampler. The Stitch & Zip eyeglass cases have several new designs, including a great one featuring lipsticks.
I just love Tapestry Fair’s Talavera style designs. If you were a fan of the late Ann Speiss Mill, you’ll go nuts over these designs in her style. There is the start of a nativity with Mary & Joseph and a bunch of angels. My favorite by far is the shepherd angel with a crook, three sheep, and a patchwork skirt. Sundance has brought back several of the classic Tish Indian and Southwestern designs. There is a great Penny MacLeod belt that features many of her ladies’ faces in a geometric background in her signature yellow pastel colors. Sew Much Fun has added a Hanukkah/Jewish cocktail canvas to the series that includes Christmas and Halloween. They also have new selfies gift tags for Christmas and Hanukkah. Kathy Schenkel has new travel rounds, new mini-socks with critters, and new collage rounds.
Vallerie Needlepoint Gallery introduced over 100 new canvases at the market. These include new landscapes and villages from Amanda Lawford with bright colorful buildings as well as animal silhouettes with floral patterns on them. They have also revived several of Amanda’s older designs including her Art Deco reindeer as an ornament round in bright colors on white. VNG’s licensed artist, Scott Partridge has new bird and animal canvases including lovebirds, a great tiger face, and an owl nest. Fans of Charley Harper should take note, his work is similar. His bird rounds are now available singly.
The company also has a great new series of hearts some of which are awareness hearts. Others have various animals on backgrounds patterned like Gucci bags but in bright almost-neon colors. You’ll also find patterned hearts, hearts that combine two flags, one in each half, and hearts with a groovy retro style. There are also new coasters featuring birds, geometric patterns and cocktail words.
Here’s the rundown on the coverage so far:
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
Tapestry Fair actually has rights from her family to reproduce Ann Spiess Mills designs…so those are copies of her designs, not Talavea.
Found 2 of the big magnets of Charley Harper on Meredith…where did you find 4???
Thanks Pat, you are always a wealth of information. Someone told me they were not and I knew that in the past Ann’s stuff was not available.
Actually I saw the four magnets in an email from Meredith. I think you can sign up for them on The Meredith Collection site.
Keep stitching,
Janet
Tapestry Fair sent out a plea a while back for people with original canvases to “loan” them. They want to reproduce as many as possible with family permission. Profits benefit Ann’s extended family. So happy her designs are being preserved. I donated 45 original canvases of hers to EGA collection a number of years ago. Knew no one would ever appreciate them and they are all “original artworks”. I kept a few really unique ones. She taught for us several times when Chottie Alderson brought her to SoCAL and was on PSR seminar faculty one year. A real treasure and terrible loss too soon. Ann was introduced to the ANG world at the 1977 national seminar in Denver at Mdse. Nite. She sold her monks….was inundated…couldn’t get near her table.