Summer Needlework Market New Products

This past weekend was the summer market for TNNA, held in June, usually in Columbus. Jenni’s ice cream aside (I’m told it’s amazing), there are plenty of wonderful new needlepoint canvases to keep you busy stitching.

A couple of years ago Alice Peterson scored a big hit with their cookbook canvas. They have brought out two more bookshelf canvases to go with it, both on 18 mesh. The classics bookshelf has classic novels from Moby Dick to Catcher in the Rye. Many of the editions on the shelf are in the late 19th-century style with ornate designs on the bindings. Joining them is the children’s bookshelf. It’s got childhood classics including The Cat in the Hat and Winnie the Pooh. I’m certain many of these were on my kids’ shelf, but they never looked so nice. These will be very popular and some shops are already planning stitch guides or classes for them.

I addition to these, the company has lots of other great new things. There are a pair of canvases full of birdhouses. One has them in traditional house style, but the other is nautical with houses that are sailboats, lighthouses, and beach huts, mostly in red, white, and blue. They also have new stockings and sayings as well as a charming heart sampler with nine charming hearts that would be great for showing off techniques and embellishments.

If the heat gets you down, you can always have a stitching escape with Leigh Designs, Her Summer Sips cocktail rounds join her holiday cocktails from late last year. Painted on pink canvases, the eight drinks look so cool and are festooned with flowers, fruit, and clever garnishes. The drinks go from the classics, such as Bloody Marys, to newly popular drinks, such as Mojitos, to tiki bar classics, such as Pina Coladas served in coconut shells. I love this series even more than the holiday drinks — and that’s saying something!

BB Needlepoint Designs wasn’t at the show, but has new designs including stockings with turned up toes, a birch tree trunks canvas, a several new ornaments. My favorite new canvas from them is a desert scene with lots of blooming canvas with an inquisitive armadillo in the middle of them.

There are two new colors in the Lee Needle Arts silk bag that holds their three inch round. You can now buy them in a bright hot pink and in turquoise. They also have two new leather trays, a rectangular one and a larger square. The square one will fit Silver Needle travel rounds (4.25″ diameter). Both are available in black, white, red, or teal.

Silver Needle has added two new travel rounds to this growing line. You can now get Costa Rica and Oregon from your collection. Kelly Clark has a new series of squares in blue and white with shells in the center and a lovely border of blue and light blue checks. Their style is timeless but not frumpy. I am very excited about her three cosmetic rounds. There’s lipstick, make-up brushes, and eye crayons. These would be so fun stitched and put into a Lee cosmetic or silk bag — what a great present!

At the winter show a new designer for Colonial Needle, Son of a Stitch, was a hit with their line that paired great geometric patterns with canvases in seven of Lee’s most popular sizes. For this show they have seven new patterns. While the designs are great on their own, why not make them more special by adding an initial to them?

Needlecrossings has some lovely canvases with garden and sea critters. I’m in love with the canvas that has a hummingbird stopped in mid-flight sipping on a flower just visable at the picture’s edge. There is also a dragonfly on a blade of grass and a bee sipping from a flower, both rounds. From the sea there are turtles and crabs, new in several different shapes. They also have four new Cape May mansion canvases and a very realistic toe shoes canvas.

Rebecca Wood has the most adorable First Christmas Together canvas — it’s of a snowman and snowlady kissing. Pepperberry has a great stash-buster eyeglass case. It has simple diamonds on a white grid. You could pick any color for the grid and then show off stitches and threads in the diamonds.

Melissa Prince’s Girls Night Out series, previously an exclusive, is now available to all shops. There are more great movie coasters (I just love these) including Legally Blonde, Mamma Mia, and Sister Act. If you like her career canvases, two more have been added: chef and Physician’s Assistant. Finally, she has a lovely fall lantern, that is very elegant.

Painted Pony went exotic instead of elegant with their newest angel. She’s bedecked in animal skins and patterns from traditional African cloths and is wearing an elaborate headdress. They also have a great series of bottles decorated for Christmas that are by Diane Krater. I like them because they definitely say Christmas but they are unusual.

Associated Talents has a new, bigger size, in their 3-D cottages. Called the midi cottages, they have designs for Easter and Halloween. There is also a new bunny, plenty of new mini-socks, and two new candy corns. A great series is their simple chevron, It runs vertically on a candy corn shape and is available in three colors.