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Inside Arachne's Needlework Web has moved. Join us at our new location for the latest news about our designs. You can read older posts here.




October 30

Arachne's Silken Web is on the move
If you haven't visited Arachne's website this week, you may not know that Inside Arachne's Design blog has moved. We made the switch to a platform that offers more features, most important of which is you are able to comment easily. That's the good news. The inconvenient news is that you'll need to resubscribe so you can continue to receive updates either by email or in a reader. I've gone round and round trying to figure out a way to redirect the WindowsLive feed to our new home on Blogger. Unfortunately, the proposed solution is way too technical for me.

We are sorry for the inconvenience. We hope that you will continue to follow Arachne's designing adventures and share your stitching adventures with us. We love to hear from you.

The new blog address is arachnessilkenweb.blogspot.com/. Scrolll down for the link to subscirbe. You can also find us on Facebook.

Thanks for your continued interest in and support of Arachne's Silken Web. We hope to hear from you soon.

~Cynthia and Theresa





10:37 AM GMT  |  Read comments(4)

October 26

New Needlework Design in Process
More than 200 years ago, a twelve-year-old girl named Sarah Rogers sat down with a needle and thread and stitched a sampler. It survived throughout the years in remarkably good condition. Perhaps Sarah's family treated it as a treasure, passing it down generation to generation. We don't really know. What we do now is that eventually it was purchased by Dawn Lewis, an antique needlework dealer, who offered it for sale one year at the Nashville trade show. Theresa spotted it and quickly made it part of her personal collection. That was several years ago. And we always had the intention of adapting it one day.

Well, the day has come. I took on charting the design, and finally completed it today.

Sarah stitched this piece on a very high count of linen -- maybe 50 count -- with silk threads, which have withstood the test of time. Looking at the back of the work, you can see that the colors haven't faded much, although the very dark blue green ran over the years. Like many American schoolgirl samplers, Sarah's stitching was inconsistent. Her stitches are tight and uneven. That combined with the high count of linen meant I needed my Ott light, magnifying glasses and a magnifier to transcribe the stitching. I definitely had to make adjustments along the way. Even with the imperfections, it remains a beautiful example of a young girl's needlework. Here's a picture of a small section of the original, which I hope piques your interest.




I love the look of the pink buds and the vine-y stems. There are a number of different flowers, trees, birds, including two tiny owls, and bees!

Next steps are to select silks and fabric, then enlist a model stitcher. Our plan is to release the adapted design early next year. If that seems too long a wait to stitch it, why not download one or both of these free charts -- 2008 free chart or 2009 Spring needlework show freebie -- that were adapted from Sarah's sampler to satisfy the urge to get started.

~Cynthia




5:31 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

October 14

Ending the Christmas Journey
We end our little trip behind our Christmas designs with Safe Home.  This design isn't strictly a holiday design, of course, but is suitable given how many of our nearest and dearest are far from home.  Isn't this exactly the sentiment you feel while waiting for loved ones to arrive for the holidays?
 
I've mused often about the concept of 'safe home', especially as friends send their children off to study abroad or to serve in the military.  As I watched the drama of the journalists returning home after their Korean imprisonment, I realized that this concept of returning 'safe home' is something that touches every part of our lives - work, family, society.  
 
So I started researching symbols of home and safety.  Every element of the design in some way reflects these concepts: 
 
green -- color allied with safety and security
pink carnations -- remembrance and fidelity
lillies of the valley -- return of happiness
spiral shapes - home, security
 
To give it a touch of hominess, I used an alphabet style similar to handwriting and chose a layout mirroring traditonal 'welcome' samplers. 
 
We've now come full circle - returned safe home so to speak.  Thanks for joining us this past week during the Online Needlework Show. We are busy filling orders so look for our designs to appear soon in your LNS.  If you don't see them, ask the shopowner to carry our designs!
 
Theresa




10:00 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

October 20

And the Winners Are...
The winners of our Christmas Door Prize from the Online Needlework Show are:
 
Christine Alessandro of Massachusetts picked Sleigh Bells Buzz
Lori Otto of Pennsylvania picked Come All Ye Christmas Bees
Jo Myman of New Jersey picked O Christmas Bee
Christine Wilkins of England picked Bee Noel
Connie Crossan of Massachusetts picked Decking the Hive
 
Your charts will be mailed to you in a few days.
 
The winner of the contest drawing to identify the exclusive online show free chart model in the photograph:

Katie Ayers Althouse of Alabama correctly identified the model as ELF. Katie will receive her favorite Come All Ye Christmas Bees.
 
Here are your favorite Christmas design picks, in descending order:
  1. Bee Noel
  2. Bah, Humbug
  3. Decking the Hive
  4. O Christmas Bee
  5. Sleigh Bells Buzz
  6. Bee Candles
  7. Come All Ye Christmas Bees
  8. Safe Home

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to enter and share your Christmas favorites with us.  As promised, an exclusive free chart will be sent to all of you as soon. 

Happy Holiday Stitching!

Theresa and Cynthia






9:45 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

October 10

Wreaths, Trees and Bees
The ideas for both O Christmas Bee and Come All Ye Christmas Bees came while stitching the first of the Christmas Bee series, 'Decking the Hive'.  It just took a couple of years to perfect the designs!
 
I couldn't help fantasizing about what bees would do at Christmas to decorate the front door of the hive.  My home has always had a wreath on the front door, and even now the door of my NYC apartment at Christmas wears a pinecone tree-shaped wreath made about 35 years ago by my mother.  Wreaths are so welcoming, we just had to have one in our Christmas Bees Series.  I actually designed several versions of the 'Come All Ye Christmas Bees' wreath before settling on the large bee as door knocker supporting a green wreath with a simple red bow.  I loved giving the ornament dimension by making it a real red bow rather than a stitched one and using bead bees for berries.
 
We also always knew we were going to do a design called 'O Christmas Bee' - it was just too wonderful a name!  Yet the design evolved very slowly, with many variations -- from ornaments stitched on the tree, to a tree skirt under it, to a plain green tree topped only by an angel bee.  There were only three elements that never changed:  the angel bee on the top, the shape of the green tree and the beaded bee candles on the ends of the branches.  But no matter what I did, the designs just weren't working out.  'O Christmas Bee' languished.  We very nearly named the wreath design 'O Christmas Bee' just to have some design with that wonderful name.  Then I bought a real Christmas tree that was a tad too tall for my apartment.  Now, you have to understand that at the time I was living in an apartment in a NYC apartment building built around 1890.  That means I had 10 foot ceilings so it's not easy to buy a tree that's too tall!  As I found myself ruining one of my better chef knives cutting 8 inches or so off the top of that tree, I suddenly knew how to fix the design.  What I needed was for the tree to be coming out of the hive because the bees bought a tree that was too big!
 
So I fixed the chart and started the model - humming 'O Christmas Bee, O Christmas Bee' as I stitched.  We think it came out very well in the end, don't you?
 
Do I still buy real trees too tall for my apartment?  I have to be much more careful now as I no longer have 10 foot ceilings.  Here's a photo of my tree from 2008.
 
 
 
It's still a real tree - and it's a mere 6-footer.  I moved a couple of years ago into a more modern apartment building with 'only' 8 foot ceilings.  <<Sigh>>, I just have to make do.
 
Lest you think that I'm the only Christmas maven at Arachne's Silken Web, here's a picture of Cynthia's gorgeous Christmas tree from last year.
 
 
One of these days, we're going to have to write the full lyrics to 'O Christmas Bee.'   Any and all contributions to the lyrics welcome.
 
Theresa


8:18 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)