You asked for them, and here they are!

Here are the "little coffins", waiting for their final items before shipment at the end of the week. They will contain the Haunted House canvas, a stitch guide for about 25% of the canvas, and a thread kit. This represents many hours of work. Kelly Clark designed and painted the canvas. Amy Bunger composed a stitch guide and stitched the canvas. Then Jill and others made lists and ordered the threads and stretcher bars.

Here they are with most of the supplies and everyones order form inside. Jill is VERY organized. And there are a couple of little surprises in the box for each recipient as well. It won't be long now.

Evertite Stretcher Bars

I can’t believe we have a whole month to wait until the Halloweenies Haunted House canvas arrives at our doorsteps. Of some consolation is the availablilty of the Kelly Clark designed Katt Z. Witch canvas in mid Janurary. It fits right in with the house and characters to come in the Halloweenies Home Study program. Robin King will be teaching a class with Katt Z. at TNNA Market on Friday. The canvas along with Robin’s stitchguide will then be available to us. Maybe we can get started on that. In the meantime, I already have my stretcher bars ready for the Haunted House. It is a large canvas so I plan to use Evertite Stretcher Bars. This canvas will be on bars for at least a year (or more), so the canvas may loosen up as the seasons change. Evertites are thick wooden bars with a built in stretcher mechanism. If you mount your canvas straight and tight to begin with, all you have to do to restretch your loose canvas is titen the screws in each end of each bar. The Chilly Hollow Adventure has an excellent review of them. http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2009/11/evertites-review.html Thank you Jane.

Evertites are the best way to keep your canvas as tite as a drum without ever having to remount the canvas. It can take 30 minutes to untack and then restretch a canvas of this size. That’s a loss of valuable stitching time! If you thought you would stitch the Haunted House on a scroll frame you may want to reconsider. I can tell you that Amy Bunger has planned some interesting dimentional stitches for the Haunted House and it will not work very well to roll it up on a scroll bar. It would be better to work at a table with a frame weight holding your framed canvas steady. That also leaves both of your hands free to tackle those decorative stitchs. This might take some getting use to, but in the end you will have a better Haunted House. I believe most of the people who have signed up for the Halloweenies Home Study have requested Evertites be sent to them along with the Haunted House canvas. If you have never used them, please read the directions carefully before you put the bars together and attach your canvas. It is not as straightforward as you would think. But it is not that difficult either.

Stay tuned for news from Robin about her class at the TNNA market this weekend. Can’t wait.

Welcome to our Halloweenies Blog

Hi Everybody.
Christmas is nearing, but we're thinking about Halloween.
We are venturing in to the Blog world. These are exciting times!

Our first project is the "Halloweenies," the newest Kelly Clark Needlepoint collection available to Needlepoint Shops in January 2010. Amy Bunger's next Home Study is the Halloweenies: a Haunted House and 8 Characters; beginning February 2010. You can read more about the Halloweenies Home Study release dates on Amy's website, www.amybunger.com.

We will have photos showing our progress as we stitch. Any trouble shooting or helpful hints we discover? We will mention it in the Blog as well as in the Tips section. This will help us as much as it will help you. It's our Needlepoint Study Hall.