Hooray for 2021 ~ Find Out What's Happening at HON
January 2021 Newsletter
Greetings from HON
It's Official....
the ball dropped and it's
Hanukkah, Christmas and New Years have come and gone and we hope yours were Happy & Healthy although they were different for many. HON was buzzing to the last minute with gift certificate and canvas purchases as well as stitchers preparing for holiday stitching.
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR CANDY CANE WISH WINNERS:
Lile G, Trish L, Jessica M, Hallie N, Libby S & Lisa W
This colorful London Street Map was stitched in the basic needlepoint stitch known as Continental (Tent) and/or Basketweave. Both stitches look identical on the front ~ basically a half cross stitch worked by pulling the thread up through the lower left square hole, and then pulling the thread across diagonally and down into the upper right square hole, as seen in the diagram below. Sometimes using this basic stitch (stitches) is all that's needed to create a beautiful pillow like this one. The intricate colors and shapes of this canvas would invite many stitchers to look for a myriad of different stitches to put into different colors and quadrants but sometimes simple is a great way to go.
While most of you reading this know how to do the Basketweave and Continental stitches, we are sometimes amazed at how many stitchers do only Continental, which is working the diagonal half cross stitch in horizontal and vertical rows. The beauty of basketweave is it keeps your canvas from becoming askew and out of shape. We encourage everyone to use basketweave whenever and wherever they can. It makes all your pieces easier to finish whether it's a pillow, ornament, brick, whatever! While it is hard for us to teach you while trying to be socially distanced, take a look at this YouTube video (done by Wellesley Needlepoint) which is a good tutorial.
TIP OF THE MONTH
GET ALL YOUR HOLIDAY PROJECTS FOR 2021 IN EARLY!!!
THE FIRST HOLIDAY PILLOW FOR 2021
We are already working on a
Holiday pillow for 2021.
Planning ahead for holiday gifting is especially important this year. As the pandemic continues some of our finishers have alerted us they will not honor deadlines this year. They don't want to be incredibly pressured as they were this past year. They especially don't want to disappoint customers! The sooner you get ORNAMENTS, STAND-UPS, EYEGLASS/SCISSOR CASES, SIGNS, BRICKS, STOCKINGS, PILLOWS, FRAMES and FABRIC BACKED PURSES, the better for everyone!
ORNAMENT FINISHING PROMOTION
To incentivise you to get your ornaments done early, we will be offering these discounts on ornament finishing:
March drop-offs: 15% OFF
April drop-offs: 10% OFF
May drop-offs: 5% OFF
~ Please note as of right now belt and Key fob finishing will still have a mid November finishing deadline. If this should change we will let you know.
We know many of you are hesitant to be out and about now, so we are setting up a new HON Zoom Meeting to give our customers a chance to ask questions, request stitch and/or thread advice and provide stitch suggestions and assistance. We will start with once a week, Thursdays from 2-3 pm. The sessions are free and open to all levels of stitchers.
If you would like to participate, please call or email us and we will send you a Zoom invite. Each session will be limited to 6 people and the sign ups will be weekly.
Please contact us by noon on the Wednesday before the next day's meeting.