I am always tempted by finding an easy way to convert artwork or photos to needlepoint, and I bet you are too. Often I feel like stitching something new but can’t find anything in my stash. At other times there is an image I love and think would make good needlepoint but I’m in a hurry to stitch it. While there are companies that will convert art and photos to needlepoint printed on canvas, such as my friend, Sandy Grossman-Morris, sometimes you want it fast. Mostly I’ve been disappointed with my attempts to do this. The transfer methods don’t give good results, or the converters give too many colors to make good needlepoint. So I was very intrigued by Althea’s post earlier this week about a new free converter, Pic2Point. She gives an overview of the process in the post, so I decided to try it for myself. I started
Monthly Archive:: March 2010
Originally posted 2008-02-07 14:31:17. Republished by Blog Post PromoterMy daughter just sent me a link to this needlepoint tote bag which is on sale at Gump’s.In terms of needlepoint that you or I would do, it’s pretty simple. In terms of price, it’s pretty good. It’s wool, with leather handles and is just under $200. If you made the exact same tote, in wool, and had it finished, it would cost close to that.BUT . . .Think how much better you could do yourself. Get some canvas, I’d do 12 or 10 mesh; it goes fast. Draw a simple pattern on it, and use your scrap wool, in a limited color range, to make something fantastic. Show off your skills and make a real statement.And be on the cutting edge of style!I think I need to do this
Originally posted 2005-03-17 22:40:46. Republished by Blog Post PromoterRuth Dilts, Rainbow Gallery, 2005. I’ve done needlepoint for almost 35 years and one thing I have always missed is a book which can be given to a beginning stitcher to help them with stitching their first few painted canvases. These days many folks who discover needlepoint do so because they are attracted to the beauty of a hand-painted canvas. They but the canvas and threads, take it home and wonder what to do. What they should do is buy this book at the same time. Ruth has drawn on her long experience with needlepoint and with painted canvases to create a book for beginners. It starts out by discussing what to look for in your first painted canvas. She then has a short chapter on getting started. This walks you through the steps of getting ready to stitch. She discusses making
Earlier this week the fashion blog world was all abuzz about two bags from the Italian designer Fendi which featured needlepoint prominently. The DIY needlepoint kit, pictured here, is a clutch with needlepoint mesh on the flap and, I think, buckle strap. The kit comes with lots of thread It has two interchangable straps and comes with three design cards include (or you could make your own design). As you can see from the picture, it has the Fendi logo for the buckle. It’s $995 and is available at Neiman-Marcus. Considerably more expensive, at $6,980 is the needlepoint Peek-a-Boo bag pictured above. The Peek-a-boo is one of Fendi’s popular handbag styles and this one (shown on the runway) has a traditionally styled needlepoint front. As you can see, the needlepoint front isn’t lined, which is a problem. While only in an alternate universe do I have money for such bags,
Originally posted 2009-03-13 07:31:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter This month, on Fridays, I want to share with you some of my favorite non-needlepoint craft sites. One of the ones I check daily is Dollar Store Crafts. Dollar stores are one of the fastest growing segments in retail, which is not all that surprising in these days of thrift. If you are lucky, you live near an outpost of one of the major dollar store chains, like Dollar Tree. In these stores, which are large, you should be able to find many of the items needed for these projects. If you shop in smaller dollar stores it might be more difficult to find the items, but most of the projects can be done inexpensively from items you find at home, in thrift shops, or in other stores. Most of the crafts require minimal skills and give great results, like the
Two of our closest friends welcomed their first baby, a girl, into the world on Sunday morning. This got me thinking about needlepoint and how wonderful a little needlepoint “something” is for a baby gift. I thought I’d help fan the fires of inspiration with some great baby needlepoint. The design pictured here is from Melissa Shirley in her children’s category. Along with many charming Victorian children, she has several delightful canvases based on nursery rhymes. This is my favorite, by Mary Lake-Thompson. There are also some lovely canvases by L. Carter Holman. I love Kathy Schenkel’s designs for babies. she has several wonderful series picture on her site. She has First Christmas mini-socks in several different designs and colors, including some with stuffed animals. There are baby samplers, baby sleeping signs, footstools and really clever designs based on nursery rhymes and children’s stories. A simple but effective way to
Did you know there are different kinds of learners. Some people learn best by hearing the instructions, some by reading them, and some by seeing a demonstration. I didn’t know this for years until I went to some kind of training class where it was the basis of the training. If you are a visual learner (learning by reading), it’s pretty easy to follow a project. If you are an aural learner (learning by hearing), you can always read the instructions out loud. But what do you do if you are someone who learns best by demonstration? Often you can’t find techniques and projects demonstrated and so you struggle. So what does this have to do with needlepoint? There is a growing number of free videos and DVD’s to buy that provide just the demonstration people need. Kudos to the folks at Needlepoint Now for creating videos to supplement three
Originally posted 2007-01-11 07:07:27. Republished by Blog Post Promoter I’ve been working with Kathy Peterson from Bongo since last winter. One of my favorite projects from her is this delightful Mai Tai. I designed and wrote the stitch guide. It was lots of fun working with these bright colors. The border is Herringbone Stitch, done in a multi-colored metallic and Vineyard Silk. Herringbone is a great “big bang for the buck†stitch. This is the name I give to those stitches which are far easier to stitch than the final appearance suggests. Herringbone has a complex woven look, and you might think this is hard to achieve. But it’s not, just make the stitch in multiple trips, one for each thread or color. Another cool think about this design is the umbrella. It too is stitched in stages. The first stage stitched the background in Basketweave. The French Knots were
This cheerful yellow sapphire heart is the canary sapphire sampler from my new st itch sampler ebook, premiering today. The sapphires has over 80 stitches to mix and match to make unique needlepoint hearts. Collected and newly charted, you’ll find stitches from older designers such as Genny Morrow and Chottie Alderson as well as ones designed by today’s top teachers such as Brenda Hart and Tony Minieri. The hearts are a perfect little canvas for you to try out color schemes, threads, and stitches. This book helps you every step of the way. You’ll learn about threads, find three ways to create a color scheme for your heart and will be able to discover any stitch used in any of the samplers and get it’s chart easily. I designed it in a two column format with a minimum of text so that it is compact and easy to use. It’s
Gloriana’s Lorikeet hand-dyed wool is one of my favorite threads. But it has two strikes against it when it comes to plying it for stitching. First, it is a very soft wool (of course, that’s one of the things I like best about it). Second, it’s hand-dyed. Both of these things make the wool more likely to have fibers that catch each other. When carried to extremes, this is what turns wool into felt, but here is just means you need to take care. This topic has gotten a fair amount of discussion lately. Amy Bunger has developed a wonderful method to strip and ply this thread. Knack shares this (with pictures) on her blog
Learning new stitches and making something lovely is a double win for needlepointers. When the canvas is as delightful as this little kimono from Patt & Lee Designs, that’s even better. Patt and I are collaborating on a series of three classes for the three kimonos in this series. Each class will focus on a particular technique and will be suitable for both beginning and experienced stitchers. The textured stitch kimono is the first in the series and will begin, via email, April 1, 2010. The class uses Patt’s canvas, Kreinik metallics and floss. Other thread options will be provided on request. Fourteen different stitches will be taught. Valuable extras in the class include information on stitch selection, stitch variations, and stitch dictionaries. The cost for this special three-lesson class is $27.50, including the canvas and mailing in the US. It included membership in the Yahoo group set up for
Originally posted 2003-10-08 07:14:47. Republished by Blog Post PromoterTYPES OF COLOR SCHEMES Color schemes are so fascinating to me. You can spend a lifetime jiggling with them and still be surprised. Medium and technique change how colors work together and getting comfortable with the different types of color schemes can make your needlepoint sing. I tend to classify color schemes into four broad groups, all of which have several sub-types. Monochromatic color schemes are made up of shades of a single color. many traditional Bargello patterns use this scheme. A monochromatic with neutral scheme has shades of one color with the addition of white, black or gray. A traditional toile is am example of this. Neutral color schemes are made up of beiges, browns, whites, black and grays. In many cases a monochromatic color scheme greatly benefits from changes in texture since the color is so controlled. Complementary color schemes
Originally posted 2007-11-21 07:38:24. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Here’s the finished picture of Wicked. It’s hard to see from the scan, but there is such a wealth of texture here. Not only is there the wonderful juxtiposition between the two withces, the background has a great contrast as well. The green is stitched using a thin matte cotton, Wildflowers. In an open stitch this gives a delicate, light coverage. This needed to contrast with the sparkly, translucent bubbles. They are stitched with long stitches using Water n’Ice. But the bubbles also needed definition, which came from a raised edge stitched with metallic. Not only do I love the way the piece turned out, I think you will too. The guide use simple stitches but will also teach you some great techniques (shading, outlining), which you can use on other canvases