kneeler from Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas
One of the things I loved best about my trip to England in 1998 was visiting churches and seeing all the lovely needlepoint kneelers. Kneelers is the term for the padded cushions or individual hassocks you use to protect your knees in church. If you don’t have kneelers and kneel on the floor, you get “chapel knees.”
Portion of altar rail kneeler from St, Paul's in Summit, MO
In England, and increasingly in the US churches do kneeler projects as a way to adorn the sanctuary. These projects involve the parish community and often interested stitchers outside the parish. Sometimes they are done for a special occasion sometimes not. The needlepoint might be only for the kneelers at the altar rail, just in the sanctuary, or for every kneeler in the church. They might have a theme, or they might only have something similar along the edges, I’ve seen all kinds.
stitcher with picture from her needlepoint kneeler from News Herald article
Recently St. Luke’s Epsicopal Church in Georgia completed their kneeler project and it was covered in the local paper. The current issue of Needlepoint Now has another wonderful story about a kneeler project.
Kneeler inspired by stained glass in St. Luke's Lutheran
St. Luke’s Lutheran, also in Georgia, has a delightful set of kneelers inspired by their stained glass windows. Noah’s ark is pictured above, but you should look at these lovely designs, created by Nancy Keating.
crowned vine needlepoint kneeler
If you are not feeling energetic enough to design your own kneelers, an English company, Jackson’s of Hebden Bridge, has kits for individual kneelers that include the printed canvas, wool, and the high density foam needed to finish them. The picture above is one of their finished kits.
Needlepoint Chi Ro kneeler from St. Mark's Methodist in Kansas City
If you are interested in making kneelers there are some wonderful books out there, mostly out of print. The New Church Kneeler Book, available used from Amazon is lovely. It’s got the information you need, and lots of pictures for inspiration. Designing Women has a lovely book out, Keeping the Faith, which has charts and lots of ideas of their own projects to beautify their church.
Needlepoint Kneeler Rose Window
The pictures throughout this post are from church kneeler projects throughout the country. Click on the pictures to go to the sites with more pictures of these lovely projects.
If you want to find out more, a great starting place is Bidwell Drake’s article on kneelers for the Episcopal Church’s National Altar Guild site. Drake is an expert in church embroidery and has written a wonderful little book on finishing and caring for these items.
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I cannot find a needlepoint design of the image of “the lamb of God, slain, yet victorious”. Any help would be so appreciated. Thank you
I can’t think of any but you might do a Google search for an image you could draw onto canvas or adapt.
Keep Stitching,
Janet
By slain but victorious, I assume you mean standing but showing the wound and blood.
You might want to try at the following site:
http://www.sewvestment.com/site/822866/page/558507
They have a cross stitch pattern of a victorious Agnus Dei, but I would think you could add the wound for the slain aspect relatively easily. This says it is cross stitch, though of course you can adapt it to needlepoint.
Hope this helps.