alphabets Archive

Originally posted 2011-05-10 07:21:13. Republished by Blog Post Promoter This charming whole stitch African Animals Sampler of was Friday’s Freebie from DMC. The picture shows its stitched on 14 count Aida, but it would be wonderful stitched on needlepoint canvas. Stitch it in a single color in a hand-dyed thread for a great rustic look. Even better, pick out a lovely color of canvas (maybe one of the hand-dyed or Nature’s Palette painted ones) and then stitch it in a darker or brighter hand-dye in the same color. Don’t want to do a sampler? Consider repeating the animals as a wide border, or even stitching the animals singly as ornaments. Thanks to DMC for providing this to us!

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Samplers and quotes are a continual attraction to stitchers of all kinds. From magnets which declare whether the dishes are “clean” or “dirty” to elegantly bordered and framed sayings, the combination of words and stitches allows almost anyone to become a designer. Today I will discuss choosing an appropriate quote, picking a style of alphabet, spacing and choice of a border. With these tools, you can make your own quotable quotes in needlepoint. Choosing a Quote When doing a quote in needlework, you need to be aware of the space each letter will take up and the effect this will have on the size of the finished piece. Ideally a quote for needlepoint should be short. Quotes for cross stitch can be longer because you can use Backstitched letters to put more letters on each line. The quote should also be something which breaks into more or less even lines.

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Even if you have never tried your own design before you will learn how easy it is to create lovely personalized gifts in this Initial Needlepoint Mini-Class. In this two-lesson class you’ll create two gifts: the initial ornament and the super-size initial boxtop. You’ll learn: how to enlarge a letter for needlepoint how to transfer a design to needlepoint canvas how to pick an alphabet that works for monograms using Bargello needlepoint as a background using metallic effectively as a background self-finishing for boxtop or ornament Because the class is on-line, you don’t ned to travel to learn or even learn at the time the class is held. Nothing could be easier. The class begins May 5, 2013 and is only $20. This is an early bird discount. On April 4, 2013, the price goes up to $25. Use the PayPal button below to enroll now. If you would prefer

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Originally posted 2008-09-24 07:07:29. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Now I’m caught up. Since my DS gave me Pushing Daisies on DVD as a birthday present, we’ve been watching to get ready for the new season. And House was on last night, So for a change, I’ve had some time to stitch these past couple of days. I finished the second E block on the Celebrate Sampler and I am really loving the way it is coming together. I want to take a minute to talk about the thread selection as a whole. It was inspired by some beads in my stash which combine pink and just a bit of gold. Since pink is one of my favorite colors, I have tons of it in my stash, especially orangish pinks and corals, so I pulled them first. I made sure if I picked overdyes that they were primarily these colors.

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Originally posted 2009-01-25 06:34:39. Republished by Blog Post Promoter I was putting away another random box of needlework books yesterday morning and I came across this vintage book of charts from 1978. If you come across one buy it, it has some great ideas for needlepoint. In it Jini has two sets of letters as graphic elements and over a dozen charted alphabets (most with both upper and lower case). The charts are all really clear, in color, and easy to read. She also has tips on making monograms, other tips and working instructions and color pictures of some of the projects she’s made. But I really want to tell you about those letters as graphic elements which are what prompted me to write. Each design uses a single letter. The first one takes the letter, doubles it, combines them into a pleasing shape and then reflects them four times.

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Originally posted 2007-05-14 22:24:44. Republished by Blog Post Promoter MONOGRAMS, MAYHEM & MORE, Tink Boord-Dill, self-published, 2006. Adding names or initials to a needlepoint project is always a popular idea. Or maybe you have a word or saying you want to needlepoint. But even with the many books of alphabet charts out there, this can be a confusing process. Tink Boord-Dill, whose previous books include several of both alphabets and monograms, has written the step-by-step guide for all of us. Monograms, Mayhem & More will help even the most design-challenged stitcher to add monograms, names or words to needlepoint perfectly the first time. Beginning with the introduction, which discusses the different types of monograms and the first chapter which covers the basic principles of design, you will learn to identify those types of design which appeal to you, so that when it comes to applying the principles to make your

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Originally posted 2009-05-01 05:06:59. Republished by Blog Post PromoterNCPat over on her blog, Needleartnut, has been working on a Sharon B shaving brush piece. I love her plan for the background. She has taken the word “Shave” and repeated it throughout the background in a white on white scheme. What makes it cool is that she has staggered the word so that it becomes more of a repeating design element and less something you read. This post shows how she has charted it out. You can do this easily yourself. Pick out your threads. You can use all the same thread and stitch the word in cross stitch, so it’s slightly raised, or you can pick contrasting textures like pearl cotton and wool. Find a simple alphabet to use to chart the word. Using graph paper and your slphabet, chart the word and make adjustments so it will look blocky.

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Originally posted 2008-07-31 07:33:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Here are the three twinchys I made for this month’s challenge. The main colors are my kids’ favorite colors and the threads came from my scrap bag and from my stash. The backgrounds are done in T Stitch. I used white Nordic Gold for the A, very pale yellow Kreinik for the green, and silver Kreinik for the T. All of these are thin threads, so that the canvas shows through. Here are the charts for you (click to get a larger size): A M T To make them, I made the middle letter very large and then found additional letters, many from Tink Boord-Dill’s book, Alphabets Tantalizing and Terrific, or from the Internet. I arranged them around the central letter, some behind others, and stitched each in a different thread so they would stand out from each other. Some do

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There is always so much more great stuff at TNNA that I can’t cover everything. Here’s more stuff I loved. Tapestry Fair has some lovely geishas that have a great concept. They are seen from the back. The clothing is line drawn, so you can pick your own stitches, colors and threads, but the heads are painted. A cool basis for creativity. There are three single geishas and a piece with six. A Collection of Designs has new mini-socks, snowmen, ornaments and, my favorite, elaborate crosses. Jean Smith had an absolutely amazing large (4 feet square) of a single flower, plus many delightful coasters that are smaller versions of her popular flowers and vegetables. These are great for giving you an assortment of her work. At Elizabeth Turner there was a delightful Noah’s Ark mini-sock, stocking, and mitten, all with plenty of opportunity for embellishments and fancy stitching. They also

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Originally posted 2010-12-03 07:23:04. Republished by Blog Post Promoter It’s easy to make and finish a round initial ornament such as this one. Begin by finding a Lee Needle Arts round luggage tag. You can also use their round ornament, but I like the many colors of the tag. You will also need: 18 mesh mono canvas pigma marker overdyed thread background thread one thin & one thick metallic to coordinate or contrast with overdye ribbon letter enlarged to fit 2 3/4″ circle Begin by finding your letter, there are lots of alphabet sites out there and many books of fonts. This A is from a book called illuminated initials. I enlarged it to fit the space. Use the template and your pen to trace both the circle and the letter centered inside it. Use your overdye to stitch the letter in a textured stitch. I used Staggered Mosaic. Once

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Originally posted 2010-03-02 07:57:06. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Your handwriting is one of the most distinctive things about you. Turning a person’s handwriting into needlepoint is a lovely, but not necessarily easy, way to remember them. I got an email last week from a reader asking about this. Here’s how you do it, using a process similar to turning any font into needlepoint. Begin by enlarging the handwriting or font to the size you want. If you are working with a person’s actual handwriting, you might look for a font which is similar. Enlarging the letters will make it easier to determine if the font or handwriting will actually work. Make your test the actual text you want to use. Now do a little test by laying over the needlepoint canvas you want to use onto the letters. Look at it and evaluate it as needlepoint. Ask yourself some

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Sayings and needlepoint just seem to go together. From a canvas with a complete sayings to one word affirmations and needlepoint names, they remain popular items for hand painted canvas needlepoint. But what if the thing you want isn’t available? Then you need to look no further than the three delightful series of letters from Marie Barber at Colors of Praise. Marie has come up with the best idea. She has three series of letters, the 100 and 200 series are upper case only and the 300 series has both upper and lower case, each with a different background. YOu can see them all on her letters page. Each letter is different and bold enough to stand out from the colorful patterned backgrounds. Now the fun begins. You can specify the word or phrase you want and even specify the backgrounds and even the colors. Marie says “[A] customer might

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Originally posted 2008-08-14 06:32:56. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Recently I was at the Post Office and bought these Celebrate stamps. I thought they were so cute. This inspired me to create this blog’s very first Come Stitch with Me project. The idea behind this project is that we will stitch it together, one square at a time. The colors and threads will be up to you, I’ll post instructions for each block about one every two weeks or so. If you’re new to needlepoint, this will be a great way to learn 12 new stitches and techniques. If you have been stitching for a long time, it will be a great way to try out new color combinations and threads. This post has the basic materials list and instructions for marking the canvas. Next week I’ll post the first block. To make this project you will need: 10 x

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The proper link for the African Animals Sampler is: http://dmc-threads.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/AfricanAlphabet.pdf. The wrong thing got poasted

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I recently got a question about where and what to use as initials for signing a needlepoint piece. Like an artist’s signature on a painting, this will generally go in the lower right corner. If your border is wide, you should plan on putting your initials there. If it’s elaborate, you might want to think of it as a frame or matte and put your initials in the corner of the main part of the design. Picking the font is fairly easy. You don’t need to be too fussy about picking a font, unless you want it to be an obvious part of the design. I usually use a very simple and there are tons of charted alphabets available free online. I have an alphabet chart listing on All about Needlepoint, my reference site. Based on the elements around your signature and the letters in your initials, I figure out

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