Nuts about Needlepoint » children’s needlepoint

Plastic Canvas Baby Blocks – Free Pattern

Janet Perry — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:54:25 +0000

Originally posted 2010-04-18 07:56:46. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Plastic Canvas Blocks from Roots & Wings Co.

One of the best things about needlepoint os that you can customize your stitching to suit your tastes or the tastes of the recipient. Take this free pattern for plastic canvas blocks from Roots & Wings Co. for example. You could stitch a set to match a nursery’s decor, or one using the mom’s favorite color.

There are suggestions for several options for the blocks, as well as pictures of others. You could make a color block (with each side a different color), dice blocks, a shape block (with each side a different shape), patterns, or even the traditional letters.

The blocks use standard plastic canvas squares from the craft store.

Needlepoint for Kids’ Rooms

Janet Perry — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:46:29 +0000

Originally posted 2008-04-14 07:26:58. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Recently my daughter had an entry on her blog about buying art for kids’ rooms as a baby present. She’s right, having lovely art to look at is a wonderful thing for children. But we can go that one better, we can make lovely art for kids’ rooms.

This charming design from ABS is a good case in point. The designer, Anne Stradel, both designed and stitched it, so I can’t take any credit there. I only put her stuff onto paper. But I love it.

It has that vintage children’s book color and look which is one of my favorites. And it uses simple stitches and a few additional techniques to create something really special. I love the dimension which comes from adding the grass over the stitched pond. The sky is a very simple shaded Basketweave which adds so much. And I’m crazy about the way the ducks are stitched and it’s so easy. You stitch them first all in Basketweave using floss. Then over that, using a single strand of a silk/wool blend, you make random stitches in different lengths following the way the real feathers would look. It’s so easy to do.

There are so many wonderful designs out there for kids, from charming to colorful. You could even do one yourself by adapting a picture from a favorite book. I think maybe I’ll get to work on showing you how to do that yourself with a step-by-step class.

In the meantime, do like that poster from the 70′s said “Expose yourself to art” and do the same for your kids.

Needlepoint Learning for Kids from Orna

Sweet from Orna Willis – Product Review

Janet Perry — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:36:51 +0000

The second in Orna’s delightful series of Gatherings (group kits for needlepoint parties) is Sweet, a kit that allows six people to create delightful needlepoint stitch books.

I can’t think of a better way to introduce a small group of girls to needlepoint than with this colorful project. It’s easy, fairly quick to stitch, and easily made into a custom book for each participant.

The kit has two instruction pamphlets, one covering the stitch samples, the other the book assembly, six pieces of canvas, four skeins of multi-colored perle cotton, a needle, stretcher bars, and even scissors to cut the thread. In addition to this stitchy goodness are all the materials you need to create an accordion book of the samples and charts.

Everything comes packed beautifully in one box.

It only took me about an hour to stitch the samples and another hour to make the book.

I only have a couple of complaints. The first is that the regular size stretcher bars seemed cumbersome for such small pieces of canvas, I’d switch to minis myself. The second is that I would spend a little more time on prepping the canvas in the first pamphlet. But if the group leader knows even a little bit about needlepoint; this is easy to add.

The resulting book is a charming little piece. And it can open a wonderful world of needlepoint to ant teen or tween.

Video Games and Needlepoint

Janet Perry — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:06:53 +0000

Originally posted 2009-10-19 07:26:21. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Sprite Stitch is a completely delightful site working at the intersection of the video gaming world and needlework.

The pixelated graphics of video games are perfectly suited to becoming the basis for needlepoint or cross stitch.

In fact one of their moderators has just posted a list of Sprite Stitch projects, organized by topic. This links to patterns in the forums as well as comments and inquiries about patterns.

It’s a wonderful starting point for exploration.

Thanks to Denise from Craft Gossip for letting me know about this.

Make your own “sewing cards”

Janet Perry — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:02:32 +0000

Remember when you were little and you got those cards with holes punched in them that you sewed with shoe laces? With the new Cutter Bee Piercing Bugs from EK Success you can take this idea and update it. The tools allow you to pre-punch paper and card stock with rows of holes. While not big enough for shoelaces, you can use embroidery floss for sewing. To turn this into a special gift, make the holes on cardstock with decorative paper glued on it, include charts for motifs and borders along with threads to match and a needle. Package it all in a pretty basket for a great gift or rainy day activity. Related posts: Make an Inchie Gift Tag Make Yourself a Portable ORT Box Make a Quick Bracelet from Stash Threads & Plastic Canvas Make the Tag the Gift with this Needlepoint Use Free Designs to Make Great Gifts Related posts:

Eye Candy for Some Quick to Make Needlepointed Gifts

Janet Perry — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:07:33 +0000

Over at the blog Pin Pals you can find some great quick to make (and finish) ideas for Christmas gifts.

Because they don’t have finished edges interlock is best to use here, but don’t you just love the needlepoint barrette pictured here?

And, when you go visit, you’ll just love the Needlepoint Inchy Bookmarks. You could even use these ideas as a springboard for projects for your kids to make.

If you don’t want to make them yourself, the bloggers also have an Etsy shop.

Thanks to Denise at Craft Gossip for pointing this out.

What Are Little Boys Made Of?

Janet Perry — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:02:07 +0000

If you are thinking of making needlepoint for children, whether it be to decorate a room, be a Christmas stocking, or be a series of Christmas ornaments, it’s always nice to make them around a theme.

I have a son and two daughters and finding good pieces I could make for my son has always been an interesting challenge.

So today I thought I would point you in the direction of some popular themes for boys and needlepoint designers who have pieces to match. It’s in no way a comprehensive list, but it’s a starting point. Most of the pieces are small, and will work great as Christmas ornaments. I’ve stitched and ornament per child every year and it’s so good to have a theme for them. But even if you just pick things you think they will like they will love them even as adults for the memories and because you made them.

Dinosaurs: Almost any kid likes dinosaurs (and I don’t mean Barney here), so finding good but not too scary dinosaur pieces can be a great needlepoint theme. Cat’s Cradle has several great dinosaur canvases (scroll down a bit to see).

Transportation: Cars, trains, planes, trucks — there’s plenty out here and lots of fun to stitch. One of my favorite series is Sandy Grossman-Morris’ Transportation Station, just perfect for a train-crazy kid. MaggieCo also has some great transportation pieces, in design from Simon Hart and Jane Trasier.

Pirates: Pirates are one of those themes that keeps on giving. Kids delight in them, but if my recent visit to a Pirate Festival is any indication, adults love them even more. I’m make Kathy Schenkel’s Pirates of the Caribbean figures as ornaments for my son (who is all grown up), but there are others as well. I found many pirate canvases including a Ghost Pirate from Shelly, a pirate belt from Voila, and Patt and Lee’s great pirate cat.

Sports: Many kids are crazy about a particular sport and many others play sports. One year I made a baseball player ornament for my husband (a baseball fan) and a hockey player for my son, who was playing street hockey at the time.

There are many sports angels (with and without charms) from Painted Pony, sports nutcrackers and mini socks from Kathy Schenkel, and Needlepoint Broad‘s wonderful baseball stadiums.

Say it with Needlepoint

Janet Perry — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:30:06 +0000

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 like the “M” in the 300 series on a 200 background and that would be indicated
LE313b (letter) on LE213(background) or LE203(lets say they need a capital C) on LE338( wants this look). Size and mesh needs to be specified and if a letter needs to be a different color that also has to be indicated upon the order.”

Because each canvas is a custom order, it can take 1-3 weeks for your LNS to get the piece, more of it’s ordered at a trade show.

Marie goes on to say “There are so many options with these letters and how to arrange the words if that is what’s being used. The words can be in a linear row or stacked upon each other for example. If it is a word, I need to know the spacing in between each letter(I normally leave 1/4″). Same for Initials, the spacing needs to be indicated( I normally leave 1″).”

Sometimes shops call to talk through the plan with Marie, other times they just leave it up to her taste. Marie has a great idea for you to plan out your order: “print out the pages from my website and cut and paste, that would give them a better idea what it might look like if they are trying to create a word.”

The picture here, taken from Marie’s site is a great example of the possibilities. While many of the letters are from the 300 Series, others, the “L” for example, combine the letter from one series with the background pattern from another and put it in a different color scheme.

I love this great idea for making fun custom needlepoint without fuss.

Christmas Ornaments Class

Janet Perry — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:16:14 +0000

As you probably know, I love Christmas ornaments and among my favorites are vintage ones made from wood.

Doreen at Art Needlepoint scored some lovely ones last year and has reproduced them on needlepoint canvas. One of the three that feature children, Angel of Love, is pictured here.

These three ornaments are the focus of my upcoming free class with Art Needlepoint, beginning Oct 1. These charming designs really come to life with stitches and threads.

I just love the result.

In the class, not only will you make these three great ornaments, you’ll also learn wonderful stitches and techniques you can apply to other canvases, including:

Three ways to stitch hair
How to Make “knitted” items look realistic
Textured options to Tent Stitch to make even small areas distinctive
How to Make an ornament easy to finish

The class is complementary with the purchase of the class kit. To sign up, visit the kit page at Art Needlepoint.

Free Project Alert – Plastic Canvas & Dyed Floss Necklace

Janet Perry — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 14:36:35 +0000

Michael’s has complete instructions for a simple pendant stitched on plastic canvas using white floss. More floss is used for the necklace itself. The intriguing thing is that the whole thing is dyed after it’s put together. The necklace is pictured here and there is a link to the downloadable pattern at the bottom of the page. Related posts: Mosaic Stitch Necklace – Free Pattern from Ziva Needlepoint Make a Quick Bracelet from Stash Threads & Plastic Canvas Fast, FAST Needlepoint – Plastic Canvas Pendants Another Plastic Canvas Alert Thrifty Stitcher – Free Plastic Canvas Pattern Related posts: