ornaments Archive

Are you looking for a way to make ornaments that look sophisticated, use your stash threads but that can be finished quickly? Look no further than 14-count plastic canvas and the wealth of quilt designs. This Spoolies Plastic Canvas Needlepoint Quilt Ornament is a perfect introduction to this much-overlooked material and to the wealth of great quilt designs. It’s part of the Plastic Canvas Blog Hop. My grandmother was a seamstress and I remember loving all the wooden spools of brightly colored thread at her home. This quilt reminds me of her. It’s based on a free quilt pattern from Humble Bee Buzzings. I lightened both the spool ends and the background. 14-count plastic canvas is easily found at most craft shops. It comes in 8.5 x 11 inch sheets usually in white and clear. Either can be used although clear works slightly better for the front and white for

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Originally posted 2008-11-03 15:57:41. Republished by Blog Post PromoterJudy Harper has published another delightful Four-way Bargello ornament on her FREEIBIES, Etc. blog. I love this style of ornament. It’s very similar to the Four-way ornament I did of hers last year and blogged about here. The finished ornament is stitched in traditional Christmas colors, but look through the post, the one in progress is stitched in a pretty combination of pink and violet. Here’s how to change the colors: This design uses four shades in various threads. You have a neutral background color – white here a metallic accent – gold the main color – red, two threads the accent color – green Let’s do a color based on an overdye. Use that as your accent thread. Most overdyes have an main color and 1-3 accents. Pick the one of them you like best as your main color. Then lighten

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Originally posted 2011-03-12 07:21:36. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Susan Thompson has done a wonderful job of finishing many items for me over the years. Her lovely blog, Sukylady’s Studio, has instructions on her method to finish small ornaments. There are lots of photos showing the steps to take to finish a small two-sided needlepoint ornament. The Attic Window ornament pictured above is only one-sided (the back is Ultrasuede) and was finished by Susan. It’s lovely. These instructions are wonderful and would work for many small flat-sided items. It’s so rare to find finishing instructions that use needlepoint for the example, this is GREATLY appreciated

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Originally posted 2008-11-05 05:45:08. Republished by Blog Post Promoter I told you there was another one, complete with chart (below). It was hiding in one of the smaller piles on my desk. I was celebrating the start of CyberPointers by cleaning the desk off (cheap thrills I know but seeing the desk surface is so nice) and, literally, it fell out. The design is a four block leaf quilt made from Mosaics in one of my favorite Watercolours, Camoflage. I love it’s more subtle but still Christmasy colors. I used Watercolours in Natural for the background and a knitting yarn from my scrap bag for the red. I also love the more complex border. I punched it up by making the corners, Smyrna Crosses in the green. I think if I were to stitch it again I’d use two Watercolours for the leaves, alternating the color used for each leaf.

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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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Subscribe to my email list (I won’t sell your name and email) and get a free needlepoint stitch guide for this charming Jody Designs ornament when you do. Just fill in the form below and confirm when you get the email. Then you’ll get your stitch guide, Sign up Today for news and offers from Napa Needlepoint * required Email Address: * First Name: * Last Name: * State: –United States– Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming –Canada– Alberta British Columbia Manitoba New Brunswick Newfoundland North

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Today I’m delighted to welcome Heather Gray of Modern Needleworks as our guest for a designer profile. Heather’s kit and work are shown throughout the interview and are available at her Etsy shop. What inspired you to start needlepointing? I started to cross stitch as soon as I was old enough to hold a needle. I transitioned to needlepoint in my early twenties. (I’m 39… at least for another month). I have always been inspired my grandmother. She could do/make anything… sewing, quilting, crochet, applique… you name it. She kept me a lot when I was young and I learned so much from her. She never used a pattern, or if she did use a pattern it was one she developed or made. She was an artist long before what she was doing was considered art. She is now 95 and is still making things! I live across the street

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Originally posted 2010-08-24 07:19:21. Republished by Blog Post Promoter This week’s free pattern is loosely adapted from a pin from New Mexico. Working in silver with turquoise has long been a tradition of the Native Americans of Arizona and New Mexico. I love it and have quite a collection. Turquoise is an unusual gem in that it is opaque. Typically it is blue or green and may have lines of brown in it. This design has silver surrounding Rhodes Stitches made using hand-dyed floss. The silver isn’t very bright because typically Indian Silver isn’t highly polished. I love the contrast the silver Tent Stitches make with the matte, bumpy Rhodes. The outlines shown on the chart are optional. Stitch the silver, then the Rhodes Stitches. The design is roughly diamond in shape, so it could easily be made into a folded diamond ornament

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I was blown away by the wonderful needlepoint “shape” ornaments Pat Mazu put on Facebook last month. Each year she stitches ornaments, every year with a different shape. The pictures throughout the article are from Pat & used with permission. This idea is fantastic and so I asked her to tell us about it. Here’s our interview: How did you get the idea for the shape tree? I didn’t. My daughter and son-in-law dedicated that specific tree in their front hall for the ornaments. When Christie and John celebrated their first Christmas, Mike (my husband) and I bought them a amall tree and I made a ton of small ornaments (small squares, etc.) to decorate it. They were in the same position that most of us were when we started out – lots of love and no money. Through the years, I added to the ornament stash, at first some

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Blue Dogwood Designs is a lovely hand-painted canvas company with many designs that are simply great for beginners. One of my favorite things about them is that they have several free needlepoint ornament series, each with a theme. This year’s series just finished up and it’s so clever and such a great way to learn new stitches. The 2012 ornaments are called Zornaments. Each month is a different shape. On the template for the ornament is drawn a bold Z. One or more stitches is recommended for the design, which can be stitched in any colors or threads you like. EAch month’s instructions are complete on a single page to print out. I love them because they are clever, modern, and unusual. Two other series are also available on their stitch guide page. The 2011 series, Tangled Rose is a stitch sampler with six squares done for each month’s. There

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The shapes of pine cones seem to fall naturally into the same shapes you find in Bargello needlepoint. That makes me wonder why it has taken this long to translate those shapes into a lovely piece of needlepoint. But this elegant and easy Bargello Needlepoint pine cone ornament does just that. The blog post, in Russian and English, has several pictures of the finished ornament and the chart. I’m excited to stitch one, or more, of my own

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Fancy Tassels are very popular these days, just look at any home decorating store. One possibility for making a wonderful unique tassel is to use plastic canvas to make a needlepoint tassel top. This Love plastic canvas tassel ornament uses ready-made fringe to make an elegant and easy Christmas ornament. To make your tassel top and tassel you will need: 14 mesh plastic canvas in white, cream or clear, 1 sheet thread for your design thick thread to put the top together (I used Silk & Ivory) 1 yard fringe (I used 6″ long rayon fringe) You can substitute other kinds of fringes, but be sure they will not be too bulky at the top for your needlepoint. In choosing a fringe be sure to get one which is long and thin (like the fringe on a flapper’s dress). The best fringe is 6″ long, but it also comes in

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These days, you find colorful windsocks everywhere, there streamer ends catching every breeze. I have often thought that tiny versions of these would be a great idea for a Christmas ornament. By choosing a basic Bargello pattern and using a variety of round and ribbon threads, I came up with this little wind sock Bargello needlepoint ornament ornament. While needlepoint makes it much more sturdy than full-size windsocks, the ability to use a variety of threads makes this a standout for your tree, even if the breeze isn’t blowing. The stitching is easy, but the finishing is a bit more complex, so follow the directions carefully. For the model, I used a monochrome color scheme, based on a color of peach matte cotton I had in my stash along with several ribbon threads, also from my stash. The material list includes more generalized thread choices. Materials Needed 2 skeins matte

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Originally posted 2007-06-25 07:58:15. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Aren’t these canvases a delight? In charming pastels, with great stitches and glittery threads, I just love how these birds turned out. They will look like the most adorable confections on your tree, or displayed together on stands. Best of all because they are on 13 mesh, they take no time at all to stitch. The wings are stitched separately and then “attached” with these great vintage-style buttons. If you have a great button collection, you might even think of using some special ones for this project. Big impact and a great look for easy stitching!

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Originally posted 2010-07-06 06:28:53. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThere’s no doubt about it, stitchers love stitch guides. Our appetite for them is almost insatiable. Talk to any designer and they will tell you shopowners ask about stitch guides all the time. If a designer has none, they wonder why not. If a designer has some, they want more. And we, as stitchers want them and want them at an affordable price. Today marks the opening of my new on-line shop, Needlepoint Stitch Guides. Here you will find stitch guides for many popular designers, available both as PDFs (for you to print) or as printed guides). You can order directly from the shop and have your guides as soon as the same day. Talk about immediate stitchy gratification. It’s the largest on-line shop dedicated to needlepoint stitch guides and related products. There’s lots more to the site. You’ll find reference information

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