The bright colors and bold graphics of the Sixties is the inspiration for this delightful pillow from Ziva Needlepoint. It’s easy to stitch in one simple stitch — Brick Stitch. Even better, the post with the design has some great information about this era and its iconic art. Get it all here
Originally posted 2010-03-09 07:15:08. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Making the transition from stitching your first needlepoint sampler to doing canvases can be a hard one. The projects should be good-looking, appealing enough that even an experienced stitcher will want to stitch them. They should be small, so that the stitcher has a sense of accomplishment when it’s done. And they should always increase the stitcher’s needlepoint knowledge. Why is this important? Think about two different crafts, beading has been very successful at moving beginners to more complex projects, knitting has been less successful at this. With beading, people make that first necklace, bracelet, or pair of earrings and makes a bunch more. When ready for the next step there are many websites, more complex beads and lots of tutorials to let you make something lovely that is just a little bit harder but uses material you have used and
This Needlepoint Stitch Sampler from Fingerstep Designs showcases 48 stitches from Their Quick Stitch Variation book in a lovely rainbow color palette. See the sampler and get the layout here. Doing this kind of sampler is a wonderful way to learn new stitches. Use the threads in your stash to make it a thrifty project as well. The counts for each area are not included but my guess is that the sampler is made up of nine 72-thread square blocks, that are divided in various ways. But please don’t take this as a correct count. The Quick Stitch Reference books are co-labelled with your favorite needlepoint shop. They are small enough to fit in your project bag. Read my review of them here. I’m swamped doing taxes and should be finished enough to post something good for tomorrow. Right now, I just want to stop seeing numbers everywhere
Originally posted 2010-01-27 07:01:04. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Did you know that sapphires are just about the only gem that comes in every color of the rainbow? From pink, to violet-blues, my upcoming ebook celebrates my favorite gem. The book uses my poplar patchwork heart and gives you over 60 stitches you can mix and match to make your own unique project. All the stitches in the book are new and can be done using a single color of thread. The pictured hearts add in a few stitches from the first heart sampler ebook for spice. You also got a sneak peek at the orange sapphire in my review of black metallic canvas. Five hearts are included, along with tables showing you the stitches used. In addition the book has detailed information about creating a monochromatic color scheme, more and an expanded description of threads. As a bonus, there
This free Bargello Needlepoint pattern uses rectangles as its basis. Squares are far more usual in Bargello, but I love the odd shape of these rectangles, which are crazily turned on their sides. When you do this you get “not-quite diamonds.” The pattern is made even more nutty these shapes don’t meet evenly. The rectangles in one row slightly overlap the rectangles in the rows around them. You will need to count carefully when you stitch the outlines; there are 14 steps on the long sides and 12 steps on the short sides. Pay attention where rectangles meet, count carefully and you will be fine. Stitch the outline first following the chart above (click to make it bigger). Once the outline is complete, fill in the rectangles as charted. For clarity only one of the rectangles on the chart is filled. I used an unidentified hand-dyed pearl cotton for the
Although it’s designed to go on 18-count evenweave fabric, you could easily adapt this design to colord 18-mesh canvas. It features four shades of DMC’s Color Variations thread. Get the entire piece on-line: Central medallion Borders Just these two parts and you’re done!
Originally posted 2010-05-30 07:04:02. Republished by Blog Post Promoter This bold needlepoint Bargello cell phone case is designed to hook on your belt. It’s the free pattern in the quarterly newsletter from Ziva Needlepoint. Ziva’s designs have a clean contemporary style and are geometrics based on historic design periods. They design needlepoint accessories for the home and for you and I’m bowled over by how wonderful the designs are. In addition to the lovely designs on the site, you will also find information about finishing many of the items. The designs come as hand-painted canvas with a guide to the amounts and colors of wool needed, a needle, and instructions for finishing the project. There is also a free bracelet design, Anatolie, done in Basketweave available from the first newsletter. A big shout out to Denise from Craft Gossip and Althea from Bargello Needlepoint for pointing this out to me
Laura Perin’s newest charted needledpoint project has just been released. Winter Long Panel is very monochromatic with lots of shimmer and sparkle with two metallic ribbon threads, plus lots of silver and blue beads. She says this about her design: “When I was designing this piece, I was thinking about the colors and shapes of SNOW: snow-covered mountain peaks (see the jagged mountain peaks that divide the sections?) …. different composite stitch patterns that suggest snowflakes or falling snow.&#
Originally posted 2010-09-02 07:03:00. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI finally got around to counting up the votes for this (I’m a charter member of the procrastinator’s club) and the winner for a club theme for next year is stitches and quilt blocks. I’m excited because quilts always inspire me and this is such a wonderful way to learn new stitches. Best of all, with mostly square sides or true diagonals, compensation is really easy. It will also give us a wonderful way to explore colors through the projects. I’m going off to do some hard-core designing. And I also need to know your opinion for how you would like to see these packaged. There are three options, which I’ll list from most to least expensive. painted canvas – you will get a painted canvas in a specific color scheme. The lesson will tell you exactly the threads/colors to buy line-drawn
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
Originally posted 2010-06-26 07:19:35. Republished by Blog Post Promoter The Rhodes Stitch (named for legendary stitcher Mary Rhodes) is a very flexible stitch. It can be any size. It can be any shape. It also attracts attention wherever you use it. And for many stitchers learning to make Rhodes Stitches can be a problem. Kincavel Krosses has recently published this simply delightful Rhodes Stitch Biscournu. Designed to be done on fabric, it will give you lots of practice making squares and butterflies in Rhodes Stitches. Imagine how great this would be in a multi-colored thread! If you have never seen a biscornu, they are eight-sided pincushions often made from fabric. You can also make them from needlepoint. A lovely illustrated tutorial on making biscornu is at Own Two Hands. Another charming biscornu instruction site, with pictures of several biscornu is from Pretty Impressive Stuff. Thanks to Denise from Craft Gossip
Originally posted 2010-01-30 07:38:51. Republished by Blog Post Promoter I wanted to share with you the finished abstract cross stitch adaptation. The pattern came from the About.com Cross Stitch site. Since any chart which uses only whole stitches can be done as needlepoint, that’s what I did. The original used a number of different colors. I wanted something more muted, so I chose a color palette based on the Watercolours Amethyst. This meant violets, tending towards blue-violet, pink, gray, brown, and olive green. Mostly one color on the original chart got translated into one thread in my needlepoint. Before I began the project I pulled all my threads in these colors out and into my project bag. This turned out to be a great idea since there was a time lag in finishing the piece. If I couldn’t remember a thread, I could pick another thread in a similar color.
Originally posted 2010-07-17 07:53:17. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Sara, from The Scarlet Quince has a phenominal interview with Ruth Dilts on her blog. They have a lovely selection of Ruth’s charts in their on-line store and have a special going on. It is of Sunrise, pictured above, available as a chart or as a complete kit, based on your selection of Watercolours. It’s on page 3 of the Rith Dilts charts at the shop. You may know Ruth from her wonderful books, Needlepoint 101 and Needlepoint 202, the best books out there on stitch guides. You may have also stitched some of her wonderful charted canvas designs, available from Rainbow Gallery (find them by looking for needlepoint and the term “Ruth Dilts” on the search page) and on her own site. She has a series I just love of quilt blocks and my favorite of all is her Alexanderia
A couple of years ago the CyberPointers Chapter of ANG decided we were going to create a project in honor of ANG’s 40th Anniversary. An open competition was held for designs and my design, “Ruby Ribbons,” won. That’s it pictured here. It’s based on a 1930′s quilt block and features two red ribbons curling around a background that moves from white in the center to black at the edges. The design consists of four panels with 64 blocks in each. Every block has a different stitch, for over 250 needlepoint stitches. They use all kinds of different techniques, stitches and threads. It was auctioned off at the ANG Seminar last month. CyberPointers has created an ebook of the stitches used in the project that has close-up pictures of each block, information about the threads used to stitch it and a diagram of the stitch. It’s a grand and affordable stitch
Originally posted 2010-03-27 07:17:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter I know you’ve heard of Four-way Bargello, and maybe even Eight-way Bargello, but have you tried Two-way Bargello? I haven’t and I’m going to make this delightful free pattern from Bargello Needlepoint now, as in today. I can’t wait to try it out. The principles behind all these types of “folded” Bargello is the same. Make some lines in you area and turn the Bargello pattern 90 degrees at each line. When you make the lines from corner to corner in a square or rectangle (as Liz Morrow showed us) you get Four-way Bargello, and the pattern make a square or rectangle. When you add lines connecting the center of each side, you get Eight-way Bargello, which I’ve only done as eight-pointed stars. Make just one line and you get Two-way Bargello> I have seen Two-way once before, done with a