hand-painted canvas Archive

Originally posted 2010-02-22 07:39:19. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Stitching a painted canvas looks so easy. The colors are picked out for you and all you need to do is add threads and stitches — so why is it that so often we are not happy with the results? Since I discovered painted canvas (in the early 80′s) I’ve stitched hundreds of them, I even dream about canvases, threads, and stitches. As a result I’ve figured out some guidelines for stitching them which make it easier to do. First, I think about threads. Your canvas gives you color, but not texture. And for any given color a number of threads exist in different textures. For me, I try to pick a thread with a texture similar to what the object is in real life. For example snow, should be a white or clear sparkly thread. My favorite for this (and

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With a big TNNA Market later this month, many companies are releasing new products that are perfect for needlepointers. Canvases & Charts Quail Run has delightful primative red chicken, pictured here, that comes with a stitch guide featuring great stitches and lots of texture. In addition they have a 12″ square magnolia pillow on 13 mesh. Machelle Somerville’s canvases, distributed by Fleur de Paris, are very popular. Her new design is a whimsical, colorful tree that has a mid-centiry modern color scheme. Also distributed by Fleur is Sandra Gilmore’s magnificent London window canvas. One of my favorite things about it is the needlepoint pillow covered sofa. I love JulieMar’s five canvas Geometric Letter Box. Available in 13 or 18 mesh, the group can be used together to create a box or used separately. They come with stitch guides. JulieMar also has a delightful series of puppies in bags that can

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Needlepaint has a wonderful new service. They can help you create a custom stitch-painted belt canvas. With their directory of belt design elements, you combine the items that suit the person or design best. Because they are all no more than 22 stitches high you can combine any you like. With hundreds of elements (and more being added), you can create a belt for anyone. The directory has small pictures of each of the elements. You can also have them create a custom belt for you. Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2013Some Rights ReservedOriginal content here is published under these license terms: X License Type:Non-commercial, Attribution, no Derivative workLicense Summary:You may copy this content, and re-publish it in unmodified form for non-commercial purposes, provided you include an overt attribution to the author(s). You are not permitted to create derivative works.License URL:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd

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As part of their new designs premiering at the Columbus Market later this month, JP is introducing these dramatic necklaces. The designs are 5 x 13 on 18-mesh canvas. Each of the six designs has a necklace with a pendant. Created for embellishing, think of how you could take advantage of the great new materials and threads out there! I’m already thinking about gold Sparkles with a length of Dollar Store beads inside it as the necklace. Couch it between the beads. Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2013Some Rights ReservedOriginal content here is published under these license terms: X License Type:Non-commercial, Attribution, no Derivative workLicense Summary:You may copy this content, and re-publish it in unmodified form for non-commercial purposes, provided you include an overt attribution to the author(s). You are not permitted to create derivative works.License URL:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd

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Originally posted 2009-04-17 05:43:45. Republished by Blog Post PromoterEarlier this week Judy Harper had a marvelous post on FREEBIES, Etc! about creating your own needlepoint jeweled insect. She shows you, step by step, how to create a beetle and a ladybug. I’m starting some of my own this weekend. Some may think it a bit strange but I just adore bugs done in needlework. I have a ton of needlepoint bugs and butterflies painted by Mika Partridge which I stitched in the early 90′s and I still have one, a spider, in my stash. Some of her bugs were distributed by JB Needleworks and might be available from Julia’s Needleworks. If you’re looking for realistic beetle insect canvases, there are delightful ladybugs from Amanda Lawford, DMC, and many others. Dragonflies are also popular with great ones from JP Needlepoint, Amanda Lawford, and **. As are bees, with ones by the

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I have so much fun teaching the Create Your Own Stitch Guide Class each year. Canvas Enhancement classes are so popular in shops these days, but why not get the tools to do it yourself? Why not learn on your schedule in your home and, if you like, wearing your pajamas? That’s what you get in this class — the tools to design your own stitch guide, learning from others, stitch guides prepared in the class for selected canvases, and great discussion — all at a bargain basement price of $35! I get lots of questions so I thought I’d take a minute to answer some of them. You can sign up with the button at the bottom of the post. Do I have to go someplace to attend this class? No, all the lessons are sent by email and all discussion is in a private Yahoo group. You can

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Originally posted 2011-01-05 06:50:09. Republished by Blog Post PromoterSometimes I think that writing stitch guides and helping you find the stitches and threads that make your visions of the canvas a reality is the reason I started doing needlepoint. Before needlepoint I was crazy about yarn, thread, fiber, and color. About as soon as I started stitching in 1970 I fell in love with the idea of stitches. When I started doing painted canvases in the early 80′s that furnished the last piece of the picture. I see needlepoint canvases and I start to think about how they can be stitched, writing stitch guides in my mind even for things I glance through on eBay. Put a canvas in my hand and it’s even worse. Combine these things together with your canvas, your skill level, your threads, and your ideas and you get one of my custom stitch guides. My

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Barbara is on a search for photos of her canvases finished. She wants to spiff up her gallery of stitched pieces by featuring your work. If you’ve finished one of her pieces, send her a picture at: designer@barbarabergstendesigns.com I’m sending her one as soon as I can get my sampler done. Knowing me that may be awhile. Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2013Some Rights ReservedOriginal content here is published under these license terms: X License Type:Non-commercial, Attribution, no Derivative workLicense Summary:You may copy this content, and re-publish it in unmodified form for non-commercial purposes, provided you include an overt attribution to the author(s). You are not permitted to create derivative works.License URL:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd

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Far too much of my time is spent stitching small projects. On the one hand they feed my very serious need for closure. I can get them done in a, mostly, manageable chunk of time. Second, I get more variety this way. On the other hand if I”m not stitching small projects, I’m creating, mostly small projects for the Web or for books in progress. So what things do I wish I had time to stitch? Here are five I’m longing to do if I had tome, no deadlines & energy. Cat Clock by Mindy I’m nuts for this clock. It has the wonderful curves of Art Nouveau and would look great in my house. I’d stitch it, but then would I get it finished? I hate not doing so, because it’s too pretty to hide away. A Big Complex Charley Harper Canvas I love Charley Harper and although there

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You may be thinking to yourself sometimes, “How Does the Design Get on the Needlepoint Canvas?” You may know that stitch-painted canvases are thought by many to be the “best.” Or that a local shop looks down on computer-printed canvases, but do you know what this means? Do you know how to get good value when picking a canvas? Do you know what the benefits and defects of each type of canvas are? Here’s my guide, illustrated with pictures, of each type of canvas, its benefits and defects. Stitch-painted Canvases With a stitch-painted canvas a person paints every intersection one color and one color only. You never have to decide about colors. To me this kind of canvas is the ultimate stress-free needlepoint because the canvas tells me everything. Most of what I stitch isn’t this but I love them when I need a break. Benefits: Every intersection is painted

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Originally posted 2008-07-29 12:28:53. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThreads: Dinky Dyes has just released their first collection of silk ribbon. The ribbon comes in 4mm & 7mm widths in their 20 best-selling colors. Crescent Colours has added Garden Days colors to their line of floss, including ladybug, grasshopper, and Caterpillar. Dede’s Needleworks has introduced four new threads: FireFly a wired thread for couching (think 3-D), Glitzy, a super-shiny gold thread for 18 mesh or higher, Super-Twist,semi-twinkle in 67 colors, and Prisms, a clear opalescent. She will soon be distributing Treenway’s Fine Silk Cord in 100 colors. Finishing: Have you ever thought about making a bellpull but hesitated because you didn’t like the hardware? Rosewood Manor has come out with lovely turned wool rods in 7 colors and two lengths (6 and 8 inches). They can also be ordered with cords. Designing Women has photo and scrapbook albums with oval or

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Let me tell you a secret. I simply love needlepoint. It takes all my will power not to buy every canvas I see even though I can’t finish what’s already in my stash. The reason is simple, I can’t help but start to plan a canvas whenever I see one, writing stitch guides in my mind. I’m lucky because I write stitch guides but for too many of use stitchers we’re tied to guides that are either expensive, inadequate, or not to our tastes. You probably think the alternative is to commission a stitch guide, possibly with a cost running into hundreds of dollars. And if you already own the canvas and maybe even the threads even your options for this are limited. You could summon your bravery and plunge into creating your own guide. But there doesn’t seem to be anywhere to find out how the professionals do it,

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Originally posted 2009-08-16 07:11:18. Republished by Blog Post PromoterAt TNNA, I can never wait to see what delights await at the Lani Enterprises booth. One year it was this amazing series of realistic, but so stitchable, train cars. Another year it was lovely pieces inspired by the paintings of Miro. Their inventiveness and owner Lani Silver’s stitching blows me away. I’ve always wished I had a way to share it all with you. Lani Enterprises has a wonderful new web site which will introduce you to her wonderful designs and inventive stitching. Click on “designs” along the top and you can see her canvases arranged by category. Not only are there categories by theme, there are also ones by style, such as contemporary, or function, such as bracelets. In addition, some categories are further divided into subcategories, so I can quickly find what I want. Clicking on one of the

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Recently I bought this glorious canvas from Doolittle Stitchery on Etsy. I fell in love with it and will be doing it as a project to use up my stash. You can, and I often do, stitch projects like this by picking random threads. However the time you spend planning a Scrap Bag Needlepoint, especially if it is large, can result in a better looking project. The most effective planning comes in thread selection. Once you decide some things about threads, many other things fall into place. The goal will be, as always, a balanced needlepoint. To get this the elements of color, thread, and stitch need to be in balance. One has to have lots of variety; it’s your large aspect. One needs to have only a few choices; it’s your small, or unifying aspect. The other needs to be in the middle. Color is clearly the large aspect.

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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

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