rugs Archive

In a lovely post earlier this week on Asmara there were 14 stunning rooms that featured needlepoint rugs. This is just one of them. Now making a huge needlepoint rug may not be in the cards for you (although you might rethink it after seeing these rugs). But we still can learn many lessons that we can use in creating needlepoint. Here are some ideas: Let’s say you wanted to make a pillow for your living room couch. To make it easy, let’s make it Bargello so it can be any colors you want. While these rooms create their color palettes from the rug, you can also work in reverse. Take your cue from the colors in the room and use those to make a great palette. Notice how in some rooms the main color of the rug is an accent color in the room. That’s a great idea for

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Originally posted 2010-04-01 07:59:39. Republished by Blog Post PromoterOne of the things that excites me most about needlepoint is all the creative new ways designers are finding to use needlepoint. Looking at the new products in this column you will see some new 3-D products in both painted canvas and charted needlepoint, new canvases, kits and charts, as well as other exciting new products. Needlepoint in Three Dimensions I was blown away by two products I just learned about. The Needle’s Notion has a 3-D cake done as charted needlepoint. “Carrot Cake” is built around a papier mache box and is white with textured stitches, geometric motifs, carrots, and rabbits. Put it on a lovely cake stand to make a wonderful centerpiece. CBK Needlepoint Collections has marvelous 3-D lighthouses designed by Sukey Designs. They come in two sizes. The large is 12″ and the small is 6″. All four pieces

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Originally posted 2009-07-30 07:26:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter That picture is the daybed in my studio with many of the threads I’ve picked for my rug spread out on it. The rug uses motif’s from Owen Jones’ Grammar of Ornament and so that is there as well. Obviously I have lots of stash. Having stash to use is great for rug because you don’t need to have colors match exactly unless it is the background. When a rug is broken up as this one is, even the background can change. Mix dye lots, threads, as long as you stay in one color palette, it’s all good. The very best thread for rugs is silk and I will be using little bits of it. But silk is expensive and rugs are large. The second best thread for rugs is wool and the bulk of my rug will be in wool.

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Here’s a great idea for a quick contemporary needlepoint rug. It was designed by Karen Barbe and complete instructions for the rug are on her blog. The key is to use rug canvas (if you can’t find it, try latch hook canvas). Ad you’ll need a bulky, hand-wearing yarn. A single stitch, leaf in this case, is used throughout. You could also use the same materials and pattern to make a floor pillow. You can use any bold, highly textured stitch on rug canvas to make a fast and easy project. I used Norwich Stitch, an ANG stitch of the month) and three shades of rug wool to make a bold pillow. You can do the same. And remember if it’s 7 mesh rug canvas a 12″ pillow is the same number of intersection as a 4 2/3″ inch piece on 18 mesh. Thanks and a shout out to Denise

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When you are making a needlepoint rug, such as this one (a current project). You need to think before you stitch. Will it be hanging on the wall or be underfoot. This has implications not only for the thread (yesterday’s post), but also for the stitches you use. If your rug will hang on the wall you have no worries about stitches. But if it will live on the floor, your stitches need to hold up to heavy use. This means NO stitches going over more than three threads. Longer stitches will snag. Any stitch in the Mosaic family, such as Offset Mosaic, above, will work. So will shorter versions of Scotch and Cashmere. Cross stithes aren’t great choices unless they are quite small because they are layered and can snag more easily. Stick to cross stitches over 2 threads at most. But what do you do when the stitch

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The winner of the July Contest is Carmen whose favorite project has been a saying she made when she was a teenager. The runners up were Tracy (set of teatowels), Shelly (pansies on pillowcases), Deanna (Father Christmas stocking), Betsy (sampler of her own design), Kim R (butterfly sampler). August’s postings will have a theme which will show up in occasional posts. The theme is rugs (miniature ones count as well). In the comments, let me know if you have ever stitched a rug, whether you want to make one, and any tips you might have for stitching them. Throughout the month I will be posting about my own rug stitching project, a rug from Art Needlepoint. Remember US addresses only for the contest

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