Nuts about Needlepoint » vintage needlepoint

Paternayan Persian Wool – Old & New

Janet Perry — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:32:41 +0000

With the increasing unavailability of Paternayan, many shops are dropping this line of wool in favor of others. For us, as stitchers, who like wool, we may find ourselves turning to older stashes of Paternayan that we get from friends, from our own stash, or from eBay and thrift shops.

This is great because it will let many of us continue to stitch with a fiber we love. BUT

You may not be happy with the result.

This is because there was a change in how Persian Wool was spun and understanding it is important to good results.

Modern Persian Wool, including Waverly and Paternayan has three strands that are even in width. So, just as you do with floss, or silk, or just about any other stranded thread, you don’t worry about what strands to combine.

But older Paternayan (and probably other Persian Wools as well) doesn’t have strands even in width.In fact, the strands re three different sizes. I think of them as Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear. If you are using two strands, combine Papa with Baby, or put together two Mamas. These combinations will be the same width. Do other combinations and the thickness will be uneven, resulting in blotchy needlepoint.

You can see the size difference pretty easily if you untwist an inch of two of the strand. Flaying at the ends sometimes makes it hard to see, so be sure to untwist a bit. If there is not a visible difference, it’s probably newer Persian.

What do you do if you are only using one strand? I wouldn’t recommend using Persian here at all (this could be why 18 mesh wasn’t that popular in the 80′s), but if you do try to use all Mamas.

I’d show you an example, but I don’t have any Persian Wool, old or new.

Happiness Is Homemade – The Finished Product

Janet Perry — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:34:52 +0000

Because it was a gift I couldn’t show you, but here’s the finished vintage Petei canvas I made as a quick gift for my daughter.

REmember it probably an 80′s canvas (at least it’s 80′s colors). I brought the color palette up to date (post here) with berry colors for the dusty rose, a dark blue-green for the French Blue, and a very sparkly silver for the light blue edge of the jar.

Then I had major problems with finding the right background (post here). I finally settled on a simple darning pattern using a pale aqua Silk n’Colors.

The canvas was bought on eBay and all the threads came from my stash.

I centered the design to fit a standard 4 x 6 frame from the dollar store (post on using ready-made frames here).

Perfect little gift for my jam-making daughter.

More on the Knitting Yarn Thing

Janet Perry — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:27:53 +0000

My eldest daughter (and I) have a thing for Vera. If you are old enough, you’ll remember her bright colors and simple vibrant drawings on everything.

I bought two vintage canvases, one of a strawberry and one of a daisy on eBay a week ago. They are big and they are quickpoint. That means BIG mesh. I’m waiting to see if it’s 10 or 7 mesh, but I suspect 7. They will be so cool on her white couch when they are done.

But the mesh size means nothing in my stash will work on it. So my plan is to use knitting yarns. I have some knitting yarns in my stash but I think the only thing that will work is some thick cotton rope from Rowan that’s black. I don’t have much of it, but black is an accent on them anyhow. This will also give me an idea of the thickness I’ll need.

Then I’m going to ask my knitting friends for yarn, then I’ll go visit the local knitting shop and buy knitting yarn for them. That’s going to give me the thickness I need, the bright colors the pillows have, and will make them very long-wearing.

I’m so excited. This will be an amazing stress release project.

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.

Dragonfly Lotus Hand-Spun Threads – Thread Review

Janet Perry — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:42:26 +0000

Yes, I know there are lots of threads out there, but if you really want unusual look in your needlepoint, you should seek out the many wonderful small producers off thread.

Dragonfly Lotus in the Pacific Northwest is my favorite of these. Liz, the genius behind these threads is both a knitter and a stitcher so she creates and packages her threads with this in mind.

She spins and then dyes her own threads and all the ones I have are about the width of two strands of floss. She uses a wide variety of fibers including pure Merino wool, pure silk, silk/wool blends, wool/bamboo blends, alpaca, and more. Although I picked earth tones for the pictured mini-sock because I wanted a rustic earthy look, there are many bright colors as well.

I loved using these threads. All the stockings were stitched with two strands of thread. Because it’s hand-spun there is some unevenness in thickness, but not enough to make the stitching hard.

Liz also has several thread of the month club. There are different levels of membership and different lengths and payment schedules. Join and not only do you get thread every month, you also get a card with the samples of the club offerings for the month. These are limited runs either never released to the public or released in advance to club members.

If all this sounds intriguing to you, you can learn more about her offerings on her blog, Spun Thread. She is also stitching an Inchie a day (and motivating me to do the same) in her second blog, Daily Inchie.

P.S. She is having a moving sale with 15% off in-stock threads in her Etsy store through August 26. This is a great way to try out these wonderful threads.

Using eBay to Search for Vintage Needlepoint

Janet Perry — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 14:21:35 +0000

I get questions all the time in my mailbox asking me to identify a vintage piece of needlepoint.

Usually it’s because someone did the piece, loved it, and would like to do something similar. Quite often, I can identify the designer (I’ve been stitching over 40 years) but the work is no longer published or the designer is long gone.

The best an most consistent source I’ve found for older pieces is ebay and you can use their saved searches tool to narrow down your search to exactly what you want. And get email notices when something is there so you don’t waste time looking.

Here’s how to do it:

Go to ebay and then the crafts category
Under crafts, pick needlecraft & yarn and click on it
This goes to a huge listing (over 350,000 recently), but in the left column, you’ll see needlepoint & plastic canvas, click on that
This takes you to a large, but more manageable listing. Now it’s time to refine your search.
You want to do this here because many people list things in the wrong category, for example a canvas in patterns. Since many searchers will only look in the “right” category, you can get some good bargains this way
Put the designer you want into the search box. Here are some tips for making this search better

Click on advanced next to the search box and use the advanced functions.
Use the designers last name only. We may always call her “Jane Doe,” but many people listing on eBay don’t know needlepoint, so “Doe” will find you better hits.
If it’s a painted canvas designer, use the name painted on the canvas. If that is the company, use that.
Advanced search has an option to find “any of the words.” You can use this option to find hits with two options for the company name, for example.
Use the next box down, to remove things you don’t want. For example if you don’t want plastic canvas you might put plastic and Pc here to exclude them.
There are more option in the advanced search, but I always ask for 200 items to be displayed on the page. Rarely, when looking for needlepoint, are there this many hits, so everything gets displayed on one page.

Once you have your search refined, click search.
The results will be displayed (or not). In either case, next to the number of hits is a link that says “save search.” This is the payoff. Click it.
The search is saved to My eBay, so you’ll need to sign in.
A pop-up window shows up on the search result page asking you to name the search and asking if you want email notification. Give it a name an ask for emails.

You’re done. The search can be found in my ebay under saved searches listed in alphabetical order.

The first email you get will have the results of the search you just did. But after that if an item is listed that meets your search you’ll get an email. First it tells you how many items (nice to know so you know how many you got. Then it lists all or some (depending on how many) of the items, with name, price at the time of the email, how many bids, and a link to the listing. For needlepoint things I rarely get more than ten and usually only one or two.

I look at the item description and if it looks good, I click on the listing to see a picture. I have several canvases that are no longer produced that I look for consistently. I’ve found many of them on eBay by using this technique.

I like it because it keeps me from wasting time and spending too much money buying random things on eBay.

Vintage Needlepoint – Anne Orr Leaves

Janet Perry — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 14:35:44 +0000

Originally posted 2009-10-05 07:22:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

This simple leaf design can be effective for a pillow when stitched in several shades of “fall” colors on a dark green background. Anne Orr suggests three shades of tans, greens, or reds, on a dark background of brown, blue, or black.

I think it would be a superb background for a floral piece if you used the needlepoint damask idea of slightly contrasting shades of one color, or contrasting textures of the same color.

Click on the picture above to get the full size chart.

Fern – Free Vintage Needlepoint Chart

Janet Perry — Mon, 16 May 2011 13:41:02 +0000

My backyard is very shady and, for the first time in decades, I have been thinking about making a fern garden. Here in California, it’s generally too dry for much in the way of ferns, but Mare Island’s bayside location and all the fog, makes this a real possibility.

So for today’s vintage chart I’ve adapted a pretty fern. You could sprinkle several of these in different fern green threads on a dark brown background to make a lovely and dramatic pillow. Rotate the chart to orient them in different directions.

Click on the chart for the full-size version.

Two Little Stars – Free Vintage Needlepoint Charts

Janet Perry — Sun, 15 May 2011 13:56:40 +0000

These two small start patterns are adapted from a book of vintage needlepoint projects.

I like them because they are small but intriguingly complex. The smaller one is the larger one with smaller arms, so they work together well.

You can use them in many ways, as single motifs, scattered on a background; as snowflakes or stars.

Click on the chart above for the larger chart.

Curved Daisies – Vintage Needlepoint Motif

Janet Perry — Sat, 14 May 2011 14:18:21 +0000

This motif could make a pretty swagged border as well as be used as a single motif.

The daisy forms the focal point of the motif. You could make the daisies all sorts of colors to suit your decor or the project.

Once again it’s recharted and adapted from a vintage needlepoint book. Click on the chart for the full size pattern.

Please Note: the slashes (/) are also atitches.