Nuts about Needlepoint » historic textiles

Needlepoint Purses Old & New

Janet Perry — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:38:07 +0000

Originally posted 2010-07-11 07:18:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Fendi needlepoint bag

Needlepoint tote inset by Janet Perry

purse from Needlepoint, Inc

You may be under the impression that needlepoint bags look like the very expensive Fendi bag pictured top. Or that they are leather or canvas bags with a needlepoint insert such as my Haida Feather bag, center. Or even that they are made entirely from needlepoint, similar to this bag from Needlepoint, Inc., bottom.

One thing they all have in common is that they are modern bags incorporating needlepoint. But needlepoint as a front for bags has been around a long time. Lovers of vintage fashion can often find needlepoint bags such as the one above because quite often they were kept for special occasions.

If you want to learn more about needlepoint purses, or buy one of your own, start with About.com page about needlepoint purses, written by Cheryl Fall, Needlepoint Guide.

Thanks to Jane from Chilly Hollow for pointing this out, I’m sending cool thoughts your way.

You Are a Part of the Creative Conversation!

Janet Perry — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:18:35 +0000

Illustration: Gustaf Fjaestad (artist), Miss Fjaestad (weaver). Below the Falls tapestry design, c1913. From The Textile Blog.

I don’t like it when people criticize needlepoint saying it’s like “painting by numbers.” Being the daughter and granddaughter of very creative women, I have always seen, as have they, needlepoint as a very artistic and creative process.

A blog post last week at The Textile Blog got me thinking about this again.

All art is a conversation. In it there are always two people: the artist and the person seeing the art. The artist has an idea and expresses it in a particular way. It may not be an idea you like and it may be expressed in a way you find ugly. But he began the conversation with his idea and its expression.

The second person in the conversation is the person viewing the art. By seeing the expression of the idea, you, even if it’s just mentally, react to it and comment back.

I never thought much about my part in the conversation since looking at art is almost as much of my life as breathing until I was in my 20′s and invited to a docent-led preview of an important modern art exhibit. I went through it and hated every piece, but I understood them. Without knowing it I took part in the conversation.

But in needlework there is always a third party — that’s you the stitcher. As The Textile Blog points out, often they are unknown. But always, always, we take part in the conversation. We do it through our choices of thread, through our stitches, and through our ideas on what the piece is about.

It may be not obvious at all, as is the case in the tapestries in the blog post. Or it may be very obvious, as is the case in how I personalized the baseball player pictured here. But as the maker we take the artist’s idea, add our own, and express that combination in the finished piece.

So go out, embrace your creativity and stand up to be part of the creative conversation.

A Short Miscellany

Janet Perry — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:52:11 +0000

A couple of things that are just too good to pass up in the post today.

Remember my post about “Destination Needlepoint?” Well needlepoint.com is having a virtual trunk show of some of the company’s travel ornaments on their site. There you will find pieces from In Good Company and Silver Needle, all at 20% off.

Looking at them I keep wondering why I want to buy ornaments for places I’ve never been and probably wouldn’t enjoy if I went there.

If you are a gardener the name Gertrude Jekyll is a legend. This Englishwoman is the person who pioneered those lovely wide borders of flowing pernenials we think of as typical of English gardens. She wrote many gardening books, but did you know she also was an accomplished embroiderer. The picture for this post is an iris design she did for a compilation called Handbook of Embroidery.

There is a wonderful post about her and her two designs for the book in one of my favorite blogs, The Textile Blog. At the end of the post, you will find an extensive list of links to information about her gardening work.

If you want to see the Handbook of Embroidery, it is available on Project Gutenberg (the link is to the HTML version of the book).

Eye Candy – Kyoto Costume Institute

Janet Perry — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 13:56:13 +0000

Most people don’t think of clothing as being a good source of inspiration for needlepoint, but it’s one of my favorite places to find color and motif ideas. Especially high fashion (I once did a needlepoint inspired by a picture of a designer gown) and, even better, historic clothing. The Kyoto Costume Institute has an amazing set of digital archives that’s full of inspiration. And they aren’t just Japanese clothes, they span a range from the Eighteenth Century to today and incorporate tons of styles. Why not use the stunning evening cape by Elsa Schiaparelli to inspire a gold and black fantasy of needlepoint. Or the boisterous floral print of a Victorian evening gown to color a fresh floral piece. It will look bright and modern, even though the gown that inspired it is over 150 years old. Not only can you learn alot about fashion, you’ll get lots of ideas for new pieces. Related posts: Inspiration from Other Needlecrafts Missoni at Target Eye Candy – Red & White Quilt Show Getting out of a Stitching Slump Eye Candy for Some Quick to Make Needlepointed Gifts Related posts:

Japanese-inspired Blackwork

Janet Perry — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:50:25 +0000

Working from the seamless Japanese pattern I created a couple of weeks ago, I was inspired to create Blackwork patterns.

Because the lines of the hemp leaf pattern are oblique, they can be hard to create in needlepoint. I think these lines look better when stitched as lines and that means Blackwork, either on its own or over Tent Stitch.

Remember that the original pattern is based on the shape of the hemp leaf and is call asanoha. I have created two patterns based on this. In the first, below, you can see the leaves pretty clearly.

The second pattern, below, is larger, so that the leaves will only be apparent in a larger area.

Remember that these are charted as traditional Blackwork charts, not as needlepoint diagrams. Each square in the chart represents a stitch going over two needlepoint threads. Therefore, the short oblique lines go over 4 threads in one direction and two in the other. The longer oblique lines go over a total of 8 threads in one direction and 4 in the other, divided into two stitches.

What Was that Pattern?

Janet Perry — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 13:55:05 +0000

Yesterday we used a tool to generate this seamless Japanese pattern. Next week we’ll convert it into a chart for needlework, done a couple of ways.

But today I thought I’d tell you a little about this pattern which is a pretty common one in Japanese art. The pattern is called Hemp and is based on the leaves of the Hemp plant. It’s name in Japanese is Asanoha.

Hemp is a very useful plant and its fiber can be used to make rope, thread, paper or cloth. You can even find hemp yarns for knitting of needlework.

While the pattern is popular and can be found on everything from kimono to chopstick holders, it is traditionally associated with the growth of children and was often used for swaddling clothes. It is also oftenm found on summer kimono, which can be woven of light-weight hemp fabric.

The pattern can be individual blossoms toughing only at the points or a more overall pattern.

One place where you will see this pattern is in a Japanese form of quilting, called Sashiko. Sashiko is stitched in white or off-white threads on indigo cloth. It derives from sturdy quilted garments made for farmers and still retains a somewhat rustic look.

Inspiration from Other Needlecrafts

Janet Perry — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 14:29:38 +0000

I was reading the summer issue of A Needle Pulling Thread and it got me thinking about how much inspiration I find and how many good ideas there are from other crafts. Here’s some I use often: adapting quilt blocks to needlepoint using quilt and other color schemes as inspiration getting and stitching a whole stitch cross stitch chart using knitting yarns for needlepoint using an applique or embroidery outline on canvas taking color and design ideas from rug hooking using a couture dress as the inspiration for the threads tracing a stained glass pattern and using it to do needlepoint There’s inspiration all around us, just waiting to be picked up! Related posts: Needlepoint Inspiration & the Pervasiveness of Ideas Inspiration for Creating a Color Palette Needlepoint Inspiration, Project and Tutorial Boards Quilts as a Source of Inspiration Needlepoint Inspiration in Gifts Related posts:

Gallery of Free Middle Eastern Patterns for Blackwork, Pattern Darning & Counted Needlework

Janet Perry — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 14:12:13 +0000

In this outstanding library of counted patterns (thanks to Denise of CraftGossip for pointing it out), you’ll find dozens of motifs from the riches of traditional Middle Eastern embroidery.

The index page for the designs breaks them into technique. It shows a thumbnail of each design,describes it, and provides information about the source.

Click on the title to get the full-size chart. The pieces cover a broad range of dates, from the 12th Century to today and come from many countries.

It’s a marvelous resources and a wonderful source of ideas.

Why Is it Called Tent Stitch?

Janet Perry — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 13:52:15 +0000

Don’t you wonder sometimes why a needlepoint stitch over one thread intersection is called Tent Stitch?

That name applies to all stitches of this type, no matter how they are made. So Half Cross, Continental, and Basketweave are all Tent Stitches. Outside North America though, Tent Stitch is often synonymous with Continental.

The tern is very old and the stitch is even older. There are pieces of Coptic embroidery dating from the 4th and 5th centuries AD done in Tent Stitch.

One theory is that the name derives from the term Tenture, a type of English embroidery. That name, in turn come from the French word tendre, meaning to stretch. The thought is that this term got applied to the stitch because you had to stretch the fabric to make it taut in order to make the stitch.

Another theory is that the name got applied because it was the stitch used to repair tents in the Arabian desert.

Much of the information in this article comes from an article in Needlepointers written by Chottie Alderson and reprinted in two parts by The Needle Bug. It’s full of wonderful needlework historical information. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.

Eye Candy – Red & White Quilt Show

Janet Perry — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 14:11:56 +0000

I looked at this picture and all I could say was “wow!”

Thanks to Susan Deshensky (who gave permission for this post), we have a lovely gallery of pictures from this red & white quilt show.

She took these pictures at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. The 560 (yes, you read that right_ quilts are all red & white with no other colors. These quilts have been collected by Joanna S. Rose and have been displayed by her husband as an 80th birthday present.

So why The Armory? It was the only place big enough to display them all.

Look through Sue’s gallery of photos and be inspired by how wonderful these quilts are. I’m sitting here thinking about doing a red & white needlepoint piece shortly.