classes Archive

Wouldn’t you love to have a couple of easy, unique needlepoint projects in your back pocket that you could make as special gifts? Wouldn’t it make you happy if you could finish them yourself and make each one perfect for the receiver? You can with these two delightful Initial Needlepoint Gifts. In this two-lesson mini-class you’ll learn everything you need to create both the Initial Ornament and the Big Initial Boxtop, including how to finish them. This email class will teach you: how to enlarge a letter for needlepoint how to transfer it to canvas how to create a great design and background how to pick an alphabet suitable for needlepoint how to finish an ornament and boxtop This class is an email class beginning May 5, 2013. Because it arrives in your mail, you can take it at your own pace. Because you pick the threads and colors, it’s

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Even if you have never tried your own design before you will learn how easy it is to create lovely personalized gifts in this Initial Needlepoint Mini-Class. In this two-lesson class you’ll create two gifts: the initial ornament and the super-size initial boxtop. You’ll learn: how to enlarge a letter for needlepoint how to transfer a design to needlepoint canvas how to pick an alphabet that works for monograms using Bargello needlepoint as a background using metallic effectively as a background self-finishing for boxtop or ornament Because the class is on-line, you don’t ned to travel to learn or even learn at the time the class is held. Nothing could be easier. The class begins May 5, 2013 and is only $20. This is an early bird discount. On April 4, 2013, the price goes up to $25. Use the PayPal button below to enroll now. If you would prefer

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“It’s just Painting by Numbers.” That’s an insult often hurled at needlepointers. And it’s mostly untrue — or is it? Yes we apply our creativity by picking threads and, sometimes, stitches. But how often do we go beyond this to stretch ourselves and create something special? I’m all for this process, it’s the basis of what we do, but there’s a lack here, something that keeps us from using this wonderful media to exercise our creativity fully and to stretch our knowledge and imagination. Thinking about it how often do we know what we’ll get when we start to stitch? How often do we get predictable results in needlepoint? Not often enough. By “predictable” I don’t mean cookie cutter results. I mean that you understand the tolls of needlepoint and the principles of art well enough that you’ll pick the ones you need to get the results you see in

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Originally posted 2010-02-05 07:38:17. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI have long been an admirer of Anna Marie Winter’s work. She’s a phenomenal stitcher, teacher, and designer, and is based in Canada. She has a lovely gallery of her needlepoint at Stitch Amaze as well as a gallery on her own site. She teaches at national seminars, and through workshops, both on-line and in person. Her designs are available through Bedecked and Beadazzled. But what I love best about her site is her innovative set of needlepoint tips and techniques. All of them are listed on this master page and are done as PDFs, so they are easy to print out. Included among them are articles on organizing, finishing, and most recently, one on transfer printing for canvas. Check them out, they’re great!

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Have you been frustrated because you don’t feel confident in picking stitches to go with a thread? Do you wish you had a notebook that you could use that showed you stitch variations, stitches in different threads and stitching effects? Are you always wanting to try new stitches? In this series of four Stitches for Needlepoint classes, you’ll learn all this and more. Each class is three months long and is designed for you to create notebooks of the stitches, threads and techniques you’re learning. That’s it, no projects to finish, no information you don’t need and, best of all, because they are on-line classes you can learn when you have the time at your own pace. Instead of giving you a bunch of stitches designed for specific kinds of items that may not be what you stitch, these classes will teach you stitches. Once you’ve looked at them, it

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Originally posted 2009-04-18 07:00:11. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Many people who learn needlepoint, myself included, teach themselves. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that you end up reinventing the wheel, and maybe not learning new stitches very quickly. I wanted to change all that and make it easy for people to learn needlepoint, learn good needlepoint habits, and have enough stitches at hand to start doing painted canvases with confidence. The result is my free email course, Right from the Beginning. You can sign up for it here. When you sign up, you’ll get all the lessons so far and then be put on the list to get the lessons as they are released. Once the whole course is done, it will be sent out automatically to new sign-ups. I’m sending out the first project today and its pictured above. It shows all ten

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For all these years I’ve been doing needlepoint, I’ve always seen things that inspire me: great ideas, lovely needlepoint, cool techniques. And until recently I’ve kept these by making notebooks, lots and lots of notebooks. But there are several problems with them. They are not organized take up too much space new ones can be hard to find Pinterest acts as a wonderful virtual and organized notebook. I’m crazy about the site and I’m using it as a collected repository of needlepoint. On Pinterest, images are collected into boards that are of a subject. Because you determine the names of the boards, you can categorize them however you like. For example, I have a board called “cats” but another pinner (the term for users) has boards for tabby cats, white cats, black cats, and kittens. Most of my boards have to do with needlepoint and I’d like to share them

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Originally posted 2009-12-24 08:42:21. Republished by Blog Post PromoterAnother type of resolution improves our stitching skills. Here are some ideas: Want to learn more new stitches? Make a sampler. Divide it up into 12 or 24 squares and pick a stitch dictionary to use. Go to your stash and pull threads. Once a month or once every two weeks pick a stitch that is new to you and put it in one square. Once you’ve learned it, look for places to use it. Want to learn a new technique?Look for programs at guilds and on-line that cover the technique. Look for magazine articles. Start a project, do it long enough to learn the technique, but don’t worry about finishing it. The learning is what’s important. Want to get better at needlepoint in general? Join your local or on-line guild and do every project that is offered. You will be astonished

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If you find books about mixing paint frustrating, it’s good to know that we do have, as stitchers, a limited ability to mix colors. This process is called optical blending. With this two distinct colors, when placed next to each other create a different color. This is why needleblending works. You can see this yourself in this little experiment. Take a scrap bit of 13 or 14 mesh fabric. Now pick two shades of floss from the same color family but not shades next to each other; you want them to be easy to distinguish. Put three strands of each into the same needle and stitch a square of Basketweave. Step away. Isn’t the color you see different from either of the colors you used, a shade in between them? That’s because your eye blended the two colors together to create the new color. Now look at the patch where

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Calloway Gardens School of Needle Arts takes place each January in this splendid setting. They have recently released the schedule for the 2013 session with a selection of two- and four-day classes. Many fantastic teachers come to Calloway to teach and this year is no exception. Jody Adams, Terry Dryden, Toni Gerdes, Kay Stanis, and many others have classes scheduled. Not only is needlepoint taught there, but classes in Japanese Embroidery, design, and free embroidery are offered. From the main page (link here) you can see the class list and schedule, and make reservations housing

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Originally posted 2010-03-14 07:30:13. Republished by Blog Post PromoterMost of the time we stitch by ourselves or in small groups. But nothing is as much fun as attending a seminar or stitching retreat with lots of other stitchers. Not only do you have the fun of learning and stitching, you get inspired by the exhibits and can stock up on wonderful books and stitchy things at the shops. There are four big events I want to tell you about. First is the National Academy of Needlearts Assembly, held each Spring in Kansas City. It happened this year March 3-9, but you can read about what was offered and make plans to attend. NAN certifies teachers and so one of the highlights of the assembly is the chance to see outstanding needlework of all kinds. EGA’s National Seminar is in early September and will be held in San Francisco (my home

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Once a year I offer this special class that will show you what others don’t, namely what you need to know to create your own stitch guide. With the techniques you’ll learn in this class, picking the right stitches and threads for your canvases won’t be magic anymore. You’ll know how to do it yourself. While already-created stitch guides exist for many canvases, they may not be around for the one you want to stitch. 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 anyplace to find out how the professionals do it, so you end up frustrated or find yourself putting

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Planning stitches, threads and colors for a hand-painted needlepoint canvas can be so rewarding. Then again it can be so frustrating. While already-created stitch guides exist for many canvases, they may not be around for the one you want to stitch. 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 anyplace to find out how the professionals do it, so you end up frustrated or find yourself putting that canvas back into your stash. But help is on the way! It’s time for my very popular Create your own Stitch Guide cyberclass. While each person stitches a canvas differently, there are guidelines,

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I just fell in love with this striking amaryllis by Piet Mondrian. Its simplicity and bold color make it a perfect palette for trying needlepoint techniques. Even of you are a new stitcher, you’ll love the way this class gives you “just a taste” of so many thing, including: four different threads open canvas techniques such as shadow stitching and laidwork simple ways to make areas stand out textured stitches You’ll love the way this piece becomes so much more than a sampler. Yes, you’ll learn techniques, and yes, you’ll want to put them to use in your very next project. But it’s so much more, this amaryllis is a lovely work of art. Like all my classes with Art Needlepoint, the class is completely free with the purchase of the kit. Class begins February 15, 2012, so don’t delay in getting started. Just contact Art Needlepoint to order. Order

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Originally posted 2010-05-13 07:54:37. Republished by Blog Post Promoter One thing has stayed consistent in to 40 years I’ve been doing needlepoint. And it’s not the canvas. It’s that needlepoint education sucks. Originally I thought that I was the problem. My mom’s an artist and a tinkerer, and so we always figured out how to do it ourselves. So I took that into needlepoint and bought books and played. I didn’t take a class until I’d been stitching for a decade or more. But I was always dissatisfied, both with the books and, mostly, with the classes I took. The books never seemed to tell me what I wanted to know and the classes, while the projects might be lovely rarely taught me the techniques I wanted at the price I could afford. Even with the Internet this hasn’t changed much. If we want needlepoint to grow, be popular, and

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