embellishment Archive

Are you looking to save money on your embellishments? Look no further than your local bead store or, my favorite, Fire Mountain Gems on-line. Using jewelry and bead supplies in needlepoint is a great way to add interest easily. The disadvantage of buying this way is that often you get more than you need. You can solve this by sharing the items with your friends. The advantage is that you will save lots of money. I’ve stayed loyal to Fire Mountain for years because they offer Mix & Match Discounts so you get bulk pricing by buying many things, not just many of one thing. A recent catalog from them got my creative juices flowing so I want to share some items you might consider for embellishments. Remember that when looking a bead catalogs, most of the time pictures are actual size and sizes are in millimeters. Frosted Acrylic Flowers

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Kumihimo literally means “gathered threads”. In this Japanese technique strands of thread, beaded or not, are interlaced forming decorative braids. historically this technique was used to decorate samurai armor. Today these cords are made with just about any kind of thread and are used as jewelry or embellishments. In needlepoint you can use kumihimo braids as a couched embellishment on your canvas or as a different form of cording on a finished piece. Kumihimo is easy to begin and many companies make kumihimo kits that include everything you need to begin. The basic materials include a kumihimo disk, made by Beadmith, above, and plastic spools for each strand of thread, below. You can use any thread you like for Kumihimo, but typically either rat tail (a thick nylon cord) or Super-lon (a thin nylon cord similar to pearl cotton in look) are used. Beads can be added to Super-lon and

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The subtitle of this book is Interiors and Exteriors Plus and it packs so much into less than 75 pages. I’m just blown away by it. The majority of the chapters cover items you’ll find in buildings: bricks, fabrics, patios, floors, or more. Each chapter is formatted similarly. The first page is an introduction. It gives factors to consider when stitching this item. This is followed by additional explanation if needed. Finally several stitches in the chapter are highlighted with ideas for types and colors of thread to use. In the stitch diagrams themselves, exampled stitches are highlighted. While many of the stitches in this book are complex and are well-suited to using multiple threads, and even embellishments, there are tons of stitches that are simpler and work well with a single thread. What delights me about this book is how inventive it is. The authors have only a handful

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Popular for a while in the beading world, Tila Beads have only recently been packaged for the needlepoint world by The Collection. The beads are flat instead of round. They have two holes so that the thread anchors them to the canvas on each side. They are about 4mm square, so they cover a little bit more than a 3-thread square on 18-mesh canvas. I used the beads in two projects. Opaque black was used for the plug on my fish mini-sock, top. Because the shape on the canvas was irregular, I stitched the areas that stuck out before attaching the bead. On the Lee Mini Fan, below, I used Red Aurora Borealis beads for the holly berries. Aurora Borealis (AB) is the name for a rainbow finish on many kinds of beads. The beads were both sparkly and transparent. These beads were incredibly easy to use. Their larger size

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Raymond Crawford will have many new designs out but one will be a lovely tribute to New York City. You’ll see iconic signs and symbols of New York including the Brooklyn Bridge and a sign for the Apollo Theater all done up in an apple outline.. It’s a clever & different canvas. His other new canvases include more new eggs, a clever gnome, and a great snowman. One of the big hits of TNNA markets is called Sample It! Held on Friday nights, shops can purchase limited amounts of special items and packages, many put together exclusively for this event. It’s also the only place at this market where you can take actual product home, so these items will be showing up in your shops right away. Accoutrement Designs, the makers of those great magnets & fobs has some special collections available at this event. These collections include some new

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Woven Ribbon from The Collection is a 6mm metallic ribbon. It comes in zipper bags wound on clear plastic bobbins (like sewing machine bobbins). Like Flair or Rachel, it is a braided tube in construction. The package tells you how it is constructed. It is woven “from brass, copper and/or aluminum and is coated in enamel and lacquered to prevent color change.” Because of this it is waterproof and heat resistant. Of less importance to us as stitchers, it is also nickel free. I used most of a package to do the ribbon on my ornament. I was delighted to find that I could apply it to the canvas easily by enlarging the hole slightly and pulling it through with a #22 needle, the same size I used for the stitching. I was surprised at how nicely it compressed so that I didn’t need to make a special effort to

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I am not much of a bling person, so I resisted the idea of using sequins for needlepoint for a long time. Now I’m mad at myself for this because the 2mm sequins from The Collection are so wonderful and easy to use. The company’s sequins come in three sizes, 2,4, and 5 millimeters, and in different shapes and colors. They are packaged in tiny vials that have labels on the front identifying the size and color. Because this obscures one side, turn the vials over to get a good look at the color. Most of the colors are iridescent but not really shiny. I like this because it means they play nicely with others in a piece.The sequins have large holes in relation to their size, so they are easy to sew on. I poured to sequins out into a low bowl, taking a few at a time to

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I have a little needlepoint problem. My current project, a vintage Mary Engelbreit package, will have sequins and Wonder Ribbon on it, two things I haven’t used before. With my general dislike of beading needles because they are long and sharp, I’ve been waiting for a good project to test the sequins. Working on this has been an exercise in frustration. Although the holes in the 2mm sequins from The Collection are large and easy to see, my needles were mismarked. Instead of having the large eyes of tapestry needles, they had the tiny eyes of hand-sewing needles. Let me tell you, this makes a HUGE difference. I can’t see the eye. Worse than that even a thin wire threader would not work with my thread. I was about to give up. Yesterday I went to my LNS, Needle in a Haystack, and threw myself on their mercy. They discovered

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There are so many lovely sequins, beads, metallic tubes and other cool things out there that are sold for needlepoint. But for less adventurous stitchers, such as me, figuring out how to use them can be a real challenge. Sundance Designs has come to our rescue with the amazing, detailed step-by-step tutorial that uses sequins and silk ribbons to make a colorful flower. I can see using these techniques, along with beads, knots and metallic tubes to make an exciting and colorful floral picture. In fact it’s inspiring me to find something (maybe a stained glass pattern) to use to explore all the wonderful beads and sequins in my stash. Keep your eyes open for updates to this and try making one of these flowers for yourself

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Kreinik had a great post on their blog recently. It talked about intentionally fraying the ends of their threads to make tassels. The directions had instructions on how to create a fusible tassel using their iron-on threads. Although the instructions are designed to fuse onto paper, you could also do this onto fabric or canvas. However, as the picture shows, you can also fray any kreinik thread and use it to make delightful tassels. If you will be sewing on the tassels, make the tassels first, then fray the ends. Then sew the top on so the ends are free (as in the picture). By making the tassel before you fray the ends the top will be tight and easy to attach. Isn’t this a cool idea

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You may have heard about these flat-backed crystals, they have become popular in the needlepoint world. Earlier this week I used them for the second time on a needlepoint piece. I’m always hesitant about adding glue-on items to my needlepoint, largely because I worry about glue getting through the holes in the canvas and gluing the needlepoint to my desk. With the Hot Fix crystals you don’t have to worry about this. There is just enough glue to fix the crystals onto the canvas securely, but not enough to cause problems. The crystals are flat backed so they snuggle up against the canvas beautifully, with faceted tops, so they are very sparkly. I just added them to the Lee Cross pictured in progress here and I love how they elevate the needlepoint. To activate the adhesive you need a special tool that looks kind of like a curling iron. It

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If you spend time at chain craft stores, you might find yourself tempted to buy some of those 3-D paints and add them to your needlepoint. I know because this happened to me last weekend. I stood there thinking how cool that could be. I didn’t buy any because I was worried about how they would work. It turns out the folk at River Silks have been thinking along the same lines. But they did something about it. They tried and tested and discovered Viva Pens; that does the trick. The flower pictured here uses River Silks Ribbon and Viva pens to make this great flower. But you should read their review yourself on their blog

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YOu can make sequins that light up using SMT LEDs and crimp beads. With these you can make needlepoint (or other stitching) that lights up. I keep thinking of a lit lamp, spooky eyes, or a cool way to highlight a letter. This YouTube video shows you how to do it. The tutorial is done on cloth. To translate to to needlepoint, you are going to have to make some kind of solid backing for the battery pack so it won’t show on the front of the canvas. The backing should be against the canvas with the battery pack on top of it.. This way you will be able change the battery easily. I would recommend doing the test circuit on a piece of scrap canvas and using a pen to mark the positive side of each sequin. I couldn’t find an easy source for the LEDs, so you’ll have

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Baltimore Needleworks had a wonderful post late last week about beads. Using beads in needlepoint can be confusing to many people. The sizes are different, the needles are often both long and sharp, the threads are weird, and there are so many techniques to attach the beads. This post explains much of this. I can amplify and answer some of those questions I posed here as well. Beads are sized by how many of them fit into an inch. 11 is the most common size. This size fits well for solid beading (a bead in every intersection) on 14 mesh and for open beading on 18. For solid beading on 18 use size 14. Beading needles come in many different types but traditionally they are long and often quite sharp. John James has made lovely ball-point beading needles for many years and they are perfect for beaded needlepoint. There are

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Alice Hall has the first part of a three-part series on beading on canvas available at BeStitched’s blog. You can see it by clicking the link above. It’s great because really good bssic advice is there in a great condensed format

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