plastic canvas Archive

I don’t know about you but often I’m frustrated when learning a stitch. Yes I can try it on a canvas but often the spaces are too small or too irregular for me to have a great feel for the stitch. Ideally I’d like something big but not too big, straight-sided, easy to finish, and useful. You probably feel the same way. As part of the Plastic Canvas Blog Hop, Pam at Gingerbread Snowflakes signed up for a project. Although this was the first time she had used PC, her project is a real winner — stitch sample coasters. She used yarn and 7-count plastic canvas and made six lovely coasters. But you could use smaller count canvas and your stash threads.If I was using 14-count I’d make my coasters 3″ square. In her blog post, she shows you step-by-step how to make these. I just love this idea!

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Are you looking for a way to make ornaments that look sophisticated, use your stash threads but that can be finished quickly? Look no further than 14-count plastic canvas and the wealth of quilt designs. This Spoolies Plastic Canvas Needlepoint Quilt Ornament is a perfect introduction to this much-overlooked material and to the wealth of great quilt designs. It’s part of the Plastic Canvas Blog Hop. My grandmother was a seamstress and I remember loving all the wooden spools of brightly colored thread at her home. This quilt reminds me of her. It’s based on a free quilt pattern from Humble Bee Buzzings. I lightened both the spool ends and the background. 14-count plastic canvas is easily found at most craft shops. It comes in 8.5 x 11 inch sheets usually in white and clear. Either can be used although clear works slightly better for the front and white for

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You’ll have to wait until May 15 to see my project, but in the meantime take a look at these wonder plastic canvas projects provide by a number of different designers. THe idea was developed and coordinated by my friend Diane of CraftPod. She’s long been a fan of using plastic canvas in ways that are beyond the usual design. I’ve featured many of them on this blog (click on the category plastic canvas under techniques to find them. You can visit her blog post to get the complete list of designers, days when the projects go up, and links to the blogs

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Originally posted 2010-12-06 07:36:45. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI simply adore this Plastic Canvas Gingerbread House by Sister Diane of Crafty Pod. It’s tiny, it’s just too cute and it is perfect for embellishing. Diane comes up with so many inventive uses for this often overlooked ground, making it fun and modern. Her step-by-step instructions shows you, in large clear pictures, how to make the house. In the process you’ll learn how to cut canvas pieces to make a 3-d house, how to apply plastic canvas details, how to assemble 3-D objects, and how to add non-stitched embellishments. On top of all of that you can use your stash to make many different houses and you have a wonderful gift

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Lately I’ve been seeing the topic of pixelated pictures come up in so many different areas. First there was the movie Wreck-it Ralph, which celebrates the pixelated look of old-style video games. Then I found this delightful set of pixelated letters on Pinterest, pictured below. That all got me thinking but it was topped off by a recent post of DMC’s blog interviewing a cross stitcher who makes pixelated images. I also have a delightful Japanese book of small pixelated pictures. It’s was used as the basis of today’s free project. Any pixelated image is easy to convert to needlepoint because the image is broken into squares. Look at the image below, look familiar? It looks just like a whole stitch chart. That’s the secret to converting the pixel image to needlepoint. Make every square on the chart a different stitch. Want to make something small? Make each stitch a

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Originally posted 2010-11-05 07:17:25. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThere’s a big list of plastic canvas patterns, over 125, available from Craft Stew. The list has been collected from all over the Internet, and all are free. They are listed by name according to categories. Click on the name to go to the site with instructions. Many of the patterns say “link” after them and, as near as I can tell these go to pictures of the project on freepatterns.com. The pictures aren’t linked to instructions, so I’m figuring you need to go to their homepage to find out how to get the information. Thanks and a tip of the hat to Denise at Craft Gossip

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I have a box full of stitched but unfinished ornaments. I’d like to finish them, but I hate to do it myself and I’m far too cheap to pay to have them all finished. So they languish. In this I am not alone, many, maybe most, share my dilemma. One really quick solution to this problem is to stitch your ornaments on plastic canvas. Begin with a free design (this All about Needlepoint page has links and descriptions of many of them). I like 14 mesh plastic canvas. You can use the same threads on it as you do on 18 mesh cloth canvas and the finished size is quite nice. Finishing the Edges For both kinds of ornaments (described below) you will finish the edges the same way. Begin by cutting the ornament out along the first row of open holes beyond your stitching. When you’re done you have

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This delightful striped picture frame ornament is the newest free design from Jenny Henry. It uses 10-mesh plastic canvas. Stitched in two colors of stripes, it will be really easy to customize. Add a favorite photo and you have a great memory. Because it’s on large mesh plastic canvas, kids could stitch the front easily. You can do the cutting and assembly. Add this year’s school picture and you have a perfect gift for parents or grandparents. If I was doing this I’d make the stripes match the outfit. Or announce a special gift that’s too big, or too lively, for under the tree with a picture in this frame ornament. Or use it as a gift card holder by stitching the stripes through what is the opening on the frame. I keep thinking of new ways to use this, so I need to get stitching on some

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Things are cooling down now that it’s October, but you can keep summer at hand all year long with the delightful framed butterfly pattern designed by Jenny Henry. Stitched entirely in Tent Stitch, this is a design easy enough to be your first needlepoint project, but pretty enough to be stitched by (and for) anyone. Jenny stitched it on 10-mesh plastic canvas, but you could stitch it on any mesh in any colors you like. Stitch the background in more matte textures and the butterfly in shinier threads and you have punched up this simple and elegant design. If you’re a cross stitcher you could easily adapt it to a colored background by leaving out the gray stitches and allowing the fabric to show through. Thanks to Denise at Craft Gossip for pointing this out

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For many people, the small size of plastic canvas sheets poses a real problem for them. Because the sheets are only about the size of a piece of paper (8.5×11), anything bigger requires splicing more than one sheet together. And that’s a pain. Denise at Craft Gossip reports that one company, Cottage Mills is addressing this with artist’s size sheets of plastic canvas. They are in production now. No word in the posts about the mesh sizes, but you can get more details by following the link

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Originally posted 2008-09-07 06:30:38. Republished by Blog Post PromoterIt’s not too often that the world of fiberarts and the world of Second Life intersect. A few months ago there was a discussion on the EGa list, I think, about whether SL was friendly to people who did things with string. The consensus was that it wasn’t because it’s hard to get avatars to do things like knit. But I came across this post in CraftyPod for a Needlepoint House started but not finished in Second Life. It’s actually based on a house made from Plastic Canvas. I just love the overdyed thread walls and the way the different stitches make such great textures. You can see in the last couple of pictures the scale of the house. It is the outside shel only. Although they planned on making some needlepoint furniture for it, it never was completed. BTW, it no

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Using products from your local chain crafts store, or maybe some leftover knitting yarn and this striking geometric pattern, Jenny Henry shows how to make this eyeglass case in a wonderful illustrated tutorial. You go from start to finish with pictures along the way showing you how too chart the pattern, as well as how to stitch, line and assemble the case. Great project, outstanding tutorial!

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Originally posted 2008-11-07 07:12:32. Republished by Blog Post PromoterAMH Designs has made a huge impact both in and outside the needlepoint world. Amy’s modern designs and inventive uses of needlepoint have been talked about everywhere. I just love her clean, modern style and the way she is making needlepoint easy for people who have thought they couldn’t needlepoint. She wrote to me recently about a new product — needlepoint iPod/phone cases. She said: “[They] are stitched on plastic canvas- which gives them a nice rigidity. And I use Paternayan wool thread (no acrylic junk) so they look really nice when they are all stitched up. People love them although many don’t want to take the time to make one themselves (at least that is what I am finding in New York where people seem not to have a lot of free time. Maybe with the economy going sour, they might

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Originally posted 2010-04-17 07:41:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter With more and more of us brown bagging it to work and many of us going for reusable containers, we face an unpleasant choice. We can bring our dirty dishes home and wash them there, or we can wash them at work. I don’t know about you, but I have never worked at a place that had really great facilities for washing up. My friend Kristen at Craft Leftovers has come up with this great plastic canvas washing up kit that solves this problem beautifully and economically. Tucked inside the 3-D plastic canvas box, you’ll find a hand-knitted dishcloth and a bottle of dishwashing liquid. It’s automatically color-coordinated because you use the same yarn to knit the dishcloth and make the box. Knitting dishcloths is an easy project, one well within the skills of even a beginning knitter. They could also

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Originally posted 2010-04-18 07:56:46. Republished by Blog Post Promoter One of the best things about needlepoint os that you can customize your stitching to suit your tastes or the tastes of the recipient. Take this free pattern for plastic canvas blocks from Roots & Wings Co. for example. You could stitch a set to match a nursery’s decor, or one using the mom’s favorite color. There are suggestions for several options for the blocks, as well as pictures of others. You could make a color block (with each side a different color), dice blocks, a shape block (with each side a different shape), patterns, or even the traditional letters. The blocks use standard plastic canvas squares from the craft store

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