Think of needlepoint tips as if they were candy or potato chips — you can’t stop after just one!
~ Use tighter tension on waste canvas, pulling out the canvas will loosen the stitches.
~ Poor quality canvas is stiffer than good canvas. It needs more sizing to make it stiff.
~ Use a shadowbox to display needlepoint. Make it special by adding related, non-stitched items to the box.
~ When ending a thread, don’t yank too hard, it will pucker your last stitch.
~ Color names can be deceiving. Moonglow might be blue to me and yellow to you. Be careful of this when buying threads.
~ Thread colors can vary. Always check your threads for a piece together in daylight or, if possible, where the piece will live. Don’t rely on what is printed in your instructions.
~ Don’t use stranded threads like floss for pulled canvas. It is difficult to make the stitches look smooth.
~ If you are making your own tramme, use penelope canvas and lay the tramme threads in the small holes between the double threads horizontally.
~ Why not take something from your stash and make an “Autumn Project” You might get it finished by December!
~ To take needlepoint on vacation, put the project, thread, extra needles, and scissors in a small Sportsac or cosmetic bag. Put it into your checked luggage.
~ Ribbon floss is made using the same looms that make shoelaces.
– Show off your favorite small ornaments year-round with a tree constructed of wooden dowels.
~ To make canvas softer, crumple it up in your hands and smooth it out several times. But then work with the canvas stretched.
~ Rainbow Gallery has three threads in matching colors: Splendor (floss), Grandeur, and Elegance. Use this to get variation in texture without variation in color. Silk Lame also comes in matching colors in different sizes.
~ Make a needlepoint to commemorate any special event, even small ones such as passing your driver’s test or making the honor roll.
~ Designs with small spaces or really rough edges are not good for patterned or textured backgrounds. Fill these areas with Tent Stitch first.
~ Substituting a patterned or textured background in a kit will make the result more individual.
~ Make a needlepoint tweed using two closely related colors by stitching every other stitch in a different color.
~ Textured stitches with even counts work best with foregrounds with even counts and odd with odd.
~ You can mark all your stretcher bars with the length and your initials, now you won’t lose them and you know the sizes you have.
~ Pick a stitch that emphasizes either what the area is in real life (Scotch on a plaid shirt) or the shape of the area.
~ Background choice should reinforce the central design. Put complex background on designs that have large clear lines in them.
~ A tip for using fabric markers: The brush end works better than the tip end when drawing on canvas.
~ Tip for using fabric markers: Store them flat so both points stay moist.
~ Live with your needlepoint awhile before stitching. Hang it up with masking tape so you get ideas for threads and stitches.
~ You spend lots of effort on stitching, make sure the design you pick has the correct proportions and a single focal point.
~ Don’t make only one area of your canvas shaded or blended, do two or three.
~ Stitch doesn’t fit? CHANGE IT! Make it bigger or smaller, frame it, stagger it, change the sequence — it’s your work.
~ In needlepoint, practice does make perfect, the more you stitch the better the results.
~ If you are using fabric for your mat or frame, pick the fabric first, then find threads to match.
~ Change the size of a French Knot by changing the size of the needle, not by increasing the number of wraps.
~ When using rayon flosses always double your thread through the needle, this makes it easier to handle.
If you liked these tips and want more, why not get a copy of my book, Needlepoint Trade Secrets? It’s packed full of tips about needlepoint from start to finish. You can buy it from my Etsy store here.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
Marlene says
I enjoy reading and rereading your Needlepoint Trade Secrets book, Janet. Your book is filled with new tips as well as reminders of tips I learned a long time ago and perhaps have forgotten. I am amazed at how many tips you have packed between its pages on stitching, threads, materials and organization. Without doubt, whether you are a person who has needlepointed for decades or are just beginning, you’ll find helpful tips within its pages. Thanks for putting together such a valuable reference book.