Silver Needle was founded in 1967 in Connecticut and is now a part of Colonial Needle. They are best known for their “destination” needlepoint and for their many licensed designs based on children’s books. This columns tells you about these and some of their other lines and gives you glimpses of their canvases.
Silver Needle’s website is: https://colonialneedle.com/Silver-Needle/. Because Colonial Needle distributes other designers (Lee, Kelly Clark) and sells several popular lines of needles, your local shop probably does business with them. Contact them if you see a canvas that interests you.
Destination Needlepoint
Creating needlepoint memories of places you visited, or lived, or even want to visit, is a great start for a needlepoint collection. Having canvases that are uniform in size and shape gives you lots of possibilities for finishing.
Silver Needle makes lovely travel rounds that are 4″ in diameter. Because this fits into the Lee ornament round, they are easy to finish yourself.
Theses rounds all work together because they all have backgrounds the same color — a distinctive Cobalt blue. There are ornaments for cities, states, and countries, with more added all the time. Each US state has a similar ornament with the state in green on it, surrounded by iconic, but tiny, images for the state. The state’s name is in gold. For some cities and countries the ornaments are in this form as well.
More typical for city and country ornaments, iconic places or skylines are shown. These can range from the iconic (heads for Easter Island) to the unusual (Mount Kilimanjaro for Africa), but almost always they share the cobalt background and stitch painting that makes them easy to stitch.
In addition to the rounds, they also have some other travel needlepoint. For towns on Cape Cod they have two kinds of signs. For many places on the East Coast they also have European-style travel ovals. But since the town names aren’t on them,there is no reason why “MI” couldn’t be Michigan, or even Mare Island (my home).
There are also brick covers, oval ornaments, and pillows for New England destinations.
Storybook Needlepoint
I think the first Silver Needle canvas I stitched was a Babar & Celeste mini-sock about 30 years ago. Silver Needle has licensed many popular children’s books and has these illustrations available for everything from ornaments to large pillows.
Probably their largest storybook collection is Beatrix Potter with ornaments (5-6 inches), dolls (about 15 inches) and pillows of most of the characters. There are also mini- and full-size stockings, signs, rug squares and brick covers.
In addition, they also have licensed designs for Paddington Bear, Hadley Pottery, Babar, and, my favorite, Goodnight Moon. They are the only company I know of that has Disney-style canvases for Alice in Wonderland. There are similar designs for Winnie the Pooh and the Wizard of Oz.
Finally other children’s classics such as The Wind in the Willows and Pat the Bunny make charming stitched gifts.
Everything Else
It’s hard to do more than scratch the surface her because I keep seeing more delightful canvases. Have you been looking for canvases of signal flags? They have them in 2″ square minis on 13-mesh. They have over 3 dozen belt canvases, many with New England themes.
There are sweater ornaments in two styles, along with shaped ornament canvases of fruits and vegetables. I could see these stitched in all metallics for a lovely addition to your tree. Many of these designs are also available in a larger size as pillows.
In spite of my resolution not to buy more canvases this year, I’m getting ready to go shopping.
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
Flo says
I’m looking for needlepoint canvas on 18 count from children’s books. Like Goodnight Moon, also Paddington Bear
Janet M Perry says
Look at Silver Needle’s line. I know the Goodnight Moon ornaments are on 18-mesh because I have some. But they have tons of needlepoint from children’s books that is officially licensed. Their catalog can be viewed on-line and you can order the canvases in most shops.
Keep stitching,
Janet
Ellen Martin says
I have a question about a needlepoint I purchased of Naples, Florida? Wondered what the symbols represented? Flowers and icon on the top of the state?
Janet M Perry says
Is your design of the state of Florida or is it for Naples the city? If you would conmtact me directly I could probably help with this.
Keep stitching,
Janet